Jesus Is .....

JESUS IS ……

COLOSSIANS 1:15-22

Intro: A young sentry was on guard duty for the 1st time, and he had orders not to admit any car unless it had a special identification seal on its bumper. About the middle of the night, an unmarked car approached his guard shack and the sentry stopped it. Inside, was a general and his driver.

When the Sentry advised them that he could not admit any car that didn’t have the special seal on it, the General became impatient and somewhat angry. Ignoring the sentry, the officer leaned forward and told his driver: “Don’t worry about it, just drive right on through.”

When the sentry heard this he looked into the back seat and politely said, “I’m sorry sir, but I’m new at this. Could you please tell me who I should shoot first - you or the driver?”

[ He is Lord, Jeff Strite, sermon central]

. Sometimes we seem to get confused about who exactly is in charge.

. One day this lion with a big ego went around asking the other animals who the king of the jungle was.

“Who’s the king of the jungle?” the lion roared at a monkey. “Why you are, Mr. Lion,” said the monkey with fear in his voice.

The lion went on and found a zebra. “Who’s the king of the jungle?” he snarled. “There is no doubt about it. You are Mr. Lion,” said the zebra.

Seeing a turtle crossing his path the lion bellowed, “Who’s the king of the jungle?” Scared out of his shell the turtle said, “You are Mr. Lion. You are the king of the jungle.”

Then the lion came upon an elephant. Once again he roared out the question, “Who’s the king of jungle?” The elephant used his trunk to grab the lion by his tail. He spun him around over his head several times, dunked him in a mud hole, and slammed him into a large tree.

Dazed and dirty the lion said, “Just because you didn’t know the correct answer was no reason to get upset.”[sermon central]

. Just exactly who is King?

. Just who is the King of the jungle?

. Who we should be following?

. As a church, you are embarking on a process this day in relation to who will lead you .

. Who will be your leader in the coming months and years

. As I said sometimes there can be confusion on this matter.

. Our scripture today reveals to us just who really is in charge.

. While the church has to have, and needs leaders, they are not the ones in charge.

. Gods word tells us that we are to have Pastors, Deacons , Elders, Bishops. Teachers and other people to fulfill Gods purpose for the church.

. While these offices are necessary, even these people are not the ones who will insure success in the endeavors of the church.

. There’s only one King, only one person who will lead this church or any other church.

. That King, that person is none other than Jesus Christ.

. Our scripture this morning tells us why we should accept, why you should accept none other than Jesus.

. He can use whoever you chose to lead you, but make no mistake this morning folks. If you don’t look to Jesus for your leadership, all your efforts will be in vain.

. Lets look at our scripture .

Col. 1:15-22, 15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is dsupreme over all creation,

16for through him God created everything

in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see

and the things we can’t see—

such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him.

17He existed before anything else,

and he holds all creation together.

18Christ is also the head of the echurch,

which is his body.

He is the beginning,

fsupreme over all who rise from the dead.

So he is first in everything.

19For God in all his fullness

was pleased to live in Christ,

20and through him God reconciled

everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

21This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.22Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

. We see here that we should accept Jesus as our leader because He is the REVEALER of everything