A New Set of Clothes for a New Way of Life - Part A

Now you want to take off certain behaviors, patterns, habits, cast those aside. Those are part of the old wardrobe, the old you, and you need to be outfitted new behaviors, the new man, a behavior pattern that is fitting for the calling on your life.

From the beginning of time, clothing has played a big part in the lives of humans. And as Skip shares today on Connect with Skip Hyten, as a believer, you've been given a new set of clothes specially made for your life in Christ. But first, we want to tell you about a resource that will help you relate to Jesus in a special way. For those who knew Jesus while he walked this earth, the road to discovering and believing that Jesus was resurrected started in disheartening confusion, but it ended in decisive confirmation. And we're excited to send you a special set of resurrection resources by Skip that include five of his finest Easter messages for digital download or CD and a full video titled On the Road by Skip. Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

So it was, it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. With your gift of support of $50 or more, we'll send you a copy of this hope-filled package of five audio messages for download or on CD and the full video On the Road as thanks for your gift to expand Connect with Skip Heitzig to reach more people in major U.S. cities. So request your resource when you give and take a walk with Christ on the road to Emmaus.

Just call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now we're in Colossians three as we join Skip for today's lesson. I usually don't preach with props, but the text lent itself so perfectly to this that it'd be good to see it. So clothing has always played an important role in all societies from ancient times till modern times. From the time that Adam and Eve visited their local neighborhood fig tree and got their first set of clothes, all the way up till now clothing is a huge deal. In fact, in the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned and they covered themselves up, we call that the fall, right? That's the fall of mankind. So you might say that the fig leaves were the fall clothing line for Adam and Eve.

It's the best I could do with that one. However, every family, a chunk of their budget goes to clothing. The average American family of four will spend $1,800 or more per year on clothing. One of the biggest, most pressing questions for some people is simply the question, what am I going to wear? Even though you have a closet full of things, what am I going to wear is a huge deal. 41% of Americans say they need new clothes, and in-store purchases are up this year over last year 22%, which I found pretty interesting given the fact that we're dealing with economic hardship. Still, people are buying more clothes, 22% higher.

I think maybe that's post-pandemic. They're just sort of tired of Zoom calls and their PJs, and they want to just have a whole new slate. So new clothes, we are told, make people feel better about themselves, give people confidence, convey the perception of success, and even improve our performance of daily tasks. You may have even heard the statement, clothes make the man.

Ever heard that? Clothes make the man. That was first uttered by Mark Twain, but let me give you the full quote. Mark Twain said, clothes make the man.

Naked people have little or no influence in society. Now, the Bible speaks about three different outfits for every Christian to wear. First is Isaiah 61 verse 10, which talks about the garment of salvation, followed by the robe of righteousness.

That's what happens when you come to Christ. He clothes you with His righteousness. That's the garment of salvation. The second outfit is found in Ephesians chapter 6. It's what a soldier would wear. Put on the whole armor of God, Paul said in that passage. The helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit, breastplate of righteousness, have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, et cetera. The third outfit is found in Colossians chapter 3. This is the outfit for the social life of the Christian. This is the basic stuff we wear at all times. Every day we should be clothed with this. So this section, and we began last time when we were together in Colossians, this whole section uses the illustration of the changing of one's garments, taking off an old set of clothes, putting on a new set of clothes.

That's why we have these visuals for you. I want you to go back, even though we're not going to talk much about it, but go back to verse 8 and just notice this. But now you yourselves are to put off, that is the idea of taking off a set of clothes, put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds. See all those nasty habits? That's what this is, the old you.

The old man is not your dad, it's the old you. It's your life, BC, before Christ. And all those nasty habits are depicted with this tattered set of clothes. Ironically, this is now considered high fashion these days, right?

This is like a $150 shirt at some store. But that represents the old man, the old sinful way of life. To put off the old man is to take off the dirty clothing that is mentioned in these verses. And, you know, you usually take dirty clothes off at the end of a workday. If you work in a gnarly kind of a nasty job, you know, just for fun, I did a little digging this week to find out the dirtiest jobs in America, so I'll give you the top five. Top five dirtiest jobs in America. Number five, meat packer.

You can imagine these folks deal with blood, body fluids, there's bacteria, there's pathogens that survive on that meat. That's a pretty dirty job. Number four, wastewater treatment plant operator. This guy deals with raw sewage, harmful chemicals. And then number three, septic tank cleaner.

Deals with the same kind of stuff but comes to your house or place of business to do it. So there's harsh weather conditions as well as harmful chemicals as well as sewage. Number two, garbage collector. Now these are the people that come to your house and take out all the stuff you have thrown away and take it to landfills. And let me just say before we move on to number one, thank the people who pick your trash up.

Be nice to them, smile at them, and every year I make it my personal practice to tip them because that's a very important and often thankless job. It's the second dirtiest job in America according to this website. Number one, coal miner. Coal miner. A physically demanding job. They're working dark, cramped spaces. They're breathing in coal dust.

Very susceptible to lung disease because of it. Now I think you would agree that doing any of these jobs would require a lot of work. Would require changing your garments at the end of the day, right? So likewise, when you come to Christ, you're now royalty. You want to take off certain behaviors, patterns, habits, cast those aside. Those are part of the old wardrobe, the old you, and you need to be outfitted new behaviors. The new man.

A behavior pattern that is fitting for the calling on your life. So first thing you do is you take off old clothes, right? That's what he says. You put it off. You would never take brand new clothes and put them over old, dirty, smelly clothes. Let's say you're a coal miner.

You work as a garbage collector. You're pretty gnarly and smelly and stinky. You wouldn't just put a new set of clothes over that because you would ruin them. Although some people actually try to do this. Remember what Jesus talked about when he talked about wolves in sheep's clothing? They're pretty dangerous.

But do 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.

It doesn't work. You've got to take things off. But the flip side of that is you also have to do more than take things off. You've got to put things on. Because if all you do is take things off, you're just doing a spiritual striptease.

You're a spiritual nudist. It's like, I don't do this anymore. I don't do that anymore. I got rid of this. I got rid of that. Good.

It's good. But if your righteousness is only described by what you don't do, that's not enough. You need to put things on. You need to put certain activities into your life. So I want to give you three fashion tips. This is how to dress for success in the Christian life. Three fashion tips. Number one, first, is pick the right wardrobe. Pick the right wardrobe.

So look at verse 12. That's your wardrobe. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. That's the wardrobe.

Those items listed. Now, look again at verse 12, and notice how you are described. Therefore, as the elect of God, you know what that means? It simply means God picked you. God chose you. Of all the people in the world, God picked you to be on His team. And you might say, well, why did God pick me?

I have no idea. I have no idea why God picked you, any more than I have an idea why He picked me. But you know what? This whole idea of God's election or predestination and election, it's a big theological debate, has never bothered me. I know it bothers some people.

They try to work their heads around it. How does God? I don't care, honestly.

I'm just releasing this relieved and glad that He picked me to be on His team. To me, it's a point of rejoicing. And for Paul the Apostle, that is how he is dealing with election in this particular verse. He's not looking at it from an academic standpoint.

He's looking at it from a practical standpoint. And he is basically saying, since God picked you, since you are the elect of God, beloved and holy, dress like it. Dress the part. Put things on.

Act like it. Put on five garments that are listed in this verse as part of your celestial closet. Or to put it another way, because you've been getting blessed, you should be getting dressed. So let's see how to dress. First of all, he said put on tender mercy. So here in the closet is this garment. And as you can see, it says tender mercy. So you're to put that on.

Now let me describe what that means on a practical sense, because it's more than a shirt, obviously. So tender mercies, I don't know if any of you have an old King James Bible right now on you. Anybody in the house with an old King James Bible right now? You have one? You're reading from it right now?

Okay, so what does your version say? Put on what? Bowels?

Yes, did you hear that? Put on bowels of mercy. Okay, let me get this shirt on. It's going on harder, this service, for some reason. This person has gained weight in between services a little bit, visiting Solomon's porch too much. So tender mercies, my version says tender mercies. His version, King James says, put on bowels.

Put on bowels of mercy. Now it says that because, and that's the literal translation, the ancient peoples believed that your deepest emotions are felt in the pit of your stomach, your viscera. And we still sort of talk like that today, you know. If you get nervous, you say, I get butterflies when I'm around people. Or if I have to stand up and speak, I feel it in the pit of my stomach.

Some people get nauseated under certain experiences. So we understand that is simply a way of describing your feeling deep emotions, and so it is translated tender mercies. Some of your translation will simply say, put on a heart of compassion. A heart of compassion.

So that's a good translation. Have compassion. Be sensitive to those who are suffering and in need.

Don't be cold, don't be indifferent, but be sensitive. That happens to be a description of Jesus in the New Testament. It says that Jesus went about healing sickness and disease, and when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion. Same word, compassion. Bowels of mercy. Jesus was moved with compassion.

So interesting. When Jesus saw a crowd of people, he didn't say, man to Peter, I hate crowds. Get me out of here. His heart broke. He was moved for them because it says he looked at them like sheep having no shepherd, and he wanted to fill that need. The Bible also says, Jesus himself put it this way, that in the last days the love of many will grow cold.

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that people are way more angrier these days and more divided than I ever remember. So when you put on tender mercies, you're saying you can trust me. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not going to harm you.

I don't want anything from you. I want to help you. I want to care for you. That's a basic garment. I would even say, you know, I put that on over a t-shirt, I would say that's the undergarment. That's what you wear close to the skin, tender mercies. Next on the list is kindness. Now, kindness is related to tender mercies, but it really means a sweet disposition. How many of you out there have a very sweet disposition?

Raise your hands. Yes, a couple of you admit that. You might have a humility problem, but we'll get to that in a minute.

But I actually want to say that I believe you, because a lot of you are like this. A lot of you that I know in this church are filled with kindness. So kindness is a sweet disposition.

It's to be thoughtful in interpersonal dealings. The Greek word that is used was a word used to describe a wine that mellowed with age. It lost its harshness, its edge, its bite was taken away. One of the greatest examples of kindness in the Bible is an example we've actually been looking at on Wednesday night in our Bible study of the Old Testament. It's when King David treated Mephibosheth with kindness. Remember, Mephibosheth was the grandson of Saul. Saul and David were at odds with each other.

They were hostile to each other. Saul died. Saul's son Jonathan died. Jonathan's son Mephibosheth was a cripple.

He couldn't walk. And one day, David just has this idea. He goes, I wonder if if there's anybody from the house of Saul that I might show the kindness of God to. And he said it out loud, and somebody said, there's this kid named Mephibosheth.

He's a cripple. David said, bring him to me. I'm going to restore to him all the land his grandfather lost. I'm going to restore to him all that his father lost.

I'm going to let him eat at my table every single day, feed him royal food, treat him like he's my own. He showed to him kindness. Previously, there was, as I said, hostility between Saul and David. But just as the sun melts the ice, kindness melts hostility. Now, you may want to try this, but I've made it a practice over the years when I've had disagreements with people, and they go away mad, and no matter what they do, and no matter what I say or what I do or how I try to make an overture to bring reconciliation, they get angry.

They want nothing to do with me. And yes, I've had a few people like that in my life. I've made it a practice to find their address, go knock down their door, no, just kidding, go, and send them a gift.

Send them a gift with a note that just says, I'm sorry for the past. I love you. I continue to pray for you. Nothing has changed in my love for you. I send them a little gift.

And I've discovered that that often breaks down the barrier and melts the ice. Now, don't get paranoid if I ever send you a gift. It's not like, oh, man, what did I do wrong?

But sometimes I will do that. So kindness has converted more people than zeal. It converts more people than eloquence or learning. Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and that the blind can see. And when you wear kindness as a garment, it is quite the fashion statement.

And the reason it's the fashion statement and the reason it's noticeable is because it's so rare. And it's getting rarer and rarer to find genuinely kind people. And when it's a spirit disposition of kindness, it will be noticed. So we have two articles of clothing, tender mercies and kindness. The third is humility. And humility, we've made a hat. And the reason being is because, again, if you have the old King James, if you read it, it says humbleness of mind, right? That's what it says in your version, humbleness of mind. Translated in my Bible, just humility. So the idea is thinking rightly about yourself.

That's humility, humbleness of mind. So we've made it a hat. And you'll notice it's not like an ostentatious hat with a big plume on it to draw attention because it's humility. So it's just a very simple hat. It's what covers your mind. It's how you think about yourself, a realistic view of yourself.

But get this. Did you know that in classical Greek for years, in classical Greek language, there was not a word for humility? Didn't exist. Later on, when it showed up in later classical Greek texts, it showed up as a derogatory term. And that's because the Greeks never esteemed humility as a virtue. They saw it as a vice.

They saw humility as something bad. The Greeks exonerated pride. They admired success.

They looked up to domination. So get this, it took Christianity to take a vice and turn it into a virtue. It took Christianity to make humility fashionable.

And it is a fashionable thing to have. Paul takes a word of disgrace, and it makes it a word of his grace. And the reason he does so is because Jesus himself made humility fashionable. The Lord Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Humility doesn't mean that you're supposed to walk around with your head down and always say bad things about yourself. And when somebody gives you a compliment, say, oh no, it's not me, it's the Lord. No, I really can't do anything right.

That's just weird. It simply means an accurate, clear estimation of yourself. It's not that you're supposed to be thinking lowly of yourself as much as you're really not thinking of yourself much at all.

You're thinking of others. And it's humility of mind, but it goes far beyond the mind. It's far beyond a feeling.

In fact, I would say humility is not a feel thing, it's a do thing. It's sort of like exercise. Is exercise a feel thing or a do thing?

It's a do thing. You've got to do it. So if I stand in the gym, I've got my gym shorts on, and I'm standing there, and I'm leaning up against something, you know I'm having fond thoughts right now of exercise. I'm just picturing myself, I'm picturing what it is like to exercise. I'm just filling my thoughts and feelings of exercise. Wow.

Okay, that's been the problem with us, right? How many of us have had feelings of exercise that we never followed through on? I saw your garage sale, you're now selling all that stuff that you bought. So the Bible doesn't say feel humble or imagine yourself to be humble. Bible says humble yourself.

That's a do thing. So I'm thinking clearly of who I am before God, and I'm going to act a certain way toward people. That's humility. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series, Always Only Jesus. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Right now, listen as Skip shares how you can connect more people around the world with the life-changing truth of Scripture.

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800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. Did you know you can watch Skip Heitzig's teaching from the comfort of your couch on Apple TV or Roku? Simply download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app on your streaming device, and you'll have tons of content at your fingertips. And join us next time as Skip concludes his teaching about the wardrobe you're called to wear as a follower of Christ. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.