A few years ago, I wrapped up a friendly meeting at the coffee bean and tea leaf there. It used to be right next to Costco down there a few minutes away from here now I think it's like a cock taco place which again I'm all for. Uh but I loved meeting at different coffee shops. I love different things about the coffee shops, right? The coffee bean, I'd love, this is super random and specific but maybe some of you will track with me on it. Uh I love the coffee shops with the tiny ice. You know, I'm talking about the tiny ice with ice coffee. Excellent. Anyway, so I was leaving. This meeting all was good was about to hop into my sweet sports car. 2008 white Honda Civic. Sorry for that subtle flex. But what can I say? I'm a car guy. And what I mean by that is a paid off car guy. Amen. That's good. That's good. No, I specify there was a 2008 white Honda Civic for just a moment. Just stay with me for a moment. So I got into my car, enjoyed driving as always put the key in the ignition, turned it. Nothing. Okay. Tried it again. Nothing. I was like, huh. That's weird. As I'm trying it again. I look around like, wow, my car is cleaner than I remember. Definitely was not my 2008 white Honda Civic. It was just like it and I definitely was in the wrong car. I clicked unlock. I heard the unlock which my car did unlock, which was two spots away. And instead I was in somebody else's Honda Civic. And then to my embarrassment, my friends who I was meeting with was still there. So we were walking. All right. See you later. I get in the car, they're still there. They see this go down and they watch me get out of the car, close the door, give them a wave, get into my car and then drive away. Why do I share that besides flexing on my ride? Um I share that because you can't get in the wrong car and expect it to start might look the same, but it's not in my case, the embarrassment was very literal. But I wonder how many people here today are getting in the wrong car? Mentally, emotionally, relationally, they have the keys to love and they're getting in the car of lust. They have the keys to community and relationship. Instead they're getting a car of desire, they have the keys to connection with God and yet they're getting in the car of pride. Church, I get it. We are faced with challenges every single day. In fact, the experts say that the average person is faced with 35,000 decisions every single day, 35,000. It seems like a massive number. But you can think about every single thought from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, what you eat, what you wear, what room you walk into, which shoe you put on first, what you think about what you don't think about what you tell yourself not to think about, but then you start thinking about it. But then you start thinking about how you shouldn't think about the things that you're thinking about. But then you start going down, does anyone else go down that spiral besides me? OK. There are so many things that we have to decide every single day and God has given you the keys to the kingdom, but you gotta get in the right car this morning's message is entitled your mindset matters, your mindset matters. And with 35,000 daily choices that we have to make it. Where do we start? Now? You see we're walking through this letter called Colossians. The apostle Paul's got a shady past, gets saved, starts preaching the gospel, gets in prison for preaching the gospel right to a church that he'd never been to. But he heard about their faith Trade City that's maybe seen some better days, right? Around 6080 give or take a year or two. And what's interesting is he writes this letter and we see it laid out, we added the numbers in chapters versus later, but he actually structures the letter this way. In chapter one, we see Christ declared, see the theme for the whole letter is Christ over everything. It's not about just acknowledging the existence of Jesus. But do you actually believe in him and trust him as Lord and Savior in your life? So chapter one is all about Christ declared from creation to redemption. Jesus holds all things together. Then chapter two is really described as Christ defended. In fact, Pastor Dan King shared last week the value of knowing who you are and who you are not. And what does it mean to not let the world really take your mind captive and not just to have the appearance of religion? But what does it mean to actually know Jesus and to know who you are in light of that? Well, start in chapter three and through the rest of the letter Paul gets really practical. He actually says what you believe should impact how you behave, what you long for should actually impact how you live. And so it becomes Christ demonstrated. So it's Christ declared Christ defended and now we move to the practical and this is kind of mind blowing in the context of culture because in that day and a the various pagan religions disconnected your lifestyle from the religion. If you come and pay homage to some idol or some altar and you give a sacrifice or financial donation or you attend the temple, then you can live however you want. And I wonder how many people think Christianity works the same way today. I, if I pay some money, if I go to church, if I say this prayer, I do one thing over here, I can live with sleep with, say whatever I want to over here. And Paul is actually gonna say no, what you believe has a direct impact on how you live. And it starts with your mindset. If you're taking notes, I invite you to write this down that an eternal mindset cultivates earthly freedom, an eternal mindset cultivates earthly freedom. If you have our Bibles, we're gonna jump into Colossians chapter three. And it, and it reads this says, if, then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on things that are above and not on the things that are on earth says for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Now, let's talk through this passage a little bit. First it starts, it starts off by saying if, then you have been raised with Christ Now, in this particular case, he's writing to Christians. And so really that word is not an if but a sense he's saying since you have been raised with Christ, since you have been made alive with Christ, he then challenges people to do two things to seek and then to set, to seek after the things that are above and then to set your mind on the things that are above. And then he goes in and he says that for your life is hidden in God and that word hidden can be found in Isaiah and in the Psalms in Isaiah 49 in Psalm 27 in Psalm 31. And it's really language used to describe security for your life is secure in God in Christ. If you believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, your life is secure in Christ. So when Christ appears again in glory, you will appear also. So in the meantime, I want you to do two things I want you to seek and I want you to set now to seek is to go after something, right? It's not the game's not called hide and stay away for a while, right? It's hide and seek, right? I remember playing that with some friends out on a big piece of land in Ohio because there's land everywhere in Ohio, right? There's farms and whatnot and we were playing hide and seek with a group of friends as teenagers and it was great. But we got tired of searching. So we all just went inside and didn't tell our friend he was out there for hours. It's not great. I feel bad. But in his mind at first he was like, man, I am killing it. I'm winning this game. I'm still killing it. He finally comes into the house and we're playing something else and he's like, what is going on? It's hide and seek, right? You gotta go after something. When you play that with a kid, like a toddler, it's a lot easier, right? Typically like let's play hide and seek and it's like in the living room, right? And the little kid throws a blanket on and then they tell you can't find me, right? Like, oh no, where are they? OK. But sometimes I feel like we're playing that game with God. We're like, God, I don't see you. Where are you? I was like, really, really like it gives a whole new meaning to Genesis three, doesn't it? Like Adam and Eve go hiding from God and God goes, where are you? Like, oh, he doesn't know where we are. He's like, I, I know exactly where you are. I'm asking for your sake, never mind, God is sought after us, right? And He invites us to seek him, right? Matthew 633 seek first the kingdom of God and you'll be given all these things. The very next chapter Matthew seven. He says, ask and I will answer seek and you will find. So he's already given us the promise that if you seek after the God who made you, he will make himself available to you. So therefore, in light of everything that you got going on in your world, are you seeking after the things of God? But then the second challenge then is to set, to set your mind on things above. Now, it it feels weird to think about taking your mind out and then placing it somewhere. But we do it all the time, right? What are the thoughts running through your mind? What are you thinking about on a regular basis? Where have you set your stuff down? I remember when my wife and I were moving from Florida to Arizona. She flew out with our young boys and then I was driving the moving truck across the country and even though I was taking like a three day trek, I thought I had the easier job, right? Cause driving a truck by yourself where you can stop when you want whenever you want or cross the country airline by yourself with two toddlers. She had the tougher end of the deal. So, but she made it out there. She was out in Arizona. She was gonna get settled into our rental. I was gonna drive our stuff out. I left day one, I'm driving, she calls me. He said, hey, the rental is not gonna work. Uh well, you got two days to find us a new place cause I got all of our stuff and I need, we need to put it somewhere, you know, and, and she, she did got work some things out. We found a place and it was there. But I remember that first day feeling stressed cause here I had all of our belongings and we had nowhere to put it. I wonder how many of you are walking through life mentally. That way you have all the weight, all the shame, all the guilt, all the worry, all the questions about tomorrow, all the issues about today, all the mistakes you made yesterday and you can pile it all together and you got this truck loaded weighing you down and you've never said it anywhere. Think about too. If you take even just the smallest of weight and you hold it out in front of you like I can hold this, it's fine, but the longer you hold that weight, the heavier it becomes. And some of you have been hanging on to something for hours, for days, for weeks, for decades. And what started small has completely weighed you down and you've never said it somewhere. God's inviting you to set it down and then set your mind on the things above. Here's the other thing, think about, when's the last time you like legitimately thought about heaven? Like legitimately thought about what heaven was gonna be like. See I think we get so caught up in our to dos that we forget that this isn't our home. Have you ever been traveling, going on vacation with family? You stop at not the greatest of gas stations and like, the bathroom is kinda like, uh, like, I don't know, I'll, I'll wait, I'll use the next one, you know, I'm talking about. Right. Do you hate the vacation spot because of the gas station on the way? Right? Like, oh, I hate vacation. No, no. In fact, when you encounter something you're like, can we just get there? Can we just can we just arrive? Paul acts this way actually in another letter. He says, oh I just long to be with God. I just long to be with God, but he has me here. So as long as I'm here, I'm gonna remind you of where we're going. How great is a place that the best way to describe it is by simply telling you what's not there. That's what John does in revelation towards the end in the new heaven, New Earth. It talks about how there's no more mourning. No more death, no more sickness, no more tears, talking about standing face to face with God, completely free, completely healed, completely loved and with complete joy. Everyone do this here with me. Just, just take a deep breath. See if you're a Christian, this isn't your home. In fact, this is the closest thing to hell. You're ever gonna experience. And if you have that context, it gives you understanding of Brokenness and issues and struggles, you're gonna have struggle. The challenge comes if you think earth is heaven and then now all the Brokenness really doesn't make any sense because if this is all you got, this isn't great. Why is it that so many quote unquote successful people get to the mountain top and then realize, wait, that's it. They get the promotion, the job, the championship, the title, the fame, whatever. And they said, wait, that's it. But as Christians, we long for something greater. That's when we pray, we pray. What we pray your kingdom come, your will be done. We're praying kingdom down, not culture up. I think sometimes church, we're too busy trying to fit into this world instead of being excited for the next that if you pause and just think about the greatness of heaven and what is to be? It changes your perspective. Just give you a small glimpse. Revelation chapter five verse 11 and 12. He gets this vision. He says, then I looked. Apostle John is writing says, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering Myriads of Myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing where they use that term Myriads. Sometimes in other places, it's used to describe something of about 10,000 in numerical value. And so if you have Myriads and Myriads, potentially that's 10,000 times 10,000. If my math is correct there, that's 100 million angels. Can you imagine the concert of 100 million angels who were created solely for that purpose to sing to the God who created them holy, holy, holy. There is no sin, there is no death, there is no pain. There is the joy that comes sing of the Lord. That is better than any concert you could ever imagine. Amen. Then it goes on to describe the new heaven, new earth at the end describes it and it has similar feel to a city. So there's life, there's movement, but then the gates are open, meaning that it could expand well beyond that. When we start breaking down, what's gonna happen, you understand like, wow, that's something to get excited about. Paul was excited. We realized he was writing from prison to people that were getting persecuted. Say look, I know this doesn't look great right now, but something better is coming and we gotta remember that we got to seek it. We gotta set our minds on what's to come and who God is. Because when you do that, it changes your perspective. It gives you the grit to carry on one more day because there's something better coming. There's some one better coming and when he comes back, we're reigning with him in glory. Pastor Craig Roels put it this way. He said, our life is always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. So most of life's battles are won or lost in the mind. And c as Lewis said this, he said, if you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought the most of the next it is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world, that they've become so ineffective in this one. Ok. I just wonder church if we're too busy trying to rearrange the furniture on the Titanic. You know what I'm saying? Tim Keller used to say it didn't matter if you were hugging somebody or mugging somebody that boat's going down. Oh, yeah. Now you can make a difference in this world. You can bring light into this world. You can bring joy and purpose into this world. But it helps to understand that this is not our home, that God has called us to something bigger to someone bigger, to be someone greater that we have a hope that the world can't hide. Do you realize that in the New Testament there, a guy named Nathan Knight, uh took some stats on this. And so I appreciate it because then I can just quote it without having to do the research. Uh He said that there are 7957 verses in the New Testament. There are roughly 200 mentions of the word love. You've probably heard of Love in church before, right? 200 verses. That's pretty good. That's a lot of verses about love, right? Do you know how many verses talk about hope and heaven or the hope in heaven or some combination of that phrase? 387 times, almost twice as many times about love. It talks about heaven. See, the early church did not have a great circumstance or situation, but they were able to persist and to overcome and to transform and to fight and to change and to serve and to love because they had the hope of heaven in their life. In fact, that's how Paul started his letter to the Colossians, the very beginning of the letter he said, I'm writing to you because I heard of the faith you have in Jesus Christ and the love you have for the saints that spring from the hope you have in heaven, what you seek and where you set your mind determines what you see. What's your perspective right now? Are you seeking God? And are you setting your mind on things above? Here's what I also know if you try to do that, Satan's not gonna like it. He's not gonna like it. He just isn't. In fact, Jesus was having a prayer meeting with the disciples in the garden. That'd be pretty cool prayer meeting, right? Praying with Jesus. OK? And the disciples fall asleep. Like if you fall asleep during one of my sermons, I'll feel bad. But then I'm reminded, wait, wait, they fell asleep on Jesus. So OK, like, and Jesus says this in Mark 14, he says, look, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. So it's because the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. You don't know a way to think about this. Ok. Satan can't touch you in the next life, right? He's not going with us up. He started there fell, not a good situation, right? So if he can't touch you in the next life, he's gonna try to tempt you in this life. And if he can't destroy you, he's gonna do his best to distract you. Well, how did they do that? The Apostle John writes in first John chapter two verse 16, he says, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father, but it's from the world. You see, Satan has been running the same play from Genesis three in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve all throughout. He does it again in the Temptation of Jesus and he's trying to run the same play with you and me today. Here's his play. There's three temptations that Satan will do number one, it's called the lust of the flesh. It's called hedonism. So like sensual desires, pleasures those things. And the challenge for the Christian is not that we desire things. It's that we don't desire enough. See, the greatest joy is, is Jesus. Right? There's, there's the promise and joy, for example, of love and marriage and we struggle for uh and, and we live in a culture that then settles for lust and one night stands, right? And what you can see on a computer and beyond. And we, and we settle for so much less than what God has actually created us for. And so the first temptation is the lust of the flesh hedonism in this part. In jesus' case, when he was tempted, it was hey, you haven't eaten in 40 days, turn this rock into bread, right? You have this desire. Um I'm gonna meet it for you. He said no, no, no, that's not what I'm called to do. God provides. The second one you see is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the eyes is materialism. That that's when you think you need stuff to define you. I need this, I need this, I need that. And as soon as you have something, somebody else has something slightly newer, bigger, more expensive, right? In jesus' case, right? It was hey, look at this whole kingdom. It could all be yours. And Jesus recognized. Well, that actually already is mine in the Garden of Eden. Satan goes to Adam and Eve. Don't you want to be like God? The reality was they already were, they were sons and daughters. Satan's taking that little bit of truth like you need this. If you get this, you get that. It's the lust of the eyes. The last one's called the pride of life. It's egotism. This is where, you know, we've heard it said like pride is the root of so many evils. It's so true. It's a selfish desire that I me, me, me, me right in the garden to Adam and Eve He goes, don't you want to be like God, right? Don't you want that power to Jesus? He says, hey, if you throw yourself off this building won't angels catch you. Don't you wanna show everyone the power that you have? That was coming from a position of pride, not humility. And Satan's trying to attack you right now with one of those three areas. How do we know? Well, he walks through it and he's gonna, he's gonna turn, he's like seek God, set your mind on heavenly things and all of a sudden it's gonna be really intense and he's gonna say put to death, the word mort mortified to kill. It's not very fluffy Paul. It's not very sweet, but it's, he starts listing these things. I think he's doing so because he's showing that everyone's got something, everyone's got something they're struggling with. And by listing stuff out. He say no, everyone's accountable. And so he starts walking through this. No, put to death. Why? Because these sins are killing you. You've heard of gentle parenting? You know, gentle parenting. Can I tell you a situation where gentle parenting won't work? I mean, we can have a whole another conversation but I'm not gonna jump on toes yet on that just saying. But, um, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm a, we're refrain, we're refrain. I had some jokes but I'm just gonna hang on to that one. But, but if you see a little kid right about to walk onto the street and get hit by a car like is gentle parenting gonna work there, Billy don't, don't step out there, Billy. I know you. What do you, what do you want to do, Billy? Don't, there's a car coming. What do you think? No, you're yanking that kid. Why? So we get hit by the bus, right? If someone's drinking poison and it's killing them and it's a loved one, aren't you to knock that thing out? Like stop drinking the poison, it's killing you. This is the attitude that Paul has here. Ok. So he's saying this in love. He says, man, when you think about how good God is and it's connected. He's saying he's not saying stop sinning because sinning is bad. He's saying stop sinning because it's killing you and God is better. And so here's his list. He says in verse five, put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire coveted, which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming saying guys, this is serious. If you have somebody in your life that's like really getting under your skin, you can be like, hey, I read Colossians 36 and thought of you today brand. It's a serious deal. You think God's justice is coming? We love justice. It's not just for us. You know what I'm saying? We love justice for other people, just not us. But then he continues on and he says, verse seven in these, you two once walked, you were living in them but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. So do not lie to one another. See that you've put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self. I love this because outside of the picture of of death itself, he's actually it co colosse was like a textile type trading town. So they were actually trading clothes. So he's using the imagery, take off the old clothes, put on the new clothes. He says that having put on the new self, well, that's a one time word for new like a once and for all then which is being renewed. So that's an ongoing process and knowledge after the image of its creator. He says here there is not Greek or Jew circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian scian slave, free democrat. Republican. Ok. I just added that one. But that's gonna hit real home this couple of months from now since none of that matters. It is Christ is all. And in all, see, I think some people are reading this passage and they're like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That person needs that. Mhm. Yeah. They need to put to death, the sins in their lives. So mm mm mm mm. This list is for you and for me and for all of us that we have to stop doing the things that are killing us. They're grave clothes, their grave clothes. John chapter 11, Lazarus, friend of Jesus dies incredible miracle. Jesus calls him back to life. But you know what's interesting? He comes out of the grave wearing what grave clothes don't you think if he had the ability to make someone go from dead to alive, he could give them a new outfit in the grave, right? And just walk out. But he walks out and says no, take those grave clothes off. That was after he had been raised from the dead. That was John 11 in John chapter 20 Jesus Christ himself rises from the dead. The disciples marry others enter the tomb. And what do they find? He left the grave clothes behind church. You gotta put the grave clothes away, sins of the world, the desires of the flesh. And it's an ongoing battle. Satan's gonna try to tempt you, but here's what I know to be true that an eternal mindset cultivates earthly freedom. The best garden gets weeds and s he's gonna tempt you. He's gonna attack you. Yeah, we got to put to death, the things that are killing us and to seek God and then to set our minds on heavenly things because when we do that, it impacts on how we live as the band's gonna come up. I wanna challenge you to do three things this week. Just get real practical here. Number one, I want you to take a mindset inventory, take a mindset inventory. What are you, what are you thinking about? What are you thinking about? Yeah, you're thinking about the sin. You're thinking about the worry, thinking about the shame, thinking about the guilt, right? I've shared this before, but it's kinda like airplanes flying over your head, right? You can't necessarily control the feelings that are coming in and out, but you gotta decide which ones you let land, right? Air traffic controller. What is the situation? The idea that you're gonna let land because we're seeking God in the things of heaven? It changes things. Are you seeking? Are you setting second challenge there is, can you identify a sin that you need to put to death this week? Is there something in that list? Is there a grave clothes you've been wearing? Like, yeah, I need you to take this from me. I need to take my pride. I need to take my language. I need to take my eyes. I need to take my selfishness. I need to take my jealous spirit. I need you to take this from me. You need to put, I need you to mortify it. And the last thing is what would it look like if we just spent 5 to 10 minutes each day reflecting on heaven, like legitimately thinking about what's to come. Maybe it's some prayer, maybe it's a walk in nature. Maybe it's a worship song played on repeat, right? And don't tell me you don't have time because I think we all know this is proven elsewhere, right? How many times myself included? Have you found yourself just scrolling and let me ask you, do you feel better about yourself after what if we took some time and just set our minds on what's to come and see how that makes you feel. We're gonna do that today to end service or take communion and just remember all that God's done. If you don't have the elements, someone's gonna pass them here in just a moment. Provide you to open these. If you're not a Christian, it's feel free to let these pass. But for those that call themselves a Christian, we're gonna take these elements and remember all that God has done for us. Let's pray dear God. Just thank you for who you are and what you've done. God, may you give us freedom today? Help us focus on who you are. Help us focus on the hope of heaven so we can be earthly free to become who you've called us to be in your son's name. We pray amen.