SERMON OUTLINE 009--31 DEC 2006

SPIRITUAL BATTLE DRILLS

First Sunday in Christmas
FOB Paliwoda
31DEC06

Lectionary Texts
1 Samuel 2:18-20; 26
Psalm 148
Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 2:41-52

Scripture
Colossians 3:12-17

Background/Timeline
Paul writing to address problems of syncretism in the church
2:1-10 Faith versus philosophy
2:11-23 Faith versus legalism/works
3:1-11 Faith versus permissiveness
3:12-17 What a man looks like who puts his faith in Christ

I. Introduction

A. Spiritual Warfare: We are in the midst of a spiritual battle as well. How do your fellow soldiers look at you? Just as God is working through our thoughts, words, and deeds; so is the Devil looking to use us for his twisted kingdom. He wants us to hate; he wants us to despise; he wants us to despair; he wants us to think highly of ourselves. He wants to use this war, this deployment, to cripple us not only now but for the future.


B. It does not have to be this way. This deployment is a great opportunity to grow in faith. We can learn to stop relying on our own strength and skills and begin relying on Christ.


C. “The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be.” —Oswald Chambers


D. Before we can answer the question “What would Jesus do?” we must first answer “Who does Jesus want us to be?”


E. The Apostle Paul speaks to us through the Word today, instructing us and giving us the answer to this question.

II. Spiritual Battle Drills

A. v12-13, what is expected of us. A list of battle drills to gain our hearts for Christ. Tender mercies:


1. kindness
2. humility
3. meekness
4. longsuffering (patience),
5. forbearance (endurance)
6. forgiveness

B. How many of these actions can we do without the participation of another person? This is why Christ called the Church into being, so that we could learn these tender mercies. How can we exercise any of these disciplines if we do not come together as a body?


C. True worship is more than church attendance. It is the community putting into practice these virtues. It is living a faithful life in church, in the home, and in the world that bears the greatest witness.


D. Christian warrior ethos. To live this way requires heroic discipline. It is not weakness to give ourselves to Christ; it is strength.

III. Armed with Love

A. How can we live out these virtues? We cannot do it with our own strength, for we must rely on the strength of the Lord. What is at the center if God’s strength? Love.


B. v14: “But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”


C. Love is what makes us perfect in Christ. It is the source of all our right actions, and it is the witness that we have truly repented and accepted His call.


D. Love is not a feeling but an attitude, an expectation, a state of mind. Love is a verb, not a noun.


E. “Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone.” —Thomas à Kempis

IV. Winning the Peace

A. Our objective is peace. v15: peace of God, not of men, needs to be Lord of your spirit. Being at peace with God means you will be thankful for God.


B. Until we make peace with God, we will never be at peace with men.


C. Illustration: Katie Couric, the famous newscaster, commented in an interview with Esquire magazine that she could not commit herself to God because she could not accept that God was more important than her family. Further along in the interview she expresses anger and resentment of the loss of her husband (he died at age 42 of cancer). She does not strike me as a person filled with peace.


D. Until we fully accept and understand God’s forgiveness of us, we will never be able to forgive others.


E. Peacefulness of the heart means that you can and have forgiven people, including yourself, for hurting you.


F. True forgiveness can only take place if we put on the love of God. Forgiveness must be practiced. Have you grown up in a forgiving home? Is there someone you need to forgive? Illustration: a great source of pain I see right now in our deployment is the fracturing of fragile relationships. This separation combined with the stress of war is beginning to reveal our true character.


G. Writing someone off is not forgiveness; we are just hiding, or sublimating, the pain. And this is the damage—every time we are faced with a similar situation or a similar person we will repeat the process. Lack of forgiveness is a guarantee of self-sabotage.


H. Forgiveness is hard. “Forgiving the unforgivable is hard. So was the cross: hard words, hard wood, hard nails.” —William S. Stoddard

V. Conclusion

A. v16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.”


1. We can only understand God’s Word through Christ


2. God’s Word comes to us in song, in prayer, in worship, in preaching, and in studying scripture.




B. “They who are conscious of their own sins have no eyes for the sins of their neighbors.” —Abbot Moses (10th century)


C. Worry about yourself, not others.


D. Armed with love we will win the peace that allows us to live out our faith by working through these virtues:


1. kindness
2. humility
3. meekness
4. longsuffering (patience)
5. forbearance (endurance)
6. forgiveness

E. “It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life.” —Thomas à Kempis

We need to be careful when we begin to look at others in our lives. It is too easy to begin to think that we are better, or more spiritual, or more of a Christian. Instead of asking why a particular person is not a believer, we should instead ask why has our lives not been a sufficient witness for the Spirit to win our neighbor for Christ.