5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

Northern Illinois is snowmobile heaven.  We lived off the Fox River in Antioch  By mid winter, the Fox looked more like an express way than a river. I just had to get out there.  So I pulled the snowmobile that has been sitting in our shed since the beginning of time.  My father probably bought our snowmobile when I was about ten years old.  So by this time it was ten years old.  Sometimes I could get it running, When I did, I felt the power, the thrill, the excitement, but I would only get so far.  Many times, with the help of my German Shepherd, I pulled it home on a sled.   I spent hours upon hours trying to fix that old snowmobile.  Once I got the “brilliant” idea of rewiring it.  So I used a cutting knife and quite easily cut off a large portion of my thumb.  We never did get that old sled running… but I did get rushed to the hospital to get my thumb put back on. 

Put the parts of you that are self destructive (vs 5) to death.  There is no way around it, if you don’t, they will lead you to death.  It is them or you.  You and I have a choice.  Legally we have been made rightoues in God’s sight.  No we choose how we live.  Sinning is not so much choosing to stand up to temptation (the Bible says run); as it is about choosing who you are.  Are you someone who died with Christ or not?  I plead with you to choose faith/trust in God, that you are not defined by these things. 

We needed to put that old sled to a a peaceful death.  And in kind, God has dealt decisively with our “old man”.Trying to repair the old self doesn’t work and sooner or later people are going to be hurt=  definitely you.   

Col. 3:8-118But now you also, put them all aside:anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him–  11a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. (NASB)

Were you ever in a hurry to get somewhere and you got stopped by a freight train.  In Illinois people lost their lives trying to beat the freight trains.  To cross the tracks before it got there…   Usually though people didn’t try, they just sat there, turned off their engines and waited..getting no where.   A large amount of teaching these days is what we could call “freight train” teaching…  Once people get behind it, or under it, they get “no where” fast.   

After my thumb was cut, my parents put me in the car to rush me to the hospital.  On the way, the RR trail gate went down because a freight train was passing.  There I sat, in immense pain- watching each train car go by…it seemed to take forever.   For many, that is the experience of the Christian life.  You have hurt yourself trying to fix your old self, you’re in immense pain and it seems like your not getting anywhere.  You want to get to the other side of the tracks, where there is healing, hope and relief from this pain…   After a while, it is only natural to start doubting whether this Christian thing is real.  Does it really change people? Do your best, try these ten steps; make the right decisions, discipline yourself.  This type of teaching leads to despair because the “old man” cannot be fixed from the “outside in”..  God’s powere is working to change us from the inside out.  So…

Put on the “new self”..  this new self is not just a “new you”.  God has transformed you from a “son of Adam” (sinful nature) to a ”Son of Christ” with Christ Himself living in you.  It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done, but Christ is all and in all…