I'm going to go back to the
farm. All right good to see
everybody here this morning
we're going to continue. In our
Colossian series and- I've been
doing a lot of work around the
farm lately if you all driven
by you've probably seen me out
there working on the property
no one has stopped an offer to
help I've been noticing that
but- but I'm putting up a new
dog fence and because we're
trying to give our dogs a bigger
area to run around. And with the
new dog fence I'm having to
build a new house and a new
house. And if you want to build
a new house like ours. You need
a shed. And not offense so- I've
been working on this and- this
is what it looked like we've
got a couple pictures. All right
if you can kind of see that
that's the new shed. That I've
built- and I've put some more
stuff on it since then but
but here's what I want you to
see in this right. And I had
this idea. That we should build
the new dog shed and put it
directly up. To our garage to
our house. And this is what I
did now I want you to look at
this and I know it's kind of
hard to see from that distance
and here's the question I'm
going to ask you. What do you
think is the most important
piece of wood. On that shed.
Take a take a second to look
what do you think is the most
important piece of wood on that
shed Greg Berryhill can answer
for obvious reasons. Now look
you might be looking at this
and you might be tempted to
think it's the rafters that go
along the roof because
ultimately that's what the
sheet metal is going to go on
and that's going to hold up.
The roof so. You might think
it's any one of those things
when in actuality next picture
Emily. It's that very back
piece of wood. Over there and I
know it might be kind of hard
for you to see. And you're
looking at this picture like I
didn't even know there was a
piece of wood back there. But
there is a piece of wood that
you can see. And I'm going to
look at this picture and I'm
going to look at this picture
and I'm going to look at this
picture and I'm going to look
at this picture and I'm going
to look at this picture and I'm
going to look at this picture
and I'm going to look at this
picture and I'm going to look
back there. But there is in
turns out this two by six
along the back is the most
important piece of wood on the
entire project because this
thing. Is screwed into the
studs in the garage so it
anchors down the entire
project. And all of the wrapping
for the project is going to be
attached to that two by six and
all of the rafters that are
going to hold up the roof are
going to be attached to the two
by six. So the whole point is
if you remove that two by six
what do you think is going to
happen to the shed? The whole
thing is going to fall apart.
It looks very non impressive
this very small thing and yet
if you remove that piece of
wood everything else falls
apart. And what's interesting
is as we come to this passage
in Colossians Paul is going to
emphasize to us just how
central Jesus is to everything
that we do. And what Jesus is
to everything that we do. Who
Jesus is and what he's done for
us and let's be honest with
each other. It's pretty
important that we get Jesus and
his identity right is it not.
Because what you believe about
Jesus is going to determine
your entire faith. There are
many people in our world today
who think Jesus is nothing more
than a good moral teacher with
good moral lessons. Like the
intellectual psychologist and
he he goes around talking about
the Bible but he's not actually
a Christian. And so when he
looks at the Bible what he
sees is he sees Jesus as this
archetype for humanity to live
up to. And so he says basically
if you will just try to live
like Jesus and emulate Jesus in
your life then you're going to
be good with God. And so the
problem is since he's not a
Christian he doesn't actually
submit to Jesus and he doesn't
have to be living on his day to
day life. There are other
people in our world today who
would say that Jesus was a
first century Jewish man who
lived a great life. But they
think that Jesus died in the
first century and then stayed
dead. And so Jesus has no
bearing on their lives today.
And then there are other
people. And I think a lot of
church people fall into this
category. There are many
in times of trouble.
They like the idea of Jesus,
and they certainly want Jesus with them
when things start to go south.
When I'm starting to have problems,
when life is getting hard,
then that's when I want Jesus in my life.
But if things are going okay,
and there's not really any trouble,
well, Jesus really has no place in their day-to-day life.
And yet these verses tell us that Jesus is before all things,
and Jesus is central to the continuation of all things.
In fact, Paul's gonna say here
that it is in Jesus that all things hold together.
And so here's what he's saying in these verses, church.
This is what I want you to understand.
Everything falls apart without Jesus.
And I know that pretty much every one of you
would agree with that statement this morning.
Amen.
Yeah, we could talk back.
Yeah, amen.
Everything falls apart without Jesus.
So everybody says yes,
but the question is,
I wonder if you're actually living by this.
I wonder if you can honestly say this morning
that Jesus is foremost in your life,
and that Jesus is central to everything in your life.
And so what I wanna do this morning
as we go through these verses,
I wanna show you just how true it is
that everything falls apart without Jesus.
Now, notice what Paul says there in verse 15.
Paul says, he is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
When Paul says this word here, image, in the Greek,
he's using the Greek word icon.
And I don't know any Greek scholars here this morning.
Maybe you can't tell,
but this is actually where we get our English word.
You wanna guess?
Icon, yeah, there we go.
Good job, guys.
So he uses the Greek word icon,
that was where we get the English word icon.
And it just referred to a picture
that represented someone's likeness, okay?
But here's what we need to understand.
When Paul says that Jesus is the image
or the icon of the invisible God,
he does not mean that Jesus is simply
a physical image of an invisible God.
Rather, what Paul is saying here
is that the very being and nature of God
are perfectly made manifest in the person of Jesus.
The way I like to say it is that all that God is, Jesus is.
And all that can be known about God
is perfectly revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
And he describes him not only as the icon,
but he describes him as the firstborn of God's creation.
Now, this is where we get problems, all right?
A lot of people have misunderstood
and misinterpreted this verse and verses like it.
Because there are many people today
like the Jehovah's Witnesses,
my favorite group to witness to.
They will believe based on verses like this,
that Jesus is a created being.
I actually, how did Jehovah's Witness say to me
on my porch, I said, hey, let's talk scripture.
I was like, I'd love to.
They said Colossians 1.15.
The Bible says that Jesus is the firstborn
of God's creation.
Therefore, it means that God created Jesus first
and then Jesus created everything else.
And they think it's plain as day.
But the problem is, this is not a description
of the order of creation.
When Paul uses the word firstborn here,
it's referring to a title.
We know that it cannot be a literal description
of something that happened in a sequential order
because think about it like this.
A few verses later, Paul is gonna say
that Jesus is the firstborn of the dead.
Now, if we're gonna interpret those the same way,
and we're saying that firstborn of creation
means this is chronologically how it happened,
Jesus first and everything else,
we have to apply that to firstborn of the dead,
meaning Jesus first and everything else.
But here's the problem.
Was Jesus the first person in the world,
according to scripture, to die and be brought back to life?
No.
In fact, I believe that was the widow's son at Zerapheth.
So this is not trying to describe chronological events
or sequential events or anything like that.
This is a title.
You have to keep in mind the cultural context.
So in the first century, the firstborn was entitled
to two thirds of the inheritance.
Like today, when we have kids,
we tend to divide our inheritance up equally, right?
So when Anna and I die, we will divide our inheritance.
If there is any whatsoever,
I've got a couple of Bibles I can give away.
So Judah and Ezra both get a Bible,
but we'll divide those Bibles up equally among our children.
But it didn't work like that in the ancient world.
In the ancient world, the firstborn son was entitled
to a greater portion of the inheritance, typically two thirds.
And so by saying firstborn of creation,
Paul is saying that Jesus has the claim to creation.
It is his, it is his by inheritance,
which is exactly what the author of Hebrews says
in Hebrews one, two.
He says, but in these last days,
he has spoken to us by his son,
whom he appointed the what church?
Air of all things through whom also he created the world.
So why is Jesus the air of all things?
Because he's the firstborn of creation.
He is the one who is entitled to this inheritance
because he has preeminence in creation.
Firstborn also communicates authority.
In the ancient world,
if parents were unable to take care of themselves,
if they can no longer financially provide for themselves
or take care of their property,
that responsibility fell to the firstborn son.
He became the man of the house
and he assumed authority within that family.
And Paul is saying the same thing about Jesus here.
When he calls Jesus the firstborn of all creation,
he is saying Jesus is the air of all things
and Jesus has authority over all things
because he is the preeminent one,
which is why he continues in verse 16.
Look at it with me.
Verse 16, for by him all things were created
in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,
all things were created through him and for him.
Now, who's ready for a science lesson?
Well, we'll skip that part.
No, are you kidding me?
I'm not skipping that.
I know you didn't come looking for a science lesson,
but it is important for us to have one
because here's what I think, right?
It's easy for us to go outside and marvel
at the wonders of what God's created, amen?
It's very easy with certain things.
When you see a beautiful day and you marvel at the sky
or you go to the mountains and you marvel
at the beauty of the mountains or you go to the Grand Canyon,
there's so many easy places to just go
and look at what God's created and be amazed by it,
but it's another thing entirely
to actually get into the details of God's creation
and marvel at the hand of God at work.
All right, so let's have a little bit of a science lesson.
Here's a picture for you.
Now, this is a picture of Earth's orbit around the sun, okay?
We got it here, yeah?
All right, so everybody pretty much knows this.
This is the orbital path of the Earth around the sun.
Kind of looks like an oval.
Now, here's what you might not know.
As the Earth orbits around the sun,
it veers from a straight line one ninth of an inch
every 18 miles, all right?
We got that one ninth of an inch every 18 miles.
Here's the fun fact for you.
Did you know that if the Earth were to veer
by one tenth of an inch,
Earth's orbital path would become so large
that the temperatures on our planet would drop so drastically
that life on this Earth would not be possible?
Well, here's the other fun fact too.
If the Earth only veered one eighth of an inch
as opposed to one ninth of an inch,
our orbital path would decrease so much
that the temperatures would rise to a degree
that would make life impossible here on Earth.
So here's what that means.
It means that if Earth's orbit was off by one tenth of an inch
in either direction, none of this is possible.
One tenth of an inch, folks.
And all the atheists say, praise evolution.
Aren't we so happy evolution got this right?
By sheer happen chance and by an unguided,
totally random process, we ended up
with this level of precision.
And yet as a Christian, we look at this
and we say praise the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ
who upholds all things by his sovereign hand.
Amen?
You understand, that's how close we are to not exist
in his one tenth of an inch in either direction.
But let's just keep going
because we can dig into this further.
What is it that keeps us in orbit?
It's gravity, right?
Everybody knows this.
You might not know if the gravitational force
were altered by one part in 10 to the 40th power.
That's 10 with 40 zeros after it.
The sun would not exist
and the moon would either crash into the Earth
or drift away into space if it was altered by that much.
Even our place in the cosmos
is according to God's sovereign will.
Our place here on Earth in the cosmos
has sometimes been referred to as the Goldilocks zone.
Why is it called the Goldilocks zone?
Well, you remember the story of the three bears, right?
This bed is too hard, this bed is too soft,
but this bed is what?
Just try.
Yeah, so Goldilocks zone means that we are living
in the just right zone for life to be possible.
If we were any further away from the sun
or any closer to the sun, life would not be possible.
And a lot of our place in the cosmos
is called the Goldilocks zone
because of my favorite planet
and it should be yours too, the planet Jupiter.
Here's what we look like compared to Jupiter, by the way.
That is us in that little spot there.
That's the Earth.
So this is the Earth compared to Jupiter.
And every Christian should wake up every single day
and start your morning by saying,
thank you, God, for allowing me to wake up
and also thank you, God, for Jupiter.
It's the best, okay?
Because here's what happened.
God specifically put Jupiter exactly where it's at
to act as a giant space vacuum.
Basically, if Jupiter was not exactly where it's at,
the Earth would be constantly bombarded
with asteroids and meteors
that are, they are on a direct path to hit us.
But because Jupiter's gravitational force is so large,
it pulls everything that would hit us in
and it gets hit on Jupiter rather than us.
So if Jupiter were to go away and not exist anymore,
we wouldn't exist either.
So get a shirt that says, thank God for Jupiter.
Now, you look at Jupiter,
you might think that Jupiter is pretty big
and you'd be right, but this is what Jupiter looks like
compared to our Sun.
So that little tiny white dot is us
and then there's Jupiter and then there's our Sun.
And if you think our Sun is big,
well, here is our Sun compared to some of the biggest stars
that we know of in the galaxy.
Our Sun is the smallest dot that you can't even see,
by the way.
And see, these are some of the other big ones.
Yes, that red one is named Beetlejuice.
You can do with that information what you will.
But these are some of the biggest stars.
And if you think that is big,
well, here's a picture of our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy.
There's a red dot there that says you're here.
So this is our whole galaxy and there you are
with all your problems that you think are so big
and bad in this world.
That's us in the grand scheme of everything.
And if you think that is big,
look at this picture,
which isn't a picture of some pretty stars.
This is actually a picture of 15,000 galaxies in one picture.
Not stars, not planets,
15,000 galaxies in one picture.
And so you look at these things in creation
and you ask yourself, why is the Earth tilted just right?
Why is gravity exactly right?
Why is Earth's orbital path so extremely precise
that if we were all by a tenth of an inch
in either direction, none of this happens.
Why is Jupiter so specifically located?
Why are all these things that seem to be balanced
on a razor's edge able to keep that balance?
And Paul's answer here is very simple.
It's because Jesus created all things
and Jesus sovereignly upholds all things.
He is the one who allows them to continue.
The reason that everything continues to function
as God created it to function
is because of the sovereign hand of Jesus
sovereignly holding all things together, amen.
But one common atheist rebuttal
that I've been hearing more and more in recent years
is, well, what's up with all the wasted space?
I don't know if you've encountered this yet.
I had this conversation with a guy I used to work with
at Lowe's because we were talking about the creation question
one day at Lowe's and he said to me,
if God created everything, why did he waste so much space?
And I had never heard this before.
So I was like, what do you mean waste so much space?
And he said to me, well, Earth is the only place
we know of that is livable.
And we know of all these other galaxies
and we know that everything is still expanding.
So if all of this is for humanity,
why is so much of it unusable?
And I said, well, there's your problem right there.
This isn't all for humanity.
It's for God.
Because you see, if the cosmos was created for us,
then yeah, there's a whole lot of wasted space
that we can't do anything with.
But if the cosmos was created by God for God,
then even the vastness of the cosmos is nothing
but a mere drop in the ocean
when compared to an infinite God.
And so this isn't for us.
It is for God.
All things were created for him.
And notice this phrase, all things in the Greek,
it means all things.
And you know what that means church?
It means that you're included in that.
If God created all things for him
and God created you, well, what does that mean about you?
It means you were created for God.
Here's what I would say.
I would say you were specially made by Jesus
and you were especially made for Jesus.
Here's what you have to understand, folks.
It's easy to look at the Grand Canyon
and marvel at the wonders of God.
It's easy to go to various places on this earth
and see the hand of God at work and marvel at it.
And yet when you look in scripture,
the Bible tells us that the cross
is the cross that is the cross.
And you know, the cross is the cross
that is the cross that is the cross.
And you know, the cross is the cross
that is the cross that is the cross.
And if you look in scripture,
the Bible tells us that the crowning jewel
of God's creation is humanity,
not the Grand Canyon,
not Mount Kilimanjaro or anything else.
The Bible tells us that humanity
is the crowning jewel of God's creation
because only mankind was made in the image of God.
Of all the wonderful things God created,
in His image.
And so you were specially made by Jesus
and you were especially made for Jesus.
And what that means, church,
is that you exist for Jesus.
You do not exist for your spouse.
You do not exist for your children.
You do not exist for your job
and you do not exist for yourself.
You were made by Jesus for Jesus.
And the Bible even says in Psalm 19-1,
the heavens declare the glory of God
and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.
Here's my question to you, church.
If that's true of the cosmos,
how much more true should it be of those made
in the image of God?
How much more should our lives resound
the greatness and the majesty of God?
How much more should our lives speak
of His greatness and His preeminence?
And maybe you say, well, pastor,
I don't know how on earth I could do that.
My life is falling apart right now.
So how could I possibly testify
to the greatness of Jesus?
We'll look at verse 17.
Verse 17, the Bible says,
and He is before all things
and in Him all things hold together.
You wanna know why so many relationships fall apart
and why more than half of the marriages
in the United States end in divorce?
It's very simple.
It's because Jesus is not at the center
of the relationship.
I've seen so many couples who are doing everything they can
to keep the relationship going.
I've seen them go through this cycle of they break up,
get back together, break up, get back together,
break up, get back together.
And they just keep doing this in an endless cycle
and every single time they convince themselves
it's gonna work this time.
I can make it work this time.
I can change.
He can change.
She can change.
We're gonna make it work.
But I want you to listen to me say this as your pastor.
The Bible never says you hold all things together.
You may even love your partner, your boyfriend,
your girlfriend, your spouse,
but love will not hold your relationship together.
The Bible tells us here in Jesus all things hold together.
And so if you're taking it upon yourself
to hold your relationship together,
listen to me church,
you were doing a job that was never meant for you.
And you were going to continue to experience
the breakdown of your relationship
until you start putting Jesus at the center
of your relationship.
Because he's the one who holds all things together.
I've seen it happen with people's spiritual lives too.
There might be some people in here this morning
and you feel like your life,
your spiritual life has fallen apart.
Maybe you feel distant from the Lord this morning
and you feel spiritually empty.
I heard someone say recently,
if you take Christ out of Christianity
or if you take Christ out of Christian,
all you're left with is Ian.
And I don't know who Ian is, but he can't save you.
Now they said that kind of tongue in cheek,
but the point that he was making
is that this is what so many Christians are doing.
We're taking Christ out of our faith
and we're turning our entire faith
into a series of activities and things to do
rather than seeing our faith as a relationship
with a living savior.
And so if you ever divorce your faith
from the person of Jesus Christ,
you're gonna start running rampant like this
and your whole life is gonna go downhill
because your spiritual faith is not dependent
upon your ability to keep it going.
It's dependent upon the one who holds all things together.
You cannot take Christ out of Christianity.
The point I want you to understand this morning is
if Jesus is not foremost in your life,
your life will slowly start to fall apart.
And there's a really good way to test this this morning.
Here's what I want you to do.
I want you to think about your life.
I want you to think about the weakest areas
of your life right now.
The ones that you feel are falling apart.
And I'm willing to guess that the weakest areas
of your life right now, the areas where you feel
are falling apart,
is where you're gonna have to move.
And that's not going to be the case.
Now the areas where you feel are falling apart
and out of your control, I'm willing to guess
those are the ones where you have not yet
made Jesus preeminent.
Whether that's your relationship with your spouse,
whether that's your money, your time,
whether that's parenting, you show me the areas
in your life that are falling apart this morning
and I will show you an area
where you need to make Jesus preeminent.
He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.
If He's before all things church,
that means you can't put anything before Jesus.
It means you can't put your activities before Jesus.
It means you can't put your hobbies before Jesus.
You can't put your job before Jesus.
You can't put your passions before Jesus.
Jesus must have preeminence in all things.
Why? Because He alone is preeminent.
You see, it's not enough to just have Jesus
be included in our lives.
It's not enough to just have Jesus be preeminent
in one area of our lives.
We need Him in all aspects of our lives
or they'll start to fall apart.
So Paul has already shown us that,
hey, your spiritual life, like creation itself
will fall apart without Jesus.
Your life will fall apart without Jesus
and then he's gonna say something very interesting.
He's gonna say that the church
will fall apart without Jesus.
Look at verse 18.
The Bible says, and He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in everything He might be preeminent.
Now again, this is one of those verses
that everybody can say yes and amen to, right?
I say, Jesus is the head of the church
and you say, amen, pastor, of course He is.
Everybody agrees with that, but here's where it gets hard.
If Jesus is the head of the church,
you know what that means?
It means that you're not the head of the church
and it means that I'm not the head of the church
and Jordan's not the head of the church
and Christian's not the head of the church
and Mark's not the head of the church.
It means that Jesus is the one who runs His church.
So here's the point, I want you to understand.
If you replace Jesus with anything else,
the church will start to fall apart.
If you replace Jesus with anything else,
the church will start to fall apart.
And I want everybody to put a star by that,
underline it, circle it, do whatever you have to do
because this is the killer of churches.
You can blame it on all sorts of things
that you wanna blame it on,
but when you root it down and get to the root of it,
this is what kills churches.
Replacing anything else, replacing Jesus with anything else
and making that thing the head of the church.
That will kill a church.
I've seen it far too often with far too many churches.
If a church replaces Jesus with their pastor
and they make their pastor preeminent in the church,
here's what happens.
They become known for their pastor, right?
Don't come to our church because we preach Jesus.
You gotta come because of our pastor.
That guy can really preach.
And he's this great guy
and he's got all these letters after his name.
Like that's the guy you wanna come here.
And so the whole church's identity
becomes the identity of the pastor.
And the church is only known for the pastor.
So here's my question.
If that happens to a church
and they make their pastor preeminent,
rather than Jesus, well then,
what happens when the pastor dies?
Or what happens when the pastor retires?
Or what happens when the pastor gets one of those magical calls
to go to some other church?
I've never received one of those magical calls.
I haven't found it in the Bible anywhere yet.
But a lot of pastors get these magical calls
to go to another church.
The weird thing is, it's always a bigger church
with more money.
In the history of Christianity,
God has never called someone
to go to a smaller church for less money.
But that's another sermon for another day.
But my question is, besides Jordan Massie,
we're staying corrected.
But the point is, if the church becomes
the identity of the pastor
and the pastor goes away,
what happens to the church?
It dies, typically.
I mean, that's exactly what happened with Morris Hill Church.
They became one of the largest churches in America.
They had like 13 different campuses.
I mean, they were running into like 50,000s,
almost 100,000 people, I think, at one point.
One of the largest churches in America.
But over time, their identity got lost
and they became all about their pastor, Mark Driscoll.
And Mark Driscoll was preeminent in their church
rather than Jesus.
And so everything about that church
was all about Mark Driscoll and his personality
and the cult of Mark Driscoll.
And then he gets caught in a scandal.
He was dismissed from the church.
He leaves and that church of like 100,000 people,
the one of the largest churches in America,
shut its doors and closed,
never to reopen all within two years.
That's how it happens.
And so there's a clear warning there,
not to put your pastor on a pedestal
that was only ever meant for Jesus.
So listen to me, I love you.
I've told you I plan on being here
until the day I die if the Lord will allow it.
And if he is very good to me,
he'll let me die in the pulpit, okay?
I've said it to you before, but listen to me church,
I will be your under shepherd.
I will walk alongside of you.
I will be there for you, but I am not Jesus.
I do not run this church
and you should never try to make this church's identity
the identity of Alex and make this church known for me.
We exist to make Christ known in love, amen.
But if it's not a pastor,
there are other things that can take the place
of Jesus's preeminence in the church.
For other people it's a denomination.
Like this is what happened with David Platt in his church.
David Platt became the pastor of McLean Bible Church,
which is an unaffiliated church.
And in their constitution and bylaws,
I think article one of their constitution said,
we are an unaffiliated church,
we will never be associated with any denomination, right?
That's their preference, they can do that.
That's something they wanna do.
David Platt becomes the pastor
and he has a desire to be prominent within the SBC,
the Southern Baptist Convention.
And he wants to be one of the biggest churches
in the Southern Baptist Convention.
He wants to be one of the top givers and donators
in the Southern Baptist Convention.
And so what he did is he became so focused on that
and made denominational preference and notoriety
preeminent in his church.
Here's what he started doing.
He started secretly funneling millions
of his church's dollars to the SBC.
And then he hid the finances so that no one in the church
could check the finances.
And he was funneling millions and millions and millions
of dollars and it came out with emails that he was saying,
hey, if we gave this much,
could we be within the top five givers in our state
within the SBC?
That's what it looks like when denomination
takes preference over Jesus.
And now, because this is such a horrible thing to have happened,
his own church is suing him.
He is their pastor and they are suing him
for the mishandling of funds
and there's been an entire documentary come out about this.
And so the point is very clear here.
The warning is here.
If our devotion to our denomination is greater
than our devotion to Jesus, our churches will collapse.
They will die.
All right, now let me just say this, okay?
And this isn't even in my sermon notes.
This one you get for free, all right?
So off the top here, since I just talked about the SBC,
let me say this.
We are an SBC church, convictionally.
I believe that the Southern Baptist Convention
is the greatest denomination because it is most aligned
with what we see in the Bible.
And I think we do more good for the world
than other denominations.
And I think we have more opportunities
the way that we've been set up to do those things, okay?
So I love being part of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Having said that, I will also tell you this,
the Southern Baptist Convention
will never have preeminence in this church.
We do not benefit from the Southern Baptist Convention.
I don't know if y'all know how it works.
They don't send us a check.
They don't send us any money or anything like that.
There is nothing they do to send us anything
to where they can have sway.
They don't tell me what to preach.
I wouldn't listen to them if they did.
They don't tell me what sermon passages to read
or anything like that.
We partner with them for ministry.
But if anything in that denomination gets to the point
where Jesus is not preeminent in that denomination,
I will leave the SBC so quickly.
You'll never remember
George's Creek Baptist Church was part of it, okay?
We all good on that?
Can we say amen?
I would hope you're in agreement with me on that
because here's the thing.
We want to make much of Jesus.
And if our convention is not making much of Jesus,
we can do it better on our own.
And so the denomination will never have preeminence
in our church.
Now, those are the easy things, right?
It's easy to say that these are the killer of churches
when you put the pastor on a pedestal,
when you give the denomination
too much preference in the church.
But let me just ask you as we close very quickly,
do you want to know what the number one
biggest killer of churches is?
It's the self.
And most of the time, the way that comes across
is in our preferences, right?
So the Bible just said here
that Jesus is the head of the church.
He runs the church and we say,
but I want things done my way.
I want things to be done the same way
we've always done them before.
I want the church to look the exact same
that it's always looked.
I want people to dress the same way they've always dressed.
I want the same programs we've always had.
I want to sing the same music we've always sung.
I want the same preaching style we've always had.
Sorry about that.
And I'm gonna do everything I can
to make sure that happens.
I want the pastor to cover his tattoos
at every meal we have and he'll never wear a hat again.
I want things done my way
and I'm gonna make sure I can get them my way.
And that's how so many Christians are.
And what ends up happening is we end up caring more
about preferences than we do about
what the Bible actually says is important.
You understand that?
It's not that your preferences are bad necessarily
and the Bible is not saying you can't have your preferences.
The Bible is saying be very careful
about how far you take this
because if it gets to the point
where you're running the church,
then guess who's not running the church?
Jesus.
And Jesus should be the one running the church.
Every church member would say,
yes, Jesus runs the church,
but here's what I have found in all my years of ministry.
When you get these certain stubborn people
who always have to have their way on everything
and they talk about what Jesus wants,
I've noticed that the Jesus they talk about
looks a lot like them.
One theologian said, God made man in his image
and ever since that time,
we have been trying to remake God in our image.
And so what they do is they'll say,
hey, I was praying and God told me,
he wants things to be done
the exact same way they've always been done.
Hey, you know how I've been fighting for this thing?
Well, I just had God sent me a vision and a dream last night
and turns out he wants the same thing I do.
And all they're doing is they're making something up
to try to get their way in the church.
I'm just gonna say it to you like this,
Jesus knows what's best for his church better than you do.
Amen?
Jesus knows what's best for his church better than I do
and better than Jordan and Christian and Mark
and everyone else in here because we are not God.
Now I'll tell you this church,
the church of Jesus Christ was doing just fine before you
and the church of Jesus Christ will be doing just fine
long after the Lord has called you home.
Why?
Because the church isn't about you.
And the church is not dependent on you.
The church is about one person and one person only
and that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
That is why all this exists.
That is why we do everything we do.
We exist to make much of Jesus,
to tell people about what Christ has done for us,
to tell them about the salvation that he has bought for us,
to tell them about eternal life in Christ
and getting to be with God and enjoy him forever.
Nothing else in the church matters except Jesus.
So do you see what Paul is saying here?
If you remove Jesus from anything, it falls apart.
If you remove Jesus from creation, creation falls apart.
If you remove Jesus from your life,
listen to me, your life will start to fall apart
and if you remove Jesus from the church,
the church will fall apart.
The most important thing for you to remember this morning
is that Jesus is before all things
and Jesus holds all things together.
So let's give the Lord Jesus Christ
the preeminence he deserves in the church,
in creation and in our lives.
Amen.