“Living With Your Eye’s Wide Up” | Col. 3:1-5

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“Living With Your Eye’s Wide Up” | Col. 3:1-5

September 16, 2024

Series: Sermons from the Archive

Book: Colossians

Mike Fourman

Message Overview

Colossians reminds us that Jesus is Supreme above all—the answer to our deepest longing, our only hope and help. Colossians 2 declares a stunning reality for every believer: we are “complete in Him”—filled and fulfilled in Christ. And yet, Paul knows there is often a painful disconnect between what is true about us in Christ and how we live.

Colossians 3:1–4 is Paul’s “therefore.” Because we have been raised with Christ, because our life is bound up with Him, Paul calls us to live with our eyes lifted—“Eyes-Wide Up”. This passage gives daily, ongoing direction: keep on seeking the things above, keep on setting your mind on the things above, and remember who you are right now in Christ—raised to new life, seated with Him, and hidden with Him in God. As we seek and set our minds above, God’s Spirit closes the gap between what is true and how we live, so we can actually experience the fullness of life found in Christ.

Outline

  1. Remember What Is True About You in Christ
    (Col. 3:1–4)

    1. You are raised with Christ: “If (Since) you have been raised with Christ” — you possess NEW LIFE—TRUE LIFE.
    2. You are seated with Christ: “where Christ is seated on the right hand of God” — a completed work, a full pardon, because “He said ‘IT is FINISHED’… and He SAT DOWN.”
    3. You are hidden with Christ: “For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” — a Child of God, fully secure, protected, provided for “in the refuge of Jesus.”
  2. Live with Your Eyes-Wide Up
    (Col. 3:1–2)

    1. “Seek the things above”: the call is present, ongoing—“keep on seeking” (daily, hourly): align your life with God’s priorities and depend on God’s power to live them out.
    2. “Set your mind… on the things above”: course-correct your thinking—heartfelt, consuming, affectionate focus—so your priorities and actions are shaped by what is eternal, sovereign, and true.
  3. Pursue the Christ-Life Until the Gap Closes
    (Col. 3:4)

    1. The “already / not yet” tension is real: “There is NOW a GAP between what is TRUE ABOUT ME—and HOW I PRESENTLY LIVE MY LIFE.”
    2. Hope anchors the fight: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
    3. Keep on seeking, keep on setting: as you look up—seek and set—God’s Spirit “will CLOSE that GAP,” so you can know more and more of that new life now.

Big Idea

Because you have been raised with Christ, seated with Christ, and hidden with Christ, live with your Eyes-Wide Up—keep on seeking and keep on setting your mind on the things above—so God’s Spirit closes the gap between what is true about you and how you live.