REFELECTIONS ON THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS (Part 8)

[background music] [Speaker 1] Praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Let us have a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank You again for today. We bless Your holy name. We give You praise, we give You honor, give You adoration. We thank You for Your mercies and for Your love. We thank You, Lord our God, for another opportunity again to gather at Your feet. Lord our God, as we gather, the scripture says, "Unto You shall the gathering of Your people be." Lord, we pray, let our gathering indeed be unto You in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray, our brethren who are on Telegram, our brethren on Mixlr, who are here physically. Lord, we are asking that You will meet with each and every one of us where we need You most in the name of Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, let Your name be glorified. Cause Your church to be edified in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I want to say we are all welcome again this evening for our discipleship class. We were considering the topic in the last two weeks, "A New Commandment I Give Unto You." We were able to look at a lot of issues around that matter. I wouldn't know whether brethren who are here physically or brethren who are online, you may have one or two comments about that topic. If there is a comment or there is a question, maybe you allow us to have your comment or your question on the topic "A New Commandment I Give Unto You." If there are, please let us have it. The Lord Jesus raised all the issues. In the first instance, He said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. To it, that you love your neighbor as yourself. And then He noted later when He was about to leave by telling His disciples that it is very crucial and important for them to know that there's a new commandment He wants to give to them. That new commandment was to love one another as He had loved them. Questions or comments? All right, so we move on. Is there any question online? No question online? Okay, so let us move on. By the grace of God, we have been mentioning for the past three weeks that we will surely come back to the matter of a reflection on the Book of Colossians that we started November last year. We took some part of it in November, some in December, before we got instruction to begin to go in the direction we went. And now we are coming back again to our consideration of that book. What I'll quickly do today before I go to where we are to take it from, the month of November and December, we have been able to look at Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the Book of Colossians. We have reflected on Chapter 1 and 2. Today, we are supposed to move on to Chapter 3. But just for the purpose of revision, I would just like to remind us again of the reason why the Book of Colossians was written. We said in November that the Book of Colossians was actually written in response to a pressing issue. What was the pressing issue? Some people were in Colossae who were trying to draw the attention of the disciples away from the centrality of Christ as in the matter of our salvation. They were removing Christ from the center and they were trying to replace Christ with angels, with some supposed supernatural beings, with some supposed things that were claimed to be higher than Christ. Some things were becoming more important than Jesus. Paul had to write this letter in response particularly to that challenge. And like I noted in November when we started, today again in the church of God, for the church system today, I just keep wondering whether Christ is still at the center. A lot of things have stalled their way to the center, so Christ is no more the center. As a result, instead of our focus to be on becoming more like Jesus, Christianity has been made to focus on a lot of things that are the consequences of following God. Like I normally say, nobody goes to the market to buy "jara". "Please, I want to buy jara of rice." "Please, I want to buy jara of gari." "Can I get jara of beans?" Is there anybody like that that goes to the market to buy jara? Nobody goes to the market to buy jara. In fact, if you get to the market and say, "Please, I want to buy jara of rice," the seller will quickly assume that something is wrong. And before you know it, two, three persons are already carrying you to psychiatric hospital because ordinarily, you are not supposed to come to the market and say you want to buy jara. But one thing is sure, as long as you go to the market to buy, jara will follow you. What is happening to us today is that instead of focusing on Jesus, we are focusing on the things that having Jesus will naturally attract to our lives. There are things that once you have Jesus, consequentially they will come. However, those things, they don't guarantee Jesus. But if you have Jesus, He guarantees those things. He says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," and what happens? "These things shall be added to you." Man was not created to seek anything primarily apart from seeking God. So Paul was writing this letter to address that. That was what we have looked at severally in Colossians 1 and Colossians 2. So we want to move on to Colossians Chapter 3, which is our focus for today's meeting. Colossians Chapter 3, we'll take it from verse 1. And in looking at verse 1, I want you to note that the Chapter 3 actually flowed from the Chapter 2. It says, "If then," some translations say, "Since then." NLT says, "Since then." NIV also says, "Since then." King James, old and new, says "If then." Amplified says "If then." Now, the matter of Chapter 3 is flowing from Chapter 2. I would not want us to go back into Chapter 2. We have talked so much about Chapter 2 in the month of November, and I believe that the Lord has helped us to look at Chapter 2. Now, the matter here is that it says "If." Whichever way you look at it, "If" is conditional, "Since" is conditional. If I say, "Since you have money in your pocket, why are you asking me for money?" So "Since" is saying that because something is present or available or is existing, consequential things should follow. "If" is also the same thing, "If you have." Now "If" is more of it is more conditional than "Since". "Since" is it is presupposed that it is there. "If" is that you the person, if you know you have it. Okay, if you don't know, it's a different thing. "Since" is that I know you have it. I don't know whether you get the point I'm making. "Since." That is why NIV and NLT prefer the word "Since" because that is actually what Apostle Paul is trying to say. He has established in Chapter 2 that as you have received Jesus, so walk in Him. He is now saying "Since," it's not "If" again because He had a clear understanding that it is there. So "Since" is the most appropriate word to use than "If". Now, my concern in opening up Chapter 3 is this. Let us read. He says, I'm reading NIV, "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 mind on things above, not on things on earth. Why? For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Now, the emphasis here is that since the believer at one point or the other in their lives had received Jesus, one thing that becomes crucial for them to do is the need to set their heart on things above. Now, I was discussing with somebody and the person said, "How do we set our heart on things above? How? How do I set my heart on things above?" How? was the person's question. How? Now, in order to set your heart on things above, the answer is in verse 2. What did it say? "Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth." Now, the point is this, the way to set your heart on things above is to set your mind on things above. That is, take you back to Romans Chapter 12 verse 1 and 2. I believe a good portion of you should be able to quote Romans Chapter 12 verse 1 and 2 offhand. Brethren who are here, let us go together. Brethren who are online, be sure you are going with us. Okay. "I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world," that's verse 2, "but be transformed by what? By the renewing of your mind." Now, the way to set our heart on things above is to set our mind on things above. What the Bible is saying is that actually the transformation of the believer is in the way the believer thinks. Your transformation, you see when God wants to change you. Let me give you a good example in the Book of Judges. Can we see the Book of Judges? Judges Chapter 6. Judges Chapter 6, I read from verse 1. "Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian for seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against the Midianites. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves dens and caves and the strongholds which were in the mountain. So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up, also Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and tents, coming in as numerous as locusts, both they and their camels were without number, and they would enter the land to destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites." Same strategy that is going on today. One good way to impoverish a people is to destroy their farmland. It's the same method. Those who have animals come over the farmland to destroy. The more you do it continuously, they will become impoverished. When headers want to make settlers impoverished, they destroy farmland. So if it becomes continuous, continuous, and it becomes overwhelming that you can do it round the whole land, then those people will not have food to eat. Now, that was the picture that was going on as at that time. But look at where we are going. "It came to pass when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel who said to them, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you and drove them out and gave you their land. Also I said to you, I am the Lord your God, do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you did not obey my voice.'" Now, having said that, God now wants to deliver them. "Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat," having said that, God now wants to deliver them. "Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites." Do you see what is Gideon trying to do? What's he trying to do? To survive. Once they get anything done, they'll be watching whether those people are coming. They quickly go and hide it. So telling you that Gideon was also part of those who were oppressed. He was thinking like them. He was acting like them. Are you getting the point I'm making? Now, look at something. "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.'" Now, are you following something? What kept Gideon in bondage? Was it lack of knowledge? Gideon was in bondage because of the way he was thinking. That is why He said, "Since you have been risen with Christ," there is a need to set your heart on things above. How will you do it? By setting your mind, the next verse. So the next verse is the key to that preceding verse. Set your heart on things above. How? By setting your mind on things above, that is, by thinking what came down from above. By thinking what was said from above. By thinking what was given from above. By thinking what was provided from above. By thinking, you must think it. And so you notice when the Angel appeared to Gideon, what he started to do was to start changing the way he was thinking. The Angel of the Lord said to him, "The Lord is with you." That is, you are thinking God is not with you. You are thinking you are captives of the mighty. You are thinking this is where, this is how it will continue. But that is not what God is thinking. God is seeing a mighty man of valor. He was sensitizing him towards thinking. And that is why you notice that the Bible says that "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war against the flesh," you know why I'm quoting? 2 Corinthians Chapter 10. "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war against the flesh, but the weapons of our warfare, they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." What are the strongholds? Imaginations, thinking against the obedience of God. He said, "Imaginations," after that he says "thought", we take thought captive. So when the enemy want to keep you captive, he shapes your imagination. When God want to set you free, He shapes your imagination. Are you getting the point I'm making? Your imagination. So when he said, "Set your heart on things above," what he's saying is that begin to do what? Imagine the things above. Begin to do what? Think the things above. Begin to imagine them. I remember as a young Christian and God was teaching me about prayers. I don't know how it came to me, you know, I'm just remembering those pictures then. The Lord just created a picture before my eyes. You know the picture? The picture before my eyes in the place of prayers that he's a father who is seated on the throne and the child is seated in the front of him and they were to have a discussion and the child is talking to the father and they were reasoning. That was the picture the Lord created in my heart when He was trying to make me understand what it means to pray. That see, when you are praying, don't ever think you are praying into the air. No! Once you come to that your place of prayer because I have already set a time to always meet with God. And I've been running that time till this morning for over 40 years now. I rise up every 4 a.m. to be with the Lord, to pray, to meditate and all of that. So you know, He started when I was starting it then. It would look like you are talking to the air. And the Lord helped me to say, "No!" Once you come to that place, I began to have this imagination. I began to see God seated. Me too now in His front. And you know one thing? It changed my prayer life. Because it made me to begin to see that I'm not just talking to the air. I'm not just speaking to the wind. That it is actually, and you know what it also created for me? That is how you know this matter of prayer is not monologue. Prayer is actually a dialogue. I don't just talk, talk, talk and leave the place. I learned that early enough from those pictures the Lord created. He said, "Okay, you have talked, talked, talked." He said, "You just walk up and you are going." He said, "Just imagine that you just came to your father. Say, 'Father, you see, I will need this, I will need that and then I will need this, I will need that.' And then when you just finish, you just get up and you are going." He said, "What will happen?" He said, "You will not hear any response." So when you are when you talk, expect me too to talk back. Expect, you know, so I began to now see, okay. Okay. So when I talk, it's like talking, I began to understand that it is a dialogue. It is a dialogue. When I talk, I expect to hear back. And honestly, that has been the pattern till today. When I talk, I expect to hear. It's just normal. It's just normal. That's how I began to understand what it means when the Bible says that "My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me." For what the Bible says that "The Lord is my shepherd," that is, the Lord is shepherding you. And that's what I'm trying to make you see here that when the enemy want to hold us captive, the enemy take over our imagination. When God want to set us free, God also take over our imagination. And then when He said that, "The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor," look at the response of Gideon. For you to know how Gideon was thinking. What did Gideon say? Gideon said to him, "Oh my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." Are you following something? What is the imagination of Gideon that kept him in bondage? God has forsaken them. Are you seeing it? God is not with them. God has left them. And so for him to for God to use him, what is the first thing that God must change? God must change the mindset. And I'm telling you, for God to make you for you to be useful in God's hand, the first thing God will need to address is the way you think, your imagination. Until we have changed the way you imagine and think, you are useless as far as eternal things are concerned. For you to become eternally relevant, you must imagine eternity and you must think eternity. For you to be eternally relevant, you must imagine eternity, you must think eternity. And so He says, "Set your heart on things above," your heart on things above. How do you do that? By setting your mind on things above. That is, by thinking what came down from above. By thinking what was said from above. By thinking what was given from above. By thinking. Now, look at what now happened. The Lord now said, let's look at what the Lord said in that place. "Then the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go, go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?'" So he said to him, "Oh my lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house." And the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you and you will defeat the Midianites as one man." Then he said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talked with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to you and bring an offering and set it before you." And he said, "I will wait until you come." Now, why is Gideon doing all of this? Lack of faith. I'm going to make you see that he has become so used to bondage that he cannot think freedom. That is why the Bible is saying, "See, if you have been risen with Christ." The reality is that immediately you entered into Christ, what happens to you? What happened to you? You have been made free. But you will never experience freedom until you begin to think it. You will not experience it. You see, the reality of our life is that we are no more. You know, if you look at where Chapter 2 was closing. He said, "Having translated us," not that He will translate us. Maybe we should go back and see that scripture. If you look at that Chapter 2, it is so important for you to understand this thing very, very well. Look at something in that Chapter 2. Look at it from around verse 13, from verse 12, from verse 12. "Buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him, raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, has He made alive together with Him." Having done what? Let's be counting them. Do you know that sometimes you still think that God is holding one sin against you? "Having forgiven all trespasses." I don't know how best to illustrate this thing, but the simple way I can say it is that, you see, when the Bible says "Jesus by one sacrifice perfected forever them that are sanctified." You know, in the Old Testament, they have to come every time to offer the sacrifice that could not take away sin, but could cover sin. So every time they sinned, they keep offering it, they keep offering it so that the High Priest will be able to enter the presence of God. Now, the sacrifice of Jesus, you know when they were building that temple, they told Moses, "Make sure you build it exactly as the one they show you." You know one was shown to Moses in Genesis, I'm talking of Exodus 25 now. Now, what was shown to Moses, if you go to Revelation, what Revelation, between Chapter 1 through to around Chapter 11, you will notice that it was exactly what Moses built, the cherubims that covered the face of God, the mercy seat that is above, are you understanding me at all? It was exactly. Now, what Moses did was a miniature. Hope you know what a miniature is? A resemblance of the heavenly things. Now, when Christ was to offer Himself, Christ entered into the heavens. You know, the picture was given to Moses, but Christ carried His own blood into the actual temple. So He did it with the actual one. But unlike those High Priests, they offered goat. The life of goat, is it eternal? That is why it could not eternally take away sin. It can only temporarily cover it. But you see, Christ has eternal life because He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He has no beginning or end of days. Are you getting the point I'm making? So He lives forever. So as a result, by that one sacrifice, it was an eternal sacrifice. What it what that means is that the sins that were sinned, the sin that is now, and the sin that shall ever be, were taken care of. You see, when you look at the gospel, the gospel is mind-blowing, what Jesus did. That's why somebody said that the love of Christ constrain us, that if one died for all, then all are dead, that we who live will no more live for ourselves, but for Him who died for us and rose again. You must understand what Jesus did for us. I tell people, if you cannot live for Jesus, it's because you don't know the cross of Jesus. If you are struggling to live for Jesus, I mean you are struggling to, let me anyway, no. You see, if you really understand what happened, maybe we don't understand what happened, but I'm showing you certain things that happened. When He said He forgave your sins, what it means is that we can always enter into God's presence. And we are sure that we will not be slain. We can always enter into God's presence and we are sure that we will not be slain. Nothing. Then if if you look at what they did there, they talk about the sin of ignorance. They made sacrifice for the sin of ignorance. I hope you understand. But in our own case, what Jesus did is this. The Bible says, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin." So there's nothing like the sin that I did not know that I sinned that may be hindering my prayer. I don't know whether you understand what I'm trying to bring out. There's nothing like sin of one sin. Whatever sin that does not come consciously to you that you sinned is not a sin that is holding you and God. It's not a sin between you and God. It's a sin between God and the blood. Are you understanding me at all? Am I making sense to you? You see, this thing is because what is not giving people freedom today is the way they think. We cannot appreciate I'm trying to to explain when he said, "Since you have been risen with Christ, then set your heart on things above. Begin to think the heavenly things. Set your mind on them because if you don't set your mind on them, like Gideon, 'If God is with us, if God has forgiven us, if God truly have washed away our sin.' And so when you come, 'God, this sin that will not make you to answer this prayer.' You always want to make that sacrifice for the sin." Are you see you always come to make sacrifice for that sin. But the point is that the sin, if there is a sin that happened and you did not know that it happened, it's not a matter between you and the Father. If there is a sin that you know happened, what you needed to do is not when you want to pray to God that you need to confess it. Because if it's when you want to talk to God that you need to confess it, you are not in a serious business of relationship. It's like I mistakenly step on your toes. I didn't say sorry. Until the day I now want to collect money from you, I say, "Cissy, come here. You see that day that I step on your toes five days ago? Actually, I'm sorry about it. Cissy, don't let it hinder your giving me 2,000 naira." Is that a relationship? So if the sin become important when you want to collect something, you are not in a relationship with anybody. If there's a sin that you became conscious of, it is at that point of consciousness that you say that you confess sin. And when you confess and forsake sin, you receive mercy. That is it. But when you now come to God, you now begin to think back, "Heh, I did one in the morning, I insulted somebody, I didn't tell God I'm sorry. I did one day before yesterday, I fornicated, I didn't tell God I'm sorry." And say, "God, you see, don't let all those things hinder. I want to ask for You to grant me journey mercies now to the US." Is it making sense? It's not making sense. Some of these things that we do that look like if they are spiritual things, they are not really spiritual. They are just spiritism. They are just religious acts of activities that don't have any eternal relevance. The matter about sin is that sin had been forgiven. Now, He says having forgiven your sin, look at the next thing. What next thing that is there? Where is it again? Have forgiven all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of the requirement that was against us, which was contrary to us. He has taken it out of the way. Which handwriting is that? The law. You know it is the law that is against us. It is the law that makes your action, "What do you do one? That is revenge. That one is fornication. That one is lie." It is the law that counted everything against you. What did He do? He He took it out of the way. He removed its requirement out of the way, having nailed it to where? To the cross. Then what did He do again? He disarmed principalities and powers. You know you still believe that principalities and powers have power over you. You see, when you feel that devil has power, demons power, somebody say, "Heh!" you begin to shake. He came with some juju power. Am I making sense to you? Because you did not understand that they have been disarmed. What does it mean to be disarmed? To render powerless. Or you know you are not thinking that way. I'm trying to make you understand what he was talking about. I didn't want to go back because we have looked at I think I we have discussed all of these before. But I'm just trying to bring back certain things to our memory. That if you don't set your mind on these things, you will never be able to live the eternal life. You'll be living as dead people. People who are dead. People who don't have eternal life. Condemnation of sin, fear of the powers of the devil, fear of the law and its condemnation. You work, you go, I jail. You work, you go. You know all those laws. Fear of the law, what the Lord has said. Fear of this, guilty conscience, self-condemnation, all of those things. Fear of darkness, fear of enchantment. Fear, fear! You keep living in those fear. He said He disarmed them. He made a spectacle over them, triumphing over them. He said, "So let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath." Come and tell you, "You are working on Sunday, you have sinned against God." I don't know where they go. Let nobody judge you concerning one new moon, one Sabbath. Christmas Day, you are playing ball in the morning, you didn't worship Jesus. You know we begin to make some days holy. We are supposed to worship Jesus every day. There is no day, are you getting the point? There is a liberation from and then this thing comes in several ways. That's why you see some people, they behave godly when they are before the sanctuary. Do you notice them? When they come before the sanctuary, if you know in churches you see sanctuary. They think God is inside that place. My God is not inside. God is inside me. We are the temple. So if you get into church, oh goodness! You know there's a chancel where God is. My God is even now. And so when you come before that chancel, you become very holy. You become very pious. Particularly when people want to collect Holy Communion. And they carry the cross. In one wood, they raise it up. "Holy, holy, holy!" And they begin to walk sanctimoniously. They begin to do like, "Oh!" What ignorance. What am I trying to make you understand? Why there is nothing wrong about these activities, I'm only calling your attention to something. If you really understand that you are the temple of God, you will know that everywhere you go you are supposed to be sanctimonious. Am I making sense to you? That reverence that you are having, if you understand that, "Heh, God is inside me! This mouth is the temple of God. Heh, lie with this mouth! This hand is the temple of God. Do evil with this hand! God forbid!" That thing you are feeling, I'm only saying that it should not be before one thing on Sunday. That's what I'm trying to say. You are the temple! You, you, you! That's you are going. The Holy Ghost is inside you. The temple of God is a holy temple. The temple cannot do evil. The temple cannot lie. It cannot steal government money even in office places. There is a Go is spirit. Those who worship Him, how do they worship Him? It is not inside one place you call the place of worship. That place is just it is our gathering into that place that brought God there. Do you understand me? Everywhere I go, if you have this understanding. Somebody says, "Stay, do you know who we are talking to? I'm the temple of God. I am not just a Nigerian. I am God's temple. I'm a holy temple." That is what that should be the mentality that we should carry. But what I see today is religious ignorance. We live our life anyhow in our offices. We have official age, you have biological age, you have Christian age, you have un-Christian age. You have a this, you steal government money. Then on Sunday, they now tell you, "God is in the sanctuary. Let everybody tremble before Him." You now begin to shake. They shake before one wood. You are a you are an ignorant person. You are supposed to tremble at the fact that you are the temple of God. That's what Paul is trying to say that set your mind on the things above because if you don't begin to think like this, you will still be living the religious life. So if you have been raised with Christ, if you have raised, there's a need to begin to to set your heart on those ones. And how do you do it? By changing the way you are thinking. By rethinking about your new inheritance, about who you are. I have been forgiven. The the commandment against me had been taken away. They have wiped it out. I've been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Heh, Satan had been disarmed as far as my life is concerned. All those charms in my father's house, all those words they spoke against me, they said something in my foundation. Heh, when I came in Jesus, that foundation was shattered by the blood. You see, you begin to work in an understanding. Or else like Gideon, you still be saying, "If God is with us, why are we?" You! That's what I'm trying to make you understand by comparing that Colossians Chapter 3 and the case of Gideon. God began to change the way Gideon was thinking. "Thou mighty man of valor." He'll be looking for the mighty man of valor behind because he didn't know who he was. "The Lord is with you." "Eh! Toska, how can God be with us? If God be with us, look at how the Midianites are." And that's what you see in those days. He says, "Ah, you are now a new creature!" "If I'm a new creature, why am I still fornicating? Why am I still thinking evil? If I'm a new creature, why is it that I still feel like telling lies? If I'm a new creature," it is you not accepting that you are new that keeps you in your old life. Wake up to the giants that you are! So that Gideon that was behaving like this, that was behaving like this, there was another Gideon inside that Gideon. There was a mighty man of valor. There was a man that can deliver Israel. There was a man that can that can put the enemies to flight inside that thing that was doing like this, that was doing like this. And that is the case. Inside you is that new man. That new man that is renewed after the image of God. Inside you is that new man. If any man is in Christ, he is a new that new man is real! But the problem with those people is their heart is not on things above consequently because their mind is not on things above. Which is where the problem is today. What I'm discussing with you is a major, major problem. A young man was asking me two weeks ago, "Sir, can I ever overcome? Ah, these things they are too powerful for me." And I told him, "Your bondage is in your thinking. Until you change this this way of thinking, that He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world, you will never be free." You cannot put on the heavenly things without thinking the heavenly things. You cannot put on the heavenly things without first casting down imaginations. We cannot put on the heavenly things without taking thought captive and doing what? Bringing them to the obedience of Christ. You cannot put on the heavenly things. It is not just possible. And that is why, having told them everything that they had in Christ, having told them what Christ did for us, that they had been translated, that they are new creatures, that they are this, all of those things was taken from Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, which was where we stopped for November and December. When now get to Chapter 3, it is now the action point. These things will never become a reality except you now understand if you have been risen. All those things I have said before. If you have been risen, now, engage the first gear. What's the first gear you must engage? Set your heart on things above. How do you do that? You need to engage your mind. The way you think, engage your mind. Think, think, think what is said. Think what He says. And that is the power of meditation on the truth. You will know the truth. The truth sets you free. Oh, I'm a new creature! Sin had been taken away. Satan has been disarmed. I am this! You begin to think it. You begin to speak it. You begin to say it. I am the temple of God. Yeah, yes! The handwriting against me had been taken away. I can come to the throne of God of God boldly. I can come there boldly to obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. If there is a need, God know that there is need. So I must come to obtain mercy so I can find grace. Is there something that is confusing my life? I must come boldly to that throne. If I come there fearfully, afraid, not entering, oh, sorry, you cannot enter. You cannot enter with the old mind into the new man. Jesus said you don't pour the old wine the new wine into the old wine skin. It if you want to preserve the two, the old wine in the old wine skin, the new wine in the new wine skin. You see, you cannot put the new wine in the old. What it does is that it tears the old. That is why salvation has not profited many people today. It has not profited them because they are taking the new wine, they are putting it in the old way of life. They are putting the old wine the new wine, we need to understand it's a new creature. It is I am! That's why, you know, I love that song "I am who God says I am. That is what I am. I am..." You know it is up to me to know that I am I am this, I am that, I am this, I am who God says I am. What God says I am is what I am. I am not what He says I am not. Do you want to tell me "Omo elese"? I'm not a sinner. I'm not a sinner. Sinners are going to hellfire. Ah! I'm going to eternal life. I'm a child of God. What He told me is that I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. I've been made righteous in Christ. I'm a new creature. I'm not a sinner. Sinners are going to hellfire. I'm a child of God. Do you need to begin to think the heavenly it's see, we are not thinking. There is this what I'm discussing with you is the major, it's verse 1 and 2 of Chapter 3 is the major, major disengagement and re-engagement verse in Colossians. It is the border. Are you understanding me? He had been saying some things about who you are. He have said it to this point. Now, He want to come to who you now are, as against what you are, Chapter 1, Chapter 2. Now you want to enter into who you really are. And to enter into who you really are, what you need to do is this re-engagement of imaginations and thoughts. If that don't happen, then nothing will happen. Because you begin to see that in Colossians, you will notice, just let me read a few things to you in that Colossians Chapter 3. Having said, "Set your mind on things above," by verse 2, "not on things on earth," you notice, why must you do so? "For you died." You see, He's just still emphasizing what Chapter 2. Do you get it? He's going back to Chapter 2. Do it. Why? You died and life is hidden with Christ. You died. The one that normally do all those things you are talking about have died. The one that masturbate, the one that all those things that you say, "Will I be able to..." that person have died. Oh, may God give us freedom today in the church. You see believers struggling with all kinds of You started saying, "Give me grace to follow, abundant grace to follow." What had been given you are asking God to give again. You are asking God to give you grace to stop your old life. God is saying you have died, you are a new man. You are saying, "Give me grace to stop my old life." So who is lying, who is telling the truth? I am who God says I am. I am who is see, it's a very, very important thing. And I must know who I am. Because the truth is this, God is "I AM". Hallelujah! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! I know what I'm talking about. I know what I'm saying. If you go to John, if you go and check the Greek word when He said, "He that is born of God cannot," not will not, He cannot continue to sin. That is something, sin cannot stop sinning. They cannot, not that they don't want to. That's why you see them New Year resolution, "I will not lie again." Before February, they have told another one. New Year resolution, "I will not drink again." Before they have so sinners cannot stop sinning. It's a cannot. We call it the total inability of man. Sin made man not to be able to stop sinning. So man cannot stop sinning. That is what sin is not just that sin make us to sin, no. It made us, we lost ability, the total inability of man. There is no man that can act right as far as God is concerned. Because there is no let me help you this way. There is no how much a goat will do all he can to be to be a dog. Even when the goat goes and remove his horn and shape it away so he can just have help but both goat and dog have head, they have four legs. It is still not a dog. Religion cannot save a man. That is try to he try to you know, that is the old way, that is the old it cannot save a man. That's why go and check every religion. Check all religion. Christian, Islam, check Hare Krishna. Just check all the religions of the world. As religious, take Nigeria, we are very religious. As religious as we are, all our leaders, Christian, Muslim, the traditional worshippers, society, they are all inside. All of us together. The society, is it corrupt or not corrupt? Religion cannot stop a man. Sin is universal. Leave here, go to US. Advanced society, enlightened, developed, everything. Does it stop fornication? Does it stop lying? Does it stop people? Does it stop murder? Does it stop all of those things? So whether advanced or not advanced, whether primitive, whether any one you want to call it. What the universal thing? What is universal? Sin. Sin is universal. No man can stop sin. Now, what I'm going to make you see is that what happened in Jesus is not something about a religious spirit. What happened in Jesus is not some activity-based thing. It's not some activity things. I'm in choir. You can be in choir, you can be a preacher, you can be a prophet, you can be anything. But still you are not in Christ. Are you understanding me at all? I've been in choir, I've been in the evangelism team, I've been in prayer team, but I was a sinner. All those things, you see what we are talking about Jesus. We are talking about a change and that is what we are talking it's a change. What actually happened to a man is that the Bible says "He that is joined to an harlot is one body with her, for two," saith He, "shall become one." How do you become one body with the harlot? By sexual intercourse. You are joined to that person. You are no more single. You get the point I'm making. What follow that statement? He said, "He that is joined to the Lord is what? One spirit." They are not two spirits. You know what that means? What it means is that the way you take your DNA, you sleep with a woman and that child that is born is what? Is your replica because your DNA is in that child. If that child grow up, he will become have your feature, have everything like you. You get the point I'm making. That is what God did. When He says we are renewed by the renewal of the Holy Spirit, you know what happened? What happened is that the life of God was infused into us the way spermatozoa is brought into an egg and the egg now become a living thing. The way the Spirit of God fertilized our spirit and we became a new living thing. Do you get it? This is what happened to us. That is what Paul is saying, look, it is not that listen, it is not that you are trying to become a new creature. The more you are trying to become a new creature, you know what you are doing? What are you doing? That is religion. Religion is trying to become good, trying to become are you understanding me? But salvation, you know what salvation is? Is accepting that you are now a new creature. Agree that you are no more the old person. Confessing. And as you begin to talk that way, you begin to think that way, you begin to pray that way. You know what will happen? You begin to live that way. That is why Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And look at how we conclude here. Look at the place where we are concluding. Look at verse 4. That's where we are stopping today. "When Christ who is what? Look at verse 4. When Christ who is what? Who is what? Our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Do you see that? When Christ who is what? So what is your life? When Christ who is your life. Your life is no more sukome. Your life is no more gospel, this is Christ. You see, if you don't think this way, that's why if you go back to Colossians 2, it says, "What of the temple of God has to do with idol? What of light has to do with darkness? What of have Christ?" You are Christ because that is what happened. Christ is our life. Christ is the way to God. We leave the matter here so we pick it from here next week. Let us pray this evening. It's virtually 6:24, almost 6:30. We'll pick it here, brethren online. We'll pick it from this point. Please don't just come alone. Invite someone. Talk to somebody, let somebody be here with you. Don't come and be blessed alone. Our focus is on understanding who we are in Christ. It is not just this religious thing. No, we are talking about salvation. Like I do say when I preach to the Yoruba church, "Awon elese won o mo di eni ese, igbagbo o n se esin." Igbagbo o n se esin o! Igbala ni igbagbo. Esin l'esin. Eni to ba n se esin, won o mo di eni ese because they will never be able to conquer sin. They will struggle with sin till they die. They will be struggling. They will always keep coming, "Heh, we have done what we should not have done." They will continue until they die in their sin. That's where they will remain. You can't there's a new wine for a new skin. And until we connect with this new wine, we will never be able to overcome sin. There is nobody that can by himself overcome sin. And so what God did is to give us a new life. And that new life can have dominion over this one. That is the reality. It can have dominion over this life. It can dominate this old one. Because of course, a new car will outrun a old car. A young man will outrun a old man. The new man will outlive the old man. It all depends on how you are thinking. Let us pray. I want you to talk to the Lord this evening. Talk to the Lord this evening. I am who God says I am. I am who God says I am. I am who God says I am. I am who God says I am. I am who God says I am. I am who God says I am. That is who I am. That is what I am. I know who I am. Do you know who you are? I am! That is, God lives in us. I know who I am. God says "I AM". God is alive, is alive in us. Christ is our life. Our Father, we thank You for this evening. We worship Your name. We give You praise, we give You glory, we give You honor, we give You adoration. We pray, oh Lord our God, the reality of the new life, the reality of the new life. Lord, the reality of the new life, we pray should dawn on us in the name of Jesus. Take us beyond religion. Take us beyond religious spirit. Lord, bring us into this reality of who we are in the name of Jesus. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's share the grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with us now and forevermore. Amen. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the presence of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. Praise the Lord!