This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Wintersprings, Florida, where Dr. Pete Owenson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part five in a series called The Awesome Community. This message is taken from Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 17, and is titled Extreme Makeover. Awesome character in the awesome community. Now here's Pete with today's message. Well, today we continue our series. In fact, we include our series called The Awesome Community. We've been looking at the Church of Jesus Christ, talking about who we are as a church, because the church is not about a building. We're building a building, but a building is only a sufficient, listen, this will be the fifth building we built. We're not about buildings. I'm not about buildings. I didn't go to seminary to build buildings. If I did, I'd have been a contractor. We're not about buildings. We are about building people in truth and love, bringing the gospel to people. That's what we're about, and buildings are just sophisticated tools that are necessary in our country to build people, especially in Florida where you must have air conditioning and a roof over your head. We're about building people, because that's what God's about. He's building his awesome community, and today we're going to talk about the character that he wants to build in his awesome community. John Tolson, of the gathering, told a story recently about a Texas couple. He moved from Orlando to Texas, and so he's getting to know what Texans are like, and he tells a story about this Texas couple who pulled up in front of their new mansion, their new incredible mansion in their new incredible Mercedes. And they get out and they're watching this new mansion with the final touches being put on it, and the wife says to her husband, he says, you know, honey, if it weren't for my money, we'd never have a mansion like that. The man didn't say anything. And then the next day they came back, while the furniture trucks were all unloading all of this incredible new furniture, exotic, expensive, beautiful furniture, she says, you know, honey, we'd never have this furniture if it weren't for my money, he didn't say anything. The next night, they're at the country club, having a wonderful time. She links over and says, you know, honey, if it weren't for my money, we wouldn't be here tonight. He said, you know, honey, if it weren't for your money, I wouldn't be here either, you gotta love honesty, you know. Well, the reality is, the honest truth is we couldn't even talk about character if it weren't for Jesus Christ. We wouldn't even be here, we wouldn't even be here if it weren't for Jesus Christ. And we wouldn't be here talking about character and personal transformation if it weren't for Jesus, had he not come and gone to the cross and accomplished everything for us that he did, we wouldn't be able to change. We wouldn't, you know, we wouldn't have any hope of eternal life and we wouldn't have any hope for this life. But the reality is because of what Jesus has done, he makes us fit for eternity with God and some of that fitness for eternity leaks out now. In other words, because of what he's done, now we can be different and it's supposed to leak out now into our character, into our lifestyle. We have hope for the future and we have hope for the first time to be really, substantively different people. So we're going to talk about character, we're going to talk about character transformation, but we're going to see it's all because of Jesus Christ. Chris Wallace in his book, Character Profiles in Presidential Courage, talks about President George Washington, I'm surprised to find that George Washington did not want to serve a second term. He was trying to get out of it, but they kept coming in saying you're the only one that can do this and the early young America was fighting with an internal leadership and so he kind of, he says, okay, I'll do it. And he says, he says, I will do it. Out of the extreme wretchedness of my existence, I will serve another term, tell bad it was. What made him do this? Courage, character, concern for others than himself. It was his character that led him to lead and to sacrifice in a powerful way. Thomas Carlisle once said, the history of the world is but the biography of great men. The history of the world is the biography of great men. That only tells half the story. Because the history of the world and by that it means people, not just guys. If that is true, then the history of the world is also the biography of evil people, isn't it? It is. Absolutely. Because character is what matters. Character and good people makes great people who accomplish great things in the midst of the events of the world. And evil character produces bad people who usually precipitate the bad events which call the good people up to attack them. So I would say that the history, the story of history is the biography of people and what they do out of their character. Out of their spiritual nature. And the reality is, for the very first time, God can make you an awesome, awesome community because of what Jesus has done. He can make you into an awesome person. I think the reality is when we get to heaven, we're going to be sitting around, there's going to be a lot of stories. And we're going to see the great good people who were there because of what God has done. But we're going to see the story, we're going to get to tell stories. And we're going to see how God changed the world through people like us as he built character into us because of what Jesus has done. Some old people in their 90s were interviewed. In their 90s interview, if you were to live your life, how would you do it again? And the sum total came out to three things. If these older folks said, I know what octogenarians are, I don't know what you call people who live into their 90s. They're called old. They're called old. They said, number one, if we were to do our life over again, thank you, Norm. There was Norm Miller and elder here at Willough Creek Church. If they were to live their life over again, they would reflect more. They would think deeply about their life more. Think about character, about their actions. And in advance, they would reflect more. They just said they just went through life so fast and so glib and they didn't think about the implications of their behavior or their character. They would reflect more. Secondly, they said that they would risk more. They looked back and they said, we sat on the bench. We didn't step out when we should have stepped out. We didn't ask for forgiveness when we should have. We didn't try that new business when we should have. We didn't risk as much as we would have risked more. We're still alive and it's not, it didn't kill us. We're too safe. Thirdly, they said, if we could do our lives over again, we would invest in something that would outlast us. We would invest in something that outlasts us. And that is, I see those three areas as really indicative of character because good character leads you to care for others. It leads you to risk. It leads you to think deeply. It leads you to be involved in something that will outlast you. And I recommend that to you and to me as well. Now, notice, the gospel is not about moralism. I want to start that out today and say the good news is not that now you guys get to keep a bunch of rules. Is that good news? That's not good news. A lot of you are just like me. You have authority problems. And I know some of your authority problems because you've told them to me and I've got authority problems too. I hate rules. Rules, when I see a rule, I immediately want to break it. So the reality is the gospel of Jesus Christ is not about, we get to keep rules. The gospel of Jesus Christ is this. And this was what the reformation was all about. In the 16th century, the reformation was all about Martin Luther and other leaders waking up one day and reading the Bible and saying, it's not about keeping rules. It's not about doing good works to impress God. It's realizing what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus died for our sins through faith and him. We are declared not guilty. We are free from going to hell. We are free from a life that is bound up with sin and how sin controls us. We are free with God. And we are free to become who God eternally planned for us to be. Martin Luther said, I don't have to be good, but now I want to be good. Said, I don't have to be good to be accepted, but now I can be. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we're finally free to become in our being and in our character who God designed us to be. We don't need a priest to go before us, a human priest. I am not your priest. Jesus is your priest. He's the last priest. He's the greatest priest. He offered the sacrifice. He is your only intermediary before God. He's the only one you need to become an awesome person. He has made you awesome and he wants to continue that process. So we are free now in Christ to become what he intended for us to be. I read a book this week entitled The Groovy Chicks Road Trip to Peace. No, I really did. You think I just read guidebooks? Blood and gut. No, 2000 kind of guy. The Groovy Chicks Road Trip to Peace. Lori Barker is a local author who has visited Willough Creek and she gave me a copy of her book. She talks about how sometimes when you look in the mirror, the spiritual mirror, you look at your own life. Sometimes, and I don't know how a woman can say this, but she did. You look more like Don Nots, the Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't know how a woman can say it. She said, I didn't say it, but the point is that when we look in a spiritual mirror, what do you see? When it comes to your character, what do you see? Who are you more like? What are you more like? We're going to talk about character, but I want to tell you that a lot of us don't want to talk about character. Some of you are here today saying, no, another sermon on moralism and the gospel is not about keeping particular laws or rules or just trying to be good. This is not a sermon on moralism. Some of you don't want to talk about character today and for several reasons. Some of you, some of you are too busy for character. You are just too busy.
I don't have time to stop and think about my life. I'm too busy and you're doing good things. You guys are not mass murderers. You guys aren't trying to subvert the lives of your kids or your neighbors. You're generally speaking, doing good things, aren't you? And if you're not, you got a real juicy story. Tell me, I need sermon illustrations every week. But the reality is that most of us are, we're so busy going to school. We're going to work. We're working on that other degree. We're trying to build our career that we're so busy. We haven't sat back and thought, what am I becoming? Where am I headed? If I continue to live my life this way, what will I be like in five years? Or in ten years? We're simply too busy for character. Sometimes I get that way. You say, you're a pastor, you're supposed to care. I know. But I get busy too. Doing good things. And I don't think what I might be coming. Some of us are too angry with legalism to pursue character. Some of you are raised in churches where you are always told to keep the laws and the rules and regulations and you're sick of it. And you don't want anybody telling you about how to be good or how to live. You're too angry at the legalism that was just crammed down your throat. I know. I was raised in that kind of an environment too. You know, in the early, I read another book. It's so good. It's called Bible and Pocket Gun in Hand. Bible and Pocket Gun in Hand. About how the ministers, I was born too late because these guys can carry Bible and a gun in church. Isn't that cool? And they took the gospel out west. Do you think there was a lot of religion on the western frontier? And when these ministers went out there, they found very little, very little spirituality. One pastor went up to a guy who was working out in front of his barn. He said, you want to become a laborer for the Lord? He said, no thanks. I've got a job, you know, a laborer for the Lord. He didn't even understand the biblical word there. There was a guy, a preacher who went up to this lady's house and asked her if she had any religious convictions. She said, no, my old man neither. He was tried for hog stealing once, but he wasn't convicted. And what they found was they found nobody with spiritual convictions out there. This is my favorite. This is my favorite, a Presbyterian minister arriving at a lonely cabin in a clearing, hoping to find some fellow member of his denomination asked a woman of the cabin, are there any Presbyterians in this county? She was assuming he was a hunter like her husband. Well, I couldn't say for sure about that. These woods is full of most every kind of garment, but I paid much attention to him. You might take a look around there on the backside of the cabin where my husband keeps his garment hides and see if he's got any Presbyterian hides nailed up. If there's a Presbyterian in this country, he's bound to have caught one by now. I'd love to see what a Presbyterian hide really looks like. And I'll bet some of those guys have. There's some people who had no relics. Some of you were raised with absolutely no conviction, no church, nothing. And this was all so new to you, but some of you had so much. You're sick of talks on character. You don't want anything to do with it. Some of us are just thirdly too uptight for character, because we're trying to keep the rules.
Trying to keep the rules are too uptight. We don't even think about our heart much. And then for some of you are too embattled to care about character. This is usually a leader, and many of you are leaders in the community where you are. You are leaders, and you've got incredible responsibility on your shoulders. You've got to get stuff done. The bottom line demands it. You've got investors that are looking at you, you're embattled, and you've got people that are sniping at you, looking at some of you leaders. You just don't have time for character, because you just got to get the job done. And I understand all that. But the reality is that in Christ, you are free from God's judgment, and you are free to become incredible in character. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. No matter what the excuse could be. Two strangers to a town came to the wise man of the town, and they said, what's this town like? The first guy said, what's this town like? What are the people in this town like? And the wise man said, what were the people like in the town you came from? They were narrow-minded, bigoted, angry, mean people. They said, you're going to find a lot of people like that around here, dude. A certain guy came up to him and said, what are the people in this town like? He said, well, ask them to say a question. What are the people like in the town where you're from? He said, you know, from where I come from, the people are warm and kind and friendly and hospitable. He said, you're going to find tons of people like that around here. It doesn't matter so much what others people are like. What do you like? Because I'll bet in you how you view other people is determined mostly by who you are rather than what they are like. And in the gospel we have the freedom now, really, really to become awesome people of character, men and women of incredible integrity and character who make a difference. You are in the process of writing history right now. And I want you to know how free you are to do that. And so we're going to look at this text and talk about how we grow as people. Here it is, Colossians chapter 3, 1 through 17, after that very long, too long, unseminary long like introduction, here we have God's word. Colossians 1, a 3, 1 through 17. Since then Paul, the Apostle says, since then you've been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on earthly things, for you have died. And your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, too, as your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put the death therefor, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. But now, now you must rid yourself of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, sithian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. Verses 5 through 11, take off all that stuff 12 through 17. This is what you put on. Therefore, as God's chosen people, it's the Greek word electos. As God's elect, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Live 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 heart since as members of one body you were called to peace. Be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, as you sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your heart to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. When it comes to growth, you have to catch first of all that you have more potential than you, than you can ever imagine. Right now. I know the H.C. kicked in a little bit here this morning. It's a little cooler in here. But did the heat level under your collar rise a little bit when you were seeing the things to take off and the things to put on in terms of character? Because the reality is we still need to grow. And yet in Christ you have more potential than you can ever imagine right now since you have been raised with Christ. You say, well when was I raised with Christ? When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you were justified by faith and God said you are not guilty for your sins. Were you made perfect? No. You were declared not guilty. And so the reality is is not only were you justified though, there's all kinds of great theological ease that comes out of this. You not only were justified for your sins, you were adopted into the family of God. You were put in union with God forever and ever and ever. You were the elect and you became His. The spiritual transaction that you probably didn't feel when you accepted Christ was this. You died spiritually to your old life. You were connected to Christ in a spiritual way that was so powerful that it is as if you died and were buried and rose again. And so the reality is is that you are as a Christian a resurrected person. If you've embraced Christ, you've been raised from the dead. Do you always feel raised from the dead? Some of you this morning were the walking dead when you got here. You didn't feel like you didn't feel resurrected Sunday morning. No, but the reality is you are. And because of that, because you are connected with Christ with a resurrection for a new life, you can become. You are free to become. I read an article in USA Today, today, this week about ubersexuals. You know, we guys got to keep the trend of what's going on, figure it out. I missed the whole metro sexual thing. So now they're talking about ubersexuals and I don't know. Someone defined metrosexuals as guys who could have had their backs waxed in the morning, plucked their eyebrows in the afternoon and got with the girl in the evening. I guess that's what a metro sexual is. Now, ubersexual are confident yet compassionate. The illustrations they gave in this article are Bono, President Clinton and George Clooney. There was not one minister in that list. I know. Nor was there a Republican. We're in trouble guys. I want you to know. You know, we take our cue for our femininity or our masculinity from the culture. What is a real woman look like anyway? What's a real man look like anyway? When you're not going to find the clue from the culture, you're going to get the truth from God's word because he wants to build you women into the femininity, whatever that looks like. That he intended from before the foundation of the world and the Bible clarifies it. And men, he wants you to be uber something. But he wants you to be uber like Jesus and character. And we can. Young men. You have such an opportunity not to look back at your life, but to look ahead at your life. Young women, students, you have the opportunity to look ahead and say, what do I want to become in Christ? Finally, you're free to become. I secondly want you to notice about growth this morning, not only that we have more potential than we think, but that transformation comes by intentional subtraction. How are we change inside? It comes by intentional subtraction of those vices, of those vices that we all know we have. Make your own, does your list match this list in verses 5 through 11? I have some vices on that list. No, I'm going to tell you, but we do and you do too. I love you guys, but you do. And growth, you see, sometimes we think that spiritual growth comes by a magical wave of a wand. Or if I just go to church enough times, I sing enough songs, I'm going to be transformed. I get around the right people. I'm going to become godly and all this character will just vanish. It says no. No, the reality is is now that you have literally died dear old nature, but it's still in you kicking and screaming. He says, take off that old nature. Go after it. You have the ability to take off some of the bad stuff in you. Christ is in you. You could take it off. I love this. And the emphasis is not again that we're accepted by what we do, but once that we're accepted, we have the power of God in us to put it up. I got a pair of cowboy boots. I've never worn them on Sunday morning. I love those. I'm going to get some black cowboy boots sometimes and just wear them because cowboy boots are uber, I think, you know, in some way. But now these are not easy boots to put on. I want you to know. So what I do is I put them on and then they have these two little straps on the inside. Guys who have cowboy boots know about all this. So you take them and you just pull those suckers on your foot pops in there. And it's hard getting them on and it's hard taking them off, but I can do it. And your father looks at you and says because of because of my son, look at those things that are hard to take off. You can do it. I can do it with you. We can do it. And you thought you couldn't. You thought that you had to give in the temptation that temptation would always master you. No, it doesn't have to. You would thought you always had to be angry because that's how you were raised. No, you don't have to be angry all the time. You can take off these vices because Christ is in you. We generally don't think about it that way. I remember the time in college when I was driving to junior college and this guy cut me off in traffic and I let him know out the window and in not a really nice way. But I felt convicted of that because because I Christian shouldn't act that way. So I went to a friend of mine and I said, I got to stop this. He said, you don't have to do that. You don't have to be angry all the time. You don't have to cuss like all the time. He said, Memorize Roman six, which is a parallel passage to Colossians three. Since then you have been raised with Christ. Keep seeking things above. That's what says in Colossians. But in Romans, it says, what shall we say? Are we to continue and sin that grace might increase may it never be? How shall we who died to sin still living it? Do you not know that all of us have been raised in Christ Jesus have been raised to new life? And it was like the light went on. I don't have to be that way anymore. Do I ever lose my temper? Sure. Way less. But the reality is, I saw for the first time, I don't have to be the way I don't want to be. Neither do you. Because Christ is at work within us. Steve Brown was telling me of a time of good friend of his who was in an accountability group. You know, an accountability group you confess your sins to one another and hold each other accountable not to do those sins. One time the guy said, you know, all we do in this group is talk about our sins. Why don't we focus on Jesus? Maybe we get better. And what they did is they kicked them out of the group. And I'm not suggesting that we focus on our sins all the time, but that we not in focusing upon grace forget that our sins are still there. The reality is our sins are still there. So let's get them out on the table and then let's focus on Christ. But let's be honest and let's work with them. Sometimes we think that if you just preach grace, you're not talking about sin that is still in us. No. No. Finally, we have the opportunity to become better and glorify God as His believer priests in this world. All right. Lastly, I want you to know we have more potential than we think and that transformation comes not only by intentional subtraction, but transformation comes by intentional addition versus 12 and following. And look how he says this. Therefore, as God's chosen people, you are the elect. He chose you. He chose you when you weren't as attractive as you are now. As God's chosen people, holy, he's calling you holy because of Jesus holy and dearly loved. Now, should you miss that God loves you now? He's just multiplied and he said, therefore as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself. And even if I'm going to say it at front, even if you don't clothe yourself with any of these things and Jesus comes back, you are still holy and loved because of Jesus. But now you're free. And so he says, clothe yourself with all of these things. I love this list. Put on a heart of compassion. When you don't feel compassionate, that's the time when you can say or when the Holy Spirit says to you, it's time for some compassion here. Some of you don't have the gift of service. This is the gift of mercy. You don't really care people are going to hell. I know. I understand. That's okay. There's people like that. Some of you have the gift of mercy. And I mean, you're just heart. You're spilling your heart all over the place. Anybody has anything wrong. You just give them your wallet. But we can all be compassionate. And at the very time, when we don't feel compassionate, he says, put on, clothe yourself with the heart of compassion. That's the time to say, I need to be compassionate here. And I can do it by God's grace. Make me compassionate. Put on a heart of kindness. Humility. Humility is a lack of vanity or self importance. Modesty. Lowliness. Humility is telling our story about coming to faith in Christ and not talking about us so much. Talking about him. Gentleness. There are times where it's just down. Guys, isn't it hard to be gentle sometimes? Ladies, you are more gentle most of the time than we are. But don't you have a hard time sometimes being gentle when you've told your husband something 50 times and he still hadn't got it? Or your kids pick up your clothes. I'm saying this in the most gentle kind way I can. And the next way will be with a 45 pointed right at you. Gentleness. Patience. Bearing with one another. Bearing with one another simply means that there are times in the body of Christ when we put up with each other. Have you found somebody that you didn't like in this church? Well, congratulations. I mean, because they're here and it might be me. And what it says is bear with put up. It does not mean make them tolerable to you. It's just bear with them. That's a supernatural thing, isn't it? Yeah. But you can bear with people. You can get through it. That's what happens in a family, isn't it? We bear with, we forgive one another. You see that bumper sticker that says to air is human to forgive is canine. I like that. Dogs just forgive. They just don't care unless they're pit bull or a wrought wiler. You did this and I'm not ever letting you forget that. But forgiveness is something that you'll know you've done when you don't worry about. Don't think about that person so much in a negative way. Put on love, he says, which is the perfect bond of unity. It's like a lady who's put together a perfect outfit and then puts on just the right string of pearls or the right little bit of jewelry or the right scarf or something that just kind of makes that whole outfit come together. Put on love, which makes the whole outfit of these virtues come together. Let peace act as an empire in your heart. That's what the literal idea here is. Peace, not anxiety, or fear, or frustration, rule in your heart. God can help you do that. In the context, let the word of God dwell within you guys. What I'm saying is this is that we can't become awesome. And you are. I love you guys. And you're amazing, amazing to me. You teach me every week about where I need to grow and what I need to do. Just by the way you live your lives, but the intention here is that we continue to grow and we let God build character. When was the last time you thought about character in your life? What does he want you? A sermon is no good unless you personalize this unless I personalize this. What vices should you take off? What virtues should you put on? Where can God make you and a more awesome daughter or son? That's what they'll accept you more. That's impossible. But so that he might make you a part of the body and influencing others. Personalize this. Make this so so for you. Father, what are you saying? Everything big starts with something little. Take a step this week. At her three-year-old's birthday party, the mother was just absolutely astonished when her mother, the kids grandmother, gave her a little boy a squirt gun. Little boy opens it up. He is just ecstatic. Forget the other gifts. He's over at the fossa filling this thing up. And the mother's going, oh no, she turns her mom's a mom. I'm surprised you give him a squirt gun. Don't you know how much trouble we gave you? We were kids and had squirt guns and she said, oh I remember. Your father will never do that to you. He's not trying to make it worse. He's trying to make it better. Any will. You take it to heart unless you pray. Now if you don't know Jesus, I hope you understand that we don't think we're a bunch of perfect people that Christians are not perfect or forgiven. But if you would like to finally make a front attack on some areas of your life that you just have never been able to get a hold of, we invite you to him because he's the only one that will set you free. And we've been set free but we're still in the process of growth. So we invite you to him. We'd love to talk to you about that. Show you how you can just invite him into your life. Father thank you for your goodness and the freedom that we have now in Jesus continue to build us do whatever it is you want to make us to make us a part of your awesome community. Change us and then use us to help change the world we pray in Jesus holy name. Please stand for the benediction. And now may the amazing grace of our master Jesus Christ the outrageous love of God the Father and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit. Go with you this week as you remember his deep love and concern for you. Amen. Have a great day.