Living on Earth While Aiming at Heaven - Part B

Here's the best defense in spiritual warfare.

The best defense is a good offense. The best way to deprive your old nature is to cultivate your new nature. The key to fighting off the flesh isn't to focus only on battling our fleshly desires. And as Skip shares today on Connect with Skip Hyten, the way to win the battle is to be engaged in the things of God. Now, here's a special resource to help you experience the risen Christ in an eye-opening way.

Looking deep into the empty tomb by Skip Hyten consists of five messages, including Rise Up, Easter's Over, Now What?, An Empty Tomb, A Full Life, Jesus Died But God, and Come Alive. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most attested to facts in history. It is a fact that sets Christianity apart from every other world religion, and it's the reason for our hope. Of all of the religions in the world, only four of them are based upon actual personalities. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

Those four are based upon the personality of the founder. But of all of those four religions, only one claims a resurrection for its founder. That's why we have hope. That's why we gather here today, because of that good news. For this Easter season, we've put together a special set of resurrection resources by Skip that include five of his finest Easter messages for audio download or on CD and a full video titled On the Road. We want to send you a copy of this package of messages as thanks for your gift to support Connect with Skip Heitzig and help grow this teaching ministry to reach more people in major cities in the U.S. this year. So request your package when you give your gift of $50 or more today and take a walk with the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus. Just call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer.

That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're going to turn to Colossians three as Skip kicks off today's message. We are so happy today that God did our punishment on Jesus Christ so that we can have the mercy of God. The cross proved that God must judge sin. Now here's the lie of all sin. Sin promises to do something for you but never delivers on the promise. So sin promises part of the temptation is do this and you'll feel happy, do this and you'll feel fulfilled, do this and you'll be satisfied. Is that the reality?

It's not the reality. It promises that doesn't deliver on the promise. So when you do the sin you actually become unsatisfied, you actually lose joy, you become dissatisfied and you incur the wrath of God. Good reason to stay away from it. If God's going to judge the world for it, why do I want to get involved in it? Simple logic. That's one reason.

There's another reason. The second reason is all of these things that Paul lists, they describe the old you, not the new you. That's your old identity, not your new identity, verse seven, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

I have a question for you. Why did you come to Christ in the first place? I have a hunch for many of you it's because you hated that lifestyle. It did not fulfill you. It did not deliver on its promise and you wanted to be delivered from it. So why would you go back to it if you wanted to be delivered from it?

That's the old you, not the new you. So kill off sensuality. That's the first step. Second step every heavenly citizen must make while living on earth is cut off hostility. Cut off hostility. That's verse eight. But now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

Verse nine, do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. Now we have another list, but a very different list. First was a list of sensuality. This is a list of hostility. In the second list we have five plus one. A list of five things plus one.

And I'll go through these very, very quickly. Anger refers to inward resentment that grows until it reaches a boiling point. It's not lashing out at anybody yet. Anger is this seething feeling that you get when you're around that person, that resentment that's inside of you.

You haven't voiced anything yet, but it's there. Now here's what you need to know. Anger is like acid. That is, it often does more damage to the container that holds it than it ever does to anything that gets spilled on later on. And if you're holding in anger anger and resentment, that's what it's doing to you. It's eating away at you.

It's destroying you. That's anger all inward. The second word is wrath. So if anger is the resentment that builds up until it reaches the boiling point, wrath is it's reached the boiling point and now it spills over. Wrath is when you see somebody with a quick temper.

Somebody flies off the handle and gets in your face and yells at you. Well that's something that's been building up probably in them and is now lashing out. That's wrath. The third word is malice. And malice refers to the type of individual who actually premeditates evil. He plots and plans ways to make your life miserable. Think of think of Haman in the Old Testament in the book of Esther. Haman, the guy who said what can I plot, what can I plan, what can I build to destroy Mordecai in fine fashion? And he thought I'll make a gallows so tall that everybody will see him hang.

He thought through that. That's malice. The next word is blasphemy. Some translations put it slander. So it either refers to speaking bad about God, blasphemy, or speaking bad about people. Take your pick.

Get rid of both. The next is filthy language. Filthy language refers to derogatory speech intended to hurt somebody.

What can I say right now that will be snarky and make that person go a different direction? So I don't, this is pretty easy for me to give you an example of. Think of social media social media. Okay, think of those social media trolls who just follow accounts and anytime they follow the people they disagree with just so whenever they write something they can say something bad back.

That's the idea of derogatory speech or filthy language. But then, so those are the five, then he adds one. Verse nine, do not lie to one another. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its deeds.

Here's a question. Why is lying so bad? I mean, come on, we all lie. White lie. What's so bad about a lie? Why is lying so bad? Because lying characterizes whom? Satan. Satan. First words out of his mouth. A lie.

Has God said you won't die? Lie. Lie. Lie. Jesus said of Satan, he is a liar and the father of it. So when people lie, who are they imitating?

That guy. Not God. When you lie, you are imitating Satan. So these are the moral battles that we face while on the earth on the way to heaven. Yes, keep heaven in mind, but to do that effectively, you got to kill off and cut off sensuality and hostility. You can't let the impulses call the shots. You can't let those impulses call the shots. You and I are going to battle with our fleshly impulses until the day we are glorified.

It's great to think about heaven, great to think about the new body, great to think about being glorified, but the reality is we deal with on a daily basis fleshly impulses. And James said, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist him and he will flee from you, but you got to resist. Now, you've heard all this stuff before and you might even be thinking, sounds good on paper, but how could I practically put that into operation? Well, let me give you three tips, just three little quick tips that I think help you. Three words, distance, direction, dependence. First of all, distance. Keep a healthy distance between you and that sin you struggle with.

You all know what it is. If I were to pull you individually and say, what is the one area of your life that you have difficulty with, you could tell me probably right away. So keep a distance. So keep a distance between that sin and that temptation and yourself. If you get, if you always walk up to the edge close to the line, you're going to go over it. So if you struggle with alcohol, don't have a business meeting at the bar, right?

If you struggle with pornography, don't get alone at night on the computer. You know, have safety stops that are put in there. So that's distance. I love what Martin Luther used to say. He wrote, you can't stop birds from flying around your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest in your hair. So distance, healthy distance.

Number two, direction. Even if you put a healthy distance between you and that temptation, that sin that you struggle with, even when you do that, sometimes sin will present itself without you getting close to it. Somebody will just walk in your vision, or somebody will walk up to you and offer you something, or a conversation will come up and it's presented to you.

That's when you have predetermined, when that happens, I'm going to turn around and walk the other direction. Who did that in the Old Testament when somebody tried to seduce him? Joseph did exactly that. Potiphar's wife grabbed him and was not subtle at all. Let's have sex. Come to bed with me. And Joseph didn't say, well, you know, I need to pray about it.

He just walked out, literally streaked out, if you read the story. The Bible says, flee youthful lusts. Now, when you flee youthful lusts, you know, a lot of people flee temptation, but they give the devil their forwarding address.

I'm out of here, but I'll be over there later on and get a hold of me. So, here's the idea of this. Starve the flesh. Starve the flesh. Don't feed your anger. Don't feed your lust. Don't feed your hatred. Don't feed your covetousness.

Distance, direction. Third is dependence. Dependence. What I mean by this is it will help you if you don't have the power. What I mean by this is it will help you if you enlist the help of other people that you can depend on in your hour of weakness. That's dependence.

Other people provide support and accountability. And, you know, I found that just telling people, telling somebody that I'm struggling in an area, just getting that out in the open, often causes the temptation to lose it. I've confessed it. I've made it known.

It's out in the open. Solomon said, two are better than one. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. Other people will give you courage to walk away from the temptation. So, two steps so far. Kill off sensuality.

Cut off hostility. There's a third and final step, and it really is what cements the victory, and that is to cultivate spirituality. So, we'll end on this note, verses 10 and 11. And, well, actually, because there's an and right there in verse 10, I got to go back to verse 9.

So, verse 9, since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him, where there is neither Greek, Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. Do you see what he just did? He just pivoted from fighting off the negative, cutting off the negative, and he turns here from a defensive position to an offensive position.

Don't do that, but do this. So, here's the best defense in spiritual warfare. The best defense is a good offense. The best way to deprive your old nature is to cultivate your new nature. If you're only preoccupied with battling the flesh, killing off and cutting off the old, you're just going to walk around shell-shocked. I'm fighting, man. I'm always in the battle. If you're spending all of your time worrying about the thou-shall-nots, you're just going to be a miserable person to be around.

So, the key is, and just dwell on those two verses again, the key is to get so engaged in the pivot, so engaged in serving God and cultivating spirituality, that you lose interest in gratifying the flesh. I've always loved the story about the girl who is tucked into bed, a little girl, and she was sleeping, and she fell out of bed in the middle of the night. Boom. Hit the floor. Like that.

Boom. And startled her. She started crying.

Mom rushes in because she hears the thud, picks her daughter up, quiets her down, tucks her back in bed, and says, sweetheart, what happened? The little girl said, I think I stayed too close to where I got in. How many of you know that's our problem? We stay too close to where we get in. We come into the kingdom of God, and we're right, we just crossed over the line into salvation, and we stay right there on the border.

Go deeper. Cultivate the new you, the new person, the new man, the new woman. Move further into God's grace.

Don't stay on the border. So, verses 10 introduces us to the new you. The new you, it's called the new man here. Notice the difference, old man, new man. When it says get rid of the old man, it's not saying kick your dad out of the house.

That was language from my generation. The old man. The old man isn't your dad. The old man is the old you. It's the old skip. The unsaved Skip is the old man. The saved Skip is the new man. And we'll talk more about the new man in the next couple of weeks, but you know what it says in 2 Corinthians 5. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That's the new you. You've been made new.

But, go back to verse 10, you put on the new man. Who is? Who is? Tell me what it says. Renewed. Say it again.

Say it louder. Renewed. Renewed.

Okay, that's interesting. What it tells me is you might be new, saved. You still need to be renewed. Sanctified. Made new. Salvation.

Renewed. Sanctification. So, renewed is spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is a process. Salvation is not just a crisis.

Some people make it all about the crisis. Come forward to the altar. Shed a tear. We'll pray for you. That's the crisis.

You need a crisis. But after the crisis comes a process, and the process is renewing. It's described in Romans chapter 12. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So, that which is new must also be renewed. Okay, good. I got to be renewed.

How do I do that? How do I get renewed? Do I get renewed by singing songs? Do I get renewed by praying prayers? Do I get renewed by meditating on things, or do I get renewed by testifying to people?

Yes, all of the above, to some extent. But chiefly, mainly, mostly, you don't get renewed by those things. You get renewed principally by one thing. You know what that one thing is?

It says right here, who is renewed in what? Knowledge. Knowledge.

There is no growth in the Christian life apart from knowledge. Spiritual, biblical knowledge. Hosea chapter 4, my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge because they have rejected knowledge.

Second Peter chapter 3 verse 18, grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What kind of knowledge? Biblical knowledge. Biblical knowledge. Peter says, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. So, when you are renewed in knowledge, and this is why we gather together frequently and open our Bibles and learn what the Bible has to say, that's the renewal process. When we are renewed in biblical knowledge, we become more and more and more in the image of God. Look at verse 10 again.

It's right there. And put on the new man, renewed in knowledge, according to the image of him who created him. So, get this. We were first formed in God's image at creation. You know what the Bible says? Genesis 1 and 2, God made them, formed them in his image. We were formed in God's image at creation. We became deformed from God's image at the fall. That's Genesis chapter 3. We can be transformed back into God's image at the new birth. That's the gospels. At the Mark, Luke, and John. That's the New Testament, transformation. But then, we become conformed into the image of Jesus Christ more and more by spiritual knowledge. That's the process. Now, sometimes I read the Bible.

I don't know if you ever do this. And I just, I read it and I wonder, why didn't he just put a period right there? But he didn't. He added something. And I'm not going to disagree with it. I believe that it's I believe that it's inspired by God.

It's there for a purpose. But he is carrying this thought of new and renewal forward into another element. That's verse 11.

So, let's end where he ends. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian. Did you know that Greeks thought anyone who wasn't a Greek was a barbarian?

Right? That's sort of cultural pride. I'm Greek, and if you're not, you're a barbarian. And then, it says Scythian.

The only time it appears in the Bible is right here. Scythian is, it's like, of all the barbarians out there, they're the worst. They're like the marginalized weird people. So, Paul includes them. In the church, there's no Greek, there's no Jew, there's no circumcised, there's no uncircumcised, there's no barbarian, there's no Scythian, there's no slave, there's no free. All these cultural distinctions. But Christ is all and in all.

Here's the message. The new life that results in the new you also puts you in a new community called the church. So, the Christian isn't a black Christian, or a white Christian, or a Hispanic Christian, or a Native American Christian, or an Oriental Christian, or a European Christian. It's just a Christian. Just a Christian.

Yeah, enjoy your differences, your heritage, all that. Celebrate all that. But when you come to church, you're all in the body the body of Christ. So, in the church, black lives matter, white lives matter, brown lives matter, blue lives matter, unborn lives matter, and your life matters to God.

That's the church. If you're part of the church, big C church, you're a child of God. You're royalty. You're adopted in the family. You're a son or a daughter of the living God. Doesn't matter your color.

So, therefore, don't let anybody's political agenda or critical race theory convince you otherwise. You're his. You're his. And you ought to know that's the way it ought to be in the church because that's the way it's going to be in heaven. In heaven, we gather around the throne, and part of our anthem of worship is, for you have redeemed us out of every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation, all represented there. We're not going to stand around in heaven and say, were you the victim or the victor?

Were you the oppressor or the oppressor? You're saved. You're here. Hallelujah. High five. You're in heaven. We're children of God. Let's not get involved in the stupidity of the variations that are separating people today.

Don't even buy into that. That's Skip Hiting with a message from the series Always Only Jesus. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep teachings like this one today going out around the world, connecting you and others to God's word. You know, when God paints a picture of the future, it's not an educated guess. It's something we can hang our hopes on with certainty.

That's why we share these Bible teachings to encourage you to fully trust what God says in his word. And when you come alongside this ministry through your support, you do the same for many listeners around the world. This year, I'm praying God will open doors for these teachings to reach more people in major cities across the United States. When you give today, you will make that vision possible. So please consider a gift today. Here's how you can do that. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity and come back next time as Skip Hiting examines the new wardrobe you've been given in Christ. Remember what Jesus talked about when he talked about wolves in sheep's clothing? They're pretty dangerous.

But you know what also is dangerous? Sheep in wolves clothing. That is a Christian who isn't living the Christian life. It's just a Christian who thinks that I can hold on to all the stinky, smelly things from the past and just put a new garment on top of it. Connect with Skip Hiting is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.