Its NOT About You

It’s Not About You

Week 1 Text: Topic(s): Jesus, Preeminence, Reconciliation

Application Point: The best life lived is the one with Jesus at the center.

Intro. 

As we move into the holiday season we also move into a selfish season filled with depression, anxiety, comparison. Because we run to flesh, and this season has been turned into a flesh life, self life season. What are you getting for christmas, Well I want this and I want that and I want more.

The store is crowded and you’re waiting on that good parking spot but right as you’re about to turn in a perfect storm of problems arise…A mother with a stroller walks in between you and said parking spot, you wait and as you pull in someone for the other direction zips in and we have a Tawanda fried green tomatoes situation. 

did he get you that ring? did you get him that gun?

Did he go to Jared’s….no.not unless your taking about the bayou grill. 

Big Idea of the Series: News flash: you are not the center of the universe, and that’s good news! The world is not about us. Rather, we are a part of a bigger story—God’s story. Between today and after the holidays We are going to explore how Jesus deserves his place at the center of the believer’s life, how the believer can cultivate humility, utilize their God-given giftings, and weather difficult seasons.

Big Idea of the Message: Jesus surpasses all others, and it is through him that the big-picture plan to reconcile all things comes to fruition.

Application Point: The best life lived is the one with Jesus at the center.

Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

Who is Jesus Christ

Colossians 1:15–20 NLT

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 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. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 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. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

In this passage the apostle Paul is laying out who Christ is.

 He is “the image of God” (v. 15),

the one by whom “all things were created” (v. 16),

and the head of the church (v. 18).

He is “before all things, and in him all things hold together” (v. 17).

He is superior above all (v. 18),

he is God (v. 19),

and it is through him that all things are reconciled into rightness “by the blood of his cross” (v. 20).

It is important to remember that Paul is asserting the truth that Christ is God.

Its important to see the depth of what Paul writes , “As God he speaks of him, v. 15–17.

(1.) He is the image of the invisible God.

Not as man was made in the image of God

Genesis 1:27 NLT

27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

), in his natural faculties and dominion over the creatures: no, he is the express image of his person, . … (2.) He is the first-born of every creature. Not that he is himself a creature; for [he is] … begotten before all the creation, or before any creature was made, which is the scripture-way of representing eternity. … (3.) He is so far from beginning himself a creature that he is the Creator. … (4.) He was before all things. He had a being before the world was made, before the beginning of time, and therefore from all eternity. … (5.) By him all things consist. They not only subsist in their beings, but consist in their order and dependences. He not only created them all at first, but it is by the word of his power that they are still upheld, ” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on ,https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Col/Col_001.cfm?a=1108015). Jesus is the God-man who accomplishes God’s plan.

not as man in his natural faculties and dominion over the creatures:

no, he is the express image of his person,

Hebrews 1:3 NLT

3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

(2.) He is the first-born of every creature. Not that he is himself is a creature; for [he is] … begotten before all the creation, or before any creature was made, which is the scripture-way of representing eternity. …

(3.) He is so far from beginning or being himself a creature that he is the Creator. …

(4.) He was before all things. He had a being before the world was made, before the beginning of time, and therefore from all eternity. …

. … (2.) He is the first-born of every creature. Not that he is himself a creature; for [he is] … begotten before all the creation, or before any creature was made, which is the scripture-way of representing eternity. … (3.) He is so far from beginning himself a creature that he is the Creator. … (4.) He was before all things. He had a being before the world was made, before the beginning of time, and therefore from all eternity. … (5.) By him all things consist. They not only subsist in their beings, but consist in their order and dependences. He not only created them all at first, but it is by the word of his power that they are still upheld, ” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on ,https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Col/Col_001.cfm?a=1108015). Jesus is the God-man who accomplishes God’s plan.

He had a being before the world was made, before the beginning of time, and therefore from all eternity. …

(5.) By him all things consist. They not only subsist in their beings, but consist in their order and dependences.

He not only created them all at first, but it is by the word of his power that they are still upheld, ”

so basically

Jesus is the God-man who accomplishes God’s plan.

now that we know who he is

2. What need of a King

Through Jesus, every person can experience reconciliation with God.

This is something we could not achieve on our own, and it is not something for which we can take credit

Ephesians 2:8–9 NLT

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

The believer deeply understands that in matters of salvation we really are not in control, capable, or strong enough to overcome our greatest vices and supply our greatest need.

We absolutely require something, someone, outside of ourselves to be the sustainer and center of life.

The believer deeply understands that in matters of salvation we really are not in control, capable, or dogged enough to overcome our greatest vices and supply our greatest need. We absolutely require something, someone, outside of ourselves to be the sustainer and center of life. And there is such a one! That is good news.

And there is such a one! That is good news.

3. The Coup

The definition is: a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power.

It is embarrassing how easily we believers move from total dependence on God for salvation to usurping his role as Lord in our lives.

We lose sight of the fact that what is going on in the world is much bigger than what we will see and experience.

Even at our best, as we pursue leaving a godly legacy, knowing that life is eternal, we can still be self-centered instead of God-centered.

We talk about people having a center of the universe mentality.

“I wake up this way. I bet you do too.

We wake up in self-sovereignty mode.

Then we get frustrated because we keep running into people who think they’re the center of the universe.

It’s frustrating.

What a splendid mercy, even if a severe one, then, when Jesus gives us a hard shove out of our own makeshift thrones,

and all the little planets we’ve set in orbit around us fall down—thump. thump. thump. thump. thump”

4. Give away the control

.To most of us, it probably seems there is rarely a time in modern life when everything is under control.

Perhaps we are all going too fast, rather than not fast enough.

When life seems to move too fast, we often grasp for control of something, anything, to help us feel like we have some sort of power in a world spinning at dizzying speed.

This passage reminds us that we do not have to carry the burden of control, but instead can practice giving up control to the one who was designed for the task.

We can actively give Christ the reins through prayer, journaling, evaluating our motivations, and being in fellowship with other believers.

As we do so, we can pursue being a part of God’s story instead of the main character.

closing

illustration.

In the movie Bruce Almighty, a struggling newsman, Bruce, complains to God about how bad God is doing at his job.

So God gives Bruce a week to be God.

As God expected, things don’t go well, and everything ends up in chaos. Bruce cries out to God, and when God shows up, he chuckles, stating the obvious:

being God is not as easy as we might think.

Bruce replies, “They are all out of control! It’s mayhem. I don’t know what to do.”

Bruce tells God that he received so many requests that he “just gave them all what they wanted,” to which God answers, “Yeah, but since when does anyone have a clue about what they want?”

Our humanity hinders us from truly seeing what God can accomplish in the good, the difficult, the momentous, and the mundane.

When we can humbly submit to God’s will and rest in his goodness, we no longer have to carry it all on our shoulders. We can be content, knowing that in Christ our burden is light

Matthew 11:30 NLT

30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

This word study video from The Bible Project explores the big picture idea of peace (v. 20) and how we experience and actively participate in it https://youtu.be/oLYORLZOaZE.

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