SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.
SPEAKER_02: Dear God.
SPEAKER_02: That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_02: We praise you for what you've done.
SPEAKER_02: And we know that you did what you did because of who you are.
SPEAKER_02: And we lift up your hand because of who you are.
SPEAKER_02: I thank you for your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for another morning.
SPEAKER_02: And I pray in these next 30 minutes that our hearts can be stirred to love you more.
SPEAKER_02: Help us to walk out of here with a little less us, a little more you.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
SPEAKER_02: If you have your Bibles, would you grab those and go to Colossians chapter one?
SPEAKER_02: Bibles, go ahead and grab those and go to Colossians chapter one.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have one, you can go ahead and just relax as the texts will appear, the Bible, the verses will appear on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: But if you don't, or if you do have a Bible, I would love for you to go to Colossians chapter one.
SPEAKER_02: That's where we're going to be for the majority, if not all, the entire time.
SPEAKER_02: Now, um, we've been in an M-word series, a series on the M-word, money, my relationship, my body, my mission, and we're gonna finish that series in a slightly different way on a different day.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, today what we're gonna do with our time, we're just gonna look up.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we're just gonna look up.
SPEAKER_02: I think my job this morning, my job this morning is to get us to elevate our eyes above it all to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that's my job this morning is to elevate our eyes above it all to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I wanna expose you to one of the peaks, the mountain peaks of the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_02: So if you if you think of the Bible as a mountain range, okay, I'm gonna expose you, I want to expose you to the one of the biggest, tallest peaks of the entire Bible because good exposure causes good change.
SPEAKER_02: And powerful exposure can lead to significant change.
SPEAKER_02: Powerful exposure can lead to significant change.
SPEAKER_02: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_02: Well, as a as a black man, I love starting sentences like that.
SPEAKER_02: As a black man, I I can always tell when my non-chocolate friends have been on vacation.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I can always tell when my non-chocolate friends have been on vacation because they they come back a couple shades more Leo-like.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: The reality behind tans and sunburns is this.
SPEAKER_02: When you spend a significant time exposed to something powerful, it's going to show.
SPEAKER_02: He had to make a put a veil on his face because his face was shining.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, in that same way, my my big, hairy, audacious goal is to have us all look at Jesus and walk out of here with a little more comfort and a little more excitement about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's my huge goal, is to have us look at Jesus and walk out of here with a little more comfort and a little more excitement in him.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna do that in Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 through 20.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna look at these five verses, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Says this.
SPEAKER_02: And he is the head of the body, the church.
SPEAKER_02: He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_02: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
SPEAKER_02: That's the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Now, for centuries, scholars and experts have been staring at this in the original language and looking at it and going, why is Paul talking like that?
SPEAKER_02: Like if you look at this in this original language, like he's talking in this weird, choppy way, and then it finally dawned on them that this codified language means that this is probably not Paul talking.
SPEAKER_02: This is Paul singing.
SPEAKER_02: This is most likely an early Christian hymn or an early Christian poem.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, remember, whenever during the time of the New Testament, the people during the time of the New Testament did not have the New Testament the same way you and I have the New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: You have a Bible in your hands, Bible on your phone, Bible tied to your ankle.
SPEAKER_02: You have Bibles everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: That wasn't the case with them.
SPEAKER_02: They were living it out.
SPEAKER_02: So pastors did not get up and go to Ephesians 6 or Galatians 4.
SPEAKER_02: That that didn't that didn't happen.
SPEAKER_02: What they would do rather is they would get together and they would come up with these theologically rich doctrines, these little mantras, these Jesus paragraphs or these hymns or these poems.
SPEAKER_02: So they can all stay on the same page about Jesus, and then so they can all have some ammo when they go out to evangelize.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: And we don't have all of them, but we have some of them spread out through your New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: And this right here is 99%.
SPEAKER_02: This right here is one of them.
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna dig into this poem and elevate our eyes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna tackle the question: who is Jesus and why did he die?
SPEAKER_02: Because that is not the ABCs of your faith.
SPEAKER_02: That's the A through Z of our faith.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, we are called as followers of Christ to be continually anchored by and energized by the activity and the identity of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And we see Jesus' activity and identity in his four relationships.
SPEAKER_02: So, number one, we see his relationship with God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: We see his relationship with God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_02: Says this He is the image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, he is the image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_02: I'll stop there.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps the most important word in this passage is the word the friends, you were made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the image of God.
SPEAKER_02: He is the image.
SPEAKER_02: And later on, um the writer of Hebrews echoes this sentiment by saying something even more grand.
SPEAKER_02: He says, He, talking about Jesus, he is the radiance of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: In the exact imprint of his nature.
SPEAKER_02: That word radiance, the Greek word is the word apaguasma.
SPEAKER_02: That sounds like an exotic lizard, but it literally just means reflected brightness.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Jesus is the reflected brightness of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: And friends, this can get very theological very quickly.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we can swim around in the abstract and the theological very, very quickly, but what does this mean for you and I?
SPEAKER_02: People use this concept to play theological tennis all day, but what does this mean for me?
SPEAKER_02: What does this actually mean for you?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's simple.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to know what God looks like up close, look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to know what God looks like, this mysterious, majestic, powerful God, if you want to know what he looks like up close, you look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Can you read the Gospels and you look at Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: And that actually begs the question: how is God revealed through Jesus in the Gospels?
SPEAKER_02: How is God revealed through Jesus in the Gospels?
SPEAKER_02: And friends, that question is worth a lifetime of study.
SPEAKER_02: Who is God according to Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: That is worth a lifetime of study.
SPEAKER_02: You digging in by yourself to Matthew, to Mark, to Luke, to John, and you getting together and you keep continually asking that until the day you finally go see him.
SPEAKER_02: Who is God according to Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: And I and I encourage you to do that.
SPEAKER_02: Because through that study, you get to see God's goodness at eye level.
SPEAKER_02: You get to see through Jesus, you get to see the goodness of God at eye level.
SPEAKER_02: For example, through Jesus, we get to find out the depths of the compassion of God.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I love the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: I do not subscribe to Old Testament phobia like a lot of Christians do.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I love the left side of my Bible.
SPEAKER_02: So you see the compassion of God in the Old Testament as well, but through Jesus, you get graphic examples and graphic displays of the compassion of God, John 11.
SPEAKER_02: In John chapter 11, one of Jesus' friends dies.
SPEAKER_02: He's very close with that family, and the man named Lazarus dies.
SPEAKER_02: And he shows up to Lazarus' town and Lazarus' gathering when Lazarus has been buried for about four days at this point.
SPEAKER_02: And this is a difficult scene.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us have been in this type of scene where everybody in the room is distraught and just tears and snot bubbles everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: We've been there.
SPEAKER_02: And what's interesting is Jesus walks into this scene with two things you and I don't have during hard times.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus walks into the scene with two things you and I only wish we had during hard times.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, Jesus walked into the scene with ultimate knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: As a son of God, he knows how this death fits into the ultimate puzzle piece of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: We don't.
SPEAKER_02: Bad things happen, and we're like, ah man, how does this?
SPEAKER_02: As a son of God, he knows how this fits into the mosaic of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: So he has ultimate knowledge, and he also has ultimate power to reverse it.
SPEAKER_02: Spoiler alert, he does.
SPEAKER_02: He walks into the the grave of Lazarus and tells him he's not allowed to be dead anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: He waited Lazarus come out.
SPEAKER_02: So he walks into the scene with ultimate power and he walks into the scene with ultimate knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: But what's fascinating is he doesn't walk in whistling.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't walk in skipping.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't walk in throwing out pithy quotes like, hey, too blessed to be strong instead, Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_02: He sat down to cry.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: This is the God of the universe walking into a funeral with ultimate knowledge and ultimate power to reverse it.
SPEAKER_02: And yet he walks into a funeral and goes, I know, right?
SPEAKER_02: I know, right?
SPEAKER_02: That's a graphic, graphic display of compassion.
SPEAKER_02: And there's more.
SPEAKER_02: I encourage you to read the gospels and keep asking, who is God according to Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Because as Jesus says himself, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
SPEAKER_02: If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
SPEAKER_02: So in this passage, we get to see that we get to see his relationship with God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Second, we get to see his relationship with creation.
SPEAKER_02: We get to see his relationship with creation.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verses 15 through 17.
SPEAKER_02: Says this.
SPEAKER_02: It can mean one of two things.
SPEAKER_02: One, the one that's born first, or two, the one who ranks supreme.
SPEAKER_02: In this context, he's talking about the fact that Jesus ranks supreme.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ actually ranks uh supreme.
SPEAKER_02: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not talking about his biology, it's talking about his rank.
SPEAKER_02: How do we know that we keep reading?
SPEAKER_02: Look at verses 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_02: It says this for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_02: And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_02: Last night I was scheming of a way to be cute right here with this sermon.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, how can I be smart and scholarly right here?
SPEAKER_02: I can't find a really cool way to say it.
SPEAKER_02: So I'll say it this way.
SPEAKER_02: If it exists, Jesus created it.
SPEAKER_02: That's as cool as I if it exists, Jesus created it.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, don't let the story of Lazarus, don't let a crying Christ deter you from understanding Jesus' power.
SPEAKER_02: Don't let a crying Christ deter you from Jesus' power.
SPEAKER_02: He is the king of creation.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna read to you a quote.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is just the quote.
SPEAKER_02: I just want you to look at the listen to the creative power of Jesus just when it comes to the human body.
SPEAKER_02: Just when it comes to the human body.
SPEAKER_02: Matt Woodley writes this you have a hundred trillion cells in your body.
SPEAKER_02: Each one of them, scientists, will tell you, it's like a complex city, like the city of New York on a cellular level.
SPEAKER_02: Every second of every day, your cells are operating on a million of parts and interactions.
SPEAKER_02: A scientist named Lewis Thomas, not a believer, by the way, once wrote eloquently about the beauty of a single cell.
SPEAKER_02: If I could explain what goes on in a human cell, I would for the rest of my life hire a plane and fly it back and forth across the earth just to proclaim the incredible wonder of how and why a cell works.
SPEAKER_02: That's just your body.
SPEAKER_02: Usually when people teach in the text, they show pictures of what's happening in outer space, and that's that's good and that's right because you can see Jesus' creative power through a microscope and a telescope.
SPEAKER_02: However, those are just the physical things.
SPEAKER_02: We barely think about the invisible things electricity, gravity, the atmosphere.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, he is king over what we can't see.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is also king of what we can't see.
SPEAKER_02: That's important.
SPEAKER_02: Because if you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, if you read the story of Jesus, there's only one group that gets this right the whole time.
SPEAKER_02: And it ain't the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: It's barely ever the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: It's not the Pharisees, not the Sadducees.
SPEAKER_02: There's only one group who constantly and consistently understand that he is the king over everything unseen as well.
SPEAKER_02: It's demons.
SPEAKER_02: Demons always get it.
SPEAKER_02: They always know that He is He is the King of what we can't see as well.
SPEAKER_02: In Matthew chapter 8, some demons see Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what they don't say.
SPEAKER_02: They don't say, freeze, who are you, holy man?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: These demons see Jesus and they go, You're early.
SPEAKER_02: You're early.
SPEAKER_02: What have you to do with the Son of Man?
SPEAKER_02: Are you have you come to torture us before the time?
SPEAKER_02: Basically, you're early.
SPEAKER_02: We thought we had more time.
SPEAKER_02: They know he's king of everything, including them.
SPEAKER_02: Again, I don't want to use it as a launch point to play theological tennis and play in the abstract.
SPEAKER_02: Why should this matter to me?
SPEAKER_02: How does the fact that Jesus is king of creation, why should this matter to you?
SPEAKER_02: Well, friends, throughout scripture, we're invited to interpret nature theologically.
SPEAKER_02: To interpret nature theologically.
SPEAKER_02: You're not called to worship creation, you're not called to worship the universe, but you're also not just called to live within creative order either.
SPEAKER_02: You're called to let creation, let nature allow it to point you to the Lord Himself, friends.
SPEAKER_02: You are surrounded by reminders of his unthinkable power and his unfathomable wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: You're surrounded by reminders of God's unthinkable power and his unfathomable wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to Jesus teach.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, are you are you are you scared?
SPEAKER_02: Are you nervous?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, look at that lily down there.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that billionaire you know of Solomon.
SPEAKER_02: That billion listen, one of these is not he the one of these is arrayed much better than Solomon was.
SPEAKER_02: Look at those birds.
SPEAKER_02: God takes care of that.
SPEAKER_02: So Jesus is inviting us to interpret nature theologically, to look at creation and have it us have us point to him and his goodness.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 19 says this the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
SPEAKER_02: Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that that phrase right there pours out speech.
SPEAKER_02: That's a weaker translation of the word that's actually there.
SPEAKER_02: The word right there is it is naba, and it literally means gush out.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so don't think pours out speech like the creation is pouring out like a cup of water.
SPEAKER_02: Think fire hydrant.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, creation is gushing to tell you about the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, let that fuel your praise life.
SPEAKER_02: Oftentimes we can become so enamored with the prayer life, which is incredibly important.
SPEAKER_02: It's the lifeblood of our faith, is our prayer life, but how is your praise life doing?
SPEAKER_02: For us, for some of us, singing in here might feel very unnatural because you only sing in here.
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna feel funny if you only do it in here.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, we have all sorts of reminders to fuel our praise life.
SPEAKER_02: And God is saying, Listen, I've surrounded you.
SPEAKER_02: I have surrounded you with reminders of my goodness.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, do not wait till you get to the Grand Canyon or NASA to be in awe of his creation.
SPEAKER_02: Don't wait.
SPEAKER_02: Let it fuel your praise life.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get on the exit ramp at this point by asking these questions.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the King of creation.
SPEAKER_02: How should that change the way?
SPEAKER_02: You trust.
SPEAKER_02: How should that inform the confidence that you have when you pray?
SPEAKER_02: How should that change the way you worship?
SPEAKER_02: But we see his relationship with the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Now we see his relationship with the creation.
SPEAKER_02: Furthermore, we see his relationship with the church.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: Really short verse, but incredibly powerful.
SPEAKER_02: It says this.
SPEAKER_02: He is the head of the body.
SPEAKER_02: The church.
SPEAKER_02: He is the head of the body of the church.
SPEAKER_02: A few years ago, I was in an office.
SPEAKER_02: I was talking to a close friend of mine, a guy named Paul, Paul Helbig.
SPEAKER_02: He's one of my mentors, the guy who taught me the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And later on, he's the guy who actually introduced me to Neil, right?
SPEAKER_02: He's just a youth ministry guru.
SPEAKER_02: And he was someone that I really confide in.
SPEAKER_02: I was talking to him actually last night.
SPEAKER_02: He has multiple sclerosis and yeah, a very aggressive, aggressive, aggressive form of multiple sclerosis that's left him paralyzed.
SPEAKER_02: So if you can think to pray for Paul Helbig, please do so.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, if you hear this, I love you and I'm praying for you, buddy.
SPEAKER_02: But when I first became a youth pastor, I used to go into his office every Monday.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Youth Ministry is the Wild West sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: And I used to go to his office every single Monday, and I would just vent, get it all out of McMahon.
SPEAKER_02: I'm messing up on this, I'm messing up on this, I'm messing up on this.
SPEAKER_02: And 2017-ish, my students kept doing something that was really getting to me.
SPEAKER_02: My students were consistently doing the same thing that was getting to me.
SPEAKER_02: My students kept doing this annoying thing called graduating.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: So annoying.
SPEAKER_02: You love them, and then they invite you to their grad party, and it's just like, what?
SPEAKER_02: Um and it was painful.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't, I didn't, they didn't teach you this at youth pastor school.
SPEAKER_02: It was painful when you have to like lead them on or let them go.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember him talking to me about hey, it's not, it's not about your seating capacity, it's about your sending capacity.
SPEAKER_02: You want to not lose them, you want to launch them.
SPEAKER_02: Um but as I was bemoaning graduation, I remember him saying, You think you're old now?
SPEAKER_02: Wait until they start asking you to marry them.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, wait until they start asking you to do their wedding.
SPEAKER_02: Then you'll feel it.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, no, and then it happened.
SPEAKER_02: It started happening.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, 2020 and 2021, I've done weddings for some dear students of mine.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's an honor doing weddings, and I love just being on a front row seat of seeing people's like huge moments.
SPEAKER_02: That's one of the big blessings, but one of the biggest blessings of going through a premarital counseling with a couple or to marrying a couple away is you get to bury your nose in Ephesians chapter five.
SPEAKER_02: And when you look at Ephesians chapter five, you actually dissect Ephesians five, you get to find out that, man, the church is Jesus' bride.
SPEAKER_02: So that that scene where I'm in the front and the husband's over here, and the one the wife is walking down, and he looks at her and he starts bawling his eyes out, which happens nine times out of ten now.
SPEAKER_02: That's a picture of Christ and his church.
SPEAKER_02: The church is Jesus' bride.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is tied to his bride, Jesus loves his bride, Jesus died for his bride.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, Jesus died for the beauty of his bride.
SPEAKER_02: Ephesians 5 goes like this: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up, gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, Jesus and the church are inextricably connected, they're destined to be together forever.
SPEAKER_02: Don't lose sight of that.
SPEAKER_02: You're not just walking into a building.
SPEAKER_02: This is rooted in eternity.
SPEAKER_02: There's billions of other people gathered.
SPEAKER_02: He is the cornerstone, there's billions of others gathered, and this is rooted in eternity, and we are destined to be and enjoy Jesus forever.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus and the church are inextricably connected.
SPEAKER_02: And you see this in Acts chapter 9, right?
SPEAKER_02: So Paul, he's the writes the majority of the New Testament, and before he was Paul, he was Saul of Tarsus, he was persecuting the church, he was making sure Christians were dying on time, he was imprisoning all sorts of Christians everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: And so he runs into Jesus on Damascus Road.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says this in Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_02: It gives us phenomenal insight on the church.
SPEAKER_02: Now, as he went on his way, Paul did, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_02: Notice what he doesn't say.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say, Saul, Saul, why are you hurting my people?
SPEAKER_02: Saul, Saul, why are you wounding my disciples?
SPEAKER_02: Saul, Saul, why are you harming my creation?
SPEAKER_02: He goes, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_02: And Paul and Saul replies, and he said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_02: And he said, I am Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Watch this, whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_02: Again, notice what it doesn't say.
SPEAKER_02: It isn't saying, I am Jesus, the leader of the movement.
SPEAKER_02: Or I am Jesus, the one that's the leader of the people you're persecuting, or I am their caretaker, or I am their guy, I am the one, I am whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, you hurt them, you're harming me.
SPEAKER_02: Or you're attempting to harm me.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus and the church are inextricably connected.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, we're in a generation right now.
SPEAKER_02: I'm a millennial.
SPEAKER_02: If you can't tell by the way I dress now on Sunday mornings.
SPEAKER_02: I'll clean up for Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Look.
SPEAKER_02: But a huge fad trend in my culture and in my in my age group is, man, I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I hate the church.
SPEAKER_02: I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I can't stand his little fan club.
SPEAKER_02: I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I hate Christians.
SPEAKER_02: I like Christ, not Christians.
SPEAKER_02: My friends, that's that's not that's not right.
SPEAKER_02: Let's disciple the world.
SPEAKER_02: That our Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_02: This big dysfunctional family, he died for us.
SPEAKER_02: Let's love his bride.
SPEAKER_02: Besides the marital motif, the other motif that the Bible uses is the body motif.
SPEAKER_02: Ephesians 4 says, we are members of one another, meaning we're body parts of one another, meaning that should inform the way that we treat one another.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: We're body parts of one another.
SPEAKER_02: And this passage um slammed dunks that by saying he is the head of the body, the church.
SPEAKER_02: So we see his relationship with the Father, we see his relationship with creation, we see Jesus' relationship with the church, and lastly, we see his relationship with the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verses 19 through 23.
SPEAKER_02: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
SPEAKER_02: And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, that that's that's the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: No, and I know that sitting in a room like this with the with the Bible open, with people who chose to get up early and listen to God's word, I know that whenever we hear gospel or cross, our brain kind of checks out because we know this stuff already.
SPEAKER_02: But again, this is not the threshold to get in.
SPEAKER_02: This is the life you live out.
SPEAKER_02: This is not the A, B, C's, the entry-level thing.
SPEAKER_02: This is the A through Z.
SPEAKER_02: Think about what we've just talked about.
SPEAKER_02: Give the one who is the image of God, the one who is king of creation, the one who is the body of this church, the one to whom which all institutions are subversive to him.
SPEAKER_02: That one died for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, friends, your default factory settings were evil.
SPEAKER_02: My factory settings were evil.
SPEAKER_02: This is what I love about Paul.
SPEAKER_02: He never gets over the fact that he was saved.
SPEAKER_02: Even in these weird moments of like, what do you have to say for yourself?
SPEAKER_02: He just tells a story.
SPEAKER_02: Here's who I was, and here's who I am now because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He never gets over the fact that Jesus saved him.
SPEAKER_02: And I have to keep beating this here because, friends, people don't usually fall into sin.
SPEAKER_02: They usually slide there.
SPEAKER_02: And the way you slide there is you get your affections for God start cooling off.
SPEAKER_02: And they usually start cooling off because you stopped falling in love with the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, let us be people who are continually enamored by the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, you were in rebellion and God interrupted our rebellion by dying for us.
SPEAKER_02: He took off his uniform and he dove into human history to save sinners.
SPEAKER_02: Christian.
SPEAKER_02: How does the gospel speak to the season of life you're in right now?
SPEAKER_02: Or better yet, to get more specific, how does the gospel speak to that thing that's on your mind today?
SPEAKER_02: In a room this big, some of us are in green pastures, and some of us are in dark, dark valleys.
SPEAKER_02: How does the gospel fit?
SPEAKER_02: How does the gospel speak to those seasons?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Neil McClendon.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: This, I would say this is his superpower.
SPEAKER_02: You're tempted to think that it's preaching or it's humor, I would say three months of hanging around him, this is it.
SPEAKER_02: Constantly, repetitively, nonstop asking, how does the gospel speak to that?
SPEAKER_02: How does the gospel speak to that?
SPEAKER_02: I I I made a mistake and I was beating myself up for it already.
SPEAKER_02: And he was like, listen, Leo, I knew you were a sinner before you got here because the cross told me so.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, excuse me.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: But in every situation, he is consistently, consistently asking, how does the gospel speak to this moment right now?
SPEAKER_02: Friends, let us steal that.
SPEAKER_02: Let us learn that.
SPEAKER_02: And continually and understand how does the gospel speak to that?
SPEAKER_02: That is not positive thinking.
SPEAKER_02: That is not just silver lining thinking.
SPEAKER_02: You have been reconciled, created by him, but your sin caused a fracture.
SPEAKER_02: And you it caused a fraction, uh fracture deserving punishment.
SPEAKER_02: But God, being rich in mercy, sent Jesus to pay it all.
SPEAKER_02: How does the gospel speak to the season of life that you're in right now?
SPEAKER_02: To our non-Christians, friends.
SPEAKER_02: Where are you gonna find a love like this?
SPEAKER_02: Where the Most High God takes off his uniform and comes down and puts himself under the curse that we deserve to be under.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, no matter where you are, let us keep God preeminent in our hearts and in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Because he is worthy.
SPEAKER_02: That's one of the major questions that's being asked by the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Genesis to Revelation.
SPEAKER_02: The undergirding question, one of the undergirding questions is is he worthy?
SPEAKER_02: And this passion shows that he is worthy.
SPEAKER_02: Let us fight to keep him preeminent in our hearts and in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: We pray.
SPEAKER_02: How does the gospel speak to my life?
SPEAKER_02: God, for those of us not feeling loved or feeling lonely or feeling angry or feeling isolated, I pray that they can just look to the cross.
SPEAKER_02: God consistently remind us to look to the cross.
SPEAKER_02: And then also remind us that that grave is empty.
SPEAKER_02: And you're coming back.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is this is the best news.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray that your preeminence, your ranking can show in our lives to our coworkers, our friends, our neighbors.
SPEAKER_02: We love you.
SPEAKER_02: We praise you.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your beautiful name I pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Um, welcome.
SPEAKER_02: Um, thank you so much for being here this morning.
SPEAKER_02: What we like to do now is this part of our service, we'd like to take a step back and have you mentally worship, have us mentally process um what we just heard.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna put up some questions here.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and these are just questions for you to be alone with the Lord and ask him these questions.
SPEAKER_02: You can take a picture of them, um, or you can just um go through them in your mind.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm gonna take about 60 seconds or so.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm gonna be praying for you as you and the Lord uh speak in this time.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, um sermon illustrations can't do it, perfect sermons wouldn't do it.
SPEAKER_02: Perfect pastor, perfect, whatever we're utterly, I am utterly dependent on you.
SPEAKER_02: God, would you please consistently remind us of the gospel this week?
SPEAKER_02: Um help us to do things out of an overflow of our happiness in you through the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: We love you, we praise you.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your beautiful name I pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Um, my name is Leo Almeida.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the pre preaching pastors, teaching pastors here on staff.
SPEAKER_02: And what that means is I just uh teach in a variety of environments.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I can uh I'll preach um from behind the pulpit.
SPEAKER_02: Um, if you're a visitor here with us, um, thank you so much for coming.
SPEAKER_02: Um, you matter to God, and so you matter, you matter to us.
SPEAKER_02: So I would love for you to fill out that connect card um that just gives us a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_02: And if you fill out that connect card, um please put it in one of the wooden boxes um around the room.
SPEAKER_02: Um, if you are here and this is your church home and this is a place where you call uh uh belonging, this is where you belong, um, would you, if this is your day to worship through tithes and offerings, um you can put those tithes and offerings in that, in that, in those boxes around the room as well.
SPEAKER_02: Um after our service, two things.
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're gonna have some pastors here at the front that would love to pray for anybody or process um what you just heard with anybody um that that wants to come forward.
SPEAKER_02: And furthermore, um Virgil, uh are the the the one the per the person you you you you heard speak um before I got on stage, he will be his luncheon is gonna be in the warehouse after this service.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, it's gonna be in the warehouse after this service.
SPEAKER_02: Now, um we we're gonna direct our attention to the screen and just look at this video.
SPEAKER_02: It's let us know, let you know what's happening in the life of our church.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, my name is Neri Salazar.
SPEAKER_00: I immigrate this country, and when my way coming over here, I got lost and I live in the woods.
SPEAKER_00: That's why eating worms, live, and drinking dirty water.
SPEAKER_00: And one night I can't stand to be eating too many worms.
SPEAKER_00: So I um I asked Father God to help me.
SPEAKER_00: And um and I made a promise to him.
SPEAKER_00: If he would help me to not let the animals eat me up, um, I was gonna help him.
SPEAKER_00: God keep his promises.
SPEAKER_00: So I moved to Richmond and um God had a plan because I made a promise to him, so he let us start a ministry here in Richmond.
SPEAKER_00: We do a Bible study every Tuesday for the children where we teach about him, and I want the kids to know who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Saturday we do a reading classes.
SPEAKER_00: My dream is for the children to learn to read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But some of the children in here they don't know how to read well, so that's why we have uh reading classes every Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: When they come on Saturday, we also feed the children.
SPEAKER_00: So we make snacks, we made some homemade cookies, we milk, and then we provide lunch for the children.
SPEAKER_00: So every time that we bring the children, there is promise, we always provide a meal for them because our children's always hungry because that meal it might be the last meal of the day for them.
SPEAKER_00: On Sundays, I go around the neighborhood and pick up the children to take them to church.
SPEAKER_00: So when we come back from service, the children come and have lunch over here.
SPEAKER_00: So we make home-cooked meals all the time for the children.
SPEAKER_00: We also ask for donations for the whole community.
SPEAKER_00: So our kids, they are in need of um clothes because they sometimes they just grow so fast and and they need more clothes, so we're accepting donations.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be making beds for the children, so the community.
SPEAKER_00: So those bed beds are gonna be made from scratch and and um the children, they don't have beds.
SPEAKER_00: And as you know, we need the children need to have a good night's sleep so they can be ready for the next day to go to school and they can learn.
SPEAKER_00: Um, some of the family they don't have enough uh resources and they can have uh a nice bed.
SPEAKER_00: So we also need volunteers.
SPEAKER_00: Now we'd love for y'all to come and help us.
SPEAKER_00: God keep his promises.
SPEAKER_02: Pull your hands out before you reconciled people of God.
SPEAKER_02: Go out and look for evidences of God's goodness, walk in his forgiveness, look around and fuel your praise life, and look for evidence that he is worthy, preeminent and worthy.
SPEAKER_02: I pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Go in peace.