September 30, 2021

Sunday morning: The power of 0.89%

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” – Colossians 3:1-3

Sunday mornings can be busy. Sometimes we’re still thinking about the previous week or gearing up for the next one. We might be feeling rushed that morning or distracted by plans we’ve made for later in the day. Our culture prizes efficiency, multi-tasking, and shrewd time management, and there is nothing wrong with these things, in and of themselves.

But they can pose a serious risk to our spiritual, relational, and emotional health.

In the verses above, Paul tells us that we have been raised with Christ. Our life is hidden in Christ. This is why the Gospel of Jesus is good news. The Gospel is not advice, or a self-help program, or a list of religious duties. The Gospel is good news: it proclaims what God has done for us.

God the Father sent His Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life for us and to be crucified for our sins. Through faith in Jesus, we are saved by His performance, not by our performance. As the Scripture above says, if you are a Christian, you are already raised with Christ. Your life is already hidden in Christ. It’s not something you have to do because by faith it is done for you through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

But – does this mean we will automatically experience God’s love? Does this mean we can go about our lives without intentionality? Certainly not. Notice Paul’s logic. He says we have already been raised with Christ. And yet he says, therefore: set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

We have to intentionally set our minds on God to receive from Him. This isn’t something that passively happens to us. It’s something we must actively do. If we don’t, then we won’t experience what God has for us. We’ll be distracted, and muddled, and busy, and unable to receive what God wants to show us.

One week is made up of 168 hours. Our corporate gathering on Sunday lasts about one and a half hours. That’s 0.89% of our week. On Sundays we do what God commands us to do: We sing and proclaim truth together in worship. We open our hearts to God. We confess. We receive God’s Word through preaching. We remember Jesus through communion. We respond by singing in worship. We are assured of our salvation in Christ. We instruct our children in simple truths from Scripture to give them a foundation. We encourage one another, meet visitors, catch up, and enjoy relationships.

God commands us as Christians to gather because He loves us. We need it. He means to speak to us, minister to us, heal us, strengthen us, encourage us, correct us, comfort us, instruct us – all these and more. But our role in this isn’t passive. It’s active. We have to set our minds on God, and this is just about impossible to do if we’re rushed and distracted.

This is why prioritizing the Sunday gathering is important. This is why falling into a habit of being rushed on Sunday is not good for our souls. Our minds will be set on just about everything, except Christ. We will miss the fullness of what God has for us.

Shame and guilt are not good motives for loving God. This post is not about casting any shame or guilt. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Instead, this is a loving reminder that God loves you. He has the power to heal, restore, comfort, and transform us. But none of this happens automatically. We play an active role.

Sometimes we’re late on Sunday. It happens, and that’s part of life! None of us want our church culture to become hard-hearted and legalistic about things like this. Jesus carried our shame, and He doesn’t put it back on us. But if we don’t aim to prioritize arriving early enough to get settled and ready to receive what God has for us, we are short-changing ourselves and missing out on the joy of being ready to receive together, as a united community.

Finally, we must always remember that the Gospel is opposed to earning. You can’t earn eternal life with Christ because it’s a gift through faith. But the Gospel is not opposed to effort. In fact, the Gospel moves us toward effort. We all make time for what we value, so let’s value our corporate gathering because that 0.89% of our week may be a small window of time, but it has the power, by God’s design, to do enormous work in our hearts. We don’t want you to miss out on any of that.

We love you all!