If you've ever been on an airplane, you understand that landing, especially in inclement, weather can feel very stressful. You're already in this giant metal tube, thousands of feet in the air. And now there is a storm below as you approach your desired destination. And what typically happens? Well, in those cases, the pilot gets on the plane or gets on the intercom over the plane and says there's some turbulence or there's some storms below. So we will be circling for the next few minutes until it clears up. And the reason for doing that is because the plane can fly above the storm. But in order to land where you wanna go, they need a break in the clouds or at least in the thunder and the storms so they can land safely. Now, I share that because this morning's message is entitled circling Jesus because I wonder how many people want to believe in God and they're close to their desired destination. But there is something keeping them from putting their full weight and their trust in him. There's some storm, some situation, maybe it's a bad experience in the past, maybe it's personal choices, maybe it is questions that you don't feel like you've gotten answers to and whatever it is, you find yourself feeling unsafe and while you're close to believing in Jesus, you've, you've never quite landed the plane and given your heart to God. Well, the goal of today's message is simply to part the clouds, even for a moment to give you permission and the freedom and encouragement to go ahead and land the plane to put the full weight of your life and trust and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Now to start things off this morning, I wanna share one of the most common questions I get in ministry and that is what does it mean to live a Christ centered life. Now, typically I receive this question over coffee or over a meal. And, and so I'll draw, draw a diagram on a napkin and, and share it over. So I wanna share this diagram with you. And so I draw two large circles and then two smaller circles inside think of like a bull's eye or archery target. But with one center circle now on the left, you have Christ in the center, right? And you have yourself over top, you have Christ in the center and on the right, you have yourself in the center and Christ in the bigger circle. Now, just by show of hands, we're here in the room. How many of you think living a Christ centered life is the circle on the left. It's a quick show of hands. How many think it's a circle on the right? How many of you weren't paying attention? But just wanna raise your hand. OK. How many of you don't like raising your hand? Oh, okay. All right. Now, what I would say is that most American Christians, if you will try to live the circle on the left. But I don't believe that's the best depiction of a christ-centered life. And the reason for that is that while it makes sense, ok, Christ Center christ-centered Life, that makes sense. Except that leaves room for a lot of other things in life. For example, maybe Christ is a big part of your life, but that's the key there is that he's part of your life. And so you have thoughts, you have your job, you have choices, you have relationships, you have your hobbies. So how it looks on a practical basis is maybe you go to church on a Sunday or a couple of times a year. But then you think, well, that doesn't impact what I do on Friday night or Saturday. That doesn't impact how I treat my spouse or my kids. That doesn't impact what I'm looking at on the computer or the email I'm sending out to people or the language I'm using in school or on the job or out. And about you see, we like the idea of giving a piece of ourselves to Jesus. But the problem is when it's just a piece we think, OK. Church is one thing we uh we do over here and what I do, the rest of the week is mine. That's not what Jesus wants. He wants all of you. So that means everything that's within your circle, all of your thoughts, all of your actions. He wants your worries, he wants your relationships, he wants the sin, he wants the successes. Everything that is who you are is really to be found in Christ. Paul uses that term in him or in Christ over 100 and 60 times in his letters. And what I think he means is that Christ wants every bit of you and that he doesn't want just part of your life. He wants all of your life. And so another way to think about that is that living a Christ centered life involves trusting Jesus with all of your life. So trusting Jesus, with your marriage, trusting Jesus, with your questions, trusting Jesus in your relationships, what you're thinking, what you're looking at, what you're doing. He wants it all. And the other thing about that picture is the fact that Jesus really is larger than yourself and it allows you, then it turns from a me into a we and we become in Christ together and in Christ as the body of Christ. Now that can be difficult. But what we're saying here is that really faith should not simply be just a part of your life. But rather the pulse to your life, you know, you can put your hand on your wrist and for some, you can feel the pulse, you feel that beating, ok. Metaphorically speaking, if you were to cut, would you bleed self or would you bleed Jesus? If we looked at your life through the course of the week, is it looking more living for self and selfish desires or reflecting the heart of God? Now, the push back on that is ok, John, but I've experienced some storms in life. People have hurt me and the reality is that's probably the number one thing that keeps people from Jesus is, well, we'll, we'll call that a tie is selfish desires. It would be one and then one a would be uh Christians, right? This is the idea. Well, I like Jesus but I don't like that person. And I pointed over here because there's no one's over here. Last service. I want to point out and then someone got offended and I was like, ok, maybe that person really kept others from Jesus and it was prophetic. I don't know. But we'll point in an area where there's nobody standing. If you've ever uttered this phrase out loud or thought it in your head, I wanna, I want to follow Jesus. But now while church hurt and, and ministry experience and, and life situations can truly get you down. Like I, I wanna validate those difficult experiences. What I want to encourage you with is that those experiences are not your savior, that the church that hurt you didn't die for you, Jesus did. And what I want to invite you to do and give you permission to do this morning is to step, step back from your previous experience with church or religion in general and just ask the question, can you trust Jesus who is God who is Jesus? And can I trust him? And then we go from there, if you're taking notes, you can write this down that when it comes to talking about Jesus, what we understand is this from creation to redemption. Christ holds all things together, from creation to redemption. Christ holds all things together. We're in week two of our study of the letter to the church in Colosse and last week we shared as an introduction, it was written around 60 ad give or take a year or two by the Apostle Paul who was put in prison for preaching the gospel. He's writing to a church that he'd never been to, but he heard about their faith from one of the servants or other elite ministry leaders in the day of Pus. And so there's a church that's a newer church that's doing some good things, but then is facing some challenges. As a former trade city, there's a lot of exchange of goods and ideas. And so they battled things that uh a lot of words that end in Ism. So there's syncretism where you have all these mixed match of ideas and different religions and you put it all in the same basket. There is mysticism. So kind of this new age energy type stuff. There's legalism where it's Jesus, they like Jesus, but we want to follow the rules of the past. There's narcissism where this idea, that knowledge itself saves you that the mind and the body are completely separate or whatever ism they were facing. Paul comes back and says, no, it's not about any of the ISMs. It's about Christ who physically, spiritually died on the cross as payment for your sins and through Jesus, you can have salvation, but we can trust Him with our lives, not just part of our lives, but all of our lives and that from creation to redemption, Jesus truly holds all things together. And he writes this incredible passage here in Colossians chapter one, verses 15 to 20. There's a really cool tie in with Proverbs eight. We don't have time to dive through that. But if you're curious, read Proverbs eight and then reread Colossians one, you're gonna see some cool connections throughout the week. But let's just go ahead and jump into Colossians chapter one, starting in verse 15. We'll be pausing as we go. Verse 15. He referring to Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. Now, the image of the invisible God. That same word where the root word. Now we get our English word icon, but it's not just an icon. It is the exact representation of Hebrews. One talks about the imprint of his nature that no one has physically seen God. There's characters in the Old Testament like Moses saw God through a burning bush and things like that nature, but no one has physically seen God. But Jesus came down the second part of the Trinity, Jesus, the son came down to earth, lived a perfect life to where he could be seen and heard and touched. When he rose again from the grave, he invited Thomas to examine his scars. And so when you've seen Jesus, you've actually seen God. And so this picture is that we can actually see God through seeing Jesus. But then he uses this title first born of all creation. Some have argued, well, there, there you have it, Jesus is born. He's not referring to actual birth in this case because the very next verse is gonna talk about how he created the world. So how can you be born in the world and create it? At the same time? It doesn't quite work like that. Instead, what he's referring to when he uses the word first born is actually one of position and one of rank in those days, the firstborn was given authority and responsibility over the household. In the same way here, Jesus has given all authority over all of creation being the exact image of God. And this is also really cool because we are then created in the image of God. That's what we really refer to as Christians, like little Christ running around, right? That when we act as Jesus act as we live as Jesus lived, we are acting in the image that God created us for so pretty cool. So let's jump. Let's continue reading here. Verse 16. For by Him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authority. All things were created through him and for him now, the Greek word for all in this passage has a really cool meaning. Oh All literally means all he's saying God created all things. And then he gives a series of comparisons throughout heaven, earth, visible invisible. But what's interesting here too is a lot of the early Christians were oppressed. But he's saying the things that you thought were powerful like the Roman Empire, the Pharisees, the religious leaders. He's saying all of these things, Thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities, all things were created, not just through Christ, but also for Christ. So he in this verse, he pretty much takes every proposition and makes a proposition saying that Christ created all and the fact that he's created through Christ shows that he's outside of that. And so he has the authority and power over it but then the fact that He's created all things for Christ means that that gives us purpose and meaning, right? You were created for the glory of God. Now it gives us self worth and value, but also sort of humble us, right? If you recognize that you've been created in the image of God, it can be easy to walk into the room and go. You're welcome world. Look at this. Got it. Good. Am I right? You were made in his image. But all of us could say that. But he didn't just say you were created by God and through God. But ultimately, for God, so you weren't created for your own glory. You were created in your personality, in your gifting in your ups and your downs for the glory of God, meaning that God's got glory in you that's meant for everybody around you. Do you have a gift? You have a calling, you have a purpose to bless the people around you in Ephesians kind of the sister letter here. He says that there are the riches of his inheritance found in the saints. There is treasure in each one of you that is only found when we serve and love and act out and act accordingly to the glory of God. So all of creation speaks to the power and authority of Jesus. He continues on here. He says verse 17 and He is before all things and in Him, all things hold together. It's really the ty verse to this message. But also because he's gonna move from creation to redemption in just a moment. But I love the fact that not only does he hold all things together, he's before all things. So whatever situation you're walking into or currently in, we understand that God has gone before you. I've shared this before, but it's important for us to understand that, that I imagine if you called 911 and the person on the other line was more scared than you were, right. Hello, 911. What's the emergency? There's a fire. Oh, no. What are you gonna do? You should call somebody. I wait. What I'm calling you? Yeah, I, I, I'm, I'm on the phone. I can't do anything. Good luck though. I remember another time where like you want somebody to be able to do something, right? I remember I was at a restaurant and it was, the service was not great. I'll just say that politely. But have you ever been like frustrated? Like you were gonna comment on the service of a company? But the person next to you went way overboard. Have you seen that? And then you just kind of sit back and just kind of watch the drama unfold? Ok. So that was this case at a breakfast place and I went there and um, I ordered just one item and they messed the one item up and it took them 30 minutes and it's supposed to be a fast food place and the other person came up and just started reaming on the man on the worker and I felt bad and they're like, this service is awful. I can't believe it. I can't. This is awful as horrible as the worst service I've ever had. And the cashier was like, I know it's bad. This is awful. I was like, man, this person is not getting paid enough and he's just reaming reaming reaming probably goes, I wanna talk to a manager and the person goes, I am the manager. I was like, really, you're supposed to be in charge and you're doing absolutely nothing to fix the problem. Here's the thing, here's the comforting thing with Jesus. What surprises us does not surprise God. What scares us does not scare God. Every situation good and bad. God has gone before you and he is holding you sustaining your very existence through it. Now, I didn't say that every situation is good because we live in a broken world where there is sin, there's hurt, there's loss and there's evil. And so nothing will get you questioning your faith that when you see difficulty and Brokenness. Well, what verse 17 tells us is that Jesus saw the Brokenness and he did something about it and we know he did something about it because he came down in the middle of the Brokenness and he took all the Brokenness on his shoulders that when he died on the cross and rose again, he defeated death itself and offered a better way knowing that there's going to be a day where there's no more mourning. No more death, no more betrayal, no more cancer. That one day we will stand and be face to face with the God who created us, the God who sustains us and the God who saves us completely in peace and joy and freedom with Him. Amen. And what he does in the meantime is that he's going to hold think the military movies, right? Where they're being attacked and someone's shouting, hold the line. Here's the reality. Jesus is not only holding the line but holding you together through it. And as long as you're breathing, God's got something more for you to do and he's not done and while not everything is good, he can use everything for his good and for his glory because he's not only before all things, but he holds all things together. Verse 18 says that Jesus is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead that in everything he might be pre eminent. He's the head of the body. That word for head means source or origin from there. We get this idea uh our words like prototype and other things like that where he is the start. I love the fact that he is the head and that we are the body because the only time I've seen a body without a head are the creepy mannequins in stores. You know what I'm talking about? Like, are we that short on plastic that we can't put heads on the mannequins? Like, have you ever been walking through and like, oh, that looks kind of cool. No head. Like look around everyone in here has a head. Right. Right. Like, can we just put, OK? Anyway, sorry, just weird. Been freaked out by that. The fact that Jesus is the head of the body, the source, the origin means that if Jesus is alive, the church is alive and that we are connected together. Now when you have siblings and or you're a parent with kid, multiple kiddos, it's natural for those siblings to fight, right? But if we're all together, seen as the body, what we're doing is we're fighting against ourselves as churches and as believers, we look like this. Oh we're like, like punching ourselves like over and over like I'll take that OK. Who's winning in that scenario? Like we're the body of church, we're supposed to be unified together. But the joy is that Jesus is the head that he is the leader. The fact that Jesus is alive means we are alive and that in everything, in creation and in redemption, he is pre eminent or supreme or sufficient that he's greater than all things. And we continue reading here in verse 19 for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. One more note here it says, oh, I forgot. He uses the word first born again and we know that he wasn't first born of the dead because Jesus actually raised Lazarus from the dead. In the Old Testament. There's a couple of examples too, so he wasn't the first again. He is the ranking authority. So think about that. He's the ranking authority over all creation and he's the ranking authority over all the dead in the resurrection. What how can he do that? One? Verse 19? For in Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Now, this actually was a loaded term that Paul used because it was used by the critics, the gnostics that actually had this definition to it. Fullness, the Greek word, uh Pleroma actually meant the sum total of all divine power and attributes talking about some mystical force. But Paul uses it to describe Jesus. So it's pretty cool when you put that definition into the verse for in Christ, all the total attributes of all divine power of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus. Isn't that cool? The full authority of God? The full weight of all eternal glory is at his disposal. So what does he do with that? All of this was a setup for verse 20 here it says, and through him to reconcile to himself, all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross. So Jesus spoke everything into existence. He holds it all together so that when he died on the cross and rose again, he provided eternal salvation. Can you trust Jesus? Yes. And you can trust Him with more than just a part of your Sunday morning. You can trust him with all of your issues, with all of your doubts, with all of your worries. But there is no sin that God's love is not deeper. Still. There is no situation in which God is not holding you together. When you feel like you're losing control, when you feel overwhelmed and anxious and depressed and down, and you got nothing left to give God. God is holding you together, not even just spiritually but physically speaking. He's sustaining your existence. Think about this for the f for a moment. Roman guards pounded nails into his hands and into his feet. Jesus was sustaining the very guards that were killing him at any moment. He said, and you're done. He was sustaining people's very existence and holds them together for his purpose and his story and his reason. Now, I heard this from a number of pastors, one of them, Louie Giglio, but you can search this up yourself as well. But actually within the body, you think of Macro like think of creation universe, some pretty cool stuff. But you think micro inside of the body cells, DNA at the core of the core is this little protein called laminin. And laminin is really a protein designed to tell what the job, what the job of each cell is supposed to do. So this is your job. This is your job, right? It's the cell that's got the clipboard. All right, you're going here, you're going here. It differentiates what you're supposed to do and it's an adhesion molecule, meaning it's literally holding you together. Like the reason your skin holds together, the reason your, your muscles and your lungs hold together. It's called Laminin. And notice it. How cool is that, that at your very core of your cell and DNA are these little things that look exactly like a cross. Now, there's all kinds of cells that's not the only one. But I want, I want you to think about that and there's an actual picture of Laminin on the screen next to you. So literally holding you together every single cell telling the the body what to do. And I want to reread verse 17 to you while you see this picture that he is before all things and in him, all things hold together. Laminate is like the reb barb of the cement in your body. Like it's, it's a thing in the very center that holds all things together. And so when you think about Jesus, understand that he is holding you together in every single moment of every single day, every heartbeat, every thought, every breath, every bead of sweat coming down your brow can only do so because God allows it. The reason that's important is that from creation to redemption. Christ holds all things together from the smallest of cells to the Galaxies far away. Christ is in control. And when he describes all of creation by him, through him, for him, he gets there and said and everything. How did he use his power to die on the cross? He gave it all up in that moment to take on the sins of the world to take on the wrath of God that when he died on the cross, he took your sin with him. So that when he rose again, not only is he alive, but you can be alive, you can experience forgiveness and purpose and joy and meaning in life. Beyond explanation, that money can't buy that. The promotion won't give you that security for eternity that comes from knowing Him, knowing that there's gonna be a day where there is no more sickness. There is no more pain, complete freedom, complete love, complete purpose found in God alone. So what does that mean for us today? Why do we trust Him? Because Jesus is strong enough to carry your sin, your stress and your struggles. If God spoke the world into existence and holds it in his very hand and then died on the cross and rose again. And now is the head of the body of the church. There is no sin, too deep, there is no stress, too overwhelming, there is no struggle, too difficult that Jesus cannot pull you through. You might be down and out. But I want you to know that Jesus is holding you together and will lift you up. So I invite you to place your trust in Jesus today in a moment. I'm gonna pray and I want to invite you to pray with me that you can receive Christ into your life. There's not magic in the words, but I wanna invite you to land the plane, go ahead and put your faith in him. All of you, the questions, doubts everything. Give it to Jesus today. It'll save you. And then what we're gonna do is gonna be super fun. We're gonna end this morning celebrating with those who have put their faith in Jesus. And that next step after putting your faith in Jesus is getting baptized, Jesus was baptized and water then told us to go and make disciples baptizing them, the name of the father, son, holy spirit. So we're gonna celebrate, we're gonna clap, we're gonna cheer because it's an exciting thing. And if they're cheering in heaven, we're gonna be cheering here in the room. So I want you to be loud. We're gonna bring the kiddos in, in just a minute so they can see it too. And we're gonna cheer for those going public with their faith. But before we do that I wanna give you a chance to receive Jesus and the land that plane today. Will you pray with me? Dear, only father? Thank you for those. We're here today. God. We celebrate with those who are getting baptized, going public with their faith. Just that outward expression of an inward belief, a public declaration of a personal commitment to you Jesus God. For those who don't know you got as Lord and Savior God. We pray, we admit that we're sinners, that we can't make it to heaven on our own. And we wanna give not just part of our lives, but all of our lives to you. I wanna land in the plane and put our full faith in you. We believe in you as Lord and Savior that dying on the cross and rising again. He made forgiveness possible my sins to be forgiven and that I can have eternal life. So thank you for saving me. Thank you for loving me. I put my faith, my trust in you and together everyone said, amen.