Holding Life Together When It Feels Like Its Falling Apart

Holding Life Together When It Feels Like Its Falling Apart

Colossians 1:9-20 (New International Version)

9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

INTRODUCTION: The “Original” Theory of Everything.

Albert Einstein dreamed of finding a single theory that would embrace all of nature’s laws. But in his quest for this unified theory, Einstein came up empty-handed. Others followed and pursued what has come to be known as the Theory of Everything, seeking to define all the laws of the universe in one theory. Proponents of the theory of everything see the universe as a grand cosmic symphony.

If the universe is a grand cosmic symphony, who’s writing the music? Who’s conducting the orchestra? In Colossians 1, Paul writes the “original” theory of everything. For Paul, Jesus is the source of holding life together. Does that work for you? Is life holding together or is it unraveling at the seams?

One sign life is unraveling is when worry hits us. Corrie Ten Boom spoke of the unraveling effects of worry, when she said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it empties today of it’s strength.” Along with worry, life seems to unravel with stress, pain, suffering, and the list could continue. These all can challenge the togetherness we feel in life. Today for those of us who feel life unraveling, Paul offers Jesus who holds life together even when it feels like it is falling apart. Today let’s look at 3 handles in Holding Life Together When It Feels Like It’s Falling Apart

HANDLE 1. CONNECT: Link up to Jesus the source of life. Perhaps a little schoolgirl put it best when she said, “Some people couldn’t hear God’s inside whisper, and so he sent Jesus to tell them out loud.”

In Jesus, we see God’s compassion — out loud. In Jesus, we feel God’s power — out loud. In Jesus, we experience God’s love – out loud. In Jesus, we get a sense of God’s personality — out loud. For Jesus is the source of life. Paul says in Colossians 1:16, For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. -- (Msg)

A charming elderly Southern lady was trying to convince her nephews and nieces that southerners were the best people in the world. One of them asked, “Aunt Sue, do you mean that everything good and beautiful comes from the South?” She said, “Well, nearly everything.” One of them asked, “Do you think Jesus was a southerner?” She replied, “Well, he was good enough to be a Southerner.”

But the Bible won’t let us be content with affirming that Jesus was just a morally superior person or an inspired prophet or an example of love. Author C. S. Lewis reminds us we do not have that option. Lewis claims if we read the Bible fully and objectively we will conclude Jesus was either God or a complete lunatic. There is no middle ground.

When Jesus’ disciples asked to see God the Father, Jesus replied, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Those words “I am” were the traditional Hebrew name for God.