Speaker: Pastor Gil Tartaglino Scripture: Colossians 1 & 2
(Introduction: Jesus First) “Today we build off of last week’s message… ‘First Place,’ and we build off now our theme: Jesus first. In all things, He might have the preeminence. Do you recall what preeminence means? The surpassing excellence. First place.”
“I’d like to make mention… of the timely and well-stated challenges of the new year by one of our young men… ‘How much do we meditate on the words of life found in this book? How much time do we spend even thinking about Jesus?’ Thought-provoking. True isn’t it?”
(Opening Prayer) “Father, thank you for giving us this opportunity… Thank you Father for cleansing us completely, forever forgiven… We pray that you’d help us now as we focus in on what thus sayeth the Lord. And Father reveal some things to us that we haven’t even contemplated… May Jesus Christ get first place in our life. Jesus name we pray, Amen.”,
(The Mystery of God) “We look in verse number one… Now let’s draw particular attention to verses two and three… ‘That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.’ Boy that is so meaty… In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”,
“If you go back to verse 26 of chapter 1… he’s referring to the mystery here… A mystery indicates a truth hidden in the Old Testament but it’s revealed in the New Testament… ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ The gospel has been proclaimed to both the Jews and the Gentiles… Saved Jews and saved Gentiles are united into one body, the local New Testament church… You can’t be united into one body… unless you have the Holy Spirit living in you.”,,
(Treasures in Christ vs. The World) “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We had the unfortunate occasion to see somebody in the hospital who was dying… she was chasing ghosts. That’s what her life was. People are out there doing just… chasing UFOs and chasing conspiracy theories. Why? It’s a waste of time. In Jesus are hid all the treasures, not some of them, not most of them, but all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
(Spiritual and Cultural Tension) “Spiritual and cultural tension is ever present because of Jesus Christ. The world does not accept what we just read here… I had a conversation with a man named Muhammad… I said, ‘You believe in the Quran?’ So the Quran would be above the scriptures. So there’s the problem… Do we deny that Jesus Christ was a prophet? No. Do we deny Jesus Christ is a great teacher? No… but he’s the son of God. Changed everything. He’s God the son.”,
“We see this when Paul was seized in the temple… The Jews had known he was in the temple and they were ready to kill him… He raises his hand and there’s a hush. It’s like God just closed their mouths. And he begins to relate his testimony… Jesus is saying unto Paul, ‘Depart for I’ll send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.’ And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices and said, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth.'”,,
(Division in the Home) “Jesus takes us back to the claim that he made… In Matthew 10:34-38 we read, ‘Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother…’ This means that when you get saved, they don’t like it. There’s variance.”,
“Remember what happened to Mrs. Rogers… When she got saved they said, ‘Pack your stuff… We never want to see you again.’ That’s cold… Don’t make the mistake please on failing to follow the word of God and in appeasing friends and family… The verse that you must use when there is division with family members who aren’t saved is speak the truth in love… Be kind and you be direct.”,
(Idealism vs. Realism) “Christians must remember that we do not live in a world of idealism… We live in a world of realism, pragmatism. Idealism states, ‘What if everyone got along?’… But your heart has to remove itself from idealism to realism. Everyone getting along is not reality. Hatred is too powerful and prevalent in our society. And the only thing that’s going to stop that is for people to get saved… What we’re seeing taking place in society now is a direct result of Christianity failing. We have not been the witnesses that we ought to be.”
(The Validation of Christ: The Resurrection) “Please remember… the validation of the deity of Jesus Christ, his person and his influence, is in his resurrection… Your salvation does not validate it… His miracles did not validate… Romans 1:1-4… ‘Declared to be the son of God with power… by the resurrection from the dead.’ That validates his person, his influence, and his deity… He himself has power over death because he raised himself from the dead.”,
(Meditation and Preeminence) “In our text verses in Colossians chapter 2… ‘In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ So the sum total of all wisdom and the sum total of all knowledge exists in Jesus Christ… Meditation is the victory, not the memorization of the scripture… It’s the meditation… That’s where you have good success.”,
“Colossians 1:18: ‘And he is the head of the body, the church… that in all things he might have the preeminence.’ The surpassing excellence… When you’re pursuing another excellence, you have sideswiped and pushed the Lord Jesus Christ aside… Who in their right mind physically would push Jesus Christ aside if he was standing or if he was sitting right next to you right now? Never… We would offer him our worship, our best.”,
(Sufficiency in Christ) “We may not understand fully the deity of Jesus Christ… Does anyone fully understand electricity? You believe it though, don’t you? You utilize it… How about the internal combustion engine?… You’ve made the internal combustion engine valuable to you, haven’t you? Yet there are seemingly endless benefits… But there’s a limit. Wait. Colossians 2:3… The sum total of all wisdom and the sum total of all knowledge exists only in Jesus Christ… There are no hidden treasures of wisdom or knowledge found anywhere else.”,
“What we have in the written word are the very words Jesus would speak to us in a private counseling session… We are fascinated with [man’s] intellect… But somewhere along the line, we have to conclude that the one who we marvel… has limits. We have a savior who is in no respect deficient in wisdom, power, grace to redeem us and grace to keep us. There is nothing that disqualifies him to do for us that he has not done for every believer everywhere… There is nothing which we need to enable us to perform our duties, to meet temptations, to bear trials which he has not already provided. It’s there.”,
(Grace for the Need) “Where in the world are we in our Christian life? We just turn— ‘I don’t see the water.’ It’s there… ‘I don’t see beating these temptations.’ It’s there… Through the scriptures. ‘I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.’ You don’t even live by your own faith.”,
“Hebrews 4:15-16… ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’… What is the cure for the Monday blues? Tuesday? Oh really?… What is the cure for a difficult work week?… Jesus does not necessarily wish to give us peace by removing the storm. He wants to give peace while we are in the storm.”,,
(Conclusion: Help Thou Mine Unbelief) “We are reminded of the anguishing father… Mark 9:4… ‘Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief.’ Are you there this morning? ‘I believe Lord, but I haven’t got the balance that I need right now. I’m constantly leaning.’… When Jesus Christ called his 12 apostles 2,000 years ago… clearly we can say those apostles were clearly on a roller coaster ride… What do you know about the weaknesses of these apostles?… Stubborn. Proud. Selfish. Cowardly… They were no different than us. They could turn the world upside down.”,,
“What is your greatest need for 2026? One area of Jesus first in your life… Stand with me please and go to the Lord with that need right now… Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.”
