Thank you, Pastor Don, for leading us this morning. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, we need Your Spirit this hour to do His powerful work in our hearts through the preaching of Your Word. Would You unfold to us this glorious union with Your Son that You've given to us so that we at least start to glimpse the beauty, though we may never fully understand the mystery. And even though we may never fully understand it, God, would You at least by Your Spirit cause us to believe its truth and apply it to our hearts in all of its marvelous applications. In Jesus' name, amen. My father-in-law spent the first two-thirds of his life so far having never been to an eye doctor. And at about 40 years old, he began realizing in church one day that out of one eye, he could see a little bit differently than the other. And he thought, you know, I ought to get that checked out. And so he went into an eye doctor for the first time in 40 years of his life. And when he got there, the doctor dilated his eyes and the dilation actually relaxes your muscles. And when he dilated him, he asked him what you could see on the wall in front of him. And then Tom says, what wall? I don't see any wall. And he said, Tom, that is what your eyes look like without the muscle straining. This is what you truly really see. He said, you're basically blind when you're not straining your eyes. You're not even seeing things as they really are. And so after getting glasses, he began to realize all that he was really missing. He told me he was almost like high deaf. He had no idea what he had been missing for most of his life. What Tom had thought was the way things truly were. was in fact not reality. Everything was much different looking than he could have ever imagined. Had he not been given glasses to see the world around him, he would have gone on in life clueless. And in the same way this morning, God wants us to put some glasses on that cause us to have a focused vision on what is reality, even if we cannot see it with our own eyes, the things that truly are. He wants us to have a Christ-focused life. And God calls us today to have our minds and our hearts pursuing and preoccupied with the things of Christ. which happen to be realities that change how you view yourself and how you view this world around you. On Easter, just a few weeks ago, we rejoiced in the resurrection together and heard a marvelous exposition of scripture, just a few verses before the verses that we're gonna look at today. And there we had heard the Apostle Paul give us a declaration of the triumphs of the cross over sin and death. And we rejoice together how our debt of sin was nailed to the cross, and how when Christ in His resurrection disarmed Satan, He sealed Satan's doom forever. And in the text right after that passage that Pastor Jeff preached on, and the passages leading up to the passage that we're going to look at today, Paul continues to address the false teaching that's going on in the church at Colossae. So I want you to turn your Bibles to Colossians chapter 2, and we're going to read together the flow of thought that just leads up to the passage that we'll look at. Colossians chapter 2 and we're gonna start at verse 20 and go all the way through verse 4 of chapter 3 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world Why as if you were living in the world? Do you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle do not taste do not touch? which all refer to things destined to perish with use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men and These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Since verse 8 of chapter 2, Paul has been fleshing out to us what the different aspects are of walking in him. In the section just before what we read, and that leads up to what we just read in verse 1 of chapter 3, we see this strange mix-up of Jewish traditions and some kind of mysticism and harsh treatment of the body. And Paul tells the people in Colossae one application of what he meant in verse 12, of chapter two, where he said, you're buried with him. He says, if you died with Christ, why in the world are you acting like that death of Christ was powerless to help you live a life pleasing to God? You see this strange conglomeration of practices of the Old Testament, weird traditions that people have been making up and combining it with the harsh treatment of the body. Those were being done by the people as a reaction to things of the flesh they were doing. And they thought that since these things have an appearance of wisdom, that they would have power in helping them deal with the flesh, these fleshly desires. And his point is those things you're doing prove useless in dealing with the flesh. So our passage, verse one of chapter three, starts off with a therefore, which connects it to that thought that Paul had just been telling them. That stuff you're doing is not gonna work against the flesh. They were living without glasses to see accurately what was true in life, about their life in Christ. They lived as if reality was in these things that have the appearance of wisdom, but they're missing something. Those things are missing something. Paul says that the wisdom of the world lacks real substance in the power of Christ. He says, in fact, that those practices that they were doing take the focus off of Christ. And he says, in fact, that those practices take the focus off of the triumph of the cross and the glories of union with Christ. And therefore they have no power against the flesh, which by implication means the passage that we're about to look at means what we have to read here has power against the flesh. Okay. Before we dive into the text, I just want to say a few words about something called union with Christ. I mentioned that phrase, and it may be something unfamiliar to you. There are two commands in our text that we're going to look at, and both of these commands are grounded in statements of truth that describe this thing called union with Christ. And here's what union with Christ is. At the moment you were born again, that time that you first repented of your sins and turned to Christ, you were representatively, spiritually, and vitally connected to Christ at that moment. In some mysterious way, we're so connected to Christ in this union with Christ that all of the benefits that Christ accomplished are ours. They truly ours in actuality. And anytime you read the New Testament and it's talking about being in Christ or in Him or with Him, it's talking about this doctrine called union with Christ. And we're gonna see it today richly, richly. So let's look at our verses, Colossians chapter three, one through four. Here, Paul is describing a Christ-focused life. A life, and in this passage, he shows us two commands related to our thinking. He grounds both of those two commands in our union with Christ. And his whole point in this passage is the glorious realities of our union with Christ call us to have minds focused on Christ. And that will help you, like Tom, see reality. But much better reality than what Tom saw with his glasses. The realities of union with Christ. So let's take a look at the first command of a Christ-focused life. And the reasons that follow that command. In a Christ-focused life, there is a pursuit of the things above. A pursuit of the things above. If you look at that first phrase of verse one, it says, therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. A Christ-focused life is one of constant seeking to know God. And just like Matthew 6.33, seek ye first. Seek. Ye first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The New American Standard translates this command to seek just with the right emphasis. It's keep seeking. This seeking is an ongoing search. It's a seeking as a matter of habit. And it's an intense pursuit. It's not just a casual, I go to church on Sunday to get my spiritual fix kind of seeking. It's an all-out hunt for the things of God in order to know Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. And even though it's interesting that Paul emphatically tells us we have been raised, yet he still has to tell us to seek the things of God, to seek the things above. And the fact that he has to tell us that must mean to us that we don't naturally do this. So it's a call to Christians to deliberately focus on what things are above. We have to ask ourselves, why is Paul telling Christians to think about the things above? And the first reason he gives is because of resurrection with Christ. Because of resurrection with Christ. God says in His Word here, "...if you have been raised with Christ." That if could rightly be translated as since. Since you have been raised. The reason that Paul says that we should seek the things above is because you have been raised with Christ. You have been united in Christ's resurrection. And being raised with Christ doesn't just mean that you're guaranteed the resurrection of your body. Being raised with him means that you have new life. New life, a resurrection life. What does that mean though? What does that really mean? When you were born, all of us, every single human being that's ever born, you're born in Adam. Sons and daughters of Adam. Adam was our representative in the Garden of Eden, and when he sinned, we sinned. When we were born, we were born with a nature bound in sin and bound to sin. Sin was all we knew. And before Christ, before you were born again, if you are born again, you were an Adam. But being raised to new life in Christ means you have been baptized out of Adam and into Christ. You are now in Christ as sons and daughters of God. And as sons and daughters of God, that means you have a new nature that's no longer bound in sin or bound to sin. So how does seek the things above relate to since you've been raised with Christ? People who have been raised with Christ do not, who have not, people who have not been raised with Christ do not seek truth from God's perspective. Why? Because they've not been given, they have not been born again. They've not been given new eyes to see. And all the things that they can see is what's around them, what the world tells them, what Satan wants them to believe. In reality though, Reality, though, is defined by the One who makes all things and sustains all things. He is the One who defines reality, and He's the One that says that this spiritual union with Christ is just as real as the physical realm around you. Blaise Pascal said this, not only do we know God through Jesus Christ, but we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ. We only know life and death through Jesus Christ. And apart from Jesus Christ, we cannot know the meaning of our life or of death, of God or of ourselves. Quote this leads us to the second reason the second reason that Paul gives us in the text for seeking the things above It's about knowing God through Jesus Christ Who is the king? The second reason to seek the things above is because of reigning with Christ because of reigning with Christ Verse 1 says where Christ is, comma, seated at the right hand of God. The other reason to be continually seeking the things above is because Jesus Christ is center stage in heaven, high and exalted, reigning with preeminence. This verse is saying two things about Christ. Not just one thing. It's not just saying Christ is seated in heaven at God's right hand. The word order in the Greek seems to indicate that it's actually saying two things. That it's saying Christ is in heaven and Christ is reigning at the right hand of God. So you have to ask yourself, why is it important that it's saying two things? Sounds to me like it's the same deal. The reason it's important, first of all, that Christ is in heaven is because that it affirms his deity, the claims that he made while on earth to being the son of God, this confirms it, that he is in heaven. The second part of that phrase describes what Christ is doing, though, in heaven. He's seated at the right hand of his Father God, and to sit at the right hand of God is a position of honor. That phrase there is actually an allusion to Psalm 110.1, the most frequently quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament, where it says there, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. That first verse is a prophecy about the Messiah. And Jesus himself in Matthew 22 claimed that prophecy for himself. He said, that's me. That's talking about me. I am God. That's a huge claim. He was claiming authority over the universe and claiming to be deity. This is the absolute truth about Jesus Christ and reality. What reality? The fact that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is king over all. But here's an interesting thing. Ephesians 2.6 says that God made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He made us sit with Christ in heaven. That's not a statement about the future. That's a statement that's true right now. One commentator asks, what is more real, where I am here or where I am there? The answer is both. Both are true. Your soul is here, simultaneously united with Christ, if you are in Christ, and therefore is truly also with Him, the right hand of the Father. God is saying to us, people who have truly been given a new resurrection life, are people who seek after Christ and his kingdom and live as if he is king. So my question for you is, are you living as if he is your king? What are you continually pursuing after these days? What are you seeking after? What's your constant pursuit? If it's not a pursuit of Christ as king, you will get to the end." And as Solomon said, he realized it was all a chasing after the wind. But the Apostle Paul doesn't just tell us what to pursue. He tells us what it is that we need to be preoccupied with. As the commentator Lightfoot has said, you must not only seek heaven, you have to think heaven. So that brings us to the second description of a Christ-focused life. In a Christ-focused life, there's a preoccupation with the things above. A preoccupation with the things above. Read verse two with me. It says, set your minds, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. This word to set your mind on means to think the thoughts of, have one's mind controlled by, give your mind to, be intent on. It's not just your mind though. You need to know that it encompasses your heart and your will. If you have a King James Bible, it says, set your affections on. Your affections don't mean your emotions. It means the things that you love and the things that you want. the things that you dream of. It means this verse to set your mind on things means to be preoccupied with. And you and I know what it means to be preoccupied with something. I'm consumed with dealing with something at the moment, usually something like this, right? Working away at the computer. And it's not unusual to have someone come up and talk to you when you're preoccupied with something and they walk away and you have no idea what they just said to you. Because you're so preoccupied with what you're thinking about that time. This text actually at the moment though is not saying that we need to be rudely preoccupied with the things above. What it's talking about is that it's talking about being absolutely focused on seeing this present life from a gospel perspective. It's about seeing all of life with lenses from above. It's about seeing things from God's viewpoint. It's about what we call a worldview. Paul's not saying that all the things on the earth are bad. One common reaction to this is to say, Paul says, don't think about the stuff of life or earth, think about heavenly stuff. So you're no earthly good. That's not what this is talking about. He's saying, that's what we call, friends, dualism. And dualism is false teaching. How do I know, though, that that's not what Paul's talking about? The exact same Greek phrase, the things that are on the earth, that little phrase, Paul uses it elsewhere when he says that Christ created all things that are on the earth. And he says elsewhere that God's purpose in summing up all things, including things upon the earth. And he says that God in Christ was reconciling all things upon the earth. So there are good things on this earth. So this phrase isn't saying don't think about the stuff of life. But there is bad things, because if you look just down at verse five in our passage, it says Paul says to put to death the members that are on the earth. So there are bad things about this earth. The point here is we have to understand that this world we live in, We have to understand it through the things above, through God's lenses. And that's like what I said, this is what it means to have a biblical worldview. We have to understand reality by what God says, not by what limited information we have on this earth. We are not omniscient, God is. We don't have all the data, God does. And God gives us perspective on reality, and that perspective has been revealed right here through the inerrant Word of God. One pastor says it this way, quote, reality upon earth is defined by the reality of heaven, not the other way around. Spiritual truth defines tangible reality. We are on dangerous ground when we weigh spiritual matters by what appears to be the facts based on limited earthly evidence. He who sees only the earthly sees only partial reality. He misses the most vital pieces of evidence for interpreting reality in its fullness. End quote. This is the remedy to Paul's discussion. Like I said, at the end of chapter two, where he had talked to the people about who were submitting themselves to these weird regulations, thinking that that would help them conquer the flesh. Setting your mind on things above is what Paul says will help you have power against the flesh. Through faith we have died to our worldly pursuits. The cross triumphed over the power of sin in our lives. And the resurrection gave us new eyes to see things as they are from above, from God's perspective. So what do we see with these new eyes? we see that Christ, that Christ made all things and that Christ sustains all things and that in Christ, all things are in and through and for Christ. That's reality, folks. But now while we are here, we have to choose whether to dwell or whether to set our mind on the things above or on the things below. And in verse three, Paul gives us the first reason why he says we ought to be preoccupied with things above. We should set our minds on things above because of death with Christ. Because of death with Christ. This is yet another statement about our union with Christ. Paul says very literally and very forcefully in the Greek. He doesn't get captured as well in our English translations. He said, you died. You died. And in Romans 6, where Brian read it, and in Colossians 2.12, it says that we're buried with Christ. We died. Don't misunderstand me. Christ is the one who hung on the tree. We did not do that. Christ alone bore the brunt of what we deserved. Yet the Scriptures are abundantly clear that mystically we are united to Him. When He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried. What does this mean? This guarantees that what Christ was accomplishing on the cross applied to you. The fact that Christ satisfied God's righteous justice in offering up a perfect infinite sacrifice means that God's satisfaction in that payment is yours. He is satisfied in your death because Christ's death is now yours. Romans 6.14 says that because we died with Christ, sin's power over us has been decisively dealt with. We can now face our ongoing temptations to sin and actually have the Holy Spirit's power to say no. And when we do sin, because we have died with Christ, We can face our sin now with confidence, knowing that He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why? Because we're united to Him, and our sins have all been paid for. You died with Christ. Remembering Christ's death And our death with him is remembering what the gospel accomplished in your life. And you need to spend time daily rehearsing these gospel truths to yourself. to help you remember and to help you set your mind on the things above. That actually is setting your mind on things above. Rehearsing the gospel to yourself. And one of the best ways I've found that helps us do that, how to understand, to see the gospel passages that we ought to be thinking about is through a little book called The Gospel Primer or Primer. We haven't decided how to pronounce it. But it is such a helpful book. It takes the glorious truths and 31 little paragraphs. of the gospel applied to our life, and it's the scriptures right there for you. And I made sure this week that we have extras of those for you on the back table, on the book table. So if you don't already own a copy of that, I encourage you to get one. They're $5, Jeanette doesn't know that. They're $5. What? There's two. No, we have a lot more than that. They're in my bag. Please, pick up a copy of that. And if you don't have five dollars, if that's too much for you, take it, please. That book will help you focus on the things above, help you be preoccupied with the things of the gospel. Paul gives us in verse three a second reason for setting our minds on the things above. And as one man put it, the death is fact accomplished, The resulting life is fact-continuing. The second reason to set our minds on things above is because of identification with Christ. Because of identification with Christ. With Christ, in our union with Him, we have new identities. What makes you you? Is it your status as a mom, an engineer, a husband? Is it your past hurts that define you? Is it the struggles of the trial maybe you're in right now, presently, that define you? Is it the physical handicaps that God himself ordained that you would have that define you? Is it your addictions? I have good news for you folks. If you've been born again, that is not what identifies you. That is not who you are. If you are in Christ, He is your life. You are a son or daughter of God Most High. You are not those things. You are subsumed in His life. God sees you as holy, as righteous as God if you are in Christ. That is your identity. And you have to be preoccupied with that. Paul gives us two ways that we identify with Christ that are different than before, different than when you were in Adam. The first is in life. we identify with Christ in life. Look in the middle of verse 3 with me. I'm going to cut it off right in the middle of the sentence. It says, your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is your life. Your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is your life. Do you see the life, Christ, Christ, life pattern? That's really, really clear in the Greek and it shows that the focus here that Paul is wanting you to see is that Christ is your life. This statement's a bold declaration of our union with Christ. We have been hidden in Him. And this is being securely put into a place of safety. Our very life is tucked away secretly and securely in God. Nothing can take you away. Nothing can truly, ultimately hurt you. Nothing can change who you truly are right now if you are in Christ. Hidden with Christ who is our life. It's not just that your life is hidden in Christ. Christ is your life. Galatians 2.20 says, I have been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I have to ask you though, what keeps you hidden in the hollow of His hand? Jesus said in John 10 29 my father who has given them to me is greater than all and No one is able to snatch you out snatch them out of the father's hand Not even you can thwart God's power to keep you through faith for a revelation ready to be revealed Jesus Christ coming back and He holds you there, hidden in the cleft of the rock. Truly, He hideth my life in the depths of His love and covers me there with His hand. You are hidden with Christ in God, who is your life. Paul also gives us a second way that in our union with Christ, we identify with Him. He says that our life with Christ is in glory. We identify with Him in glory. Read verse four with me. It says, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. It's not if. But when Christ will be revealed, this is His second coming. This verse tells us that He is coming back for sure. It tells us that when He comes, you will come with Him. You will be revealed with Him. Our true life is concealed though right now. It is yet to be revealed. We don't know what we will be like, but we will then. That's what John said in 1 John 3, 2. He explains that unveiling. He says, beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet appeared, though, what we will be like. We know, though, that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. If you are in Christ by repentance and faith, being joined to him in baptism, then you are assured of being brought back with him at his second coming. Paul directly connects our union with Christ with this promise of the second coming. Colossians 1.27 says that the glorious mystery of the Gentiles is the fact that Christ in us means the hope of glory. you are assured that you are, if you are in Christ, you will be revealed with Him in glory, to be with Him forever. So let me pull all of this together, all this verse, these four verses. And this is my paraphrase, essentially, of verses one through four. Since you are truly united with Christ in His resurrection, you have a new life and resurrection power over sin. Therefore, keep constantly pursuing after Christ, who is reigning in heaven at the highest position of authority, at the right hand of God, who is your King, and have a mindset that's preoccupied, completely set on the things of God, not the wisdom of man, because the wisdom of man has no power against the flesh, but you, you, your life has been hidden away in Christ. In fact, Christ is your very life. When he returns, you can be completely assured that he will bring you with him to reign for eternity in glory. That's amazing truth, isn't it? Amen. It's amazing truth. Let's be frank though. Let's be frank. The reason is because we live on this earth right now. The other side of the coin, while it's very absolutely true that we are united with Christ, our bodies right now, we're living right here. And we need what we know is hard. It's very, very hard. And it's so easy to forget the realities of what I just talked about. Because you have to get up and go to work and deal with those people tomorrow. Right? Or those children that God has blessed you with. What we need is perspective on these things from here below. We need to keep this perspective from here below. That's the third point there on your outline. We need perspective from here below. How do these truths of this passage about our union with Christ and seeking the things above and being preoccupied with them, how do those relate? How do they give us that perspective from here below? And first of all, I want you to understand that everything in life is about worship. It's about what you want. It's about what you seek after. It's about what you're preoccupied with. The things that you're seeking hard after, that you're preoccupied with, reveal what you're worshiping. And I want to quickly look at four areas that touch our lives, that are union with Christ, that I have been raised with Him, that I died with Him, that I've been hidden and will be revealed with Him. Four areas that those truths relate directly to. Now I'm not going to sit and explain in detail These are deep issues. But I want to just connect what these truths about our union with Christ, how they can deal, help us deal with these real issues in our life. So first, and before I say that, I don't think there is a person in this room that will escape one of these four. Some of you, maybe all four. But all of us, this is going to touch. So what does life look like with Christ and my anxiety? It's easy to rehearse the verse, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Don't worry. But it doesn't seem to help. The problem is that we forget that the context of that verse says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The treasure is the thing that you seek after. It's what you're preoccupied with. That verse is telling us, like this here, what you seek and set your heart upon is what you're going to be constantly anxious towards. Everything is hard now. Everything is broken. It's easy to fall into worry and anxiety because it's all a mess right now. But when we daily see the dazzling display of God's devotion for us, We have something then that we can fight anxiety with, knowing that I am hidden in Christ, completely secure in His loving arms, that nothing can take me away or out of them, no matter what the hardest thing I'm going through right now. I am hidden in Christ. That's something to fight anxiety with, is it not? And when we daily remind ourselves that despite what it feels like right now, you have to tell yourself, the winter of this life will not last forever. The snow will melt and give way to spring when Christ returns in all His glory. What does life look like, though, with Christ and my anger? With Christ and my anger. James 4, 1-3 says that the source of our anger is what you want. It's what you're seeking after. It's what you're preoccupied with. We want, we destroy each other and even ourselves internally with our anger. And it's usually over what we didn't get, that we were wanting, that we were seeking after, that we were setting our minds upon, that we wanted so badly. But here's the thing, because you've been raised with Christ, you have power right now to not blow your cool. Anger is often about perceived, right or wrong, injustice. And because you're in Christ, you have been given eyes to see that whatever justice you think you may serve out is really short-sighted. You can know that God can be trusted to meet out what is truly deserved. That God was infinitely patient with your injustices against him. Like that, really, the ultimate justice was served on the cross when you died with Him. You have now been given resurrection life, power over anger in your identity in Christ with a new life. Third thing, what about addictions? What does with Christ and my addictions mean? The truth is, once upon a time, you took that first bite. You tried that first drag. You sipped that first drink. It was a choice at that point. Now you feel like a slave to it. But with Christ in you, with Christ in you, you have died to those desires. Sin has been decisively dealt with. You have power over the flesh now because you have been raised to new life in Christ. You can say, no, I don't need that. That will not give me the happiness or the satisfaction or the escape that I think that it will give me. I know that's short-sighted because I will make it to the end because I'm hidden in Christ. You also need to know if you're dealing with addictions, that when you fall off the wagon next week, that your sins are all forgiven and that the righteous man may fall seven times, but he rises again because Jesus Christ is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You have a new identity. You are not an addict. You are not an alcoholic. You are a son or daughter of God. So finally, what does Christ look like in my life with Christ and my aspirations? My aspirations. Aspirations are those things that I want and I dream of. My goals in life. What are you pursuing today, tomorrow, next year? What are your five-year goals? Ten-year goals? What are your life goals? Are those set on the things above? Are those thinking about life from God's perspective? Is it simply to be rich with a business? Or is it to be a steward of the gifts that God has given you to further His kingdom with the wealth? What are your dreams? Are they set on the things above? Or are they set here on pleasing yourself? Because whatever, if they're not the things of God, they'll either feed the flesh or be futile against the flesh. What are we to give our minds to? Just turn over to chapter one of Colossians. Chapter one, look at verse 12. You want to know what to think about, what to set your mind upon. Verse 12 says, "...and giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, for He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. That is what we need to have our minds set on, seeking after the things of God. Our text today was like a gospel sandwich. It's hemmed in behind and before with union with Christ. And right in the middle are two imperatives that call us to live our lives with a Christ and eternity focused perspective. So why is all of this so important to our lives? As the commentator Barrett puts it, what we think about determines what we do. Right thinking always focuses on Christ and our place in Him. So what we pursue in life, and what our hearts are preoccupied with, what we set our minds upon, build our lives around, give our minds to, should be the sufficient, supreme, and triumphant Christ. Because we are united in Him, with Him in His life, And since our lives are united with Christ, let us live with that Christ focus in everything we think and say and do. Amen.