Resurrection Sunday 2017. Set your minds on things above.

Good morning and happy Easter. And by the way, have you heard that Easter is derived from a bunch of pagan traditions and it's a pagan name? And have you heard that all the Christians then just adopted a bunch of pagan traditions and names and incorporated it into Christianity? Have you heard that? Yeah, it's not true. That's false. It's bogus. It's not true.

The truth is that Christians celebrated Easter within decades to a century or so after the resurrection of Christ, and that all these subsequent traditions, including the myth that Christians embraced a pagan tradition, all developed centuries later.

So at any rate, you don't need to hesitate to use the word Easter. You don't need to apologize or anything of the sort. If someone tells you it's been derived from pagan traditions, you can tell them, well, that's not true. OK, we'll give you more information on that at the end of the message here. So you can feel free to say Happy Easter. Right. And it's OK.

Let's look at Colossians 3.1. Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And so we're going to be looking today at how Christ's resurrection leads to a mindset.

And Colossians 3.1 is the beginning of that mindset here. So the first thing we see there is the therefore, right?

So the Apostle Paul would actually oftentimes use, as he does here, words out of logic, and some of those words might be things like therefore, which he uses dozens of times, or because, or since, and then if then, and we see at least a part of that here in this passage, that we're looking at here this morning in Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4. So Paul frequently uses logic and the logic then leaves to some kind of an instruction that he gives And so that's key for us to look at. It is often the case that Paul will use logic in order to then conclude something that we ought to do or carry out as a result of the logic. So in writing to these believers at the city of Colossae, he wanted them to draw some critical conclusions from what he had written before what he wrote in this passage here, Colossians 3, 1 through 4.

So based on what he had written before, therefore, logically, this is what you should do next. So he uses the if-then sequence. In this particular case, he uses the if and the then is implied, right? So we'll see here as a part of the logic that Paul had in mind here, sometimes he wrote if, and matter of fact you'll see that in a number of places in his letters, not to cause us to doubt.

Now that's something that's important to look there. The if is never to cause us to doubt. but to invite us to think through His process, to think right along with Him. That's what the if is there for. So this if is not to cause you to think, well, I wonder if it's true or not. It's there to have you think through with Him the logic.

So the then is sometimes included, if this, then this, right? Sometimes it's included, and other times, like in this one, he'll have if and the then is implied. This is the case here in this passage. It's written about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and a few logical conclusions regarding this life.

And he uses that if word on purpose here to that effect. If here means if, but it's assumed to be true. Now, that's something that's important for us to take a look at. When we look at each passage and we see if, the Greek has some implications. As a matter of fact, there are four different implications here. And the if here means it's assumed to be true.

Some people will make the mistake of just simply, if they see an if, they put a sense in there. That may or may not be a good conclusion, but even if Sense could be put in there, that's not Paul's intent. He could use the word sense, the word is available, but he chose not to. The if is there to invite us to think along with him, okay?

So, you have been raised up with Christ. He had already written the believers in Colossae. They had indeed been raised up with Christ. Chapter 2, we quote in reference here, Colossians 2, 12 and 13 talk about having been crucified with Christ and raised up with Him. So, raised up with Christ, made alive together with Him. So those verses in chapter 2, he'd already brought up the point.

So now he's going to bring up what's the logical conclusion? What is the logical impact on your life there? So the meaning here built into being raised up with Christ from the dead included that Christ was resurrected from the dead, and He was also ascended and seated. He's going to make a move in logic from, well, if Christ has been raised, then this also happened. So you were with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. You ever hear that, it's kind of a spiritual song, you know, were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Well, yes. As a matter of fact, it's very good for you to take it personally. You ever heard the words, don't take it personally? Well, in this case, yes, take it very personally. I was there when Christ was crucified. I was there when they laid him in the tomb. I was there when he rose up from the grave. And not just me saying it, you can say that. And not only that, I was there when he ascended up to heaven. And I was there when he was seated.

Spiritually speaking, that's true. The other thing that comes out in this passage, and typically not in many of the English translations, there are very few that do, He at times wrote of Christ in which he intended to refer to Christ and to use it as this is who he is. For example, Jesus Christ the Nazarene, that's the spell out, that's specifically him, right? And it meant his personal identity and all of what scripture reveals of him. And so that is specific to many passages.

For example, in Galatians 2.20, he begins that passage, which, I have been crucified with Christ. That specifically is one of those things. He means Jesus Christ the Nazarene. I was crucified with Him. And it specifically means Him. But at times, Paul wrote with a definite article in front of Christ. and as in the Christ, and it means the Messiah, the Anointed One. He does that here four times.

Therefore based, and this would be an example here, therefore based on what has been written before, if you have been raised up with the Messiah, and this would be expanded and explained. We're going to move ahead with that one step at a time. So you've been raised up with the Messiah. This is the Messiah that the Jews were looking forward to but with an understanding that the Jews did not really have because the church had not come about yet. But you as a believer in the body of Christ have been raised up with Christ who is the Messiah. So four times in this passage we're going to see where it says the Messiah, the Anointed One. So he says there also in Colossians 3, 1, keep seeking the things above. So that keep seeking part of that verse says you must be continuing to seek. So the things above will actually be most literally those above.

You say what? Those what? One of the reasons why we bring that out is there's a tendency, if we say the things above, there's a tendency to think of things as objects. particular things that you're seeking and collecting. If you look at a lot of today's video games, right? So what do they do? You go along and you collect coins or points or some kind of thing as you go along from one place to the next. And what are you doing? You're collecting things. And you're seeking things.

Ultimately, the key point in here, seeking those above centers upon the person of Christ. So he's telling here that as a result of our having been identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating, to seek those above, the things that are as a result of our having been identified with Christ in those five things. We're going to find that those are personal, not just stuff to collect. We don't have our heavenly treasure bag, right?

And we go and collect stuff. Hey, I got this many points. Did you get this coin? This was a special deal. It was really cool, you know. I got it on my last trip. None of that, right? He says, where Christ is seated. So we in the body of Christ have been raised, ascended, and seated with the Messiah who was told long ago as seated at the right hand of God the Father. Alright?

So Psalm 110 is the Old Testament passage most often quoted or alluded to in the New Testament. This is the one Old Testament verse that's quoted or alluded to, that is made reference to in some way, more often than any other Old Testament passage. It's a focus a lot. We saw it more than once as we went through the book of Hebrews, and boy, that's getting to be a few years back now. But one of the things just to point out, it is a central Old Testament passage Peter, in his addresses to the Jews, will bring this up multiple times.

So there the Messiah is seated at the right hand of the Father, and Psalm 110.1 talks about exactly that. That's where and in whom we in the body of Christ are called to seek Those above. And again, it's not just things. It's not just things to put in our treasure bag. It's specifically focused upon Christ. Here's Psalm 110, 1 through 3, and you have this quoted there at the bottom of page 1 on your handout.

And it reads like this, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And that is the part that is most often referenced. I'm going to read the rest of it just so that we understand context. But it's that first verse that is quoted or referred to in the New Testament so often.

So the next part, verse two, the Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter. And by that, that's a scepter, not a scepter, right? Okay. Strong scepter from Zion saying rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power.

In holy array, the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as the dew. Now moving on to Psalm 10, verses four through seven. This also is a very important revelation and one that was additionally referenced as in our study of Hebrews multiple times. So it reads this way, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord is at your right hand. So here's the Lord Jesus, resurrected, ascended and seated, is at the right hand of the Father. He will shatter kings in the day of his wrath. Has that day come? No, it is yet future when he comes again, second coming. He will judge among the nations, that nations that should tell us that's the Gentiles, right? He will fill them with corpses, he will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink of the brook by the wayside, therefore he will lift up his head. So this psalm 1.10 starting with verse 1 on into verse 7 is about where Christ is now and where Christ will be when He comes again and He reigns in the coming kingdom.

So here is Colossians 3.1 expanded and explained and we'll get to there as a summary of all the four verses here. Therefore, based on what has been written before, if you have been raised up with the Messiah, and that is assumed to be true for the sake of following the logic, that's the reason for the if, then you must keep on seeking those above where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God, that is, the Father. So one of the key things here that's central to this, we have to understand the big picture from the teaching of the New Testament, in starting actually and beginning in the Gospel of John, chapters 15 and 17, proceeding through the writings of Paul and on into 1 Peter.

The believers in Christ in these five events, okay? We were crucified with Him, okay? And died. We were buried with Him. We were raised with Him, ascended with Him, and seated with Him. Those five things. As I mentioned, I'm not the sort of person that goes around and gets tats, but if I were ever to do such a thing, I would get crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and seated, put on my fingers. That's what I would do. Please don't do that to me. But that's because these are so critical and so key.

You know, when Courtney and Ingrid and Nancy and I were over in Israel, we stood on the western shores of the Sea of Galilee at Magdala. We stood right by the shore and I said, after Jesus fed the 4,000, He got in the boat with His disciples and He came across the Sea of Galilee And he came over to this spot that we're standing right here. I said, if we had been there, that day, we would have seen Jesus and the disciples come right up here. And there were lots of times when we would say, hey, this is a place where Jesus and the disciples walked.

We stood at the back of the synagogue at Capernaum, and this is where Jesus cast out a demon from a man. I remember standing at the back of that synagogue and looking at the place where Peter's house was, and where Jesus walked out of the back of that synagogue and walk right over and about as far away as from here to the coffee room walk right over and Went into Peter's house and healed Peter's mother-in-law and those were all great things But you know what is marvelous and wonderful and actually genuine historical events.

They were real They're not just made up. They were real events in real places, and it was neat to see but only in these things Where were we identified? We were not identified with Christ as He crossed over the Sea of Galilee and landed at Magdala. Does the Bible record it? Was it true? Yep, it really happened to Him, but we weren't identified in those things. We were identified with Christ only in these five things, because Scripture tells us that.

He then says, set your mind, Colossians 3.2. In the book of Philippians, Paul used this Greek word and related words in every chapter. Usually multiple times per chapter, he would use this exact same word about this mindset, the setting of one's mind. Now, I looked at various graphics as I went through this and it was amazing what was available.

How do you illustrate set your mind and have a good graphic? Well, this doesn't quite do it. That's the clouds, you know. So that doesn't get me there. Okay, take my brain. No, that's not quite what it's doing either, right? So the setting your mind thing is something that we read in Scripture, but I can't give you a picture of exactly what that looks like. As cool as all the graphics are, they just don't get there, do they? So Scripture portrays something that is in fact difficult for us to summarize in a photograph. None of them quite get there.

But this word in this verse means to deliberately have a mindset about those above. And again, a lot of our translations will say things, and they're attempting actually to give some sense of things, but the reality is it just means those above, and not to have a mindset about those on earth.

Okay? And one of the cautions that we have is the world has something in mind for your mind. And one of the reasons why the Apostle Paul has this here, right? Believers are not to just go with the flow that the world offers, right? And not to passively take in what the world dishes out. You realize that the world has something in mind for us as believers and wants to force on us? Even today, today we celebrate Easter, and what does the world want to make of it? It's all about dressing up, eating a little bit too much, and especially too many hard-boiled eggs, and it's all about that, isn't it? The world has something to force on it, and there's nothing more than that. So in Ephesians, God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

And that's really the short list, isn't it? The Apostle Paul gets there and he's starting to write Ephesians, and you can imagine, here he is writing, and he dips his pen in the ink and he puts it down to the papyrus. And it's like all of a sudden, his pen goes into hyperdrive. You realize in the Greek, he goes on from verse 3 to verse 14, spelling out the blessings in Christ. He says, man, this is so cool, I can't stop, right? And he's going on and on.

So that's the longest sentence. as he starts talking about our blessings in Christ. It's the longest sentence from verse 3 to verse 14 in all of Greek literature. Do you know what the second longest sentence is? Verse 15 to the end of the chapter, right? He got so excited about the spiritual blessings we have in Christ, and we don't have time to even begin to do anything other than summarize.

But those are the things, when Paul writes in Colossians in this passage, Those above, that's what he's talking about. That's exactly what he's talking about. It's those above. It's those things he starts spelling out. He pushes his pen into hyperdrive and he just goes. He can hardly stop himself, he's so excited about it. We are seated with the Christ. By the way, that's another place where it's the definite article, the Messiah.

In the heavenlies, okay? And by the way, we sing a song, and it's okay to sing it, when I get to heaven, right? But are we entirely just waiting for when we get to heaven? Is that when it all happens? No. The truth is, it's we have even more to look forward to, but we don't have to wait till when we get to heaven. Because exactly what this is, set your mind on things above long before you get there. Physically. Right? Why? Because we're there spiritually already. That's why. We're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We're not waiting to get seated.

You ever wait to get seated? You know, a lot of times at weddings they'll have you wait to get the usher, you know, and take you in and that kind of thing. You know, at some theaters they used to do that, you know, where you'd wait to get seated, you know, and they'd set you down and all that. And you go to various events and they have people escort you to sit down and get seated. And even getting up is one of those things where you wait to get, you know, released from sitting down. That's not the way this is. You're already seated. You don't need any ushers. Okay? You already got your seat. We just have to catch up with it. That's all. That's all there is to it.

So, in Philippians, we're told we have a heavenly citizenship. And by the way, this is one of the best-kept secrets of Philippians. It says not just once, but three times that you have a heavenly citizenship. 127 is citizenship conduct. It's not the word for just, you know, live out and do this and do that. In Philippians 127, it is citizen conduct. So why? Because you have a heavenly citizenship, which is what 320 says.

And 4.2, Philippians 4.2, says Our names are in the Book of Life, and the Book of Life is the list of living citizens. So three times in Philippians we have a heavenly citizenship. Three times. Next, in Colossians we're told that our minds to be set on those above where Christ is seated.

So those above is not just stuff. We're not on the heavenly scene setting our mind up there saying, hey, where's the goodies I can put in my treasure bag and get points for? Right? I'm not doing that. I'm not playing video games in heaven. Instead, what am I doing?

Those above centers upon Christ himself. That's where we're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. In Christ. In Christ. Where? In the heavenlies. Set our minds there. Not on those on earth. So rather than just saying you need to set your mind on things above, he actually has the negation, not on things here. Those on earth includes a viewpoint that's devoid of all the insights of the books and passages we just looked at briefly.

I have here a picture of a very smoggy city. It's really nasty. And in some places around the world, you can go and see the city very smoggy and actually see people going around with masks. It's so bad. If we could see sin, it's far worse than any smog here on planet earth.

So those on earth are what Paul describes in various places, Ephesians 2, 1-3 is an example of that. And you, these are just talking about the believers before they believed, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you walked. All the things here on planet earth, he specifically excludes those things. Set your mind on things above, not on those here. So those on earth, and in fact if you look at the prior chapter that he's made reference to in this passage, includes what Paul cautions the believers in Colossae about, including legalism. He says, boy, people come and they make various lists of don't touch this and don't eat that and various lists of things. And he says, no, that's not it. And he also cautions about worldliness. And then here is the boy, this is something.

The whole spectrum of fake spirituality currently being sold en masse through Christian bookstores and colleges and seminaries. Most of the stuff in your Christian bookstore is a bunch of rubbish, unfortunately. That may have something to do with why one of them is closing hundreds of stores, one of the chains, this year. But there is fake spirituality being sold constantly to Christians.

And some of the most popular books out there along with all the audios and videos and everything else that goes along with it, and special study Bibles, a lot of them are still fake spirituality. And Colossians specifically cautions about that. It's as if the Holy Spirit knew that this was going to be a problem. Here's Colossians 3, 2, expanded and explained. You must set your mind on those above, not on those on earth.

Here's Colossians 3.3, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. We mentioned, of course, the five things in which we've been identified with Christ, crucified and the death.

By the way, the Roman soldiers, did they crucify anybody that they didn't intend to kill? As a matter of fact, the Roman soldiers had to make sure that anybody they crucified did in fact die. What was the penalty for a soldier that let somebody who was crucified live?

Death. And that didn't happen slowly. You were not allowed to let anyone live. They were under death penalty to make sure that the crucified person died. Crucified, buried, raised, ascended and seated. He's starting with the beginning here, having been crucified. So the first part, you have died.

He wrote in Galatians 2.20, you've been crucified with Christ. You have died. The statement here. The death we died with Christ was the best death that could possibly come about. That's why we could even begin to call it a good Friday.

And we have here in the little graphic, for today's lecture we need a volunteer from the class. How many volunteers? Oh, guess what happened one time ago, I'm not sure I caught Randy up with this, but there was a time when he was teaching high school Sunday school down in Texas. And he said, Dad, I need you to replace me for one Sunday. I said, sure. So I go in there and I grab one of the boys. And I said, take your shirt off. OK? OK. And he did. Really nice kid.

Let's call him Joe, just for the sake of anonymity here. So I take Joe and I put him up against the wall. And I pull out three spikes and a hammer. And I start hammering the nails. And I said, OK, now, I want you to tell me why we're not supposed to crucify Joe here today.

I'm ready. You let me know why. Why not? Tell me. And so they would tell me. And I would say, OK, that's good. But that's not all. And they'd start, bing, bing, bing. Joe, get your arms up. Bing, bing. Okay, tell me why. And they'd go, and they'd go, and they'd go. And they had some very good reasons why I shouldn't do that. Some of them were legal and different things like that. So they had some very good reasons why I shouldn't do this to Joe.

But it took a little bit of coaxing and coaching in order for them to understand, because I've already been crucified with Christ, including this guy Joe, right? He's already been crucified with Christ, therefore we don't need to redo it. Especially not me, right? So anyway, it was really cool to have them say, okay, here's the reasons why Vern should not crucify Joe here this morning on Sunday at church, right? So this is really good in order to think, why shouldn't any one of us be crucified right now? Well, because the most important crucifixion that ever was has already been done and you were there. It's already happened if you're a believer. And God did it all. It wasn't anything I could do. All we did was believe.

Do you remember when you were crucified with Christ? Remember that? No. And unfortunately, if I had done that to Joe, which of course I wasn't going to do, but if I had done that to Joe, he would probably remember it and so would all the other students. But the reality is we never were there. We don't remember it. We don't remember it.

Why? We read about it. We take it on faith. It is on faith that we understand that we have died with Christ, and that's exactly what Paul is intending to say here. You don't need to go through this again. Why? You've already died with Christ, and it happened, and you don't have to remember it, but you take it on faith. All we did was believe, and God took it from there.

A lot of Christians have this idea, oh, well, now I'm a Christian, I've got to do this and that and the other thing. And unfortunately, there are a lot of churches that will help you. You've got to get busy. Busy for Jesus, right? I remember hearing about one pastor in this little town where I went to high school, and he said, boy, I have to have my church members here come to church and be busy every night so they don't get in trouble. And my thought was, boy, are they in trouble, right? Getting busy for Jesus is not what's called for.

All we did was believe, God did the rest. And what do we have to do? Believe it. We have to believe it. That's it. I have been crucified with Christ, not because I remember it. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Apostles and other disciples who were there that day and watched Christ get crucified, they don't remember that they were crucified with Christ. Even they had to understand, I was crucified with Christ on faith. They didn't remember being crucified with Christ.

The same with us. Now, hidden with Christ in God, or having been hidden with Christ in God, is in this case, by the way, in the perfect tense. It's a done deal. It's already been done completely. That's how it is now and how it will always be. It's permanent. Your life is not where the world can see it. They're not going to have any idea. Not a clue. Your life is not just in a safe place, your spiritual life is personally with Christ. Personally with Christ who is in God the Father. Hidden with Christ in God.

And now we're going to be really, really puzzling to people. The world is very strongly inclined to see life as here and what we make of it here. In that respect, actually, the major world religions and worldviews are all focused on what we do here and now. Nancy and I, as I have mentioned, I have as new neighbors over the back fence a Muslim community center. Seem like a lot of really nice folks, but they're really focused on what we do here and now. If you were to say to them or ask them, are you seated in the heavenlies? They go, what? No, it's all about what I do here and now. Others may be puzzled. They may be scoffed. They even may be militant about their blindness.

That's not what we're called to as believers in Christ. This secret is the best kept secret in all of Christendom. Even other Christians are ignorant of it. Set your mind on things above, not on the to-do list. I believed God did everything. What I need to do is believe Him, not get busy. If somebody tells me, oh, you're a Christian now? Okay, we've got a list of things for you to do, and things for you to sign up for, and you're going to do this and that and the other thing. And that's a problem. It's really a problem because that gets in the way. My to-do list gets in the way of setting my mind on things above.

Here's Colossians 3.3. Expand and explain. For you have died and the life of you is hidden with the Messiah in the God.

Here's Colossians 3.4.

When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. One thing that's really clear, if Christ had not been given life, and He was, and He did, you would not have been given life either. It is absolutely necessary that Christ was raised and He was given life in order for us to be given life.

So we, having all been united with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding, whether you've got tats or not, have Christ as our life. There is no alternate spirituality. There is no alternative to biblical spirituality that will be real life. The introduction of sin into the world through Adam made sure of that.

Since we were joined and united and identified with Christ in His resurrection, then Christ is currently, presently our life, and God made sure of that. He talks about revealed here, as opposed to that which is hidden, most importantly and centrally being that our life is hidden with Christ in God. There will come a time when Christ is to be revealed and us with Him. I hope it's today. You see, we teach here what's called a rapture, that Christ will come again.

I don't know if the clothes will look like this, where they're kind of not too bad off, but a little bit haphazard, or I don't know if they'll be folded. when the Lord takes us away. I hope He takes me out of my clothes real quickly if that's the way He's going to do it.

I really have no desire to have that be a slow process. That would be really difficult. So anyway, I don't know that. We don't teach a partial rapture here at Holly Hills. We don't teach that. That's just a little rough. Depending on the structure of the ceiling, you may or may not make it, you know. And so anyway, we just don't teach a partial rapture. We just don't do that.

Just the whole thing, you know, when the Lord takes us, that's it, you know. But the revelation of Christ and us with Him is not the second coming of Christ, but what is called the rapture, the taking up. when Christ will come for us to take us to heaven. We talked about that last Sunday in John 14, 1-3. And then he says, in glory. Christ's revelation and our revelation with Him are to be in glory. That is, where He was taken to and where His riches are now, in glory.

We see that in Philippians 4.19 and 1 Timothy 3.16. Both of those passages make it clear.

Where is this in glory? One of the things to define real clearly, because a lot of times people use glory and they'll think that that must be when the Raiders, excuse me, when the Broncos, you know, get the Super Bowl. But that's not glory. Glory is the radiant essence of who God is, where God is now in the heavenlies, and we, spiritually speaking, are there with Him in the heavenlies. So glory, the radiant essence of who God is.

So we will be revealed with Him in glory in the heavenlies. See, right now we're already spiritually seated there. It's when our bodies catch up to where we already are spiritually. We'll be revealed with Him there in the heavenlies. We will meet Him in the air, as 1 Thessalonians 4 puts it.

Here's Titus 2.11-14 which focuses on the rapture in the middle of the passage.

I'm going to read the whole thing only to bring a focus upon the context of Titus 2.13. For the grace of God has appeared, so this is the first coming, right? bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for, seeking, anticipating, the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Here's Colossians 3, 1 through 4, expanded and explained the whole thing, and you have it, I sure hope so anyway, as a slide on page 3 of your handout.

Therefore, based on what has been written before, if you have been raised up with the Messiah, and that is assumed to be true for the sake of following the logic, then you must keep on seeking those above where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of the God that is the Father. And you must set your mind on those above, not on those on earth. For you have died, and the life of you is hidden with the Messiah and the God. When the Messiah who is the life of us is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

So, one of the questions people say, well this is great, how do I apply this? And a lot of times what people are looking for is, you know, give me five things I can do today that are application of this. And so they want the to-do list. If that's what you're looking for, you're going to be very frustrated with me.

But there is more revealed in this passage than we can see, because remember our life is where? Hidden with Christ and God. Or to do anything with, okay? Those things where I'm setting my mind, I don't get to have a bag full of treasures that I keep there, right? There's nothing to look at. There's nothing to do that I can see here.

So is there application for those parts of this passage? When you come to a passage like this, No, we begin by understanding what is said, as we've sought to do today, and putting our faith in the revealed spiritual facts of God's Word. The starting point is not in what we do, but what God already has done and is doing. And this is key. When we look at the Christian life and application as, here's the stuff I got to do, we're in trouble. Because the starting point is not what we do, but what God did already and what He is doing. We've said this before, with facts, faith, and feelings, here are the facts, here is the faith, and here are the feelings. The faith is in the facts, like the train is in the tracks, and like the caboose, the feelings follow. This is key. This is critical.

That what our culture has been telling us for decades, and I would say mostly since the end of World War II, when I wasn't around, right? Mostly since the end of World War II, the message has been to trust your feelings, Luke, right? And it can't be wrong if it feels so right, right? So 77 was, by the way, a pivotal year for that. when the message came out in movies and in song and things of that sort, but really the culture's been telling us that for decades.

Follow your feelings. Your feelings are so important. As a matter of fact, we even have the Supreme Court making decisions based on how people feel. It's gotten to be that intense of a message. Our faith is to be in the facts. And understanding what those spiritually revealed facts, through God's Word, are, is the key. That's where we put our trust.

And the feelings follow. People will justify all sorts of horrible things that they have done based on, I felt like doing it. Or some other voices than the voices from Scripture are telling me what to do. But the biblical picture here is put our faith in what God has revealed, not the feelings, as the culture is telling us. So the believer is in Christ in these five events, and those are the spiritually revealed facts, what Paul told us in this passage here. is the spiritually revealed facts from God's Word.

We put our faith and our trust in those. That's the beginning of all application. So, we have seeking and then thinking. Those are the verbs that come out for the believer here. There is an intended response on the part of the believer. That response is to seek those above with Christ and in God the Father. What do you seek? What do you look after? Am I to seek today's to-do list? I've got to do this stuff and that's how I'll be holy? That's how I'll make sure that God continues to be pleased with me? Is it the to-do list?

Or, seeking of those above, there in the heavenlies, goes along with our thinking. So the two things that he's talked about here is to seek what are we pursuing based on where we set our mind. What is our perspective? And that's what he's conveying here. It goes along with our thinking, our mindset, which is to consider and to value and to take our frame of reference in glory. Our frame of reference is there.

By the way, how about the stuff that goes on here? Oh, don't worry about that. God will take care of that. It's been said that people, you know, some people were so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. But really, it's the reverse. If you're not heavenly minded, you'll be no earthly good at all. Let's pray.

Thank You, Lord, for the things You revealed here, because You love us, You care for us, You want us to have a mindset that's fitting with all of what You have done and all of what You are doing in our lives. Thank you for that. Thank you that you've revealed these things because you love us so much and you care for us so much. And as we today celebrate the new life that we have in Christ, it's that place where we're in Christ, there in the heavenlies, that's where you ask that we set our minds. Why? Because you love us and you care for us. We pray these things, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.

One more thing you have at the last slide in your handout. I've got some links there to this article. It says, was Easter borrowed from pagan holiday? And by the way, that's there. You can also download it and click on the link if you don't like adding, you know, putting a bunch of letters in the computer. And otherwise, see me if you would like it.