The Center Of It All // Built Different : Colossians Week 1

We're starting a brand new series in the month of February, walking through the book of Colossians, and also we're covering our church's values here at Calvary Church. The book of Colossians is a great book because it keeps the focus all on one thing, and the focus is on Jesus. And we as a church, we have a focus really of one thing, and that's we want to magnify Jesus and we want to make Jesus great here. We, we say, no one without Jesus. If we really want no one to be without Jesus, there's a culture, there's an atmosphere. The young people would say, there's a vibe, there's a feeling that we want every person to feel the moment that they pull onto this parking lot, the moment that they're talked to or greeted to by someone, and every bit of worship that we have, and every message that's preached. We want these four things, our culture, to be evident in all that we do and all that we say. So we're going to review it all four weeks. If you know it, just shout it out with me. If you don't know it, it's real simple. You're going to pick it up. Number one, the first thing is this, we love, come on, say it, we love, okay, everyone say it with me. Number one, we love, we love God. Number two, we love, okay, all right, we're going to teach you the values in this series. Number two, we love people. We love people. Number three, we pursue excellence. We pursue excellence. And then number four, we choose, we choose joy. And you're going to see this each week. Today's value that we're covering is we love God. Let's open up our Bibles right to Colossians chapter one.

I'm going to jump right in for time purposes today. Here's what 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. And then he gives them this greeting that's both a Greek and Jewish greeting, grace and peace to you from God, our Father. And then he says it this way. We always thank God, the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you because we've heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for God's people. Three questions I ask whenever I study a new book that I'm going to bring to you. Number one, who is the author? The author of this book is Paul. And I love Paul's story because if you don't know Paul's story, maybe you're new to church or new to the Bible, Paul's story is that Paul was running in a direction that was not the direction of God. He actually hated Christians. He's actually responsible for Christians in the early church being murdered and persecuted. Paul was zealous just for the wrong things, but he has one encounter with Jesus. How many know one encounter with Jesus can change everything? And Paul turns into one of the greatest leaders in the church, writing much of the New Testament. And Paul's story is hope for us that no one is too far gone, that there's not something that is too bad that you've done, that God still can't use your life. Can I hear a good amen this morning? And so Paul submitted to God. He's now a leader in the church and he's writing letters and he's writing them from prison. And so he's writing it. The audience of this book is the church at Colossae, and I'll give you a quick little background on this church. This is a city that's in modern day Turkey that Paul had never actually visited. Most churches that Paul writes to, he actually plants these churches.

The church at Colossae, that is not the case. Many believe a guy by the name of Epaphras, who was a disciple of Paul, got saved in one of Paul's services under Paul's ministry, and then went and planted this church. And now Paul is writing from Rome. So he's writing thousands of miles away to these letters, to smaller churches. They're called prison epistles. And he's writing this book, the book of Colossians with one focus. Here's the whole focus of the book of Colossians. It's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. How many of you would say that you want to look and live like Jesus? Let me see your hands today. Come on, how many of you would say that you want it to be said of Calvary Church that when people come to Calvary Church, they don't see a person, they don't see me, but come on, they see Jesus through us. And often, listen to me today, they often experience you before they experience Jesus. And so think on that. The image that we portray matters. Scripture says this way, 2 Corinthians 3, 17. Now the Lord is a spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is, there's freedom. That word spirit literally means breath, winds, air, life. The best translation of the Greek word spirit is this word. But nobody calls them the holy winds because that would just be weird. You know what I'm saying? And so it's, it's this picture in your mind. Have you ever been sitting in a long meeting all day, cooped up, the meeting should have ended hours ago, the air conditioning went out, you're like sweating, and finally you get out of the meeting, it's 9 o'clock at night, and you step into the cool of the evening, and you just feel this rush of wind, and you're like, that feels pretty good. What is that?

I call that, that's a breath of fresh air. That's, that's the word right there. That's the image that you have in your mouth when it says, that you have in your mind when it says the Lord is a spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. is freedom. Verse 18, and it says that we all reflect the Lord's glory and we're being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory. In other words, people encounter Jesus through us. Jesus built His church through you and me. So God is a breath of fresh air, and if we are meant to reflect Him, we're meant to look like Him, we're meant to be a breath of fresh air to a lost and dying world, that begs the question then, what does Jesus look like? What does it look like to live like Jesus? What does Jesus look like? And the Bible actually gives us a picture of what the glory of God actually looks like. I wish I had time to teach it to you today. If you come to one of our dream team rallies at some point, I'll probably teach it to you there. I teach it to our staff often, but Ezekiel 1 verse 28 says, this is the appearance of the likeliness of the glory of God. And the glory is actually described as this four-headed beast, the face of a lion, the face of a man, the face of an eagle, and the face of an ox. Everyone say lion. Everyone say man. Everyone say eagle. Everyone say ox. And this wasn't random imagery. It's a picture of God's nature and actually what He wants to form inside of us. So if we're going to take on the image of God, if we're going to actually live and look like Jesus, we have to take on these four things. The lion represents strength and boldness. Scripture says the righteous, they're as bold as a lion. This is where we get our first value here at Calvary church, that we love God, that we love God, that we want to carry His presence wherever we go and wherever we serve. The face of man is the second value and it represents relationship and compassion. This is all about loving people. This is our second value, loving people, making others seen and known and loved and valued. The eagle represents dignity and excellence. Have you ever seen an eagle in real life? I'm telling you, one day I was up in the Adirondacks visiting my brother and we went to Eagle Lake. It's actually called Eagle Lake. And at that lake we were in a boat and an eagle was just going across the lake with just like one swoop. It was like, boom, boom, and it like went right across the lake. I got all patriotic in that moment. I put my hand over my heart and I just started saying, my country too.

And that's the word. That's the word for an eagle. It's majestic. It's this, this dignity. It's this respect. It's this excellence. Scripture says of Jesus that he did all things well. And this is our third value here at Calvary church. We'll hit it in week three of our series that we're going to be a church that pursues excellence. What if it was said of the people of Calvary church, that everything we touched at our jobs, everything that we touched in our communities, everything we put our hands to at this church was done with the spirit of excellence. And then the ox represents a servant's attitude and heart. Psalm 100. I'm going to give you the greatest church growth principle of all time. Here's what it says. Psalm 100. Serve the Lord with gladness, not madness, not sadness. Serve the Lord with gladness. This is this attitude that I call thermostat. We set the culture, not reflect what everyone's putting up. Thermostat, not thermometer. At Calvary church, we choose joy. Oh, happiness. That's a feeling. But joy, it's our choice. If you're happy and you know it, say it with your face. Come on, somebody. When we have these four together, we love God. We love people. We pursue excellence. We choose joy. We become what scripture describes a breath of fresh air. We take on the image of Jesus to a lost and dying world. It's my favorite text message I get when I text first time guests on a Sunday afternoon. And after I text them, they say, Pastor Dan, the whole experience felt like a breath of fresh air. And I go, we got it right on that one. Love God, love people, pursue excellence, choose joy. It's the central theme of the book of Colossians that it's all about Jesus. It's all about living like Jesus. It's all about looking like Jesus. And in their culture, this Colossae culture, they, they believed in Jesus and they enjoyed Jesus. They had just gotten caught up in a whole bunch of other stuff, Gnosticism and, and legalism and politics. They brought all of these things into their church. And Paul is writing. He's saying, no, no, no. Get all that junk out. Bring it back to what it's about. It's about Jesus. Verse 15. We'll pick up in the text, Colossians chapter one. Here's what it says. It says these words, the son talking about Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He's the exact representation. As the Hebrew says, when you see Jesus, you see God. He's the firstborn over all creation for in him, all things were created things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and are for him. He's before all things. And in him, all

things are held together. And he's the head of the body of the church. He's the beginning and the firstborn amongst the dead. that in everything we might have supremacy. Paul's making it very clear that the star of the show is one man, and his name is Jesus. I love what Hebrews says. The writer, he says, so we fix our eyes on Jesus. He's the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith. And let's be honest. I have moments. We all have moments. Those in our second auditorium, we all have moments today where we've deviated, where we've gotten distracted by things, where we've maybe allowed other things to bring the focus to our lives. So today I would love to ask you, what is taking your focus off of Jesus? What's taking your focus off of Jesus? Very quickly today, maybe it's busyness. Maybe it's worldliness. Maybe the world is just enticing money and pursuit and accolades and followers. Maybe it's pride. There's this subtle idea that you can actually do what you're doing in life without God. Maybe it's doubt, a lie that just has crept in this question of who is God and is he really real and where's he at in the tough season that I'm in today? And it draws us away. Doubt keeps us away from pursuing him. Maybe it's relationships, even healthy, good relationships. If they become your sole primary focus, we end up prioritizing those things over God. And this is what Paul is challenging us. He's challenged the church 2000 years ago at Colossae and he's challenging us today. He's saying, stop making it about other things. You need to reorient your life and make it all about Jesus.

Three things today, if you're taking notes for us to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, and I sure hope you are. Number one is this. Number one, number one, if we're going to be a church that's going to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, number one, we got to recognize him as creator. You got to recognize him as creator. I'm sure you've had a moment where you've gone on vacation before and you went to the beach or you traveled up to the mountains or you were road tripping across a couple States and you saw an amazing sunset and you had this moment at some point where you paused and said, I cannot believe that God created all of this. It's unbelievable. It's unreal to think of the universe and all of the intricacies of it. And the passage today tells us Colossians one tells us it all started by him. Paul backs it up in Romans 11. He says for from him and to him and through him are all things. And just think about that today. He didn't just create the world. He created your worlds and we don't take any credit for anything that we have. Everything that we have that is good in our lives is from God. Some of you say, pastor Dan, he might've created me, but I don't have the same value that other people have. I'm not as good as other people are. I'm not worth something. People think of me a less than as society. I would just say this back to you so lovingly, stop doubting your value because you don't get to determine your value and neither does your ex and neither does the world and neither does your former boss and neither does that person on social media making a cheap comment about you. Our value is determined by what our creator says we are worth. I wrote it down this way.

Our worth is determined by who our creator says we are and the price that he paid for us. That's where value is found. I might doubt my worth, but scripture tells me that God says he formed me in my mother's womb. God says that even before the creation, the beginning of time, he had good plans, a calling for my life. Come on, someone, can we give him praise for that today, that you're worth it to him, that he's our creator and because of that, then everything in our life just exists then for his glory. Here's the second one today. It says verse 15, again, the sun is the image of the invisible God. Everything was created through him and for him. And look at the next part, verse 16, he's before all things and in him, all things hold together. I love this passage right here. All things hold together. Here's the second one. If you want to keep a Jesus focused life, if you want to have a life that looks and lives like Jesus, your second one is this. You have to rely on him as your sustainer. You have to rely on him as your sustainer. You've got to lean into the fact that Jesus not only started the work in your life, but he also sustains the work in your life. And Paul had to correct this church. He said, oh, you guys started off so strong. You started off in the faith. You've made it about Jesus originally, but you've deviated. You've gone to mysticism and you've gone to legalism and you've, you've gone to Gnosticism and you've gone to what you could do or what you could bring on your own.

And Paul's bringing it back. He says, no, no, Jesus is the only one that sustains everything in our life. Think about even the earth itself today. The earth itself is being sustained by God. Everything that's going on in our world today is being held in the palm of his hands. Our earth is called the habitable zone. I believe they have an image of it. They're going to throw it on the screen. Other people call it the. Goldilocks zone. Not too cold, not too hot, just right to live. And when you research it, it's unbelievable how perfect it is for life in the zone that we are placed in today. If we were 1% closer to the sun, we would all burn up to death. If we were 1% further from the sun, we would all freeze to death. If the earth was placed at one angle off from where it is currently tilted, we would not have seasons to sustain life and vegetation. Come on, God has placed us specifically and perfectly and he holds the whole world in his hands. You know, scientists actually tell us that the earth is spinning a thousand miles an hour. Just think about that right now. The earth is spinning at a thousand miles an hour right now. I just think of a basketball. Have you ever spun a basketball on one of your fingers and you try to spin it as fast as you can?

The Lord is just literally holding the earth on his finger and just spinning it at a thousand miles an hour. And so every day you wake up and you have breath in your lungs and you thank God that he not only woke you up and put breath in your lungs, but God, you sustained me in my marriage. You sustained me in my struggles. You sustained me in my shortcomings. I'm thankful for a God who sustains me in every valley. How about you? You know what's crazier than the fact that he sustains the universe? What's more amazing is that he sustained your life and mine. He's kept you. He's kept you in every season, in every trial, in every circumstance. I wrote it down this way. What's over your head is still under God's feet. And so you might think it's overwhelming to you today. Good thing we have a sustainer in our life. Good thing we have a God who's holding the whole world together. Good thing we have a God who's actually taking what the enemy's meant for evil and will turn it for good. Psalm 52 says it this way. Cast your cares onto the Lord. And look what happens when you cast your care on the Lord. He will sustain you.

He'll sustain you. Verse 18, let's close this message out today. And he's the head of the body of the church. He's the beginning and the firstborn from amongst the dead so that in everything he might have supremacy. Everyone say supremacy. Here's the third one, to really love God. If we're gonna be a church that really loves God, if we're gonna be families that really love God, if we're gonna be individuals that really love God, number three, we have to revere him as supreme. We have to revere him as supreme. Every church and every Christian has the same problem. We start thinking that other things can be our source and other things can satisfy a Christ-shaped void that only he can fill. And Paul brings correction to the church. He says, no, no, no, make Jesus supreme in your life. We go to him first and we go to him above all other things because he holds the whole world together. I want you to think about this as making Jesus supreme in your life as this illustration that I have right here. Zach is coming. Can we give Zach a round of applause as he comes today? He's coming to help me with this illustration. So I want you to think of your life like a wheel. So you have this wheel right here and every wheel has spokes on it and spokes are important

but the real thing that's holding it all together is in the center. And some people say, you know what? My life, it's all about my marriage. If I can just get married, I will finally be happy. I will be so happy when I finally meet someone that just takes care of all of my needs and buys me whatever I need. And I can just go to with all of my problems and all of my struggles and they'll just always be available for me and they'll always make me happy. And the problem is this marriage is great but it makes a terrible God. And when you place the value and worth of God into a person you're always gonna have unmet expectations. And so marriage can't be the center of your life. And some of you, you say, okay, I found out very quickly that marriage will not bring the happiness that I need in life. When I just have kids, I'll finally be happy. My life's gonna be all about children. When I have children that are just looking like me and I just get to love on them and they just fill my heart cup and I just love them so much. I love my kids. And the problem is for some of you today you love your kids so much that you've made your life all about them

and they're running your life. For those of you online this morning that are at basketball tournaments or dance right now instead of coming to church because you've let your kids schedule determine what your life should be. I'm looking for a church that says, no, no, no. As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. We're gonna honor the Sabbath and make it holy as was Jesus's custom. I don't care that they got practice. I don't care that there's other commitments. We're gonna value church. And the problem is when you bring kids to the center of your life. Oh, kids are great. I love my kids more. anything. I love my daughter. I love my son so much. Here's the problem. They're going to grow up one day, and they're going to leave my house, and they're going to get married. And then what will I have if they're the center, and they're the foundation, and they're the sole purpose of my life? And some of you, some of you, you say, okay, I get it. You know what? I know it's not about marriage, and I know it's not about children. If I was just, you know, like serving the Lord a little bit from time to time, and you kind of get just a little bit of Jesus in your life, and you think things that are going okay, and then you walk away for a season, and then you just go back a little bit, and you're kind of back and forth, but then suddenly your health just really starts to be in trouble. Suddenly the doctors tell you the report is not good. You have cancer, and you start then really turn into Jesus just a little bit, because you know cancer is a big deal, and cancer is scary, and you could die, and you go, I'll put just a little bit of Jesus into my life, because he's got to help me through cancer. He's got to help me to be healthy again, and the problem is this. Again, Jesus does not just want to be a spoke on the wheel of your life.

Jesus wants to be first and the center of your life. Put Jesus first. When you put Jesus at the center of all, he wants to bless your finances, and when you put Jesus at the center, he wants to have your health be in good order, and when you put Jesus in the center, he wants you to have a healthy marriage, and he wants you to have great kids that grow and serve the Lord, and when you put Jesus in the center, he wants you to have healthy relationships and godly friendships, and he wants to bless you in your job, but you gotta keep Jesus at the center. You know the verse. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. C.S. Lewis says it like this. I love this. When you put first things first, you get the second things thrown in, but when you put second things first, you lose both. Colossians chapter 1 verse 19. We'll close with this. For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in Jesus, and through him God reconciled all things. How much did he reconcile? All things in heaven and on earth by making peace through the blood of Jesus Christ. I've got good news for you today. Your career does not have the power to sustain you, but the blood of Jesus does. Your marriage doesn't have the power to bring you through that storm, but the power of Jesus does. So don't put a good thing in the place of a God thing. I saw this online this week. I wanted to share it with you as we close out this message today. I want you to get your eyes back on Jesus, our supreme king. Jesus, God in the flesh, the image of the invisible God, yet born in a dusty stable, not in a palace. He lived a sinless, spotless, perfect life in every way. He loved the outcast. He healed the broken. He spoke truth with so much love, yet they tried to crucify him. But hear this. Jesus wasn't forced to the cross. He chose it. He laid down his life for you and me in the greatest display of love in all of human history, but the grave couldn't hold him. And on that third day, he rose and he conquered death, hell, and the grave. No power in all of hell could stop Jesus from what he was going to do in that moment. For 2,000 years now, the message of Jesus has spread like wildfire despite every attempt to snuff it out. There's been emperors like Nero who would burn Christians alive, yet the gospel grew because Jesus's kingdom will not be destroyed. Philosophers like Voltaire, he mocked Jesus, saying Christianity would be extinct within a century. That man died in 1778, and his house later became the place where the Bible was printed on a printing press. Why? Because the kingdom of God will always continue and advance. Dictators like Stalin tried to crush the church, but their regimes crumbled down while Jesus's kingdom still stands today. Even musicians like John Lennon, he claimed to be bigger than Jesus. Well, I've come to

announce to everyone today, John Lennon, he's dead. His fame has faded, yet Jesus is still on the throne, and his name still echoes throughout the globe. Why? Armies will fall, and empires fade, and skeptics will die, but Jesus remains, and his kingdom has no end. So, church, here's our mission and purpose. If we're going to be a church that says, no one without Jesus, how are we going to do it? We make it all about Jesus, because we're a church that loves God. We love people. We pursue excellence. We choose joy. We are for him. We trust in him, and without him, we can do nothing. Can we just take a moment, bow our heads in this place, and just thank him for how he's working in every individual's life that's here today. God, we honor you. We bless you. God, we thank you that you've created us. You're sustaining us. Lord, help us to revere you. Help us to trust you. Lord, we make it all about you today, for your honor, for your glory, for your fame. Every head's bowed in this moment, every eye is closed. I wonder if maybe you're a guest with us today and you came to support a friend or a family member for baptism, but you heard of this Jesus that still wants to seek and to save those who are lost, wants to meet you in this place today. The message of the gospel is this, we've sinned, we've fallen short of the glory of the good God, but God offered a way in his son, Jesus. Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead. And the Bible says, Romans 10, if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I'd love to lead you through that prayer today if that's you. Ready, every head bowed, every eye closed.

I'm gonna count to three. If that's you, here, our second auditorium next door in our student center, I want you to lift your hand when I count to three. Ready, one, two, three. Come on, lift your hand in this place. I need to make Jesus Lord, fantastic. See those hands today, you can put them right back down. God loves you, he's got a plan for you. Come on, repeat after me, everyone pray today. Say, Jesus, say, here I am, here's my life. I ask you to forgive me of my sin. I ask you to change me. I ask you to make me new, be the Lord of my life. And from this day forward, I'll follow you. My life is not my own, I exist for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. And everyone said.