Ask Him For Advice

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends, how in the world are you? Doing alright today? Well, I trust everything’s alright at your house. This is your good friend Dr. Cook, and I’m glad to be back with you once again. We’re looking at the end of Colossians chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3. What a precious passage that is, that third chapter. I’m eager to get into it.

But in the ending of chapter two, you had in verse 19, the layout of normal and successful and happy Christian life and work together. The head, Christ is the head. The body, that’s you and I and every other believer. The nourishment, that is the ministry that we have of helping and encouraging and feeding other believers. The ministry of sharing God with people at the point of their need. The oneness of Christians is that we’re knit together. Every stitch depends upon every other stitch in a knitted garment. Every part of Christ’s body depends on every other part of Christ’s body. And so the increase is the increase of God when God makes a thing go.

And it’s not by addition, it’s by geometric progression. Paul to Timothy to faithful men, to others also. We read in 2 Timothy 2:2. And so he said, “Why do you live, if you’ve been made free through Christ, why live as though you were still under bondage?” This is a great discovery that many a person has. You’re free to be a slave to Christ, free to do His bidding, and you don’t have to live under the domination of the old world system any longer.

“If the Son, therefore, shall set you free; you shall be free,” Jesus said, “free indeed”. Well, then he says in verse 1 of chapter 3, let’s go on into that, shall we? “If you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above not on things on the Earth, for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Now, that word “if”, someone has pointed out, may very well be rendered “since”. “Since you then are risen with Christ.” Paul has been saying we were buried with Him by baptism into death and quickened by His resurrection, so we’re risen with Christ.

Wendell Loveless, my dear friend of many years, but he wrote so many different choruses as you recall, one of which went, “For me to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ, I died with Him, I rose with Him, for me to live is Christ.” That’s the truth that you and I need to be controlled by, we need to appreciate it and live it.

Since you are risen with Christ, then what? Well there are a number of results that come and they reach all the way down to verse 16 in the chapter. Let me tick them off for you. We won’t talk about them all, obviously today, but let me tick them off for you. They’re in verb form for the most part. Since you are risen with Christ, what’s the first verb? “Seek those things which are above.” If I’m not mistaken it’s a Greek word “dioko” which means “pursue”, go after it. “Seek” means to go after, to pursue those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

“Set your affection on things above.” You can make up your mind as to what is going to be first in your life and in your heart. You know that you can. Regardless of how much arguing you and I may do and say, “I can’t help it,” you know that you can make up your mind as to what is to be first in your heart and mind. Set your affection on things above.

Verse 5, “Mortify, put to death therefore, your members which are upon the earth,” and then he makes a list there about the ugly sins that are common in human, fallen human nature. And so he says, “Put them to death.” Then in verse 8 he says, “Put off all these also: Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, don’t lie to each other.” And so on. And then in verse 10… Or verse 12 he says, “Put on.” “Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him.” So he says, “Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, compassions and mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind and meekness and longsuffering and forbearance and forgiveness,” all of that. So you put that on.

Then in verse 15 he says, “Let peace rule in your heart.” That word “rule” is our word referee. Let the peace of God be the referee in your heart. If you have peace about a thing, do it, if you don’t, don’t. And then in 16, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” There you have a little lay-out of all the different things that come as a result of realizing that you are risen with Christ. How do you make this truth real to yourself and to others? Died with Him, buried with Him, risen again to walk in newness of life, we read there in Romans 6. What does it mean? It means that everything you are in the sight of God depends on Jesus.

Everything you are in the sight of God depends on Jesus. His death, He died in your stead therefore you’re identified with His death. His burial, He tasted death for you so that He took the stinger out of death and it no longer has the bitterness that it had. He rose again, victorious over death and the grave, and He did so on your behalf. And so Paul says, “We’re risen with Him.” What does that mean? It means when He rose from the dead you rose too. Your old life was crucified and died and buried and you rose again to a new kind of life, where Paul says the secret of it is Christ living in you, the hope of glory.

Now, I don’t know of any way to make that real except to think about it and pray over it. We tend to absorb the things that are on our minds. We tend to make them part of our mental being. And so, I don’t know of any way to tell you to make this real except that you think about it every day and pray about it. Take a small card, take half of a 3 x 5 index card, for example. Cut it in two and then type or write on it this verse. Colossians 3:1, “Since you are risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.” Verse 3, “For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

You write that out down and then you look at it during the day when you have opportunity, and read it aloud for yourself. And you pray about it. And ask God the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what it means to be one with the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection, to be identified with Him, and I can promise you that the faithful indwelling Holy Spirit will teach you what that really means to you. It can be very abstract otherwise and do you no good whatsoever. But once the truth of Christ’s resurrection for you, and your resurrection with Him grips your soul, there’ll be a dynamic, there’ll be a power, there’ll be a freedom, there’ll be a release, there’ll be a joy that you didn’t have before, I can promise you.

Since you’re risen certain things are going to happen. Now let’s believe God, let’s believe what He says. He says when Jesus died, you died with Him. When Jesus our Lord was buried you were buried with Him, and when He rose again you rose with Him to newness of life, and when now you make Him by faith your Lord and your Savior, all of that becomes real in your life and you have a new life, a new nature, a new lifestyle, a new reason for living, a new calling, a new setting, and a new commission.

Now then Paul says, “We are ambassadors for Christ.” God makes you His ambassador, His witness as well as His child. When you realize that you’re in Christ, everything you are and everything you have and everything you can hope for is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all and in all. Well now, what would be the result then of my realizing that I am indeed risen with Christ. Since you’re risen with Christ, he says, “Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.” What is… He says, “Seek what’s above where he is.” Now what does that mean?

Number one, seek an experience of His own nature. If He dwells within you, you want more and more of His nature to be revealed, don’t you? If He dwells above and He’s there, Paul says, “Where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, the things that are above.” What do I seek? I seek a revelation of Himself, His own nature.

Second, if He’s at the right hand of God there’s fellowship with God the Father. Seek fellowship with God the Father. Small thought here. Have you ever realized that God is far more willing to talk with you than you are with Him? How often we dash into the presence of God for a hurried, what we call “word of prayer”, and then dash out again like naughty children going out to play, thoughtless and not waiting on our Heavenly Father. God, our Lord Jesus said, seeks, He’s looking for people who are willing to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. God is looking for folk who will spend time with Him. Fellowship with the Father.

I often quote my good friend, Pastor Ward Potts, who has a way of saying when he’s talking with you and telling something that the Lord has led Him to do, he’ll say, “Well, Father said to me this and that.” And I said, “And then Father said… ” and so on. He holds a dialogue with God. Is that unusual? No, I think it’s normal. I think it’s normal. I think it’s something that every believer can know as God speaks to you by the Word, first of all he speaks by His Word, second, by the indwelling Holy Spirit of God whose job it is to reveal Christ in you, to you and through you. Let God speak with you today. Seek those things which are above, the fellowship of God. The nature of Jesus, the fellowship with the Heavenly Father.

And then of course, if you’re dealing with God, you know that He has some plans for you. The Bible says, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of good and not of evil to give you a desired end.” “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world,” the Bible says. And so if you seek, as Paul says, those things which are above, that means you’re going after a knowledge of what God’s plans are for you.

How long has it been since you asked God for advice about anything non-religious? Well, how to get the car fixed. Whether or not to buy a suit or get the old one repaired. Whether to take this job or that job or whatever. Whether to go on a date with this girl or that fellow and so on. How long has it been, beloved, since you asked God for advice on anything non-religious? Most of our praying is couched in religious terms, isn’t it? “Bless and help and guide and bless and bless and bless.” We have a very limited spiritual vocabulary, and we use very little other subjects when we pray.

Why don’t you ask God for advice about your daily life, about your work at the office. Indeed, if you’ve misplaced something have you ever asked God to help you find it? Oh yes, I do, I know. God knows where things are, He knows what you are, He knows what you need, and He knows what He wants to do with you. When you seek, as we have here in Colossians 3:1, when you seek those things which are above, it means seek God’s will for you because it’s already determined. So let Him reveal His will to you through His Word and through the Holy Spirit of God. Now we get at this again the next time we get together.

Dear Father, today, may we be interested in Thee and in Thy will most of all, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!