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Introduction:
The late Dwight L. Moody once stated:
“Let us not be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.”
Dwight L. Moody
I would argue that this is a problem that we really don’t face today.
As Pastor Kenny who was the former pastor at Good Shepherd in Scott Depot, WV once told me, “I’m afraid I haven’t met that person yet.”
What Pastor Kenny was driving at is that most people are not heavenward in their thinking and focus at all - much less too much so!
You see, we must be focused on heaven and eternity in order to be effective in this life.
You can only know what direction you are to go if you know the destination in which you are heading.
Let that sink in for a moment.
If I told you to prepare for a vacation and that I would see you when we get there - I’m sure you would look at me with a puzzled look.
Where are we going would be the question that I’m sure would come to your mind.
We must know our eternal destination and where we are heading in order to make the right directional choices.
When we know our destination then the decisions that we make on the way there become so much more clear!
We can see things with an eternal perspective instead of seeing them in a near-sighted way.
Join me as we read God’s Word:
Let us pray.
Prayer
Today we are going to discuss three ways the we should think heavenward in a Biblical way.
The first is:
I.
You Should Think Heavenward Because… Your Lord is Above (1-2)
I am sure we have all heard of if/then statements.
If this happens then this will happen.
If you do this then that will happen etc. Paul has just taught what it means to be qualified for the faith and not disqualified.
He has just let us know that the Savior surpasses all other things.
And so He starts with the assumption that the readers are believers.
If then you have been raised with Christ.
In other words, if you have been born again.
If you are a new creation.
Then you should seek things that are above.
I think that this command brings us to two important questions.
What does it mean to seek?
What are things that are above?
First we come to the question what does it mean to seek.
This word, seek, is written in a present imperative tense meaning that it something that we should be already doing and something that we should keep on doing.
It means to set one’s sights on and keep wanting.
It may better be translated as keep seeking and is a continuous action.
Next we see that we are to seek the things that are above.
So back to our question, “What are the things that are above?
This refers to things that are heavenly and are things that point to the qualities of Christ.
Things such as tenderness and strength; wisdom and purity; forgiveness and mercy; love and righteous judgment.
However, the most important thing we can seek that is above - or heavenly - is Jesus Christ.
Our Savior has resurrected and is now at the right hand of the Father.
Along with a couple of parallel Scriptures we see two of the many reasons we should seek Christ.
First:
We Should Seek Christ Who is Our Sustainer.
We see this command no better spelled out than by Jesus Christ Himself:
We see here that we are to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
That is inferred in the second part of verse 1 in Colossians 3. We are to seek the things that are above.
And as we have just seen - when we seek the things that are above, Christ is our sustainer and provider.
Next we see at the end of verse 1 another reason we should think of Christ above all.
2. We Should Seek Christ Who is Supreme.
We are to consider Christ who is at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
This means considering the supremacy of Christ.
This means thinking of Him before everything else.
Nothing is above Him.
Christ over all.
The Psalmist points toward this supremacy in Psalm 110:1:
As the Psalmist stated so directly - Christ is at the right hand of the Father and all others will be crushed under His feet.
As verse two moves on and finishes - we are not to focus on the things of this earth.
Meaning the things that pass away.
Paul has just exalted Christ in verse 1 and let us know why our focus should be on Him above everything else.
But verse 2 takes this thinking to a more practical day-to-day level.
In light of the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord is above all, how should we live?
Not only should we seek the things that are above (Christ being the highest and supreme above all) - but we are also to set our minds on things that are above as well.
So how can we apply this principle to our lives today?
How does this flesh out?
Paul is clearly teaching that we need to take each step in this life and take each decision we make and measure it by the Word of God and by eternity.
As we started off the sermon - we must know our eternal destination so that when we make decisions on earth - we have a good idea of which direction to go.
Because when we know that this isn’t our eternal destination on earth, we can see more clearly and discern what decisions to make more accurately.
A few practical examples of this are:
When we go to buy a vehicle - we need to think about how that is going to affect our giving to the Kingdom of God.
When we go to buy a house, we need to think of how that is going to affect our giving to missions.
How we spend our money is paramount in judging how eternal we think.
It is a great barometer of truth when it comes to our hearts and minds.
Just as a barometer measures atmospheric pressure, our bank statements measure our worldly pressure.
It doesn’t just stop at your checkbook though.
When we consider moving to a new neighborhood we need to think about where God wants us to be in order to reach our neighbors with the Gospel.
We aren’t just to decide what we want without consulting the Lord first.
The applications are endless here.
How many extra-curricular activities we allow our children to be in.
Which activities we allow them to be in.
Whether we allow them to miss church for one of these activities.
And then there are job choices and marriage choices and time management choices.
Note that we don’t just keep our heads in the clouds and ignore earthly decisions.
We have to make earthly decisions constantly because we are still on earth.
As we have just went through a buffet style list of areas that we make decisions in - I pray that it is clear that we must be attentive to the decisions we make on earth.
Yet I pray that it is also clear that we must know what destination we are heading toward so that we can make decisions that are in the right direction and are for the best results with eternity in mind.
We need to live with purpose.
And that purpose needs to be all about glorifying and making much of Christ.
That purpose is not doing what we want to do.
That purpose is all about making much of Him.
And that purpose is all about making decisions with eternity in mind and Christ in mind.
How are you doing in this area?
When you make decisions, do you think about how it is going to affect the kingdom of God? Do you consider how a financial decision you make is going to affect your ability to give to your local church or toward missions?
Do you plan your week around how you are going to minister to others and how you are going to worship our Savior?
Or is it planned around what you want to do?
We live in a humanistic and individualistic culture.
Sadly, it is rare to find someone who is centered on Christ and others and not instead self-centered.
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