Pass it Along to Him

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Doing alright today? Well, I trust so, bless your heart. This is your friend, Dr. Cook and I’m glad to be back with you to share some things that’ll still be worth talking about a million years from now. You realize that when we get together, we talk about all sorts of things, the weather and politics and diets and grandchildren and all of that. But what really will be worth talking about in a million years is the things that you and I share from the Word of God. “Heaven and Earth shall pass away,” Jesus said, “But My word shall never pass away.” So spend more time thinking about God’s Word, and you’ll have more to talk about in eternity. Pretty good idea, wouldn’t you say?

Well, you and I have been looking at Colossians 3. Paul said, “Set your affection on things above not on things on the Earth for you’re dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.” For me to tell you, “Listen, you ought to love heavenly matters more than you love anything here on Earth,” is kind of a heavy concept. And you say, “Oh, well, who can do that? I have to live in a real world. It’s a world of crab grass and worms and grass-hoppers and neighbors. It’s a world of headaches and worries, and thunder and lightning and tornadoes, and Pepto-Bismol and what not. It’s a real world. And how can you tell me not to be aware of it?”

Oh, the Bible never said you should not be aware of it. Paul said, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time.” So to be real, to be realistic, to be practical, to be aware, to be as the kids say, “with it” is biblical. It all depends, doesn’t it, on an where your heart is. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What is it that you treasure? What is it that you think is most important in your life? Well, for some people it’s money. No, doubt about that. Some of my friends cannot be with me or with anyone for five minutes, but that they’re talking about money. That is the most important concept in their lives.

Well, there’ll come a day when they’re gonna leave it all behind, that’s certain. I never saw a U-Haul behind a hearse yet. You just don’t take it with you, do you? He said you should have as little interest… let me go back to the paraphrase from Ken Taylor. You should have as little desire for this world as a dead person does. That’s his paraphrase of Colossians 3:3. “You should have as little desire for this world as a dead person does. Your real life is in Heaven with Christ and with God. And when Christ, Who is our real life, comes back again, you will shine with Him and share in all His glory.”

So he says, “Set your affection on things above not on things on the Earth,” why? Because, he said, when the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary, you died with Him. And when He rose again, triumphant over the grave, you rose with Him. And He said your real position is with the Lord Jesus and things have no place in your heart. Covetousness, Paul says in verse 5, is idolatry. When you put things before God, you are making an idol of that. Whether it be some loved one or money or possessions or career or popularity or power or whatever it may be, when you put that ahead of God, that’s idolatry.

Here’s a young man years ago who had heard the Gospel in Tokyo, a university student going to major university. And so the question came, “Do you know now that we’ve been talking about the living God?” “Oh, yes.” “Do you realize that you have sinned against Him and that you have broken His law and that you deserve His judgment?” “Oh yes.” Do you realize that God loved you so much that… ” We’ll call him George Watanabe. That wasn’t his real name. “Watanabe, do you realize that God loved you so much that He gave His own Son to die in your stead and pay your penalty for sin.” Yes, he realizes it. “Are you willing now, to receive Him by faith into your heart and become His child?” “Oh, no!” “Why not?” “Why,” he said, “If I did that, my family would disown me, my father would stop supporting me, I would lose the chance to finish my university education and,” he said “all of the things that I want would have to be sacrificed, I can’t do that.” And he walked away.

Now that’s idolatry, you see, because things and relationships and earthly advantages meant more at that moment than God, the living God, concerning whom he now understood, having heard the gospel message clearly. But there were other things more important. Now, you and I do the same thing today, perhaps a little more subtly, but it often happens. Did I pray this morning? Well, I was too busy. What does that mean? The things I had to do and the people with whom I had to interact were more important than speaking to God and listening to Him. That’s idolatry. You see? He said, “Set your affection on things above not on the Earth, for you’re dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.” You should have as little interest for this world as a dead person does. Now you go into the undertakers establishment and you see there a corpse in a casket. What response does that dead body make to its environment? Not at all.

People are talking. Some were crying and some, indeed, may be laughing. Because I’ve seen many a wake where people laughed heartily even though they were supposed to be there to sympathize with the bereaved. It’s funny what we do, isn’t it? You read in the Bible where they were mourning over the death of the little girl and the Lord Jesus said, “She is not dead, but sleeping” and it says, “They laughed Him to scorn.” Raucous laughter burst out there in the midst of heartbreak. Funny what people can do, but that’s how it is. But there is that wake and there are the people all around. And some were talking and some are crying and some are laughing and some are smoking and some are just standing around. And there’s the dim light and the flowers and all the rest. Does the corpse react to any of that? Not at all.

He said, “You should have as little interest in this world as a dead person does.” You’re dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Now how do I make that real? That’s the question. How does all of this become real, for it’s one thing for brother Cook to tell you about it, it’s another thing for you to experience it. And I’m the first to admit that we are incorrigibly linked, chronically linked to time and sense. When you have a headache, it’s far more real to you than, than the sense of being religious, isn’t that true? And being happy in the Lord.

Let’s say you woke up with a migraine headache and the world is pounding in upon you and you can’t even stand to open your eyes, it hurts so bad. And somebody says, “You’re dead and your life is hid with Christ in God,” and all you can say is, “Go away and leave me alone.” [chuckle] Isn’t that true? We are linked to time and sense and feeling and the human experience. I know that, you’re a human being, so am I. What do you do about it? Well, Colossians 2:6 says, “As you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him.” How did you get saved by faith? Did you try to feel a certain way? Did you pay something or promise something or do something? No.

You simply said to your Savior, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling, just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that that bids to me come to Thee, oh Lamb of God, I come.” Simply by faith you gave yourself to the Lord Jesus and asked Him to save you, did you not? Well then, in this very difficult matter of weaning your life away from the love of things and the world and becoming what we call heavenly-minded, why do you not consult your Savior in the same way? Why do you not turn over to Him, by faith, the management of your affections? Had you thought about that? This goes very deep, especially if your affections have gotten riveted on somebody that is out of the will of God. You’re in love with an unsaved person, let us say, and it goes very deep. It affects the way your heart beats, doesn’t it? And you say to me, “Brother Cook, it’s alright for you to talk, but I can’t help how I feel,” and that’s true.

It’s so true, but Jesus is an almighty Savior. He’s able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, and you can turn your feelings for that unsaved person over to the Lord. If you’re indeed a born-again child of God, you can turn your feelings over to the Lord and He can manage them. Set your affections on things above. What does it mean? Turn your feelings over to the Lord. By faith say, “Lord Jesus, I can’t handle this, You handle it.” And He will. That goes for a worry. You’re worried about something. And when you think about it, it just turns your stomach and makes you ill. Why not turn the worry over to the Lord, let Him worry about it?

By faith say, “Lord, I’m giving this to You, You handle it.” Same thing goes for hurt and resentment. You’re so deeply hurt that every time you think about a certain person, you get angry and you feel that sense of frustrated rage within you. And you say to me, “Bob Cook, I can’t help, I’m so deeply hurt, I can’t help it.” I know. Listen, why do you not, by faith, turn that feeling of resentment and hurt and rage over to your Savior? He can handle it. Let Jesus manage your feelings, beloved, let Him manage your feelings. “Bringing every thought,” Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established.” You talk to God about what you’re up against and He’ll manage the way you feel about it. That’s what that verse means. It’s good news, isn’t it? And I wanna pass it along to you.

Try it out for yourself. Anything I say to you, I’ve been there, I know these things work and I also know that all my talking to you isn’t going to do any good until you try it for yourself. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” What you hope for… Hope, the goals that you have for your life do affect the way you live. In the days when people used to travel across the continent, mostly by train, there was this young man, who was riding along in one of the old-fashioned railway coaches drawn by a coal-powered locomotive. And the smoke and the cinders would come in the window because it was a hot summer day and there was no air conditioning in those days. So the windows were open, and the smoke and the cinders from the locomotive would come flying in the windows and people would be begrimed with all of that smoke.

Well, seasoned travelers knew that you just wait until you got to your destination and then you cleaned up, but there was this young man who kept going and washing up every so often. And finally, one of the veteran travelers said to him, “Son, why bother washing up all the time,” he said, “when you get there, you can clean up.” “Oh,” he said, “you don’t understand, I’m going out to San Francisco and I’m gonna be married and I wanna be clean all the way.” You see, what you hope for does affect the way you live. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye appear with Him in glory. That’s why you wanna be right with Him, right now. By faith, trust Him to manage your thoughts and your feelings.

Dear Father, today, manage our affections, keep them heaven bound, Amen.

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