Welcome to Epiphanie Fellowships podcast where our goal is to see people everything show off the glory of Christ in every period of life. We pray that you are blessed and encouraged by grace message and will allow the Word of God to dwell in you. Both in this that he knows and understands me. That's the only thing you give us the grace to boast about. And so God we want to boast in that we want to boast in the reality of knowing that so help the reality of our lives being centered on Jesus to take root and shape in every area of our life. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh God our strength and our Redeemer in whom we trust and Jesus mighty name we pray. Everybody grew that said a man you may be seated in his presence Christ centeredness. Christ centeredness is one of our core convictions as a church. As you know we have to have focused ways in which we direct and clarify what our DNA as a church is. Our motto is showing off the glory of Christ where? Yes through Christ centeredness commitment community conversions and culturally appropriate ministry. We're going to be engaging in those as a part of our series because I believe because our church is pretty much 75% new people. We need the same DNA how many of you know we need to be of the same mind. We need to be on the same page amen. And so what a way to begin that is us being on the same page with Jesus. Like if you get Jesus wrong everything else falls away. Interestingly enough over the last decade in our culture we've had to deal with different ideologies surrounding the person and work of Jesus Christ. I mean if you understand or you've perused meme culture and in YouTube University you will see a plethora of communications about Jesus Christ whether it's Jesus you know Christianity is the white man's religion or Jesus never existed or he was a liar or he was a lunatic or he was a fanatical fake or he was a narcissistic heretic or he was a prophet or even a great example. And so there has been a rush or a fight about who he is. Now I understand that the world can be confused about Jesus but the church shouldn't be confused about who Jesus is. If anybody is clear on who Yeshua is the church should be. However, however many in the church like to do what I call reductionism reductionism is taking the whole of something and taking a piece of it and making the whole the peace. In other words in other words we reduce Jesus to the parts that we like the most. In other words we want Jesus ala carte. Yeah yeah yeah yeah we we think we get to go to the menu and pick you think heaven is a menu. That's that that's true. It is a restaurant in South Philly. That's true of the that's true network. You when you go there there's no menu. The chef's tells everybody everybody gets the same thing. You get the same appetizer you get the same main course and deposit whatever you get the same dessert and because the chef you don't get the chains and the ingredients I don't like this I don't like that. The chef tells you what you get because the chef has a palate a flavor profile that he wants you to follow all the way through the meal. In order for you to enjoy it in relation to your taste buzz well well God has a menu and in the person of Jesus Christ and that means you gotta get all that Jesus is. In other words many people like his compassion but don't like his correction.
People like his comfort but don't like his cross. Some people like his resurrection but don't like his sufferings. They like his exaltation but they don't fool with his humiliation. In other words we want to we want to remove out of Jesus Christ what we don't like in order to paint a humanistic life and try to stamp Christianity on it. But again when it comes to being Christ centered being Christ centered means and we'll see more and more in a second is that being Christ centered it informs everything. It informs how you think of wealth. It informs how you think of love. It informs how you think of gender. It informs how you think of family. It informs how you think of evangelism. Conception. It informs your politics. Amen. It informs truth. It's not party. Then make your party.
So don't think I'm like on some side. I don't fool with neither of them. I'm not democratic. I'm not republic. I'm theocratic. Some of y'all get that on the way home. Some of y'all get that on the way home. It informs truth. It informs how you stand in the world. It informs your understanding of the gospel. So this passage that we're about to get in by Paul is an interesting passage. It's believed by many believers that this was the song that was sang in the church in these days. If I can parenthetically pause, if you read this passage and believe this is what they sang, they sang some rich theology. They didn't just do vain repetition with no theological depth to it. I don't mind the repetition just as long as the repetition is informed by the text. That was for free. This was a beautiful framing for them. And so the believers, he utilized this as a way to help believers who were dealing with witchcraft and was dealing with those who told them they had to keep the law to be saved. And so you had people that were saying, you have to keep the Sabbath. Then you had other people talking about worshipping of angels. So Jesus Christ is presented by Paul in a way that's beautiful and applicable to the fact that these believers were being tempted by people to find other ways to connect to God in the spirit world. I know we don't deal with that today because nobody burning incense and you know burning sage and young rain, and all of that. I know nobody's doing that under this, you know, but people are doing it. And what ends up happening is he's showing you that you don't have to go to a suicide. He said, you know, and so what he does is he said, let me pay the picture of Christ. Not a fake Christ, but a real Christ. And I'm going to show him as massive. In other words, he's showing us what meaning called the cosmic Christ. In other words, we talk about the cosmic Christ. We're talking about the one that's above and beyond all things. If I can, if I can, if I can, if I can make it plain for you real quick, it's as if you, you think of silver surfers who walks in the power cosmic. That's the nerd coming out of me. And he's sent by Galactus as his hero. Galactus is the leader of worlds and Galactus is this massive thing that can come get a world. Think, think about that. That's mythical. Jesus Christ is actually the one with all power because he is eternally cosmic. And so you really, there is really no way to get a power grid of how powerful Jesus is. So my little sermon that I'm trying to preach is going to try to give you a power range level kind of, I'm trying to get out some type of instrument to help you to measure how massive Yeshua is and how you don't need to go anywhere else to be satisfied in any area of your life. You don't have to go nowhere else for a word. You don't have to go nowhere else for comfort. You don't have to go nowhere else for love. You can find everything that you need in Jesus Christ. And so what are we talking about today, Pastor? We're doing what's called Christology. Don't leave or y'all heard a big old Lord have mercy. Let me get out of church. It's a big work called Christology. Somebody say Christology. You got to have a look because our Christology is the study and understanding of the person, work, role of Jesus Christ in eternity past, his incarnation, listen, his ascension and in the exotime. What do I mean by this? In eternity past, who he was before he came to earth in his incarnation, who he was from zero to 33 and in his ascension, who he is now in heaven and in the eschaton when he returns. In other words, he's eternal. But it's also the study of his preeminent. What does preeminent mean? Preeminent is the fact of surpassing all others in superiority. That Jesus is preeminent. So if you, let me just warn you, today isn't, you're going into your seasoned sermon. Today isn't the preeminent. All I'm doing today is talking big talk about Yeshua. So if you don't like that, you're at the wrong church today because all we're going to do is we're going to show how he bought that life for real for real and being the eternal one who lives in eternal hypostasis at the right hand of God, the Father. We'll break it down in a second. So why is Christology important? Because you can't, so that you won't be sold to fake Jesus. That's why you need to understand who he is and not only that, fundamentals lead to making the game easier. Give me today, when you understand Christian fundamentals, the problem with our faith today, is many Christians don't know the fundamentals. And because of that, somebody can get a meme and drop take your soul into apostasy. And so if you understand the fundamentals of the faith, you will be more stable and unshaken. Let me see if I can make it plain. They were talking about Dennis Robin is one of my favorite defensive players of all time. And Dennis Robin was in practice one day and he was just standing there while they were having shoot-arounds. And he was watching as they were shooting, when they missed how the ball was bouncing off the rim. And so he's going like this. He was looking. One of the guys was like, what are you doing? He said, oh, I'm just memorizing turn patterns of the ball. He said, what? He stood there for hours. He said, see, if the ball, I know if the ball hits that side, but it's, but it's spinning this way, it's going to go back this way. And so I can't make a rebound unless I know where the ball is. So he was standing there patiently, working through the fundamentals of where the ball was going to land so that he could in the game make it easy. Even if somebody was 7-3, if they don't know where the ball is bouncing to, and Dennis Robin knows where it is, he's already in position before the big man gets there. In other words, he was willing to do the hard work of learning the fundamentals in order that he would master the game. I wonder, do I have any Christians under the sound of my voice? That's willing to patiently work through the hard work of what it means to understand the fundamentals of the faith so that we can have a solid and rich understanding of who Jesus Christ is. I got one point, one point only in Christ's centeredness. If you're going to be Christ in the number one today, once you understand this, this is the blessing of it. Christ's centeredness liberates the entire life of the disciple. Christ's centeredness liberates the entire life of the disciple. Now, this is some old fly talk, so just bear with me. Paul talking fly right here. Listen to him. He is the image of the invisible God. Let's just start right there. Who is he talking about? Jesus is the image. Now, to give you background to understand that he's the image of the invisible God. Remember the first time. Remember law first mentioned, when something was mentioned, Bible, Genesis 1, 27, God made man in his likeness and his image. In other words, men were supposed to be reflectors of God's glory. But because of the fall, God's image was defaced but not erased. What do I mean by that? In other words, the image of God wasn't erased from man because man can still show a type of love, right? Even if you're not saved, you can care for somebody, right? So it's not fully erased. It's just defaced, defaced from what? It's connection to God. So when it says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, that means he's the new Adam who is re-imaging God in the best and fullest way that he's supposed to be image in order that those who trust him may have God's image restore it to them again. Oh, y'all check it with me today. In other words, image has three dimensions, three dimensions of what it means to image God. Repeat after me. Representation? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I need more than that representation. Relationship and responsibility. Those three things is what make you an image bearer, right? So that means when you trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you are what we, what Ephesians forecars the new humanity. You're the new humanity. So that means that if you are a Christian, you should be one of the best humans on the planet. We should be the most compassionate. We should be the most loving. We should be the most supporting. We should be the why? Because if we're the best humans, we should be the best humans because of what Christ has done for us and brought us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But then it goes on and he says he, he, he's, he's the image of the invisible God. If you see me, you see the Father, but then it goes there and it goes to some more flat talk. Y'all still track it with me, right? It says he's the first born over creation. Now some people try to use this to say he was the first created being or an angel in a body, a human body, a mere superior finite being or the first to attain Godhood, right? So many people will try to say this and they use this where first born as a creation term. It's not a creation term, it's a positional term. Oh, man. It's so good. In other words, when it talks about him being first born among creation, it's going back to some to about God coordinating a king, but it also points beautifully to the first born being this. The first born is the person who inherits everything. In other words, so, so, so what is everything? Everything. Jesus, that's why the first, the last, one of the last things he said to his disciples is that all authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth. In other words, after my resurrection, when I came to earth, y'all still track it with me, when I came to earth, I laid aside independent use of my attributes. In other words, it's not that I don't have my attributes. I just don't want to cheat because I want to really walk fully in humanity, okay? But when he got up from the grave, he grabbed a hold of what he laid aside even though it wasn't really gone. Y'all mate. So he says, I'm utilizing my omnipotence again. Oh, I'm happy up here. In other words, I'm using my all-powerfulness again. So now, in other words, this is what makes Jesus God. In order for Jesus to, he has to have the spiritual capacity to do what the Father does to inherit all that the Father gives. If you are, I get it, we couldn't handle it. We'll bust open and just be some dust because we don't have the tabernacle in capacity to hold what it means to be omnipotent. Okay, y'all look at me. See if I can make it plain. In Avengers, right? Thanos, he wielded the Infinity Gauntlet, right? Remember when the Hulk tried to do it and his arm just went down to looking like some a little baby arm, right? And when Thanos used it because he was a higher being, he had the ability to wield all of the stones and utilize the gauntlet without it having effect because his body had the capacity to wield that much power. But when Iron Man tried to wield the gauntlet, when he's not, he died because his body wasn't built for that much power. That's why Thanos could survive a snap in Iron Man camp. Well, let me just say that's fictional. Jesus can hold the entire universe in his hands. Why? Because he got a real Infinity Gauntlet and he holds everything in this world in his hands. I wish I had some help under the side of my voice. How do I know? Because he eternally existed. I like this verse. It says, this is the declaration, Psalm 1101. This is the declaration of the Lord to my Lord. So the Lord is talking to the Lord. Anyway, y'all don't like this kind of stuff. I do. So in Genesis 18, y'all here in Genesis 18, God shows up with two dudes in the Oaks of memory to Abraham. So this is what we call a Theophany. Somebody say Theophany. Y'all learned some words today. A Theophany is a pre-incarnate presence of Jesus Christ on earth. So Jesus shows up with two bodyguards that he didn't really need at the Oaks of memory. Abraham starts in a seating for Sodom and Gomorrah. Y'all said, I'm going down there to see if it's really popping like I heard it's popping. Right? Then Abraham, the two angels go down to get a lot in his family. But then the text says, then out of the sky, the Lord Y'all weigh laying on Sodom. How's he inside of him? But in heaven. Oh, ain't nobody in here with me today. In other words, somebody was inside him, but then somebody was raining on Sodom. Okay, if that didn't get you. Daniel chapter 7 verse 13 and 14 says, I continue watching in the night visions and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. In other words, the issue is the picture of Yeshua surfing on the cloud. Y'all didn't know Jesus surfing. He skateboarded. He did flip kicks and everything with he coming on the clouds of heaven. There's only one person that's ever surfed on clouds. Okay, y'all looking at me funny. He was a pillar fire by night, but he was a what? In other words, he's riding on Shaqlana glory. This is too much for me. Let's keep reading. He said, and he approached the ancient days. The Bible said, who can stand before the Lord? So somebody walked up to Yahweh. He said the ancient days, he just called them. That's a fly name, by the way, and escorted me before him. He said, he was given dominion and glory and a kingdom so that those of every people nation and language should serve him. It's talking about Jesus Christ. I wish I had a church in here. I like us. That didn't get you. So in John and John chapter 12 verse 41, it's the Isaiah said these things when he saw Jesus as glory. So how did Isaiah see Jesus as glory? In Isaiah chapter 6, it says, in the year King Utsia died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Saraphim were standing above him. They each had six wings with two covering their faces and two covered their feet and two they flew and one call to one another, holy, holy, the other said, holy is the Lord God of armies. In other words, that's heaven's hook. Y'all didn't know heaven got a hook all day. Holy. Holy is the Lord. That's all day. They just see it as a holy, holy is the Lord. Holy. Holy is the Lord. Come on. Holy. All day. All day long.
That's the hook of heaven. And so Jesus Christ ultimately takes care of everything, right? Now look down what it says. Let's get in verse 16. It says for everything, this is dope. What's created by him in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible. So it says, everything was created by him. This is nuts, right? So we have three prepositions. Now this can be translated, not just by but also in him. I think that's a better translation here. It's a dayative, which means buy into by four. So here it is in. So look at that. The preposition phrases matter in scripture. Y'all going to see that next month when we start Bible study methods, right? It says everything was created in him. Listen. Then at the end of the sentence, all things have been created through him and then for him. So in him, through him and for him. Now all three of those make a lot of sense in a minute, but it said all things were created in him. In other words, Jesus was the one actively creating everything. Okay. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was tofu, vohu. It was formless and void. Darkness covered the surface of the depths and the spirit of God was hovering. Then he go hovering again, hovering over the face of the waters. And guess what? Whenever God says something has to happen, it can't help, but happen. That's how power forgot it. If God says, he don't have to, he don't have to say it. He says stuff for our benefit, but he could wink, twitch, do like whatever he want. He can think about it. But this is, he said, then God said, let there be light and there was light. Then God said, let there be an expanse and it happened. Then God said, verse nine, let the water under the sky gather into one place. It happened. Then God said, let the earth produce vegetation and it happened. Then God said, let the lights and the expanse of the sky to separate day from night and it happened. Then God said, let water swarm with a living creatures and it happened. And how do we know this all? And why do we believe this? We believe this. Why? Because Hebrews 113 says, by faith, we understand that the universe was be created by who, the Word of God. Why is it important? As Joe, as Joe, Joe was law upset. And Jesus talked real flat on. You understand, if Jesus was an MC in the 90s, you understand, Joe 38.4 is a dude with some butter tams on baggy, fool, fool shirt. You understand what I'm saying? With some pellet, pellet jeans, you understand. And he's standing there here. But Joe said something. And he said, where were you when I established the earth? Tell me if you understand Jesus, what like this? Who fixed the dimensions? He holds in his mic like this. Certainly, you know, who stretched the measure across the line, who supports the foundations, and who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang to get pictures of the light and Joe up as the ultimate MC in heaven. Because nobody has better bars than God. Nobody got bars better than God. You're feeling me. He said he created all things. He says, whether, listen, whether thrones. So if anybody has authority, he created the position. Did you know the government worked for Jesus? They just don't know it. Romans 13 says that they are ministered. They don't realize that they're ordained ministers when they get in office. But one day he gonna come back and he gonna start snatching diadems. He gonna say, give me my fittest back. Anyway, I'm by myself. Thrones were the thrones with the meanest fears of authority, rulers and authorities. He has all of that, right? Meaning he created the, now every heavenly being that's not human isn't an angel. So he created Sundergard, Archangels, angels, Sarah from Charibem, living creatures. He created all of that. And so all of them were created in him. But also they were created through him. But not only were they created through him, they were created for him. What does for him mean? It's purpose. Jesus, this is crazy. It gives purpose to everything. There's, you know, everything in our life. Good, bad and ugly has a purpose. Whether you know what I'm not, what you're going through right now has purpose. Help me today. See Christ centered people always see and think about the fact how is God in this season trying to censor me on him? Well, well, see many of us pay attention to what happened versus who's happening? And God, God, God, God, God is the ulcer and he's the finisher of your faith. And you're in a larger narrative that you got to realize that you're a part of. And you cannot ever see any season of your life as mundane no matter how unpurposeful and how boring it is. And maybe it's not the goal of your life. Listen, your purpose doesn't start when you get the job that you want. Your purpose doesn't start on your come up. Your purpose starts when you're born again. So the day that you're saved, your purpose starts. The day that you said, Lord, come into my life. I believe that you died or the cross from my sin. That's the day your purpose began that day. And if you don't understand that, if you don't stand, there's some of y'all in science, that's for his purpose. Some of you in medicine, that's his purpose. Math, education, fashion, sociology, philosophy, finance, entrepreneurialism, whatever you're in this way, your singleness, you're in this purpose. Your purpose don't start when you get married. Marriage doesn't give you purpose. God does. All things work through. Singleness existed before marriage. The first relationship wasn't between a man and a woman. It was God and humanity.
And if you don't, listen, your value, I'm not doubting marriage. But I want singles to understand that your purpose is now. How do I know that? Because he said all things were made for him. And so that means everything, everything has a purpose. The question is, are we enjoying and embracing the fact that that purpose is already here now? Help me today. Marriage has purpose. Parenting has purpose. Employees have purpose. Owners have purpose. Neighbours have purpose. Everything has purpose. Different seasons of life have purpose. Lost has purpose. Brokenness has purpose. Health has purpose. Pain has purpose. Confusion has purpose. Being dismayed has purpose. Propulsity has purpose. Uncertain every purpose. This says, I like this part. This says, and he is before all things. And by him, all things hold together. Now that's just fly. He said, not only did he create everything, but he holds it together. Now I found out the other day that this, this how you, the more learned about science, I just found out our God is unreal, right? I thought of this Saturn was the galaxy's vacuum cleaner. In other words, the rings are cosmic debris of stuff that's around the galaxy that gets sucked in, and he repurposed the mess around Saturn. That's just a more flask of, okay, and that's stuff that Jesus does the whole stuff together. Okay, you don't like that, that didn't get you. I got some else. He holds the atoms together on the molecular level. He holds you together. Your protons and your neutrons and your electrons. He holds him together. He holds water together, H2O. He holds that together. The molecular structure of air, he was the first scientist because 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, and neon, and helium, and krypton, hydrogen, and xenon. That's just air, but that didn't get you. The molecular structure of the Sun, he got hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, silicon, magnesium, neon, iron, and sulfur. Oh, that didn't get you. Well, well, I'm gonna tell you right now, he holds something else together. He holds you together. How does he hold you together? He holds your mind together. You're frontal lobe, and you're part of your real lobe, and your optical lobe, and your temporal lobe. And then your cerebellum, then he got the nerve to put a spinal cord connected to it in order to tell your body what to do. That didn't get you where your heart he holds it in order. Your superior, Zena, Kava, your aurora, and your pulmonary artery. He holds it all together. Your auric valve, your left ventricle, your right ventricle, your septum. The whole of you, he holds together. I know you're looking at me funny, but he holds every piece of your life together. Whether you went to a divorce, he's holding you together. When you went through some pain, he's holding you together. Whether you went through some hardship in your life, he's that you should have lost your mind a long time ago, but God decided that he was gonna hold you as of your seed right now. Whatever, whether you're gonna make it, some of you got to raise her out and you're ready to slit your wrists, but God is gonna hold you together right where you are. He wasn't that you were strong,
wasn't that? Wasn't even your counseling and your therapy. If it had not been for the goodness of God, if Jesus Christ holding you together, keeping you together, I know you cried, he held you together. I know you weren't paying, he held you together. I know you were frustrated, he held you together. I know you got to pick slip, but he, I don't know whether you know it or not, but he holds you together. I'm done. That's why I'm proud to call him my God. I'll call him some names and maybe some of them will touch you. He's the impeccable Adam. He's the blessed and only potentate. He's the chief shepherd. He's the day spring. He's the Emanuel. He's the first begotten of the dead. He's God manifests in the flesh. He's the heir of all things. He's the great I am. He's the just one. He's the king over all the earth. He's the lord of the dead and the living. He's the bright and more than star. He is the new covenant. He's the outstanding among a thousand. He's your propitiation. He's your ex-viation. He's your quality and your quantity. He's the resurrection and the life. He's the center. He's the true God. He's the unspeakable gift. He's the very pride. He's wonderful. He's the excellent one in your soul. He's the awesome. He's the love of your soul. He's your provider. He's your king. I got to go. With all you been through, it wasn't the man that you took, even though you should take him. He holds you together and you should give him a praise like no other because if it had not been for his keeping power, if it had not been for his love for you, if it had not been for his commitment to you, if it had not been for him to what hold in you in the midnight hour. He's a good God. He's an awesome God. Some of you started businesses. You should have been out of business long time ago, but God sent some contracts your way. Talk to him somebody. God is taking care of you. God is moving in your life. But this is the best one. When you failed, he could have tore you apart. But he's near to the broken heart. And those who are crushed in spirit, he came near you versus being far from you. That's my favorite one. That even my mess, he won't let me come apart when I'm the one that made the mess. I'm done. I'm done. So what is Christ's centeredness me? Real simple. Trust in Lord with all your heart. Lead not into your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. That's it.
Partner with us today. And if you don't know Jesus has saved you, based on his death, bear in the resurrection, place your confidence in him, and go for spiritual death, the spiritual life. Till the next time, so we can see you go for spiritual