Hey guys, this is Tracy. If at any time you'd
like to connect with HCV, go to hcv .church forward
slash connect. If you feel called to give, go
to hcv .church forward slash give. And if at
any time you feel called to make a change in
your life, text change me to 970 -00. Enjoy the
message. So typically you'd be watching a video
with our announcements. I'm your announcements
today. So welcome to HTV. We're so glad you're
here. Listen, if this is your first time joining
us, welcome. And make sure you stop by our...
Hippie bus that has been broken down and cut
in half. We now have a hippie bus table where
you can sign in and be welcomed, and we'd love
to give you a gift to check that out. If you're
joining us from home, thank you for welcoming
us into your space, and you can come in later
and see our new welcome table, which is a hippie
van cut in half, which I think is kind of cool.
If you've been here for a while, stop and get
your picture by it and say, hey, join me at HCV.
It's the place to be. So our first announcement,
we served at Reach this past week. Hey, if you
were a participant and served at Reach, give
yourselves a hand. Thank you. It was a challenging
week because we had a lot of snow. It was cold.
But we had hundreds of hours dedicated to serving
those less fortunate than us. Kelsey and Aaron
Palmer are actually still there, closing it up,
finishing it up for the last day. So thank you.
Thank you for making a difference and being appreciative
and grateful. for everything that God has given
us. When we hang out and spend time with those
that are less fortunate than us, it makes us
realize how much of a blessing we have. Today
is the first Sunday of the month, so it is Start
With Why. If you want to learn about our community
of faith, where we've been, where we're going,
all that God is doing in our midst, join me right
after this gathering. We'll go to the prayer
room. Stop by the Welcome Hub first, then we'll
go to the prayer room, and I'll teach you all
about, share with you all about our community
of faith. Tonight is our... First installment
of Who is the Holy Spirit? Rick Vance and I are
going to be leading a class tonight at 6 o 'clock
right here in the auditorium. We're believing
God's going to fill this house because the Holy
Spirit is the least talked about, least understood
part of the Trinity. And we want to change that
because we believe he empowers us and changes
our lives. So I want to encourage you, if you
have questions, you don't understand the Holy
Spirit, you want to learn a little bit more,
show up. We'll be here from roughly 6 to 8. Child
care is provided. If you do need child care,
please stop by the Welcome Hub and let them know
you're bringing your children so I don't overwhelm
my daughter with 62 kids, okay? So let us know
if your kids are coming. Today is the first day
of HCV softball sign -ups, and you're thinking,
the snow is on the ground, Chris. How are we
playing softball? Well, it'll be a couple months.
We'll have two or three teams, four teams, who
knows. Sign up. Be a part of our softball teams.
Coming soon to all of our families, we're going
to do a free movie afternoon matinee and compassion
letter writing. So if you adopted, excuse me,
not adopted, that's not the right word. Correct
me when I'm wrong. Compassion. If you sponsored
a child, we would love to gather together as
a community of faith, write letters to them,
and watch a movie. The other thing I want to
share is many of you know that God moved some
mountains last year as we were praying for those.
We now have land across the street that we're
turning into a parking lot. Slowly but surely,
we're getting the permits necessary to make that
happen. It will open up 200 parking spots for
you, for us. To be safe and to welcome more people
to experience God's love and forgiveness. Now,
to go along with that, we have a new vision that
we're kicking off for this year, be it 2026.
We met with our contractor who built this wonderful
house of miracles that we're meeting in, gathering
in. And we can actually add a balcony to our
back auditorium. So, right back there. We can
add hundreds of seats right there. And you'll
get an upper. Higher level, closer to God seat.
And he gave us, he's drawing up plans for us
so that we can see them, we can cast vision for
them. Their price tag is roughly around $200
,000. So if you would like to give towards that,
please stop by the Welcome Hub, talk to Steve,
talk to Tracy. We are setting up a fund so that
that can be built. And some of you are thinking,
wow, that seems like a lot of money. It's not.
That is very inexpensive so that we can add hundreds
of seats to our auditorium and continue to reach
people with the love of Jesus. Amen? All right.
So we're just believing that's going to happen
by July. That's not bold ambition. That's faith.
All right, so many of you know it's the first
Sunday of the month. If you don't know, every
first Sunday of the month at our community of
faith, we celebrate communion. So if you could
stand back up, we are going to honor God. Now
here at our community of faith at HTV, if you
need an element, I'm sorry, put one hand up.
If you need gluten -free, put two hands up. There
you go. And while the teams are getting people
their elements, I want everybody else to focus
up here on me. We believe that this isn't just
something we do here at church. We actually believe
that Jesus told us to do this, left this as an
ordinance that we should practice because he
said, do this, share in communion as a remembrance
of me. So what we are actually doing is we are
activating. We are activating the presence of
God in our lives to remember Jesus' broken body
and his shed blood so that it can cover our sins.
It can set us free. It can heal us. But it's
all about submitting to him and honoring him
as we partake in these elements. So I'm going
to pray. I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to
come to reveal anything that's in our hearts
that's separating us from God. And then we get
it right, meaning we say, God, forgive me for
that. Remove that because I want all of you in
my life. And then as we partake of the elements,
I'm going to pray for the Holy Spirit to come
down and overwhelm you and release his love and
peace in your heart. Amen? So Holy Spirit, come.
God, reveal anything that's keeping us from you,
God. Any ceiling between us, any blockage. And
as you reveal that, God, we lay it down at your
feet. Forgive us, God. The broken people, we
want to come into your presence. And we might
connect with you in a real way this morning.
In Jesus' name. So on the night that he was betrayed,
Jesus took bread. He broke it. He gave it to
his disciples and said, Take, eat, and do this
in remembrance of me. Let's eat. Likewise, after
supper, Jesus took the cup of wine. He said,
This is my blood. which is shed for you and for
many for the forgiveness of sins. Drink it often,
and when you do, do it in remembrance of me.
Let's drink. So God, we are thankful for what
you do in our lives. We are thankful, God, grateful
that we can gather together. I just pray that
you would silence distractions in Jesus' name,
that your spirit would be here, your presence
would be here evident, In our lives, God, open
our ears, our hearts, and our minds to receive
your truth. And we pray this all in Jesus' name.
Amen. So today we happen to be kicking off a
new series for the month of February called Check
Up. And if we're honest with ourselves, we are
good at checking on everything in our lives except
for our spirits. We check our phones before going
to bed. We check our phones before we get out
of bed. We check our bank accounts. We go over
our schedules. We monitor and check our steps.
Maybe once a year, we go to the doctor for a
physical checkup. But when is the last time you
paused, we paused, and asked, how is my spirit
today? Or Vineyard National Director Phil Strout
used to look at me and say, How is your soul?
How is your soul? Not how busy are you, not how
religious you look, but how healthy is my heart
before God? And this month we're focusing on
a spiritual checkup, not for shame, not for fear,
but for growth, for change, for us to become
more like Jesus. I'm going to jump into the book
of Colossians this morning. And the intro of
the book, which was a letter written by Paul,
reads like this. Colossians chapter 1, verses
3 through 5. We always pray for you, and we give
thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and your love for all of God's people, which
come from your confident hope of what God has
reserved for you in heaven. You have had this
expectation ever since you first heard the truth
of the good news. So Paul opens the letter. By
writing a prayer. And he's writing this prayer
to the church in Colossae. Which is a city in
modern day Turkey. Now remember, Paul was a man
that was highly educated. He was zealous in his
earlier years of life. Zealous for a wrong cause.
Paul was a Pharisee, a religious leader. He was
extreme. Actually killing and murdering innocent
Christians during the early formations of the
church. Then Paul had an encounter with God on
the road to Damascus. His life was shaken to
the very core. He goes all in for God. He follows
Jesus and ends up changing the world. It's a
reminder to all of us, we're not too far gone.
None of us have too bad of a past that God can't
use our very lives. Paul submitted to God, becomes
a leader in the church, and now he's writing
this letter from prison to a group of people
that he never met. Now, most of the churches
that Paul writes to, he actually started or planted
the church, but not this one. Many scholars believe
this guy named Epaphras, who was a disciple of
Paul, went and started this church in the city
of Colossae. Then he goes back to Paul and he
says, hey, Paul, we got this church going. It's
going well, but now we have some issues. Please
help. Paul is writing this letter to them from
Rome. Rome is about 1 ,000 miles away. He's sitting
in a prison dungeon, and he's writing this letter
to the church to bring some challenge and correction.
Now, scholars call many of these smaller letters
in the New Testament prison epistles. And the
reason is their letters were written by Paul
while he was in prison. I mean, how about making
the most of your time and the season of life
you're in? Paul is like, I'm in prison. I got
all the time in the world. Instead of pouting
about it, complaining about it, being upset about
it, I'm going to write some letters to churches
that are literally going to change the world.
And Paul is writing this letter to the Colossians,
and the purpose of this entire book is this.
It's a refocus on Jesus. It's calling them back
to put their focus on Jesus. See, as the church
was birthed, they started with good faith and
focus. You heard Paul say in the beginning of
the letter, We have heard of your faith in Christ
Jesus and your love for all of God's people.
Then Paul shifts and he brings a little correction
into the letter or correction into their lives.
Now he does this suddenly. He noticed first he
celebrates their faith, their accomplishments.
Then he throws in some correction followed by
more celebration of them again. It's a healthy
way for all of us to learn how to practice correction.
For example, when Jess and I are correcting our
six -year -old Phoenix and his love for his dogs,
right, we have two standard poodles. Both of
them are bigger than him, right? But he loves
them. He runs up and down the yard with them.
But then he decides, I wonder if they'll wrestle
me. So we have to look back at Phoenix and say,
Phoenix, we know you love your dogs. We know
you love your poodles. But they're not people,
okay? That knee. That knee lift and that elbow
drop to the skull may make them a little mad
at you. Don't do it anymore. But we love that
you love your dogs. See how I did that? It's
like, celebrate. Correction. Celebrate. The proper
way of correcting an individual. Paul is doing
this in our letter today. Starts out with encouragement.
I heard of your faith. What you're doing. But.
But you've deviated from it. And his whole message
brings the focus right back on Jesus. And the
central theme of the book or letter to the Colossians
is, it's all about Jesus. And that should be
the central theme for anyone that is in a relationship
with Jesus. Church, it's all about Jesus. The
church and Colossi made a crucial mistake that
so many Jesus followers do. It's they started
with a focus on Jesus, and then they began to
mix parts of their world into it. Now, in their
culture, they mixed Gnosticism, which was different
philosophical ideas and beliefs. Then they brought
politics in and religious rituals and practices
and circumcision. The Colossians believed it
was okay to have Jesus and all this other stuff.
And I want to challenge you, church. We have
to guard against that in our culture today. We
have to be very careful not to mix Jesus and.
Jesus and politics. Jesus and self -help. Jesus
and social media. Jesus and our news feeds. Listen,
everyone has opinion. And they all want to tell
you how to live your life and what you have to
do and what you should say. We should only be
paying attention to Jesus. We have to be careful
not to mix up our relationship with Jesus and
these other things. Saying, this is what it means
to follow God. No, it's not. All those other
things don't mean that's how we follow God. It's
all about Jesus. Even when we gather as a church,
we must remain focused on Jesus. We have to point
people to Jesus. After all, if we're honest,
think about it. It can be a little weird for
a person that has little to no church background
whatsoever and to walk into this building. Think
about it. None of it makes sense at all if it's
not about Jesus. None of it makes sense. You
walk into a cafe full of people and you think,
why are all these people really happy to see
me? Like they're high -fiving me and they're
hugging me. I don't even like to be hugged or
touched. Like these people are over the top excited.
What's the deal? And now they're offering me
coffee and hot chocolate and Crumpy's Donuts.
I want to pay for it, but I can't. Like, what's
the catch, man? What's happening here? Then you
walk with them into the auditorium where worship
has already begun. They begin to look around,
and they're wondering, why is that person passionately
singing to the ceiling? And this person over
here, they're weeping. What is going on? And
who are they waving to? I mean, what is happening?
Is there someone in the rafters? I mean, what?
And then there's this guy. He walks out in jeans
and a t -shirt. And wait, he has tattoos. I thought
he was supposed to be wearing a robe. Like, what's
going on? Friends, none of it makes sense if
we're not focused on Jesus. And I believe this
letter is a reminder to our community of faith.
That's right, to us. We don't want to be like
this church that started well, is doing well,
but deviated from it because of what our culture
told us to mix into our faith, which leads us
to our first truth this morning. We need to focus
on Jesus. Continuing Paul's opening prayer in
Colossians 1, 9 through 10, we ask God to give
you complete knowledge of his will and to give
you spiritual wisdom and understanding. then
the way you live will always honor and please
the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind
of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as
you learn to know God better and better. See,
Paul makes it very clear in his opening prayer.
Our faith, our life, our hope is built on Jesus.
The author of Hebrew writes it this way in chapter
12, verses 1 through 2. Therefore, we are surrounded
by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life
of faith. Strip off every weight that slows us
down, especially the sin that so easily trips
us up. Let us run with endurance the race God
has set before us. We do this. We live our lives
by keeping our eyes on Jesus. See, we have to
keep our eyes on Jesus. We have to fix our attention
on Jesus. And let's be honest, we all have moments
where our eyes get deviated off of what is most
important. And I want you to ask yourself, what
is it that has taken your focus off of Jesus
today? Is it the busyness of life? The rampant
do, do, do culture? Could it be that you're just
distracted in this life? You got a lot going
on with your family, with your sports, with your
business, with social media, and you've taken
your eyes off Jesus. Maybe it's just worldliness.
You know, our world is enticing. We have money,
and we can make more money, and we can get more
stuff and fame and followers, and it tempts us.
It lures us away from our focus being on Jesus.
It could be pride, the subtle idea that we can
do life without God. We find a little success.
We go back to school. We get a degree. People
praise us. And immediately we begin to think,
it's all me. I did it. See, pride pulls our focus
off Jesus. Maybe for some of you it's doubt.
A lie is whispered into your ear and we begin
to question who God really is. Where is he in
this difficult season I'm walking through? See,
it draws our eyes away from Jesus. For some of
you, it's religion. It's the ceremonies, the
rituals, the duty that I must perform in order
for God to love me. For others, it's relationships.
It could be a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a husband,
a wife, family, friends. When we prioritize people
over God, it takes our eyes off Jesus. And Paul,
he's challenging us today, stop making your relationship
with God about all these other things. We have
to remain focused on Jesus, Colossians 1 .23.
But you must continue to believe this truth and
stand firmly in it. Notice, don't drift away
from the assurance you received when you heard
the good news. The good news has been preached
all over the world, and I, Paul, have appointed
as God's servant to proclaim it, which leads
us to our simple, practical steps. How do we
remain focused on Jesus Christ? Well, Paul outlines
it for us. He writes a beautiful passage of Scripture
that we're going to discuss today from verses
15 through 20. Now, in church history, this section
has been called the Christ hymn or the Christ
song. And many scholars believe that this passage
either became a worship song in the first century
or was a popular song, hymn, or poem that the
early church would recite. And then Paul writes
it into this passage to put our focus back on
Jesus, which leads us to our first step. We have
to recognize Jesus as creator. We recognize Jesus
as creator. Colossians 1, 15 through 16, listen
to the beautiful words written by Paul. Christ
is the visible image of the invisible God. Pause.
You read that sentence and you're like, wait
a minute, I've got to pause there for a second.
If you've ever wondered what God looks like,
read the Gospels. That's all we have to do. Now,
some of you are saying, well, I can't see Jesus.
He lived 2 ,000 years ago. Yeah, but you can
read about him, and history knows that he was
a real, living, breathing person. He existed
before anything was created and is supreme over
all creation. For through him, God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made
the things we can see and the things we can't
see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities
in the unseen world. Everything was created through
him and for him. Church, Jesus is our creator.
He is our originator of everything we see and
experience. It all started by him. And this passage
is for him. And it's interesting. Quite often
we look at the news. We get overwhelmed with
the world. We get stressed out with what's happening
in our country. We get stressed out with wars
and sickness and all the things that bombard
us in our modern day social media. And we have
to realize, friends, Jesus created it all anyway.
He's in control of it. And if we pause and we
take a walk, or a bike ride along the canal and
we see a beautiful bird or a wind blowing in
our face or on a beach and we see a sunrise and
a sunset, we recognize that this world and all
its beauty was created for us to live in. It's
unreal to think of the universe that we live
in, and Paul points the people, he points them
back to God who created it. Paul writes this
in Romans 11, for everything comes from him,
everything, and exists by his power and is attended
for his glory, all glory to him forever, amen.
See, God didn't just create the world. He created
our worlds. He created our life and wants to
be in control of it so we can experience and
walk in abundance. Anything. that is good in
our lives, comes from God. Originated with God
is maintained through God. I mean, I still remember
the day, Justin, I was invited to be a part of
a missions trip in Kenya. As soon as I was asked,
I knew we were supposed to go, but we prayed
about it, and sure enough, we said yes. And being
a part of that trip opened my eyes to God's greatness.
standing at what is called the Rift Valley. We
would look out over thousands of miles of African
land, and God's wonder and creation just overwhelmed
me as I began to tear up. I thought to myself,
here I am standing on the other side of the world,
22 -hour plane fight that I'll probably never
do again, a kid. That grew up in Hagerstown,
Maryland. Whose father didn't want to leave the
state. Was hard headed and struggled just to
get out of the county. And here I am standing
in Africa. Seeing, witnessing, experiencing God's
glory and animals. And it wasn't anything I did.
It wasn't anything I said. God put me there.
Led me there. So that I would experience abundance.
so that we would change lives halfway around
the world. We would build kitchens, and now my
family would experience what it means to trust
in God. For those of you who don't know, check
out this image. This image here is an image of
my son and his students. My oldest son, Isaac,
now lives in Kenya, is a secondary STEM teacher
there, science, technology, engineering, and
math. And he is the first. He is the first non
-African to ever step foot in that village. Now,
Isaac has established and is establishing a track
team and a basketball team for his students.
Pretty cool, huh? Now, here's where you come
in. Isaac shared with us that they have no shoes.
They play basketball barefoot. They run track
in their loafers that the school gives them.
And he wanted to know if we could send some used
sneakers to Kenya. Do you think we could do that?
So if you're a lady or a woman and your foot
size is 7 1⁄2 to 10 and you have an extra pair
of sneakers, bring them in next Sunday. If you're
a gentleman... and your foot size is 8 to 10,
or especially 9 to 10, if you could bring in,
and I'm not asking for just one pair. If all
of us brought in one pair, we would have hundreds
of pairs to not just give to the students, they
can give them to the whole village. Why not?
You know why? Because God is in control, and
God desires that we make a difference. And if
we would develop the type of gratitude and appreciation
for all that God gives us, does through us, you
know what would happen? We would be full of smiles,
laugh. We would be people that support and encourage
others to come experience it with us. And many
would just be drawn to our shadows. But so often
we get distracted. And we forget that Jesus is
the creator of my world and this world. It's
not me. It's not us. It's him working in us because
he created us, leads us, provides for us, and
loves us. And if you're here this morning and
you feel like God doesn't love you or value you,
that is a lie in Jesus' name. And you need to
stop believing it. Well, Chris, it's not that
easy. Yeah, it is. Stop doubting your value because
you're not the one that determines it. Neither
does your ex or your boyfriend or your abusive
parents or our culture because our value is determined
by what our creator says we are worth. And what
does our creator say we are worth? We are worth
the price of his son dying on the cross. That
is how much you are worth. And we must remember,
His son, Hebrews 1 .3 tells us, radiates God's
own glory and expresses the very character of
God. So whenever you doubt your worth or your
abilities in God, listen, believe what Ephesians
2 .10 says about you. You are a masterpiece.
You were created new in Christ Jesus so you can
do good things he planned for you to do. God
says he formed you in your mother's womb. You
are not an accident. He says there's a purpose
in your life. God gave it all to you, and he
gave it to us by nailing his son to a cross so
that we can have a relationship with him. Stop
doubting, church, and embrace abundant life that
is given to us by our creator, which leads us
to our next step. We rely on Jesus as sustainer.
Colossians chapter 1, 17 says, again, Paul writing
these magnificent words. He existed before anything
else. And notice, he holds all creation together.
See, Jesus starts to work in our life. When we
declare that he is Lord of our life. But he also
sustains the work in our life. And Paul is correcting
the church saying you started in faith. You were
following Jesus. But now you've deviated. You
got sidetracked. You allowed for the culture,
the world to sneak into your relationship with
me. And that's not God's best. And I want us
all to just pause. And I want us to think about
the earth just for a second. The earth that we
live on. is sustained by God. How do I know that?
Well, I did a little research this week. There
was a specific zone for our planet and where
it is in our universe, and it's called the habitable
zone. Our earth is in this zone where it's not
too cold and it's not too hot. It's actually
perfect for life. And when you do the research
and realize how perfect it is for life, you suddenly
realize that God's hands on it, because if it
was 1 % to the left or 1 % to the right, you
know what would happen? There would be no life
on this planet. If it was a little bit closer
to the sun, we would all burn up. If it was a
little bit further away, we would all freeze,
which we understand what that feels like. If
it was not tilted the exact way that it's tilted
on its axis, we wouldn't have the season to sustain
life. See, God is the one holding this all together.
And it's not an accident. This is not circumstantial.
It is by the grace of God that we're living on
this planet. Because God is a divine creator
who positioned life perfectly to sustain life
and allow for us, his creation, the glory of
his creation to flourish and prosper. Now scientists
tell us that our world, think about this, it's
going to blow your mind. Scientists tell us that
our world is spinning at 1 ,000 miles an hour.
Like we are literally spinning in a circle 1
,000 miles an hour, yet here we are living, breathing,
functioning, worshiping, not even realizing that
our world is spinning. And then circling around
the sun. Every day that we wake up, the earth
has spun around again, and we should say, God,
thank you for sustaining it. Thank you for sustaining
me. Thank you for giving me another day. Everything
that we have is being held together by the sustaining
power of God. Hebrews chapter one, verse three
says, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses
the very character of God. Notice this line,
he sustains everything by the mighty power of
his command. And anytime we feel like life is
falling apart, we're overwhelmed, we're stressed,
It might be the fact that the sustaining power
of God has been removed from that situation.
Let me say it this way. Anything that we need
held together, we need to make sure that Jesus
is involved in it. And if something is falling
apart in our lives, it's probably because we
pushed Jesus out of it. And when we push Jesus
out of it, church, the sustaining power is no
longer there. Your marriage won't be sustained
when Jesus is not in the middle of it. That's
the truth. And some of you, we are launching
our marriage class at the end of this month,
and it's not guilt, it's not shame. Your marriage
could be okay, but it certainly can be better.
Your marriage may be failing. Let's fix it. So
I want to encourage you, if you want to be a
part of the marriage class, stop by the Welcome
Hub and get signed up, because it's an opportunity
for your marriages to flourish. And see, the
purpose of our lives will not be sustained when
we make it about other things instead of Jesus.
Our friendships, our joy, our business, our career
won't be sustained when we make it about other
things instead of Jesus. He is the glue that
holds life together. And let me say it this way.
Jesus is not some cheap Elmer's school glue.
He is gorilla glue that can't and won't be separated.
And when Jesus is the focus of our life, he sustains
us. And when it feels like we're in over our
head, God is under your feet. He's there to support
you, care for you, and love on you. And you may
be here this morning and feeling overwhelmed.
Let me encourage you. Jesus will sustain you.
Psalm 55, 22. Cast your cares on the Lord and
he will sustain you. He will never let the righteous
be shaken. When we give up control to God, he
sustains us in our weakness, which leads us to
our third step. We have to submit to Jesus. As
king. We have to submit to Jesus as king. Colossians
1 .18. Christ is also the head of the church.
Which is his body. He is the beginning. Supreme.
Over all who rise from the dead. So he is first
in everything. And Paul challenges us right here.
He says put Jesus first in our lives. And that
word supremacy. Or supreme. When it's written
in this context there. Is a verb. And it means
to be first. Or to have preeminence. Meaning,
we go to Jesus above all other things. So what
I want you to think about today is this. I want
you to think about your life, and I want you
to think about what holds your life together.
And for many of us, we look at this as different
examples in our life. We have health, we have
marriage, we have children, we have relationships,
we have finances, and we have a career. And which
one of these would you say holds your life together?
Maybe for some of you, you say it's your marriage.
He sustains it. me. He takes care for me. He
provides for me. Or she loves me. She makes me
a better person. And listen, I want to encourage
you, all that is true and good. I love marriage.
I support marriage. I love my wife. But as soon
as a fight creeps into it, that can certainly
crumble and fall away. And if we put it at the
center, we have to be careful not to make it
a god. For some of you, it's your children, right?
And you say, oh, they're my world. They're everything
to me. Well, my response to you is this. If they're
your world, be careful because one day they're
going to move out. And one day they may move
to Africa, which will really rock your world.
There is no promises when it comes to our children.
Maybe for you, it's your career. Oh, I need my
career, Chris. My career provides for my wife,
provides for my kids, allows me to pay my bills,
allows for me to be successful and to be acknowledged
in this culture. Which again, my encouragement
to you is, what happens when your career changes?
What happens when your career ends? What happens
when you get laid off? Which Paul is telling
us, no, it's got to be Jesus. Jesus has got to
be at the center of everything that we do when
it comes to life. But let's look at what the
church in Colossae was doing. See, the church
of Colossae, they started this way. They put
Jesus at the center. They were excited, but then
they allowed other things to creep in. Say, for
example, it's your health. Say your health or
their health was struggling and health went to
the forefront of their focus, right? They begin
to diet. They begin to take medication. They
make sure they look right. They make sure they
eat right. They do exercise. They do everything
right. And Jesus kind of gets pushed to the side,
right? But here's the reality when it comes to
our health. Every day we wake up, something's
going to hurt a little bit more. Because we get
older and our bodies are going to break down.
And we're not promised anything when it comes
to life. But when we focus too much on health
and we push Jesus out and our focus is just on
health, we begin to lose track of what is most
important. Or say for you, it's not your health.
Say it's your friendships, right? You value your
friendships. And because you have these friendships
and you want to hang out with people and you
want to spend time with them, you push Jesus
out of the center. And because of those friendships
that you love and you want to be with people
and hang out with people and high -five people,
but some of those friends aren't in a relationship
with Jesus. And you begin to doubt and you begin
to question your faith because they're leading
you down a wrong road because you made Jesus
a Sunday morning thing, a quiet thing, and you're
not bold in your faith yet. And you push Jesus
out. And Paul says, no, stop pushing Jesus out,
put him back in the center where he needs to
be, because when we put him in the center where
he needs to be, everything works out. That's
why Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6, 33, seek the
kingdom of God above all else, live righteously,
and he's going to give you everything you need.
You know what that means? We see God, Jesus first,
he's going to provide. For all these needs. I
love the way that C .S. Lewis says it. He says
it this way. And this is our quote of the week.
Put first things first. And second things are
thrown in. Put second things first. We lose both
the first. And the second thing. The things that
make you go. When we put our focus on the other
things, we lose everything. And Paul is reminding
his church, put your focus back on what is most
important. And that's Jesus. Colossians 119.
For God, in all his fullness, was pleased to
live in Christ. And through him, God reconciled
everything. Everyone say everything. To himself.
See, Jesus reconciles all things in our life
back to him. You know why? Because he has the
power to move in and sustain every area of your
life, which leads us to our final step. See,
when we make Jesus as king, then we can embrace
the peace that's found in him. Colossians 1 .20,
he made peace with everything. In heaven and
on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.
And in a world that's constantly pulling us into
anxiety, fear, and doubt, Jesus offers something
radically different. He says, I am going to give
you a peace that does not depend on your circumstances,
John 14, 27. I am leaving you with a gift. Let's
all open that gift. Peace of mind and heart.
And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot
give. So don't be troubled. Or afraid. Or doubt.
Or anxiety. Or fear. And you know what that tells
us right away? Peace is not fragile. It is not
borrowed. Peace is from God. The world's peace,
what is it? It's temporary. It says, yeah, you're
going to have peace when your bills are paid.
You'll have peace when you're healed and that
diagnosis changes. Yeah, you'll have peace when
the fight's over. But you know what Jesus says?
He says, just come to me now. Come be in my presence.
Not after the storm passes, but while the waves
are crashing all around you. And we see that
clearly when Jesus is asleep in the boat while
the storm is raging, Mark chapter 4. But soon
a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking
into the boat. It began to fill with water. Jesus
was sleeping at the back of the boat with his
head on a cushion. Talk about specifics. The
disciples. Don't you care that we're going to
drown? What did the disciples do? They panicked.
They were panicking. Jesus, rest. He's resting.
Why? Because peace is not the absence of trouble.
Peace is the presence of God. It's trusting that
God is in control. See, when we invite Jesus
into our boat, into our life, we may still face
storms, but we won't face them alone. Embracing
the peace of Jesus. Church, it requires surrender.
Philippians chapter 4. Don't worry about anything.
Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what
you need. Thank him for all he's done. Then you
will experience. There it is. God's peace. Which
exceeds anything we can understand. His peace
will guard your hearts and minds as you live
in Christ Jesus. And notice what it says there.
It says guard. See, God's peace stands watch
over us when our thoughts are running wild. So
today, the invitation is simple. Stop striving.
Stop carrying a weight on your shoulders that
you were never meant to carry and rest in him.
And he doesn't promise that it's going to make
your life easier, but he promises a steady life
of abundance. And in him, church, that's more
than enough. Will you stand with me? So I was
praying about how to close this gathering. I
felt compelled that So many of us, each and every
week, we walk into this place and we have a weight
on our shoulders. It could be worry, doubt, fear,
stress, anxiety. It could be finances. It could
be your marriage. It could be a relationship.
It could be anything. And quite often when we
bring those things into here, we just carry them
in and then we carry them out. And God says,
no, will you lay them down today? Will you trust
me? Will you lay him down? Will you put me first?
Will you stop focusing on all the other stuff
in your life and put me first and center on me?
And when you center on me, my peace, which passes
all understanding, the Bible tells us, will fall
on us. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna
invite the Holy Spirit to come. I'm gonna ask
the Holy Spirit to reveal anything in us that
we are carrying in our own strength on our shoulders.
And then I'm going to walk you through a prayer
where you choose as an act of your will to lay
it down. And then I'm going to pray a prayer
of abundance and peace over your life. Because
I believe God is going to set you free today.
So Holy Spirit come. Open our hearts, our minds
to see your truth this morning in anything that
we are worried about, stressed about, overwhelmed
about. That we've put in as a priority over you.
Now, church, let's pray together. I choose by
an act of my will to lay down. There you go.
Lay it down. Lay it down. Say, forgive me, God.
I put you first. I put you at the center of my
life. There you go. Now I'm going to pray for
the peace of God to come. Holy Spirit, come.
Release your peace. into this gathering, God.
I just pray that each and every heart would sense
and know that you are here with them. That your
rest, your joy, your abundance, your love would
be released into each and every person. That
we don't leave this place carrying a burden,
but we laid it down at your feet and now free
to walk with you. In Jesus' name, amen. Now there
are several, hold on, there are several words
of knowledge I want to share with you before
we go and then we're going to pray a prayer.
If you have left ankle pain because of arthritis,
you have headaches caused by the nerves behind
your eyes, you have left hip pain, you have pain
in your jaw on the right side. If any of those
are you, they're pretty specific. Our prayer
team will be on my left and my right. We're going
to pray for you and believe that God will heal
you. But for the rest of you, we pray a simple
prayer here every single Sunday at every single
gathering. We believe that God brings people
in our midst that are distant and far from God
and that want to meet him for the first time
and come home and be welcomed into our family.
And we all pray this prayer together, believing
that God's going to set people free. Amen? So
if that's you, pray with us now. Jesus, I'm broken.
I'm full of doubt, shame, regret, sin. Change
me. Forgive me. I believe you're God's son. I
believe you died for me. I believe you're alive
today. Make me new. Set me free. Fill me with
your spirit. Help me, God, to serve others. In
Jesus' name, amen. Now, if you prayed that prayer
for the first time, see me. Tell me, hug me,
do something so I can get you baptized, so I
can give you some next steps on how to follow
him. Don't forget, before we leave, hold on,
hold on, chill, chill. It's cold out there, dude.
You want to be in the warmth. Start with wise
today right after this. If you want to meet with
me, go to the welcome home. Holy Spirit class
tonight, six o 'clock, child care provided, right?
God bless you guys. Now go and be the hands and
feet of Jesus. Amen.