Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Change Your Life | New Testament | Colossians 3

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

When you became a Christian, did you life look different than it did before? Do you conform to those around you or do you conform to Christ? In today's episode, Keithdiscusses Colossians 3 and the struggle to resist conforming to culture around you. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Colossians 3

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. The war between Russia and Ukraine has been in the news for quite some time now. Did you know that this is not the first time that Ukraine has had trouble with Russia? All the way back in 2004, Ukraine experienced something called the Orange Revolution. Philip Yancey tells the story about an unlikely hero during that revolution. Let me set the scene for you.

members of the Soviet Union, Ukraine moved toward democracy as the Soviet Empire collapsed, though in Ukraine, the democracy advanced at a very, very slow pace. If you think our elections are dirty, consider what happened when the Ukrainian reformer Viktor Yushenko dared to challenge the entrenched party. He nearly died from a suspicious case of dioxin poisoning. Against all advice, Yashenko, his body weakened and his face permanently disfigured by the poison, remained in the race. On the election day, the exit poll showed him with a 10% lead, but through outright fraud, the government managed to reverse the results. So the state-run television station reported, ladies and gentlemen, we announced that the challenger, Victor Yushenko, has been decisively defeated. However, the government authorities had not considered one feature of Ukrainian television, and that is that it provides a translation for the hearing impaired.

So inside the big picture that people watched on their televisions, there was a small inset in the bottom of the screen. And in that inset, they saw a brave woman who was raised by deaf parents give a very different message in sign language. She signed to the country, I am addressing all the deaf citizens of Ukraine. Don't believe what they say. They are lying and I am ashamed to translate these lies. Yashenko is our president. Inspired by their translator, deaf people led the Orange Revolution.

They text-messaged their friends on mobile phones about the fraudulent elections, and soon other journalists took courage and refused to broadcast the party line. Over the next few weeks, as many as a million people wearing orange flooded the capital of Kiev to demand new elections. Under such massive pressure,

the government scheduled new elections, and this time Yashenko emerged as the undisputed. winner. The image of a small screen of truth in the corner of the big screen of lies is a picture of Jesus' voice in this world. Jesus' followers do not control the big screen. We don't control the culture's message or values. We aren't in power. And maybe that's okay, because in the past, when Christians have gotten power, it hasn't always gone well. But that doesn't mean that we don't have a voice to listen to. The culture sends a message about where to find the good life, but Jesus is over in the corner of the screen telling you the truth. He's saying that what's on the big screen is a lie.

The culture tells you to find yourself, but Jesus tells you the only way you will find your life is when you lose it. The culture says on the big screen to indulge yourself, to live for the moment, but Jesus says to deny yourself and take up your cross. He tells you to lay up treasures in heaven and not on earth. The culture tells you that you are free to do what you want, but Jesus tells you the truth, that every person will give an account. of their life to God. Christians listen for the voice of Jesus and obey him instead of the culture. In Colossians chapter 3, Paul is explaining how Christians should live out their life. This is the voice of truth in a world that is confused. Here's chapter 3 verse 5.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming, You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. So Paul tells them, look, when you became a Christian, your life was supposed to change. You're not going to live the way you once did because you're no longer the person you once were. Your life should be noticeably different from the people you live around who don't follow Jesus. Christians live in the same neighborhoods as those who don't follow Jesus. They work in the same offices.

They go to the same schools. They volunteer in the same nonprofits in the community as those who don't follow. follow Jesus, but the Christian's life should be different. If it's not, that's a problem. But it's tough to live differently. It's tough to live out our faith in a world that doesn't share our faith. It's tough to swim upstream, to live counterculturally. And that's because we tend to conform to the culture we live in and the people we live around. And they say that you can look at a person's five closest friends and tell what kind of person they're going to become. unfortunately we are tempted to listen to the voice on the big screen instead of the voice of Jesus.

So Paul tells us in Romans 12, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. See, you're conform to the pattern of this world when you listen to the voice on the big screen. Conform is to live a certain way because of outside pressure that shapes you according to the world's values. To be transformed in the world's, is a word that means to be changed from the inside out. The Greek word behind transform is metamorpho. If that sounds familiar, it's because it is the word behind metamorphosis. A caterpillar goes through metamorphosis in order to become a butterfly.

That's the kind of change that God wants to produce in our life. He wants to change us from the inside out. So Paul is writing to the Colossians. He's writing to a church. They may have a new faith. but old habits are hard to break and they are tempted to live like the culture around them. Paul calls them to be transformed, not conformed. But how? Well, we don't live like we used to because we're not the same people we used to be. Second Corinthians 5 says, therefore if anyone is in Christ,

the new creation has come. The old is gone. The new is here. Because you now belong to Jesus, you are a different person and therefore your behavior changes. You don't behave. so that you can belong, you belong to Jesus, so now you behave differently. Belonging precedes behavior. Here's Paul again in Colossians 3, this time starting in verse 9. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these. Anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. So here are a few points Paul is making about spiritual growth.

First, it's a process. If you're marketing a product, one great strategy is to show people that your life will change if you use that product. Think about a cleaning product. They have a before and after a picture. And the more dramatic the difference is, the more likely you are to buy that product. the show the biggest loser wouldn't be popular if people just lost a few pounds the bigger the change the more drama there is and the more powerful the testimony so when it comes to jesus what's your before and after look like we'd love to say that we change quickly and dramatically we want a shocking

before and after story but that's not really true of any of us is it when we become christians the changes aren't as quick and dramatic as we'd like them to be. Our spiritual growth isn't as impressive as we wish it was. Some things might change quickly in our life, but many things, maybe most things, take a long time. Spiritual growth is a process, and that leads us to the second thing we learn. We are not passive in the process of our spiritual growth.

Maybe you have seen that bumper sticker that says, God is my co-pilot. There's an idea that Christians have, that if they just let God run their life, if they let go and let God, that God will live his life through them. Well, God doesn't just zap you and you change. Instead, in Colossians 3, what he tells us is that we have to be active. We have to put off the old self and put on the new self. That's why Paul can tell us to make every effort to believe God's promises. It takes action on our part. It takes effort. Paul tells us to speak the truth, to not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouth.

He tells us to be kind and to get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, slander. He tells us to be compassionate and to forgive one another. These are all commands. You must make the choice to live out the new you. God is empowering you to tell the truth. God is empowering you to sexual morality. He's empowering you to generosity.

He's empowering you to keep your mouth shut so you won't gossip. or to open your mouth so that you can be an encouragement to others. God doesn't do it for you. You're not a puppet. He provides the power, but you must do it. The last thing we learn about our spiritual growth here is that it's not just about our behavior. It's not just about our performance. There is a real danger that some Christians will reduce following Jesus to a list of rules of outward behavior.

But Jesus said in Matthew 15, these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. When he said that about the Pharisees, he was not commending them but condemning them. He was saying that they were following the rules and yet their heart was far from God. Jesus doesn't just want their behavior. He wants their heart. Our first love is Jesus. Therefore, our spiritual growth is not ultimately about living up to a moral standard or even following the rules.

That's about living in a relationship with Jesus. Jesus knows that when he gets our heart, he gets all of us. He gets our words. He gets our attitude. He gets our actions. He gets our wallet. He gets our time. He gets it all.