Jesus is Greater

Today we begin a new series called Jesus is Greater. I begin a new semester of school a couple of weeks ago. Last semester I received my associate degree and that was so easy, I decided to go ahead and finish up my bachelors degree in Church Ministries. One of my classes this semester is having us do quite a bit of self reflection. It has made take a hard look at my life and re-evaluate choices that I have made. In turn it has made me re-evaluate the way we do things here at church. It has made me look at our methods, our processes, in essence why we do the things we do. Why we plan this event and that event and why we continue to do things even though no one seems to want to be there. So, I have made a decision to end everything. From now until the end of the year all events are canceled. No more men’s breakfast. No more ladies coffee. No Christmas party at the end of the year. No going to Daniel Falls for our annual fall fest. The only even we will keep for the rest of the year is Candyland, as long as we have enough volunteers to pull it off.

Here is what we will continue to do. We will continue to have a Sunday morning worship service. We will have Kid’s Church and Nursery. We will have Wednesday night Connect Groups. That’s it. Everything else that we do will be re-evaluated. We are going to take a time out and look at what we do and why we do it. We are going to look at our vision and our core values and if something don’t line up with that we will cut it. It is time that we change the culture around here and focus on what God has called this church here for.

That brings me to my text today. If you have your Bibles, go to the book of Colossians. This is a letter that Paul wrote to the city of Colosse. Colosse was located near Laodicea. For those that have read the book of Revelation, you might remember that Laodicea was one of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation. Many scholars believe that the Colossian church was probably started as a result of Paul’s three year ministry at Ephesus. Many people believe that Paul may have never actually visited Colosse in person, but he had maintained contact with the church through Epaphras, one of his ministry associates from Colosse. Paul wrote this letter to challenge and put down the false teaching that threatened the spiritual future of the Colossian church. This letter was Paul’s response to Epaphras. Paul was in prison at the time. We don’t know the exact nature of the Colossian heresy. But whatever it was, it seemed to have been undermining some of the people’s dependence on Christ as the central focus of their faith and life.

My hope over the next few weeks is that we get a complete understand of who Christ is and that as a church, as we move forward, I want our focus to be that Jesus is Greater. He is greater than any of your problems. Jesus is greater than your sin. Jesus is greater than your job. Jesus is greater than your desires. Jesus is greater than your dreams. Jesus is greater than any relationships. And if we will place Jesus at the front and center of this church and your home life then we will see God do some amazing things. It is time that we change the culture around here and place Jesus at the center. Not just in words but also in our doings.

So, look at Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1:1–14 NIV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So, where do we go from here? Where do we begin? For the past almost 15 years, we have worked to get us to a place that we can do the ministry that God has placed us here for. I don’t believe that we have seen that come to fruition. I don’t believe that God is finished with us yet. However, I believe that we have done enough talking. I don’t want to talk anymore about what we want to do, but I want us to actually start doing.

We have enough people here now to work to build a great church. I love this church and I love you, the people that are in it. When I first came here, we had 35 my first Sunday. Most of those people for whatever reason are no longer here. My second Sunday we had 20. Today we average about 50. We have seen God do some great things. And I have experienced some struggles. Whatever we have faced, one thing is true, Jesus is greater than all of it.

Paul is writing the church at Colosse. They were getting from false teachings mixed in with the truths and Paul is wanting to get them back on track. Now I don’t believe that we have had any false teachings along the way, but I do believe that we have lost our focus. And we need to get back in focus. So, how do we do that?

First, I believe that we need to look at our Vision and Core Values and place those at the center of what we are trying to accomplish here. And the first step is number 7 of our core values and that is we need to be a church of prayer.

Jesus becomes Greater to us when we are praying to Him for us.

Paul tells the church at Colosse in verse 9...

Colossians 1:9–12 NIV

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Paul is praying for 5 things for the church at Colosse. Let’s look at them.

1. Wisdom to Know God’s Will

We can not be the church that God has called us to be unless we know His will for us.

Jesus becomes greater when we know the will of God.

How do you know the Father’s will? You begin by developing a deep personal relationship with the Father. That kind of relationship grows out of spending consistent time in prayer. This kind of relationship grows when we listen and talk to God. This kind of relationship grows when you study God’s Word.

I have said this time and time again. You have to put the Word of God in front of you so that you can do battle with scripture. that is the only way you can fight off the enemy. The word of God is your offensive weapon.

Ephesians 6:12–17 NIV

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The only offensive weapon mentioned here is the sword of the spirit. If you don’t know the word of God then how can you do battle. All this armor mentioned is for defensive. We got to get off the defense and start being offensive to the enemy. Know the Word of God. That is why we need prayer warriors to pray for this church every day. Pray for our church to have wisdom to know God’s Will.

2. To Live a Life Worthy and Pleasing to God

We need people that will pray against sin. We need to keep sin out of the church. We need to work on our salvation. And we need people to help pray that we won’t fall into sin.

There is a story in the book of Joshua. The Israelites has just conquered Jericho. God said to give everything from Jericho to Him. Don’t take none of the spoils from Jericho. Those are His. But the Israelites can have the rest. So they go on to battle Ai and they lose the battle. Joshua goes to God and says what happened. We just go whooped. I thought you were going to give us the rest. God tells Joshua. Someone in the camp has taken some things from Jericho for themselves. You have some people that have sinned. You need to get it out of the came. So they begin to narrow down to where it happened and it was found that it was Achan that had taken from Jericho some of the spoils for himself. Joshua had to wipe out that family. It essence he was getting the sin out of the camp and he was able to go on and conquer Ai and the rest of the cities that laid in His way to the Promised Land.

We need people to pray for our people that sin will not come into the church and we can be a victorious people moving forward in Christ.

3. To Bear Good Fruit

bear good fruit means that we pray for the people to get the results in ministry and character. If we are reproducing new believers then we aren’t doing the job that God called us to do.

When was the last time that you invited someone to come to church? When was the last time that you told someone about Jesus and they took you up on it? When was the last time that you prayed for someone and they were healed?

We need a group of prayer warriors praying for results to happen in this church through its people. We need to be the church that God has called us to be and we can’t be that until we have people praying specific prayers for this church.

Jesus tells a story about bearing fruit in Luke chapter 13.

Luke 13:6–9 NIV

6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 “ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ”

Jesus’ point is you have to take care of the tree in order for it to produce fruit. In other words, you have to take care of your spiritual soul in order to produce fruit. And if you aren’t producing fruit we are going to cut you down. I’m joking but you get my point. We as believers need to produce fruit. And we need people to pray for our people to produce fruit.

4. Grow in the Knowledge of God

Part of my job as a Pastor is to give you the knowledge that you need to grow in the Lord. Part of your job as a believer is to use the knowledge that I give you to go and do better. Also, part of the knowledge that I give you is how to do the work of the ministry.

Ephesians 4:11–12 NIV

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

My job is to teach you how to do ministry. Your job is to do the ministry. So, if you aren’t doing ministry, then I guess that is partly my fault, but at some point if you aren’t doing the works of service, then you have to grow up and start doing the works of service.

I had a proud moment last weekend. Saturday was a long day. Kelly and I had a long week. I have started reselling on ebay and we had got up early on Saturday to go to yard sales and find Treasures that I could resell. We went to a birthday party that afternoon and we were just getting home when we received a text from Candace asking if we they could get some help loading the truck. So I got the details and sent out a text. Kelly and I had already determined that we would go and help no matter what. But slowly one by one people kept calling and letting me know that they could help. I think we had 10 people from the church go and help them load the truck. We had that truck loaded in about an hour. That is how you minister to a family in need in your church.

We need people to pray that our people will continue to grow in the knowledge of God.

5. Have Strength to Endure and Patience

I don’t know about you but I’m not ready to quit yet. I’m ready for God to say well done. I’ve not finished my race. And in order to keep going I need people to pray that I won’t quit but I will keep enduring till the end. We need the stamina to win the race.

Growing up I loved boxing. One of my favorites was Evander Holyfield. One of his greatest strengths was being able to endure in a fight. He could go the distance. He had the stamina to last into the later rounds. Another great boxer was Mike Tyson. He was the knockout guy. He wanted to get through a match quick. He would rely on his strength to get the fight over with quick. Mike Tyson couldn’t stay with Evander Holyfield for the long run so he would try to knock him out quick but it didn’t work and Evander would be champ. And had a long successful career as boxing champ because of his endurance.

We need prayer warriors to pray for this church to have the endurance to be the church that God has called us to be. And we need the patience to get there.

So, here is what I am asking of you today. I need people to commit to praying for this church everyday. And I am going to give you a list of things that I want you to pray for. I don’t want you to get off subject in your prayer time. Pray for the specific items that I am going to give you.

If we get this right as a church Jesus becomes greater and when Jesus becomes greater then we become the church that God wants us to become.

This is where our refocus begins. It begins with focused prayer. I need individuals that will agree with me for this church.