Christ Church Moreton Hall

12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Col 3:12-14 (NIV)

1. This is a very important set of verses to me.
2. They can be used devotionally like the soldiers armour.
3. They are a command to a church, from a great leader to his people.
4. They tell us about our true status in Christ.
5. How we are to live as Christians in a fallen world.
6. It can be the key to understand why people do not live consistent Christian lives
7. Why they never enter onto the fullness of all God has for them.

First thing to grasp is the Colossian church really knew who they were. Paul says
1. They are chosen2. They are holy 3. They are dearly loved.

1. Now a lot of Christians believe that they chose Jesus. Or that by chance or by upbringing they have a sense of duty to keep going when so few do. Truth is God chose you dot you feel chosen. Makes a huge difference if you know you are chosen.
2. They are holy.· This is tough but actually by his grace and blood we are made holy.The 4 great gifts. You are being made holy and Jesus sees you as holy until you are. Not a goody two shoes – passion for love and truth
3 They are dearly loved. Do we feel we are loved or tolerated by Jesus. Makes a huge difference/ Love helps you to love.

Most people who know these things do well socially career relationship if they know they are chosen, they are holy and they are dearly loved. But this does not come from any human this comes from Jesus. King of kings, Lord of lords, the biggest Celeb who ever lived, the most powerful of all people the creator and sustainer of the universe. Say to each other. Paul says Dress like what you are. If God has chosen you to be one of his special children – which he has. If God has made you holy - which he has. If you are dearly loved. Dress yourselves as if that were true. What does he mean by this how can we put on virtues as of they were something we could buy from Marks and Spencer? Well let us put it this way. When you wife knits you a jumper because she loves you and you love her. You put it on. In fact you wear it as much as you can even if some others don’t like it because, you love her and you want to please her. But if it is your mother in law who has made it -You only wear it when she visits. If you are chosen to play for a football team. May be you have worked hard in training. May be you have had to play really well to be selected. Then on the first game you play for the team you forget your kit. Or worse turn up in your last team’s kit. What do you think you team mates would think? Not much. What do you think would happen to Wayne Rooney if in the next Manchester United home game he tried to play in Chelsea kit? For practical reasons he would not be allowed to play. But worse than that I think his career at United would be in crisis. Especially if the were playing Chelsea that day or worse Manchester city! Finally if you are doing a dirty job you have to wear the right clothes. If you are doing a dangerous job you have to wear safety clothes. So Paul is saying if you are a Christian you must dress as if you are a Christian. That does not mean carry a bible or have a bumper sticker or a badge. But clothe you selves in the following virtues. Be Compassionate. Be kind. Be humble. Be gentle. Be patient Be able to bear tough situations. Be forgiving. Be loving. He asks you to do this because.
1. You should dress according to your status.
2. You are princes and princess now dress like one Prince William looks like a Prince should look.
3. You should dress so people will see you are loved chosen and holy.
4. Because unless you do, they will not see who you are, and who it is you serve.
5. You need to dress safely. Unless you do, you will be at risk. Why at risk because wear so used to dressing in the worlds clothes. We act and behave as the world act. The world does not do Compassionate. World says I must win and it does not matter what happens to the other guy.
The world does not do kind. Kindness is weakness. Kindness is inefficient. Kindness will not get the job done. Be humble. The world says humble means you will not get noticed won’t be rewarded, miss out on you share. Humble people know God always sees and reward. Why because he was humble. Clothe yourself in gentleness. We have heard so much in the church about:
"Be bold be strong for the Lord your God is with you."
When are we going to get a chorus, which says;
"Be gentle. Be patient for the Lord you God is with you.
I am not afraid I and not dismayed, for I am walking in my royal robes I can still be gentle, when others are so cruel.
For the lord my God is with me."

Jesus is as much concerned with how we do things as what we achieve. There are so many who get the job done but they leave a trail of broken bodies in their wake. It says the when Noah built the ark he did not have to capture the animals they came to him voluntarily

Gen 7:13-16 (NIV) says
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

The animal would not have come to Noah unless they knew Noah loved animals and was a safe place to be. The life of Noah meant that when it got tough they knew who they could trust.

God says “be gentle if for no other reason I am gentle with you.”

Then there is patience.

We live in an age where patience is not valued,

We expect everything at once and perfect

And aren’t we angry when we do not get it.

We all know the gag about lord give me patience and give it to me now.

Where here is how it works. The Lord longs to give you patience.

So he will keep sending you frustrating situations

Until you learn how to cope with it.

Now the next two are not clothes as such. But if we have the first five it should enable us and it should make us want to do the next two Be able to bear tough situations. Be forgiving. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

But the hardest thing to bear is not people, but illness and disappointment.

I find that the people who face these things find it easier to get over that those of us who have to observe them. But this is the real gold standard of forbearance. And Paul gives us the answer here when he writes: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is full of great promises that if you learn and trust in will enable to face any trial. More that that he is the God of Hope the God of Encouragement and above all the God of endurance. That is why it says And in Heb 12:1-4:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. We show how much God has done for us not by the songs we sing or the praise we give. Nor by the prayers we pray or the sermons we preach. We show the greatness of God not by the good deeds we do or the miracles we are a part of. No we show the supernatural power of God by our ability to endure. And to endure with joy endure with praise endure with Good deeds endure with miracle and yet not to see our prayer answered just yet. For me it is both humbling and encouraging to see the way people in my church bear so many hard things. The disappointments they overcome come daily. We are we have in our midst some very great saints who are facing up to great trials. They are daily putting on their royal robes and they are enabled to bear all things. So often when things are bad we think Jesus has abandoned us. The sentimental part of religious publishing will tell you when things are tough Jesus is carrying on the beach. (I don’t believe it actually)I think when things are tough really tough,We are learning to become more and more like Jesus himself. Which leads us to forgiveness. The real thing that set Jesus apart and the thing that made the Pharisee hate him the most was the fact he forgave sins. If we don’t forgive in fact what were doing is holding on to the hurt we are letting it go on hurting us. When we forgive and let go. We drop it out of our hands and it can’t hurt us any more. Some one once said a Hurt is like a baby. The more you nurse it the bigger it grows. A hurt is like a cookoo, once it gets in the nest it can push everything else out till there is nothing at home but hurt and it eats every good thing you give it. The ability to forgive is what really picks us out from the crowd and as Paul as all ready said: Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

I would want to say that you can only really be loving if you can do all the things we have already touched on.

Now over the last 16 years I have been in Bury we have done some very wonderful things. But just recently The lord has been speaking to me. Jonathan you have a great mission statement. You have a great website. You have a good building. You have wonderful people. You have a great God to lead you. But what are the values you live by? And as I considered I realised we were doing so much by the worlds standard and not his. We valued success over humility. We valued speed over patience We valued winning over gentleness. So we spent a two-month series preaching through these themes And now we are trying to incorporate these values into every thing we do.
We have made a prayer up and we are going to get people to say this prayer at every meeting. Father God As your children we are chosen, we are holy and we are dearly loved. By your Spirit clothe us today with our royal robes of Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Help us to bring these graces and values to Everything we do, everything we say And everything we think. Give us grace to bare all things and to forgive all things. Above all clothe us with love, That all we are may reflect your glory. In Jesus name. Amen

I also have been praying this prayer over my self every day for some years now, and believe it has made a huge difference to me.

Health check and praying scripture changes you

No of course in human terms it is impossible to live like this. It is also no worth trying un-aided for you will fall flat on you face. But that is the point. Jesus calls us to this so that we will learn to rely on him and his supernatural power. And the world can see that in our lives as a church and as individuals there is something wonderfully different about us. Now all know that Southgate has been though some tough times. And any fool and every fool can and will give you advice by the cartload. But this I would say to you......Rediscover who you really are. Remember that you are all loved by Jesus more than you can ever possibly imagine. You still have great things to do for him because he does have a god pleasing and perfect plan for you lives. Start rebuilding you values as you rebuild you church. If you par this prayer and put it into practice Jesus will become real to you and all will be well. So Church of Southgate. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Amen