Jesus is the Creator and Savio

If I were to take a survey of what you would like to hear more. What would you say. What a faithful chairman of the beacons. Did you look at my notes ahead of time and plan. Some would say marriage. Some would say parenting. Some would say Colossians. Maybe prayer, evangelism, discipleship. There are many topics we could seek to learn more about. Let me give you a suggestion of what you should always want to hear more about. It's Jesus Christ. Our desire should be what Paul desired, and that is that we would know Jesus Christ, as he said in 1 Corinthians. I decided you know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's only when we know more about Christ and what He's done for us, what He's doing for us, what He will accomplish for us, that we can then truly live out the lives we've called to be in our marriages, in our parenting, in our discipleship, in our evangelism. See, it's not until I see Christ and Him laying down His life for me that I can then be a faithful husband in the way Christ has called me to be a husband. To love my wife as Christ has loved the church. It's only whenever I see what Christ has come to do that I can really be a good and faithful parent. It's only until I realize that He came to die for me as a sinner who was trying to sinfully raise another sinner. That's why discipline is so important in raising up children. It helps me understand the real struggles and the frustrations that I face with raising a child. I'm a sinner, sinfully trying to raise another sinner. Well, our theme for all of Colossians is Christ is all I need, I need to want nothing else. And this morning we're going to just look at that first part of that theme, that first phrase, Christ is all I need. We're going to talk about nothing but Christ this morning because that's what our text is doing. Paul is setting up who Christ is and all of his glory as the creator and the Savior of the church. Christ is all I need. This is going to be a doctrinal sermon. This is going to be looking at the depths of Scripture. This is going to be looking at some very technical terms. This is going to be looking to how we can exalt Christ with our minds and hearts, because that's what Paul is doing with his words. We're going to be looking at the God man who saved us. I hope that we are not only going to be exalting Christ this morning as we hear and meditate upon these words, but as we leave this place, we pray more to Christ. We are having conversations with one another about Christ. The particular message this morning is this. Christ is overall as creator and savior. Therefore, he is all I need. Christ is overall as creator and savior. Therefore, he is all I need. There's only two parts, as you can see on the handout. I hope you have you flip it over. It's Jesus Christ is all I need because he's the creator and he's all I need because he's the author of a new creation. He's the savior. We'll be looking at Christ as the creator in verses 15 through 17 and how he is creating a new, a new people for a new purpose in 18 through 20. Before I read the passage, I want to point out that this is a very poetic passage. This is a hymn. Paul stops in the midst of his prayer and he reiterates a hymn that would be known in the early church, and I want to point out kind of the poetic intricacies here. First, you can see that the phrase he is is repeated four times in verse 15 and verse 17 and verse 18 twice. That continues to keep a pattern. He is. He is. He is. There's also a repetition of a phrase for in him in verses 16 and 19. What Paul with his head is doing there is making a great declaration. He is and then he's giving a ground. for that, and we'll explain those relationships later. But he makes a great declaration and he gives a reasoning for that declaration. We see in the first part of him being in the creator, he's a firstborn of creation. In the second part, he's a firstborn from the dead. Then verse 16 actually has its own kind of poetic nature in it. All things were created by him, and then he explains what all those things are. And then again, he says all things were created by him, and then he adds to that for him. Let me read this passage. Please read along in your copy of Scripture. He 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 in through him to reconcile, reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. Now this passage flows very naturally from the prayer we looked at last week. That prayer ended with a thanksgiving. He was thanking the Father for transferring us from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his Son. As he continues to talk about the Son, he breaks into this great hymn of praise that's about the Son. That is who the He is referring to. Now there's two ways we can look at why did Paul all of a sudden break out into this hymn? But could it be spontaneous praise on the passage in the end on the paper? He continues to to just praise God because he's thanking him for what he's done for them in Jesus. And then he just says this him. I want to write it down in the midst of the passage. It could just be spontaneous praise inspired by the spirit. That's a real possibility. But I think Paul also logically sees that this passage begins his main argument. It actually continues also what he's already said, it's the son is exalted, the son who has done this for us, the son who has given us his inheritance, the son has brought us into his kingdom. He is the great creator and the savior, the head of the church. See, Paul is arguing against a problem that has creeped into the Church of Colossae. And that is, we need something in addition to Christ. We need to trust in angels or other higher beings and powers in addition to what Christ has done. And Paul is going to focus here and say, no, Christ is all you need. Last week, we looked at Paul's particular prayer that we would grow in the knowledge of God, and I was very thankful that many people came and said, I want to know more about what it means to grow in the knowledge of God. Can you help me grow in the knowledge of God? Well, this passage actually gives us our first opportunity to really grow in the knowledge of God. This passage is a deep doctrinal declaration about Christ and knowing more of Christ is how you grow deeper in your relationship with Christ, with God. As we look at this passage, we need to pray that God would help us exalt Christ with our heads and our hearts, and we would hope that we would leave with a greater awe for who he is and what he's done for us. We need to pray that he will illuminate our hearts, that he will empower us to see him in all his glory, and that we would respond properly. Let me pray for us now. Christ, we looked at this passage that proclaims you in your glory as a creator and proclaims you in your suffering as a savior and in your new role as the head of the church Lord, I pray that we would see You. We pray that we would have hearts that would exalt You. I pray that You would be exalted today, because when You say You are exalted, You will draw all men to Yourself. Draw us, Almighty God, to You. Spirit, use my words. Use the words of this passage to draw us closer to Christ so that we love Him more. So that we worship Him and glorify Him and praise Him. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Everything Paul is going to say from here on out is based upon this passage. If this is the one part of Colossians you want to memorize, that's fine. Memorize this passage about Christ. Everything else is going to flow from it because we start with Christ and then we bring an application. That's why we talk about counseling ourself with the gospel. We don't talk about what we need to do and how we need to do it first. First, we talk about what Christ has done for us, and then we talk about how we're going to respond to him. So let's first look at our passage. Jesus is all I need because he is the author of creation. This is verses 15 through 17. Let me read them again. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born. 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. This is a very important passage for us as Christians, because we must confess that Jesus Christ is God. If He is not God, we are not saved by Him. Only God can save sinners perfectly and completely. And we must see that he is perfectly and completely revealed as God, not only in this passage, but all scripture. We lose everything if he is not God, and that's why Paul is pointing out he is preeminent, he is the final and ultimate authority because he is God. The key question is this. Is he the creator or is he part of the creation? That's the key question we have to ask. Let's look at verse 15. There's some there's some technical language in this first part that I want to explain and walk through. He is the image of the invisible God. Now, what does it mean that he's the image? Does that mean he's kind of like a reflection? As I look in the mirror, I can see myself as a lot like me, but it's not me. It's a likeness of that's what a lot of the early heretics confess this passage taught. That he wasn't the perfect God. He was just a reflection of God, an emanation of God. It's really missing the entire point of this passage. He is the image of the invisible God. Really, we could say here he is the visible image of the invisible God. He is the exact revelation of God because he is God himself. He is the visible image of the invisible God. We sell this in the passage Asher opened us with in Hebrews 1 3. He's the exact imprint. If you want to know who God is and see him, you look to Jesus because he is the exact imprint. Or John 1 18. No one has ever seen God. But the son who is in his bosom is technically what it says in the bosom of the father who is with the father. He has made him known. He is a son who reveals the Father perfectly. John 14 verses 9 through 10 are really the most clear passage that this is not saying that Jesus is just a mere reflection. When Philip said, show us the Father. Jesus says, when you see me, you see the Father. He'll say in another place, I and the Father are one. What you see me doing, that's what the Father is doing. You see, When we look at Jesus, we see God the Son. We see God himself revealed in the flesh. Now, when we looked at him in the flesh, it would have been incognito. He was really not much to look at, apparently, based upon Isaiah. But when you see him in his actions and his glory and his declarations with his authority, we would see God. One of the goals of humankind is to see God. That's what we were created to do. That's what we were created for. To know Him. To see Him. Remember Moses. He asked, Lord, can I see your glory? God said, no. You're too sinful and I'm too holy. You cannot see my glory. But I'll show you my hind part. My backside. You can't see my face. It will overwhelm you and you'll be destroyed because you're too much a sinner and I'm too holy. So He revealed part of himself. Now, however, God revealed himself fully, he's no longer speaking through prophets like Moses, he's speaking through his own son, Jesus has come to be the perfect and absolute revelation of God. We can see it in what he taught. He did not come to abolish the law. No, he came to fulfill it. He came to teach what it truly meant. He came and spoke with absolute authority. They were amazed at how he taught and what he proclaimed. He came and declared the truth of God. Crowds walked away amazed. We see God and how He lived. He proclaimed the truth of God. He pointed people to God, the Father. He confronted sin, the gross sin of rebellion and the gross sin that God sees in our self-righteousness. He taught and lived so that we would see the love of God, the power of God and the truth of God. He lived in such a way that we would know that God is our father. That we would love him above all else, that we would love our neighbor like we love ourselves. We would find peace with God. He made the will of God known to us. Point is this. He is all we need to see the face of God. Jesus Christ, if we seek after him and want to see him, we will see God. Now many of you are saying, well that's 2,000 years ago. We don't get to walk with Jesus like the disciples walked with Jesus. If only Jesus could walk in like he did in Jerusalem, then we could see him and then we would believe. No you wouldn't. Seeing is not believing. How many people looked at Jesus and got to hear Jesus with their actual ears and see him with their eyes and walked away denying him? Being amazed and somewhat inspired, but but denying that he was God and the Savior. One of the most amazing passages is John 16, 7. Where Jesus is giving instruction on the Holy Spirit, he tells them, he tells the disciples, it's to your advantage if I leave, because when I leave, the Holy Spirit will come. You see, it's not with our eyes and our ears that we will get to know God. It's with our hearts. It's when the Holy Spirit regenerates us and illuminates us and allows us to see God in His glory. It's when the Holy Spirit reveals to us from His Word that He has inspired that God is great, that God is almighty, that Jesus Christ is God, and that He is our Savior. You see, if we want to see God, we can see Him today. Not with the eyes of our flesh, but with the eyes of our heart. We can see Him and know Him. But we have to do it the way He has ordained it to be. We see Him by trusting the Holy Spirit. We see Him by reading the Word that points us to Him. Reading the Word that He has given to us. And praying the Spirit would illuminate us so that we can see Him. Now here's what gets in the way of seeing God. It's our sin. See, right now we can only see in a mirror dimly, and that dimness is our sin. It affects the way we think, it affects the way we desire, it affects the way we love. Our sin is what keeps us from seeing God clearer and clearer. The more we repent of sin, the clearer our vision of God will be. It's not my raspy throat that's going to keep us from hearing God and seeing God today. It's our sin. That's the major obstacle. It's how much we want to repent and be done with our old way of life and start seeing God and Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father. We must seek him in his word. We must seek him with the saints and the fellowship. We must seek him in prayer. We seek him in repentance. So Christ, we get to see God in Christ as he's revealed to us in his word and through the spirit. Let's look at this next term, first born of all creation, again, a fairly technical term here. Now, if you may ask, why are all these terms so technical? This is one of the great passages that exalt Christ. Why is it so technical? Our language is not designed to describe God. I can tell you what a table is, four legs, flat top, put stuff on it. My our language is for this finite created world. I can describe things of this created order fairly well with the language we have. But our language can never describe God fully or completely. Now, the most amazing thing is the fact that God has used our language to reveal himself, so we have a reliable, sufficient word. But we have to use some some technical, difficult terms here and there to make sure we are protecting the truth of God. So what does it mean that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation? Well, the ancient Aryan heretics and the Jehovah's Witnesses of our day, they focus on the born aspect of this. He was born, he had a beginning, just like when we have children, they have a beginning and they're dependent upon whoever gave them birth. They're missing the real focus here. It's about being the firstborn. Who was Israel's firstborn child? Not the nation, the person Israel. I'm sorry, I completely messed that up. Who was Isaac's firstborn child? Who was Isaac's firstborn child? Who? Esau. Ethel was a firstborn birth, but who was a real firstborn child? Jacob. You see, it's not about the birth. It's about the status. It's about the position. He is the heir of the inheritance, because it's not about when being born. It's a special status you receive from the father. This is not declaring that he was born or that he had a beginning. No, it's declaring a special status he has, an authoritative status over all creation. He stands over creation as the firstborn. Well, maybe it's not clear yet that he belongs to the class of creator and not creature. Let's look at verse 16, the grounding of these two declarations. 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." So, verse 16 is really relating to verse 15 because it's giving a ground and a reasoning for those declarations. He's the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn because all things were created for Him. You see that repeated twice. And we have, in the middle of that, a description of what all things are. He is the beginning. He is the One who has created all things. We see this in John 1, 3. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Here we see the clear declaration. He's a creator. Everything that is created was created by Him. Now, we get more precise here if we look at 1 Corinthians 8 16. It says, for from the father came all things through the son. That makes perfect sense and giving a commentary on Genesis one, doesn't it? In the beginning was God and he spoke creation into existence. The Father declared creation into existence through His Word. And we know that Jesus Christ is the Word who became flesh. You see, the Son participates in creation. He is the Word that God the Father speaks to bring creation about. He is the One who creates. He is the Creator. Let's look at how all things are further described. All things in heaven. And on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, it's pretty encompassing. It's all things. No matter how we would look at it, physical, spiritual, in heaven or on earth. Specifically, I think Paul is going after the fact that angelic beings were created. That's what I believe he's referring to with the thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities. It's the same thing he refers to in Ephesians 121. Christ has been raised from the dead and he's at the Father's side, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. You see, the Colossians' problem is the fact that they have started to look at other beings to help them accomplish approaching God. They see there's a great chasm, there's a great rift between God and man, and they're thinking, if we can only trust the angels, they can get us kind of up there to help us, to help Christ and what He's done for us. He's pointing out that Christ Himself has created all of these beings. Why would He need them? Why should we depend upon them that are dependent upon Christ? He needs no help. We have to remember here the backdrop of this, It's not illogical in some sense. The hierarchy of being is this. God, angels, and man. That's the hierarchy of being. God, angels, and man. I get that from the fact that Jesus being God is said to have been made a little lower than the angels when He took on flesh. So it's God, angels, and man. And so these Colossians are looking and saying, how can I get to God? Well, I need to look for some mediums. The angels can serve as a medium so that I can help get to God. And Paul's point is, you don't need any mediums because God Himself has come straight down to you so He can bring you straight back up to Him. He does not need to depend upon any other power. Jesus Christ is sufficient. Now, I know most of you in the room, and I don't see you depending upon angels. I don't think this is a problem that I see in Jefferson Park Baptist Church. I don't I wouldn't write this kind of letter to you all. But something that has plagued the church and always will plague the church, every church is depending upon other powers. Typically, it's our own. Typically, it's me thinking, if I can just do this, God will love me more. Typically, it's me saying, if I could just accomplish this good work, it will help Christ love me and take care of me and serve me better. We're always tempted to think, if I just started doing this, I could accomplish more in Christ. Friends, that's self-righteousness. We first need to repent of our sin. See sin on the cross and see what Christ has done for us and then respond. We are too dependent upon our power, not angelic powers. Let's look at this last phrase of verse 16. All things were created by Him and for Him. It's very similar, almost the exact same phrase all the way up to the very end. Where it says all things were created by Him and then for Him. That's the real addition here. He bookends and all things were created by him, but now we have all things were created for him. Jesus Christ was our intended origin and our intended end. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever. Jesus Christ as God is our origin. He's our source of life, and He is the purpose of life. If we want to be happy in this life, we must seek to have our purpose and our end in Jesus Christ. We talk about wisdom a lot on Wednesday night and Sunday morning. Wisdom is knowing what the proper end is and knowing how to accomplish it. Christ is the end and the means to reach that end. He is our goal in life to worship, to love, to serve. And He is a way that we do that by forgiving us and calling us and equipping us. Verse 17, He is before all things. Here the He is is very similar to the I am of Exodus. If you're a Hebrew, you hear the He is, you hear the I am, the Yahweh. The very power that was able to disable the Egyptians and free Israel, He's now destroying the power of sin. He is before all things again declaring His preeminence and His authority, His position. In Him, all things hold together. He's the Creator and the Sustainer. It reminds me of Acts 17, 28, when Paul quotes a philosopher agreeing with him. In Him we live and move and have our being. He is the One who is sustaining everything and keeping everything. The key question is, do we trust Him as He holds all things together? Do we trust God and His wisdom and His power to keep holding all things together? When our lives feel like they're unraveling, when they feel too chaotic, are we trusting that He is holding all things together? Do we trust that He is in control And do we seek him in prayer or do we seek to go out and fix things first? Let's move to our second main section here. Jesus is all I need because he is the author of the new creation. This is verses 18 through 20. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and 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 the cross. It's a great declaration. It's very comforting. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. It gives me great relief because it reminds me I'm just an under-shepherd. My job is to point you to Him. I'm not the one who has to control and lead and do everything. It's Jesus Christ who does it all. Leaders, if we really want to serve the church, it's pointing them to Christ. It's depending upon Jesus Christ. It's recognizing this is His church. He is the head. We're just here to serve and point others to Him. So one of the great dangers that I see attacking this doctrine that Jesus Christ is the head of the church is good old pragmatism. So we need to come together and serve Christ, worship Christ, uniting together to worship Him. But it's easy to come together for a purpose other than that. It's easy to come together for a works-oriented social group. We can easily get bogged down in what we do and how we do it and how we can fix things. Pragmatism is a danger. We want to serve. We want servants, but it's servants who are wanting to serve under Christ and His headship. Servants who are looking to glorify Him. It's too easy to want to come in and figure out how we can fix things. How we can serve. The first thing we do when we come in is we seek how can we glorify God? How can we honor The head. We are praying that we will be able to adopt a new constitution that will have elders. I think this is biblical. I think it will help the church. But it's not going to fix the church. Getting a simple declaration that we're going to get elders, it's not going to fix anything that in itself. Because what we have to have are elders who are going to serve the head humbly, and a body who is going to serve the head humbly, and those will be united. Having elders is not going to fix anything if we're not committing to loving the Lord our God with all our heart and all our strength. Let us not fool ourselves that getting a document prepared that's going to put things in order is going to fix anything. No, it's when we are actually loving God and focused on His headship. The beauty of the gospel is the church doesn't depend upon anyone but Jesus. We're all expendable. He doesn't need any of us. But then he decides to incorporate us all into his purpose. He doesn't need us, but he actually brings us in and he says, I can use you. And the way to be most useful is when you're most committed to him. The beauty of the gospel is that It's all dependent upon Jesus. It isn't dependent upon us. We get to work for him and with one another. The thing about the Headship of Christ, my mind immediately went to John 17. It's Christ's high priestly prayer. The last, one of the last things he truly prayed for the church. And one of the main themes of that prayer is that the church will be unified. We have a sweet unity here. I think there's a sweet love that is very, very, it was very attractive to me as I was visiting, and it's even become more attractive as I've served you and loved you. There's a unity here. We need to make sure that unity is not about who we are as a culture at Jefferson Park. That unity is based upon us all being committed together under his headship. One of the best ways to secure that unity is to be praying together regularly. That's what I want us to be known for, a church that is unified because we are always praying to the head to keep us unified and to keep us focused on what matters. Not what our opinions are, not what our culture thinks, but what His Word says and how we're supposed to live according to His headship. Verse 18. He is the beginning. This is very similar to being declared the Alpha and the Omega, or at least the Alpha part of Revelation 21 and 6. He is the beginning. He is the beginning of a new creation, of a new order. This is further described. He is the first born from the dead. Again. This isn't the fact that He's born. He has a special status. He is the first one that's risen from the grave. He is the one who has conquered death and sin. And we get to participate in that. We get to participate in His resurrection and His victory. Death has lost its sting. We are no longer afraid of death. We are beginning a new creation. Because God has begun it in us. Continuing with verse 18, that He might be preeminent. What is the most important thing to you right now? Is it where you can go to lunch afterwards? Is it where you're going to do the rest of the day? Or is it Jesus Christ? Is He preeminent? He is preeminent. ontologically speaking. He has the status of being the great God, the Almighty One. He is preeminent. Are you recognizing Him as preeminent? Are you recognizing Him as the most important thing in your life? If you are not, you are missing the most important thing that you can have in your life, and it is Jesus Christ. Your attention must be putting Him above everything else. He is worthy of all your attention. Verse 19 gives us the ground. For in Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Here we have the beautiful doctrine of the Incarnation. We just celebrated this with Christmas. The Divine was wrapped with the human nature. The Father was pleased to send the Son down to take upon a nature like ours exactly except for without sin. He is able to be the head of the church. The one who is preeminent because He is God Himself. It's the clearest declaration. This is God. That's why He doesn't need to depend upon angels or anything else. We have a purpose. To reconcile all things in heaven. on earth. This is very similar to God will be all in all in 1 Corinthians 15 26. God will reconcile all things. We have set this world into a chaos. We have said we're going to fight against God rather than seeking to submit to him. He is seeking to reconcile us even though we are his enemies. All things Let's think about creation first. We'll get to us being reconciled. How will creation be reconciled? Let me ask a different question. Do we need to help creation be reconciled? I don't think so. Many people will look at Romans 8 and they'll say, creation is groaning for redemption. We need to go out and help redeem it. It doesn't have that imperative in it. It just says creation's groaning, and that groaning is supposed to give testimony to the spirit that's groaning in our heart, longing for that glorified state when Christ will come back and fix everything. Our band-aids can't fix creation and the chaos that we've created in it. Our focus needs to be worshiping God, the Creator, and longing for His new creation, along with the creation that we corrupted. We only cause more trouble. How will we be reconciled? This is our last phrase. Making peace by the blood of the cross. He's reconciling all things to himself by making peace by the blood of the cross. Peace here is that great Hebrew concept of shalom, having unity, having reconciliation, being in harmony with God. We long for peace. We long for the Sabbath. We long for the rest that God created us for. We will be restless until God brings it. Why did peace have to come by the blood? Why does peace have to come by the blood? I believe it's revealed in Romans 1.18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven. against all ungodliness and unrighteousness by men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Peace has to come because we are all sinners, because the wrath of God has been revealed against us. We will have no peace because the wrath of God is hanging over us unless we believe in Jesus Christ. If you're not a Christian this morning, You have no peace and you are restless because the wrath of God is hanging over your head. And when you die, it will be poured out upon you. Your soul will suffer eternal destruction. The beauty of this passage tells us that it doesn't have to be that way. There's two ways to live. There's one way in which you continue in your rebellion and you suffer the wrath of God. The second way is that you recognize Jesus Christ in His exalted state as not only the Creator, but the Savior. He is God Himself who came to stand between you and God. He took upon Himself a nature just like ours, except for a sin, so that He could stand in your place. Or rather, He could be nailed to the cross instead of you. Taking upon God's wrath instead of you. He is our substitute. That's the beauty of Him providing peace by the blood of His cross. He reconciles us, who were enemies to God, fighting against God. He reconciles us and gives us the status of being friends with God and even sons of God. See, our sin means we should die and be subject to the wrath of God. Now, you may be able to walk around and pretend you have peace, but you know there is a restlessness about you. Things are not right, and that's because the relationship you were created for, a relationship with God, has been broken because of our sin. If you want peace, it only comes through Christ, because he's the only one as the God-man who can reconcile sinful man and a holy God. Friends, I pray that you will seek his peace that will remove God's wrath from you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Jesus Christ, be exalted. Father, pour out Your Spirit so that we and our hearts will recognize Him in His exalted, preeminent position. Help us, Lord, to love You. Bend our hearts up to worship you in a way that you are worthy of being worshiped. Help us, Lord, to glorify you as our Creator and praise you and thank you as our Savior. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Let's respond in song as we sing together All I Want to Tell Dear.