Her Mindset, Her Wardrobe, Her Song

September 14, 2025
Her Mindset, Her Wardrobe, Her Song
Sermon Audio

CENTRAL TEXT: Colossians 3:1-17

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 95:1-7

LEADER: Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
ALL: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
LEADER: Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
ALL: Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 
LEADER: For the Lord is a great God,
ALL: A great King above all gods.
LEADER:In his hand are the depths of the earth;
ALL: The heights of the mountains are his also.
LEADER: The sea is his, for he made it,
ALL: and his hands formed the dry land.
LEADER: Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
ALL: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
LEADER: for he is our God
ALL: and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. 

PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: Zephaniah 3:14-17  

LEADER: Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
  shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
  O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
  he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
  you shall never again fear evil.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
  let not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
  a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
  he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

The Word of the Lord

ALL: Thanks be to God

BENEDICTION: Romans 15:5-7

LEADER: May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. 

ALL: Amen.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

  1. Read Colossians 3:1-4 paying attention to the tenses of the verbs. Why is it significant that we have already “been raised with Christ” (v.1) and that we “have died” (v.3)? 
  2.  What mindset ought Christians to have according to verses 1-2? How does the rest of the passage, particularly verses 5-15 potentially challenge your own worldview? 
  3. Try to remember the sorts of outfits your mother, or a mother figure you spent time with as a child, wore when you were growing up. What did her wardrobe say about her? 
  4. Paul uses the metaphor of taking off and putting on certain actions, something like a wardrobe for the Church. From studying this passage, what should we wear and not wear as God’s people? 
  5. Take a look at verses 15-16. How can singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (v.16)—alone, as a family, and as a church family—transform your mindset and your spiritual wardrobe? Name one thing that you don’t want to forget from this passage? 

QUOTES:  

How we worship shapes how we see God, how we see ourselves, how we see our neighbor, and how we see the Christian life. 
- Matt Boswell
Practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. 
- Michael Jordan
Worship in song is absolutely vital for the well-being of the local church. Basically, the story of the church…is a story that is tied in some measure to the lyrical content of the things that people sang. And in the same way as children pick truth up very, very quickly in any kind of melodic form or in a form that is easily memorized, so I’ve discovered the congregation does as well. So, for example, when you go to the Highlands of Scotland, and people are singing metrical Psalms, many of those Highland Christians know tons of the Psalms. I mean, they know more of the Bible than they even know they know because they have been singing it. And I think it is probably true to say that as a church sings, so it goes. 
- Alistair Begg
Sex is like a fire, if it’s in a fireplace it can warm the whole house. Outside of the fireplace it can burn the house down. 
- Tim Keller
 For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels. Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until we have been pupils all our lives. ... Let us learn even from the simple title 'mother' how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her. 
- John Calvin
The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others. 
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

BOOKS / DOCS

Dick Lucas, The Message of Colossians & Philemon (The Bible Speaks Today commentary)
“The Power of Singing” by Anne Kerhoulas
“The Church is your Mom,” Tish Harrison Warren
Devoted to the Church, Sinclair Ferguson

SERMONS / TALKS

Podcast: “Sing with Getty and Other Greats in This New Hymnal” (The Gospel Coalition)