SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information in our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me introduce myself.
SPEAKER_00: Um I I I did earlier during the Shapin Word, but I'm I want to do it again.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Aaron Cotton, and uh I I am the student pastor here uh at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_00: It's my privilege to be here uh in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh back in 2008, uh I was asked to come on for a summer uh and I'm still here uh five five years later.
SPEAKER_00: I told the way I was like, hey man, uh I'm not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I love this church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I love I love uh the people here uh and and I love the students.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so so I'm I am uh I'm I'm I'm here for the for the long for the long haul, whether you like it or not.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm I'm I'm gonna be I'm gonna be here.
SPEAKER_00: Um so with that, we're gonna be in Colossians uh one this morning, uh, and we're we're gonna unpack uh a few things.
SPEAKER_00: We've been going through the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: We've been going through all the way, we've made it all the way to Romans 8, and then we kind of uh we kind of stopped.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we took a total of four uh four weeks alone in in the book uh or in the chapter uh of chapter eight of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we we we take one verse at a time here.
SPEAKER_00: We like to walk through the Bible, we like uh to take uh it's slow, just one one verse at a time, and we're gonna do the same thing this morning because I think there's this tendency within us uh we when we approach the word of God to kind of just jump in and just just to go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh just to just to go and kind of gloss and uh but we're we're not we're not gonna do that this uh this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I I like to draw the analogy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh like reading reading the reading the Bible is like mowing the grass.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not a duck dynasty joke.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's just my philosophy.
SPEAKER_00: Like reading the Bible is like mowing the grass.
SPEAKER_00: You think, Aaron, what do you what are you uh talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Uh the question asks me is man, what is the greatest Christmas present you ever got?
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's I I was I was spoiled rotten as a kid.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I don't know if I can name one specific gift that I got that was just downright amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but i i if I could speak of one gift that I got uh that my dad gave me was a riding lawnmower.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have a place out here in Waller, uh five acres worth, and before we had a Ryan lawnmower, we had it we actually had a push mower.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it wasn't self-propelled.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's something that you actually had to push a lot of energy.
SPEAKER_00: You got your workout in.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so when I got a riding lawn mower, I got my own set of wheels.
SPEAKER_00: I could go as fast as I want.
SPEAKER_00: I used to take that thing uh at my own Ryan lawn, put it in fifth years before, the automatic ones that you get nowadays.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually when you actually put it in gear, had your foot on the brake.
SPEAKER_00: I could pop wheelies on this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was it I I was such a talent.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put that thing on the way to the rabbit, let that thing go, and I could be I can knock out a pasture in no time.
SPEAKER_00: My brother had one, I had one, we'd be racing, we'd be going.
SPEAKER_00: If you know anything about mowing grass, if you go too fast, since the grass is so rich and thick, it you the good the blades can't keep up.
SPEAKER_00: And and there's this there's this moment when you're going, you if you go too fast, there's this little blade of thin grass that to show that hey, you need it, you're going too fast and you slow down.
SPEAKER_00: But I I didn't know that as a kid.
SPEAKER_00: All I know all I know is I got a meal mower.
SPEAKER_00: I could take my own set of wheels.
SPEAKER_00: I can go to the grocery for the Moonaville uh store, uh, show up there, get what I want.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I got my own set of wheels.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go as fast as I as I want to.
SPEAKER_00: And my dad uh many, many times did this motion right here.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, slow, slow down, slow down, you're going, you're going way, you're going way too fast.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, I see my dad speaking to hey, slow down.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna slow down this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna we're gonna be in Colossians 1, and we're just gonna take one uh verse at a time.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this, Colossians 1.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start in verse 9 for the sake of context.
SPEAKER_00: Bible says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, and so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: If anything or any question about what to pray, pray this.
SPEAKER_00: Be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and that may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
SPEAKER_00: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom, in Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, huge verse.
SPEAKER_00: He is the image.
SPEAKER_00: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones, dominions, or rulers, or authorities.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, I think we get the point.
SPEAKER_00: Everything ever created, all things were created through him, and they exist, they exist for him.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the head of the body, the church.
SPEAKER_00: He is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, that in everything, in everything he might be, he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_00: 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, by making peace by the blood, by the blood of his cross.
SPEAKER_00: What a full full morning uh it is if you read through the text, at least eight times alone in eight verses, we see in him, in him, he is, he is, like Paul, we get the point.
SPEAKER_00: We are confronted with the bigness of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that that that what we see in our in our the first point that uh we will see Paul making is that Jesus is savior.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is savior.
SPEAKER_00: Rome was ruling during this time.
SPEAKER_00: Rome was one of the largest uh ruling empires the world has ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest empires uh ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the biggest impacts that Rome did was the Roman roads.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that they they created roads not only for uh the people who had money, but people uh who are on the outset that didn't have much.
SPEAKER_00: It created this diverse cultural melting pot where people could access places where they weren't able to uh before.
SPEAKER_00: And what began to happen in Rome, there began to do this influx of culture, a variety uh uh uh of different beliefs and systems, and Rome was totally cool with it.
SPEAKER_00: Rome was like, hey, believe whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: You want to worship that God over there, you go worship that God.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to worship uh what what the druids or the pagan, like you go do that, as long as you add Caesar to the list, hey, we're okay.
SPEAKER_00: And it worked out well because what Rome did is they they instilled uh uh the religious tolerance for the people, and this is where the Colossian church is at.
SPEAKER_00: They're sitting and they're seeing their neighbors, they're seeing people borrow things, they're seeing, hey, I like this about that culture, I like I like this about about that, and there's this new this new culture emerging within Rome.
SPEAKER_00: To give you an example, uh I'm a big fan of Los Cucos.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we I live out in Cady and Los Cucos reigns out in Cat.
SPEAKER_00: I know we're Lupe Tortilla people uh here in Sugarland, uh, but here in uh in the good town of Cady, we're Los Cucos people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I always thought I was going on a mission trip uh to Mexico, and I I love I love food.
SPEAKER_00: I just love especially Mexican food.
SPEAKER_00: I just love Mexican food.
SPEAKER_00: And uh my my idea was that we're going on the border trip and we're going down into Mexico, and I was so excited about the food.
SPEAKER_00: Like I was excited about I'm gonna get some real authentic Mexican food.
SPEAKER_00: So I get there and we get some real corn tortillas in front of me, rice and beans, you name it, chicken, whatever, beef.
SPEAKER_00: And I took a bite, and I was, and I thought my first thought was this is bad, like it's rotten, like something, something is wrong with the food here.
SPEAKER_00: Like something, I've I had this fantasy land of how amazing this was gonna be, and in that moment I thought, I missed my lost cuckoo's.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to go back to my text mix because what happened here in the States, we took this Mexican culture and this the states culture, and we and they combine the two to what we literally call, we call it text mix.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what is happening in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: These two cultures are coming together, and there's a in a there's an emergence of a new culture, and Paul is fighting it.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, hey, don't cave in.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't don't cave in.
SPEAKER_00: He's laboring.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, as we read in Psalm 89, who can compare to the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: The title of this morning is that Jesus is beyond comparison.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is beyond, he's beyond comparison.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that at the first point in Colossians 1, verse 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Jesus is the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, the Bible says this.
SPEAKER_00: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and he has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom, in Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: This word delivered, it's an interesting word.
SPEAKER_00: It's a re in the Greek it's rehomi.
SPEAKER_00: It means to rescue, it means to redeem, it means to buy back, it means it means to purchase.
SPEAKER_00: And we see in Colossians 1, Paul's picking up on these Old Testament things, and he's gonna begin to talk about redemption.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to talk about redemption, you go back to the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most beautiful pictures of redemption, of God buying back and purchasing purchasing his people, is seen in Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: When God's people are enslaved under Egyptian bondage, and they're they're crying out, How long, O Lord, how long are we going to remain under impression?
SPEAKER_00: And there's this amazing phrase in Exodus, they're in that burning bush moment with Moses.
SPEAKER_00: God hears the cry of his people and he comes down to rescue them.
SPEAKER_00: Paul picks up on this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Not not just a physical rescue, but when Jesus comes in the picture, he's talking about a spiritual, a spiritual redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't know Jesus, if you don't have a relationship with him, if you've never trusted in him, the Bible says, Paul says, not me, but but what Paul says is that we are under the rule and domain of darkness and need of deliverance, and we cannot do it on our own.
SPEAKER_00: We can't.
SPEAKER_00: If if we could do it on our own, if we could get outside our bondage of our sin and get outside of the domain of darkness, why did Jesus have to come?
SPEAKER_00: But he c but he came.
SPEAKER_00: And he came to seek and save that was which was lost.
SPEAKER_00: In this kingdom, there is there's redemption, there is forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is savior.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is also God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, second point, Jesus is also God.
SPEAKER_00: This point alone has huge implications.
SPEAKER_00: Huge Jesus is not just a good prophet, he's not just a good man, he's not just uh someone who has good moral values, but according to Paul, Jesus, Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 15 for me.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes, he is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all over all creation.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's three there's three words that that stand out to me.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is firstborn.
SPEAKER_00: We saw this in Romans 8 around verse 20 29, where we picked up this.
SPEAKER_00: Does this mean that Jesus was created?
SPEAKER_00: And is it in Paul's saying, uh absolutely, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: This this word firstborn deals with rank, it deals with preeminence, it deals, it deals with authority, it deals with uniqueness.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was used over 130 times in uh in the Old Testament and always referred to rank, power.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we always to saddest.
SPEAKER_00: And the second word that we that I that we'll look into is this word invisible.
SPEAKER_00: He is the image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_00: God is invisible, no one has seen him.
SPEAKER_00: We've only seen, we've only seen his works, whether it be through his word or within our with our within our own conscience.
SPEAKER_00: The closest person to see God was Moses.
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember back in Exodus 33?
SPEAKER_00: Where God is leading his people, he's saying, Hey, I'm gonna bring my people, I'm gonna deliver you out, I'm gonna buy you, I'm gonna rescue you, I'm gonna bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds great.
SPEAKER_00: Count me.
SPEAKER_00: I want that.
SPEAKER_00: God brings his people out.
SPEAKER_00: They begin to be stiff-necked, as according to what the Old Testament says, and rebellious, and they start doing what they want to do.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, Hey, I'm gonna remove my presence from you guys because you're gonna because you keep doing what you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses intercedes, is like, oh Lord, please don't, please don't, because if your presence doesn't dwell within us, what's gonna what's gonna make us distinct from the other people?
SPEAKER_00: We cannot operate and function what you called us to do if your presence doesn't go with us.
SPEAKER_00: And God relents, and in that moment, I don't know what was the deal.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's like a camp, like closing song lights, and I don't know what it was, but Moses just blurts out, hey God, show show me your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Show me your glory.
SPEAKER_00: I want I wanna I want to see you.
SPEAKER_00: You know what God says in them?
SPEAKER_00: He looked he looks at He looks at Moses and he says, Hey, Moses, I'm so awesome and I'm so glorious, and I'm so holy that your eyes cannot see me, because if you saw me, you you would die, that you would cease to exist.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take you and I'm gonna put you in the cleft of the rock.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna put you back in the back.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, I'm gonna put you back there and I'm gonna pass by you, and all the only thing that you can see is just a glimpse of my backside.
SPEAKER_00: Because of how holy and how awesome I am.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's all you can take.
SPEAKER_00: So God puts him in the cleft of the rock and he does one of these, does one of he does one of these, puts his hand out, puts Moses by, and puts his hand.
SPEAKER_00: We think NCAA came up with the Heisman.
SPEAKER_00: God came over that a long time ago back in Exodus 33, as he put Moses back in the cleft of the rock, as he did one, as he did one of it to cover up, because no one has seen God.
SPEAKER_00: No one has seen the fullness of God, which I want to ask us a question.
SPEAKER_00: How can this invisible invisible God be known?
SPEAKER_00: How can this invisible God be known?
SPEAKER_00: Paul answers us that question with this that He is the image, He is the image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that it means to be God is seen in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This word image means icon, it means likeness, it means a visible expression, it means a divine imprint of God's being, or simply put, it means a portrait.
SPEAKER_00: Growing up in my household, my mom loves pictures.
SPEAKER_00: She just loves to take like constantly.
SPEAKER_00: If it wasn't a uh it wasn't if it wasn't just a camera, it was actually a recorder.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's always a constant, constant filming of our family.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you go to our house, go to my mom's closet, there's like seasons of 1995, the cotton family.
SPEAKER_00: Like not just like episodes, I'm talking about seasons upon seasons of cassettes upon cassettes of what of what uh of I'm not just talking about like just games and sports events and church events.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm talking about we wake up and we're eating a bowl of cereal and my mom's filming us.
SPEAKER_00: Like, mom, isn't it exciting?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Like, uh cool, uh I I I like Lucky Charms.
SPEAKER_00: I guess like that's all I got because my mom loved, she she still does.
SPEAKER_00: And it was it was back in the day before she tried to be sneaky too with the camera because like nowadays they're real they're real small, like you can kind of hide.
SPEAKER_00: Back in the early 90s, you couldn't hide.
SPEAKER_00: Remember those things you had like a bazooka on your shoulder and your kid around mom's all trying to be sneaky with us trying to go, mom.
SPEAKER_00: I see you, I see, I see what you're trying to, I see what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh she she loved it, but there's this one time, it's always a big deal to go take pictures.
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember it was it was always a big deal to go uh and get a family portrait.
SPEAKER_00: Nowadays you just call somebody and they show up at your house.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like that before.
SPEAKER_00: We had to get dressed up, we had to we had to we had to get all the right gear on.
SPEAKER_00: And my mom decided there was there's this deal going on, and it was at Sam's.
SPEAKER_00: Sam's Club.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what?
SPEAKER_00: Like, apparently it's such a great deal that my mom decided that we're gonna make a trek, we're gonna make a journey out to Sam's Club.
SPEAKER_00: And and Katie, everybody, everybody knows everybody.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we show up at Sam's Club, as embarrassing as that is, with my cowboy hat on, and and and what they give us is they give us a black shirt uh to match the black backdrop in the background.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this long, silky, long shirt.
SPEAKER_00: I feel less of a man just talking about it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we were wearing that day, and we go in and they put us not in the back, like where the tire section is.
SPEAKER_00: They place us right in front, people, like right in front where everybody and their mom can see us as they're walking through.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my friends are coming in, they're punking us, like punking me.
SPEAKER_00: Like, ah, what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I know, I know.
SPEAKER_00: I it was always an interesting dynamic, too, to see my mom and dad relate.
SPEAKER_00: My mom really wanted this.
SPEAKER_00: And as older as I get as I look back, my dad just kind of submitted and just went along with it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was always interesting uh to see, and I I love that picture.
SPEAKER_00: If you walk into our house now and you look right before uh the staircase to the left, we see that picture.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's it's it's a picture of a black backdrop with our with our black shirts, and it looks like we have floating heads.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to if you if you go to www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com, we're we're we're probably on there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh probably we we may be.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most awkward photos, but when I when I see that I can't help but laugh and chuckle because because I remember what I remember that day.
SPEAKER_00: I I remember what it was like.
SPEAKER_00: I remember all that went down.
SPEAKER_00: You think, Aaron, why do why do you talk why do you talk go so long to talk about a portrait?
SPEAKER_00: Because looking at Jesus as the image, we see what God is like.
SPEAKER_00: We see, first off, we see that that we see that God is merciful.
SPEAKER_00: You see Jesus come into a city back in John 8.
SPEAKER_00: They caught a woman in adultery, whether it's staged or whatever it be, and and they they throw her in front of Jesus and they say, Hey, the law of Moses commands us to stone such a woman.
SPEAKER_00: She she is guilty and deserves punish punishment.
SPEAKER_00: What, Jesus, what do you say?
SPEAKER_00: And I love the response of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he answers directly, sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't, sometimes he asks a question.
SPEAKER_00: This time he gets down, he starts drawing in the sand.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I'm like, what is he doing?
SPEAKER_00: Is he writing his name?
SPEAKER_00: Is he building a sand?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is he doing?
SPEAKER_00: But also in that moment, he look he looks up, he looks at the people, and he and he says, Hey, he who without sin cast the first stone.
SPEAKER_00: And all the older people are like, Yeah, I'm done, I got it, uh, I I can't I can't handle that because I I know I got some sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, with the older to the younger, one by one they start, they start departing, and then there's this intimate moment with Jesus and the woman who is guilty.
SPEAKER_00: Who's guilty.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looks at her and he asks her a question.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, did anybody condemn you?
SPEAKER_00: And she replies, No one, Lord, no, no one condemns you.
SPEAKER_00: And he looks at neither do I, go and sin.
SPEAKER_00: Go and sin no more.
SPEAKER_00: That he's merciful.
SPEAKER_00: We also see this in the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the story of the parable, we'll unpack that in the summer?
SPEAKER_00: Where God tells us this story with religious leaders and tax collectors and sinners present.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus began to talk about that the son who went to his dad and was like, Hey, I want my share of the share of the estate.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really care about our family.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go do what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go to Vegas, party it up.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that was my plan.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna go do all that.
SPEAKER_00: And he and he gets there and he he loses all his money, loses all his wealth, and he he is at the lowest of lows.
SPEAKER_00: But there's this phrase that when he came to his senses, when he realized what he lost, he made a trek back home.
SPEAKER_00: But here's my favorite part of the story as the son from a distance, the father sees him instead of hanging back, he pursues.
SPEAKER_00: And and he and he makes he makes he says, Bring out the robe, bring out the finger.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, let's throw, let's throw a party.
SPEAKER_00: But this son of mine who was once lost has now has now been found.
SPEAKER_00: We see that God is merciful.
SPEAKER_00: We also see that he's he's compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: We also see that he is compassionate with Lazarus passing in John 11.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus rolls up on the scene and there's just just grief happening.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Lazarus, his friend, had just passed, and he and he comes in, and Mary and Martha are so upset.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, if you've only would have been here, everything would have been made right.
SPEAKER_00: You could you could have you could have saved him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, not afraid of that moment in verse uh verse 35 of chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: This short phrase that we all know, there's the shortest verse in the Bible says that it says that Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of hanging back, instead of seeing the uncomfortable and the awkwardness of of death and being there, he actually weeps.
SPEAKER_00: That when tragedy hits home, it's okay to be sad, but we don't be sad uh for those that do that because we have we have a hope.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comes and he pursues and he brings he brings he brings hope because he's compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.
SPEAKER_00: How often when I've gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you weren't willing.
SPEAKER_00: He is he's compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: He's also he's also all powerful.
SPEAKER_00: He's also all powerful.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite stories in the Bible is John 9, where Jesus heals a blind man.
SPEAKER_00: He he comes in and he heals a blind man.
SPEAKER_00: The blind man can't help himself.
SPEAKER_00: He he goes away from Jesus just shouting all the more of what happened to him, of how excited he was.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that first time when you got saved?
SPEAKER_00: Remember that moment where your life was changed, that whole transferring from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light, you just couldn't help but talk.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, you're talking to your next door neighbor you never talked to before in your life, you're telling your cousin, your friends, everybody who you get in, you're talking to the person at the grocery store, uh, you're talking to the account, hey, have you heard about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh no, I have, like, let me tell you about him.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I was once a wreck, but I now I was once lost, but now I've been found.
SPEAKER_00: This blind man goes out.
SPEAKER_00: He can't just help help himself to be talking about and the Pharisees come up and they ask him a question, they say, Hey, hey, what what what what happened?
SPEAKER_00: What what what's the deal?
SPEAKER_00: He said, All I know is I was once blind, but now but now I see.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this amazing phrase in John 9 32, the Bible says, Never since the world had begun has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
SPEAKER_00: If this man were not from God, he could do he could do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is compassionate, because he is merciful, because he is all powerful.
SPEAKER_00: We read in verse 16 of Colossians 1, the Bible says this for by him, by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him, and they exist for him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was actively involved in creation.
SPEAKER_00: All things are subject to him, and the goal of creation, as we saw in Romans 8, as they as creation groans, as we as as as we groan as well, we we long to see the glory of God happen.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it says in Psalm 19:1 that the heavens declare the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: The heavens declare the glory of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: As a family growing up, I never took much vacation, we never really went on vacation.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing I got is the Smoky Mountains.
SPEAKER_00: That's like that's all that's the only place that we uh we really went to.
SPEAKER_00: But I've I've seen pictures and I've seen I've seen places we're gonna take the our our high school students uh to Colorado and we're gonna be exposed to the mountains and and and and and other places around the world, like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon, these these these places everybody travels to go to.
SPEAKER_00: And we and we travel there because we we wanna we want to see something magnificent, we want to see something bigger than ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we want to be confronted with with the glory of God and in church as we are confronted with the beautiful beautifulness of creation in the heavens, and as the mountains point upward, it is to draw our attention to the one who created it.
SPEAKER_00: And according to Paul, it's it's it's Jesus, the creator of all things.
SPEAKER_00: No one in that moment, as they're standing before the Grand Canyon, as they're standing in front of Niagara Falls, as they're standing in all these amazing places, no one stands there and says, Look how awesome I am.
SPEAKER_00: No one does.
SPEAKER_00: Does that.
SPEAKER_00: No one goes in there and says, hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Like in those places, I get so frustrated with the Tor guides.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Tor guide, stop talking.
SPEAKER_00: Move to the side.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see the view because something about placing myself in front of the bigness and the creation of what Jesus has created stirs within me a sense of something's bigger than me.
SPEAKER_00: Something is bigger than me.
SPEAKER_00: Not as Jesus Savior, not only is he the creator, but he's also the sustainer.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me with verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this as he is before all things, and in him, in him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_00: That the world is not a ca it's not a chaos, it's it's it's called a cosmos.
SPEAKER_00: That there's unity and there's order, and all creation points to the one who sustains it.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, the seat that you sit in now, the laws of gravity that are set in place, Jesus is holding you there.
SPEAKER_00: If the sun was any further, we'd freeze to death.
SPEAKER_00: If the sun was any closer, we would be burnt up.
SPEAKER_00: That there is there's a system, there's a system in place.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, according to Paul, holds and sustains it all together.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 1 says this says, He is the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds.
SPEAKER_00: He upholds the universe by his power.
SPEAKER_00: I love that word upholds.
SPEAKER_00: I like it so much, I had to geek out a little bit and do some research that this word carries uphold literally means to carry.
SPEAKER_00: To carry, as we saw baby dedication earlier, as we as we saw a mom hold, hold hold their baby.
SPEAKER_00: As you many parents out there have who have have held uh their children, we see that that that word upheld carries that notion of being carried.
SPEAKER_00: There's a moment in my life I've only been sick so often, uh which is a blessing uh in itself.
SPEAKER_00: But there's this moment in high school I got really sick.
SPEAKER_00: I went to the doctor uh to get checked up on, and there was uh I it was it was so bad that I can literally count on how many times on my hand how many times I passed out.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the times I I passed out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm there and uh the last thing I remember is my hand on the wall, and then me passing, and then me finally coming to.
SPEAKER_00: But when I came to, I thought I'd be sitting down, I thought I'd be like stationed somewhere, but I wasn't.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I was actually being carried, and I forgot to mention I was actually in high school when this happened.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so I'm 15 years old, I got an image to live up to, uh, and I look up and my dad is carrying me.
SPEAKER_00: All right, my dad had caught me, and as I can't finally, his face is right here, my face is right here.
SPEAKER_00: There's this moment of I'm not supposed to be carried.
SPEAKER_00: I need to get down off of here.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is what if someone sees me, someone's walks in.
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine you've walked into the doctor's office and you saw a grown man like holding a 15-year-old uh teenager?
SPEAKER_00: Like that was me, that moment.
SPEAKER_00: That that's that's that's what was going was going on, and in that moment I was like, I don't, I don't want to be carried.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't want to be carried.
SPEAKER_00: Like, set set me down, even though I literally cannot go on my own.
SPEAKER_00: Put me down.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus not only sustains the physical cosmos, but when we are an unable, incapable of moving forward, Jesus sustains and he strengthens.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it says in Psalm 73, Whom am I in heaven but you, nothing I desire but is besides you, even though my flesh and my heart may fail, even though this physical body may fail, you, God, you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
SPEAKER_00: He sustains the physical universe.
SPEAKER_00: He also carries us and sustains us when we can't on our own.
SPEAKER_00: And fifthly, Jesus is sovereign over his church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is sovereign over his church.
SPEAKER_00: It says this in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the head of the body, the church.
SPEAKER_00: He is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, that in everything, that in everything he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_00: The church doesn't exist so that a name could be put on the side of a building.
SPEAKER_00: No, this this is this is Jesus' church.
SPEAKER_00: He is the head, the one in charge who establishes unity and is a source of spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00: If I well, I'm gonna have the graduates here next service, and one of the words that I'm gonna speak to them is that there's this moment as a teenager you get older, you think, or maybe even some of us in this room, we think that we've outgrown our need for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We think that we we can do this, we can do this on our own.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we started our service with Hebrews 10 of just of holding fast, holding fast to the confession of our hope.
SPEAKER_00: And later it says, hey, hey, we are to stir and push another towards godliness.
SPEAKER_00: Don't neglect the assembly.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't neglect the assembly when you got freedom underneath your belt graduates?
SPEAKER_00: And as you head off to school and you and you got some freedom underneath you, there's gonna be your parents aren't gonna be there to wake you up.
SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna be there to make your bed.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that was like a shock to me.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, what?
SPEAKER_00: Why is my bed messed up?
SPEAKER_00: Uh like there's dirty dishes in the sink.
SPEAKER_00: Uh like I had to do all I'd actually wake up for church on my own.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is tragedy has hit the house.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't used to it.
SPEAKER_00: And there's these moments where there's freedom that exists, and if we don't go underneath the head, the one in charge in the church when we neglect the assembly, we are taking ourselves out of the picture for potential spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00: How much we need wisdom, how how prone we are to wander.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, as the head of the church, the one in charge.
SPEAKER_00: What qualifies him?
SPEAKER_00: He's existed from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: He he rose he rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And he makes Christianity different than all else.
SPEAKER_00: Death and sin has been dethroned.
SPEAKER_00: If you are united with him.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, not only is Jesus Savior, not only is Jesus God, not only is he creator, not only is he sovereign over his church, but lastly, Jesus is enough.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, Jesus is enough.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it with me, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures say this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For in him, in Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
SPEAKER_00: And through him, through Jesus, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace by the blood, by the blood of his cross.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans 8, the last thing that we that we ended on here in the service was referring back to us belonging to Jesus, that we've been sufantos, we've been united together.
SPEAKER_00: If you place your faith in him, there is there's this unity that exists between you and Jesus, that literally you are united with him.
SPEAKER_00: And if we if we remember that, if we put our minds to that, Paul says that all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and we've been connected to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This means that we have access to this fullness.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the point is that Jesus is enough.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus says in John 4 to the to the woman at the well, he says, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: He's enough.
SPEAKER_00: He's more than we need, he's sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: He's given us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: We are not lacking anything.
SPEAKER_00: There's a quote I want us to end on uh by a smart man named C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis, and he wrote a book, pinned down, a book called The Wait, The Weight of Glory.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite quotes to come up on the screens behind me, he writes this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.
SPEAKER_00: We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about when infinite joy is offered to us.
SPEAKER_00: Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
SPEAKER_00: We are far, far too easily pleased.
SPEAKER_00: Every moment, every usually every season, uh the the rice harvest festival comes to town.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in in in in where out in Katy and uh they bring out the rides.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember as a kid being so stoked, like I I can't wait to ride the zip, or like it's just some like merry-go-round practically.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you parents, you know, uh your kids are so excited, and you guys spend all this money to ride, like what that's what I'm paying for.
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, that's that I was I remember being so excited.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I I loved was was the cotton candy.
SPEAKER_00: All right, don't give me a like the turkey leg, funnel cake, you guys can have all that.
SPEAKER_00: Give me some cotton candy.
SPEAKER_00: I love some some some cotton candy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I I if you see that kid pounding cotton, it's me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that was me as a kid because I just I I love it was sweet, dissolved right in my kid.
SPEAKER_00: You have to chew.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was so lazy, you just put it in your mouth, you just swallow.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that that's all.
SPEAKER_00: It really didn't.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that uh we think, well, why do you why do you mention that?
SPEAKER_00: Because cott because cotton can cotton candy, the the way the way it dissolves, and the way it's it's just for the moment.
SPEAKER_00: It's so it's so temporary.
SPEAKER_00: You go to a buffet and fill up on some steak or some meat and potatoes, you walk away feeling I'm over the top full.
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't, I don't even if I speak right now, I'm gonna pop.
SPEAKER_00: But if you fill up on a bunch of junk, you feel you feel empty.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul writing to the Colossian church, he's saying, hey, don't fall in to what the Romans are doing.
SPEAKER_00: Don't pick and choose what you want about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has revealed himself that he's enough.
SPEAKER_00: That that that he is enough.
SPEAKER_00: The things that are you use that you're using to meet needs that God was intended to meet, Paul's saying, don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't, don't, don't do it because Jesus, he is, he is enough.
SPEAKER_00: He he will give you ultimate pleasure and satisfaction and contentment.
SPEAKER_00: So no longer do we start using people to meet needs, but now we were able to love people.
SPEAKER_00: That's the biggest, the biggest difference.
SPEAKER_00: When we find our contentment and satisfaction in the Father, we are able to love people.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't, we begin to use them to meet needs God was intended to meet.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, hey, there's fullness.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's fullness of God, dwells in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We are connected, sufantas, united with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask us a question.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can talk about in community groups.
SPEAKER_00: Is what are you using to meet needs God was intended to meet?
SPEAKER_00: What in your life are you using to meet needs God was intended to meet?
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul tells his audience Jesus is worth it.
SPEAKER_00: He's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask Clyde to come up and we'll close out.
SPEAKER_00: Um one of the last things we can uh want us to walk away with is we've seen in the scripture, Jesus is uh uh is is He is Savior, He is the creator, He is the sustainer, He's in charge of His church, He gives strength, He's compassionate, He's merciful, He's He's He's available.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that a question that we can walk away asking ourselves is which one of these do we need to walk away embracing?
SPEAKER_00: Do we need to embrace that Jesus is God, He's in charge, I'm not?
SPEAKER_00: Do we need to walk away embracing, hey, He's enough for me?
SPEAKER_00: He's given me everything that I need.
SPEAKER_00: Do we need to walk away understanding that He sustains me when I can't go on my own?
SPEAKER_00: Or that He's enough.
SPEAKER_00: We close out the end of our service each time by holding out our hands.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm asking you to hold out your hands uh for me.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to speak a word, just a closing word to close out.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
SPEAKER_00: He's enough, he sustains, and he gives strength when you have none.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the midst of weakness his power is perfected.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now.
SPEAKER_00: Clinging on to that hope and that confession.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You're just missed.