Alright, well if you have your Bible, please turn with me to Paul's letter to the Colossians. Paul's letter to the Colossians. Paul writes the letter to Colossae because it has come under the influence of several false teachers, and these false teachers have crept in and they are teaching a inappropriate, almost what we would call a Gnostic view of Jesus. That this Jesus, they kind of lumped him in with angels. They're adopting spiritual practices. It's kind of a Jewish asceticism. So it's a weird intermixing of these teachers that have come in. And they've kind of caused the church at Colossae to go astray, to really not be sure of where they stand. And what I love about it is Paul opens the letter, he opens with thanksgiving and prayer like he often does in his letters, but then he goes immediately to this point. This is who Jesus is. In other words, nothing else that I tell you will matter if you get Jesus wrong. I want you to know, there's a lot of things about our faith that there's some gray, some areas of disagreement. There's some areas where we as brothers in the Lord can stand there and go, you know, we disagree on this matter, but we are still brothers. So this is not a salvific matter. Who Jesus is, is not one of those things. There is no fellowship. if we do not have the right Jesus, if we disagree on who Jesus is. Jesus would ask in the Gospels when he was talking to his disciples as they were really getting ready to prepare to enter into what he knew was going to be the final kind of push of his ministry towards the cross. And he brings them to side, he takes them, and he says, who do men say that I am? Right, some say, well, some say you're John the Baptist, some say Elijah the prophet, you know? And he says, but who do you say that I am? Peter, field of the Holy Spirit, says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus says, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven has. So that is the truth. He is the Christ, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. But what does that mean? What does that mean? That is a powerful statement, but what does it mean? One thing that I have come across in my time in ministry is that There are a lot of people who like the idea of Jesus. They like the historical figure of Jesus. And when you ask them, well, who is Jesus? You will get a litmus of answers. He's a good moral teacher. He was a great rabbi in the first century, right? He's a good moral example. Some will say he's the son of God, and he is the Savior. He was a good rabbi. He was a great shepherd. He was a good moral example. He is the son of God. All of those are true, but the question is, is, right, do we truly know him? the way that scripture gives us picture of him. Do we see Jesus as exalted, cosmic, unshakable, radiant? Because your answer to the question of who is Jesus is the thing that shapes every other part of our faith, right? It is the first lens by which every other landscape is colored through. And so this is why this question matters, why this question's really been on my heart and wanting to bring this truth this morning, because some people make Jesus the soft spiritual therapist who is there to only affirm them. Some reduce him to a revolutionary or a mascot for their own cause. They use Jesus for themselves. Others, he's just a distanced religious figure who comes in handy during Christmas or crisis. The Bible says that we are to be conformed into Christ's image, and yet so often we conform Him to ours. And that's where Paul here in Colossians 1 is not going to let us do that. So I want to draw your attention here. He's just told them in verses 13 and 14 of chapter 1, that the Father has delivered us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So he then immediately now, in verses 15 through 23, tells us who this Jesus actually is. So let's look at these verses, verses 15 through 23. He writes, He, that is Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For 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 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, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became minister. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I love here because Paul gives us high view of Jesus. This is not some, you know, ragtag carpenter from Nazareth who just happened to be enlightened at some point and come along and tell people just to be nice and love each other. This is the Lord of all creation, the image of the invisible God. And so let's look at this. There's some things here that he tells us about who this Jesus is. The first thing he says right out the gate, he is the image of the invisible God. Now, I want that phrase to sit over there. That word image there is the word icon, E-I-K-O-N in the Greek, right? And that's not a replica. It's not an imitation. Rather, it is the exact representation. It is the visible manifestation of something that's invisible, right? And so, this is not like a painting that kind of resembles something. It is the perfect expression of God in visible form. And so what Paul's saying here is that in Jesus Christ, the invisible God made himself visible. made himself visible, he translated himself to humanity. God is unsearchable, unknowable, and he made himself by cloaking himself in humanity to be able to be known and seen in this person of his son, Jesus Christ. John put in his gospel, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the Word became flesh and dwelt, literally tabernacled among us, and no one has seen God, the only God at the Father's side, but He has made Him known. The writer of Hebrews says that He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature. And so when people want to know, what does God look like? What is God like? The Bible's clear. Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus and you will see exactly who and what God looks like and what he is like. You want to understand the heart of God? Look at how Jesus touches lepers. how he weeps at tombs, how he welcomes children, how he rebukes religious hypocrisy, how he hangs on a cross for rebels, right? You know what the heart of God looks like? Look to Jesus. In Christ, God came near. He is not a distant deity thundering on a mountaintop, hoping that we can get this thing figured out. No, he draws near. He came as a man who walked dusty roads, who shared meals, who suffered, who bled, and who died for sinners. And yet, make no mistake, this Jesus, who was truly man, was also truly God in every way. We see that here. He is the full unveiling of the divine. That word revelation, we get the book of Revelation, Revelation apocalypses, it literally just means unveiling. And the opening chapter of Revelation is what? John getting a vision of the ruling, reigning, ascended Jesus. Bronze, like eyes like fire, bronze feet, strong, cloaked in white and powerful, adorned in power and strength. So the opening line of Revelation is this. It is the unveiling of who Jesus is. Because what a suffering church needed more than anything else is a vision and a reminder of who they belong to. Why does this matter? It's because there are so many people who have distorted pictures of God. They picture him as harsh and cold, just waiting for us to mess up, so you better live right and perfect or not, he's gonna come and get you. You're over for, you're done with. Some see him as distant and indifferent. He's too big to care about my pain, my problems. Perhaps he's vague and unknowable. Like, I believe there's a God out there. You know, he's somewhere. I believe this all had to kind of happen from a God. But as far as him being like involved, I don't know about that. You know, I just think everybody kind of has their own path to figure him out. Like all of those things are wrong. They're all wrong because the Bible has given us a bold and beautiful corrected. God made himself knowable, personal and visible in Jesus Christ. That means when you doubt God's love, look to Jesus. When you doubt His justice, look to Jesus. When you doubt whether or not He cares for us, look to Jesus. When you feel like you don't wanna pray or how to draw near to God and you don't know how to do those things, look to Jesus. Jesus has shown us not only who is God, but how God delights in communing with us. He's not a window to God, He is God. He was not simply another prophet describing God. He is the embodied revelation of who God is in every way because he himself is God in the flesh. I tell people all the time, you will never trust a God you cannot see. And yet God in his mercy gave us his image. not carved in stone or crafted by human hands, but born in Bethlehem, crucified in Calvary, and raised in glory. And so our faith doesn't begin with performance. It begins with a vision, a vision of who our Savior is. This is no small question because the clearer your view of Christ is, the deeper your confidence will be in God's goodness, God's nearness, and God's redeeming love. Because anytime you doubt those things, the call is clear. Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God who loved you, who drew near to you, who gave his life for you so that you might be with him forever. He continues, he says, he is the firstborn of all creation, for 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. Now, Paul does not want us to simply admire Jesus, that's the easy thing, that's kind of the easy button. He wants us to be awestruck by him. These are thundering verses declaring that Christ is cosmically supreme over all things. Not only is he supreme over it, he's the creator of all of it. Everything that was created. All things. What things fall outside of all things? Nothing. It's all things. He created everything. Now, that word firstborn of creation has thrown a lot of people off. And there are some groups that have used that to try to teach that Jesus is himself a creation, that he is a lesser deity. And they have misunderstood what firstborn means. Firstborn in the Bible rarely refers to chronology. It often refers to preeminence. So for instance, David in the Old Testament is referred to as the firstborn of Israel. Now, David was clearly not the firstborn of Israel. He wasn't the firstborn of his own family. But what it meant was that he is the heir, he is the ruler, he is the one by which all of that, whatever is embodied in that statement, is given authority over. And so Jesus here is being said that he is the preeminent ruler of all creation, that all creation owes its allegiance to him. And then Paul goes in to say, like, how much creation's involved. So he says, heaven and earth, other words, spiritual and physical, all belong its allegiance to him. Visible and invisible, the material and the immaterial, thrones, dominions, rulers, authority, even the most powerful systems, owe their allegiance to this Jesus, period. Anything that does not bow the knee to Jesus is in rebellion to creation itself. Every molecule, every mountain, every monarch owes its existence to this Jesus. He made it all, He governs it all, He owns it all. He says that He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. So not only does He create all things, we're told that He's actively sustaining them. All things hold together by Him. The reason the universe does not collapse this very moment is because Christ is holding it together. The reason the sun rises each day, the reason our heart beats again every second, is because Christ is sustaining it in this very moment. I mean, the sheer, and you guys have studied this, but it's like, the sheer existence of earth is a miracle itself. that if we were to tip a degree any direction, we would either flood to death or freeze to death, right? If we were one degree closer to the sun, we'd burn up. One degree away, we'd freeze up. Our atmosphere would be incapable of existence. We are a sheer miracle of existence. And the very fact that that happens day in and day out is because Christ sustains His creation for the purposes of bringing many sons and daughters to glory. That's it, this is incredible. And so, if you're paying attention to the news, or even just life, you know the world feels increasingly unstable. Now, whether it is more unstable than it was, a thousand years ago, it's hard to say, you know, the plague was pretty bad. Several civil wars and religious wars were pretty bad. So whether or not it's more unstable or not, a lot of times it's just we have greater knowledge of the instability, but in spite of that, right, as wars rage, our economics tremble, moral confusion is very rampant, creation groans, in all of this, people are tempted to say, where is God? in all of this chaos, in all of this craziness, is there anyone in control? And the answer that Paul gives in Colossians 1 is, yeah, there absolutely is, and his name is Jesus. He is before it all, meaning he's not caught off guard by history. He's not up there twiddling his thumbs, waiting to see the next saga that his creation is going to mess up. He is before it all, he sees it all. He's above it all, meaning he's not bound by it. He is not left with the options we give him. He is absolutely sovereign and will guide history towards his purposes. It is his story. And he is holding it all, meaning nothing slips through his hands, not even the pain that we can't explain. We may not know why, but we know him. And that's significant in the realm of it all. We know that he works all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, right? So even when we may not understand why this pain is there, we know that it's part of him weaving together a grander story of glory for him and for us. Our peace doesn't come from having control. It comes from knowing the one who does, right? I may not know what tomorrow brings, but I know the one who brings tomorrow. And that is what gives us peace, right? If everything was created through him and for him, then the universe is not centered around you. And we need to hear that a lot as the church. The world is not centered on me. It's created for Him. And so we gotta ask ourself, right, what are we centering our life on? Because your job, your family, your plans, they don't exist for you, first and foremost. They exist for His glory. Your marriage, the way you parent, the way you have relationships, the way you do your job, it exists for you to glorify Him. And the sooner that you align your life with that reality, the more purpose and peace you'll find. So ask yourself, are you living like the world is held together by Christ or like it's all on your shoulders? Are you building your identity around created things or the creator himself? Is Jesus the gravitational center of your life? Everything orbits around him. Or is he just a distant satellite that we sometimes tap into? to help us get a clearer picture. Let the supremacy of Christ reshape our priorities, right? Reframe our fears, reawaken our trust because he is Lord over all creation. Secondly, or thirdly, excuse me, Paul says here in verse 18, that he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. You see that word firstborn again, that in everything he might be preeminent. So Paul's flow of thought starts moving seamlessly because in the first firstborn, he's firstborn over creation. All of creation as we know it, he is preeminent and sovereign over. But now he's the firstborn from the dead. What did Christ's death usher in? New creation. Right? So not only is He sovereign and preeminent over the old, He's also sovereign and preeminent over the new. And the new kingdom of new creation is embodied in what group of people? The church. We are the first fruits of the new creation, Paul writes in Romans 8. This is an incredible reality that he's interweaving these two things together. He's not really the maker of all things. He is the resurrected head of a living body. We are a living body. This language of the head of the body is not just symbolic. It's deeply theological and important. The church is not a loose association of religious people. It is a living, breathing, spirit-filled organism intimately joined to Christ. This is why Paul would say in other ways, can the eye say to the hand, I have no need of you? In other words, you can't look at other believers and say, I don't, I don't need you. I don't need you all in my life because otherwise the body's unhealthy. It's not in full function without those people around you. Just as the body draws life, coordination, and identity from its head, so too the church draws everything. Its direction, its nourishment, its life-giving power, its unity, all of that comes from its head, Christ Jesus. And I hear a lot of people say, you know, I don't really like going to church. You know, them people are messed up and they're jacked up. But the truth of the matter is, is how can you say you love the head and hate its body? You cannot divorce yourself from his people because those people are a blessing given to help refine you from the head to shape you into more of the image of Jesus. The church should be the walking embodiment of its head on the earth. The greatest force for good ever given is meant to be the body of Christ, which is precisely what Jesus says, greater works will you do. He says that to his church to say like, I'm not like stopping. The whole book of Acts is a picture that Christ continues his work in his risen state. And that through the power of the church that he gives through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that witness continues to go forth with power and with clarity and with purpose. all reflecting back to the head that it dwells. Now, Paul also identifies Jesus as the firstborn from dead. Now, once again, we know this can't be chronology. There were plenty of other people resurrected. The widow under Elijah, Lazarus, Jairus' daughter were all raised from dead. What was the difference about them though? They died again. Jesus is the only one who is resurrected to be resurrected for good as the preeminent reigning one over every other new life-given, spirit-given embodiment that comes after him in this new creation. He has triumphed over death in such a way that resurrection becomes the source of life for the body of the church. This is why the church will never be defeated. It can't be killed. It will just keep going. During the Boxer Rebellion in China, they thought that they were going to just sweep out all of the Christians. And when Christian missionaries went back in over 50 years later after that, they expected to find no Christian. Instead, they found 50 million underground Christians in China. You can't kill the church because you couldn't kill its head. Right? It is the story that does not die. It is the people that cannot be put down. Rome learned it the hard way. China has learned it. Soviets learned it. You cannot kill this movement of Christ. The seed of the church is the blood of the martyrs, Tertullian said, and that's true. No matter how much you killed them in the Roman Empire, it just kept growing. It just kept spanning. You cannot keep it down because it flows with resurrection power, because its king is the firstborn from the dead, right? I love this because those two realities, head of the church and firstborn from the dead, are actually intertwined, Paul is teaching here. It's that very resurrection power that embodies and views the life of the church. The church is the visible manifestation of the risen Jesus on earth. And so when people are like, what's the greatest evidence of the resurrection? It's like, we are. The fact that we are thousands of miles away from Jerusalem, 2,000 years removed from this resurrection, proclaiming with absolute authority that this Jesus Christ is risen and reigns and rules and he's returning and coming again, is the evidence, the most powerful evidence. is risen and he's risen indeed. The church in its manifestation of power and authority and true life transforming goodness and society transforming goodness is the picture that he is risen. The West is what it is because of the fact that it is built on the foundations that there is a risen Jesus who will hold men to account for their actions. It is the body of Christ filled with the spirit of Christ declaring the victory of Christ through its witness. And Christ calls the spiritually dead to life. We were dead and we've been made alive because of the proclamation of faithful witnesses who testified of the risen King, right? We now are imbued with this resurrection power and we are calling dead souls to life in him. Second, we must remember who we are. We are not cultural critics or passive attenders. It doesn't mean we can't say things about culture. It doesn't mean we can't have an input in how society should be going, but we are ultimately participants of the resurrection. We are the body of Christ, and we are meant to live, to move, and to minister in power, right? Christianity is not about self-help or sin management. It is about the life from the dead. We were dead, and now we're alive. We were blind, and now we see. So are we living like those who've been raised with Christ? Are we walking in the spirit, bearing witness to one who conquered the grave? Do we believe that through our preaching, our praying, our loving, and our serving, that Christ is still calling Lazarus's out of the tomb? Because he is. The same Christ who holds the universe together is the same who leads his church in triumph. The same Christ who shattered death is the one who now breathes life into his people. So let us then honor the head by honoring the body and live not as spiritual corpses. We've been given life. Do we live with the life of the risen Lord in us? Finally, we see here in verse 19 through 22, that Jesus is the guarantee of our peace with God. He says, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. So after lifting our eyes to see Christ as the image of God, the creator of all things, the head of the new creation, Paul brings us to the very heart of the gospel. This is what this Jesus has done for you. The one who is the image of the invisible God, the one who created all things, the one who is the sustainer of all creation, the one who is the firstborn from the dead, the one who is the head of the church. This is what he did for you. He has given you peace by his blood, by his sacrifice with God. What is humanity's greatest need? It is to have peace with its maker. Because in our sinful state, we are at enmity with God. We are hostile to God, the Bible says. Like no one does good. No one seeks after God, Paul says in Romans 3. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so there is a chasm between God and man that man can do nothing to bridge. Even our righteousness is filthy deeds, the scripture says. So it's like, man, we are helpless and hopeless if left to our state. And so what does God do? God bridges the gap. comes down and takes upon flesh so that He can lift men back to God to be at peace with Him. And this is what Christ does, not partially, not symbolically, fully. The eternal, unchanging, infinite God, Father, Son, and Spirit dwells in Christ without remainder, and there is no divine power, presence, or prerogative that Jesus lacks. He is not a lesser emanation or second-tier deity. We've told that the fullness of God dwelled in Him bodily. The fullness of God. Paul says elsewhere in Romans 9, he is God over all, blessed forever. And because of this, because he is fully God, we can be sure that he can guarantee our peace with God. There's no doubt. We're not thinking, well, we hope that this prophet got us there. He is fully God, and so when he declares us paid in full, forgiven, cleansed, that is the voice of God saying, you are justified. You are made right. You have peace with God because of my sacrifice for you. Only one who shares the divine nature can bridge the chasm of our alienation. Paul says he did it by reconciling himself, making peace by the blood of his cross. There is no true peace apart from atonement. The cross was not optional for Jesus. It was essential. Sin is not a small problem, right? Like anybody thinks sin's a small thing, it's like, look to the cross. The cross is both a picture of God's love for sinners and his hatred for sin. Like it had to be dealt with. And so he pours out the fullness of a wrath onto his son, who drinks the cup of that wrath dry, so that everyone who believes upon him, there is not an ounce of wrath left over for you. Only peace. Only peace. A peace that is not just the end of hostility, but is the beginning of wholeness, restoration, and belonging. A shalom that can never be taken. For all eternity, this peace will mark your relationship with God now because of your faith in this Jesus. And that's your new identity. Not because you earned it, but because he guaranteed it. Because he is fully God, his sacrifice was of infinite worth. That means that his sacrifice has eternal value. But because he's man, fully man, he could actually be a substitute in our place. He could be a greater Adam to serve as a federal head over humanity, a new humanity created in him. Too many believers live as though peace with God is a fragile thing. Like, I had it yesterday, but man, I... I don't know if I have it today. I had a bad day, but I want you to know that one bad day cannot undo the cross. Listen again, he's now reconciled you. To present you holy and blameless and above reproach, that's not just your future. Right now, he ever stands in heaven to intercede for his people. That means daily, our Lord lifts his people to his Father. in forgiveness. Every day he bears, these are mine. And as you are declared as his, you are declared at peace with the Father. Some of you hear peace with God, and I think sometimes we doubt it applies to us. We see our sin, we know our past, we feel unworthy, and these are all things the enemy would want us to do. But we were once alienated, it says, and we've now been reconciled. We're no longer strangers to God. We have been made sons of God because of what Christ Jesus did for us by bringing us reconciliation through his blood. Christ didn't wait for the cleaned up version of us. While you were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, Romans 5.8. He met us in our worst to bring us home. He is the father in the story of the prodigal that runs through the crowd to meet his son, to ensure that his son is not shamed by the village. And he cleanses them up and does it all right there for him, puts the robe on him, puts the ring on him, gets the fatted calf for him, celebrates the party. He took upon the shame so that the son would not. And that's exactly what Christ is. does and has did for us. And so we're running. We've got to stop. We're still doubting. We've got to look at the cross. Peace is not a feeling that you earn. It is a status that Christ secured for us. And this is the call to us. In light of who Jesus is, the image of the invisible God, the supreme one over all creation who sustains all things, the head of the church, the firstborn of the dead in the new creation, the one who reconciled all of us to God through his blood at the cross, we are called to do this now. We are called to continue in faith. Verse 22 and 23, continue in faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed. So after unfolding this, Paul closes the section with a necessary sobering call. Continue. Continue in faith. Don't let other people draw your eyes away from who this Jesus is. If your eyes are fixed on Jesus, I promise you, you'll walk straight. If your eyes are fixed on the destination, you won't get lost. If you know with certainty who Jesus is, every counterfeit will become very clear very quickly, right? And this is the call to that. The gospel is not a message to be heard, it's a life to be rooted in, a hope to be held fast, and a truth to be lived out. I love this picture that he says here. Continue in the faith, stable and steadfast. Those are architectural words. Jesus would say somewhere, if you build your house on the rock, it will stand. But if you build it on sand, it will fall. This is a picture here. This is the house that is able to stand regardless of the pressures of the world. A house built on the rock of who Jesus is with absolute, utter, unshakable certainty. If you know who Christ is and you build your life on him, there is nothing in this world that will cause you to collapse. Nothing. It will be hard. You will feel in the wind. You will know the storm is there. but your house will not be moved if it is built on the firm foundation of who this Jesus is. The storms will come, especially relevant in our world today, because the gospel in our day isn't just ignored. That's the simple thing. Like if you were just like, I don't know about it, that's whatever. The gospel today is ridiculed, it's redefined, that's the greatest danger, it's redefined, and replaced with counterfeits. Some drift towards moralism, thinking that Christianity is just a set of precepts that we should just keep doing good to live a good moral life. Others slide into emotionalism. They chase feelings over truth, and any Christ that isn't aligned with their feelings can't be the right one. Others fall for syncretism, which is we blend Christianity with self-help, We blend it with nationalism. We build it with spiritual vagueness. We make it all about what we want and Christ just kind of gets that added to him along the way. But Paul says, don't you dare shift. Don't you shift an inch from who he is. Do not budge because the gospel that you first believe is the gospel that saves. It's the only one. He would write to the letter of Galatians, I am utterly astonished at how quickly you have been removed from the gospel. They had just been taught, like within a year they'd taught, and already they were falling away from a false teaching about this Jesus, a false teaching about how the gospel's about how much you can do and you need to add these things to it. Hear the letter of Colossae, they're looking at Jesus maybe as like some greater angel or some esoteric being, and he's saying, if you get Jesus wrong, everything else doesn't matter, because there is no salvation if you get the one by whom we are saved wrong. There are many people, unfortunately, in cults that have a lot of good practices. They use a lot of Christianese, but this is the singular point where they struggle and where they are absent of the true saving gospel. They have gotten Jesus wrong. And if you get Jesus wrong, there's nothing else right. Because the foundation is not there. the foundation. They can use similar building products that we have. They can build houses that look like the model. But when the storms of life come, the foundation that they are on is sinking sand because it is not fixed on the firm foundation of Christ. And so we always need to ask ourselves, am I clinging to the gospel now as I did first? Have I grown numb to the fact of who this Jesus actually is? Sometimes we just say him so much, we talk about him so much, that we lose sight of the massive reality of who he is and what he's done for us. Are we distracted, spiritually indifferent, or are we daily coming back to him? Not as a concept, but further anchoring ourself deeper into the foundation, which is him. You can't rebuild the foundation. Foundation's there. but you can anchor into it deeper and stronger and further. So as you build up, also continue to plant down, to press down into that foundation because you can never do that enough. You can never fortify yourself enough. Continuing in the faith is not about earning your salvation. It's about evidencing it. It's not about the reason we are saved. It's the fruit of it. The fruit of our lives is pictures that we are deeply rooted in this Christ. When we bear fruit, we show that we are in the vine of Christ, that we've got Him right. This is not abstract theology. Paul says it here, right? That I am here, I've proclaimed this, I'm minister of it. In other words, all of these truths are not just to make our heads bigger. They are meant to drive us to go tell everybody. You need to know about this Jesus. Let me tell you who this Jesus is. There are many things that you will be asked in your Christian walk of questions that you're just like, you know, I don't know. Let's pray about that. Let's, I'm not sure. There's some clarity there. And guess what? You're not asked to have all the answers, but there is one thing with certainty you must be able to share with others. Who is Jesus? you should be able to give them a very clear answer. Unwavering, unmoving, and unashamed about who he is. He was not who he was not ashamed to die for us. How can we be ashamed to live for him and to speak of him in all of his glory and goodness? The church does not need another redefinition of Christ. It just needs to restore vision of him, to live light of those truths. We live in an age of profound confusion about identity. People spend their lives trying to discover who they are. Every book out there, the How to Find Yourself, How to Discover You Are, through career, through relationships, through achievement, through social causes, through online avatars that we create of ourselves, But even as Christians, we often wrestle with the same questions. Who am I? Am I enough? Do I matter? What defines me as a husband, as a father, as a leader? Am I doing enough? How should that look? But I want you to hear a very deeper and liberating truth. You will never fully understand who you are until you see yourself clearly in who Christ is. You'll never understand who you are until you understand who He is. He is the thing that puts all other things in order, right? And that's the power of Colossians 1. Paul doesn't begin with what they need to do to fix. He doesn't start with, hey, this is where you're messing up. He starts with, look at Jesus. For anything else, look at Jesus. Fix your eyes on the fact that he is the image of the invisible God, the exact radiance of the Father's glory. He is the creator of all things and the one who holds every atom together by the word of his power. He is before all things, above all kings, beyond all time. He is the head of the church, the firstborn from the dead, the life of his people. He is the fullness of God in human flesh, the lamb slain, the peacemaker by the blood of his cross, and the reconciler of the rebel heart. Before we close, I want to give you a bigger picture. I want to draw it out even further to give you a quick summary of Scripture in general and who it says this Jesus is. The Jesus that Paul talks about in Colossians 1, the Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus who has risen and reigning, is also the Christ of Genesis. present at creation, speaking it into existence, speaking light into darkness. He is the Christ of Exodus, the Passover lamb, and the pillar of fire, which leads his people home through the wilderness. He is the rock in the wilderness, the true and better David, the final high priest, the promised one of the prophets. He is the suffering servant of Isaiah, pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. He is the son of man and Daniel, riding in the clouds in everlasting dominion. He is the wisdom of Proverbs, the bridegroom of the song of Solomon. He is the weeping redeemer of lamentations. He's the baby in the manger, the king on the cross, the crucified one who broke death's grips, walked out of the grave and ascended into glory. He is the Lord of Pentecost who fills His people with power, the Alpha and Omega, who will return with trumpet sound and eyes like fire to make all things new. He is the Lamb upon the throne, worshiped by angels, feared by demons, and adored by the redeemed. He is Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, King, Lord of all. That's who He is. That's who Jesus is. And when you know who he is, truly, deeply, biblically, personally, then and only then will you truly begin to understand who you are and what you were created for. You are not defined by your failures, but by His forgiveness. You are not secured by your striving, but by His sufficiency. You are not held together by your strength, but by His sustaining grace. You're not alive because of your worth, but because of His mercy. So stop trying to find your identity in the mirror, in the metrics, or in the opinions of others. Look to Christ and let Him tell you who you are. Let your life be rooted not in shallow religion or fleeting emotions, but in the unshakable truth of the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Because when Christ is your center, your anchor, your everything, guys, you will never be moved. Nothing will cast you off of it. So in this world of shifting sand, build on the rock. In a life of steady unseasons, stand in the stability of Christ. and in the culture full of confusion, declare with clarity and joy, I know who Jesus is. He changes everything, and he can change you. That is our message, and we must stand unshakable and unashamed on it. Let our worship rise, our witness grow bold, our hope turn burn bright, and our faith stand firm, because in the end, the question that will matter most was not who am I, but who is Jesus? And getting that answer right is the difference between eternal life and destruction. For when you answer rightly, everything else becomes clear. Your purpose, your reason for being, the reason to love and live for others, it all becomes clear. when you know who he is. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, making peace by the blood of his cross. That's who Jesus is. To him be the glory now and forever. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much for your word, and I just pray, God, What we need as men today is a renewed, restored, reinvigorated vision of Jesus. One that ignites our hearts to live for you, to love for you, to lead for you. And Lord, I pray that there are many things, I know that there's so many things that cause us to be cast off from from living rightly and faithfully, so many things that we look to to try to give us a sense of security, whether it's adopting more spiritual disciplines or trying to do more and all of these things. But Lord, the call so often is to re-anchor ourself in the foundation of who Christ is. And so, Lord, I pray that you would stamp a vision of Christ upon our eyes, the glorious, magnificent vision of who he is, of who you are, Lord. upon our hearts, upon our eyes, that everything else that we see would be seen in light of who you are and of your purposes and of your call to us as your body to live faithfully for you, reflecting your image to the world. Lord, I pray that you would embolden our witness, that you would strengthen our foundation, through this restored vision of who Christ is, and that you would allow us to be able to speak boldly and clearly so that when others ask about who Jesus is, we would be able to give them with absolute unshakable clarity, this is who Jesus is. He is God in the flesh, the savior of sinners, the one by whom there is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved than his, the one who can transform and change any life that comes to him in faith. the one who will return again in glory and power to do away with evil once and for all, and to recreate the heavens and earth for his people to dwell with him in glory and power forever and always. That is who this Jesus is, and I pray, God, that every day we would begin our day with a vision of the one we belong to, and in doing so, be unshaken by anything else we are confronted with in that day. We just say all these things in his precious and holy name. Amen.