Set Free from Deadly Distractions

And now grab your message notes that look like this. They're in the middle of the bulletins that hopefully you got handed to you when you came in. As we continue our series in the Book of Colossians, that's a book of the New Testament, and we call the series set free because that's the theme of the Book of Colossians. Also, if you could open your Bibles to the Book of Colossians. Now, you may not have brought a Bible with you, but you can get brown TLC Bibles in the seatbacks right in front of you in your pews. And Colossians starts there on page 833, and over in the venue service watching us on video in Munskey Hall, that's page 807.

And while you're getting out your notes and opening up your Bibles, let me tell you about a legend. There's a fascinating story that surrounds the construction of the great Taj Mahal in India. The man who built it, Shah Jahan, constructed it as a memorial for his beloved wife. Her simple wooden coffin was placed in the center of the property as construction began all around it. But as the weeks turned into months and the months turned into years, the Shah and his builders began to focus more and more on the details of the project, the intricacies of their beautiful plans, and the purpose for the building was nearly forgotten.

And then, the legend goes, that as the Shah was touring the construction site one day, he tripped over a wooden box and in anger ordered his workers to throw the box out, losing for all time his wife's remains. Because little did he know, that was her coffin. That was the thing that inspired the whole project in the first place and now it was lost, though the building remained. You might say, well, that's got to be just a legend. Nobody knows whether that legend is true or not, although it's centuries old. But you may be thinking to yourself, that's incredible. I mean, could somebody possibly build a temple and forget why? Could somebody possibly construct a building and forget its purpose? Could somebody possibly join a movement and forget the cause?

Well, it happens all the time and that's exactly what was happening in the Colossian church and it often happens to you and me today. We get so focused on the minutiae and the busyness and well, the religion of the Christian life that Christ can be forgotten. And so let's talk about it today. Set free from deadly distractions. This was the Colossian problem. Here's a quick review for you. We covered this in an introduction to the book of Colossians last weekend. If you weren't here, I'd encourage you to get the CD. If you can't afford to pay the buck or two or whatever they ask for, you can just pick one up for free.

But the Colossian problem was this. Their focus had slipped from Jesus Christ to self-effort and busyness. We saw how over 80% of the American public today believes that the central message of Christianity is to try harder to keep the rules. Of course, that's not the central message of Christianity according to the New Testament, but that's what most Americans think and that's exactly where the Colossians were at. Only their rules took kind of an unusual form. So-called master teachers, as we saw last week, were telling the Colossians that they had mysterious extra knowledge, occult knowledge. And they were telling the Christians in the city of Colossae that they needed to do more, that they needed to work harder, go to more classes, receive more teachings to get a higher spiritual knowledge, and then they needed to try harder to get to a higher plane.

It was fine that Jesus Christ was sort of their entry into the spiritual life, but now there were a lot more secrets to learn. The specifics? Well, they said they needed to learn horoscopes and communicate with their spirit guides and practice strange occult rituals and lots more, but as strange as it sounds, really the bottom line is it was all based on self-effort, on trying harder, and this all led to two things. Jot these down in the box there on page one of your notes. First, distracted Christians. Distracted from Christ and their simple and pure devotion to Him by religious activity of a sort, and it led to a diminished Christ. They didn't deny Christ. It was actually very subtle.

They just diminished their emphasis on Christ by saying, "Great, now you're saved. You're a Christian now. Let's move on to deeper things, to more profound mysteries, and by directing their attention to all these other things, they diminished an emphasis on Jesus Christ." Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "How in the world does this relate to me?" Because I don't believe in kind of all of this stuff that sounds like new age hocus pocus to me, and so I don't have a problem with being distracted from Christ or having my Christ diminished. Really, in my observation, you and I can in quote unquote normal churches can get so busy doing Christianity, or at least Church-ianity, that we can forget Jesus Christ.

We can forget to focus on Him, to adore Him, to think of what Jesus would do in given situations, and instead we can get focused on all kinds of other teachings. In fact, let me just take a poll. Just a quick show of hands. How many of you would agree that at least theoretically it's possible to get distracted from Christ by Christianity? What I see a show of hands, how many of you would agree? Yeah, theoretically that's possible. I gotta tell you, I know it can happen because it happened to me. Some of you know my story. I told it in the Grace Immersion series, even as a pastor, there was a time that I got so busy with religious stuff that I sensed this growing distance between me and this simple love for Jesus Christ that I had as a child when I came to Christ.

But instead of returning to that simple devotion to Him, I instead desperately tried to get back to Christ by doing more religious stuff. And instead I just got further away and more distracted and it became like a cycle. I became busier than ever and was feeling less spiritually fulfilled than ever. More religious than ever! And yet further and further away from Christ. And that is happening to some of you right now. Some of you are going, "Yeah, that's me." You feel so cold. So tired. Or maybe you don't even feel anymore. If you're honest, prayer more of a ritual than a relationship. Worship is just singing now, not really adoration.

So how do you get back to that simple and pure devotion to Jesus Christ? Back to what your soul longs for. Well, I want you to check out how the writer to the Colossian church, the apostle Paul writing 20 centuries ago gets the Colossians to focus more on Jesus, gets them to fall in love with Jesus again, because his words are very relevant for Christians today. And he starts out after his introductory comments in verse 15 of Colossians chapter 1 by kind of throwing a little bit of a curveball here. Paul actually calls the Colossians back with art in Colossians 1 starting in verse 15. These verses most scholars believe Paul is quoting a song. He's quoting a hymn that existed before the composition of the book of Colossians. He's quoting a song about the beauty and the majesty of Jesus that the Colossians already knew.

Now, why would Paul do this? Val mentioned during the announcements that Laurie and I are celebrating 25 years together on Valentine's Day and it's been awesome, wonderful. I mean, I was just in tears Friday just telling her, man, I can't imagine a more perfect match than this. It's just been amazing. But one thing that we've discovered that's interesting about 25 years together is this. There's certain songs that can make us recall all the giddiness and kind of the out of breath over the moon. Kind of I've got a crush on you feeling of the first days that we were dating. Do you know what I'm talking about? How many of you know a song like that that kind of takes you back to those days?

I gotta tell you, there's a song that when it comes on the radio it takes me right back to that moment. And I'm a little bit embarrassed at what the song is because I wish it was a cool song. I wish I could tell you, oh, it was that Sinatra version of My Funny Valentine, you know, but or at least it's like some classic rock song. It was Clapton, You Look Wonderful Tonight. Yeah, that's our song. But it's not. It's not a cool song, but it's our song. It's just you don't choose your song. It just becomes your song. And when the strains of this song come on the radio, we look at each other and we're over the moon again. Oh, you know what I'm talking about? You know the song?

All right, I'm gonna let my wife tell you. Because you guys are gonna go seriously, that is in such bad taste. But this is a song nobody has even thought about since 1985. And the song is... Well, I hope I get it right. One on One by Hall and Oates. That's the one! Even just saying the title to One on One by Hall and Oates makes me just I love you. But that song comes on and again, I wish it was deeper because the lyrics to that song are if you don't know One on One I want to play that game tonight. One on One. Oh, oh, that's it. It's Shakespeare for the modern world. It's stunning in its nuance.

But you know when you have a song it can conjure up all those emotions. It can have a profound effect. Now imagine combining that effect with a song with actually profound lyrics. What that could do to us, right? Well, that's exactly what Paul does really for the Colossians when he's calling them back to love in Jesus Christ. He basically says to them "Remember that song we used to sing. Remember how that song went about Jesus?" And I think it's interesting that Paul very heartfully chooses this direction because as I said the Colossians were kind of a very Santa Cruz-y church, right? Their culture was a lot like the diverse culture that we celebrate here.

And so Paul chooses a different direction to go with them than say the Ephesians. It's a very interesting comparison because in the book of Ephesians chapter one he talks about the same exact things, but the Ephesians were a very cosmopolitan city where they were used to a lot of philosophical discourse. And so Paul just goes on and in thick philosophy term-laden prose lays out to the Ephesians the same truth that he lays out to the Colossians, but with the Colossians he uses art. And I really want to emphasize this because art and music have played a major role in the history of Christianity for years and years and years from the icons in the very first days of the faith all the way to the medieval churches and cathedrals and on up to the Renaissance and on up to the present day the idea of Jesus has inspired human beings like no one else and not just physical representations of Jesus.

Music has also been a part of our faith from day one as people try to put into music and words their spiritual experience with Jesus Christ. Just one of millions of examples. Johann Sebastian Bach was a very devout believer on all his music manuscripts. He always wrote three letters SDG which stand for soli deo gloria which means it's Latin for only to God the glory. May the glory be only to God. Well, he wrote the famous song Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Do you know this one? I love the lyrics Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, holy wisdom, love most bright drawn by thee our souls aspiring soar to uncreated light and the song fragment that Paul quotes in these verses today was a lot like that.

And again, I want to emphasize this because for many of us the words we're about to look at in Colossians are so rich in meaning that they can just be seen as text as prose to be dissected and they do have amazing theology. But even in our analysis of the words we could get lost in complication. You see Paul is listen. Paul is not just teaching the Colossians what to think about Jesus. He's reminding them of the power of just thinking about Jesus. They've been distracted. They've been trying so hard to get better by self-effort. He's saying listen don't underestimate the transforming effect of just thinking about Jesus. He's giving them not just information but inspiration.

Now stop right there those of you who are taking notes. Don't turn the page quite yet. I know you don't want to miss any pearl that falls from my lips. But I want you to think about this for just a second. Don't underestimate the transforming effect of just thinking about Jesus. I'm not just talking about emotion. I'm talking about a deep impact that just dwelling on Christ has on your imagination, has on your convictions, how it weans you from distraction. You know, I find that so many Christians want a to-do list today. Pastor, just tell me what to do. You know, tell me how to pray, tell me how to vote, tell me how to behave.

Well, here's what I want you to do. I want you to stop making to-do lists. Stop complicating it. Just sit still and kind of zone out on Jesus for a while and that changes you. Okay with that in mind flip your notes over if you're taking notes to page two and turn to Colossians chapter one again. That's page 833 on those TLC Bibles and let's get to the text Paul just riffing on Jesus in these verses in this poetic style and just one more modern example again I just want you to get what is happening here a modern example of what Paul's doing might be something like the famous sermon that was preached by S.M. Lockridge who was a famous Baptist pastor up at Mount Herman right here in Santa Cruz County. You may have seen part of this online and here's just a snippet of this famous sermon.

Watch the screen and listen to S.M. Lockridge. The Bible says my king is the king of the Jews. He's a king of Israel. He's the king of righteousness. He's the king of the ages. He's the king of heavens. He's the king of glory. He's the king of kings and he's the lord of lords. That's my king. I wonder do you know it? My king is a sovereign king. No means of measure can define his limitless love. He's enduringly strong. He's entirely sincere. He's eternally steadfast. He's immorally graceful. He's impurely powerful. He's impartially merciful. Do you know him? He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. He's God's son. He's a sinner savior. He's the centerpiece of civilization. He's unparalleled. He's unprecedented. He is the loftiest idea in literature. He's the highest personality in philosophy. He's the fundamental doctrine of truth theology. He's the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient savior. I wonder if you know him today.

Isn't that awesome? Don't you just love that? Wow, that's preaching, right? I gotta tell you something. I listen to that and I think what am I doing standing here on this stage? We should just watch that for 30 minutes straight, right? But I showed that you're going yes, we're in a yes get off stage. But why did I show that to you? I show that to you because I want you to get kind of what Paul's doing here in these verses. That's the rhythm for Colossians 1 starting in verse 15. He is just riffing on Jesus as he quotes a fragment of this ancient song lyric.

And I'm going to read from the NIV with just a couple of changes to kind of make it a little bit more like a song. You can follow along with me starting in verse 15 Colossians 1. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn over all creation for by him all things were created, things in heaven, things on earth, things visible and things invisible, thrones and powers and rulers and authorities, rank after rank after rank after rank, all things created by him, all things created for him. He is before all things, he holds all things together. And he's the head of the body, the church, and he's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in all things he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all of his fullness fully dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, things in earth and things in heaven, making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Amen.

Now let me ask you a question see if you were paying attention who was that about? Yeah, Jesus. I don't want you to miss this. Those verses were all about Jesus. Let me just make sure you get that this message is going to be real simple. It's about one thing. You know, sometimes when you finish listening to a sermon and somebody asks you what was that sermon about and you're like I don't know ever have that happen to you? Can I see a chance? Let's just be honest here. Yes, I've had it happen to me and I preached the sermon, okay? But this time you will know what this sermon is about. I make no guarantees about quality, but I make guarantees about this you'll know what it's about. It's about Jesus. This whole thing is about Jesus.

And in fact throughout the sermon I'm going to ask you some questions and I'm going to give you a little tip. The answer will always be Jesus. Okay? So there's no risk there. You can pipe up and shout it out. I know we don't usually do that kind of thing in this church, but you can shout it out. In fact, let's try it just a rehearsal if you want to get your spiritual life back if you have ever felt distracted by the periphery who should you focus on? That's right. Paul says five amazing things about Jesus that he wants you and me to focus on. Don't get too excited over here. Okay? And I also listed in the resources several sermons and verses I'll be quoting a lot here. I'm so grateful to some of these wonderful pastors for doing a lot of study on this.

But these verses say number one jot this down. Jesus is the God revealer. Jesus is the God revealer. Look at verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. This word image comes from the Greek word eikon and we get our word icon from this word. He's saying Jesus is our icon of God. In the Greek, it means he's the perfect representation, he's the revealer. There's an old kind of a goofy story some kids are in school drawing and a teacher asks one of the little girls what are you drawing? And the girl says oh I'm drawing a picture of God. And the teacher says well, nobody knows what God looks like and the girl says they will after I'm done, you know? Well this lyric says that's Jesus.

Remember how the Colossians thought that God could never communicate to them because they were too sinful so they had to use layer after layer of angelic intermediaries? We talked about this in the introduction last weekend. Well, Paul says no need for that because when I look at Jesus I see God as Jesus said when you have seen me you've seen the Father, but Paul doesn't stop there. He says he's the firstborn over all creation. Now in English the term firstborn sounds like it means born first, but this is actually a technical term used in the first century to mean the heir, the successor, the owner, and basically it means he is the prince of all creation. And this leads right to the next part of the song. Not only is the prince, the heir of all creation, number two Jesus is the creator of everything. He's the one who made everything. Verse 16 for by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, powers, rulers, authorities, all things were created by him and for him. All things from the most amazing stars to our blue planet to every drop of dew on every leaf in every forest to every tiny finger on every giggling baby he thought it all up. Anything you love about creation? His idea that was his.

And of course this suggests his pre-existence, although he was born as a human on earth, he existed long before anything else was created as the word of God. There's a man named Alan Sandage who was a legendary scientist. He was one of the greatest astrophysicists of the 20th century very involved with the discoveries that led to the Hubble Telescope and so on just passed away a year ago, but when he was younger, he was an atheist. And the more he learned the more he felt uncomfortable with that position until he actually became a Christian later in life and he said in an interview with a science magazine, this is not a Christian magazine, it was a science journal, the world is too complicated in all of its parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone. I simply do not now believe that my old reductionist philosophy can explain everything. The more one learns the more unbelievable it becomes unless there's some type of organizing principle, an architect for believers. And it was this sense of a creator that drew him to Christ precisely because Jesus, Paul says, is the creator.

So listen, how does this relate to you today? If you today feel like there's no more hope for you, if you feel like you've ruined your life, if you feel like you're too far gone, let me ask you who created the cosmos and so can easily create something new in your life. Say it. It's Jesus. That's right. He's the prince of creation. He's the source of creation. And number three Jesus is the sustainer of creation. It's not just that Jesus made everything and then let it go. He maintains it. Verse 17. He's before all things and in him all things hold together. Every atom he holds it together. All creation held together by Jesus again. So what some of you might be asking? Well part of what this means is this. Do you ever say and it's interesting the terminology we use never say something like I feel like my life's coming apart at the seams? I feel like I'm disintegrating, I'm falling apart. Well, let me ask you a question. Who can hold you together? Who can integrate you again? Who can give you that sense of wholeness that you long for? Who? Jesus.

And Paul goes on and he's getting more and more personal in this lyric. Number four he says Jesus is the leader. The leader of what? Verse 18 and he is the head of the body, the church. Now there's a lot more to that verse but stop right there for a second because as you'll notice the text is kind of making a turn here. You notice up to now it's been about creation, right? And it's amazing. He made it. He sustains it, but now there's a new creation, the church, and that's Jesus's idea too. I want to show you some pictures. My wife and I snapped this last month when we were traveling on short-term missions trips. We saw Jesus's followers all over the world. My wife took this picture they met in a thatched roof chapel in India. Jesus followers met in a high-rise building's chapel in Brazil. They met in adobe churches in Guatemala. They're meeting in all those places today and we are meeting here. And we're all so different, different cultures, different languages. How is the church of Christ held together? Ever wonder how did it survive for 2000 years? Ever wonder what is the secret ingredient? What's the glue?

Well, the most important component of a church, the thing that allowed the church of Jesus through all these different cultures, the rise and fall of empires to still last after 2000 years, it's not its buildings. Because a lot of churches don't have, aren't blessed with beautiful buildings. And it's not even its people because sometimes people do a pretty good job of trying to sabotage the work of Christ. Actually, the most important ingredient of the church is the person it belongs to, the one who builds it. And the head of the church is Jesus and the head of this church is Jesus. And he said the gates of hell would not overcome it. So he's the leader of the church and Paul just kind of, he's just riffing. He says he's also the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead.

Now stop there for a second. You all have a life. And guess what? You're all going to get a death. That's true 100% of the time. So how does that make you feel? Well, this says that Jesus rose from the dead as the leader of all who will rise. One day if you trust in Christ you too will rise because he rose first leading you in that parade and that's just part of the amazing picture painted in these verses. It says so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Do you see how if part of their problem is a diminished Christ? Paul is sort of putting Christ back on the throne theologically for the Colossians. What's this all about? So that in everything he might have the supremacy. A Christian belief from the very beginning.

I want to show you something. This is a sarcophagus from the 300s. This is one of the earliest surviving examples of Christian art. And the figure at the top there is Jesus with a scroll. And then that figure underneath his feet, that's a figure that's called the personification of the cosmos. It's a common metaphorical figure in Roman art, the personification of the cosmos. So this is a picture of all powers placed under the subjection of Jesus. That means all the dictators and all the disasters and all the diseases Jesus rules even over them. And this means that one day he will fix all the things that are wrong with this world. So that means when this world drives hope from your heart, when you read the headlines or you get the doctor's report and your heart just sinks, who can you know will make all things right one day? It's Jesus.

And listen, not just one day. Maybe right now your life is in chaos and frankly, it's because you've been trying to call all the shots. You've been dictator and disaster and disease all three of those things to your own self. And it's not working out too good. And right now the idea of having a new boss, a new lord just sounds so good to you, somebody who can establish order and sanity again, and who do you think is ready and willing to play that role in your life? Who is it? It's Jesus. Because look at where the song lands. Number five, Jesus is the reconciler. The reconciler. I mean he's all these amazing things. He's a creator and he's the one who's sovereign and in control, but here's the best part. He's the reconciler of all.

Now what does that word mean? I was reading the conversion story of Dr. Francis Collins this week. This is another brilliant scientist. Francis Collins was appointed by President Obama to be the director of the National Institutes of Health. He formerly was the director of the Human Genome Project. He has mapped much of the human genome. In other words, you're looking at the highest ranking scientist in America basically as head of NIH. But he was an atheist for years also. And then he said something started to intrigue him and it was this, the fact that all human beings have a sense of moral law, a sense that some things are right and some things cross the line and are wrong. And what's more, our innate sense of moral law causes us to act in unselfish characteristic ways that sometimes even endanger our own existence. We make sacrifices for morality that don't make sense if the only reason for our existence is to contribute to the gene pool.

And he slowly got to the point where he thought what explanation could there be for our moral sense if there were not some moral agent giving us this basic sense of right and wrong? And he says very reluctantly he came to believe that there was a God. And then he thought well, this is not all good news because if there is a moral God and we're all immoral at least to some extent, then we're in trouble. And watch what he says he came to next. And if that is true, it also says that God is good and holy and is calling me to do the same and that I am hopelessly short of that if I'm honest with myself given all the times that the moral law has told me to do one thing and I have done the other. That then became a source of both realization but also a source of some gloom that I'm beginning to discover a holy God.

And yet this holy God is so far away from what I might be able to approach in my imperfections that that realization may give less comfort than I had hoped. That brought me then to the person of Jesus Christ as a person who was historically extremely well documented. That was news to me. I thought Christ was as much myth as history and I realized after reading more about it this was a historical figure upon which we have a great deal of evidence for his existence and his teachings and even his rising from the dead in a literal way. And this while it seemed incredible at first began to make the most perfect sense because I realized that all other men and women like myself would be estranged for all time from God if we didn't have a bridge of some sort to make us right given our imperfections and God's holiness and the perfect bridge I realized was in fact Jesus himself.

And that's exactly what Paul says here. Jesus is the perfect bridge. He says for God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him in Jesus and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Love that phrase by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. We've been talking a little bit about art this morning. You know, there's one image, one symbol, one shape that according to Yaroslav Pelikan, a scholar who worked at Yale for many years on this topic, there's one shape, one symbol, one idea that has inspired more art, more music, more sculpture, more paintings than any other figure on earth ever. And that's Jesus on the cross.

The idea that Jesus took the punishment for your sin and mine so we can know the holy God is mind-blowing. And it's something that has an infinite fascination for us. And don't miss this, this verse says God was pleased to do this, pleased to have Christ redeem you. In essence that says God says to you, pleased to know you. I have a friend who was raised in a very formal church and he says that as a kid he'd go to church and he'd sit there and he'd see up at the front of the church Jesus on the cross and he'd think oh, that's pretty impressive kind of active sacrifice that this guy somehow died for the sins of the world. That's cool. And then one day just recently as an adult he says he was sitting there and hid in between the eyes that means me. He died for the sins of the world. Well that includes me. That's right and it includes you and you and you and you. It's not just theoretical Jesus died on the cross and notice how many times Paul says and this includes you.

I love these verses. These are some of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Once you were alienated from God and in fact you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. Some of you remember thinking of Christ or God it's kind of the enemy you kind of had kind of thoughts of like revulsion when you thought about Christianity but now he has reconciled you. He took the initiative not you by Christ's physical body through death to present you what you are. No longer guilty. You are holy in his sight without blemish, free from accusation. Right now that's you. Some of you walked in feeling so guilty today and wondering what do I have to do to like burn off my bad karma? Right now that's you in Christ without blemish, holy, without accusation. Some of you have told me you're just recently out of prison or jail right now. That's you. Some of you been living in prisons of your own guilt right now. That's you. No more hoops to jump through. It's not because of your works. It's because of his work.

In fact go back over your notes and change the word the in each point to my. Jesus is my God revealer. Jesus is my creator. Jesus is my sustainer, my leader, my reconciler. Do you believe this? You know, Jesus Christ never left his claims theoretical. He would say things like I'm the resurrection of life and the life and if you see me you've seen the father and I'm the way the truth and the life and they never stayed on the theoretical philosophical realm. He would always turn around to his disciples and say things like he said to Martha, do you believe this? Like he said to his disciples, well, who do you say I am? Like he said to Peter, James, and John when he saw them fishing on the Sea of Galilee and they had never seen him before and he goes you follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And just imagine that scene they go. Okay, and they leave behind their occupation, they leave behind their family, they leave behind their plans for the future and they follow him. That's the kind of commanding presence that Jesus had. That's the kind of mystery that surrounded him. That's the kind of charisma that he had.

And the same risen Christ the Bible says is here today and he still makes that offer. And he says to you who do you say I am? Follow me and I'll make you different. I'll rock your world. Francis Collins the scientist says that one day on a hike he sensed Jesus calling to him not in an audible voice, but reaching out to his spirit. I found that all of my resistance fell away not in a way that I could tell you precisely in terms of yes I went through this logical argument and that theorem. No, it just was a sense of I am so wanting to give myself to this love that God represents and that has reached out to me and I feel it near to me and I want to be embraced in that love for all time and I want to put aside my resistance and become the believer that I think God wants me to be. And that was the afternoon I fell on my knees. I said this is something I want God. Come and be my savior Christ and change my life. I can't do it by myself and I'm sure tomorrow I'm going to think I was nuts. But today this is real. This is the most real thing that's ever happened. It is real. It is real.

The things that we've seen in these verses S.M. Lockridge might paraphrase the verses we've read like this. Jesus is the maker of the universe, the sustainer of existence, the ruler over every power, the revealer of God. He's the fullness of God. He's the perfection of God. He's the presence of God. He is the death defeater, the sin conqueror, the guilt obliterator. He is the final sacrifice, the blood giver, the cross bearer. He is the tomb breaker and he is the peacemaker. He's the redeemer, the savior, the forgiver, the lord of all, the guide for life, the friend of sinners and what's his name? It's Jesus Christ and Paul is just soaring as he's dictating these verses I can imagine. And the point he's saying to the Colossians is look why would you ever not want to find continued transformation in Christ alone?

He's saying to these distracted Christians and to you and me, you know, you don't need to worry about anything else. You don't need to worry about a hierarchy of angels or more hidden mysteries. You got the prince of creation here. You've got the fullness of God here. You've got the director of history here. And I love the way the message translation renders verse 23. You don't walk away from a gift like that. You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust constantly tuned into the message careful not to be distracted or diverted. And so let me ask you, are you distracted or diverted today? Or are you tuned into the message? Are you distracted or diverted by politics? You distracted or diverted by church activity? You distracted or diverted by the fact that you feel guilty over something and you're almost obsessing more on your sin than you are on Jesus and you think you're being religious feeling that way?

Don't be distracted or diverted from the one message that is being proclaimed to the whole world. Put aside all those diversions and focus on Jesus today and let me give you a couple of recommendations of how to do it. This was a song lyric apparently that's now part of inspired scripture. So why don't you sing some songs to Jesus this week to help you focus? This is part of inspired scripture. So why don't you read it? Read this passage again. Read all the way to the end of Colossians to do your daily meditations and that'll help you focus on Jesus Christ the author and perfecter of our faith. In fact, let's focus on him right now. Would you pray with me? Let's all bow our heads together.

Jesus we love you. We worship you. We long to pour out all of our hearts in adoration and wonder to you. Thank you for being our God revealer and creator and sustainer and leader and forgiver and friend. Receive our worship now we pray this together in Jesus name. Amen.