Calvin
Miller once said, “Inwardness is the fount of our relationship with Christ.”
Paul says that Christ longs to fill the heart with his inwardness and to fill
the empty vacuum of the soul. Christ’s hidden life in you means that Christ
is quietly at work in mysterious ways.
Christ
has worked for us through the cross in the past. Christ’s hidden works
ministers together with us in the present. Christ’s future work will be
unveiled like the pulling back of a curtain when Christ returns in his glory.
All in all, the key to a balanced life is to allow Christ to be our life, not
biology, the physical makeup of our lives, but zoe, the spiritual essence of
Christ’s abundance hidden in us. Fill up with Christ! His life in you allows
you to stay balanced.
Advertisement
Clean
up: Christ Purifies Life as We Seek Him (Col. 3:5-11).
Paul
references the Christ life as one that creates a new person, one no longer given
to pornography, impurity, lustful passion (Augustine calls this “hell’s
black river of lust”), selfish evil desire, a greed that never has enough,
and idolatry (Col. 3:5). No longer do Christ’s servants live out of balance
as sons of disobedience, but they live as servants of Christ in faithful obedience
(Col. 3:6). Christ changes the heart and conduct (Col. 3:7). He calls us to
clean up daily and to “put off” as you would dirty clothing settled
anger, outbursts of anger, malice, blasphemy, obscene speech, and lying (Col.3:8-9).
Christ
daily renews the person who seeks Christ and his upward things (Col. 3:10).
Oswald Chambers says, “The springs of love are in God, not in us.”
God renews us with his fresh, eternal spring of living water. The springs generate
God’s love within, thus freeing us to love others. The cross has an attractive
quality: it brings all people together and keeps life balanced. To paraphrase
John Wooden, next to love, balance is the most important word in the Christian
life! Seek Christ!
_______________________
Sermon
brief provided by: John Duncan, Pastor, Lakeside Baptist Church, Granbury, TX