Pastor Jon Burgess
April 9, 2017 - W1715

Good morning and welcome! It's a pleasure to have you join us. Today, we will be talking about how to focus more on God and less on ourselves. Colossians 3:1-4 says, “Since, then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” The apostle Paul points out three ways that we must focus more on the creator and less on ourselves.

1. No Sacred Cows: Making Room To Run With Jesus.

Cows are sacred to the Hindus in India. The people believe that by treating a cow well their family will be blessed as a result. The cows can do anything, whenever, and however they want. So if a cow comes into your house and relieves itself in your house or at your front door you can't do anything about it!

It sounds ridiculous to see cows roaming everywhere and doing anything they want, but don't we have a few sacred cows coming into our house and letting them settle there? Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”

Colossians 3:9-10 says, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Here’s what I mean, if we look at the scenario with the cows causing traffic problems, taking themselves seriously inside your house, we would say that's ridiculous, but we do the same thing when it comes to our sins. We let these sacred cows roam, and they are not letting us run with Christ; instead, they are pulling the sound track of the Savior out.

We cannot worship when we're focused on our sacred cows. When we do not allow God to address certain things in our lives, we are saying, “God, you can take this, you can take that, but not these.” Before you think, “Well, you know, I'm not sure what it is.” The Apostle Paul gets very specific about the cows that are sitting in your living room right now. In Colossians 3, Paul is saying to set your minds on things above and “put to death”—there’s really no gray areas about that, so…

*Which cows need to go? Paul lists some cows that we've been putting up with, maybe even feeding them. He mentions: sexual promiscuity, lust, greed, bad temper, meanness, irritability, profanity, dirty jokes.

2. No Pedestals: Making Room ForRelationships.

Colossians 3:11-12 says,“Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

The problem with pedestal living is that if we’re on a pedestal there's no room for anyone else here and, automatically, we’re looking down on others. Our value and worth are not based on our goodness, economic background, traditions, or skin color.

Paul says to clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience. So if we don’t have relationships in our lives, the only way to correct that is to make room by stepping down from the pedestal and realizing we are all on the same level at the foot of the Cross, and we see each other eye to eye.

*Where do I need to see eye-to-eye? Who have you been looking down? God's calling you to get off the pedestal and admit that you really don't have any right to look down on anybody else because we’re all sinners saved by grace. We should desire to enter into the throne of the Savior and start seeing people the way God sees them.

3. No Hidden Hulks: Making Room ForRestoration.

Finally, hidden hulks get in the way of our worship. It prevents us from saying, “more of God and less of me,” so we must get rid of the hidden hulks and make room for restoration. The Incredible Hulk is really Bruce Banner, a mild?mannered scientist. Bruce was experimenting with gamma radiation to solve diseases and problems, and, as often happens in the comics, he made a foolish choice and decided to experiment upon himself. As you follow the story of the Hulk, you will understand that he's oftentimes, mild?mannered and everything is fine, but then something hits him. He doesn't turn into the Hulk at first, but when he is provoked long enough and he allows those hits to accumulate, he turns into a raging monster destroying everything around him.

The truth is that a lot of us are walking around like hidden hulks because we're allowing something to build and build—one hit, two hits, three hits, maybe it's not until the fourth hit—and we let them have it! We always feel badly afterwards and so does Bruce Banner. Being The Incredible Hulk gives Bruce a sense of power to overcome whatever is in front of him, and he always destroys everything and hurts not just the bad guys but even the ones that he loves.

Colossians 3:13?15 says, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”

*Where am I hulking out? Nothing restores like the peace of God; nothing destroys like unforgiveness.

If we want to be in worship and continual communion with God, we must address the hidden hulks. Where have you been hulking out lately? Where have you been losing your stuff? Where have you been taking off Christ and picking up your temper and rage? What if you began to give a lei to people—garlands of grace, extensions of love to the very person that made you so angry?

Instead of letting the hits build up until the hulk comes out, what if we decide to choose to worship Jesus in the middle of it? I'm not just talking a song or a dance. I'm talking a scripture, a promise, or a word, that we would stop letting the hits build up until it destroys. What if we decide to begin to restore relationships again?

The Bible tells us what to do when the hulk is coming out of you. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

Everybody has a song to sing whether you can sing or not. It's reminding yourself of where your thoughts need to be focused on during the middle of the difficulties of life. Jesus is saying right now that you have a choice. Who are you going to wear? What's in your pockets? Let's get real with it. Let's get ready to run with God again and stop letting these sacred cows take over. Let's get off our pedestals and start building real relationships with each other, look each other in the eyes again, and let's start allowing God to restore relationships through the love that He's clothed us with that we didn't deserve in the first place. I invite you to make the right choice now.

Study Questions:

1. What is the meaning of sacred cows?

2. What sacred cows are you struggling with?

3. Why do people put themselves on a pedestal?

4. How can you avoid turning into a raging hulk?

5. What do we replace sacred cows, pedestals, and raging hulks with?