11/10/19 Col. 1:9-20 “Jesus Gives Us Everything”

08 Nov 11/10/19 Col. 1:9-20 “Jesus Gives Us Everything”

11/10/19     Col. 1:9-20      “Jesus Gives Us Everything”

I think that I have mentioned this before.  We live in a world where just about anything is at our fingertips.  I remember when something we called TV dinners first came out.  It was revolutionary for many moms.  Before this everything was made from scratch.  Now all we had to do is heat the oven and presto!  Dinner!  Microwave ovens were still 20+ years in the future.  Today we can go to the grocery store and buy just about anything, within reason, that is ready made; just heat it.  And I guess there is nothing wrong with this.  However, this is not unlike our faith.  You may not realize this but you can have just about anything you ask for in Jesus Christ if you just ask!  This is because Jesus loves all of you.  However, we all know it doesn’t always work like we want.  Two things have to happen for this to work for us.  First we have to be totally obedient to Jesus and secondly it has to be in line with who Jesus is.  He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.  That is what we are going look at today as we see what this passage in Colossians is trying to tell us.

I think that we have become very lax in our worship of Jesus Christ.  There are many people who feel that there are many ways to heaven which could end in them being eternally wrong.  Much of this comes from faulty media.  I think we all know who Willie Nelson is.  I even like his music.  However, he is into a combination of all religions.  He says, “We’re enabling people to discover God themselves, maybe through Jesus, maybe through Buddha, maybe through a number of ways.”  To me, this paints Willie to be a very lost person.

But before we get to hard on him let’s look at ourselves.  Our job is to call people to Christ, to faith through repentance and submission to the supremacy of Jesus Christ.  But often times we get stuck in places we like but it’s not where Jesus wants us.  For example, Jesus wants me to have a happy marriage.  That is fine but that isn’t the goal.  I will get a happy marriage if I’m obedient.  Or maybe you think Jesus tells you to be stress free.  Once again that is ok but that is not your goal in life.  Our goal is to make more Christians and that in turn will give us a lot of other great things.  All other teachings are false teachings.  They might look good but they are really not.  The people of the book of Colossians were like this.  They almost had it but not quite.

Paul knows this so he starts out at a place that I have preached about many, many times.  Paul is telling them that he and his friends are praying for these people.  Paul is praying for these people to have spiritual wisdom and understanding.  They have been slipping.  They live in a culture where they are misunderstood.  It would be very easy to just lapse back into their old ways.  Remember that these are 1^st generation Christians.  No one has ever done what they are doing before.  We all know that life is hard.  We also all know what it’s like to slip back once in a while or maybe all the time.  Paul is telling them to come back to prayer in a very gentle way.  No one is upset with them if they just turn back.

I’m going to begin by telling you the same thing today.  If for some reason you seem to be out of sorts with you spiritual life, then go to Jesus in prayer.  This isn’t rocket science.  You can do it.  You cannot be a successful Christian without a prayer life.  I find that this begins in the Scripture.  There are hundreds of plans for reading Scripture on a daily basis.  You can even just start in the New Testament and read a few verses every day or in the Old Testament.  There are also many, many devotionals to help you with this.  But most importantly you need to find a time and place to do this.

I find time in the morning and before retiring for the night.  These are good times for me because they are quiet.  Some people will pray with their morning coffee.  The point is that you need a regular time to get together to talk with the Lord.  You may not realize it, but God made you so that you would talk to Him.  Every person in the world has this innate desire to talk to God.  We also all have a spot in our hearts where God can live.  You see, you weren’t made to be successful in business.  You weren’t made so you could have families.  You were made so you could be a child of God who goes to Him in prayer all the time.  He will tell you what He requires of you.  He has made it that simple and these people and maybe some of you have forgotten this.  And just as a little sidebar to all this, you will never feel better than when you have a good prayer time with God, the Father.

And why is this?  We need to understand that the devil is the lord of this physical world.  He is in charge of control of things around us.  God gave us free will to be able to cast Satan out of our lives but how many of you actually do this?  Unfortunately we like to believe Satan when he tells us that we can skip church and it won’t matter.  We believe that we don’t have to take our children to Sunday school.  And then you wonder why things are so bad in this country.  Some people send mom or dad with the kids to church and then go golfing or shopping. What an example you set for your kids!  And then we wonder why we are raising a generation which has no respect!  I could go on and on with this but I hope you understand me.  When Satan tells you to do something and you do, you will not feel very good about yourself.

But don’t get too down on yourself.  Jesus has come to rescue you from all this terrible stuff.  He wants you to live in the land of the light and to stay out of Satan’s filthy darkness.  You see, when Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t just do this so that we could have a nice story to tell.  He did this so you wouldn’t have to put up with Satan’s garbage if you didn’t want to.  In other words, it’s your choice as to whether you live in the darkness of this world or in the loving light of Jesus Christ.  All you have to do is confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to be Lord and Savior of your life.  Then He will always be there to help you live in the light.  If you don’t know Jesus personally, then you are doomed to darkness.  Now you may think that is ok in this world, but it isn’t, plus it has horrendous consequences for eternity.  If you don’t know Jesus, then your eternal life will be in darkness.  You will never even see your best friend who is also in hell.  You will never see anyone because it’s too dark to see anything.  Jesus is the only way out of this quagmire.  He is the king of redemption and forgiveness.

But Paul is just getting warmed up.  They, you are to pray all the time.  The reason that you pray lies in who Jesus is.  He is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation.  Just think about that for a minute.  Jesus is the image of God and we are the image of Jesus.  Logic tells us that we must also be the image of God.  New Age followers say that you can achieve this if you follow them.  However, you already have achieved this by just believing that Jesus is God.  You don’t have to believe all the goofy things they do.  You only need Jesus, the image of God.

Not only that, but Jesus is the firstborn of all creation.  That means that Jesus has always been there.  All things were created by Him.  You cannot look anywhere and see something that He hasn’t made.  Oh, we come along and help Him make things like cars and houses and other things that we consider to be man-made.  But Jesus is the ultimate maker, creator.  If you try to tell a non-believer this, they will disagree.  They/we have this little thing called pride where we like to take the credit.  Next time you try to take credit for something, give thanks to Jesus instead.  When you start to see the world with this type of vision, things will begin to fall together better for your life and the lives of those around you.

Not only were all things created by Jesus but they were created for Him.  Everything was made for His glory and His glory alone.  That is why when we come to worship; we can only worship Jesus and no one else.  He should get all the glory.  You/I should get none.  Now that may sound a little extreme but here’s the deal.  If you give all the glory to Jesus, if you give Him every part of your life, He will in turn give you love, hope, peace and wisdom in return.  He will give you so much more but the point is that He will give you all you ask for in return.  That is how Jesus works.  It is a wonderful way to live your life.  You just put all trust in Him with no thoughts of any sort of reward and Jesus will reward you richly.  That is a promise and I have seen it happen many times.

There is a line here that we like to forget about.  In verse 16 says that all things visible and invisible were made by Him.  All thrones, powers, rulers and authorities were made by God.  This means that Jesus is neither a Democrat nor a Republican.  As a matter of fact, it means that He puts both in power.  If you hate the present president, then you are not being very Christian because God put Him in power for a purpose and we had better get used to it instead of whining every time we get a new president which we like to do.

Jesus is all this and much more.  Jesus is the fabric that holds everything together.  All things and people are connected.  If you know a Christian in Jamestown who knows one in Oregon who knows one in China who knows one in Liberia, then you are connected to all these including the one in Liberia.  You all have Jesus in common.  Jesus made all things so that they are interdependent.  They are all connected.  Jesus made all things in the world connected to one another, plants, animals and humans.  That is just part of what Jesus does.  Without Jesus, there would be no life and that’s a fact, Jack.

Jesus is also the head of the church which is not a building but the people.  If you go someplace and Jesus isn’t the center of worship, then it isn’t part of His church.  We have let things go so far today that we try to worship anything rather than Jesus.  Here’s what I mean.  We do mission projects and that is a great thing to do.  But if you are doing mission projects for the sake of the project instead of Jesus, then you are spinning your wheels.  The same can be said about Sunday school, church giving, and trustee projects.  An easy way to tell if you are off track is to ask yourself this question.  Do I begin and end my project or class with a prayer to Jesus?  If you don’t then I suggest you get on your knees a little more in your personal time.  All these things we have talked about are important especially if they are done in the name of Jesus.

And all this leads to the last thing as to why Christ is the King and only King.  God was pleased to have all His fullness in Jesus.  In other words, Jesus is God as this says and the Bible tells us in many other places.  It is God’s ability to separate Himself into 3 that makes Jesus able to carry the sins of the world on His shoulders to His death on the cross.  He did this for each one of you.  He did this for those who don’t believe yet.  All will believe some day.  The second you die you will know Jesus and that is a good thing and that is why you are to be making disciples of all people.  Jesus is not only God of the living but He is also the king of the dead.  He is king of those who are in heaven, on earth and in hell.

The trouble comes in people who think they are better than God.  Anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus believes deep down that they are better than God and they don’t need God.  The truth is that you cannot get to heaven without going through Jesus.  The only way you can love is through Jesus.  Otherwise you will only lust or like but not love.  You cannot have peace except through Jesus.  You cannot have joy unless you know Jesus. I could go on and on with this.

That is what Paul is trying to remind the ancients about today and I think we need a little reminder also.  If you don’t personally know Jesus, then you have no chance in life.  You will go about thinking your money or your power will get you through.  Or worse yet you will spend your whole life seeking money or power or any other worldly desire when you can have it all in an instant.  There is nothing you can’t have if you know Jesus Christ.

Bill Bright tells the story of the famous oil field in Texas called Yates Pool.  It seems that during the depression a man named Yates owned a sheep farm.  Mr. Yates was having a terrible time to make ends meet and was in danger of losing his farm.  This was quite common in those tough times.  He and his family had little money for clothes or food so the family lived on a government subsidy.  Mr. Yates was greatly troubled by the situation.  One day a seismographic crew from an oil company came and told him there might be oil on his land.  They asked permission to drill a wildcat well on his land and he signed a lease agreement.  At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day.  Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.  And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief or welfare. A multimillionaire was living in poverty; the problem? He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it.

This is the spiritual problem Paul was referring to today and it’s a problem in our modern times.  People live in spiritual poverty while they are standing right next to Jesus and don’t know it.  It is up to you to bring Christ to the surface and let people discover Him.  They will be eternally grateful plus they will have the best possible life in this world.  That is what Jesus will do for all of us.  Thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.