SAINT OR SINNER?

Yesterday I was the guest minister at ReserveWorship in South Carolina. As I sat on my porch at the guest house early Sunday morning I watched the fog rise off Lake Keowee.

My message to the gathered worshippers was the challenge of being “Saint or Sinner” as a Christian living with dual citizenship on earth and in heaven. The text was from Colossians, chapter three, verses one to fourteen. Some of my comments …

Jesus is heaven come to earth.
You (as a believer) are earth come to heaven.

As a Christian you are to live with your feet on earth and your heart and mind in heaven.

You can be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.
You can also be so earthly minded that you are no heavenly good.

A saint is a faithful follower of Christ who seeks to live a holy life. The mark of a saint is that his conversation and actions look like Jesus.

The challenge is to match your walk with your talk, unite practice with principles, combine grace with truth.

Knowing and experiencing the Cross is to live on the horizontal plane (with others) and vertical plane (with God).

This old ditty tells the challenge of living like a saint:

To live above with saints we love,
Oh, that will be glory.
But to live below with the saints we know.
Well, that’s another story.

There are five areas of the earthly nature to put to death (from overt to less overt):

Sexual immorality
Impurity
Lust
Evil Desires
Greed

The binding link for this deadly chain is Idolatry. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also."

You must rid yourself of such things as:

Anger – bottled hatred
Rage – uncapped hatred that spews
Malice – ill will that is often hidden hatred with secret revenge
Slander – gossip and rumor
Language that is filthy and abusive

The binding link for this corrosive chain is Lying. A life controlled by the above qualities becomes a lie to the power of the Gospel.

Put on five character qualities:

Compassion
Kindness
Humility
Gentleness
Patience

The binding link for this chain that makes perfect unity is Love. Putting on these new “clothes” is a process of renewal as you grow in your relationship with Christ.

To illustrate the contrast between the “old” (sinner) and “new” (saint) natures, I wore a wild looking shirt from the 1970’s and changed into a typical summer shirt. The visual effect was to show what fit and looked appropriate. As I wore each shirt I put on a “necklace” with cards showing each of the groups of five qualities.