A sermon on Colossians 3:14 using a boutique fitting room as a metaphor for the Christian life. God custom-makes believers as choice material, dressing them in meekness, mercy, kindness, and patience. Christ is the stylist, love is the binding fabric, and forgiveness works like an expandable waistband.
Chapters
Lord, today we thank you. Thank you.
We bless your name.
We bless your name.
We've heard the songs of Zion. We've given our gifts. We've prayed our prayers and brought our petitions to the throne of grace. But now we've come to the meat of the matter. God bless your word. Heaven and earth will pass away, but your word shall remain forever. The grass withers and the flower thereof fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. We pray that you would consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with steadfast hope and my will be lost in thine. God, I, I did the studying. I read it. But God, you do the preaching. Open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's in his name and power we pray. And all of God's people together who know God can and will, through God's word, warm a hardened heart, said amen. Good morning, Good Shepherd. I say again, good morning, Good Shepherd. I pray that you are all Basking in the glow of the glory of the Lord our God. I want to— I want to take out just a second to acknowledge and thank our pastor, Reverend Clarence Moore, for the opportunity to stand. Yeah, you can clap. To stand. I want to be absolutely certain that individually and collectively we are wrapping our arms around him the same way that at times—
Amen.
At various times, he's wrapped his arms of support, the ministry of presence around us. We can do better than this. We can do better than this. He's been there for us, and at this moment, we want to tell you we're here with you.
We're here for you. Amen.
At this point in time, I thought of—I thought of a portion of scripture. And just before we get into the text, you've heard it read into your hearing. I just want to touch a piece of this song. It may not be for you, but for my own personal sanity today.
Further along, we'll know all about it. Further along. Oh, we'll understand why. Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine. We'll understand it on by and by. Come on, put your weight on it. For the road long Oh, we'll know all about it. Brother, along we'll understand why. Oh, cheer up, my brother, live in the sun. We'll understand. Yeah, yeah, all about. Further along. This the last time. Know all about. It don't make sense right now, but further along. Further along, we'll understand why. So we want you to cheer up. 'Cause we'll understand, we'll understand. One of these old days we'll understand, we'll understand it. All by and by.
Paul's letter to the church at Colossae, as we know, at chapter number 3, verses 11 through 14 have been read into your hearing. But there's only one verse I really want to focus on. It's verse 14. If you didn't tear that page out of your Bible, uh, if you brought your Bible or your smart device, you probably already beat me there. Colossians chapter number 3, and it's only one verse. Here it is, verse 14. It says, above all Clothe yourself with love. Can church say love? There's more you than there is of me. I know I'm using a microphone; it ought to be a little bit louder. Watch this: love. There we go. Which binds us all together in perfect harmony. I want to talk a minute about custom made to love, custom made to love. Right. Now, uh, some of us may have had this experience. I, I, I, I was getting ready for a real big event, ready for a wedding, and, and my, my now father-in-law and I walked into this store, Miguel Wilson, in, in, in, in one of these fancy malls in Atlanta. And, and, and, and we walked in and it's a boutique and they have custom-made suits. There's a table with all this fabric from all around the world, and he asked us, did we need anything? And when we walked in, the owner of the store, Miguel Wilson himself, was there. He asked us, is everything okay, and do you need anything? And as we made our way into the store, we started looking at fabrics and touching things on the shelf that Miguel Wilson had made customly. He had handmade everything in the store. And then we had an in-store stylist by the name Sebastian.
Sebastian.
And since we had a big event, we weren't going to put on something old with it. We were going to have, as Pastor Mike J said, everything new. Everything was going to be new. Our belt, and shoes, and all these things. And ladies, don't feel left out. Y'all been in these wedding dress boutiques, and my wife had to fly to go and stand there, and you got to get fitted. Are y'all in here with me?
Yes.
And here it is. I had a fandom as a child. Y'all might not know Ric Flair, but y'all know Ric Flair. Flair said he was custom made from head to toe. Paul begins this particular set of scriptures by telling us we're all in the same store, like Denzel did in Remember the Titans. He said, I don't care if you black, brown, white, purple, or polka dot. The defense is on this bus and the offense is over here because we're all on the same team. We're all in the same store. There's no distinction. It's in verse 11. There's no distinction. It doesn't matter who you are. There is no space for division in Christ. Christ is all that matters. Let me say that again for the folks in the back of the internet. Christ is all that matters. It does not matter if you're Pentecostal, Apostolic Assembly of God, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Good Missionary Baptist, or any other Christendom. Christ is all.
Amen.
You ought to turn to your neighbor and say, in Christ. We all belong.
We all belong.
Yeah, y'all might as well get acquainted with that neighbor. Y'all might as well just smile at him, say something nice to him, even if y'all argued on the way here, because y'all going to be talking to each other a little bit. Paul says, Paul says we've been custom-made to love. And I want to share a few nuggets from this text and leave you alone with this new outfit of love. We've been custom-made to love, number one, because we're choice material. Yes, friend. Yeah, yeah, look around. You are looking at choice material. It's there in verse 12. Uh, verse 12 says, since God chose you to be holy people he loves. Did y'all see that? You are, I am, we are choice material. There is not another you nowhere. I don't care if you got an identical twin. There's not another you anywhere. That's right. You are rare cloth. You are the crown jewel of creation, man, woman, boy, and girl. Everything else was made so that on the sixth day God could call together an executive board meeting and say, "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness." And watch this: Y'all got something don't nothing else have—a soul. The Bible says, "And God breathed into the nostrils of man." The ruach, the breath of God, and man became a living soul. Watch it, friends. You are pricelessly knit together. Don't let nobody make you feel less than. Don't let nobody tell you you're worthless or not worth something. The God of all, the God of the universe has carefully knit you together. It's in the Bible. It said, I knit you together. Amen. In your mother's womb, I have formed you. God, with God's own intellectual capacity, has put you together, and you are fearfully. Y'all know the Bible at GSBC. Fearfully and wonderfully made. Tell somebody next to you, even if you're in your pajamas in the hybrid worship, I'm choice material. I'm choice. Yeah, I'm choice material. You got your good clothes on today. I'm choice material. A loving God has tailored us, measured us for a new life, and watch how he does it. God does it. Appreciate you. God does it despite the old life strings that still hang off. It's in the first part of chapter 3, and as Reverend Moore would tell you, I would urge you to read the whole chapter because the rest of the chapter will tell you the old life strings that you came into the boutique with. And if we're not careful, they still hang off. And we came into the boutique with some clothes we don't want to get rid of. Y'all know that one sweater that you can't even fit no more, that you just can't bring yourself to get rid of? That one suit that used to— woo! Ooh, are you killing them in this one, but you can't even button the jacket. You got some old clothes.
Yes.
And Paul is saying you got an old life. God loves us too much to let us stay the same. We can't walk into the boutique of new life and leave the same. And that's why congregational worship, wherever it is, online or in person, is important. is because you ought not walk into this space and leave the same. Let me try that one more time. Sister Donaldson, you ought not walk in the service one way and leave the same. Knowing this, knowing that there's some old life strings, there's still some old life material that's still hanging off of us, Paul says we must put on some following things, because I'm not going to leave you naked if you take them off. I got some new stuff for you to put on. And here are the following things that we got to put on, but we got to see them from God's view. Watch this. Can church say meekness?
Meekness.
Meekness is not weakness. And if you in Bible study on Wednesday, you know meekness is not weakness. Meekness is power under control. And if the person next to you was repeating after me, that means they in Bible study on Wednesday. And we urge you, come on out. Here we go. Um, meekness is not weakness. Meekness is power under control. It means I could do, Miles, but I won't. I could crush you, but I won't. I could tell you how I really feel, but I won't, because I've surrendered the power I have to a higher power.
That's right.
That's meekness. That's meekness. Let me move on, because y'all already mad. Let me move on. Meekness is one of the things you got to put on. Mercy. Can the church say mercy?
Mercy.
Now church folks and Christians alike ought to be able to agree on mercy, 'cause we sure enough need it. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. See, ain't no Reformed sinners in here like I needed to be. I need some— let me try over here. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. based off the sin you intentionally committed.
Amen!
Okay, let me, let me try over here. Hey, Mom, listen. Mercy— and I appreciate some mercy throughout the years of my life— uh, mercy is not getting what you rightfully deserve.
And there ought to be a recovering sinner in the room that is glad that every single day that God allows you to live, you wake up with some brand-new Mercy.
Yes, friends. You got to take off that old stuff, and what what you need to put on is some meekness. You need to put on some mercy. You need to put on some kindness. Now watch this. It's gonna get real tight in the church. Um, you're gonna be able to tell who the Christians and the church folks are. Y'all look up here. Look up here and say amen so they know you're not. Being talked about. Watch this. Kindness means be empathetic. Whoo! Okay, kindness means being empathetic. That means I've been in your shoes. An intergenerational moment, if you tell younger people that you've been in our shoes, you don't lose ground in relationship, you gain ground in relationship.
So older folks, You ought to tell us, "Hey, I see where you're going. I've been in those shoes. I've fallen in this hole, and it's up ahead, and you ought to go the other way." Paul says, "Gotta take this off.
Gotta put on meekness. Gotta put on mercy. Gotta put on kindness. You gotta put on gentleness." Now, I'm not going to look over toward my mom when I'm talking about gentleness. Here it is. Gentleness is the difference between numbing the pain and biting the bullet.
What?
The tooth has to be pulled, but there's a difference between numbing it and making them bite the bullet. In old, old, old wars, like the Civil War, they would give you a bullet or a towel, and they'd make you bite down on it. While they were operating on you, while they were pulling a tooth or amputating a limb. There's a difference between that and numbing, 'cause the cutting still gotta get done, but it don't have to be done in a rough way. Whatever it is you need to say can be said, but it don't have to be said 'Cause I got some Bible to back me up. The Bible says a soft answer turns away wrath. Y'all, y'all ain't talking good. Here it is. Now I know I'm gonna move on 'cause they real mad. All right, here we go. Now, meekness, mercy, kindness, gentleness, and patience. It just gets worse. Look how much— and patience. Here it is. Watch patience from a godly parental view. God the Father, watch patience. It is watching disobedience of clear instructions with no regard for the consequences until they come. Let me try this. Here we go, baby doll. Here it is. Patience is: I told you what not to do. You did it anyway. And you weren't worried about the consequences until they came. And if we're not careful, and if we're honest— I know y'all are good Christian folks, y'all don't do this kind of thing, but I have. I thank God for God's patience because God has spelled it out clearly for me. Here's what you need to do, here's what you don't do. I did the opposite and wasn't worried about what was going to happen until—
It happened. Come on.
Yeah, uh, uh, uh, here it is. And when we put these things on, we ought to be set apart, stand out. Watch this. Holy is not set apart or stand out to ostracize yourself or other people. Holy is not a list of I don't dos. Y'all know who I'm talking— see, y'all laughing because y'all been in church as long as I have. Y'all know some folks, their holiness is prescribed by a list of I don't dos. Well, I don't do this, and I don't do this, and I don't do this, and I don't do this. Therefore, I'm holy. That's not what holy is. Holy is set apart in spite of. Holy is I've been set apart by God to live differently even when I fall.
I got chosen because I'm choice material.
I came into the boutique of new life by way of Jesus Christ, and when I put this stuff on, it might not fit immediately, but I'm in alteration. Every day I'm getting fitted because y'all know when y'all got something new on, somebody asks you, where did you get that? And if you're on the red carpet, they ask you, well, what are you wearing? Who are you wearing? They'll say, "Oh, I'm wearing Vera Wang," or "I'm wearing Miguel Wilson." Shout out to Miguel Wilson. I'm wearing Miguel Wilson. I'm wearing Vera Wang. I'm wearing Prada. But do you know on the red carpet of this new life what people who happen not to be members of the body of Christ ought to be asking? Who are you wearing? And you ought to be able to say, "I'm wearing Yahweh." And if I take this one off, I got Jehovah. And it's a variety of fits. If I need something, it's Jehovah Jireh.
If I'm in the sick room, I got Jehovah Rapha.
I can—
if I need to know who I'm fighting, I'm Jehovah Nissi. If I need some peace, it's Jehovah Shalom, cuz every day I'm getting 'Cause I'm custom-made to love.
Friends, not only are we custom-made to love because we're choice material, we've come into the boutique of new life and we put on some new things. And, and not only that, but this— now ladies, this is gonna suck the air out of the room. I'm gonna be over here. Um, number 2, we are custom-made to love By the frustrating fitting of forgiveness. I told you it was going to get quiet. I told you it's in verse 13, and I knew y'all were going to tear that page out. That's why I read verse 14. Verse 13 says, "Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive." Can church say forgive? Some of y'all said and don't do it, and forgive. Here's my favorite part: anyone who offends you, remember the Lord did what forgave who? So you must forgive others. Watch it. We got to get fitted for forgiveness. Here it is, Miles. Because it's the hardest piece to measure, and it's frustrating because it expands like a waistband.
All right.
And wearing something small like pettiness hurts. Y'all know if y'all put on some too small shoes, it's gonna hurt. And if y'all put on too small pettiness, it's gonna hurt. And it ain't gonna hurt them, it's gonna hurt you. Forgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
Yes.
Y'all ain't talking good. Let me, let me, let me, let me twist a little bit more on this forgiveness piece. Forgiveness is always expanding because forgiveness makes allowance for people's capacity, how much they take up. It takes into account how much they can forgive. And how much they can be forgiven. Let me try that one more time for the folks in the back of the internet. Brother Gaston, listen to me. How you doing? Good to see you. All right, listen. Forgiveness is like an expandable waist. It's got to be fitted. It's like pants. They got to be continually fitted, right? And forgiveness is like that because some people don't want to be forgiven. And in some cases, the hardest person inside the fitting room of forgiveness is you, 'cause you still ain't forgave yourself.
That's right.
Y'all are not talking good. I must be teaching good. So forgiveness says you're too big for that. Tell your neighbor, you too big for that. Too big for bitterness. You too big for trifling pettiness. You too big to be holding a grudge from high school and you 60 years old. Too big for that.
Too big for that.
And inside the new life of Jesus Christ, Paul is telling these people and telling you, take that off.
You are too big for that.
Too big for that. Now Paul is masterful in this. Reverend Moore, here's what he does. He— I promise you, I know Paul probably— it got to be a Black or brown preacher. Paul. He gotta be. He gotta be. Here's the reason why. Paul puts a must where we gonna get mad and a remember where we'll retreat. Paul says, you must forgive. You must forgive others. That's where you gonna get mad. I got to forgive? Yeah. If you gonna keep these new clothes on, You got to forgive. Watch this, and he puts a remember where we'll retreat. Sylvester, watch this. Um, Paul says, "Now I know y'all mad because of what I said about having to forgive others, but remember you are forgiven." Now watch this. It's in present tense.
Oh yeah.
It says, because God forgives. In the Greek, in the original language, it's in the present tense. That means right now God is forgiving you. Happy birthday. Right now God is forgiving you, and you must forgive others. Friends, I'm actually almost done. Here it is: We are custom made to love. We walked into the boutique of new life through Jesus Christ. We walked in. We started putting. We started taking some old stuff off. We started putting some new things on. Paul got us in the fitting room with those those pins, you know, and if you're not careful, them pins hurt. And if you're not careful about not forgiving them them pins, they They hurt. But third, third, third, and finally, uh-uh. We are custom made to love because love blends and binds it all together. Now, I learned a little bit about blending from my wife. She said everything don't have to match, it just gotta go. These colors gotta blend together. Appreciate it. And, and so Um, Paul says that love can make all these other things either match or go, because your outfit doesn't have to match, it's just gotta go. The outfit of your new life in Jesus Christ doesn't have to match nobody, it's just got to go, because Jesus said He didn't say match ye therefore. He said go ye therefore into all the world.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's in Matthew 28, uh, the end of Matthew 28. Y'all, y'all will be able to see it. Um, love is a pair of earrings, those shoes, or that purse you bought that sets the whole outfit off. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Y'all, y'all see that purse and go, ooh, I already know what I'm going to I know what I'm gonna wear with that. You walk in, brothers, you get that pair of shoes and you say, "Ooh, I can't wait!" And I got the sock ministry together. Oh, I might wear. I might wear the ones I got altered so that my pants leg is a little bit higher, so they can see. Watch in a higher, holier, heavier way. The spiritual gifts that God has already naturally given to you—those are the pants that are a little bit higher so that they can see your sock and shoe game. And as in the words of a song I liked back in college, everybody then can check my footwork because you ain't got these.
Stop looking at them hard. 'Cause you ain't got these. That's right.
So here it is. It's that piece of furniture at your house that you match everything else off of. It's the choir director. All choir members just look this way. Don't look, don't, don't look at 'em. It's, it's the choir director that keeps you long in rehearsal until the harmony is right. Because the goal of love, like those shoes or that couch or that director, is binding looks and blending voices for harmony. At GSBC, let me tell you, this is a pet project of our pastor— harmony. Because a harmonious church, you know what it does? Love. A harmonious church will let any and everybody walk into it and love on them. Y'all ain't talking good. At your very worst, you ought to be able to walk into your church and get loved on. That ain't even in my notes. I just threw that in. Here we go. Love is not just an important part. It is the central part because it's woven into all of the other things we had to put on. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 13. If you've been to a wedding recently, you probably heard it. Love is patient. Love is already kind. Love is merciful. Love is meek. Love is humble. And love is forgiving. God has been using love's binding and blending power because the Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Bible says God demonstrated his insomuch that while we were yet sinners, Christ died to save our souls. Greater hath no man than this, that he laid down his life for a friend. By this Shall people on life's red carpet know who you're wearing if you have—
One for another. One for another. They'll know you're wearing Yahweh. They'll know you're wearing El Shaddai.
They'll know you're wearing Elohim. They'll know you're wearing Jehovah in whatever variety it is you need at that time. When we're getting custom made, as we're getting dressed, we have an in-store stylist. I didn't finish the story. Sebastian came over, and Sebastian has an eye for what we need to put on for this big event. 'Cause they've worn it. Or better than that, you know what he did for me? He modeled it. Because sometimes our vision is distorted and we can't see that what we think matches actually doesn't. Judgmental Christian don't match. Too good to talk to Christian don't match. It's always got to be my way Christian don't match. And so it is. Watch this. Since I didn't know what matched or what went, it was my first time putting on an ascot. So what Sebastian did was he modeled. Not only how to wear it, but how to put it on. He modeled how to put it on because in a higher, holier, heavier way, there is another stylist at work within us. And when we walked into the boutique of new life, the owner, the author. of all time owns this shop and wove us together.
Say it, say it.
Because we are choice material. And this in-store stylist met us. And when he came down through 42 generations, he walked over to us and he saw that we didn't know what to put on. So he modeled it for us. Yeah, it wasn't Gucci or Prada, but they don't have nothing on this stylist. This stylist is a trendsetter because when God, the owner, saw that sin had distorted our view and when we couldn't see that our sin didn't match, God sent this great stylist to set the trend on how to model custom-made.
Yeah, this styling is choice material born in Bethlehem of Judea to a virgin named Mary and Joseph of David. Yeah, this stylist modeled meekness, mercy, kindness, gentleness, and patience.
This styling Set the trend for enduring the frustration of forgiveness.
Because one Friday, y'all, on a hill called Calvary, this stylist modeled the frustration of forgiveness when he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And since we didn't know how to put it on, he put it on himself. He put on the struggle of humanity. He put on the struggle of being just a man. He put on getting us fitted for a big event. 'Cause when they stripped him of his robe, they were just getting him out of his old clothes so that he could put on some brand new When he gave, gave his hands to the nails, he gave, gave, he gave his feet to the spike. He gave, gave, gave his head to a 72-thorn crown because they helped him take over humanity. And at the 9th hour, he died. And what did he do? He said, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He died on that Friday, but he wasn't done getting dressed up. Stayed in the grave with some grave clothes on. And y'all know how it is when you get fitted, you almost got your clothes on, but they're still working on it. Stay right there. All night Friday night, stayed right there. All day and all night Saturday, but early, early Sunday morning, he got up and put on some new clothes. He said, all power, all power, all power, all power is in my hand. And now, because I got up one of these days, One of these old days, we'll get up on that resurrection ground in that great getting up morning. Fare thee well, fare thee well, if you're custom made just to love, 'cause you took off some old stuff and put on some brand new life. See ya! Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way. I'm in the boutique, but I haven't got it yet. 'Cause one day, if you need your assurance of custom-made love, set the music. The songwriter said, I was sinking. Deep in sin, far from peace or joy, buried deeply, slain within. I was sinking to rise no more, but the Master of the sea, he heard, heard my despairing cry. You know what he did? He reached way down and lifted me. Now save, save the man. It was love. Love, love, love. Do you got it? Can you show it? Show it to your neighbor. I'm custom fit to love my neighbor. I'm custom fit to love my enemies. I'm custom fit. Do you know him? Have you tried him? Ain't he all right? Help me. Call his name. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I know he's all right. Yeah, do you know he is? Has he helped you love? Say yeah. Can I get you to grab your neighbor by the hand? Y'all ain't grabbing. Grab your neighbor by the hand and tell them, neighbor, I'm custom made to love you. Because God, God forgave me and loved me too. See ya!
The door of the fitting room is open because there may be someone here this morning who hadn't been fit properly, and all you got to do now is just walk out. The master All to race.