From whatever angle we choose to view the age we live in today, the letter that Paul wrote to the Colossians 2,000 years ago is still amazingly relevant. This message focuses on our position in Christ and putting to death the old nature.

1. Still Need More Mentors
for Engaged Couples!


HINK YOU HAVE A STRONG, the announcement,
If you have been reading HAPPY MARRIAGE?
erhaps you can helpbe a good way to get involved at Riv,
thinking it may mentor an engaged couple through the
e-marriage process at Riverview! We will be training. couples
but haven't gotten around to contacting us . . now is
whotime!beenit! Go for it! You know youto be Pre- get
have Do married for at least five years want to
the
arriage Mentors this December. If you are interested, please
connected around here. The current mentors are
contact Marty and Dawn Valley at premarriage@eriv.net.
very cool people to be around. So hurry up already!
Email pre-marriage@eriv.net. Applications can be
picked up today in the office.

2. Nothing
PLUS

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As you have sent me into this world, I
have also sent them into the world.
--- John 17:18

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Go therefore and make disciples of all
the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded
you; and surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age.
--- Matthew 28:19-20

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All over the world this gospel is bearing
fruit and growing, just as it has been
doing among you since the day you
heard it and understood God’s grace
in all its truth.
--- Colossians 1:6

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And God raised us up with Christ
and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
--- Ephesians 2:6

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We are aliens and strangers on earth.
--- Hebrews 11:13

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REMINDING Yourself
KEEP
Since, then, you have been raised with
Christ, set your hearts on 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 now hidden with Christ in God. When
Christ, who is your life, appears, then you
also will appear with him in glory.
--- Colossians 3:1-4

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PLUS
REMINDING Yourself
KEEP

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REMINDING Yourself
KEEP
Since you have been raised
with Christ . . .
--- Colossians 3:1

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REMINDING Yourself
KEEP
I have been crucified with Christ – it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
--- Galatians 2:20

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REMINDING Yourself
KEEP
Don’t you know that all of us who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into his death? We were therefore buried
with him through baptism into death in
order that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead through the glory of the Father,
we too may live a new life.
--- Romans 6:3-4

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REMINDING Yourself
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Dear Steve, I need some help. Every
morning I start out with the best in-
tentions to change my ways and somehow
I think, “today’s gonna be different.” But
it never is. Somehow and some way I
always fall back into my same old ways of
relating to people and my old bad habits.

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REMINDING Yourself
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Sometimes I feel like there is a tug-of-war
going on inside of me. I really want to do
what’s best, but I always end up dis-
appointing myself – and God. I have tried
everything: prayer, resolutions, and even
hypnosis. Nothing seems to work.

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REMINDING Yourself
KEEP
Why do I keep making the same mis-
takes? Why do I do the things I know
are bad for me? I feel like crap and I
need help getting unstuck.
--- An Email to Steve

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REMINDING Yourself
KEEP
. . . set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand
of God. Set your minds on things above,
not on earthly things.
--- Colossians 3:1,2

17. Nothing
PLUS
REMINDING Yourself
KEEP
“Preoccupation with eternal realities . . .
is to be the pattern of a believer’s life . . .
To be preoccupied with heaven is to be
preoccupied with the One who reigns
there . . . It is to view the things, people
and events of this world through His
eyes and with an eternal perspective.”
--- John MacArthur

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REMINDING Yourself
KEEP
Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind.
--- Romans 12:2

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DEAD Anyway
WE ARE

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DEAD Anyway
WE ARE
For you have died and your life is
hidden with Christ in God.
--- Colossians 3:3

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DEAD Anyway
WE ARE
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation; the old has gone, the new
has come!
--- II Corinthians 5:17

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PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God

23. Nothing
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OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
The man without the Spirit does not
accept the things that come from the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
him, and he cannot understand them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
--- I Corinthians 2:14

24. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
Your inheritance can never perish,
spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you,
who through faith are shielded by
God’s power . . .
--- I Peter 1:4

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PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish; no one can snatch them
out of my hand.
--- John 10:28

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PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
When Christ, who is your life,
appears, then you also will appear
with him in glory.
--- Colossians 3:4

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PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
The veil which now shrouds your higher
life from others, and even partly from
yourselves, will then be withdrawn. The
world which persecutes, despises,
ignores now, will then be blinded with
the dazzling glory of the revelation.
--- J.B. Lightfoot

28. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
There is a coming time when God is
going to invade this earth with force.
But what is the good of saying you are
on His side then, when you see the
whole natural universe melting away
like a dream, and something else –
something that never entered your
head to conceive – comes crashing in;

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PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
something so beautiful to some of us, and
so terrible to others, that none of us will
have any choice left? For this time God will
be without disguise; something so over-
whelming that it will strike either irresistible
love or irresistible horror into every creature.
It will be too late then to choose your side.
--- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

30. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs
to your earthly nature: sexual immorality,
impurity, lust, evil desires and greed,
which is idolatry. Because of these the
wrath of God is coming. You used to walk
in these ways, in the life you once lived.

31. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
But now you must rid yourselves of all such
things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander,
and filthy language from your lips. Do not
lie to each other, since you have taken off
your old self with its practices and have put
on the new self, which is being renewed in
knowledge in the image of its Creator.
--- Colossians 3:5-9

32. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
“Use sin as it will use you; spare it not, for it
will not spare you; it is your murderer, and
the murderer of the world: use it, therefore,
as a murderer should be used. Kill it before
it kills you; and though it bring you to the
grave, as it did Christ Himself, it shall not
be able to keep you there.”
--- Richard Baxter

33. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God

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OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
A new command I give you: Love one
another. As I have loved you, so you must
love one another. By this all men will
know that you are my disciples, if you
love one another.
--- John 13:34,35

35. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy
and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience. Bear with each
other and forgive whatever grievances
you may have against one another.
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

36. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
And over all these virtues put on love,
which binds them all together in perfect
unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your
hearts, since as members of one body you
were called to peace. And be thankful.

37. Nothing
PLUS
OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN
With Christ In God
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as
you teach and admonish one another with all
wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to
God. And whatever you do, whether in word
or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
--- Colossians 3:12-17