Speaker: But again, if we're going to be a Christ exalting church,
we have to first and foremost be Christ exalting Christians.
If I can take your mind to that old poster that first appeared in World War I.
Uncle Sam, who had his finger pointed, and he had his finger pointed at you
as you're looking at that poster.
And it says on that poster, I want you.
I want you.
And what that was, it was a recruiting tactic.
The U.
S.
Army was saying, I want you to come and join the military.
But at some point, it goes from I want you to when you're on
the battlefield in the foxhole.
I need you.
Band of Brothers is one of my favorite series and just stories of Easy Company
and everything that they went through in World War II and the Battle of Ardenne,
the Battle of the Bulge, when they're dug in there and just thinking about
everything that they had to go through, they needed every single man to be all
in with the task at hand, which was to defend their position against the enemy.
Church, if we are going to be a Christ exalting church, We have
to have every single Christian in this room all in on being first and
foremost a Christ exalting Christian.
In other words, you can't just show up at church and think, I'm
doing it, I'm exalting Christ because I go to church on Sunday.
Or community group, involved in your community group, which we hope
and pray that you guys are getting connected and plugged in here.
But that's, being a Christ exalting Christian, it's more than that.
Or going to youth group as students.
Being a Christ exalting Christian is more than going to youth group.
You know, picking up your Bible first thing in the morning, if that's what
you do, great, praise God for that.
But being a Christ exalting Christian is more than that.
See, being a Christ exalting Christian, if I can borrow a
word that the crunchy culture has taken, it's a holistic endeavor.
Meaning, we have to be, as believers, all the way through,
people who are bent on exalting Christ with everything in our lives.
If we are going to be a Christ exalting church, and again that's
part of our vision, we want to be a church that exalts Christ.
If we are going to be a Christ exalting church, we must first and foremost be
a church of Christ exalting Christians.
Look at Colossians 118 with me.
This verse, 118, is in the middle of a broader section of 15 20 that
is most likely one of the earliest Christian hymns or creeds that exist.
In your English Bible, you look at it and it's written just
like the rest of Colossians is.
But when you read it in the Greek text, it's set apart much like Psalms.
If you turn over to Psalms or Proverbs, you'll, you'll note that it
looks different because it's poetic.
It's not prose.
Well, in the, the Greek of Colossians here, when you get to this section of
Colossians that we're drawing from, from verse 18, It's set apart in more
of a poetic form than it is in the prose form, probably indicating that
Paul here is quoting from what would have been one of the earliest creeds or
hymns that the early church would have recited week in and week out together.
And so as you start in verse 15, he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth.
We are reading things that the early church gathered together and would, would
quote or recite or sing about Jesus.
In fact, verses 15 through 20 is one of the hallmarks.
It's probably the greatest of the Christological texts
that we find in Scripture.
It, it's hard to find another passage in the Bible that points
and exalts Jesus with, with greater language and descriptions than we
find in Colossians 1, 15 through 20.
And so we're jumping right into the middle of this, but I think in verse
18, we're jumping into what is the culmination of everything that Paul's
writing in Colossians 1, 15 through 20.
And so in verse 18, if you look down at the text with me, it says this,
and he, this is speaking of Jesus.
He is the head of the body.
the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in
everything he might be preeminent.
Okay, that word preeminent is where we're going to camp out for a little bit here.
But before we get there, I want you to notice three other words
that Paul lists here about Jesus.
First, he says Jesus is the head, the head of the body, the church.
Uh, that word head in the Greek there means, uh, the, the source of authority,
the ruler, the leader, the one in charge.
That is Jesus to the church, his bride.
We find this in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 15 through 16.
Paul says there, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to
grow up in every way into him.
That is into Jesus, who is the head into Christ.
from whom the whole body joined together and held together by every joint with
which it is equipped when each part is working properly, makes the body grow
so that it builds itself up in love.
So there Christ is the head as the authority, also the
source in that context.
Colossians 2.
19.
If you look across the page from where you are, Colossians 2.
19, Paul's warning here that we need to make sure that we are holding fast
and he says here and not be those that are not holding fast to the head.
That is Jesus.
From whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its
joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from God.
So Christ is the head.
He's the chief.
He's the leader.
He's the source.
He's the ruler.
He's the authority of, over, and beyond.
Why?
What gives Jesus that position?
What gives Jesus that right?
Well, in part, at least, what we read in Acts 20, 28.
Paul to the Ephesian elders here says this, he says, Pay careful attention
to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
See, church, Jesus redeemed us.
He bought us.
He purchased us.
And in so doing, He became the Lord of the church.
He owns His bride, the church.
And so as a result, He is the head.
He's the ruler.
He is the authority.
He is our Lord.
We submit to Him.
And so that's the first word that we find there to note as we are
leading towards the culmination of this word preeminent here.
So He is the head.
Second, He's the beginning.
The beginning.
The beginning of.
What?
What is Jesus the beginning of?
Well, Revelation 1.
8, Jesus there says, I am the Alpha and the Omega.
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
So Jesus is in effect saying, I am the beginning.
In fact, Revelation 21.
6, He says something similar.
He says, it is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning.
There's our word, Arche.
I am the beginning and the end.
Revelation 22, 13, he says it again, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first
and the last, the beginning, there's our word, the beginning and the end.
Okay, well, what beginning is Jesus the beginning of?
Well, the answer is He is the beginning of all beginnings.
He is the unmoved mover, the uncaused first cause, that before
Jesus, there was nothing, right?
Jesus is a member of the Trinitarian God, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Spirit.
Before God, there is nothing.
In fact, God has always existed, so as such, there is no beginning to God.
God is the beginner of all beginnings, except for His own, because He had none.
Tired?
Exhausted?
Trying to track that.
But Jesus is the beginner of all beginnings.
In fact, look back up at verse 16 in our passage.
Part of this Christological hymn, this creedal confession here, it says
this, For by him, that's Jesus, 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.
And so he is the beginning of all things.
By extension, that means he is the beginning of what we are
doing right here this morning.
He's the beginning of the church.
And I think that's Paul's thrust here in this passage.
That he is the beginning.
He's the head of the body.
He's the beginning of the body.
That without Christ, there is no church.
Without Jesus, we're wasting our time.
There's, there's no point to what we're doing, but as such, He is the
Lord, He is the Savior who died for our sins, who rose from the dead,
who then instituted the church, and that is why we continue to gather.
He's the beginning of the church.
Not only is He the, the head, though, and the beginning, He is
third in our passage, the firstborn.
The firstborn.
Okay, look at verse 15 for a second.
In verse 15, it says, He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
Okay?
There, Paul is not talking about firstborn chronologically.
Firstborn in time.
If you are one of many siblings in the room, there is a
firstborn in your family, right?
And you refer to that person as the one that was firstborn, the one that
came into the world first, okay?
That's not what Colossians 1.
15 is saying.
Colossians 1.
15, the firstborn of all creation, means that Jesus holds the
highest rank in all creation.
In ancient times, the firstborn got the greatest inheritance.
He was the one who had the level of greatest honor in the family.
And so as such, that is who Jesus is in all of creation.
Not that he was created first, because Jesus was not created.
We just saw that he's the beginning.
But that Jesus holds the highest rank of honor in all of creation.
But then look at our text in verse 18.
It says there that he is the firstborn from the dead.
Now we are talking about chronology.
And you say, is that okay to have a word mean two different things
in that, in such close context?
Yeah, it is because we interpret scripture through the context
of the rest of scripture, right?
And so when, when, when we interpret these words, we're understanding what
he's saying and the rest of scripture is going to help us understand that.
Here, the word firstborn does mean chronologically because
he's the firstborn from the dead.
In what sense is Jesus the first one to be born from the dead.
Weren't there resurrections?
In fact, Jesus himself raised Lazarus from the dead and others from the dead.
In the Old Testament, there's examples of this.
So how is Jesus the first born from the dead?
Well, Jesus is the first born from the dead in that Jesus resurrection
was unique because Jesus was the only one, the first one to be raised
from the dead, never to die again.
That's what makes him the firstborn of the dead.
And as the firstborn of the dead, he is the one that is later by, uh, by
others called the, the first fruits.
He is, he's going to be the one that is the firstborn of many
brothers as Romans 8, 29 says.
In other words, that we are going to follow after him.
He is the one that goes before us and then we will follow after him.
Revelation 1.
5, the firstborn of the dead, he is called there again.
And then here's the verse that I was just referring to, 1 Corinthians 15.
20.
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits
of those who have fallen asleep.
In other words, we will follow after him.
He's the firstborn of many brothers, as Paul says in Romans 8.
29.
So he's the head, He's the beginning.
He's the firstborn from the dead.
And that's our hope as the church, right?
All of these things are pertaining to the church.
We gather on Sunday mornings to remember the resurrection of Christ.
That's our hope that one day we will rise from the dead as well.
First Corinthians 15 is all about that.
And so he is the, Beginning.
He's the head.
He's the beginning.
He's the firstborn.
And then Paul says this that That so a tiny little word in the Greek
called Hinnah and it indicates that this is a purpose or a result He is
all of these things with the result being that in everything Paul says
in everything he might be Preeminent.
Okay preeminent.
That's the word.
This is what I want us to think about this morning.
What does it mean?
What does it look like for Christ to be preeminent in our lives?
This word is unique in the Greek New Testament in that it doesn't occur
anywhere else other than this one place.
This is the only location that you find the word preeminent.
But the root does show up other places.
The root of this word means to have first place.
In fact, that's what the word preeminent means.
It's to have first place in something.
And, and, and so Jesus is the preeminent one.
He is called to be the preeminent one in the church.
He's the head of the church.
He's the beginning of the church.
He's the first born from the dead for the church.
In order that in everything as a church, he might have first place.
But again, what I want us to think about this morning is that that's not
gonna be true of us as a church if he doesn't first have first place in
everything in your life, in my life.
See, if we're gonna be a Christ exalting church, we have to be a
church of Christ exalting Christians.
That's how that works.
He can't just be preeminent in the life of the pastors or the worship leaders, or the
people that show up and set up the chairs.
He needs to be preeminent in their lives, but he also needs
to be preeminent in your life.
He needs to be preeminent in the life of the stay at home mom.
He needs to have first place in the life of the lawyer, the doctor.
the salesman.
He needs to have first place in every single one of our lives if
we as a church are going to make ourselves a Christ exalting church.
So to be preeminent, what does it look like to make sure
that Christ has first place?
Adrienne Rogers, is a man, was a man, who was a pastor, uh, who died in 2005,
but you've probably heard his voice if you're not familiar with the name.
If you've turned on 100.
7 or 100.
3 or any of the Christian radio stations, you've probably heard
Adrian Rogers voice on the radio.
He's a well known pastor, he was also president of the Southern
Baptist Theological, or Southern Baptist Convention, rather, and
served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Faithful expositor of God's Word.
He preached on this passage and said to give Christ first place looks like this.
He said, Christian, if you're going to give Christ first place, give
Him the first thought of every day.
Give Him the first day of the week, right, that's what we're doing
right now, it's Sunday morning.
Give Him the first fruits of your income.
And give him the first consideration in any decision.
And so Dr.
Rogers preached a sermon on this passage and said, this is what it looks like to
give Christ first place over your life.
And in full deference to Dr.
Rogers, I believe that he would agree with what I'm about to say here.
But church, I think this is a great starting place.
But I don't think this captures what we're talking about when we say Christ
needs to be preeminent in your life.
Here's why.
So often when you talk about your priorities, a lot of times we can say
something and I understand the sentiment.
Well, my priorities are this.
Christ, family, work or school, you know, friendships, relationships,
my identity as a citizen.
Okay?
Those are my priorities.
Christ is my top priority every single day.
The problem with that is that I don't Is just like with any to do list.
What's your objective with a to do list?
Your Objective with a to do list is to be to done with that thing And so if
Christ is the first thing on your to do list That implies that at some point
in the day, you're gonna check that box and move on Christ being preeminent in
your life means that as Paul said here in Colossians 1 18 in everything He has
first place So instead, what does our priority list look like as Christians?
It looks like Christ is first place in my family.
Christ is first place in my workplace or in my education.
Christ is first place in my relationships with other people.
Christ is first place in my identity as a citizen of this country.
See, Jesus being preeminent means that he pervades, it's again that
holistic, he invades and pervades and seeps into every crevice of your life.
It really is talking about the doctrine of the Lordship of Christ.
Just like Abraham Kuyper said, there is not an inch in all of creation over
which the Lord does not declare, mine.
And that includes your life and my life.
He gets to be first place in everything.
So in all deference to Dr.
Rogers, I think there's more.
to making Christ first place than just giving Him the first thought of every
day, the first day of the week, the first fruits of your income, and the
first consideration in any decision.
So let's talk about specifically what it looks like for Christ
to be preeminent in our lives.
Three A's for you to consider, and we'll break these down.
The first A is your attention.
The second A is your affection.
And the third A is your action.
For Christ to be first place, your attention, your
affection, and your action.
Let's talk about Christ being first place in your attention.
Point number one this morning, you can write it down this way, is this.
Give Christ the throne of your thoughts.
And if Christ is going to be first place in your life, if we are going
to be a Christ exalting church full of Christ exalting Christians,
then we have got to make sure that Christ rules over our thought life.
Give Christ the throne of your thoughts.
You know, I read.
Something in preparation for this that the average person has anywhere between
12, 000 and 60, 000 thoughts every day Now let me qualify that a little bit
because you might be thinking that's a lot of thoughts I'm probably closer to
12 than I am to 60, 000 Some of those are just repetitive redundant thoughts
Like I trust that you guys woke up this morning and brushed your teeth and your
neighbor sitting next to you right now really hopes That you guys woke up this
morning and brushed your teeth My guess is you didn't have to put a lot of thought
into brushing your teeth this morning.
Something that you've been doing for years, but still your brain was at work.
Thoughts were taking place in grabbing the toothbrush, putting the toothpaste
on there and brushing your teeth.
Or maybe it's pouring your cup of coffee.
Your brain was working to make sure that you didn't drop it, to make
sure that you didn't pour it out onto the floor instead of into the cup.
So some of those 12, 000 to 60, 000 thoughts are going to be things that we
would kind of say are on just autopilot.
But I want you to think about the thoughts that aren't on autopilot during your day.
What about those thoughts, the intentional thoughts that you have, the times
that you set your mind on something?
How much of that does Christ rule over?
How much of your thought life have you subjected to the lordship of Christ?
How much of your brain activity does Jesus hold first place in?
We find Paul writing about this in Colossians chapter 3,
so just a couple chapters from where we are in Colossians 1.
In Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, the Apostle Paul writes this.
He says, if then you have been raised with Christ, aka if you are a Christian, okay?
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek.
The things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God
Set your mind on the things that are above and not on the things that are on
earth Paul's talking about our thought life here and giving Christ the throne
of our thought life When he says seek the things that are above that word
seek is a word that is intentional It involves effort it involves discipline.
It involves self control We, if we leave ourselves to just our neutral state,
our default state, then we won't be setting our mind on the things above.
We're going to be setting our mind on the things on the earth.
See, our default is to think earthly, fleshly thoughts.
And that's why Paul has to write what he has to write in Colossians 3.
That if you've been raised with Christ, seek, give effort to, search for,
mine, turn over the rocks, seeking for, searching for, looking for the
things that are above where Christ is.
Give Christ the throne of your thoughts.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
What does that look like?
Well, certainly a couple weeks ago, we talked about being in
the Bible every single day.
That's a huge part of this.
You can't effectively set your mind on the things above if
you're not having your mind in the Word of God on a regular basis.
The more saturated you are with God's Word, the more of a default it will
be for you to think the thoughts of God and think the things about Jesus.
So time in the Word is, is imperative in this.
But I want to suggest a little bit more than that to you this morning.
Dr.
Rogers said, give Christ the first thought of every day.
That's great.
That's, again, that's a great launch point.
Think about your life.
Think about your last week.
Think about this morning.
What was the first thought that you had when you got out of bed this morning?
Let me ask it a different way.
What did you give your first thoughts to when you got out of bed this morning?
Because your first thoughts didn't happen to you.
You intentionally set your mind on something this morning.
Was it to grab your phone?
And to open up your email inbox or to open up the news or to open up
X or open up Facebook or Instagram?
Was it thinking about your schedule, your calendar?
Was it, oh man, I wish I could go back to sleep?
Okay, that's everybody's first thought.
So we'll get that one out of the way.
Everybody woke up this morning, I want five more minutes.
But once you began to get up, where'd your mind go?
If we can get into the discipline, and again, that's what it is, we have to seek,
we have to intentionally set our mind on.
But if we can get into the discipline to making our first thoughts, thoughts
about God, thoughts about Christ, that's Man, that's going to go a long way
to setting you up for success in the rest of this, for the rest of the day.
It may look like this.
You may be getting out of bed thinking to yourself, okay,
I have to go brush my teeth.
You were just talking about that.
Yes, brush your teeth.
That's sub point 1A, brush your teeth.
How do I, how do I think about, pray as you're getting out of bed, God,
thanks for waking me up this morning.
Thanks for allowing my body to work to get myself out of bed this morning.
Thanks for another day.
I begin to, to ask God to, to allow you to use that day well,
to steward it well for him.
I think these are ways to give God thoughts.
Maybe you're thinking, man, I, I can't get into the word
until I have a cup of coffee.
I get you.
I'm there with you.
So start your coffee.
God, thank you for coffee.
Thank you for this gift.
Thank you for the way it tastes.
Thank you for what it does and how it perks me up and allows
me to focus on your word.
That's a way that you can give the first thoughts of your day to Jesus.
So give God the first thoughts of your day, man, that, that, that's, that's a
great way to your, to start, but giving.
Christ, the throne of your thought life, goes beyond that.
It's that, but it's not only that.
It's more than that.
We talk as Christians about our worldview.
Your identity as a Christian is how you, through the lens of your worldview, which
is the Bible, how you interpret reality.
Right now, I interpret all of you as a bunch of fuzzy orbs out there.
But when I put my glasses on, I'm able to see clearly.
Right?
How do you think is a big part of what your worldview is?
The things that happen to you as life happens to you every single day.
Does Christ have the throne of your thoughts and the way that you react to the
circumstances that take place around you?
As a driver cuts you off, does Christ have the throne of your thoughts right there?
As something at work falls through, does Christ have the throne
of your thoughts right there?
Or how about just the random headline that our soon to be
president wants to buy Greenland?
Did anybody have that on their 2025 bingo card?
Buying Greenland for the United States.
Should your identity in Christ impact the way that you read that headline?
I'm going to argue yes.
Why?
Because Paul says in everything Christ should be first place.
It's, it's easy a lot of the times, well maybe not easy a lot
of the time, but it's easy much of the time for us in that regard.
But how about when we suffer?
What does it look like for Christ to rule the throne of our thoughts when we suffer?
There's people in California right now that have lost everything.
And how does Christ still rule on the throne of their thoughts as they stare at
the ashes of what used to be their home?
We're reading through Job in our daily Bible reading right now.
If you've had a Job season in your life, what does it look like for
Christ to rule over your thoughts in those times in life where you can't
understand, you can't explain why?
How does Christ still rule?
Hold first place in your thoughts in those moments.
I think we see a great example of it at the beginning of Job, when Job's first
response is to say, Shall we receive good from the Lord and not also the bad?
Naked I came into this world, naked I will leave.
Still I will say, Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And that is a Christ exalting thought in the face of pain and sorrow.
It doesn't give all the answers.
It doesn't check all the boxes.
It doesn't rebuild the burnt house.
But man, that is a thought that worships and honors Christ as
Lord and says, I'm going to trust you even when I don't get it.
It's Christ exalting thought life.
That's Christ having first place in your life.
Pastor Rod has talked a lot about journaling and he's faithful to do it
every single day or most days at least.
I'm trying to get there myself.
I think it's a good practice.
This is a good way for you to, to practice having Christ exalting thoughts, to
reflect on your day at the end of the day and to write down some things and
to think about your day through the lens of your biblical worldview and
to think about, man, how was Christ exalted in my thought life today?
How can I exalt Christ as I think about it?
My day today, your brain can either be one of two things.
It can be a weight room for sanctification or a playground for the flesh.
And it's up to you to decide which way you're going to go with that.
If you're thinking Christ exalting thoughts, it's not going to be easy.
The weight room is never easy, but man, the benefits are there.
But if you don't give that intentional effort, that discipline, that
self control, then the mind will become a playground for the flesh.
If we're going to be a Christ exalting church with Christ exalting
Christians, man, we need to make sure that our brains, our thought life.
We're pumping some iron for Jesus in our thought life.
We need to have a weight room for growing in Christ likeness.
Attention.
Make sure, if Christ is going to have first place in your life, that
He has your attention, that He has the throne of your thought life.
The second A, right, is our affections.
If Christ is going to have first place in our life, if we're going to be a church
of Christ exalting Christians, then we need to make sure He has our affections.
You can write it down this way.
Make every day about pleasing Christ.
Now.
I could just say, hey, for this point, just go back and listen to Pastor Rod's
sermon from last weekend and repeat, okay?
That's the idea, pursuing it.
That's Paul's ambition there that he was talking about, that drive,
that love for Jesus that's fueling our pursuit of Christ, right?
And that's a lot of what we're talking about here.
And this is one of those, hey, this sounds familiar, and sorry but not sorry,
because if we're gonna be redundant about anything as we stand at the dawn
of a new year, we're gonna be redundant about, hey, we need to love Jesus more.
We need to pursue a greater affection for Christ.
You've heard me say the phrase before if you've been around here very often, but
we need to stir our affections for Jesus.
Stir them up within us.
I get this point from Ephesians 6, 24.
Ephesians 6, 24.
This is our target.
Paul is literally ending the book.
There's no Ephesians 6, 25.
So this is the last verse in Ephesians 6, 24 says this, grace be with all who
love our Lord Jesus Christ with love.
Incorruptible.
An incorruptible love is a love that's going to make
every day about pleasing Jesus.
That word incorruptible in the Greek, it means immortal, imperishable.
It's a love that's not going to degrade.
It's a love that's not going to lessen.
It's not going to fade away.
It's not going to erode.
It's going to remain steadfast and it's going to remain
fervent in our pursuit of Jesus.
Dr.
Rogers, again, in that sermon said this, what should a Christian do on Sunday?
What sort of recreation?
What kind of sports?
What kind of visiting?
What kind of business should a Christian do?
The New Testament does not lay down rules.
It's not the Old Testament Sabbath.
It is the Lord's Day.
But dear friend, it is the Lord's Day.
I'm not going to make any rules for you, but I tell you what you must do.
You must bow and give this day to Jesus Christ.
Yes and Amen.
But again, I would say, Dr.
Rogers, it's not only Sunday.
It's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, too.
And again, I don't think he would disagree with that.
Starting with the Lord's Day, saying, Hey, we are giving attention to this,
and this is our devotion, and today is about Jesus, and we as a family are
going to focus our affections, and our love, and our heart on Christ today, as
the Lord's Day, and it's about church, and it's about being with God's people,
and that's going to impact some of the other decisions and choices that we do,
because we don't want anything to rob our affection from Jesus on Sundays.
Praise God for that mentality, and then bring it in to Monday, and to Tuesday,
and to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Saturday, Sunday.
This is the holistic, this is the full or pursuit of making Christ first place
in your life, is giving Him, making every day about pleasing Him, devoting yourself
in love to Jesus every single day.
Your affections being given to Jesus in totality every Pharisees,
what's the greatest commandment?
And Jesus says this, you should love the Lord your God with all,
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
And then notice what he says, this is the great and first commandment.
This is the great commandment, and it's the first, there's our word.
It's the commandment that should have first place in your life.
This is the preeminent commandment.
Love God with everything.
On Sundays?
Yep.
And Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, too.
Amen.
Give Christ your affections every single day.
Make every day about pleasing Him, about honoring Christ.
Asaph says this in Psalm 73, 25.
He says, Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there's nothing on earth I desire besides you.
Oh man, would that we could get there.
That we could say with Asaph, there's nothing, Jesus, that I
desire on this earth but you.
And so my, my question for you this morning is what is it that
stirs your affection for Jesus?
What are those things in your life that make you love Jesus more?
Recently for me, it's been having a fire in the fireplace.
Like, that sounds weird.
Yeah, but it creates an environment where I can sit down, I can read,
I can spend time with my family.
That's been stirring my affection for Jesus recently, though I'm almost
out of firewood, so I guess I'm gonna have to find something else to stir
my affection for Jesus this week.
This is supposed to be super cold again next week.
But your affections for him, what, what kindles that?
The Bible?
Sure, the Bible does, and it should, and it's not less than
that, but it's not only that.
Being a Christ exalting Christian.
It is about finding the things that are just everyday things that, that happen
to you, that you do, the routines that you do, and finding a way to make all
of those things about exalting Christ.
Expressions of your love and devotion for Jesus.
So the things that stir your affection for Jesus, a good cup of coffee as you
sit down to read your Bible, time with your family, going on a walk with your
family, do those things and do more of them to make you increase your affection,
your love for Jesus every single day.
The opposite is true as well.
So, whatever those things are that rob your affections for Christ, get them out.
Get them out.
For example, traffic.
When I go home from the office, it's a short commute because we are not far
away from our house where our office is.
But I don't like Preston Road.
I don't.
There's too many people up there, which is why we planted a church here, by
the way, because of all the people.
But I'm on my way home from work.
I just want to go home.
I don't like Preston Road.
So what do I do?
I take a back way to get there.
I go through a school zone sometimes, although by then it's
usually done, but there's stop signs, the speed limit's slower.
But why do I go that way?
I go that way because I'm not going to be out in the chaos,
in the traffic on Preston Road.
Because that robs my affections for Jesus.
You laugh, but it's true.
Going back, that slower way, I mean, I'm able to prepare to go home
and be the husband and be the dad that I need to be when I get home.
That stirs my affection for Jesus.
So make decisions that are going to help you.
I mean, if politics anger you, delete the news app.
Turn off talk radio.
If you find that it's angering you, it's not worth it.
The world will still fall apart on its own without you being
aware of how it's falling apart.
It's okay, especially if it's detracting from your love for Jesus.
Again, y'all, this is going to require effort for us.
It doesn't happen by default.
By default, where do our affections reside?
With the man in the mirror.
And so this is going to require us to be intentional and thoughtful
about saying, man, I want to make every day about pleasing Jesus.
Again, if you weren't here last week, go back and listen to Pastor
Rod's sermon because he's going to dive in much deeper on that idea.
Your attention, your affections.
Third A, maybe you wrote it down and remember it, actions.
Your actions, okay?
Right down this way, point number three, be a 24 7 Christian.
If you want Christ to have first place in your life, you want
Him to be preeminent, be a 24 7.
I could write 365, but that's too many numbers in a point.
So just be a 24 7 Christian every day.
24 7 Christian, meaning not a 5 minute a day Christian, not
a 15 minute a day Christian.
Not a 1 hour a day Christian.
No, you're always a Christian.
We're talking about our actions now, and so here we get, and this is similar
to what we were just talking about, but, but I want you to think about
aiming your actions, the things that you do now, not just your affections,
but what your affections produce.
2nd So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim, our ambition,
our aspiration to please Christ.
What we do, we want to make sure that when, when we act, when we make a
decision, Adrian Rogers said, give Christ first consideration in every decision.
We want to make sure as we're doing that, and not just the first
thought, but all the thoughts, right, as we talked about in point one.
As we're doing that, that we're doing that in such a way that makes Jesus look great
in the eyes of anyone that are around us.
You say, is that a biblical concept?
Yeah, it's a biblical concept actually straight from the mouth of Jesus himself.
Matthew 5 16 Matthew chapter 5 verse 16 says, hold on here Yep, I got it there.
Good.
Matthew 5 16 says this, in the same way Let your light shine before
others so that they may see your what?
your good works so that they may see your good works and Give glory to your Father
who's in heaven Man, church, the call there is to live with Christ preeminent so
that your actions, the things that you do, people see and glorify God as a result.
Now, that assumes that they know that you're a Christian because
you've told them that, or you've had that conversation, or ideally
you've shared the gospel with them.
But having done that, they're going to watch you live your life and think
to themselves, man, there's something different about that person because
of their relationship with Jesus.
And even if that doesn't lead them to come to you and ask for a reason for the
hope that's within you, Matthew 5, 16 is saying that God is going to be glorified
in them noticing the difference there.
And so does your life make Jesus look good?
Are you a 24 7 Christian or just a Sunday morning Christian?
Or just a Sunday morning, Tuesday night, whenever your small
group meets, community group?
Wednesday night, youth group, maybe you're serving in a youth group, or maybe
you're in part of another Bible study, you're a Christian in those environments,
but are you a Christian at home?
Are you a Christian in the morning when you're getting up,
before you've had your coffee?
Are you a Christian when you get home, men, from work, and you walk in the door?
Are you a Christian, moms, with your kids when they're on your last nerve?
Are you a Christian?
Single person in the room.
In what you're doing with the time that God has given you, 1 Corinthians
chapter 7, Paul says it's a gift of singleness because you are undistracted
to be able to serve the Lord.
Are we 24 7 Christians?
If Christ is first place in our life, then the answer to that is going to be yes.
Some areas to think about there, how about your, your speech?
I'm, I'm so burdened by this one because of the culture in which we live.
where profanity has become commonplace.
There was a professional athlete in the local Metroplex here who
just retired this past week.
And he put up a post on Instagram about his retirement.
And in the first part of the post, he was talking about how, man, I'm so
grateful to God and Jesus for the ability to play baseball for these many years.
And I'm so thankful that he allowed me to do this and my Savior, my Lord.
And then in the next paragraph, he drops a very profane word, like
a 5 word in the next paragraph.
And just like that, everything that he said before that is completely undone.
We need to be careful about our speech.
Is your, is your speech showing that Christ has first place in your life?
Jesus said the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart.
It reveals what holds your heart, what has first place in your heart.
Here's another one, driving.
Does Christ have first place behind the wheel?
We have these bumper stickers that say Compass Bible Church on them with
our church logo on them And I've had people come to me and say thanks for
for having those I'm not gonna put them on my car though, because I don't want
to bring shame to the name of Jesus.
Be a better driver!
Right?
I mean, we wouldn't say that about any other arena, would we?
I don't want to wear a Compass Bible Church shirt into the strip club
because I don't want to bring shame on the name of Jesus You laugh, but we've
got our respectable sins, don't we?
So I'm just trying to press in on something that might hurt.
And believe me, I've been pressing on myself on that one, too.
There have been times that my bumper sticker has literally sanctified me.
Because I've thought about doing something and been like, uh uh, I can't
do that, I got my sticker on the back.
My worst nightmare would be preaching and then having somebody
come up to me afterward and be like, you cut me off the other day.
I saw you behind the wheel, I saw your sticker on the car.
I'm out.
I joke, y'all, but honestly?
Getting into these corners, right?
Like Kuyper said, there's not an inch in all of existence over
which Christ does not say, mine.
Does Christ have first place over your actions?
Are you, with your actions, making Jesus look good?
Exalting Him.
Be a 24 7 Christian.
Think about a championship level team.
Right?
Uh, World Series winning team, like the Texas Rangers, not
the Dodgers, they're old news.
Texas Rangers.
A team can't win a championship without each individual player on the team
competing at a championship level.
Church, if we want to be a Christ exalting church, we're not gonna get
there without every single Christian in the room being a Christ exalting
Christian first and foremost.
If we are going to be a Christ exalting church, we must first and
foremost be Christ exalting Christians.
Attention, affection, and action.
And again, the reason why is because He is the Lord of the church.
Because Acts 20, 28, He bought it with His blood.
So it's fitting that as we conclude our service, we're
going to remember that sacrifice.
that purchased the church, that cemented Jesus as the ruler, as the head, as the
beginning, as the firstborn from the dead.
That sacrifice that set all of that in motion.
We're going to remember now as we observe the elements of communion.
And so as these elements are passed and the music is played, think about this
sermon in exalting Christ with your life.
Look back at your week, look forward to what's coming ahead and give thanks
for the sacrifice of Jesus that has made Him our Lord and our Savior.
Okay.