Sunday, we concluded our sermon from Colossians 3:12-17 with four great hindrances to living out our new life in Christ. There may be others, but these four are commonplace.

The first is judging our spirituality by certain things we do while never considering the kind of person we are. This was one of Jesus’ criticisms of the Pharisees: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” (Matthew 23:23 NKJV)

We wrongly assume that spiritual maturity is determined by the keeping of certain religious expectations. But while there are valid expectations such as attending church and giving, it is possible to do such things while never becoming what Jesus wants us to be relationally with others. There have been a lot of people attend church but hate the people they attend with.

Second is the thought that sanctification requires nothing of us: “Since we were saved by grace, we will just somehow automagically become like Christ.” Yes, I know that “automagically” is not a word. Microsoft Word has underlined it in red. But it describes the way we sometimes think. The truth is that we will not magically wake up one day and be more like Christ. The text requires our participation in “putting on”, “forgiving”, “letting the peace of God rule”, “letting the Word of Christ dwell” and “doing everything.”

While it is true that in and of yourself “you can’t”, the reality of sanctification is that as you engage your body and mind toward becoming like Christ, the power of Christ in you enables you toward holiness. But you’ve got to choose, engage and do.

Third is the thought that “God made me this way” or “this is just my personality.”

God did indeed make you with certain talents and abilities to be used for His glory, but He did not make you a surly, selfish, curt, uncaring, judgmental, unforgiving, sorry sinner. You get credit for that.

And the fact that it is your personality is precisely the problem. It is your personality and not Jesus’ personality which is what you are supposed to be growing into through sanctification.

In the end we will either try to ignore the changes that need to be made in us toward Christ-likeness, excuse our failure to move toward those changes or actually embrace the Word of Christ and the power of Christ and act toward becoming like Christ.

Finally, the fourth hindrance we mentioned was the thought that it doesn’t really matter. This is the thought that, “I’m saved, not going to hell, going to heaven and nothing else matters.” Really? It doesn’t matter that we are a new creation, that old things have passed away and all things have become new, that we have died with Christ, been buried with Christ and are raised with Christ to newness of life? It doesn’t matter that God was purposeful in saving us and has destined us to conformity to the image of His Son? It doesn’t matter whether or not God is glorified through the life that He procured through the death of His Son? It doesn’t matter whether we experience the goodness of God to the fullness of the joy He intended for us?

Sanctification matters in a million ways! And to think that it doesn’t is to think little of the cross!

At the end of worship we asked two questions:

“As 2012 ends, are you more like Christ now than a year ago?”

“What are you going to do to become more like Christ in 2013?”

Good questions that beg and answer.