christ preeminent - cforu.net€¦ · web viewchrist preeminent (some adapted content from various...

CHRIST PREEMINENT (Some adapted content from various sources)

What’s AT YOUR CENTRE?

What would you reckon are YOUR PERSONAL PRIORITIES?

What holds THE FIRST PLACE IN YOUR LIFE?

My prayer for you, is, THAT IN ALL THINGS CHRIST MAY HAVE THE PRE-EMINENCE…

Colossians 1:18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

(Pray)

For some people, their emphasis is on “keeping up with the Joneses”.

As if that’s all there is to life. The pursuit of pleasure and comfort.

Some will place their life priority on running the rat race, acquiring more and more wealth.

Only trouble with the rat race is that only the rats win.

Some will spend a lifetime chasing vanities.

This is THE REALITY.

Like James says, life is passing us by…

James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

LIKE SAND THROUGH THE HOUR GLASS, SO are THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES.

How will we SPEND OUR LIFE?

We can too easily GET THE EMPHASIS BADLY WRONG – as the wisely man of Ecclesiastes summed it up…

Ecclesiastes 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

What should occupy THE FIRST PLACE? It’s all about JESUS It’s all about His Grace It’s all about His Praise It’s all about His Will.

It’s all about Jesus.

He is what should… Occupy our energy Engage our mind Strengthen our arms Guide our steps Lead our way.

That is WHAT COUNTS, that He be FIRST AND FOREMOST, ABOVE ALL ELSE.

That He take THE HIGHEST PLACE.That He be held SUPREME.

That He be praised.That He be lifted up.That He be at the centre, of our life choices.

It’s been said that, for some, the Lord can occupy “a large place in our life, an important place, and YET NOT OCCUPY FIRST PLACE.”

WHAT is it, then, that has the first place in your life?

Is Jesus first?Or does He come a close second? Or maybe third?

What crowds Him out?

For some it will be CONVENIENCE.

For some it will be other loves. OTHER ATTACHMENTS.

Luke 9:59 And he (the Lord Jesus) said unto another, Follow me.

But he said, Lord, suffer ME FIRST to go and bury my father.

We can put ME FIRST, and miss God’s best.

For some it will be OTHER LOVES... Others will detour us, and distract us Others will lead us astray Others will mislead us.

We can miss God’s best by listening to other voices, and neglecting our soul.

As another said…

Luke 9:61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let ME FIRST go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

There will always be something else that calls for our attention, that demands our time… and eats it up, and before we know it we have spent a life…

We put the Lord second, without thinking.

For some, it will be the general BUSY-NESS of life that overtakes us…

Like, with Martha…

Luke 10:41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

For some, it’s the OTHER THINGS that crowd out the Lord, and pull people away from a full commitment.

The rich young ruler said all the right things, but when it came to the crunch, something else had a grip on his heart and he walked way…

Luke 18:22-23 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

(23) And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

He was very sorrowful, because he served another master, mammon. Money. He had his love there, and he would not let go.

For some, they maybe shy away from the thought of SACRIFICE. That they may have to give up some things…

We have new loyalties…

A new allegiance.

We are called to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We are called to please our Commanding Officer. Our Commander-in-Chief, Who has called us to His glad service.

2 Timothy 2:3-4 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

(4) No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

We can get entangled with the affairs of this life. All caught up. Tied up in knots. Trapped. And our spiritual life suffers.

Christ is NOT preeminent and we are settling for second best.

As a disciple, there’s a sense where we are called to give up everything that gets in the way of following our Lord.

Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

These are strong words.

NOTHING and NO ONE should get in the way of serving our Lord.

My prayer for you, is THAT, IN ALL THINGS, HE MIGHT HAVE THE PRE-EMINENCE…

Christ is the head of the church. He sets the vision, sets the direction, sets the motion, of where we are to be, and what we are to do… He turns us as to which path to walk, He takes charge…

Colossians 1:18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Is Jesus the head of the body, the church?

Has He the preeminence?

The question is, How is it that we can we honour our Lord, and make Christ pre-eminent in our lives…?

Paul writes to the saints at Colossae, and tells them of his prayer for them…

Colossians 1:9-28 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

THAT, IN ALL THINGS, HE MIGHT HAVE THE PRE-EMINENCE…

Is THE WILL OF GOD preeminent in your decision making processes?

Do we stop and think, what is it that God wants me to do?

Does the will of God matter to us? Do we stop and pray about what we are thinking to do? Do we stop and ask His will for our lives? Or do we just go ahead, willy-nilly, without prayerfully seeking God’s leading?

(10) That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;


Is your heart-deep desire… to WALK WORTHY of the Lord?

Is He Lord?

Do we care about what is worthy of the Saviour?

Do we care about pleasing God?Or do we put pleasing ourselves first?

Do we live lives worthy of the Saviour’s name? In how we speak? In what we occupy ourselves with? In who we spend our time with? In what we spend our time doing?

Do we make choices that will glorify God?

Proverbs 3:5-7 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (6)

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (7) Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Do we seek to do all things to the glory of God?

Do we labour to be fruitful in every good work?

Or do we hold back from service?

Are we increasing in the knowledge of God? Are you more advanced this year than you were the last? Or are you treading water?

What’s stopping us?

Why don’t we attend the church Bible study?

And bring our children to the church Bible study?

How will they ever learn?

What are the HABITS that we are training them in now?

If we never attend the prayer meeting or the Bible study, what hope for the next generation? They will be couch potatoes just like their mums and dads. Likely, moreso.

Do we bother to witness for Christ?Do we place a priority on that?

Do we make the effort?

Or is the great commission the great omission?

What message are we sending to the next generation?

Put Jesus second. Or third.

We put what’s on telee first. God help us.

How will we increase in the knowledge of God if we neglect our Bible? If we

neglect to study? If we neglect to fellowship?

Are you content to be a casual Christian?

Or will you be…

(11) Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,

unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;


Do we seek to strengthen our faith?Do we know spiritual power with God?Do we wrestle in prayer?

Do we yearn after God’s holy power, to replace our own weakness?

Do we yield to the power of the Holy Spirit? Yield… to His empowerment? His enablement?

How about, practically, now, in how we get on with other people…

Do we exercise patience and perseverance with people in our lives?

Do we go the hard yards in our forbearing with others?

Do we care about others? Or are we selfish and grumpy with others?

Do we exercise the fruit of the Spirit?

Do we count it all joy, as we face life’s challenges? Is there a deep abiding

joyfulness that we have, that sees us through, in our assurance of faith, in our stedfast resolve to follow the Saviour, no matter what?

(12) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:


How is our thankfulness level?Do we stop to give thanks?Do we appreciate the wonder of salvation? Do we thank God for this great gift? The wonder of it all?

To consider that we are partakers of the greatest riches of God’s treasure store of grace – that He has lavished upon us.

That we are members of the most noble institution of the best and greatest men and women of history – of all time – and we are made joint heirs with them, in this great privilege to be the church of the living God.

(13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us

into the kingdom of his dear Son:


Do we truly understand the great deliverance we have in Christ?

Because of His great grace?

That He has torn us free from the clutches of the great slavemaster of sin that enslaved us and held us captive in his dungeon, utterly helpless to save ourselves.

And, at great cost, He has purchased our freedom, and ransomed us.

Consider, the truth, that He has set us free and saved us from eternal hellfire, by His own undeserved mercy.

Do we stop and praise our great deliverer… To give Him all the glory for what he has done?

Psalms 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

(2) He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. (3) And he hath put

a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

The One who lifted us out of the pit.

The One to Whom all praise is due?

Do we see the great rescue that He has effected, for time and eternity by the virtue of His precious shed blood.

He has set our feet on a rock.

(14) In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:


Do we see Jesus?He is central.He is at the centre.

He is high and lifted up, and His train fills the temple.

And the angels cry. Revelation 4:8.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

Revelation 4:10-11 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

(11) Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all

things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

We see the same praise again in the Book of Isaiah…

Isaiah 6:3-5 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. (4) And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. (5) Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

(BLANK SLIDE)

Do we truly reckon our sin, fully laid on Christ, fully paid at Calvary’s hill, there.

There it was.

PAID in full?

We have redemption.

THROUGH HIS BLOOD.THROUGH HIS BLOOD.

Do we see Jesus?He is central.He is at the centre.

John 19:14-18 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! (15) But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. (16) Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified.

And they took Jesus, and led him away. (17) And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: (18) Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

JESUS, IN THE MIDST.

Our Lord is sovereign, glorious.He must be the First and the Foremost.

We, as God’s people must be CHRISTOCENTRIC.


By Him we have ACCESS to the Father.

Many years ago an elderly gentleman sat outside the main gate to the White House in Washington, DC.

His threadbare clothes were covered with dust, and his eyes were filled with tears.

A young boy stopped and sympathetically asked why he was crying.

The man said that his son was in the Army and was condemned to be shot because he had deserted his post.

"The guards on the White House grounds will not let me see the President," said the distraught man.

"Mr. Lincoln is so kind and generous. If he heard the full details of my son's desertion, I feel sure that he would pardon him."

"I can take you to the President," said the boy.

"You?" asked the man with surprise.

"Yes, he's my father. He lets me come in and talk with him anytime I feel like it."

The little fellow took the man into the White House; and after Lincoln heard the story, he did indeed pardon the condemned soldier.

Think of the privilege we have – the believer's relationship to the Heavenly Father.

Consider, the access that we have. Let’s not take that for granted.

Through Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, we can freely enter God's presence.


(BLANK SLIDE)

Notice, the One of Whom we speak…

(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Jesus Christ makes the unseen God visible.

The word underlying the word, image, here is “eikon”.

It was used of the image of Caesar stamped on a coin.

The average person couldn’t see Caesar, but by looking at a coin, they could see what he looked like.

Our Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

He is "an exact representation and revelation" ...a precise reproduction, in every respect.

He has the very nature and character of God.

A little boy looked into the sky and asked his mother, "Is God up there?"

When she assured him that He was, the youngster replied, "Wouldn't it be nice if He would put His head out and let us see Him?"

What the boy didn't understand was that God has let us see Him—in the person of His Son.

We don't have to guess what God is like.

We see Him in the face of Jesus Christ.

We need not wonder if He's alive. By sending Christ to earth as a man, the heavenly Father fully revealed Himself. Jesus was GOD MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH (1 Timothy 3:16).

Christ made this point clear when He said to Philip, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).


(16) For BY HIM were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

He is THE CREATOR of ALL THINGS.All Things!

Jesus created all things.

We didn’t… (as someone has said) Evolve from a monkey Emerge from a swamp Explode from a big bang.

We were purposely CREATED by Jesus, the creator God.

We were created to: Serve Him Love Him Fellowship with Him

Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

(17) And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

He is ETERNAL.

HE is THE BEGINNING… He is BEFORE all things He CREATED all things He UPHOLDS all things.

Christ existed before all things.He always is, was, and shall be.

He is the sustaining power of His own creation. He holds it all together.

The world is in His grip.

And He keeps us.

If it was not for Christ everything would fall apart, there would be chaos, and everything would cease to exist.

He is the Glue that holds us together.

When Christ is Preeminent we will know His will and His purpose for our lives – what we have been created for.

We will know His sustaining power, and we will rest in that.

(18) And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

He is the head of the church.He is the sovereign, ruling authority.No man.

…that in all things he might have the preeminence.

It is saying, here, that Christ is superior in rank or position.

He is due THE PREEMINENCE – it means that He holds the first, the highest place. The highest authority or power.

Unto Him is due the supremacy, the superiority, the incomparability, the authority, the excellence, the prominence.

He is due the PREEMINENCE. To be esteemed and honoured, as the first in rank.

Is the Lord Jesus the first in your life?

Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

He is incomparable.

In all thy ways.

Acknowledge Him.

May our first consideration not be our comfort but His kingdom.His righteousness.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

May we place His interests first, before our own.

May our lives be consumed with advancing His Kingdom. That our lives be invested in His church, His will.

That our loyalty be to His church.Not just some token effort.

That you pout the kingdom of God first.

In your home. Christ will be the head of the home.

In your use of time. You will determine to commit to the meetings of your church.

In your example – to your family – to your children – and your workmates.

In the friendships you develop – you will make sure to make friends with those who have the same devotion to your Saviour.

In your use of money. You will want to invest it wisely in what counts. You won’t just give God your small change. You will determine to be generous in your giving unto the Lord.

Christ and His Kingdom. Christ and His church will be your FIRST PRIORITY.

(19) For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

He is God.

Let us recognise the truth if the centrality and sufficiency of Christ.

The supremacy of Christ.

(20) And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

(21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled


Realise the power of Christ’s reconciliation.

He is Saviour.

You can be reconciled- brought into fellowship, close fellowship with God.

He has made peace through the blood of His cross.

He has converted us from enemies into God’s dear children.

He has purchased your salvation, lock, stock and barrel.

He must be Preeminent.

(22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:


It is God’s delight to present you HOLY, UNBLAMEABLE and UNREPROVEABLE in His sight.

He presents us as made holy.

He presents us as complete in Christ.

Meantime, my hope and prayer for you, is that Christ be formed in you.

Is Christ pre-eminent in your heart?In your home?

May Christ be first and foremost in your home.

1 Chronicles 16:29 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name…

Psalm 33:3 Sing unto him a new song…

Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, (21) Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

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