Break Free

HOW DO YOU HIT THE RESET BUTTON ON YOUR LIFE?

Reset is possible because in Christ you have a new STARTING POINT.

Reset requires a rhythm of consistently setting your mind on THINGS ABOVE.

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What do you do with all your old patterns of living?

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and 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 you must also rid yourselves 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 have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Colossians 3:5-11

Reset means doing whatever is necessary to cut out DESTRUCTIVE HABITS.

INDICATIVE                🡪                  IMPERATIVE

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is… Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…

If Christians have already died and risen again with Christ, whatever belongs to your earthly nature must be put to death.

-N.T. Wright

How do you break the power of destructive habits in your life?

Step 1: Do a PROPER DIAGNOSIS.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  

Colossians 3:5

“Chastity was the one completely new virtue which Christianity brought into the world. In the ancient world, sexual relationships before marriage and outside marriage were the normal and accepted practice. The sexual appetite was regarded as a thing to be gratified, not to be controlled.”

-William Barclay

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Colossians 3:8

Step 2: Embrace a NEW PERSPECTIVE.

Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

Colossians 3:6

The Wrath of God: Is NOT the capricious anger of God but the moral order of the universe that one will ultimately reap what they have sown.  It is God’s righteous and just response to that which undermines and corrupts what is good, lovely and morally excellent. 

Step 3: You got to CLEAN HOUSE.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these… 

“To put something to death you must cut off its lines of supply” 

- N.T. Wright

Step 4: Come CLEAN in COMMUNITY.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Reset means doing whatever is necessary to cut out DESTRUCTIVE HABITS.