Jesus CHANGES EVERYTHING

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Jesus changes everything. It's going to be a series on the book of Colossians. I ask every Sunday, any Christians brought your Bibles to church. Can I see them? Can I see your sword? Amen. The book of Colossians. Book of Colossians. I want to, before I go into reading the word, I want to share a story with you guys from my life when I was in seventh grade. Not too long ago. Not too long ago. When I was in middle school, I was in seventh grade. I have a very vivid memory about my science class and the science teacher. This science teacher, she had a particular thing where every day towards the beginning of the class she would say, everybody, get your agendas out. And I want you to copy your homework assignments that are up on the board. And we would have to get our agendas. We would have to look at the board and we would have to copy into our agenda, you know, into our notebook, all of the instructions for the homework.

And I was sitting in the back of the classroom. I didn't realize it for a long time. I didn't realize in all my classes if I was sitting in the back, I didn't realize this is what I was doing. I would grab my notebook and I would do this. Anybody resonate? I didn't realize it. I didn't realize what I wasn't seeing. One day in that class, a girl who we went to school together ever since elementary school, she was a good friend, and I was joking around. I took her glasses and I said, oh, look, I'm you. And I put on my glasses and I looked at the board. And I heard the angel voices sing, hallelujah. I could see the board perfectly clearly without squinting when I put her glasses on. And it opened. This is what I heard. A whole new world. It led me to realize that I thought everybody saw the board kind of squiggly like me. I thought everybody had to squint their eyes. And I came to an understanding that maybe I needed glasses. My parents took me to see an eye doctor. Remember this? Which one is better? One or two? A or B? I went through that whole process and all of a sudden, boom, I have new prescription lenses that changed everything for me.

Because before, everything was blurry or I didn't even notice it. And now I could see. And here's what I've come to understand. All of us have areas in our lives where we're squinting. Where we're trying to see clearly. But things are blurry. Not just physically. Spiritually. Emotionally. Mentally. Relationally. Maybe for some of you, it's your purpose in your life. Right now, your purpose, it's a blur. It's not clear to you. For others, maybe it's your relationship or a friendship that you have. And you're not sure, like, you think you see, but you're unclear. Where is this going? For others, maybe it's just as you look to your future. You know what you'd like to see, but you're just not clear on what the future really looks like. And for others, when it comes to even coming to church, relationship with God. It's not very, very clear. And so what do we do in our human nature? We try harder. We strain. We squint even more.

But things can often still feel blurry. And sometimes we don't even realize how unclear our vision is until something finally brings our vision into focus. Like it happened to me. When I got my first pair of glasses, it changed everything. And so my prayer has been, my prayer has been for all of you, that this same thing would happen for many of you here today in church. That through the power of God's word and his Holy Spirit, maybe you've been squinting, spiritually speaking. But that you would actually today begin to see Jesus more clearly. That you would actually begin to, that you would have a moment where, a whole new world. I can see. I can see. So we're starting a series entitled, Jesus Changes Everything. And we're going to study the book of Colossians. By the way, this is exactly what the book of Colossians is about. Because Paul is talking about Jesus changing everything. And we're going to study the book of Colossians. By the way, this is exactly what the book of Colossians is about. Because Paul writes this letter to help believers understand what Jesus is talking about today. And we're going to study about the book of Colossians and And so I want to give you the prescription lenses of the what it's ото do. And we're going to do the prayer together.

gospel that are needed to see God, Jesus, and life more And we're going to say that through Jesus' word. And then through his wisdom. clearly. In the same way, through the Christian organization. So let's pray. Lord, we invite you into this moment. That we can take the Exodus in one place and we can look in Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place. tracecovery. Would you speak to our hearts. And we're going to realize that this is good information. Would you minister to our hearts. That we can already see that when we read in the book of And would you help us learn and understand from your word what Colossians. The Law of Jesus. you have for each one of us today. In Jesus' name I pray. I've been praying that Jesus would change everything in your life. Now, talking about the book of Colossians, quick question, is Colossians in the Old Testament or New Testament? Colossians is in fact in the New Testament. Colossians is a letter written to the church of Colossae by the apostle Paul. This is one of the Pauline epistles. It's an epistle or letter written by Paul to one of the churches. Now this little letter is kind of like spiritual corrective

lenses for the soul. It was written in the year 62 A.D. So we're not talking about hundreds of years later. We're talking about there are still people alive that had seen Jesus raised from the dead. So book of Colossians. It's a book. It's comprised of four chapters. 95 verses. But one clear purpose. To establish the supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ. To establish what? The supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ. So 1,000 miles from Ephesus, which Paul had been to the Ephesian church to build that church. But Paul had not been to the church at Colossae. In fact, he is imprisoned. He is detained. But he hears about some problems in the Colossian church. And so he decides to write to them. Since he can't go to them from where he's at, he decides to write to them. Why did he write it? Ask me why. Ask me why. Because there was a threat to the Colossian church. They had all heard about the love, the grace, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. But some other people had come along and they started threatening the pure faith in Jesus, the pure gospel.

These teachers were basically saying, yeah, Jesus is good. But he's not enough. They were teaching you need Jesus plus these other things. Jesus plus worship of angels. Jesus plus special mysterious knowledge. Jesus plus these certain ceremonial laws. Jesus plus, which by the way is not the gospel. The gospel is Jesus period. Okay? And so even today we got to be careful because sometimes people come around that might threaten the pure faith and the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. It's happening all the time, all the time, ever since then. So what was the threat? Primarily there were two main threats. First, that Jesus is less than God, right? It was combating or questioning the deity of Jesus here at the church of Colossae. And then secondly, that there was this secret knowledge that was attainable only to a select few people in the faith. The secret mystery, the secret knowledge. So these were the things that were kind of spreading into the church at Colossians. As soon as Paul heard about these issues and these threats, the Holy Spirit inspired him to write this letter to the Colossians church. Let's go to Colossians 1 verse 1. Speaking of himself, it says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother. To God's holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and

sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our father. Let's pause for a second and it's important to understand Paul starts this letter greeting them. And he really is going to kind of go right into the theme of everything in the book. I wanted to mention even nowadays there are people that are drawn to these mysterious mysticism or mysteries. I don't know, anybody remember some years back the Da Vinci code when that Da Vinci code came out? What was that? It was this book, right, that is not canon, it's not God's word, it's not Bible. But it was this book that apparently spoke about secret angels and secret relationships that Jesus had with people that people don't know about. And apparently human nature is curious. And human nature leans towards mysterious and mysticism and all these things. And so even like I said, even in these times we can see how these things threaten the pure gospel and the pure faith in Jesus. Colossians, the book of Colossians has the answers for us. Why? Because Colossians is God's word. Colossians is the power of God. And the enemy doesn't want us to connect with God's word because God's word is truth. God's word has transforming power. The enemy would rather us waste our time with mysterious mysticism

stuff that has nothing to do with God's word because that's not going to transform anybody's life. The word of God has the capacity to transform your life, has the capacity to transform your family. And so the idea... The idea is not what's the biggest mysteries we can discover so we can have fun. The idea is how do I figure out who Jesus is? How do I figure out who I am and why am I here? Okay, so Paul starts off in this book and in this chapter, he starts off by thanking God for the Colossian church and he prays for the Colossian church. You can see it. Let's jump in a little bit further ahead in verse nine. Colossians one, verse nine. It says, for this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped, what? Praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance

of his holy people in the kingdom of light. So, Paul becomes aware of these false teachings that have infiltrated the Colossian church about Jesus being less than God or not being God, about secret mysteries only available for a selected few, and Paul basically responds to these threats with three main ideas, and I'm gonna unpack these three main ideas for you. Number one, here's the first main idea. Jesus is everything. Can you say it with me? Jesus is. Jesus is not just something. Jesus is not just a small portion. Jesus is not just part of God or God's plan. Jesus is God. The supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ is of utmost important in the Christian faith. So, I wanna read verse 15. Let's go to verse 15, and I'm gonna read it with some passion because these verses, they need some ignition in them. Colossians 1, verse 15. Jesus, the son, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Jesus, in him, all things were created. Where? Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created, check it out,

through him and for him. Amen. He is before all things, and in Jesus, all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything he might have the supremacy, he is supreme. For God was pleased to have all his 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. So let it be clear that Jesus is God. Jesus is creator. All things were created by him. All things were created for him. By the way, there's the answer to those two big existential questions of who am I and why am I here. I'll answer it myself. Verge, you were created by Jesus and you were created for Jesus, for his glory. You are the unique, special, precious creation of Jesus Christ himself. Your value is inherent in your creation because you were created by Jesus, the creator. Nothing in this world can ever trump what is already true about you because you were created by Jesus and you were created for Jesus.

We might have giftings and abilities, that's great, but our purpose is to know God. Our purpose is to find our purpose in him and to be close to him. You are a precious creation of almighty God and this is very important because it's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. He is supreme. Supremacy of Jesus, the sufficiency of Jesus, it's all about him. You're cute, boo-boo, but it's not about you. It's about Jesus. Okay, let me give you the illustration of the solar system. Anybody remember learning about solar system in school? Here's what we learned about the solar system. Every planet revolves around what? The sun. How do you say sun in Spanish? Sol, that's why it's the solar system, right? It's the sun. Every planet revolves around the sol, the sun. If the sun were to disappear or not be, everything would collapse in the system. Are you following me? This is what Paul is saying about Jesus. Jesus is the center. Jesus is, check it out, the sun. He is the sun. Creation revolves around Jesus. History revolves around Jesus.

Why is it 2026? It's 2026 years after Jesus. Our lives revolve around Jesus. And when Jesus is not at the center, life starts drifting out of alignment. So when my marriage is out of alignment, I need to ask the question, is Jesus in the center? When family is out of alignment, we need to ask the question, is Jesus in the center of our family? When work, when health, all these, when things are out of alignment, we need to stop and we need to pause and say, is Jesus where he's supposed to be? Is he at the center? And be careful, be careful with anybody trying to teach you that Jesus is not God. Love and respect, but listen, be careful with Mormons, be careful with Jehovah's Witness, be careful with these religious cults that take portion, they know a lot of scripture that they've memorized, but it's been tarnished and they don't accept Jesus as God. Be careful with anybody who denies Jesus as God, say thank you, but no thank you. And maybe speak some truth, because sometimes the truth sets them free as well. Not only did Jesus create you, he shed his blood on the cross to redeem you. He shed his blood on the cross to redeem you. What greater strategy for the enemy

than to get us to not believe in Jesus as God? That's why you gotta be careful with some of these religious cults, because they are anti-biblical. Jesus gets the supremacy from every breath that you live every day of your life. But check it out, it takes sight and clarity to be able to see it, because often we don't have the clarity, things are blurry, things are blurry. Some people, some people, any ladies in the house, you like accessories? Any ladies like accessories, yeah? Don't treat Jesus like an accessory. Any guys in the house like Cholula? Cholula is like the Hispanic Tabasco sauce, right? Don't treat Jesus like Cholula. Yeah, I'll take some, I don't need any. Yeah, I like some, I don't. Jesus is not like, Jesus is not an option. Jesus is the plate. So don't treat life or the world or even Jesus as if he is not. Jesus is everything. He's at the center. He is the alpha and the omega. In him, all things hold together, in him. Not in Buddha, not in Muhammad, not in the Virgin Mary, not in yourself, boo-boo, in Jesus. Number one, Jesus is everything.

Number two, everything Jesus is, he is in you. Everything, first, Jesus is everything. Now, second, everything Jesus is, he is in you. Key word, in you. Colossians is a book about a mystery that has been revealed. The miracle is that we are now positionally, check it out, in Christ, and Christ is in us. I had the privilege and the blessing of being born here in the U.S. The U.S. is in me for the rest of my life. At birth, I didn't earn this or deserve it. It's just the reality of the laws here. But by birth, I have a passport that says that I am American citizen, and with that come certain rights and privileges and opportunities because America is in me and I am in America. So, we need to understand that the Christian life, check it out, the Christian life, at birth, spiritually speaking, at birth, God, in everything he is through Christ, has come to bring everything Christ is in you. That's a powerful thing. When you and I are born again, we step into this reality and we begin to shift our thinking. We begin to shift our behavior to live as though we are now in Christ. We are no longer in ourselves. We are no longer in the world. We are in Christ, and Christ in you,

and you in Christ is the new power for your life when you are a Christian believer. Now, check it out, verse 26. Go with me to verse 26 of Colossians 1. Talking a little bit about this mystery that they were so bent on. The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now revealed or disclosed to the Lord's people. Who is it revealed to? To the Lord's people. Verse 27, to them, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery. What's the mystery? Here it is, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, why did Paul say there was a mystery? Because he was responding to these threats to the church, and he was like, oh, you guys like mysteries? Well, let me tell you about the most important mystery, and here's the mystery. Everybody before Jesus did not understand this, but this actually has the capacity and capability of changing and transforming your life. This is the mystery, Christ in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. The new message is not programs that we adhere by. It's not laws and traditions. Recite this prayer three times. Sit, kneel, stand, touch your toes.

It's not tradition or rituals in order to get to God and in order to know God. It's a new position. It's a new identity, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory. And by that, in turn, we know that Christ is in us and that we are in Christ. Now just imagine, imagine you with everything Christ is now in you and you in Christ. And the Bible says, in Christ, in God, in God, therefore in Christ and God in us. It's this beautiful connection with us and our triune God. You are so connected and linked with the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, through the work of Jesus Christ. It's a brand new reality that is available to every single person who would say, yes, I receive Jesus. Verse 28, look at verse 28. He is the one we proclaim, Jesus, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. If someone is trying to teach you something that is not Jesus, respectfully and politely say, thank you, but no thank you, Jesus is my Savior. If people are trying to sell you a higher spiritual, mystical understanding that doesn't ultimately point you to the Word of God and to Jesus, politely say, thank you, but no thank you, Jesus is my Savior and God's Word is my guide.

Paul, Paul says, this is the mystery, Christ in us, the hope of glory. That's why we continue to proclaim and teach and point people to Jesus Christ and ask God to give people sight and vision to see him clearly so that people who are going through life squinting, like I was in seventh grade, people who are going through life not seeing clearly can have a revelation of this reality of who Jesus is and all of a sudden it's like, boom, I see him. Oh, I get it now. Because if they see and accept Jesus, they will see that he is supreme and he is more sufficient for everything that they will ever need in their lives. There is no other secret revelation. There is no other secret mystery to be discovered. We already read it, he is the one we proclaim, Jesus. So how do you get to this fully mature or complete spiritually in Christ? By getting in Christ and realizing that you have, that what you have and who you are is in him. Look at verse 29, we're just in Colossians one, verse 29. To this end, I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. Christ works in me. That's the beauty of the Christian life. It's not me and a little bit of Jesus, it's Jesus in me. That's a game-changing revelation. I like to use the example of a glove.

If I had a glove here and I put the glove right here on the pulpit and I put the glove here, you tell me, what can the glove do? The glove can do nothing. The glove cannot lift, it cannot build, it cannot help, it cannot serve, it cannot move anything. But when I put my hand in the glove, now, what can the glove do? It can pick things up, it can build, it can serve, it can help, it can move things. And that's what happens when Christ lives in you. His power now becomes available to you. His wisdom begins to guide you. His strength begins to sustain you. His character begins to form you. Brothers and sisters, you and I are just the glove. And His Holy Spirit comes in us and Christ is in us so that we can now fill His purpose. We can now do, we can now serve, we can now live out the life that He called us out to live. You are not living life alone. When you have received Christ, Christ lives in you. It's not Jesus and verge, it's Jesus in me. That means you and I don't have to rely on our own strength. We don't have to rely on our own understanding and intelligence. We don't have to carry the weight of life on our shoulders because everything Jesus is, He is in you. And that changes how you live. Grace through faith.

That's what got us in Christ. Grace through faith gets me through everything I go through in this life. So number one, Jesus is everything. Number two, everything Jesus is, He is in you. And number three, Jesus changes everything. Can you say it with me? Jesus changes everything, everything, todo, everything. This is a great way to sum up the book of Colossians, these three statements. Jesus is everything, everything Jesus is, he is in me, and Jesus changes everything. I like to say it this way, here it is, here it is. Jesus is, in me, changing everything. Jesus is, in me, changing everything. I like to think about before and after. You ever seen like before and after photos, whether it's, you know, a person's transformation, or a makeover, or even a home, right? Some people get really excited about that, before and after, because it's just, when there's a true before and after, it's like, whoa, this is what it was before, and whoo, look what it, right? Whether it's an extreme makeover of a person's look, or it's an extreme makeover of a person's home or house. Would you agree, if I show you a picture of before and after, and it looks exactly the same, what would you say? There's, where's the before?

Where's the after? Nothing changed. And how sad would it be to say, I received Jesus in my life, but I look the same. That can't be. Jesus intends to do a total life makeover. That's his intention. He intends to change, can I just be real? Everything. When he comes into your life and my life, he's not just like, oh, let me just clean up some of the parts. He's like, I gotta clean the whole thing. There will be an evident before and after. If you're walking with Christ in your life, the more you walk with him, the more you're gonna notice the difference between who I used to be and who I now am. The Bible is always talking about new, I'm a new creation in Christ. The Bible's always talking about renewing my mind. It talks about, you must be born again. It's implicated. All right, look at verse 21. Let's rewind a little bit to Colossians 1.21. Check this out. Speaking of who we used to be. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. Because if you're not with God, you're against him.

But, everybody say but. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy. How does he want to present you? Holy in his sight, without blemish, and free from accusation. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, rooted, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. So there's this transfer. There's this transfer. Where's this transfer? Look at 13, look at verse 13. Go back to 13. For he has rescued us. Pause, he has what? Rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his son, he loves, in whom we have, praise God, redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Okay, so check this out. This is the transfer. He rescues us out, but then he transfers us in. And in Christ, what we have is redemption and forgiveness of sin. In other words, we are instantly changed. Our spiritual reality changes. This isn't in Christianity. So pastor, I become a Christian, that means I have to cut my hair?

No, no, the change is on the inside. And then what happens is when that change begins to be real on the inside, it begins to reflect on the outside. By how? By the way that we respond. By the way that we speak. By the way that we interact. By the way that we think. It's a change. And what we do is when I receive Christ and I am born again, I am moving from death to life. I am in Christ and Christ is in me. And that changes everything. Where does it start? On the inside. It's from the inside out. Jesus is in me, completely renovating. His plan to change everything. The way I think, the way we act, the way we respond. He wants to change the patterns of your mind and the habits of your life. He wants to transform our behavior. He wants to transform our normal human behavior to Jesus-filled behavior, to spirit-filled behavior. So can I be real? Like Christianity must be a before and after. There's gotta be a process where there's things that are just different, right? And so speaking in worldly terms,

speaking in natural human terms, if I speak to my brothers, to the men who tend to be visual, right? The before me, without the conviction of God, the conviction about purity, the conviction about guarding my eyes, sees a woman who's showing more meat than a butcher, right? And so what's the natural drive? Well, you know, look at God's creation. But the new me says, ooh, ooh, that's not for me. I don't want to, I don't need to mess with that. That's going to mess me up. That's going to corrupt my heart. If I look at that, I have a new way of, it's the same me, but it's a new way of thinking. It's a new way of seeing, and that's somebody's daughter. That's somebody's wife. That's somebody's mother. So I can't let my mind go there. So I need to cut that off, but that's not going to happen unless I have the right prescription. Unless I have the right lens. The gospel, the Christian life, it's a new lens. And so the old me would consume certain things. But the new me says, no, no, no, no, I don't want to consume that because that impairs my judgment. That's a bad example and testimony for my kids and the younger generation. So I'm going to sacrifice that.

Isn't that, that's part of the Christian life. It's actually, there's things that got to die in me. Oh, I can't live without it. Really, you can't live without it? So then who's Jesus in your life? That? Who's the center of your solar system? And so there's a shift. When I truly receive Jesus, when I truly am, that's why the question is not, do you believe in God? Because even demons believe in God. The question is, have you been born again? That's the question. Have you been born again? Have you gone from a position where I am truly, I'm not just like, I know all the theory. I know about God up here, but I am not saved here. And that's why I'm praying for. I'm praying that the glasses would come on for many. Because just because you're in a barn doesn't mean you're a chicken. And you could be in church for 10 years and not know Jesus personally, know a lot about him. So that's my prayer, is that the spiritual corrective lenses would come on for many to see him, to see Jesus. Jesus is, in me, changing everything. So here's a question as we land the plane. Where is your vision blurry? Is your view of Jesus too small? Because maybe he was just a good man.

Maybe he wasn't God, like others say. Is your faith too weak? Is your identity blurry and unclear? Are you living like everything depends on you instead of remembering that Christ lives in you? Today is an invitation to refocus, to see Jesus clearly again. Because when we see Jesus clearly, it changes everything. Like I'm telling you, it's when you have the right lens, now you see clearly. How many doing rooted? Any rooted brothers and sisters in the house? Yeah, yeah. I love week eight where we talked about God's view of money. Anybody enjoy that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because here's what was really impressed on me in God's view about money, is that the key principle, the key principle regarding money is the stewardship principle. I'm gonna say stewardship. The stewardship is the key principle from where it all hangs on. And that's the lens with which we see. And the stewardship principle means I am not an owner of my money. I am a steward. And that changes everything. Because when I am a steward, I realize it's not mine. I need to steward it appropriately for who it belongs to.

So let me give you this example. Let me give you this example. Let's say that your car broke down and I'm your best friend. Your car broke down. You need a car. And I say, hey, I can let you borrow my car. You need it for a week? All right, seven days, you can use it. So I let you borrow my car. Now watch this. If in seven days pass and you come back to me and then you tell me, you know what, Pastor Virg? My wife and I were praying about it. We wanna give you this car. Excuse me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we prayed about it. We wanna give you this car. We wanna give it as a gift to you. What would I say? You're crazy. You're just returning my car. Are you following me? How absurd would it be for you to pretend to think that you're giving me something that's yours? Are you following me? And so when it comes to honoring God with my tithe, right? If I have the wrong lens, I'm not getting it. Because I think I'm giving God something that's mine. When all God is saying is, hey, it's all mine. I'm asking you to trust me and honor me

by returning to me the first 10%. The rest is still mine, but I'm entrusting it to you. Are you following me? But you and I are like, you know, I'm gonna give you this. We thought about it. I'm gonna give this to you. And I would say, God would be laughing just like I'd be laughing if you're trying to give me my car back to me. But you're not gonna see it that way unless you have the right lens. If you have the lens of, I'm an owner, then let's do God a favor. I'll write him a check. Here you go, God. A little help for you. It's the wrong view. That's why the multiplication of blessings of God. You can't come into that mentality because it's not the gospel. But when you have the right lens, you see it clearly. You see it clearly. It's like the man who lived most of his life in a poor village. He didn't have access to any technology or medicine and he lived his whole life with poor vision. He didn't know how bad it really was until one day, a mission came through. And gave that old man with poor vision some prescription lenses and he stepped out and he saw leaves for the first time on trees and he saw the precision in people's faces and he saw birds flying and he saw the clouds in detail and he said, I didn't realize how much I was missing until I could finally see. I don't know if any of you remember that video that I would show you guys of the blind, colorblind

people when they put on those glasses and they see. It's always been there, just never saw it. It's always been there, just never saw it. That's what happens when you truly see Jesus. You realize he is everything and when you receive him, he lives in you and he changes everything. When you receive him, clearly, life comes into focus and it's a whole new world. It changes everything. So today, I want to encourage you to refocus your life around Jesus. Look at your marriage and ask yourself with your spouse, how can we make Jesus the center of our marriage? Look at your finances and ask yourself, how can we make Jesus the center of our finances? Look at your family, if you have children. Look at your work. Look at your friends and ask yourself, how can I put Jesus in the center? Because when he is in the center, all things hold together. Jesus changes everything. This series is not about learning information, it's about experiencing transformation. So I want to pray two prayers to close off. You can close your eyes and bow your heads with me. Lord, thank you. Because your word is revealing. Your word is powerful. And I pray, Lord, that as we sincerely and truthfully seek you, that we would find you. As we approach you, we would experience you. Lord, would you remove any and all obstacles that are getting in our way of sight. Thank you, Jesus, for revealing to us through your word who you are. Open our eyes so we can see you more clearly. Sharpen our spiritual vision so we can clearly focus. Remove the blur that keeps us from trusting you fully.

And remind us, Christ, that you live in us. Strengthen us to walk with faith and confidence and purpose. And Lord, may this series and your word transform our hearts, transform our families, transform our future. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.