Sometimes our greatest temptations are the ones we admire. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll will help us understand the meaning of Paul's advice, especially as we attempt to integrate these principles in these complex times.
Chuck titled today's message Spot on Advice from a Seasoned Coach. We're engaged in a wonderful study of a letter Paul wrote to the people of Colossae back in the first century. Paul was never there. The name of the church never appears in the book that sort of traces the journeys that Paul took, but we know that he knew people who were from there. And from them he learned of the needs there in that little church, and he wrote them with their needs in mind. We're looking at the first 14 verses of Colossians chapter 3, and I'll be reading from the New Living Translation. Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. So, put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires.
Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolatry, worshipping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world, but now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. You're listening to Insight for Living.
To search the scriptures with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck called Spot on Advice from a Seasoned Coach. True or false? Here we go.
True or false? Experience is the best teacher. Now wait, wait.
I'm already hearing true from a lot of folks here. Think about it. Is experience really the best teacher? Well, you want to cook. So you get all the stuff together, you watch a few TV shows, and you start mixing it all up. And you cook it. Nobody wants to eat it.
Because you didn't cook it with somebody helping you know how to cook. You get in a sailboat. You're all alone.
It looks so exciting. Sails furled. You're out in the ocean. Then they call the Coast Guard because you didn't have anybody to tell you how to sail the boat. You needed a guide. If you're going to lay a brick wall or if you're going to build a fence or whatever, you're going to cultivate your athletic skills.
You need a guide. How about driving? I learned to drive out in the country. The neighbor behind us had a tractor and I got on it. I'm glad there wasn't a fence nearby because I went all over the place. And then I thought, well, I could do this in a car.
I couldn't. And my mother thought she could teach us, but she spent all her time screaming. And so my dad decided he should be the one to teach. You've got to have a guide if you're going to know how to drive. So guided experience is the best teacher, right? Whether you're young or older, we all need coaches.
That's the word now. Coaches. People who help us out. I came across a great letter from a kid who is a tenderfoot scout and he has a coach in a scoutmaster named Walt. His kid's name is Cole and Cole writes his parents this letter from scout camp while they're away for a two week trip. Dear Mom and Dad, our scoutmaster told us to write our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and are worried. We're OK. Only one of our tents and two sleeping bags got washed away in the flood. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on a mountain looking for Chad when it happened. Oh, yeah. Please call Chad's mother and tell her he's OK.
He can't ride her because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found him in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning. Our scoutmaster, Walt, got mad at Chad for going on a hike all alone without telling anyone. Chad said he would tell him, but it was during the fire, so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up? The wet wood didn't burn, but one of the tents did.
David's going to look weird until half his hair grows back. We'll be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Walt gets the car fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked OK. When we left, Scoutmaster Walt said that with a car that old, you have to expect something like that to break down.
That's probably why he can't get any insurance. We think it's a neat car. He doesn't care if we get it dirty and if it's hot, he lets us ride on the fenders. It gets pretty hot with 10 people in the same car. So he let some of us ride in the trailer and the highway patrolman stopped us and talked to Walt about some things.
So we don't do that anymore. Scoutmaster Walt is a neat guy. He's a good driver. In fact, he teaching Terry how to drive on the mountain roads where they don't have much traffic.
Did you know you don't need guardrails on roads that don't have much traffic? All we see up there are logging trucks. This morning, all the guys were driving, were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Walt wouldn't let me because I can't swim. And Chad was afraid he'd sink because of his cast. So he let us take the canoe by ourselves across the lake. It was great.
You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. Scoutmaster Walt isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn't even get mad about our losing the life jackets.
He has to spend a lot of time working on the car, so we're trying not to cause any trouble. Guess what? We have all passed our first tenderfoot first aid merit badges. When Dave drove on the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Wade and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Walt said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said they got sick that way with food they ate in prison. I'm so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster.
He said he sure figured out how to get things done while he was in the slammer doing time. I have to go now. We're going to go downtown, mail letters and buy bullets. That's one of my favorite lines.
We're going to go buy bullets. But don't worry about everything, Mom. Don't worry. We're all fine. Love, cold. If my son ever wrote me that letter after killing Walt, I would rescue my son. Is that amazing? So I need to change my opening comments.
I need qualified guidance. With experience is the best teacher, which brings us to Coach Paul. You may have never heard of him called that, but that's what he was. We called him a mentor, which is our big-time name for it.
He's a coach. He spent his time guiding people into the direction they should go in life. And he's gifted to do that, not only by how he lives his life and what he says to them when he's around them, but what he writes. And here we have, preserved for us in this inspired book, the letters Paul wrote from one group of people to another.
Isn't it amazing? Even though we don't know one of these people, even though most of us would never be in one of these places, when you read through the coach's words, it's like he's been reading your mail. It's like he's been all over your life watching, noticing things that need to be tweaked, other things that need to be stopped, a few things that need to get started, and along the way even what to wear in the process.
Let me show you how this is all put together. Like a great coach, he starts with their brains, with their heads. He tells them where to look, what to focus on, verses one to four. He tells us, as well as them, what to think about.
Okay? What to think about. And then, having told them that, he realizes the stuff they're going through, they're in that first century difficult place, just like the Lord knows what we're going through, where we are today, and in verses five through nine, he tells us what to get rid of. Because like a good coach, if we don't get rid of these things, we'll never play the game right. So we've got to get rid of some stuff in order to take on some things. Now there needs to be a transition between getting rid of and taking on some things, and that's why we have verses ten and eleven. Here are some things that help us know how to start over. We start over in a whole new direction, having lived another way, well, all the habits and all the things we used to do, we're now turning around and we're going in another direction, and once we get in that direction, here's what we're supposed to wear.
Isn't that amazing? He covers that base, verses twelve to fourteen. After telling us what to think about, telling us what to get rid of, telling us how to start over in this new life, the coach adds, here's what you wear. These are the garments that will get you into a whole new frame of life that you've never known before.
So let's kind of click that off, okay? One, two, three, four. Verses one to four, here's what to think about. Since you've been raised a new life with Christ, now if you weren't here the last time, and you didn't hear what we had to say about new life in Christ, chapter two, you don't know what that's all about. The point is, when you come to Christ, he gives you a whole new set of inside organs, and they're spiritual in nature. He gives us a whole new life, which he talks about in chapter two.
It's not a life made up of rules and regulations other people give you, it's a life spelled out very clearly in his word. And so he says, since we've now been raised a new life with Christ, look up, look up. Set your sights on things above, on the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand.
Maybe you didn't know that. This is what happened to Christ when he ascended. He died on the cross, he was buried. He miraculously and bodily rose from the grave, he was on earth a few more days, and then zip, he's off like a whoosh, into heaven. And when he goes back to the place where he originated, right back there, he sits down at the right hand at the throne of God.
And he rules in a sitting position. Our Savior is sitting at the Father's right hand. In fact, he says, for you died to this old life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. In fact, you're so identified with Christ, who is your life, that when he comes and changes the whole world, you will share in his glory. That's what the first four verses are all about. Look up.
Set your affection, set your thoughts, set your attention, your focus on him, not on the things on the earth. I have a good friend named Skip Hall. Skip was a wonderful coach for years. He says to me, Chuck, let me tell you one of the greatest things I ever learned as a coach. I need to coach him up. It's the coach's plan with the team to coach him up. You don't coach him down, you don't land on him constantly with all the things they're doing wrong, you coach him up. You coach him up. And he said to me, you've got the same calling as a pastor. Never forget, Chuck, the importance of coaching him up.
Verses one to four are all about coaching him up. Look up, don't look down. Focus on Christ, not the stuff that goes on around you. All the stuff that goes on around you will weary you and discourage you and depress you and disappoint you and leave you longing for something different.
But when you set your sights on the realities of Christ and think about the things of heaven, it is remarkable what happens. This past week, we've gone through a time of real grief as a staff. One of our own beloved staff members, Barry Buchanan, suffered from brain cancer and had gone through suffering for the longest time. We prayed with him and alongside him and he was such an encouragement to all of us. And then this last surgery, he didn't survive. His service is tomorrow. And several of us on the staff are going to reflect on some of the things that Barry brought to us when he was among us.
And one of them was the ability to keep looking up. He didn't want pity. He didn't want us to feel sorry for him. He said to us, you are my family, almost as close as my own wife and two daughters. And he said, I just want you to remember, if I don't survive this, help everybody around you to keep looking up.
He even coached us up to the very end. The apostle says, set your sights on the realities of heaven. The next time you're in a slump or a funk and you can't seem to pull out of it, look at your sights. Look at your focus.
Turn it in a vertical direction and get out of the horizontal frame of mind. Now, with that in mind, there's some things we need to lay aside. We've all formed bad habits. Not everyone was raised well. You picked up some things that you should not have from those you ran around with or those you went to school with. Or who knows, maybe from your own mom and dad who weren't that great of parents. I don't know. But whatever it was that built into you a way of life, you need to come to terms with those things that drag you down and you need to get rid of them. Now how do I know?
That's what this theme is on. Look at verse 5. Put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you. See the next phrase?
Have nothing to do with. See that? A little further on, verse 8, now's the time to get rid of. When you see words like that, later he says this is stripped off of your old nature.
This is taking out of our life the things that will hurt us and drain us of victory and keep us from knowing what it is to walk successfully in the life of Christ. So let's go there. Here are the things that we need to get rid of. I see them in three groups. First is a group of sensual things. Next is a group of materialistic things. And you'll see the third is a group of verbal, verbal habits. The emotional part of our lives which has to do with anger and maliciousness. But first let's look at the sensual.
Put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with. Did you get the word nothing? Have nothing to do with. Have nothing to do with.
Then he names it. Sexual immorality. Have nothing to do with it. Impurity. Have nothing to do with it. Lust.
Have nothing to do with it. And epithumia cacchus. Epithumia is the word for desires. When you have the word cacchus with it, it means evil. So it could be a desire of any kind. In this case, he's conditioned it with the word evil. Have nothing to do with even the desires that are evil.
Get rid of those things. Why is that such a big deal to the people in Colossae? Because they live in Colossae. Which happens to be in the first century. Listen to what one man writes about it. Chastity was the one completely new virtue Christianity brought into the world. In the ancient world, sexual relationships before marriage, outside of marriage, were the norm and accepted practice. The sexual appetite was regarded as a thing to be gratified, not to be controlled. That is an attitude which is not unfamiliar today, he adds. But the Christian ethic insists on chastity. Regarding the physical relationship between the sexes as something so precious that indiscriminate use of it in the end spoils it.
He's right. That's why he says have nothing to do with it. You can't play with it and not have it affect you. You can't participate in it a little while and then get away from it for a little while and not have it drag you down.
So he uses the word nothing on purpose. Have nothing to do with these things that characterize the world around us. Okay? That's the first group.
Here's the second. Don't be greedy. For a greedy person is an idolater. What an interesting turn of phrase.
Listen to the coach. If you let greed take over, it isn't long before you're idolizing the things you're groping for. And trying to reach and hang on to.
Remember he's writing about things that we need to get rid of. Get rid of pleonexia. Great big Greek word. Pleion means more and ekain means to have. Put the words together, it means to have more and more and more. It's a picture of materialism. Don't be searching for more and trying to get more.
For a person who does that is an idolater and ultimately you wind up worshipping the things of this world. In a hard hitting book titled Money, Sex and Power, how's that for a title? Richard Foster writes this, compulsive extravagance is a modern mania. The contemporary lust for more, more, more is clearly psychotic.
It has completely lost touch with reality. And we live in that kind of world. Enough is never enough. A promotion is never high enough.
A salary is never great enough. Things are not numerous enough. And we wind up worshipping those things that really are more than we find in any part of the third world. We are a very spoiled people with more and more of what the world has less and less of. And we want more if we're not careful. He says, cut it out. Get rid of it. In fact, he goes on, you used to do these things, verse 7, when your life was still a part of this world.
But see, he's writing to Christians. Now is the time to get rid of, and he goes to the third group. The first was sensual things. The next would be materialistic things. And the third in the group, set of groups, would be these areas of our emotions and words out of control.
Look at it. Now is the time to get rid of anger. This word translated anger is orgeh, and it means a long-lasting, slow-burning anger. We sometimes refer to it as seething.
Some people have a seething, a vat of anger just under the surface. Paul was clearly teaching us to get rid of our sensual hang-ups, or drive for material possessions, and the anger that often simmers just below the surface. You're listening to Insight for Living.
Chuck Swindoll titled this section of Colossians spot-on advice from a seasoned coach. And there's much more ahead, so please stay with us. And then, if you'd like to learn more about this ministry, be sure to visit us online at insightworld.org. You've heard me talk about the Searching the Scriptures study notes, and when we're in the middle of a study like today's, it's the perfect time to point you to this helpful resource. Once the program is finished, this interactive study tool is intentionally designed to dig deeper on your own, so that the truth of the Bible becomes alive to you.
If you haven't already done so, check out this tremendous resource by going to insight.org slash studies. Now, earlier this month, Chuck presented a hallmark series on marriage and relationships, and we're still getting requests for the book Chuck's written on this practical topic. This is the final time we'll mention this special offer to secure a copy of Marriage from Surviving to Thriving. Many have used this book in their small group Bible study or book club, and it's also a thoughtful gift to a young couple that needs encouragement as well. Chuck's book on marriage is available for purchase when you call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888, or by going to insight.org slash offer. Finally, remember when you give a donation, you're empowering us to provide a constant source of Bible teaching for you and for countless others who have come to rely on Chuck as well. So thanks for doing your part in making these daily programs possible. To give a donation right now, call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888.
You can also give online today by visiting us at insight.org slash donate. . I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll describes what he calls spot on advice from a seasoned coach Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message spot on advice from a seasoned coach was copyrighted in 2014 and 2022, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2022 by Charles R Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
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