August 17, 2025 - Gerald Griffin - Above All

August 17, 2025 - Gerald Griffin - Above All

00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:41 Reading from Colossians
01:38 Personal Reflection and Story
06:32 Understanding Jesus' Supremacy
13:21 Practical Applications of Jesus' Supremacy
23:51 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Overview
• 0:41 Reading from Colossians
• 1:38 Personal Reflection and Story
• 6:32 Understanding Jesus' Supremacy
• 13:21 Practical Applications of Jesus' Supremacy
• 23:51 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Transcript

Introduction and Overview

uh, if you have your, your Bibles with you or on your phone, you'd like to turn, we're gonna be in Colossians chapter one today, Colossians one, and lemme just give you a word. This is a little bit different. If you've heard my sermons before, uh, I like to take a passage and plop down into it and explain it almost line by line.

This is a little different. I've scattered, I'm going all over the place. Uh, it's not my usual way of doing it, but it will be. The text is Colossians chapter one, and I do want to talk to you about what we just said Above all. All. And, uh, the, the text I have, it's been printed and the bolded emboldened places are things that I added.

I wanted you to notice those words as we read that. 

Reading from Colossians

So I'm just gonna start by reading to you Colossians one, starting in verse 15.

The sun is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created. Things in heaven and on earth, [00:01:00] visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him, and he's before all things. And in him, all things hold together.

He's the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have, the supremacy for God was pleased to have all the fullness. Dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

Personal Reflection and Story

We meet here today, most of us, probably all of us as Christ followers. Every one of us is determining whether we will follow Jesus. And if we do follow Jesus how we're gonna follow Jesus. People can, people can do things that make it more difficult for you to follow Christ, and people can do things that [00:02:00] make it a little bit easier perhaps for you to follow Christ, but it's still your decision.

And I find that one of the struggles that I face as a Christ follower, and the reason I wrote this message in the past couple of weeks for us, is simply this, I can get complacent. I can get forgetful, I can get tired. I can get to a place where I lose my focus. And what I'm losing my focus on is not that Jesus is my Savior.

It's not that Jesus is my Lord, but I lose my focus on how great a savior and how much he deserves me wholeheartedly embracing and following him. Let me explain that to you. I'll give an example. When I was just 35. My dad, who I loved so much, passed away. It was, it was unexpectedly, it was way too soon, but I got a phone call that his heart had stopped and so we packed up the car from Dallas.

We drove down to East Texas and it was a really tough time. Tammy [00:03:00] really was shining during that time. She took care of everything. When I think about my dad, I think about, uh, the man who I love so much. The man who protected me, and the man who took care of me. The man who was there for me when, uh, his marriage, my to my mom failed.

And when he stepped up and he took care of me during that time. And my dad and I had great talks. He was my confidant, he was my counselor. I called him every week at least once we talked about things together. But the best talks. Or when I would go to visit him and I'd walk into his office, he would be behind the desk, I'd pull up a client chair because he was an accountant, had an accounting firm.

And I'd sit down with him and we would just start talking. And the more we would talk, the more he would open up about things. And we had the best relationship. And so when this, when I got the call, my brother and I both got the call that my dad's heart had stopped, and we went down to East Texas to be with him.

We went to the funeral. The funeral was, his pastor led [00:04:00] it. Uh, my brother and I are both pastors. We couldn't do it. We just couldn't. Uh, and we just thought, you know, we're still, we're still in a, in a daze. We, we need to sit here, we need to listen. We need to think, we need to remember Dad. And after the funeral, men came up that I had no idea.

My brother, we don't know them. And they were in tears. And these are East Texas guys. These are guys with, uh, dusty boots. Cowboy hats, Caesar guys with, um, uh, pretty hardened faces. They've been out in the sun, they've worked hard. And my dad took care of all them. And they came up and they said these words to us.

It was your father who saved my business. I didn't know what I was doing. I, I wasn't gonna make it. I hired him to help me and he saved everything. And this, today we have a business. And then another guy said, your father was my accountant, but his advice saved my marriage. I sat in front of him one day and I made one comment and he put everything down, said, let's talk.

He said, because of what he told us, we saved my marriage. And then another guy came up [00:05:00] and he's just blubbering and he's about six foot three. He's huge. And he says. It was last Christmas because of the business. I didn't have any money to supply Christmas for my kids. And your dad bought all the Christmas presents for my kids without me knowing he was gonna do it.

Called me out to the office, had the office loaded with gifts and says, those are for you. Take 'em home. He said he didn't want my wife to know, didn't want anybody to know, but of course I told my wife and then another guy came up. Probably the most impactful. I think it really made a zinger on my, on my brother.

Because my brother always was, my brother was the firm preacher. You know, everything's wrong. And that was the guy saying, it's all good. So, uh, you know, little ying and yang there. But anyway, this guy came up and he said one time he said, your, your dad was my accountant for several years. We had a lot of talks.

I learned a lot of things from him. But I came in one day and he, he again looked at me and said, you're struggling through some stuff. He said, tell me what's happening. He said, I started [00:06:00] telling him and I started getting angry, and he said. It. He started talking to me about God and he changed my life, and today I have Jesus and I go to church.

Everything's changed. I gotta tell you the truth. My brother and I are like, what? This is like the hidden life. We never knew because my dad wouldn't talk about it. And it was a time for us to think about our dad and to remember him and to even learn more. About who he was and what he did, and it made us love him more.

Understanding Jesus' Supremacy

So I'd ask you the question, do you think you know all there is to know about Jesus, Jesus, the one who's above all, do you think you've learned? All you can learn? Do you think you understand the text so well that everything about Jesus in the text, you get it? Or do we really understand that the Bible, when it says not even the half has been told about Jesus is telling us the truth, we barely know.

All the richness, the depth of who Jesus is, but we can [00:07:00] still learn. And as we learn, what we begin to do is we learn not only what the Bible says, but we learn him by walking with him. We learn him by his provisions. There is such a thing that when you're walking with Jesus, there are times when you feel his smile upon your life.

There are times when we pray that we hear him softly whisper into our ears and we're comforted. That's learning Jesus. So that's what I think about when I think about Jesus. He is above all, and yet even with that, I still don't know the half of who Jesus is. Here's a starting place. However, it's in our text and the words are simply this.

The ones I already pointed out. He's above all, he's above all creation. All th all things. I say that four times in a row. He's above everything. All of his fullness is God's fullness. And it ends again with all things. These descriptors demand our attention. It's not just throw away words. It's not some adjectives that are added in because we need to [00:08:00] fill out a paper and get enough words.

They're words of truth. They're inspired, but let us also understand the word firstborn. First born in most of our context would simply mean the first one born. My brother was the first one born. Probably some of you are firstborns, some of you're second born, some of you are middle children. God help you.

But anyway, first born, that's not me. And when it's talking about Jesus, it doesn't mean he was the first one born and then there was a second. It also means he, it doesn't mean he was the first one created. Instead in this passage when, when Jesus is called the firstborn of all creation, it is saying that he is supreme over creation.

It is saying that he's the rightful heir and ruler of all of it, and that's confirmed by the very next verse, verse 16. It says, for by him all things were created. Christ can't be part of creation. If he created everything, there's some theological meaning here. Jesus is supreme. Jesus is the [00:09:00] authority.

Jesus is God himself. All these things are a part of what this verse means. He shares God's the father's nature, absolutely fully. To put it another way, if I were to describe you as a golfer, because we wanted to play golf this time, we realized what the, the temperature was gonna be and we nixed it. But if I was to describe you as a golfer, that's one thing.

If I were to say, you're a great golfer, that'd be something else. If I were to say, you're the greatest golfer I have ever met, well, I'm kind of limited. That's not that big a deal. But if I said, you're the greatest golfer of all times, ever lived, ever picked up a club, ever, you've never duffed a ball.

You've never sliced, you are it. You're the epitome. That's still not saying what this text says about Jesus. Above all, Jesus is not simply good or great or the greatest at anything. He's the ruler, the [00:10:00] heir, the supreme one. His reign extends not over just what we see, but what we can't see. He is over. All people who ever lived, whoever did, or whoever thought about doing anything, every idea ever pondered every word, ever articulated, every dream, ever imagined, every power, every applied, every throne ever asserted, every law, ever, ever composed, every song, every sung, every poem, every created, every philosophy, every debated, every science ever discovered, every technology, every invented.

Every kingdom that has ever been built, every empire, every that has ever risen, every victory, oh ever won. Every battle ever fought, every thought, ever formed, every culture ever shaped. Every language ever spoken, every beauty, ever seen, every wonder, every felt, every age, ever lived, every moment, every measured, and all time itself in [00:11:00] all creation, visible and invisible, heaven and earth, past, present, and future.

He is before all things, above all things, holding all things together, nothing, absolutely nothing is outside his supremacy. Nothing is beyond his rule and nothing is greater than his name. That's who the Bible says that he is. He's everything. He's above all. But the question is, we know what the Bible says.

What do I say? What do I think? How do I view this? Jesus that we see in scripture, or which Jesus, we might ask, do we prefer? In the fabulously theological movie called Talladega Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Ricky is sitting at the dinner table and they're talking about their prayer. And at one point, Ricky offers thanks to the [00:12:00] eight pound, six ounce newborn infant, Jesus.

Why? He says, that's the version he likes. He likes that version of Jesus because he's safe and soft and cuddly and harmless. But I will remind you that that version has no crown, no cross, and no authority instead, who is Jesus to you? A lot of people really like the manger, Jesus. A lot of people who don't have a whole lot to do with God and don't follow Jesus's Lord.

A lot of those people have major scenes in out on Christmas, and I'm thankful for that. I love it. I love seeing it. I love it when our, uh, grandsons get to go with us and see those major scenes. We say, look, that's about baby Jesus. I love that. That's wonderful. But some people, they see Jesus as the teacher.

I've heard this from so many people. I'm not a Christian. I don't believe that, but I believe he was a really good teacher. No. No, he's not God. But he's a really good teacher. I want you to think when you say that, what I just read to you in Colossians about being above [00:13:00] everything, and I want you to remember that Jesus is not just, just that He is instead reigning king Jesus.

We do celebrate his birth. We do celebrate his death and resurrection, but do we recognize his present glory? He's not whom we prefer. He is who he is. 

Practical Applications of Jesus' Supremacy

Above all and knowing that we're left with a choice that I encourage you to make and to simply this, since he is above all bow before him now, now there's no time like the present.

Philippians chapter two verses nine through 11 says, therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The text is telling us that the very one who is above all things, [00:14:00] everything came humbled himself. To be one of us, to be born, to be helpless in that little manger and to go to a cross and to die for us. And there's a day because God has exalted him. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. So bow before him now, bow before the day in which everyone will bow whether they want to or not.

That means surrender your schedule. It means surrender your ambitions. Your private life, your public witness. Let Jesus truly be above all in everything that you do. In other words, let him be more than a Sunday figure. Let him be a weekday daily king. When Tammy and I were suffering just like you guys were through the COVID shutdowns.

The one thing that we could do that we were encouraged to do is to get outside of her once in a while and take a walk. So we started doing that. We walked through [00:15:00] neighborhoods, uh, around our neighborhood neighborhoods. We had never walked through and to cheer things up. Some kids, I don't know, I think it was a church that did it.

Some kids, uh, started gathering some flat little rocks and they painted them. And so you'd walk along and these were treasures you'd find. You'd find a little rock and it would say something like, God is good. It, or I remember one of 'em is it's just a little child's yellow sun. And the sun is smiling and one of 'em is a butterfly and one of 'em was a rainbow.

And one of them had a kind of a crude painting of a lion and the words underneath it, every knee will bow pretty big stone to get all that on it. But they did. And so I was looking online at our neighborhood, um, neighborhood conversation and that caused quite a stir. Her and people didn't know what it meant.

I was shocked by that. You don't know what it means when you have a picture of a lion's head and it says every knee will bow. I mean, I was just, I'm reading this. I'm not [00:16:00] commenting 'cause I'm not that guy. I'm the stalker guy on the Facebook or whatever it is. I'm not the guy commenting, but one, one lady says, I don't get it.

What? What's the deal with a lion? What's this mean about bowing? I don't, I don't understand what this reference, and so one guy wrote in and he was, let's just say this guy was preachy. I mean, he's saying it. He said, that is Jesus. He's the lion of Judah. And one day, whether you like it or not, you're gonna bow before him and you're gonna confess that he is Jesus the Lord.

And the lady put in the next text, Ooh, I don't like that. Well, like it or not, it's who he is, and the truth is, one day every knee will bow. It's better to bow an adoration today than a regret tomorrow. Number two, let his authority, the one that you're bowing to let his authority rule your thinking. This is the key to our [00:17:00] lives, isn't it?

The way we think. Lemme read you the text, John 3 31. The one who comes from above all is above all. The one who is from the earth, belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. You know what John is telling us is that the one from above all is Jesus.

He's telling us that everything was made through him. That means that he has the final say over truth. Truth is not your choice. Truth is not my opinion that I call truth. Truth is what Jesus says is truth. He defines reality. Jesus does not public opinion, not political spin. So what I would encourage us to do in a world that is so confused with so many people, claiming so much, and with the absolute erroneous throw away words of let your truth be your truth.

No, there's one truth. So filter every worldview, every [00:18:00] headline, every cultural trend through his word. Don't shrink Jesus to fit your perspective. Instead, expand your life to fit his truth. Let's dig a little bit deeper into Colossians. Point number three is show the world Jesus who, who Jesus is, and that He's above all by how you live.

In Colossians one 15 through 19, we've already read 'em, but I'll read 'em one more time. 15, remember says The Son is the image of the invisible God. In other words, he's showing what God looks like and God is invisible. We see God through Jesus and in verse 19 it says, God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in him.

So when you look upon Jesus, you see what God is like. That is exactly what Jesus told his disciples in John 14 when they, when they said, Hey, Jesus, just show us the Father and we'll be happy. We want to see the father. Can you do that for us? And Jesus says, have you not understood yet? When you see me, you've already seen the [00:19:00] Father?

The application for that is simply this. We should realize that we carry the image of Jesus into the workplace, into our homes, into our churches. Whenever we forgive someone who has wronged us, we're showing Jesus. When we speak truth and love to someone, we display his holiness. And when we live in such a way that people catch glimpses of Jesus, then they are seeing him through us.

Number four, trust him to hold your life together. The Bible says in verse 16, for in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. Verse 17, he's before all things, and in him, all things hold together.

He is the cosmic glue of the universe and he's the glue of your life. He's the one sustaining force keeping [00:20:00] everything from unraveling and that even includes your life. Stop acting therefore as though the world is on your shoulders because it's not. It's just not. You and I we're not that big and we're not that important.

Jesus who holds things together the same Jesus who keeps planets in orbit can keep your life in order. So you hand him your deadlines, you hand him your health fears, you hand him your relational messes. We trust the one who holds it all together to hold us. Number five, follow his lead in the church. The Bible says he's the head of the body of the church.

He's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. If Jesus is the head of the church, it means he's really leading the church. He's not just watching from heaven, he's actively leading his people. So when you see the church, when you see the [00:21:00] people of God, see them as, as Jesus sees them, that's not always easy.

Our lives are messy. We are messy, but God sees us and loves us. That means that the church and her folks are worthy of our service and our prayers. They're worthy of our generosity and our loyalty. So don't tear down the church. Don't tear down people. Don't tear down people who Jesus died to build up and to save.

If you love him, love his people. Number six, embrace a life of forgiveness and reconciliation First 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things where the things on on earth or things in heaven. By making peace for the blood shed on the cross reconciliation. This may be the toughest way for Jesus to be above all in our lives because to have preeminence for Jesus, to be above our grudges and our fears, our anger, and our disappointments, and resentment of people who have hurt us or hurt people [00:22:00] that we love or hurt us and named things that we hold dear as unimportant, it may be the most difficult surrender in my life.

Me personally, just when I think I'm over it and I'm over all grudges and I'm overall hurt, they come rushing back in, in a moment and I try to stamp them out again. I dealt with a, a young guy one time and he was very upset about things that had happened and I asked him to remember that the Bible says, beware lest a root of bitterness.

Spring up with it. And as I was saying that to him, he interrupted me, he said, I know that verse. I don't want to hear it. I thought, well, Elise, he's honest because how many times has that verse sprung up in my heart where the Holy Spirit is saying, Hey, remember this? And I'm just like, don't want to hear it.

I enjoy my bitterness, poor little bitterness in my coffee. It's good. But the thing is, if Jesus is truly the one that I'm bowing [00:23:00] before, I also have to give up my bitterness. So what I have to do is not entertain it. It. What I have to do is not, not water it, not let it grow. Instead, Ephesians 4 32 says, be kind and compassionate to one another.

Well, how do you do that? Well, it just tells you, forgive each other. Well, I don't think I, oh, I guess I can because this is just as in Christ, God forgave you. So has anybody ever done to me what they did to Jesus? Nah. Anybody ever hurt me like they hurt God's son and God forgave me? No, we learned to forgive and to close, and there's a lot of points.

Do y'all notice a lot of points in this thing? But I'm, I'm running through 'em. Okay? Y'all don't get upset. We're almost done. 

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Put him above just everything. Here's an application for you. To [00:24:00] audit your life. Where in your life is Jesus? Not number one, but number two or three or somewhere down the line?

Where is he squeezed into the margins and wherever that is in your life, rearrange it until he's not just a part of your life, but he's the center of your life holding everything else together. And to conclude, I would say simply this. A ball wall means no rivals, no equals no competitors. Jesus doesn't share his throne.

He doesn't split time wearing his crown. He doesn't negotiate his glory. Jesus isn't a slice of the pie. He's the whole pie. He isn't one piece of your week, he isn't one category of your life. He isn't an accessory, an add-on or an afterthought. He's the source. The center, the sum of it all. He's [00:25:00] not part of your story.

He is the story. History is his story. Your life makes sense only in him. Your chapter, each chapter of your life points to him. Every ending finds him in every beginning, starts with him. Above all means he stands alone above all powers and wisdom, and kings and names, and ages and things, there is nothing before him.

Nothing beside him, nothing beyond him. He is above all forever. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we need to be reminded. I have tried to do that today, but I cannot. It takes your spirit, your Holy Spirit, to drive in our hearts, the words of the text, the truth of the gospel, the truth of how great you are.

There's no way we will ever comprehend it. It even that day when we close our eyes on this earth and open our eyes to behold your [00:26:00] face, we still won't quite get it all throughout heaven. We will still be learning and loving you more, but that process doesn't need to begin when this life is over. It needs to begin right now and we need to put you above all things.

That is your only rightful place, and for you to not be there is for us to steal, your honor, your glory, and steal away the respect that we should have for you. Lord, we love you so much and we're so thankful as we've met together in this chapel today, and we've sung these songs and we've loved each other, and we've prayed for our friends.

Lord, you've been at the center of all of it. You truly are as that one song that we meditated on. You are peace. You are the one that brings everything good that happens in this world. So I pray that you'll bless us as your children, and we are your children indeed. No matter what [00:27:00] age we are. I pray that you'll bless us to honor you, and glorify you, and reflect you, and we ask it in your precious name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you.