That blouse or dress shirt that you meticulously hang up in your closet separated from all the other clothes.
Or that Hall and Oates concert t-shirt from 1985 that you handwash constantly in fear that it will wear out and John’s mustache will fade away.
I had a favorite shirt once – I may have told you about it before, but I can’t remember.
It was a red shirt, and it was made by Gant and it was from their Salty Dog collection.
I loved that shirt – and it held up amazingly.
I think I got it in the 10th or 11th grade and wore it all the time and it never lost its form or color.
So, a few years later when I’m off at college I wore it out on a first date.
About halfway through the loaded nachos at Applebee’s she said, “I’ve never been out on a date with a guy wearing a hot pink shirt.”
I chuckled and said, “No, this shirt is red.”
She said, “Uh, no, it’s hot pink.”
I grabbed another chip and said, “Well, I’m nacho average guy.”
Yeah, I didn’t really say that, but it would have been cool if it did.
I thought I was wearing one thing, but I was wearing something com-pink-ly different.
What are you wearing these days?
I’m not talking about your actual clothes – I’m talking about your attitude.
How is your heart doing?
How is your mind doing?
How are your words and thoughts?
Are they red with anger?
Or are they more hot pink with cheer?
This morning we are going to look at a little wardrobe advice for your soul – because what you wear matters.
Not just for the people you see – but for the person you are – what you wear matters for you.
We might even put it this way – if you want to pursue greatness in life, what should you wear?
The Apostle Paul is going to help us – listen to Colossians 3, verse 12…
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God,
To be a Christian means that you have been uniquely rescued by God.
What does it mean to be uniquely rescued by God?
We see one of the clearest answers to that question about 3500 years ago in the history of Israel…
Deuteronomy 7:6
the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 7:7
The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
Deuteronomy 7:8
but because the LORD loved you…
Are you a Christian?
If so, what do you have in common with Hebrew slaves from 3500 years ago?
Please hear this – you are deeply and personally loved by the one, true Creator God of the universe.
You know what four of the most amazing words are in that passage?
“…the Lord loved you…”
There are four other words in that passage that some Christians get a little afraid of and some even get angry about and here are those four words…
“…God has chosen you…”
Those words were used by the prophets of the Old Testament, the disciples of the New Testament, the apostles of the first churches, Jesus of Nazareth – the Christ, and, oh yeah, those are the words of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Yahweh, the Great I Am.
So, what do we do with ALL the words of the Bible?
Deuteronomy 4:2
You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
We have nothing to lose by standing on the Word of God – even when we don’t completely understand the words we read or if they make us a little uncomfortable.
And I believe with all my heart that Paul is telling us in verse 12 of Colossians chapter 3 that Christians are chosen of God because he so passionately wants you to grab the next three words with every single fiber of your soul – and here are those three words…
12 holy and beloved,
Christians are holy and beloved by God.
The word for holy means to be “set apart” or “separated”.
When God saves us, he sets us apart, so that we will be different from the world in which we live in.
Jesus said that we are the light of the world – that our light is supposed to shine in the world.
So, God chose us, saved us, and set us apart to be lights in the world.
But what really sets us apart?
We are beloved – we are dearly loved by God.
What does it mean to be dearly loved by God?
Years ago, I knew a couple with a brand-new baby girl.
Their daughter was only 2 pounds when she was born and spent weeks in the neonatal unit of the hospital.
She was surrounded by a lot of machines and her parents weren’t allowed to hold her much.
But if you were to see the face of her mom each morning for all those weeks when she walked through those hospital doors to see her little girl, what would you see?
You would get a glimpse of what it means to be dearly loved.
What does that mean for you?
When God rescues us and redeems us, he sets us apart, looks at us and holds our heart in His hands and lets us know that we are dearly loved…forever.
What does that kind of love do?
Issac Watts
…demands my soul, my life, my all.
Being chosen and saved and rescued by God compels us to change our lives and to do something very specific.
What?
12 put on a heart of
When the Bible talks about our heart, it is talking about who we really are – the person you are when no one else is looking.
But Paul says put on a heart?
How do we put on a heart?
Well, he’s talking about the clothes we wear.
Not hot pink shirts, but the clothes you wear on your heart.
He’s talking about the wardrobe of your heart – what kind of clothes does your heart need to wear?
Paul shares a few pieces that we need to mentally try on for just a few moments and the first piece of clothing is…
12 compassion,
Compassion means to show mercy or to show sympathy.
In ancient times, people who were sick or injured or old or slow or strange or different – the people on the margins – were often cast away and ignored.
So, Paul was calling the church, not the government or the hospital or the school system or A-list celebrities, to show mercy and sympathy and compassion to the weak and the helpless and the cast away in society.
Meeting on Sunday and having activities for kids and youth and senior adults and preaching the gospel and giving out booklets about Jesus has almost no power if we do not have compassion.
As one missions leader said years ago, “We can’t preach good news and be bad news.”
The math isn’t tricky and we need to get it right because we haven’t been called to show compassion and not talk about Jesus.
Likewise, we haven’t been called to talk about Jesus and ignore the basic needs people have.
Matthew 9:35
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Matthew 9:36
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
Our world is in distress – people are discouraged and dispirited – so let us answer our calling and put on compassion – have an attitude of mercy and sympathy toward the down and outers and the up and outers.
What’s the next piece of clothing in our wardrobe?
12 kindness,
Kindness is similar to compassion.
Compassion is more of an attitude and kindness is more of the action of compassion.
And I hate to hurt our feelings, but even on our very best days, being kind to people is not something that we are prone to do naturally.
Why?
Because more often than not we are prone to be selfish and arrogant and really just want our way.
So, we truly have to put on kindness – it takes some effort and energy.
What should we use as our fuel to energize us toward kindness?
Romans 2:4
…the kindness of God leads you to repentance…
God in his great kindness forgives and saves people who hate him and rebel against his ways.
And we are those kinds of people.
So out of the kindness God has shown to us, may we follow his example and be as concerned about the needs of those around us as we are about our own needs.
12 humility,
The ancient world hated humility.
They saw humility as being weak because it focused on not loving yourself, which is the opposite of what their culture was all about.
Sound familiar?
We live in a culture where the most successful movie stars and athletes and politicians and business leaders keep sharing the same empty advice, “Just believe in yourself and you can do anything – you can do great things in life if you just believe in yourself.”
The most successful person that ever walked the earth because they died and rose from the dead and will never die again had a different take on greatness.
Paul described it this way…
Philippians 2:5-8
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus humbled himself.
Jesus showed compassion and mercy and sympathy to people who were on the margins – people who were not like him and didn’t grow up in his neighborhood and didn’t vote like him and didn’t have the same religious beliefs that he had.
But Jesus wasn’t just a good neighbor.
He is the Savior – he died to save the world from sin.
He died to save the people on the margins and the people who didn’t grow up in his neighborhood and the people who did grow up in his neighborhood and the people he went to church with and the people that didn’t believe in God and the people that believed in other gods.
Jesus was humble – he wasn’t weak – he is the Savior of the world.
So, don’t selfish and critical and fight to get your way.
That’s weak.
Be strong – put on humility.
As believers, we are called to put on compassion and kindness and humility.
What else are we supposed to wear?
12 gentleness
The heart of a Christian is to be gentle or meek.
In other words, we are to at times suffer through inconvenience and hurt caused by the sin of others with a healthy attitude toward trusting God.
In our culture being meek is seen by some as being weak, but having a gentle, meek spirit is really strength under control.
Numbers 12:3 (KJV)
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.
Moses was gentle and meek, but he was not weak.
Kent Hughes
Moses was the most meek man on earth, but at the same time Moses was a man who could act decisively, be as hard as nails, and rise to anger at the proper time – those who are gentle and meek are immensely powerful people, for they are controlled by God.
Do you want to be strong for your family?
Do you want to be strong for our community and country?
Then put on gentleness.
Paul gives us one more thing to wear and thankfully it’s the easiest one to put on…
12 and patience;
Yeah, I was being sarcastic – most of us want leave that one in the closet, right?
Why is patience so tough?
Because someone is going to cut us off in traffic and our boss is going to ask too much of us and our wives are going to nag us and our husbands are going to forget to do what we asked them and our children are going to purposely do what we told them not to do and on and on and on.
So, what do we do?
We already looked at part of that help a moment ago…
Romans 2:4
Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
What do we do when we are feeling impatient?
We remember that we are dearly loved by God!
When in doubt, when in trouble, when you think you are about to burst – remember that you are dearly loved by God.
We should think about his patience with us over and over again and we should be patient with others.
Leonardo da Vinci
Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to irritate your mind.
Bundle up with patience so you can be free to love God and love people.
Colossians 3:12
…put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…
So, we have had our first quick fitting.
Paul has given us a few items of spiritual clothing we need to always wear since we are the chosen people of God – holy and very dearly loved.
But that’s easier said than done, right?
I mean the government is corrupt and society has lost her mind and the world has been paralyzed with pandemic and gas prices are high and ketchup supplies are low.
It’s hard to wear those clothes right now!
Tomorrow is Memorial Day – a day when we remember the men and women who served in our armed forces and gave up their lives to preserve so many of our daily freedoms – freedoms we far too often take for granted.
Those men and women looked at the world around them in distress and dispirited and they didn’t whine and complain and jump on social media to criticize everyone they didn’t like.
No, they looked at the world around them in distress and dispirited and they put on different clothes.
And not just a uniform, but they put on attitudes of humility and service.
36 years ago, speaking in Arlington National Cemetery, President Ronald Reagan once said this about the fabric of that attitude…
Ronald Reagan
It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country…The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us.
They put on different clothes to defend us – to bring us freedom.
So, what are you doing with that freedom?
What are wearing these days?
I heard a story years ago about a Christian named Yakov who was in a village in Yugoslavia.
He was talking to an elderly man named Cimmerman and was trying to tell him about the love of Christ.
Cimmerman quickly interrupted Yakov and told him that he did not want to have anything to do with Christianity.
Cimmerman said that the history of the church in his village was filled with stealing, manipulation, and even the killing of innocent people.
Cimmerman
My own nephew was killed by them. They wear those elaborate clothes and crosses, suggesting that they have a heavenly commission, but their evil plans and lives I cannot ignore.”
Yakov
Cimmerman, suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank. And police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me. One clue, however, put them on your track; they recognized your coat. What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?
“I would deny it,” said Cimmerman.
“‘Ah, but we saw your coat,’ they would say,” said Yakov.
This story aggravated the old man and he asked Yakov to leave.
But Yakov continued to talk to Cimmerman and encourage him and share the love of Christ with him and one day Cimmerman asked, “How does one become a Christian?”
The kindness of God found Cimmerman that day and he repented to surrendered his life to Christ.
And then that old man hugged Yakov and said, “Thank you for being in my life.”
Then he pointed to the sky and whispered, “You wear His coat very well.”
My friends, if we have truly been saved by Jesus Christ, may we wear his coat very well.
So do you have a favorite shirt? Got a favorite shirt? You know that that dress shirt or or that blouse, is it blouse or blouse, blouse, blouse, blouse. But you know that's sure that you just, it sits in the closet by itself. You know, you leave it separated all on its own. It's that special. Nice favorite shirt or or maybe that Hollow Notes concert T shirt that you've got 1982. You know the one that you hand wash because you're afraid it's going to wear out and john's moustache is just going to disappear. So you take care of that shirt. It's your special shirt. We all have a favorite shirt. I have a favorite shirt. I used to have a favorite shirt. I may have told you about my favorite shirt too. I don't remember. But it was red. It was a red shirt. It was made by the Gant company and it came in their salty dog collection. I had a little salty dog shirt. I think I got. It may be in the 10th grade, I can't remember. I think it was the 10th grade and that shirt I wore it all the time. It never lost its form or color. I mean it was amazing. It just, it just always just produced, it was a great shirt. So 10th, 11th, 12th grade, um, on into college freshman year. Still that shirts going strong, no problem with it sophomore year. I go out on a first date and I wear that shirt, that's great. So we're sitting there and we're, you know, having the loaded nachos at Applebee's and somewhere in the middle of all those chips. She said, you know, I've never been out with a guy who wore a hot pink shirt to which I chuckled and said, no, this is a red shirt to what she said, no, that is a hot pink shirt. I grabbed another chip and I said, well I'm not joe average guy, I didn't say that but man have been cool if I did right. Mm. I remember that moment though I was thinking oh no, like I just immediately started calling my my three best friends from high school and my mom, why didn't you tell me I was wearing a picture? You know, no one told me that. I thought it was red and they were like, well we just thought you knew I didn't, I got some shade problems always have found that out of the eye doctor years ago. So I know the light is red and green, you know, I got that but you know, Stephen shirt might be red and it could be pink. I don't know. You know, I just I struggled. I struggle. I thought I was wearing one thing but I was wearing something completely different and you know, just didn't realize it. So today, what we're going to do is try to unpack a little something for our hearts and our minds and we'll start this way. What are you wearing these days? What are you wearing these days now? I'm not talking about the physical clothes you're wearing? I'm talking about the attitude of your heart and mind. Where's your heart today? Where's your mind today? Where are your thoughts today? Are your thoughts more like red and angry? Are they more pink into your phone? You know, where are you today? And why does it matter? Why does it matter what you are wearing? Well, we're going to look at some wardrobe advice today and what you wear. It matters not just for the people who will see you, It matters for your own heart what you wear matters. We might even put it this way. If you want to pursue greatness in life, what should you wear? If you want to pursue grapes? What should you wear? We'll see if we can find out. We're looking at Colossians 3 12. The Apostle paul is going to help us think, and he begins by saying this. So as those who have been chosen of God. If you are a christian, you have been uniquely rescued by God. What does it mean to be uniquely rescued by God? Well, one of the best pictures we have of this is 3500 years ago in the history of the people of Israel Deuteronomy chapter seven says this. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. And the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the other people's for you were the fewest of all peoples. So why were they chosen? Did Romney 78? But because the Lord I loved you. Are you a christian? If so, what do you have in common With hebrew slaves from 3500 years ago? Here's what you have in common. You are dearly loved. My God. If you're a follower of jesus today, no matter what's happening in your life, no matter what's happening with your health, no matter what's happening with your family or your friends at work or school are in this country. You are dearly loved by God. The picture that we have from 3500 years ago gives us for amazing words. The Lord loved you. The Lord loved you. Don't ever let those words escape your attention. Don't let them escape your attention this afternoon. If you ignore the rest of the sermon, that's fine, get those words, The Lord loved you. Those four words will never change. But there's four other words in that passage that I read that as christians. Sometimes christians get a little giggle off with them, get a little afraid of those words, get a little angry about those words and those four words or what God has chosen. Yeah, those are words that were used by the prophets of the old testament. Those are words that were used by the disciples and the apostles of the new testament. Those were words used by the Lord jesus himself and that is the communication from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel Yahweh the great, I am, he uses these words on purpose so as christians, we should not be afraid and we should not be angry onwards that we feel uncomfortable with or maybe we not don't even understand. It's okay. What should we do when we read God's word as believers? Well, we'll get advice on that from Deuteronomy as well. Deuteronomy chapter four verse to you, shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor shall you take away from that word, but you will keep it so that you can keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command. Yeah, we don't add and we don't take away, we say here's what the bible says and we embrace it and we run with it. And I believe with all of my heart that the reason that in colossians chapter three verse 12 that paul told christians that we were chosen is so that we get the next words that we get the next three words and that the next three words would overwhelm us. So what are those next three words? Holy and beloved? Dear christian because of the blood of Jesus Christ you are holding And beloved by God, you are dearly left by God. My guess is somebody this week didn't dearly love you. Somebody accused you of something, Somebody complained about something you did. Somebody criticized you. Somebody ignored you. Something happened from someone in your life. But I want you to know that it is impossible when you are in christ to not be holy and beloved, my God, the word Holy, there needs to separate her be set apart. And so the picture that paul gives us is that God has chosen us. He saved us. He's set us apart. He's made us holy so that we would look different from the world, Jesus said, What were the light of the world? We're supposed to shine a light into the darkness of the world? We have been set apart to be a light and what makes us set apart were beloved. We're dearly loved. Like that's what sets us apart. It's why on any given moment, no matter what's happening in our life, we can step back and we can preach to ourselves for just a moment. I am holy and beloved by God because of the blood of jesus paul. This warning, those folks in colosseum warning us to hear that in our moment when we fill down and discouraged, we are holy and beloved. We are dearly loved by God. So what does that mean? What does that look like in real life? We have these big, huge theological concepts, how can we take those and run with those a little bit in the moment of life on earth? Years ago I knew a young couple. They had just had a little baby girl. She was £2 when she was born. Tiny tiny time. So she had to stay in the neonatal unit for about the first two months of her life. She was hooked up to a lot of machines. Her parents could not go and hold her. But I want you to imagine if you will that mom every day going to the hospital, walking in, getting on the elevator, going upstairs, that neonatal unit standing outside of that glass probably all day long. And I want you to see her face. What do you see on her face? What you would see? It's just a little glimpse of what it means to be dearly love. See God when he saves and rescues. He sets us apart and he holds our heart in his hands and he lets us know in that moment through Jesus Christ you are dearly loved by me. I have set you apart with my love. Nothing can change that life. Nothing can change that line. You know if you're grilling out or going to the lake or or hanging out at the pool tomorrow, you may not feel like you need to feel being dearly loved by God. When we're comfortable when we're hanging out. When life is entertaining, we usually don't need to feel being dearly loved by God. We tend to kind of ignore it. But when you're in the hospital, when you're on the elevator you're going up and you you haven't really seen or heard exactly what's happening with your mom. You just know the ambulance took her there. You just know that they're working on her heart when you're going up in that elevator and you're not sure what's going on. You know what's really nice is being able to stand in the elevator and know that you're going to stand up in front of a bunch of people on the next day and say I am dearly loved by God seeing the elevator in the hospital at the funeral home. In the argument when your child grabs the keys and runs out of the house. In those moments when life falls apart, when we're stressed, when we're anxious, it's good to know that we are holy and beloved by God. Not just bible verses, not just sermon words, but when God rescues us, he sets us apart. He makes us whole so that we will know we are dearly loved. But here's the thing be in love like that. You don't just put it up on the shelf, You don't leave it in the elevator, you don't leave it in the pew beloved like that does some Isaac watts in the old him. He says it this way. It demands our life. Our soul are all it demands more than just a little bit of time. On sunday morning, it demands more than just some devotional time. It demands all that we are because we are dearly love by the one true Godof the universe. It demands our life. Our soul are all being chosen and saved and rescued by God. It compels us to change our lives and to do something very specific. What is that very specific thing? Paul goes on a verse 12, he says, put on a heart. When the bible talks about the heart, it's talking about who you actually are, not just the physical organ beating in your body, but who you really are, who you are, when no one else is looking and paul says, put on the heart, How do you put on a heart? Well, this is where he's talking about what you wear now, not what you wear. Like your physical clothes, not like a hot pink shirt. Now, we're talking about a different kind of wear here. He's talking about what your heart, where's what is your heart wearing these days? And why does it matter? Well, paul is going to give us some wardrobe advice, He's going to give us a few things to try on, so to speak. And the first thing he's going to let us try on, he says in verse 12, is to put on a heart of compassion, compassion means to show mercy. It means to show sympathy in ancient times, in the time of paul and the time of jesus. If you were sick, if you were a child, if you were an older person, if you were weak, if you were on the margins, you know, if you were strange, if you were different, if you were unlike the norm, you were a castaway, you were ignored, you were discarded, so to speak. So paul is calling the church, not the government. Paul is calling the church, not the school system, paul is calling the church, not the hospital, paul is calling the church, not a list celebrities, paul is calling the church. He's calling believers. He's calling followers of jesus to be the people who show compassion to those on the margins. He's calling christians to be the one that breaks through the darkness in their world and shows compassion and sympathy and mercy to those who have been cast away meeting on sunday morning. Having activities for youth and kids and senior adults and others. That's not enough. If we're going to follow jesus, we have to leave this campus, we have to go away and we have to go away with compassion and we have to come with compassion. We have to bring bring sympathy and we have to go and give mercy and give sympathy because gets what sometimes when you show up on sunday morning, everybody who's sitting around, you argued with their spouse on the way to church, okay? It happened today, probably in this room and sometimes when you come to church on sunday morning, everything is not going to be right, Something is going to be out of place, Maybe it's just going to be, your hair is going to be out of place, but something's going to be wrong, something's not going to be going right? So I need your mercy and you need my mercy, I need your sympathy and your compassion and you need my mercy and my sympathy and my compassion. We do it here, but we do it here to take it there. We put on a heart of compassion, we show mercy, the math is not tricky, jesus has not called us to talk about him and ignore people's basic needs, right? Like a video I saw years ago where a guy was rolled and tied tracks to rocks and he would throw them out the window at Hitchhikers. That's not what we've been called to do. Okay, we haven't been called to talk about jesus and ignore people's basic needs, nor have we been called to meet basic needs and not talk about jesus, it's both and Matthew Chapter nine We have this moment in Jesus life where he's out, he's teaching, he's preaching in the church and outside of the church, he's healing people And Matthew 936, it says this, Jesus seen the people felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Our world is distressed and dispirited. Many of us are distressed and the spirit and so we have this answer to respond to the calling that we have been called to and that is a call to compassion. It is a call to mercy. It's a call to simply. So how are we doing In 2021 as believers with being the people that are the most compassionate, mercyful, sympathetic people that people bump into. How are we doing at that? Or are people bumping in to people who are constantly distressed and dispirited, just like them? Look, we're going to have our moments. I've had plenty this week, but I'm so thankful for the Gospel, so thankful that we can put on a heart of compassion. I'm so thankful for other believers that have the mercy when I don't have the mercy or have the compassion when I don't have the compassion. And likewise, when you don't have it, I'll have it. It's beauty of the body, paul says we need to put on heart of compassion, we need to wear the clothes of compassion. Next he says, we need to put on kindness. The kindness is similar to compassion, compassion is kind of an attitude. Kindness is kind of the action. And if I'm honest, for all of us were not prone to kindness, sorry, we're just not, we are prone to kind of want things to be the way we want them to be, but that's how all of us were prone for things to be according to our schedule, were prone for things to be like. We left them yesterday were prone for things to be like, we want them to be tomorrow. And so when we are so prone wanting what we want, we're not so prone to kindness, but the gospel because of Jesus Christ has called us to put on kindness and what should be our fuel because again, we'll find it a little bit, but what should be our fuel for putting own kindness, paul was writing to the folks at Rome in romans before he said this, the kindness of God leads you to repentance. Let's personalize this. Okay, the pastor does not lead you to repentance. Your parents do not lead you to repentance. Your grandparents do not lead you to repentance. The kindness of God leads you to repentance, lead you to see your need for jesus and to respond. And so because God has been so kind, because God saves because God because God forgives and don't forget who he's saving and forgiving people who hate his ways. People who are rebellious against his ways, people like me and people like you, God saves God for gives God rescues and because God does because he showed us kindness, we shit show kindness. We should be kind to the Down and outers and the up and outers. We should show kindness because we have been shown kindness, possibly need to wear compassionately to wear kindness. Next, he says in verse 12, you need to put on humility. The ancient world hated humility. I hated they saw it as weakness. If you're going to get ahead in life, they didn't want to hear anything about humility. Their mantra was no different than the mantra we hear from some of the most important people in the world today. If you want to do something with your life, then you need to believe in yourself. You can do anything if you believe in yourself, but advice is empty, It's Holland. See the most successful person who's ever lived and the reason I say most successful is because he was crucified, he died, he was buried, he rose from the dead and he's still alive. See, someone may have a story about rising from the grave, but eventually they're going to die. So Jesus is the most successful person that's ever lived, because he has conquered death once and for all. And so when it comes to success, when it comes to greatness, Jesus has a bit of a different picture to give us, Paul said it this way to the Philippians have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in christ, jesus, Okay, so if you're looking for what you need to do, be like, jesus, and this is how he described it, and Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant being made in the likeness of men being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So that you could be free, jesus humbled himself so that you could be free greatness. The example of greatness that jesus has set is to empty yourself and to fill yourself up with God, to take off the clothes of arrogance and to put on the clothes of humility. That is greatness, Jesus humbled himself. He showed compassion and mercy and sympathy and kindness to people who are on the margins, to people who didn't vote like him, to people who didn't live in his neighborhood, people that didn't go the church, Jesus humbled himself and he showed compassion and mercy and kindness to those people and he wasn't just a good neighbor. Sometimes we stop there, Jesus wasn't just a nice guy who did nice things for people. Jesus is the savior of the world. Jesus died to rescue people from Sin, Jesus died to rescue people from the margins, to rescue people who didn't grow up in his neighborhood, but also to rescue people who did grow up in this neighborhood, Jesus died to rescue people who grew up in church and people who didn't grow up in church, Jesus died to rescue people who believe in God and people who do not believe in God, Jesus humbled himself to rescue anyone who would come t, Jesus was humble, he wasn't weak, he is the savior of the world. So we follow his lead and look, I just want you to know, pick, pick the person right now in your life, pick the athlete, pick the politician, uh pick the preacher for that matter, pick whoever it is, whoever your hero is in life. And I promise you whoever that person is probably isn't living up very well to this call. See we're weak, we're not strong, we don't always humble ourselves. So it's not wrong to have people to look up to by all means. We need leaders and we need mentors. But first in those look to jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, jesus has called us to empty ourselves, to humble ourselves and to serve others. Put on compassion, put on kindness, put on humility, be strong. That's humility humility is a strength, as believers were called. To be strong compassion, kindness humility. Next, paul says in verse 12, Put on gentleness. The heart of a christian is supposed to be gentle and meek. In other words, when we're being wrong, when the situation is not happening, the way we want it to happen, we should be willing to be gentle to not easily be hurt and to trust in the Lord. A sense of gentleness means that we're okay in that moment of being wrong, that we don't lose our mind in that moment of being wrong. Look, I'm sorry. They're out of chick fil a sauce. Just hang in there. Okay, You'll be all right. You know, we find ourselves in these moments where we want something and we don't have it and we can't be gentle anymore. You know, I gotta have that sauce, come on. But the Gospel calls, it's to be gentle to be meek. Now again the word meek and our culture sounds like week. But it's not the bible said that moses was the me kissed man on the earth. Listen to this description moses was the most meek man on earth. But at the same time moses was a man who could act decisively. And I love this. He could be as hard as nails, meaning there are moments. Sometimes you put your foot down but you can still do it with jones. Moses could be hard as nails. He could rise to anger at the proper time. Those who are gentle and meek are immensely powerful people because they are controlled by God. We ask you questions, dads. You wanna be strong for your family than be gentle and meek. Most of us men don't hear that. But we should If you don't be strong for your family, be gentle and me because being gentle and meek means you're being controlled. My God, God is having his sway over your heart and mind, paul says to put on gentleness, I might even add this. Do you want to be helpful to our country right now? Do you want to be helpful to our community right now? Do you want to be helpful to the world right now? Been put on gentleness? You know why? Because it seems like nobody else is going. So why don't we be the ones to follow jesus and put on gentleman's paul? Gives us one more thing to wear here. In verse 12, thankfully. It's the easiest that he has in this list, verse 12 paul says Put on patients. Yeah, I was being sarcastic because you can catch that. That's that's not the easiest one is the hardest one, right? That's the one we want to leave in the closet, right? Just stay in there. I'm not wearing that today. Not putting on any patients. Why? Why is it so hard for us to put on patients? Here's why? Because something's already gone wrong in your life today. Someone's already ticked you off. You were already upset about something today. Okay. More than likely because someone's going to cut you off in traffic this afternoon. Okay? Because when you get in the restaurant this afternoon, they're going to be out of something. You know, maybe exactly what you decided to order, you know, or the people next to you, their kids are going to be loud, you know, and they're going to leave food all over the floor. You know, I mean, something's going to go wrong today. Maybe this week. You know, your boss is going to give you a hard time about something. Maybe this week. Your wife is going to nag you, maybe this week. Your husband is going to once again not do what you've been asking him to do. Your kids are going to do the opposite of everything that you asked them to do. See, we're going to have tons of moments in life where things don't go our way. So now in this moment in this second, it's good for us to remind ourselves handy to put on patients. I need to put on patience. And why should we do that? Let me read you the whole verse of what Paul told us earlier, Romans 2: verse four. Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and his tolerance and his patients not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance today, this afternoon, this week. When you feel like you're about to bust with impatience. All right. When that moment comes, When you feel like you're about to lose your mind over something or with someone in that moment. What can you do? Here's the chicken. Do you can preach to your heart and mind? Oh, yeah, I am holy and be laughed. I am dearly loved by God. The kindness of God. It's not light riches. This great riches. The kindness of God has led me to repentance so I can put on patients right now because God has been so patient with me, Leonardo da Vinci said this about patients. This is so fun. Patience serves as a protection against wrongs, as clothes do against cold. Simple math. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. All right? I have to interject just a point. Let's comment from the first year of my marriage. So I'm hot nature. My wife is cold nature. We get to our first apartment in seminary, we've been married I guess three or four months. Our ceilings were like 25 ft ceilings and they were so tall. It's our apartment was crazy hot. So pulling alive from steve martin and father of the bride. I was just Or maybe it was Nina. I can't remember one of them. Father of the bride. I said, look, baby, we don't have expensive cars. You don't wear fancy jewelry, but we're going to run that air conditioner. Alright. That's what's going to happen. You know, I said, because you can put on more clothes, but there's only so much I can take off. All right? So, we're going to have to use the air conditioning. Davinci is simple, right? If you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So, in like manner, you must grow in patients when you meet great wrongs and then those great wrongs will be powerless to irritate your mind. Uh huh. I so want to learn this. Listen the last part again. So when the wrongs come, they will be powerless to irritate your mind. If you're putting on patients. If you're putting on patients, if you're telling your heart, you are dearly loved. The kindness of God has found you put on patients. Put on the heart of compassion, of kindness, of humility and gentleness patients. These are the pictures that paul gives us. It's our first quick fitting here of our new wardrobe, the spiritual clothing that we should be wearing. But it's easier said than done right? I mean, come on, still having to deal with the pandemic, kind of hard to put that stuff on. I mean, the government seems out of whack. It's kind of hard to put that stuff on. I got health issues. It's kind of hard to put that stuff on. Got things going on with my family and friends. There's there's tragedy that's come this week. It's kind of hard to put those things on. All the more reason to put those things on. It's hard to wear those clothes right now, but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It's a day where we stop and we remember the men and women who gave their lives for us to gave gave their lives to preserve freedoms that we have today. The freedom of just being here in this room. And if you're on, it's far too often we take those things for granted. We don't mean to. We just those men and women looked at the world around them and distress and dispirited and they decided to change clothes. They put something else on and not just a uniform, but they put on an attitude of humility and service. It's the pattern that they said 36 years ago, speaking in Arlington National Cemetery, President Ronald Reagan made a very interesting comment about those that we remember this weekend. He said this. It is in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the founding fathers grave and gray haired, but most of them were boys when they died And they gave up two lives, the one they were living and the one they would have lived when they died. They gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country and for us They gave up two lives. Which life do you need to give up today? Is there a life where you're refusing to follow God and refusing to serve others? Do you need to put a new uniform on? Do you need to follow the pattern of those that we remember this weekend and look for ways to serve in a world that is distressed and dispirited how much goodwill we do yelling with the crowd. But if we were to put on compassion and kindness and humility, gentleness and patience, we would impact the world. Why? Because God told us to And because God said he would work through those things, he did not say he would work through us yelling and criticizing on social media, he never said that, but he did say, but just like he did through his son, he can change the world through us, putting on things that feel odd, but they are full of the glory of God. So what are you wearing these days? What are you wearing these days? There's a story told years ago about a christian named Yakov. Yakov was in a village and you slot Yugoslavia and he would go to that village every week and end up bumping into this one man named Cinnamon and he began to talk to Sim Erman about jesus. Zimmerman was an old man and he didn't have anything to do with it. He told Yakov, look, I don't want to hear anything about your jesus because here's what I know about your jesus, what I know about your jesus is the church is in my village, have always been proud and arrogant. Country clubs, that's what they are and any time for your jesus, because the churches in our community, they walk around with their fancy clothes and their fancy crosses, they pretend that they have some commission from God, but what we have seen is them actually torture our community. We've seen the church take innocent lives. And then Zimmerman said this, in fact, it was the christian church in my village that killed my nephew. See, I got no time for your jesus because the history of your jesus in my village, this is something I don't want anything to do. Yakov responded and said, this Silverman, suppose our to steal your coat, put it on and break it and go and break into a bank. And the police cited me running in the distance, but they couldn't catch up with me, but here was the one clue. They had the one thing that put them on the track. They recognize your coat. What if they came to your house, knocked on the door and accused you of robbing the bank? Someone said we wouldn't be true, I tell him and what my coat has nothing to do with me. And he was so angry about the conversation, but he just told Jack off to leave, just get out. So Yaakov left, but he came back over and over again. He would go and he would visit the Zimmerman, he would talk to him about jesus and one day after a long, long, long time cinnamon said, hey what do I need to do to be a christian duck off, told him about what it meant to repent, what it meant to turn his life over to jesus Zimmerman got saved, and this is what he said to Yakov. He said, thank you for being in my life. You wear his coat very well. We have the Gospel, we have the kindness of God. That's led us to repentance. We have greatest coat in the universe. Let us put on the coat of the Gospel. Let us wear it well.
