Um, I'm getting a little older.
I appreciate you saying no.
But from a distance, you can't see the gray hair.
But once you get up close, you like, Oh, this brother's getting old.
You know what I'm saying?
And as you get older, you start to realize that slum up some of the slang
terms you use are no longer in fashion.
Did you ever notice that?
You say things and people are like, I don't know what you're talking
about, you know, or you hear things and you're like, what does that mean?
And so I reached that, that, that status in my life now.
And that's pretty humbling for me because I want to be in the know.
Uh, but, but I do try to stay in the know with my kids there and even drop
some lines on them that they don't know.
I'm like, Oh, you didn't know that one, did you?
And so anyhow, I've been watching the NBA playoffs and uh, you know, we obviously
have some political stuff going on.
There's a lot going on in the world.
But there's a lot vying for positions to be, you know, back
in the day, we would say the man.
And like, yo, he's the man.
That dude's a beast.
He's a savage.
You guys get what I'm saying?
I'm seeing some people nod their heads.
You know what I'm talking about.
Okay.
But things change and, you know, there's some new terminology,
uh, that's taking place.
Like, he's him.
See the young people got that.
The old folks, y'all didn't get that.
You're like, what'd he say?
Or, uh, you know, that's, he's that guy or she's that girl and, uh,
meaning that they're the man or the woman, you get what I'm saying?
And so as I've been, you know, hearing these things and thinking about these
things, it made me start thinking about Jesus, how Jesus really is him.
He's the himothy.
He's that guy.
And so that's actually the title for our sermon today is Jesus is that guy.
And for my old folks, I help you out here.
Jesus is the man.
Okay.
All right, just so that you know what we're talking about.
Okay.
All right.
So Jesus is that guy.
Can we go to the father in prayer?
Let's go father.
We are so grateful for who you are the fact that Jesus reveals you to us
the fact that we get a chance to call you father Abba daddy because of our
relationship with you through your son.
Father, I've been excited.
I've been inspired over the last couple of days and especially just
delving more into this, uh, topic of your son, Jesus, and seeing who he
is and being able to appreciate again all that he is and all that he does.
Father, I pray right now that you will allow us to be in awe of you.
You allow us to be inspired and come away with stronger convictions about who
you are, how much you love us and our response to all of that in Jesus name.
Amen.
We're going to study out a little bit of the book of Colossians.
And so, uh, the apostle Paul wrote a letter that To the church that met
in the city of Colossae and, uh, he really is trying to, uh, refute and
deal with some false doctrine that's starting to take place in the church.
And really this doctrine, we don't know the particulars of it, but we
do understand that basically what's taking place is, you know, they need
to correct that, that somehow Jesus was being lowered in their view.
And so Colossians is really trying to help the church there, uh, uh, get away
from this false doctrine and remember who Jesus is in our response to Jesus.
And so we're going to take it up in Colossians chapter 1.
Church, are you with me?
Colossians chapter 1, it reads, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the
will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to God's holy people in Colossae, the
faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.
Grace and peace to you from God, our Father.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.
Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.
And of the love you have for all God's people.
The faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven.
And about which you have already heard.
The faith of Jesus Christ.
And love that spring from the hope, uh, well, that's
something happened there, right?
Okay.
All right.
Uh, the whole sort of for you in heaven about what you have already heard in
the true message of the gospel that has come to you in the same way.
The gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world.
Just that is has been doing among you since the day you
heard it and truly understood.
God's grace.
You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful
minister of Christ on our behalf.
And who has also told us of your love in the spirits.
We'll stop right there.
Then he goes on in verses nine through 14 and talks about the
prayer that he has for the church.
And then we take it up in verse 15.
He says, the son is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation.
For in Him, all things were created.
Things in heaven and on earth.
Visible and invisible.
Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authority, all things
have been created through Him.
And for him he is before all things and in him all things hold together And he
is the head of the body the church He is the beginning and the firstborn from
among the dead so that in everything he might have the supremacy For god was
pleased to have all his fullness dwell In him 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 Once you were alienated from god and were
enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior But now he has reconciled you
by christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without
blemish and free from accusation If you continue in your faith established and
firm and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel this is the gospel that
you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of
which I Paul have become a Servant we'll stop right there G right now Paul really
breaks down and he really highlights this point that Jesus is that guy That Jesus
is the man a few years ago back in LA.
I preached a sermon called Jesus El Presidente You're not
there was around political time.
He like Jesus is the president.
He's the man He's the God and we see this in the scriptures laid out But
makes me think who are the people today that we think are that guy
who are some of those individuals?
Maybe it's the Wayne the rock Johnson He, you know, he swole, he got those
big muscles, you know what I mean?
Man, we think it's, uh, I don't know, Ryan Gosling or Ryan Reynolds and,
and the actors there or Michael B.
Jordan.
Uh, Tom, uh, Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes.
Lionel Messi, uh, LeBron James, uh, James Bezos, right?
Mark Zuckerberg, all these guys, Bill Gates, all these guys, we can think,
man, they're that guy, they're the man.
You know, I personally can think of, uh, Gabe Strobel.
I think of Chris Lewis, you know what I'm saying?
Chris Kitty Barber, right?
I can think of those guys.
I think of Charles Lennox, you know, like mine.
They're the guy, you know what I'm saying?
That's that dude right there, you know, but usually when we think
of this, what are the reasons?
Why?
Usually what they maybe have money power.
They're very intelligent.
People we think are, are charismatic, uh, best in their
field, or just flat out cool.
Right?
These are the people, the traits that we think of when we think
of people being that guy, that, that, that, that guy or that girl.
But this passage reveals that Jesus is more than all of them together.
That Jesus is far superior than any man who's ever walked the earth.
Than any woman who's ever walked the earth.
Jesus is all in it all because Jesus is everything.
And we see this in the scripture and we see this and I want us to break down
this Colossians one Passage and so we see several things that the Apostle
Paul mentioned He says an Apostle of Christ Jesus brothers and sisters in
Christ faith in Christ Jesus and a minister of Christ you see for Paul
he was bringing back the church to remember that Everything is about Jesus.
It's all about him.
And so he refers to everything in accordance into their
relationship to Jesus.
You know, oftentimes we can think of Paul's spirituality.
We're like, man, Paul is so cool.
But we forget him.
Paul would probably rebuke all of us.
It's not about me.
It's about him.
It's about Jesus.
You know, the term Christian, many of us know here in the room, the term Christian
actually came from non Christians.
In the first century, the brothers and sisters, they kept going around and kept
talking about Jesus being the Christ.
And they were talking about the Christ came the anointing when the Messiah came
and they kept talking about it And they were trying to bring people to the faith
to know the Christ And so these non christians they actually started making
fun of these people and they were like hey Those are those people that keep talking
about the Christ those little Christ.
Those are those Christians And you say, well, why did that happen?
Because they, that their life was about Jesus.
They kept talking about Christ.
There's a man named Pliny, the younger, he's now credited as a Roman historian.
And he wrote a letter in the year one 10 AD to the Roman emperor.
And he says, as he mentioned that the follower of Christ.
Gathered early in the morning.
Hallelujah.
I don't know if this is early in the morning, but we're
gathering in the morning.
He says they gathered early in the morning to chant a song to Christ as if to a God.
And so he's taking observation because the church is springing up is spreading.
The gospel is moving.
And he writes this letter and he's like, hey, they keep talking about this Christ.
And in fact, they get together in the morning and they chant songs
to Christ as if he was a God.
Yeah.
Again, this is observation because the church it was all about the Christ.
It was all about Jesus and as we go and we continue we can see why it has to
always be about Jesus the Christ look over in Colossians chapter 1 in verse
15 here We're gonna break this down some it says the Sun is the image of
the Invisible God did you catch that?
Man, it always makes me pause every time I read that passage.
I'm like, Whoa, the sun is the image of the invisible God.
You see God in the flesh in Jesus.
That's incredible.
I mean, just imagine if you were in the first century and you
were able to touch Jesus hand.
You wouldn't even realize, but you were touching the creator of life.
To be able to get a hug, to be able to see into the eyes.
You're like, well, I'm looking into the creator of all.
I mean, that's just, that just blows my mind to think about that, that he
is the image of the invisible God.
And it says he is the first born over all creation.
And, and this can have a duality in its meaning there in, in, in time,
but really the first born was really talking about his rank and status.
really his supremacy as the firstborn over all creation.
We go to verse 16 and it says for in him, all things were created.
All things have been created through him and through him.
For him he created the heavens and earth what's visible the tangible
and the invisible The things that we cannot see thrones and powers rulers
and authorities He created all of these and then it says for him Wow
That's incredible Then we go on and it says here that in him all things hold
together You know, we can be impressed when people are able to balance their
checkbook, their schedule and get good grades or do well at their job, right?
But here we have Jesus.
He has all these things and he holds them together.
He is the creator.
He is the sustainer of life.
Jesus is the beginning of creation, the end of creation, and the
goal for the end of the world.
He has the power and he has the power to hold creation together.
Jesus.
Is that guy we continue, it says, and he is the head of the body in
everything he might have the supremacy.
Jesus is the head of it all.
He's the man in charge.
He's the boss.
He is Lord of all.
He's the shot caller.
He's our president.
He's the man.
He's the boss.
Says he is the head, the leader, the head honcho of it all.
And then it goes on and it says, for God was pleased to have all.
Not some, not most, not much, but all his fullness dwell in Christ.
All the fullness.
Is embodied in Jesus.
When you look at the sun, you see the father.
And we want to know what would God be like as a human being?
How would he maneuver?
How would he think?
How would he behave?
How would he interact?
We have that answer in the son, Jesus.
And we go, wow, Jesus's love, his patience, his strength,
his power, his conviction, his warning, all of that is God.
And so the fullness of God, the fullness, how do you have
the fullness of God captured?
We can't really, but it's captured in Jesus.
So as he walked on earth, we're talking about God's holy presence touching
the floor and touching the ground.
That's His words are the words of eternal life.
All the fullness of God.
Dwells in Jesus we continue it says through him talking about Jesus to
reconcile all Things whether things on the earth or things in heaven by making
peace through his blood Jesus is one who reconciles all things there was animosity
there was tension There was a separation, but Jesus brings it together Not just
what's on earth, but what's in heaven, man, that's a whole theology right there.
We don't have time to get into, but all you can say is wow to
that is that he reconciles it.
How through his blood, his precious, his pure, untainted
blood that was shed up on the cross for you and for me.
And the incredible thing is only he could do that.
No other saint, no other, uh, patriarch, no other matriarch, nobody on the
face of the earth from the beginning of time from Adam until now could
actually make peace for you and me with God because they have sinned.
So therefore they no longer qualify as a righteous atonement and sacrifice for God.
But there's Jesus.
He's the only one who can and did.
And then we continue and it says he reconciled you by Christ's physical
body through death to present you holy without blemish and free from accusation.
Jesus makes you holy, sacred, separated, and set apart for God.
He's made you pure and righteous.
Like man, I don't know if i've ever had one righteous day in my life, but
because of christ you are righteous in god's sight Without blemish you go man.
I got that perfect figure.
Well, I don't know about that, but you got the perfect spiritual figure Without
blemish and free from accusation we can accuse ourselves can't we And we can
definitely have others accuse us But jesus says before the throne of god you
stand without accusation That's incredible Jesus is that God, you know in Hebrews
and in Acts chapter 3, it says that he's the author of life the originator and the
perfecter of our faith Jesus is Lord of all because of his role in creation and
because of his role in the redemption of mankind Jesus is Lord Means he's master.
He's ruler.
He's divine.
He is Lord of all And you know, we have the election coming up and uh,
we're not going to talk politics I know some of you went there your
blood pressure already started going up You want to get on your soapbox?
This is not the time and please don't do it on social media.
Okay.
All right And so here's the thing here.
It made me start thinking You know There's many titles and
roles and authority for the u.
s.
Presidents You The U.
S.
President is called, uh, the head of state.
Uh, some, some other things, the head of government, the leader of the free world.
Man, that's, that's a huge title right there.
The commander in chief.
But then when we think about Jesus and we compare and contrast his titles,
here are some that we find in scripture.
He's the wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince
of peace, the holy one of God.
Bright Morning Star, The Lion, The Lamb, The Beginning and End, The First
and Last, The Alpha and Omega, Lord and Savior, Son of Man and Son of God.
Those are some lofty titles right there, aren't they?
Leader of the Free World, Leader of the Creation and Universe.
Hmm.
Jesus is that guy.
I think the roles and authority for our presidents, they're the
executive, the leader of the executive branch of our government.
They sign and veto bills, they lead the armed forces, they appoint judges, uh,
uh, uh, cabinet members, ambassadors.
And then we go back to Jesus and we get reminded of his authority and we go back
to Colossians one in verse 18, and he is the head of the body, the church.
That's the universal church.
He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead so that in
everything he might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to
reconcile to himself all things whether things on earth or things in heaven.
And so we think if we compare we contrast Jesus's authority his role and we see
he's the ruler of heaven and earth.
He's the head of the executive branch of the kingdom of heaven His word is the
law of life We're judged by his word.
It doesn't just provide it but that's the standard by which we are
judged He appoints angels and he can direct nature wind Fire storms wind
with sun all that he has control over that and the power of life and
death And the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus is that guy.
He's the man.
He's El Presidente.
Jesus is something else.
He's someone in which we should be in all of when we get a
chance to reflect on who he is.
And that's really why I'm talking about this today.
Because I believe it's so vital.
For our souls, our faith that we remember who it is that we serve and follow.
We need a time where we take a step back and we reflect and we get a chance to
appreciate which I believe leads to all which leads to inspiration and leads to
more depth in our relationship with him.
Because we can tend to drift or easily forget and lose hearts
when we don't remember, can't we?
I know for me, you guys, a lot of you guys have this.
Uh, you have smartphones and you have the opportunity with your
photos to take a picture and it can blur out like the background.
You guys know what I'm talking about?
Some of you have iPhones, you don't know what I'm talking about, right?
You can't do that feature, right?
You can't, Oh, I went there.
All right.
I'm sorry.
You know, I always got to play with my iPhone people, right?
All right.
So, but on phones, right?
On pictures, right?
You can, you can have focus, right?
And what does it do?
It blurs the background, right?
And so you see something more clearly, but it blurs the background, highlighting
the picture, making it really cool.
You know, I can do that spiritually where I start to blur Jesus and
everyone focused on other things.
Can you relate and a lot of times these things are really good.
They're not bad things But they become my focus and Jesus starts to fade to
the background and gets a little blurry He's there, but he's not in focus.
You get what I'm saying?
And so that can affect my faith and then it affects my demeanor my response
to life The way I start to think the way I interact and I see it and and
honestly then I start to I start to lose some of the inspiration for what
I do and I focus in on the frustration and the challenges and start like,
man, why am I doing this again?
Why am I enduring this?
And really it's because Jesus went from the focus to the blur.
And so we need time to reverse that so that Jesus becomes our focus.
And other things fade to the background.
You get what I'm saying, church.
And so I believe it's so vital that we get a chance to remember who
it is that we serve and follow.
That's what Paul was trying to get.
Hey, you, you, you got some things going.
It's getting twisted.
It's going to wreck, it's going to shipwreck your faith eventually.
So let me get you back to him who is the image of the invisible God.
The one who's redeemed and reconciled you through his death and resurrection And so
us we too need to fix our eyes on jesus.
That's what it says in hebrews chapter 12 It says fixing our eyes on jesus
The pioneer and again in the nasb it says the originator And perfecter of
our faith for the joy set before him endured the cross scorned in his shame
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of god consider him Who endured
such opposition from centers so that you will not grow weary and lose hearts.
Remembering Jesus helps us to hold on.
We all have challenges.
Phone call bills, whatever the case may be, medical issues, relational
challenges, doubt in our faith.
But when we get a chance to fix our eyes on Jesus, to consider him, it helps us.
To hold on to remain faithful and to see his promises fulfilled in the
present, but also in the age to come, you know, a chance we get a chance
now to remember that Jesus is our why.
A lot of times we want to, that's the phrase, right?
Hey, what's your why?
You got to go back to your why our why is a person.
It is Jesus.
Jesus is our why he's the reason for everything.
You know what Jesus is Christianity We can make Christianity the whole
lot of things but guess what?
It's all about him He is Christianity, there's no Christianity without Christ.
Try that.
It's entity Some of y'all got that He is our hope.
He is our example.
He's our faith.
He's our friend.
He's our support.
He's our rock.
He's our Redeemer.
He's all that and more.
It's all about Jesus.
And so it makes me think wow, that's incredible.
Man, the Jesus I serve.
He's cool.
The rock might have some muscles, but he don't have Jesus's muscles.
Jeff Bezos might have some money, but he doesn't have the
treasure of the kingdom of heaven.
The way Jesus does Ryan Reynolds might have some cool movies, but
nobody has the story like Jesus.
Nessie and LeBron might be great athletes, but nobody inspires like Jesus.
This makes me at all.
It makes me humbled.
Wow.
I get a chance to follow.
I get a chance to be called friend.
You know, it says that we're called brothers with Christ.
What in the world?
I'm a part of his kingdom.
I'm saved.
I'm without blemish free from accusation.
Hallelujah.
Praise God the most high.
Thank you, Lord Jesus.
You get what I'm saying?
It leads to all appreciation it leads to worship and it leads to inspiration to
do something in response And I believe one of Or maybe this captures all of it.
The response is this to honor jesus Jesus is that guy And as we
remember that we reflect upon that.
What should we do?
Well, we should honor jesus We should give him our very best We should give
him the very best, not secondary, not leftovers, but we give him our lives.
We come to appreciate him, be in awe of him, wanting to
share the good news about him.
But we fall more and more in love in our worship and in our following.
Look what he says, Paul, to the church in Colossians as he goes on.
He gets to the therefore he gets to how should we respond to this Jesus?
He says so then just as you receive Christ Jesus says Lord continue to live your
lives in him rooted and built up in him Strengthened in the faith as you were
taught and overflowing with Thanksgiving in chapter 3 he says and whatever you
do Whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through Him.
To honor, to worship, to obey Jesus, not with just most, not with just
much, but with all that I have.
And when I remember, I reflect.
When I'm struggling, I'll get focused and I'll be inspired to
do it again for the right reasons.
You know, realizing Jesus, who he is, we become in awe of him.
So this means man, just practically, all right, I need to read his word.
I need to become more familiar with who he is and learn more from
him and learn more from his word, building a relationship with him.
That's intimate, you know, like trending topics online.
You go online, right?
You see what's trending online, whether social media, Google, whatever, you know,
Jesus needs to be trending in our souls.
The number one topic in our minds, in our conversations, in our thoughts,
in our goals, in our dreams, in our actions and in our deeds.
When we get a chance to focus in and remember him and honor him.
When we honor Jesus, we grow in our faith.
We grow in Christ.
We stay connected to him.
We please God because that's the proper response to the love that God
has shown us by sending this son.
But it satisfies our souls, you know when we're struggling we can remember
the purpose of everything We could put Christ back into Christianity
He could be our why and then it starts to make sense again and we go.
Wow, you know what it's worth it And oftentimes because you know what?
It's actually fun, too When we put Christ back into it, we go, man, it's worth it.
Yes, this is why I'm enduring.
And you know what?
When I have that proper perspective, I have joy that's
inexplicable to the common man.
And so as we come to a close, I pray that we too can gain the proper recognition
or, or reputation and not doing this for reputation, but it's all about who
Jesus the Christ, that he's our savior.
He's our goal.
He's our reason.
He's our ending.
He's our everything.
He is our support, our strength, our friend.
He's our loyal and faithful leader.
He is our Lord.
And so we recognize and acknowledge that he's a guy and we respond
by honoring him right now.
We're going to take communion and it's time where we remember and reflect
and recognize Jesus's sacrifice on the cross for us for our salvation.
And we take the emblems the bread and the juice will represent his body and his
blood that was sacrificed for us And I want us to close out here in Colossians
chapter 1 and verse 19 and read this again it says for God was pleased to
have all his fullness dwell in him and Through him to reconcile to himself all
things whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace by Through his
blood shed on the cross once you yes You and me were alienated from God and we're
enemies in our minds because of our evil behavior But now he has reconciled us By
Christ's physical body through death to present us wholly in his sight without
blemish and free from accusation Let's go Father, we thank you so much for Jesus.
God, I'm inspired.
I'm in awe.
I just appreciate your plan.
I appreciate who you are.
I appreciate that we see you in the fullness in your son, Jesus.
Thank you that your son, Jesus, sent us the Holy Spirit with whom
we have and dwells within us.
Hey God, we thank you for Jesus's blood upon the cross, the pure blood
that now covers over our sins, washes and cleanses us, allowing us to have a
relationship with you with no hindrance, no stumbling block, nothing in the way,
but we have eternal fellowship with you.
We thank you for Jesus, his titles, his roles in the story
and for his place in our lives.
God, we offer this time to you.
We offer our lives to your response.
We pray that we can honor you and grow in Christ in his name.