First Desire - Colossians 1:15-23 - Deeper

All right, hey guys, at all of our locations, we have probably at some point in our life used this phrase. We tell people, hey, we want to put first things first, right?

Many of us have said that before. We say it in a variety of different ways. At home we say it.

We say it maybe with teams at work or if you're coaching a team or in a classroom or something like that. We'll say, hey guys, let's put first things first, right? So I think about this with my kids, for example. They may want to, they may be very concerned when we're getting out of the door to go to school in the morning. Their highest concern is, do I have the football or basketball for recess, okay? And we have to say, hey guys, that's fine, but do you have your homework? Do you have your backpack? Do you have your books?

Do you have lunch, right? We want to keep first. We got to keep, that's fine.

The basketball is great. The football is great, but we got to keep first things first because there is an ordering. This is kind of part of the wise life before God.

There's an ordering of what should be prioritized, right? I think about this a couple of years ago, a few years ago now, actually, my family and I, we were going to get into camping, okay? That lasted for about two trips, okay? But we were going to get into camping and so we went, we went, the first time we went, man, we had all the stuff and I, you know, we get there and we're, you know, the kids are really little. This has been, this has got to have been like eight years ago. I mean, I remember it was just Hattie, Joe and A.P.

and they were really young and they're running around. We're at Hanging Rock State Park, okay? And I'm there and I'm doing all the dad stuff.

I've got, man, we got our s'mores stuff. We got the Coleman Lantern, you know, getting that thing fired up the first time and getting everything going. And the sun begins to kind of go down and Anna says, hey, we need to get the tent up so that, you know, you guys see where this is going first things first. We need to get the tent up so that, you know, we, you know, we get by bedtime.

Oh, no problem, babe. I go, well, I forgot the tent, okay? I had the s'mores, all right? I had the s'mores stuff, but I didn't have the tent. I had to actually call Bob Pastor Bobby Harrington to come and grab the tent from my house and meet me so that I could get it up before bedtime that night.

And it was just funny because I think about that story and many of you have stories maybe like this. Maybe it's not, you know, it's first things first, like, hey, it's great to have the s'mores, great to have the Coleman Lantern, but we got to think about what's prioritized, right? First things first, maybe it's somebody here that you deal with this at work where you're talking to somebody and they're all flustered because of the marketing campaign or they don't like the colors on whatever and you're trying to gently get them to remember you have a very important sales call today, right? You're trying to get them to see, like, man, I understand that you want that to get a little better, but there's something really major right in front of you.

And what do we end up saying in those situations? Many times we'll end up saying, guys, we have to keep first things first. Well, here's the trick, one of the tricks of the Christian life, wisdom before God. We are all balancing a million things categorically, okay? We're trying to, you know, we got work stuff and we got family stuff and we got kids stuff and we got their activities and we got exercise and we got our health and we got spiritual stuff and community group and there's a million things that we're trying and part of wisdom before God is figuring out in what order those things come.

Like they're all great, they're all good stuff, they're all exciting stuff. How do we order them in a way that is honoring to God? Well, here's the kicker and this is what we end up seeing from Colossians chapter one, okay?

Here's a copy of Scripture, you can turn me to Colossians chapter one. This is what we see. There is no ordering in the right way if you don't actually put, listen, what is first first. It's even funny to me that we will say the phrase first things.

That's modern, okay? I told you, like we, you know, the word priority for 500 years was singular in the English language and then our generation comes along and we're like, well, I have all these priorities in my life. No, priority means what is first.

What is preeminent? You can't honor God with all of the ordering if we can't even get what is first first. And that's what we're going to talk about here this weekend. Guys, if you have your deeper book, I hope that you do, all right? So we've been walking with these, you guys have been carrying with them with you to group and all that. We're going to be in page 61 today, so that's where your sermon notes and all are.

But I want to do this. I know not everybody's been here the last couple of weeks, man, people have crazy lives out of town. There's a lot of sickness going around. If you need one of these books here right now today or at our campuses, man, could you just raise your hand for us and we're going to get some of our team to try to put one of these books in your hand. They're in the back. They're coming right now. They're going to put one of these in your hand. So, man, as they come forward, they're going to be passing these out our campuses as well.

As you see them, you can just slip one up. Page 61 is where we're going to be. And here's the big idea for the sermon this weekend. This idea of first things first. Jesus Christ is preeminent. That means first, okay?

That's what preeminence means. It means he is first. He is before all things. Now, this is the question that we want to really get at here this weekend, this idea. If Christ is first, and what we're going to see in the scripture today is he is first.

Here's the question. Is he first in our life? He is first. What we believe about him don't change who he is or what he is, okay?

That don't change. But he is first. Is he first in our life?

And that's where we want to try very hard to get today. What is number one in our life? What is before all things in our life? What is preeminent in our life? You know another way to say this, what's deepest in our life? What's the deepest desire of our life?

What's our first desire? Man, it should be whatever is actually first, and that is Christ. Look what it says in Colossians 1, 15. He is the image of the invisible God. We're just going to talk all about Jesus today, okay? We're just going to talk about who he is, man, who he is to us.

Let's talk about who he is. He is the image of the invisible God. See here, this is one of the greatest passages for who Jesus is, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. Now, Colossians 1, 15 through 20 is one of the most beautiful passages in scripture to talk about Christ. Actually, it was probably a hymn of the early church, okay? They probably used this language to praise Jesus and to teach each other and remind each other about who Jesus was, and it begins like this. It says that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Now, what can this mean? What does it mean that Jesus is the image of the invisible God? This is interesting to me. I hope it will be to you because the language of image is funny. It begins to kind of pull some things even from the Old Testament, even in the Greek, the word image actually is connected to, this is weird, it's connected to idolatry, all right? Think about image.

Think about what the Bible tells us in the Old Testament. We are never to create an image about God, right? You don't create graven images, why? Because trying to create an image of God will always conceal more than it reveals. When you try to make an image of God, it's like the second you made that image, you left so much out that it's a lie, and it can never actually capture who God is.

See, there's only two ways when you start thinking about making the image. Either you can make a fake image of the real God because you can never capture him, or you can make a real image, but it's going to be of a fake God, okay? So it's either a fake image of the real God, or it's a real image of the fake God. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

What does this mean? It means that in Christ we actually have the picture that we were forbidden to try to make. If you want to know God, if you want to see a manifestation of God, you don't carve it out or draw it or try to paint a picture. What we do is we go to the Word and we grab onto it, and we see who God is in the face of Jesus Christ. In Christ, we have a full image of God. We have a full understanding of God.

As he has been joined in the incarnation with humanity, we are then able to see a manifestation of God in a way that we can understand. And y'all, that, I mean, I know we're not even, you know, this is like Halloween time or whatever, but guys, I just want you to know, this is what Christmas is all about. So while we celebrate Christmas big at Mercy Hill, that's why this is hot off the press. We are going back to Tanger this year and going to celebrate, and hopefully this year it's going to be more than anything we've ever done in terms of trying to really invite the community in to celebrate and to understand who Christ is.

Why? Because it's a full manifestation of who God is when we see Christ. Hebrews 1 tells us this. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. It's very connected to Colossians chapter 1.

Jesus Christ is a perfect reflection of the life and character of God the Father. This is a truth that is so mind-blowing that we get a chance to see God in Christ. If you are new, and you're one of our canvases saying, you're one of these people, listen, every single week, we'll have 40, 50, 60, 70, sometimes first-time guests every single week on just an average week. And you know what that tells me?

It tells me that there are people, yes, that are moving in. Maybe some are mature believers and that kind of thing. There's also a lot of people that are like, man, I'm trying this out. I'm just trying it out. Like, I don't know.

There's some things in my life maybe that aren't working. I've always had questions. Somebody invited me.

Whatever it is. I've been with you guys a couple of weeks and we'll just see how it goes. If that's where you are, this is what I want to tell you, you're new to Bible, you're new to church, you're new to all this stuff, get to know Jesus from the Bible. Read about Jesus in the Bible, okay?

Get to know His, you know why? Because when you get to know Jesus, you are getting to know God. Jesus said this in John 14.9, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.

We get to know Him and the image that He has given us, which is Christ, and we get to know that image by reading about Him and the Word that He has given. And He also is the firstborn over all creation. That's what it says in verse 15, for by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority. So Jesus is not just the image of the invisible God, but the Bible tells us here that He is the firstborn of all creation. Maybe your translation says it like this, He is the firstborn over all creation. And actually, I think that gets at it a little bit better. Because the point here of this idea of firstborn is the idea of authority. Think about ancient world, think about monarch, who had all the authority, the firstborn son of the one who is able to empower, the one who is able to bestow kingship and authority.

That's what firstborn means here, okay? Don't get tripped up on this. There have been people in the past that have gotten super tripped up on this. There was a very classic heresy called Arianism. And you know what about Arianism? Arianism actually in a very early church, it was born out of trying to keep God from seeming like He was multiple gods because we have the Trinity, and also from seeming like He was just one God that had three different faces. You've probably heard this before. Something like, oh, God is like water, you know, but He can form, He can be ice, or He can be a liquid, or He can be a gas.

I'm going to tell you something right now. When you say the Trinity is like whatever you're about to say heresy, okay? So we don't want to say like, hey, the Trinity is like a, just stop right there. What we want to say is the Trinity is, it's not like a, okay? You have God, you have God in three persons.

It's unlike anything else in the world, it can't be something that we try to liken to a bunch of other things or else we'll get off track. And Arius was, and that's what he did. He started saying this. He said, well, clearly, to save us from this, you know, what I said, modalism and this polytheism, okay, if you want the names, to save us from this, we've got to say this, that Jesus is higher than humanity, but He's lower than God. Got no problem saying He was created.

Why? Well, it says He was the firstborn, right? He was the firstborn of all creation, therefore God created a creator, and that was Jesus. And y'all, that's wrong. It misses the meaning of the point here.

We don't need to go down that road. The meaning here is way more plain than that. And the meaning is that Jesus is the one who has been given all authority. That's what firstborn is getting at. This is why God said of David in Psalm 89, He said, I have made Him the firstborn.

What does that mean? David wasn't the firstborn. David was the youngest of all his brothers, but he was made the firstborn because he was made into one who had authority as a king should have. That's what he's getting at here, that Jesus Christ has the authority to be the Lord over our lives. You know, John 1.3 says it like this, and this is where we really get into authority, because what did it say? That all things were made by Christ.

Well, look what John 1.3 says. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Of course you become one who has all authority when you are the creator. Jesus Christ is the creator.

He is the one who has come and conceived and put into action. He has been very active in the creation of all that is, both visible and invisible, and I want you to think about that. You know, we have a lot, there's a lot of cult leaders that have popped up over thousands of years.

I think about our college students at Clifton and High Point this weekend. Many of you guys, there are college, there are cult leaders on the college campus, you know, and these things get very popular. I, you know, it's pretty bold for a cult leader to come out with, actually I created everything. I mean, I created the whole world, you know.

That's what we're talking about here. We're not talking about just another cult leader. We're talking about one who is the creator that then has come to join himself with creation in order to bring us salvation.

There's a rich, rich, rich text. It is very important that we would understand today that Jesus Christ is creator. He is first born. He is Lord over all.

Why? Well, what did the, what did the scripture actually say? It said over authorities and dominions, rulers.

What is that getting at? If you've been around the scripture very much, you understand that language is all about spiritual war. It's about the fact that there truly is a demonic realm.

The prince of the power of the air. There are demonic realms. There is demonic influence. And this is what he is getting at here in, in, in, in the Colossian church.

He's trying to get them to see. And I don't know, and this is one big debate, you know, with, with the book of Colossians and a lot of times the Bible's this way. I don't know exactly what they were facing.

Okay. He does that on purpose sometimes so that we can apply this widely as the church for the last 2000 years has faced persecutions and demonic influence and all that. They're probably facing some kind of demonic influence, demonic teaching, some type of heresy from the outside, some type of persecution from the Jews that are, that are not happy about the movement in that time. They're facing something like that. And they, and Paul is trying to remind them, guys, you got to remember that this, this, this whole thing is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

And there's nothing that's outside of his purview. That's hard for us at times when we're going through something hard. It's hard for us when we are dealing with the demonic influence, but it's good to remember. And we need to remember that right now. It's a good reminder for us today that Christ is there. He is Lord.

And there is nothing that is outside of his control. We need that today, y'all. We live in an evil, evil society. We live in an evil, evil world, evil times.

Okay. I mean, we, we just really do and you know, what's funny to me sometimes is as the culture kind of catches on to things like you will see that this time of year, right at the Halloween time of year is one of those very clear time of years for me where you can begin to see we are obviously under the sway of things that are very evil. And what's, what's so funny, and I mean that just an ironic way, it's not funny, but it's ironic that you will have a culture that is by and large rejecting the category categories of demons and the demonic and evil, yet are so obviously influenced by it.

Isn't that ironic? We reject the category, but you look around. You say, what do you mean? Well, I mean, just think about all the stuff right now. I was reading an article about, I'm not going to name it and I certainly would never put it before my eyes.

Okay. But I was reading an article the other day about a low budget horror film that is taking over Europe is come over here. It's starting to take over here. This is why it is gaining so much popularity because of the amount of gore and torture is having people throw up faint and call 911 in the movie theater.

That is why it is gaining such popularity. But we're not influenced by the demonic realm at all, right? You know what one of the most popular Halloween costumes this year is? Jeffrey Dahmer.

Because of a popular Netflix series that has come out and has taken the world by storm. I look at those things and all, the only point that I'm making is it is good news for the church that Jesus Christ is still Lord overall because we are obviously being influenced by the demonic realm. And listen, here's what I want you to, I know when we get into Halloween stuff, Christians love to get onto all these worship war, culture wars, and you should do this and you shouldn't do that. Man, at Mercy Hill, listen, we say we've got to have the maturity to understand with your family, with your kids, what you want to do, do you use it as mission, do you not participate? We need to have, there's going to be a robust debate on that.

We need to have the maturity to understand there's going to be freedom in that area. I'm going to tell you what you don't do. You don't dress your kid up like Satan or a serial killer. That's what you don't do, all right? And we don't mess around with this stuff.

Why? Well, because there is certainly demonic influence and evil that is out there and what we need to understand today is that we, listen, we as believers, and if you're not a believer today, you're one of our campuses, I don't know what you do with all this. I really don't, okay?

I don't know how, I don't know where you find your covering. I don't know how you live without fear because this stuff is totally real, all right? But if you're a believer, I'm going to tell you, we're not afraid. It's not because the demonic realm is fake or weak, it is neither. But we're not afraid because Jesus is real and strong. And that's why we are not afraid today.

Why? Because He is the creator of all. Because He is the firstborn over all creation. And that means that He has been given the authority of the one who can call the shots.

He is Lord over all. I don't know if you need to hear that today. You might be dealing with absolute spiritual war today. And you say, what does that look like? Man, it could look like a million things. It might look like a health issue that is demonic. It might look like a gossip issue that will not quit and is entirely confusing and divisive. I don't, it might look like a relationship that just cannot heal because people are believing lies and they're wrapped up in fear.

Man, I don't know what it is. But we have to continue to run to the one who is Lord over all. And this is not specifically a prayer sermon, but man, we pray God down in these situations. But we understand that He is doing things and He is over us and we submit to His Lordship in that. He is over all things.

Look at what it says in verse 16, okay. So He's the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn over all creation. Listen, all things were created through Him and for Him and He is before all things. And in Him all things hold together. Everything falls into chaos if it was not for the mind of Christ every millisecond.

Hebrews 1 told us the same thing. He holds all things together. He is the image of God, image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn in authority and He is before all things.

I love this. Everything was not only created by Him or through Him, but it was created for Him as well. You know what that means? I hope you understand what that's saying.

It means this. Jesus isn't just the agent of creation. He is the goal. It was created. He created it for His glory, for His honor, for the praise of His renown. This is why, if it is, it is His.

This is why there is anything. It is for Christ. He is not just the agent. He is the goal.

He is, and so this is what we've got to start wrestling with, all right. And I hope, as we're getting into this, I hope you're starting to see how it's connecting to deeper. Psalm chapter one. Hey, the idea of, man, what are the roots of your life seeking? I hope they're seeking what is first. I hope they're seeking what is preeminent. I hope they're seeking the image of the invisible God, the first born in terms of authority. I hope they are seeking the one that is before all things.

That's what this is about, y'all. He is before all things. The question is, is He before all things in your life?

The way I want to say it is this. He is first, is He first? He is first, right?

What we believe about that doesn't change what the Scripture is saying about it. He is first, is He first? Is He first in our life? Man, do we understand that from this passage. Everything is oriented towards Him. Go back to my knowledge in the beginning.

S'mores are great, sleeping bags are great, Coleman Landons are great, but you need the tent, right? First things first. I think about in our lives, what are we talking about throughout this series? The dreams that God has put in your heart are great. The things that, man, the things that you want to do with your kids, the things that maybe even possessions that you desire to have one day, those things are not wrong.

All right, when you think about ministry that the church wants to see and goals that we set because, you know, we want to be good leaders and we feel like that's a good tool and we set goals, these things are great. They're not first. First things are first. What is first? What is one first? Priority?

500 years, one meaning, singular. What is first? What is preeminent? And it is Christ. And this is what I'm trying to get us to see. And this is what Colossians 1 does, and I bet you if I could ask somebody from the early church, they're going to say, this is why we sang the hymn of Christ that you guys are preaching on in Colossians 1 because it's hard to remember to keep first things first. Sometimes it's easy to put secondary things in a first position. And what Colossians 1 is trying to get us to see is like, man, God is first. We were created for God, not the other way around. It's His world, not our world. One author said it like this, there is a God and it's not you.

And it's not me, right? There is a God, but it's not us. International best-selling book 20 years ago, The Purpose Driven Life, 50 million copies, 130 languages. Do you know why I think that is because of the first sentence of the book which says, it's not about you.

And people read that and they're like, man, I got to think about that for a while. I got to put that down and I got to think about that for just a little while. God is not here just for our comfort. We are here for His glory.

And that is comforting. And He is all these things to us, but that is not. It's not like He has come into our life for that. He is created for us.

It is exactly the other way around. In 1543, Nicholas Copernicus, okay, he came out with his book, The Revolutions, and they say that he actually got a whole copy of it on his deathbed. All right, it was six, it was, you know, multiple volumes, all this incredibly complicated math that I would have no chance of understanding in a lifetime, okay? And all this, what was the whole thing that he was getting at? And of course, you know, other guys, Kepler and some of these, they took it a lot farther. But what was the basic idea? Somebody believed in a geocentric theory of the way that planets worked, meaning the earth is in the middle, and everything else goes around. And Copernicus comes along, and he says, man, that's not right.

The sun is in the center, and every, it's a heliocentric model, and everything else goes around. Colossians 1 is trying to get a church like Mercy Hill, a family like the Hoppers, a dude like Andrew, people just like you, to understand we all at times need a Copernican revolution of the soul to remember, wait a minute, oh, oh, I forgot, actually, I'm not at the center. Actually, it's not all about me, right? That I was created for God and His glory. Christ created, through Him, all things are created for Him, all things are created. He's not just the agent, He is the goal, that we would praise and honor and glorify God, and many of us need that today. And here's the deal, we're gonna get into this in a few minutes, but when we begin to understand that He is first, our lives radically change. All of a sudden, the ordering of things that I was kind of talking about, all good stuff, man, it begins to radically change, because what is first becomes first.

You know what, though? This is what's so beautiful about the gospel, it's what's so beautiful about texts like this in Colossians 1. I have preached now for whatever, 20-something minutes about this. God is first, He is Lord, but you know what, this is the beauty of the gospel. Jesus doesn't just lord you, He loves you.

He's not just a detached, distant, authority type figure that is Lord, man, He's also a lover. Look what it says in verse 18, and He is the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, think about this with me church, He's not just the first born in authority, He's the first born from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent, for in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. This is the point where we begin to lean in, I pray, and here's what we say, somebody in here, somebody at our campuses are like, man, I don't believe that Jesus is first.

Maybe you don't, but after we get done with this, you're going to want to. Even if you're like, man, I can't get there intellectually, I hope you're going to want this to be true, because what this means is that there is a God that is not just Lord, but He's a lover, and He wants you, and He was desirous of you, and He was ready to give His life to bring you in to His family, and into His kingdom. That's what this passage is about, y'all, the rest of this passage that I've read here is not just about a distant, powerful creator God, it's about a God who loves you more than you know, it's about a God who loves you more than you ever dare to hope. How do we know that God loves us in this way? Here's how we know, because Jesus isn't just the first born in authority, He is the first born from the dead. What does this mean that He has made peace by the blood of His cross, that He has reconciled us by the blood of His cross?

Here's what it means. It means that you and I, in our sin, are rebels against God. Brief history of time here, okay? God creates out of an overflow. He didn't create because He needed a friend, okay? He created so that there would be, like an artist, create something that's artistic and it's to His praise of how good of an artist He is. Well, think about the world and the stars and think about the mountains and the springs, but all that pales in comparison to the human, to the person given His image, right? And He has created this wonderful paradise, but what did His image do?

What did His image bearers do? Man, they rebelled against God and they fractured His creation and you and I did nothing but participate willingly from the earliest times that we can remember. The things that we have done, the things that we've said to each other, the things that we've thought about others, the sexual sin in our life, holding on to anger, the sins of omission, times that we could have stepped into somebody's life and we decided to hold on to our time, talent, and treasure.

A lot of things that we have been willing participants in this rebellion and what do we deserve because of that? We deserve to be cast out, held forever, never brought into His family, not a chance to enter paradise again, but Jesus Christ stepped into our shoes. And Jesus Christ, that incarnation that we're going to celebrate, it's anger, okay?

He can't, what did He do? Man, He lived life for us and He died a death that we deserve and then in His resurrection He offers us the opportunity to live in a newness of life once again. This is what it means that He's the first born from the dead. It's not just that He's the first born in authority, but He is the first born from the dead. In His resurrection, He proves Himself to be who He said He was and He gives us the chance by faith to come into His family once again.

That's the big deal about the resurrection. You guys know Halloween 1926, okay, maybe you've heard this, maybe you've heard of this guy before, a guy named Harry Houdini, okay? He died in 1926 Halloween. And Harry Houdini took the world by storm in the early 1900s because he was the greatest escape artist of all time.

He could escape handcuffs, he escaped being buried alive, they did these crazy water torture tank things that he would get out of, straight jackets, the whole deal, and he took the world by storm because he was willing to put himself at risk and all of that. As he was dying, he told his wife that if anybody could escape death, it would be him. And he wanted her to be listening for him to communicate with her years after he was gone.

And she did. Year after year, through seance and through all these different things, tried to communicate because she was holding on to this hope that Harry Houdini, the one escape artist, if there was anybody in the world that could do it, it would be Harry Houdini that he could escape death. And then years after he died, on the anniversary, there was a worldwide broadcast of a seance where the person leading the seance really tried one last time to get in touch with Harry Houdini and began to say, Harry, are you there? Harry, are you there? Speak to us if you are there. And of course, there was absolute silence because no one escapes death, right? There's absolute silence.

And so they asked Harry's wife, they said, what do you believe about this or what's your, you know, reaction to this or whatever. Here's what she said, Houdini did not come through and my last hope is gone. I do believe he cannot come back to me or to anyone.

It is finished. I turn out the light. You don't escape death. You don't come back from death unless you're the son of God. But if you're the son of God and you willingly gave your life over the same spirit that actually ends up in dwelling the Holy Spirit and dwells the church and dwells you, that same spirit woke Jesus Christ up from the dead. Jesus assured his disciples when he was on this earth, I will come back. And he told them so.

And he didn't, he didn't fail on that promise. He burst forth three days later in life. And in that life, we have the opportunity to join with him by our faith. That's what it means that he's the first born from the dead.

Don't you understand? He doesn't just lord over you. He loves you. He loves you to the point of dying for you.

He loves you to the point of giving his life over for you. Romans 8, 29 says it like this, in order that he might be the first born among many brothers. Why did Jesus go to the cross?

Why did he walk through the grave? Why did he come bursting forth in the resurrection so that he could be the first born among all us? And that we by faith would be joined to him. And being joined to him, we would experience life not just on this earth, but life eternal. See I don't know if you believe today, but man you should want this to be true.

Because there is a God who is lord but also a lover. And there is a God who has given you life so that you could come in. And now one day we will walk in the new heavens and the new earth. Aslan's country is out there for us. As the Old Testament says, listen, if the trees are going to clap and the mountains are going to sing, what are we going to do when we get there? Join to him.

It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful picture. This is who Christ is. He's not just first in authority, but he's first born from the dead.

Now, here's the rest of the whole sermon, y'all, if we believe that, what changes in our life? Man, if we honestly believe that he is who he says he is, and he is first in this way, what changes about our life? Here's the question in terms of application, y'all, is Christ first in your life? He is first, is he first, okay? He is first. Is he first in our lives?

In other words, are we conforming to the reality that we understand from the scripture? Remember, image of God. Without the image of God, without the image of the invisible God, we are left with our imaginations about God. And what we'll do is this. We'll fill them in. He'll look like us. He'll talk like us. He'll vote like us. He'll think like us. He'll be a genie in a bottle just for us. If we don't have the image of God, that's where our mind will go.

We'll be left with nothing but imagination, but we have the image of the invisible God. We have the fullness. The fullness was to dwell in Him. That idea at the end of that passage about the fullness of God in Christ, I want you to think about the fullness of God in dwelling a temple.

It's the fullness of God in Christ. We have that in Him. We can see who He is. He is first.

Is He first in our life? Here's the problem. This is where the rubber meets the road for every Christian pretty much every day, okay? The things that I know clashing with the things that are actually true in my life. I know it here, but man, is it working its way out in my life.

Am I conforming my life to the reality of who Christ is? I was listening to the Dave Ramsey podcast the other day, and here's what he said. There was a, you know, people call into the show, and we do financial piece stuff here. But here's what the lady said. She said, my son has become sick, and he's, and, and, you know, he's going to get, he's going to get better, but for this time, I've left the workplace in order to come home. And we had two incomes, and now we have one. Okay, but here's what she said.

We didn't change anything about our life. So two incomes down to one, but we've changed nothing about our life, and she calls into the Dave Ramsey show to try to figure out, you know, how do they make it work or whatever. And you know, if you've ever listened to him, he just basically says, it don't work, okay?

That don't work. I mean, here's what he said. He said, hey, you are a hero for what you have done, leaving your, you know, leaving your career to sacrifice yourself for one of your kids.

Man, I pray that many of us would do that, and I pray that our groups would come around us in that time and all that stuff. He said, you're a hero for what you've done, but listen, he said, being a hero don't give you a pass on math. What's he saying?

What's he getting at? There is a reality that is out there. Are you conforming your life to what that reality is? Now, here's the problem. Many of us, and I'm in this boat too, all right, many of us were like, man, I know who Christ is. I see this. I believe the hymn of Christ. I believe that he is first. But is that permeating our life? Is it actually conforming everything in our life around that reality that there is a priority singular? There is a preeminent one.

Don't you understand what it said? He is before all things. If he is before all things, then what does that mean in our life?

See, many of us can say, at times in my life, I'm exactly this way, and this, this series has shaken me and Anna up thinking about this. We can all say, Christ is first, I understand that. But then we got to do some examination.

We got to say, man, what does my life say about what I say is first in my life? Because here's, and if you want a quick way to examine it, it's very fast. You look at time and treasure, calendar and cash, okay?

That's it. Time and treasure, calendar and cash. What fills our calendar and empties our bank account, that kind is pretty revealing, right? That's pretty revealing about what is first in our life.

And that's why, guys, I don't know if you have it with you today or you put it somewhere in the first, in the first sermon, I said, man, put it somewhere so you may not have it with you today. But, guys, that's why we love this tool in terms of a commitment card for what we are going to go through together in a couple of weeks in November. You know why I love this commitment card? Because it is a simple tool that, listen, what we put first gets, gets, gets outed pretty fast when we begin to think about what goes in our calendar and what goes, and where does that, where does our, you know, cash go, where does our, you know, what empties our bank account.

And that's what this card is about. This card can kind of be a tool to help us see, wait a minute, you know, what I say is that Christ is first. But when I look at my calendar and I look at what empties my bank account, it kind of feels like my kid's sports are first. You know, it's like, I know what I say is first, but it kind of feels like a retirement account is first. Or what it kind of feels like is a mortgage is first. It's almost like this passage is saying, buy a mortgage, for a mortgage, through a mortgage, through a mortgage, like a mortgage is before all things. I don't know what's coming up in your life, but that's kind of the idea. If Christ is preeminent, the reason we love this card and want our church to use it, this is why we're talking about 100% engagement and we're talking about a goal that we want to hit for mission.

Man, we want to hit our goal for mission, but the primary goal is 100% engagement. Why? Because it gets at the heart pretty fast in terms of what is the first thing in our life. You know, I shared this with you kind of a couple weeks ago in terms of me and Anna wrestling.

We're not wrestling much anymore. We've kind of landed where even things I'm talking about right now, as I'm saying, at least for the next two years, the next 25 months of our life, what we're saying is Christ, if you are preeminent, God, if you are first, if you are first desire, if you are deepest desire, this shouldn't that be reflected in the line line of our monthly budget that we shouldn't say for us. We shouldn't say, you know, a mortgage is before all things. What we want to try to say is, no, no, no, Christ, you, your kingdom, your mission is before all things.

And for the next 25 months, man, we want that to be something that is on paper in front. Now I don't know how that hits you or what's going on. There's a thousand different ways it doesn't have to be that, okay? There's a thousand different ways that people in our church are wrestling with this. But it's this idea, the reality of the preeminence of Christ, who is first?

Is he first in my life? You all heard a story this week about a family in our church that has been saving up for a weekend-type recreational car, okay? And that is so cool.

I don't know what it is. I didn't ask them, but I hope that it was a Bronco, okay? Because they're so awesome. You guys have seen the new Broncos, all right? They're not as cool as the old Broncos, but they're cool. Guys, what a cool thing for a family. I mean, seriously, what a cool thing for a family, you know? To have a goal like that, to think about that, God's pushing on them.

He's moving them, moving their heart around. They're like, nope, we're doing that in two years. We're not taking off the table, but we're not doing it in the next two years, because God's doing something in us right now, and we want to go forward in the mission in this way. Man, radical. What an awesome story that is another family that's putting off a home renovation. Listen, we have college students right now.

This is so cool. We had a college student that just gave their life to Christ after three years on the campus of witnessing and prayer and all that, gave their life to Christ, just in the last few months have been baptized. They hear the deeper stuff, never given anything, and said, man, I don't have much to give, but I want to make a commitment. I want my heart to follow my treasure. I mean, what does that mean? What's first? What's coming up first? Y'all, I'm wearing this shirt.

You're like, man, it looks very busy. It's cool, okay? That's what that means, all right? This is our student shirt. This is our student deeper shirt, and all of our students got one of these. Don't you know, at Advanced Commitment Night, 15 middle school and high school students went first and made a commitment for deeper. 15 of them, saying, hey, we want our hands to reflect what is in our heart. Maybe God is capturing us in a new way.

Don't you, I mean, it doesn't just fill you up to think about what's going on there. The reality is conforming. Our behavior is conforming to the reality of what God is doing, right, and who He is. He is first. Is He first?

Is He first? You know, the other part of this, and I'm going to wrap up with this, guys, the other part of this, and you know this, is my wrestling match with where we are as a church 10 years in, because I know how I'm wired, and what I want to say is, like, man, this is what's needed. Like, it's just, it's just very linear for me. Like, I'm like, man, the next steps are clear. It feels to me like most people looking in are kind of like, yeah, I mean, we bought land last year, new home and hub, other things that we're going to do, you know, all the stuff that we want. It feels pretty clear what we need to do, but what's scary about that for me is that we would jump straight to the mission as if it's first.

It's important, but it's not first. We do, man, second, we mean it when we say secondary goal is to raise $30 million over the next two years. Why do we want to do that? Maybe we want to do that because we believe this new home and hub for the regional campus is going to be something that helps spend church plants and campuses all over our community and revitalize dying churches all over our community for the next 20 years. We want to see a worship academy that starts with the youngest in our church and goes all the way up. It's time for Mercy Hill, and I've not seen another church do this, okay? We need to stop finding musicians and start building them from a very young age all the way up. It's going to come a day when we're able to equip entire church plants with entire bands and production people because we have valued that, and we have put money into that, and we have helped parents equip. Man, we're not asking you to go find somebody to teach your kid how to play. Let's do that in the church. Man, let's try to figure out how to do that here. New worship academy.

I think about other things. Man, planting new campuses around, you guys have seen, we're looking at different areas in our community. Hey, a massive investment in the foster care system right here in our counties in a real mind-blowing way, praying for something that maybe has never been done in our community. Church planting. Guys, we have four family churches. We have planted a bunch of churches over ten years.

I mean like a dozen, okay? But we have parented four, and we're going to continue down that road, man, thinking about missions, sending people all over the place. I love this picture because the brother that is here was just in our church like a year ago.

I mean, somebody in your community group, now doing what we do here except doing it among the unreached, and I think about how many more we're going to be able to send church. This stuff is awesome. It gets me up in the morning.

I can't wait. Man, there's a mountain. Let's go.

We need to get there. It's not first. God is first. Christ is before all things. He is preeminent, and we put Him first in our life, and everything else goes.

Let Psalm 1, alright, I'm done, Psalm 1, what is it? Find the water. Find the water. The tree does. Wakes up every day. Where are the roots of my life going for? Let's go after what is first, alright? Man, you guys check out this testimony of a family in our church that's doing that very thing.