Moments in the life of a Pastor

Walking with God


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12 “Who’s the Boss?” – Part 3   

Colossians 1:15-22 

“15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. 21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”

  • CHURCH – Vs 18 He’s in Charge

The word “head” means that Jesus is the authority of the church. The head gives the body the ability to produce growth, and without it, the body would die. Many churches seem to forget this. If Jesus Christ is not supreme in a church, then there is no church. That was part of the trouble at Colosse, they had lost connection to Christ and as a result they were experimenting with all sorts of false doctrine and sinful behavior. Jesus is the head of the church, not the Pastor, not the elders or Deacons. If the pastor or leader becomes supreme you don’t have a church you have a cult. Because Jesus Christ is supreme over the church we bow before His authority and His divinity not our desires. He is the “beginning,” which means that He is also the source. The word actually has two meanings, “to rule” and “to begin.” In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “I will build my church.” The church is the creation of Christ and as such we must follow His teaching. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle’s combined time of teaching far outweighs Jesus 3 years. Yet the influence of Christ’s 3-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the greatest philosophers of all antiquity. Jesus painted no pictures; yet, some of the finest paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci received their inspiration from Him. Jesus wrote no poetry; but scores of the world’s greatest poets were inspired by Him. Jesus composed no music; still Handel, Beethoven, Bach, reached their highest perfection of melody in the symphonies they composed in His praise. Every sphere of human greatness has been enriched by this humble Carpenter of Nazareth. First Paul reminding us of who is in control and then who is in charge, so who is calling the shots in your life? 

  • CROSS – Vs 19-20 He’s the Conqueror

There is a dilemma, God is holy and just and must punish all sin everywhere which means death even though God loves us. How do we deal with this we try to be good enough? But we can’t and the only one that can deal with the dilemma is God. What does God do, He has another die for us. Jesus is not only the start and the sustainer He is our Substitute. As Creator He was crucified on a cross he made, Jesus was the One who spoke the seed into existence that grew into the tree that became the cross that He was hung upon. The one who called the molecules together that made the metal they drove into His hands and feet. The One who gave the breath of life to those that mocked Him. The creator of the cells that made the saliva to spit upon Him. Today I’m afraid that we no longer believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world, we believe that Jesus is a means to an end. We have forgotten that Jesus’ prime reason for coming to this earth was to seek and save that which was lost. But He didn’t just surrender to the cross He rose supreme over sin, He is the Conqueror. 


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11 “Who’s the Boss?” – Part 2  

Colossians 1:15-22 

“15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. 21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”

Jesus has supremacy over:

  1. CREATION – Vs 15-17 He’s in Control

A. Start

He is the Creator of all things. The big question has always been: Who made who? Did God make man, or did man make God? Is man in the image of God, or is God in the imagination of man? This deals with the Evil of evolution the doctrine of the devil: “There is no God”  It’s a convincing lie because it makes us think that we are in control. We fight control we want to be in charge we are like the little kid who says “Your not the boss of me” Yet when we believe the lie and try to take control chaos follows because we become chained to chance, Evolution gives us control with no hope for change. If you want change you have to evolve and that takes more time than your life has to offer. It takes control from the creator and gives it to the creation, “Mother nature” is now in control so that becomes what we worship. What Paul is reminding us of is that Jesus wasn’t just there when life began it began because He was there. He is in control and we don’t have to live in the darkness and chaos. Genesis 1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep”

He made what we can and can’t see this is the totality of things, it includes both flowers of creation and the forces, radiation, magnetism, gravity. It encompasses every realm, every sphere, every bastion, border, dimension and domain. This is Good News for people obsessed with Fate and Superstition it means Jesus has liberated them having to follow any other ‘Powers’ accept Christ. We find a counterpart today, in the theory of reincarnation and in horoscopes and astrology—the idea of stars influencing and governing our lives. The claim that Transcendental Meditation is the means of getting in touch with invisible beings is another example. We are told that there are Astral Teachers, Spirit Guides and Divine Masters who appear from time to time to impart degrees of knowledge to the human race. All this is nothing new. It is an old dress with a new hat. This is what the apostle labors to correct. He is telling the Colossians, “Jesus is above all angels. You are freed from bondage to these lesser beings when you see the true authority and power of your risen Lord.”

B. Sustainer

Jesus is not Just the Starter he is the Sustainer. Scientist Stephen Hawking says, “The eventual goal of Science is to provide a single theory that describes the whole universe”. Jesus. Today there are those who don’t recognize Him as the creator and from the start they try to run their own lives and then there are those who start with Jesus but then steer off into self-sustainer.  Who is really holding it all together, who is rotating the earth keeping us at the right distance from the sun. Who provides the light and the rain? The single theory that describes the whole universe is Jesus, He is the sustaining force that holds all things together, the unifying principle, the cosmic cohesion. This is not just on a planetary perspective but also a personal one. You and I can rest and relax we don’t have to try to hold it together let Jesus be in control.  By Him everything came to be, and by Him everything continues to be.

C. Satisfaction

Jesus is not only the start and sustainer, He is the source of satisfaction, He gives purpose to life, we were not just created by Him but for Him. The goal of all creation is to glorify Christ. Revelation 4:11, puts it this way: “…For you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.”