Rev. David Holwick R
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 16, 2002
Colossians 3:12-14
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I. Slaves of fashion.
A. I have always been a slave to fashion.
[this got the laugh I expected]
1) This suit - highest K-Mart quality.
2) I intend to get another one when I lose twenty pounds.
So it has to last until 2006.
B. My hero, Bill Blass, died this week.
1) Famous for his casual styles, as long as you can afford
$3,000 to $5,000 for sportswear.
2) Ever see anyone wearing this stuff?
3) Americans are all in T-shirts and stretch pants.
a) The more prosperous we get, the more we dress down.
C. The one fashion we cannot neglect is our Christian character.
1) First, we have to learn how to strip.
a) Take off the old nature, the way we were before Christ.
b) (Of course, Paul uses a harsher term - kill it.)
2) Then we need to learn how to dress.
II. We have to dress right for God's sake.
A. Three things God has done for us:
1) God has chosen us.
2) God has set us apart and made us holy.
3) God has loved us, and continues to do so.
B. What we should do for God.
1) When you think about it, the greatest motivation for
snazzy dressing is to impress someone we want to love.
a) Since God loves us, dress up for him.
2) Clothe yourselves with right thinking and actions.
a) Stress is on positive aspects of Christian reformation.
b) Interestingly, each of the qualities he lists have to
do with interpersonal relationships.
III. The five garments of fashionable Christians.
A. Compassion.
1) Pity and tenderness toward the suffering and miserable.
2) William Barclay says the one thing the ancient world needed
was compassion.
a) Sufferings of animals meant nothing to them.
1> There was little provision for the elderly or sick.
b) He concludes that almost everything that has been done
for the elderly, the sick, the weak in body and in
mind, the animal, the child, the woman, has been
done under the inspiration of Christianity.
B. Kindness.
1) Combines goodness, kindliness and graciousness.
2) "Sweetness of disposition."
C. Humility.
1) It has been said that humility was a virtue created by
Christianity.
2) In ancient Greek, the word "humble" always had the tinge
of servility - a groveling, cringing attitude.
3) Christian humility is based on idea God is greater than we
are, and all people stand on an equal footing before him.
4) Quote by Norman Vincent Peale - "Humble people don't think
less of themselves ... they just think about themselves
less."
D. Gentleness.
1) Opposite of arrogance and self-assertiveness.
2) It considers the rights and feelings of others.
3) It is a characteristic of Christ (Matt 11:29),
a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:23),
and a distinctive trait of Christians (Matt 5:5).
E. Patience.
1) Self-restraint that enables us to bear injury and
insult without resorting to retaliation.
2) It is an attribute of God and a fruit of the Spirit.
3) Two actions should flow from patience:
a) Bear with one another.
1> Put up with irritating traits in others.
b) Forgive as God forgives.
1> Only forgiven people can forgive.
2> Only forgiving people can be forgiven.
c) A negative example:
One day in March 1980, a 12-year-old boy named Frank borrowed a
friend's motorized minibike.
He raced down his residential street and flew out from behind a
Dumpster into the path of a car driven by John Favara, a neighbor.
There had been friendship between the families and the kids had often
slept over at each other's houses.
The setting sun was shining into Favara's eyes when his car hit Frank.
The boy was killed.
The death was ruled accidental, and no charges were filed, but the
boy's family, frantic with grief and fury, didn't see it that way.
The days after the boy's death were followed by a series of threats
against Favara.
At one point the epithet "MURDERER" was spray-painted on his car.
Favara was a stolid, mild-mannered man, not easily excited or
frightened, but the succession of threats rattled him.
Especially considering who they came from - Frank's father was John
Gotti.
Favara asked a friend, who happened to be a member of the Castellano
Mafia family, what he should do.
The friend advised him to get rid of the death car.
The sight of it enraged Victoria Gotti - so much that in May, two
months after the accident, she attacked Favara with a baseball bat.
He went to a hospital for treatment of his injuries but refused to
press charges.
Nevertheless, Favara followed a second piece of advice from his
friend: He put his house up for sale.
Toward the end of July, John Gotti decided to take Victoria off for a
week's vacation in Florida.
"My wife is still mourning my son and I took her down there to get her
mind off things," he would later say.
"She's still on medication."
On July 28 John Favara came out of his factory and headed for his car.
He'd nearly reached it when a stocky man rushed him, clubbed him with
a two-by-four, and heaved him into the back of a van.
"Our friend is sick," the stocky man explained to a witness who
wondered what was happening.
"We're taking him home." The van disappeared down the road.
Another man got into Favara's station wagon and drove it way after
the van.
John Favara would never be seen again.
Several days later the Gottis returned from their holiday in Florida.
When Queens police asked John Gotti about his neighbor's
disappearance, the bereaved father replied:
"I don't know what happened.
I'm not sorry if something did happen. He killed my kid."
Soon after, an informant told the FBI that Gotti ordered Favara killed
but wanted a solid alibi by not being in New York.
Another informer said Favara was kept alive until Gotti's return from
Florida so that Gotti could kill him himself.
Just one of the reasons the Catholic church hesitated to give Gotti
a funeral mass...
#3765
d) A more positive example:
The movie "The Straight Story" is based on the true story of Alvin
Straight, a 73-year-old man who journeyed to mend a broken
relationship with his brother, whom he hasn't seen or spoken
to in over ten years.
Alvin has lost his driver's license because of impaired vision.
When a call comes indicating that Lyle, Alvin's estranged brother,
has had a stroke, Alvin determines to find a way to visit his
brother and make things right.
His only solution is to hitch a makeshift trailer to his 1966 John
Deere riding lawn mower and set out on a 500-mile trip that will
take him more than six weeks.
One night Alvin camps out in a church cemetery.
The pastor of the adjoining church sees Alvin from his office and
brings him a plate of hot meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
A conversation ensues.
Alvin mentions his brother who lives in the area.
The pastor recalls having met a man by that name while making calls
in the hospital, but admits that he didn't recall the man making
mention of having a brother.
"Neither one of us has had a brother for quite some time," Alvin
explained.
"Lyle and I grew up as close as brothers could be.
We worked hard.... Me and Lyle would make games out of our
chores....
He and I used to sleep out in the yard most every summer night.
We talked to each other till we went to sleep.
It made our trials seem smaller.
We pretty much talked each other through growing up."
The pastor asked, "Whatever happened between you two?"
Alvin's eyes tear-up as he explains.
"The story's as old as Cain and Abel. Anger. Vanity.
Mix that together with liquor, and you've got two brothers who
haven't spoken in ten years."
Then he adds, "Whatever it was that made me and Lyle so mad, it
doesn't matter anymore.
I want to make peace and sit with him and look up at the stars like
we used to do."(1)
In an interview while on his journey, Alvin Straight explained why
he was making that 500-mile journey.
"There's no one knows your life better than a brother that's near
your age.
He knows who you are and what you are better than anyone on Earth.
My brother and I said some unforgivable things the last time we
met, but I'm trying to put that behind me.
And this trip is a hard swallow of my pride.
I just hope I'm not too late."[2]
#17300
IV. Our final accessory should be love.
A. Agape love.
1) Distinctive Christian term for caring love.
B. Love binds it all together in perfect unity.
1) All the other virtues are included in love, but love is
larger than any one of them, or all of them together.
2) These five qualities should eliminate friction between
people.
C. Start adding to your wardrobe.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 3765 "John Gotti's Version Of Forgiveness," Time-Life Books, Crime
series, 1993, page 143.
#17300 "A 500-mile Reconciliation On A Lawn-Mower," from the sermon
"Make a Fresh Start" by Dr. Bruce Emmert, 1999, #15847 in
Holwick sermon database. [1] This write-up is adapted from
preachingtoday.com. "The Straight Story," rated "G", was
written by John Roach II and Mary Sweeney, directed by David
Lynch, produced by Walt Disney Pictures, and released in 1999.
[2] Quote is found at http://movieweb.com/movie/straightstory/
This sermon relies heavily on the Expositor's Commentary on Colossians by
Curtis Vaughan and William Barclay's Commentary on Colossians.
These and 20,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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