Christocentric 1 – Interesting But Irrelevant

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We're starting a new series here at Cross Connection called Christocentric, looking at the book of Colossians and discovering that a life without Christ at its center is a life that lacks substance and focus. Open your Bibles to Colossians and follow along with us.

On Christmas Eve, I came home from visiting with some family in the evening to find a big box on my front porch. Inside it was a gift from a friend: a computer. Now, if you know me very well or have had a chance to spend any time around me, you know that I kind of like Apple computers. I have an iMac in my office, an iMac at home, our TV is run by a Mac Mini, I have a MacBook Pro, an iPhone, an iPad, and an Apple Watch.

What kind of computer do you give to that person? Apple, the only one that I don't have. This is an Apple Macintosh 512. It was the second generation; it's actually older than every one of the people on the worship team this morning. It is a computer that has a thousand times less processing power than my watch. It doesn't have any internal memory because it runs on these—do you remember these? It actually works; it's an amazing thing.

But while it is interesting to look at and to remember where we've come in 30 years—next April, it will be 30 years old—it is basically useless. You wouldn't find this on too many people's desks actually doing much of anything other than looking like, "Wow, that's a computer." In fact, when my kids look at it, they ask, "What is that?" They wonder, "Why can't you touch anything on the screen?" That's a valid question, I think.

I point this out because not only is that piece of equipment interesting but basically useless, but more and more people in our day view this book as interesting but basically useless as well. It serves as a point of reference to remember where we came from. However, in the 21st century, to many people—a growing number of people—it is essentially useless. This really brings up the question: Is it? Is it a venture in futility or foolishness for us to gather week in and week out to open this book, which is actually a compilation of books?

The Bible consists of 66 books written by 40 different authors over the space of about 1,000 years on three different continents and in three different languages. But to us, it is 2,000 years old. So, is it basically interesting but irrelevant? My hope is that as we gather together week in and week out and as we open this book, which we call the Bible and refer to as the Scriptures, we would recognize and see that it actually is relevant. It is more than just interesting; it is actually important and powerful.

One of the books inside the Bible says that it is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It cuts deep into our hearts and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. To update that, we might say it reveals what is in your heart.

This book, along with another one of the books in the New Testament, states that it is given by inspiration of God; that God breathed it. Holy men of God were moved by the Spirit of God to write these things. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and, therefore, it is useful. In 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, the author of that portion of Scripture, the Apostle Paul, says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is therefore useful.

He outlines four specific uses of Scripture in that passage. First, it is useful for doctrine, which teaches us what is true and what is right. Not only is it useful for teaching us what is true and right, but Paul also states that it is useful for reproof or rebuke. When we see what it says is true and right, it rebukes us by indicating that we are not where we should be. We may not be walking in the truth or living in a way that is right; that is rebuke.

Paul emphasizes that all Scripture is given and useful for showing us what is right and where we are wrong. It is not difficult to point out areas of our lives that are wrong. I’m sure you have had people in your life over the years who have pointed the finger at you and said, "That's wrong; you shouldn't say that; you shouldn't do that."

However, this compilation of books not only has the ability to show us what is right and where we are wrong, but Paul also states that it is useful for correction. It shows us how to get back to where we need to be, to return to the right path. Lastly, he mentions that it is good for instruction in righteousness, guiding us on how to stay on that path.

These are the four things that Paul, in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, says Scripture, given by inspiration of God, is useful for: doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Why? The very next verse states that the follower of God, the man or woman of God, may be thoroughly equipped, ready for every good work. These are somewhat bold claims, bold propositions that the Bible makes about itself. It self-proclaims to be living and powerful, a discerner of what is in our hearts, and a revealer of what is in our hearts.

It self-proclaims to be useful in showing us what is right, revealing where we are wrong, and guiding us back to the right path while helping us maintain that path. As we all recognize, it is easy for us to make claims about ourselves that may be completely fallacious or untrue. So, how do we test these claims? How do we know whether the propositions that the Bible makes about itself are true?

The only way to do that is through a simple deductive analysis to see if the claims of Scripture hold up. Does Scripture actually produce the outcomes it asserts? Does it reveal what is in our hearts? Does it show us what is right, indicate where we are wrong, bring us back to the right path, and help us maintain that path?

This deductive test of the Scriptures is not something I can do for you. I can stand here week in and week out, opening the Scriptures and sharing with you the things I have learned and the revelations God has given through His word. However, you must test it yourself. You need to see if these things actually work out and apply in your life on a weekly basis, which is my hope. Each of us must endeavor to engage with the Scriptures on our own. We cannot rely solely on what is said from a pulpit on Sunday; we must also dig into the Scriptures and discover for ourselves the truths that are presented.

What are the propositions or claims of the Scriptures? I certainly cannot, in 41 minutes on a Sunday morning, share with you all the truths and propositions found in Scripture. It often takes us a while just to get through a book. We all need to be those who ask, "Do these things really work out?"

Of course, you would expect me to say this: I believe the Bible to be as it proclaims itself to be—living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, a discerner of what is in my heart. It shows me what is true and right, reveals where I am wrong, and guides me in how to walk in what is right. I believe it to be that because I have experienced it in my own life and observed it in the lives of others. Those things do come to pass. As I have studied and applied the Scriptures myself, and as I have taught the Scriptures to others over the last nearly 20 years, I have seen their truth and power.

As I've been able to do that, I have seen marriages that were devastated by adultery reconciled and restored as people follow through with the claims and truths of the Scriptures. I've seen lives that were destroyed through substance abuse brought back into rightness and wholeness as people apply what they find in the Scriptures. I've seen individuals whose lives were devastated and destroyed because of unforgiveness, anger, and wrath brought back into a place where they are gentle, joy-filled, and serving in children's ministry. The transformations that take place are remarkable.

I've seen people who have been given over to self-hate, gripped by thoughts of self-harm or even cutting and self-mutilation, restored by the Scriptures simply by walking in what the Word says. I think I can say that the evidence points to the fact that the Word of God is living and powerful. That's been my experience, and I hope that as we walk through the Scriptures together, and as you walk through the Scriptures on your own, you see that as well in your own life and in the lives of those around you.

Some of you have seen these before; maybe you've received one of these outside a baseball game or a school campus. They are handed out by a group called the Gideons. We have a few guys in our church who are a part of the Gideons. I love that at the beginning of this small little Psalms, Proverbs, and New Testament from the Gideons, it says this in the opening cover:

"The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, the Christian's charter. Here, paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject. Our good, the design and the glory of God, its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully."

It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, a river of pleasure. It is given to you in life, will be opened at judgment, and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.

There are those in our days who say with an increasingly loud voice that it is interesting but irrelevant. They claim it is interesting only as a literary work, but that it is the literary equivalent of the Macintosh 512. That's what we're told in our day. And yet, when you walk through the Scriptures, and when you obey the Scriptures and apply the Word of God, you find that it is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is useful, which is why we take the time to go through the Scriptures here each week, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the Bible.

Today, we are beginning a new book of the Bible called Colossians. It is in the New Testament, very near the end of your Bible. In fact, it is about 85 to 90 percent of the way through the end of the Bible, right after the book of Philippians and right before the small book of Philemon, which we just studied. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will gladly bring you one. If you don't own one, please keep that as our gift to you today.

We are starting a study that will take us through the end of the year in the book of Colossians. It is a small four-chapter book near the end of your Bible, and it points to this very important truth. Point number one on your outline: Christ is the center and foundation of life. That is the primary theme or focus of these four chapters. There is a lot more in it than that, but as we go through this small book, we will see that this is the emphasis that keeps coming out.

Christ is the center and foundation of life. That's why the series is called Christocentric. That is just a big word that means Christ-centered or Christ-focused. Christ is the center and the foundation of life. Jesus, in the Gospel of John, said to His disciples, as recorded in John chapter 10, verse 10,

I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly. That's a bold claim. I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly to its fullest. That is one of the reasons, one of the purposes for His coming. Not the only one, but one of them. I am come, God incarnate; Jesus came that you and I may experience life more fully.

Now, every human being desires to experience life to its fullest. A French philosopher in the 17th century, although I'm paraphrasing, essentially said in one of his greatest works that every single human being is trying to fill a void within them that only God can fill. They try to fill it with all sorts of different things, but only God can truly fill that void. Christ is the only one that can truly fill it.

Life without Christ at the center is a life that is incomplete and lacks substance. Every human being, 7.3 billion of them today, is trying to fill their life with something to give satisfaction. One of the great philosophers of the 20th century said, "I can't get no satisfaction." Another great philosopher said, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." Both of those songs rise to the top of the charts and still maintain their position because they resonate with every single soul. They express the truth: I can't find satisfaction, and I can't find what I'm looking for.

But still, we try. We try to fill that void with pleasures, power, or possessions. We attempt to fill it with all kinds of different substances, believing that if we just get this, then we will experience satisfaction and fullness. Yet, if you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, you will find the recording of one man's journey to try and fill that void.

Look at the world around us. This world is filled with people writing their own story called Ecclesiastes, where they are all trying to find, "Will this work? Will this work? And will this work?" The awesome thing is when you see Barbara Walters or someone sit down with some big-name person and interview them.

They have everything, and then you get to that point and find out that they just don't have what they're looking for. You wonder, well, wait, they have everything, and yet they still haven't found what they're looking for. If Christ is not the center of your life, then life lacks substance. He said, "I've come to give life and that more abundantly."

The Apostle Paul, in one of his letters in the New Testament, writes that Jesus is the only foundation upon which we can build our lives that will stand strong. There is no other foundation that you can build your life upon. Yet, people are constantly trying to build their lives on other foundations, which means, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, their lives are built on sand. When the storms of this life come, they devastate whatever foundation they've had if it's not the rock that is Christ. There is no other foundation upon which we can build.

These are bold propositions: that Jesus gives life more abundantly and that Jesus is the foundation upon which we should build our lives. They all lead to this very important conclusion: a life without Christ is incomplete and lacking. I know if you're not a follower of Jesus today, that sounds absurd. You are trying to direct your life and fill it with all kinds of things. You think, "I finally found joy in whatever this is," whether it be your job, a relationship, or a new car. You believe you have finally found what you're looking for.

But all of those things are temporal pleasures. It's an amazing reality that is hitting our nation like never before. Right now, beginning just a couple of years ago, there are 10,000 baby boomers a day retiring. Wrap your mind around that for a second: 10,000 baby boomers a day are retiring. These are people born between 1946 and 1964. Many of them are coming to a dreadful conclusion upon retiring. They had invested their entire lives in finding substance, satisfaction, and fullness from a career. Now, they don't have that. They don't know what to do, and they've lost their joy because they lost their identity or what they thought was their identity.

A school teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, or a high-rise construction worker—whatever it may be—they still haven't found what they're looking for because a life without Christ is incomplete and lacking. Without Him, your life is out of alignment.

Most of us who have driven have experienced this at some point, probably with one of the early cars we had because we couldn't afford anything else except for that little beater. You knew how it was: every time you drove, if you took your hands off the steering wheel while traveling at 50 miles per hour or more, it pulled hard to the left. Did you have that car? I had that car. Your right arm got really strong because you were always fighting against it, trying to pull it into the other lane. But you grew used to it and thought, "Well, it's just normal. It's just the way it is."

Then somebody else gets in your car and says, "What in the world is wrong with your car? Why don't you fix this?" You respond, "No, no, it's just the way it is." But they insist, "No, you can get it fixed. The tires are out of balance. They're out of alignment. You can get it fixed."

There are many people, and some of you are here today, whose lives are out of alignment. You've learned how to correct it. You're always fighting against it, wanting to pull this way or that. You've learned that if you just drink this, take that, or do this thing, then it'll be okay. We live in a nation where it is socially acceptable to be a workaholic. Many people have corrected their alignment by becoming workaholics. Yet now, with 10,000 people retiring each day, they are left wondering, "What now? What does a workaholic do when he retires?"

Your life is out of alignment because Christ is not the center. Your life is not being lived in a Christocentric fashion. This issue is not just for people who don't know Jesus; it also applies to those within the church.

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter nearly 2,000 years ago, around the year 63 AD, while he was in prison in the city of Rome, waiting for a trial before the highest court of the land. He had been arrested for being a preacher of the gospel. While waiting, he wrote four letters. We have studied through three of them this year. We started with the book of Ephesians in a series we called "Identity." In our study of Ephesians, we found that our identity is in Christ. Then we studied the book of Philippians in a series we called "Happy and You Know It."

And there we discovered that our joy is found in Christ. We just finished a series called Unchained in the book of Philemon. There, we find that our freedom is in Christ. Now, as we come to the book of Colossians, what we're going to find is that our fullness is found in Christ. Our completeness is found in Christ.

Paul was writing to a church that he didn't plant. It was probably established about eight years before this letter was written, most likely while Paul the Apostle was teaching at a school in the city of Ephesus, which is about a hundred miles east of the city of Colossae. The history of this period of time is recorded for us in the book of Acts, specifically in Acts chapter 19.

In Acts chapter 19, verses eight through ten, it says that the Apostle Paul went to the city of Ephesus. Because he was a Jewish man and a Jewish religious leader before he became a follower of Jesus, he would always begin by going to the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath day, Saturday, when they would gather together. He would go in there, and because he was a Jewish religious leader from the city of Jerusalem, the center of Judaism, they would say, "Well, Pharisee Paul, or Rabbi Paul, why don't you come and stand and teach us?" He would begin to teach.

Acts chapter 19, verse eight tells us that he taught for several months in the synagogue. His method of teaching was always the same. He would begin to tell those hearers, both Jewish individuals and some Gentiles, about the Messiah. They all loved to hear about the Messiah. Who is the Messiah? He is the one that the Old Testament prophets spoke of. He is the one they said would come one day to restore things, make wrong things right, make broken things whole, and redeem lost and dying people.

Those people 2,000 years ago loved prophecy, much like us today. He would go in there and talk about the Messiah, and they would sit on the edge of their seats, listening intently. As he spoke from week to week, more people gathered to hear what he had to say about the Messiah. Then, as he reached the culmination of everything he had to say, the crux of his message after several weeks, he would declare, "The Messiah has come."

You can imagine the reaction of the people there: "What? The Messiah has come? We didn't hear about that!" You see, they didn't have Twitter, Snapchat, or Facebook. Nobody snapped a little thing and sent it up to the web for everyone to see what happened with the Messiah. Now, he says, "The Messiah has come to the city of Jerusalem."

He's come to the nation of Israel. He has been preaching there, raising dead people, giving sight to the blind, healing the sick, and casting demons out of people. All those people would have been listening, thinking, "This is the best thing we've ever heard." Then he would get to the point where he would say that he was crucified and rejected by our people in Jerusalem. They would respond, "No, that's not possible. He was crucified."

But then Paul would get to the best part of the story: he didn't stay dead. The people would have been aghast at this revelation. "What do you mean? He rose from the dead!" Paul would affirm, "Yes, I met the risen Savior, Jesus."

It was about that time in the city of Ephesus, and this had happened in Thessalonica, in Corinth, and just about everywhere Paul went. It was around this time that the Jews would kick him out, and so he left. Acts chapter 19, verse 9, says that he went to a school down the road called the School of Tyrannus. For the space of two years, every single day, Paul taught the Scriptures in the School of Tyrannus. People came to hear what he had to say.

As he taught at the School of Tyrannus, Acts chapter 19, verse 10, states that during that two-year period, all who dwelt in Asia Minor, the area where he was, heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. It is through the ministry of the Apostle Paul at that school in Ephesus that the church in Colossae, a hundred miles to the east, was planted during that period of time, as Paul faithfully continued to preach the word daily.

This is such an important encouragement to me, and I hope it's an encouragement to you as well. Point number three on your outline: faithfulness to Christ is always rewarded with fruitfulness in Christ.

I heard a startling statistic this last week from a group called Lifeway Research, which studies trends in churches in the United States of America. They have found, through their research of thousands of pastors, that the average pastor stays in the ministry, pastoring a church, for 3.6 years. The average pastor in America in 2015...

He stays in the ministry, teaching and preaching at a church for 3.6 years before he gives up. Think about that for a moment. It's not just pastors, but many Christians who face this challenge. Walking out your faith, living with integrity, and reflecting the grace and forgiveness of Christ in your workplace, at the office, on the construction site, or in the school you attend can be difficult. Magnifying Christ in the home as a dad or a mom, whether a stay-at-home parent or not, is also challenging. The temptation to give up is always there. It can feel just too hard, and you might think, "I just can't do this. There's no fruit."

Yet, Paul faithfully did what God had called him to do. Faithfulness to Christ is always rewarded with fruitfulness in Christ. If you would, turn to the left a few books from Colossians. You will pass Philippians and Ephesians before reaching the book of Galatians, chapter six. This was written by the same guy, Paul.

Look at what he says in Galatians chapter six, verse nine: "And let us not grow weary. Let us not get too tired or faint while doing good. For in due season, we shall reap or harvest if," and you should circle the word "if," "we do not lose heart." Let us not grow tired of doing the right thing over and over again. For in due season, you will reap a harvest if you don't faint.

What a great promise! The problem is that we are all tempted to faint, to give up, and to throw in the towel because it feels too difficult. But remember, fruitfulness follows faithfulness. Fruitfulness follows faithfulness.

It was seven years ago this month that my wife and I moved our family into the house we live in now. When we moved in, it was a foreclosure. I've told this before, but I think it's appropriate to mention again. When we moved in, there was virtually nothing in the yard that was still alive, save for three palm trees in the backyard and a very large green bush that covered the yard in the back. It was a grapevine, but there was not a single grape on that grapevine. It looked good; it was green and sprawling everywhere, but not a single grape.

We pruned it back, and when I looked at it, I thought it would never grow; it seemed dead. Then spring came around the next year, and a couple of shoots appeared. I was surprised to see that it was still alive. It grew up and put out some shoots again. We trimmed it and kept it from spreading all over the place, but still, not a single grape. At the end of that year, we pruned it back again, and there were just some branches with new growth on them.

The following year, it grew again, and there were about three grapes. We pruned it back once more. It wasn't until the third year that it finally produced 60 bunches of grapes—a huge pile of grapes. Now, they didn't come out all that great because I didn't understand that you can't really have 60 grow on one vine and that they wouldn't get the kind of life they needed. Still, it produced 60 bunches of grapes.

Faithfulness is the key to fruitfulness. So often, we're tempted to throw in the towel. I'm sure there were hard days when Paul was tempted to give up, yet he continued to plod along that path. Now, eight years later, there is still a church in the city of Colossae. Paul is in prison in Rome, and he receives word from one of the leaders of the church, likely a man by the name of Epaphras, who Paul mentions in the opening verses. He is very likely the person who heard Paul's teaching and planted the church in Colossae those years before.

Epaphras comes and shares with Paul about the things going on in the church at Colossae. Paul sits down to write this four-chapter letter. As we read through it, we will see that the reason for writing is that there were false teachings and destructive doctrines coming into the church at Colossae. These teachings were causing them to lose their focus, their Christocentric focus. Their fixation on Jesus was being shifted by false teaching, taking them out of alignment.

They were being drawn away from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus to focusing on feast days, new moons, and certain kinds of religious efforts to make them better or more right. Christians can become out of alignment when they start to focus on what they can or cannot eat, or when they believe they can only worship on certain days. They may feel compelled to follow signs in the sky.

Christians get out of alignment when they move from the simplicity that is in Christ to these other things, thinking that their faith is found in new moons and feasts. It is not. Paul recognized this issue and felt the need to write to them to help them regain a Christocentric focus, placing Christ at the center of their faith.

In Colossians chapter one, Paul writes, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae: grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." He continues, "We give thanks to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day that you heard and knew the grace of God in truth."

As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, he also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

Father, in the closing moments that we have, would you speak to us and give us insight that we may apply your word in our lives? In Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." Would you be seated?

It has been said by Bible teachers and theologians that of all the books in the Bible, this is the one that has the highest Christology. It has a Christ-centered focus, and the word "Christ" is used 24 times.

In this small book, Paul uses the word "Christ" six times in the opening verses. Not only does he speak about the Christ, but he also identifies who the Christ is, because four times he uses the name "Jesus." Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the one who would come to redeem lost sinners. Jesus is the Christ. Do you realize that this is the foundation of the Christian faith? Jesus is the Christ.

It was in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, that Jesus was with his disciples in a place in the northern part of the nation of Israel, where a lot of pagan worship was going on. He asked his disciples this important question: "Who do men say that I am?" They replied, "Well, some say you're a prophet, and some say you're this, and some say you're that." Two thousand years later, it's no different. People have all kinds of opinions about who Jesus is.

Jesus looked at his disciples and asked, "Who do you guys say that I am?" One of them, the loudmouth of the bunch, Peter, spoke up and said, "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus responded, "Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, Peter, you're right! But flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. God inspired you to say that. God showed you that truth." Jesus is the Christ, and He said, "Upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

What is the rock that God builds His church, His followers, upon? This simple truth: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Since He is the Christ, the Son of God, that also makes Him Lord. In this opening word to the Colossians, Paul twice uses the word "Lord." He says, "Lord Jesus Christ." Lord is not His first name; Jesus is not His middle name; Christ is not His last name. Lord is His title, Jesus is His name, and Christ is His mission. He came to redeem lost sinners, to set us back in alignment, that we would be Christocentric, having Christ as the center.

Why do we need Christ as the center of our lives? Well, would you turn just briefly over to Colossians chapter two? Look at verse nine. Colossians chapter two, verse nine states, "For in Him, in Jesus, dwells or resides all the fullness of God." In Jesus resides all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

And look at this audacious claim in verse 10: "And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." In Him resides all the fullness of God, and you are complete in Him. This means point number four on our outlines: our lives must be Christocentric.

Now, I realize that if you're a follower of Jesus today, that means you are called a Christian, even though that term is not highly valued in our culture in the 21st century. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're a Christian, and it would make sense that you would be Christocentric, that your life would be Christ-focused.

If I said to you today, "Hey, I want you to come on over to my house. Just follow me as I drive over there," you would intently be watching where I'm going. Your focus would be centered on me. We've all followed someone before, and when another car gets in front, we try to see where they are. So we kind of change lanes. "Oh, there they are. Oh, their blinker is on. I have to get over and I'm going to turn right now." We all understand that when we're following someone, they need to be the center of our focus.

If you're a follower of Jesus today, of course, He needs to be the center of your focus. But if you're not an avowed follower of Jesus today, I want you to understand that your life needs to be Christocentric, or you will be incomplete. A life without Jesus is a life that is lacking substance; it's a life that has no center.

Paul writes to a group of Christians who are being removed from their center, but he also writes to a number of people who are not believers, exalting this reality that Jesus needs to be the center. In Him dwells all the fullness, and you are complete in Him.

So over the next weeks, as we walk through the Scriptures, we're going to be asking the question: How do we become Christocentric? What do we need to do to maintain a focus on Christ as the center? How does that transform and change our reality from day to day?

This entire world, as I've said many times before, is living life disconnected from God and, as a result, disconnected from one another. That's why we exist.

As a church, Cross Connection, we want to live life in connection with God, with one another, and to extend that to the world. This connection comes through Jesus. It is through Him and the cross, and what He did on the cross, that we want to discover together what it actually means to be connected to Christ. We want to have Christ as the center and understand how that transforms our lives.

We aim to carry that connection to the school campus you attend, to your construction site, or to the office where you work. Our hope is that those who are also disconnected and lacking a center and substance would find what they are really looking for. Amen?

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Jesus, we thank You for Your grace. The grace that You have given to us by giving Your life for us, by taking our sin upon Yourself, and Lord, dealing with it there on the cross. The grace that You have given to us allows us to have forgiveness in You and to find a connection with You, with God, and with one another through the cross, leading to transformation.

We desire to experience the joy and fullness of having Your life in us—Christ in us, the hope of glory. Lord, we thank You for that reality, and I pray that we would live that out.

I pray right now for anyone here whose life is out of alignment. They may be out of alignment because they have never had You come into their life and heart, or they may be out of alignment because they have become distracted by other peripheral things. Lord, I pray that You draw them by Your Spirit to Yourself right now.

If that is you, if your life today is out of alignment and you recognize that you need Christ to re-center your life, would you just lift up your hand where you are? Wherever you are, God bless you. Many of you, God bless in the back, over on the side.

Jesus said, "Whoever calls upon Me will not be put to shame. Whoever believes in Me and confesses with their mouth, they shall be saved." If you want to receive or recommit your life to Christ today, wherever you are, would you just pray out loud with me?

Dear Jesus, my life is out of alignment. I need You to come in.

And transform me from the inside out. Make me a new creation. Become the center of my life. Forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of my sin and make me whole in You. Help me to walk following You, with You as my focus. In Jesus' name, Amen.