On Sunday, September 15, we begin a new series called First.  The word, ‘first,’ is defined as coming before all others in time or order.  Things that are first impact everything else in your life.  Things that are first are put at the center of everything else.

When building a house, you first start with the foundation, not the roof.  If the foundation is bad, then it will impact the rest of the house.  If you’re a parent, your first child impacted your entire life.  More than likely the introduction of that first child didn’t just impact your life, but rocked it…in the most beautiful of ways.

And in respect to the Christian life, there is a continual tension that believers in Christ walk in, and that is to put Jesus first in our lives.  It doesn’t take long to realize that there are many things that pull at us in our life.  Jobs, school, spouses, children, friends just to name a few.  Even if you’re not a follower of Jesus yet, you get this tension.

We’ve all had seasons in our life where the job or the kids or the big project came first, and we walked out of that season realizing that our priorities got jumbled up in the midst of the chaos or the daily grind of life.

So what does it look like to put Jesus first in things such as our work, our past, our present, even our future?  What about in matters of parenting or marriage?  What does it look like to put Jesus first in our mission or the community we share with one another?  What about areas such as prayer, or reconciliation, the teaching that happens in a church, or even our suffering?  These are many of the questions that we’re going to look at over the 12 weeks of this series.

During those weeks, we’ll be working our way through the book of Colossians which touches on all of these subjects.  It is only 4 chapters long, but really chocked full of a lots of topics and truth.  And this truth is not just for our head knowledge, but for our hearts and is relevant to our daily lives.

All of Scripture, both the Old and New Testament, has Jesus at the center of it, and Colossians is probably one of the most Jesus centered books in the Bible.  Colossians 1:18b (NLT) says this, “He [Jesus] is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.”  So is He first in everything in your life?  What about in my own life?

As we kick off the next 10 years of ministry at Crosspoint, I feel like this is the series we need to start with.  We not only need to be reminded to put Jesus first, but also need to be reminded as a church.  Because at the end of the day, we want to be all about Jesus at Crosspoint.  We want our lives to be all about Him, and being devoted to Him.  If that comes first, it will impact all the rest, so I look forward to the next 12 weeks of First.

Invite a friend to join you!

*The 12 week First series will compose the fall semester for our sermon-based community groups as well.  If you still need to connect to a community group, check out our listing here, and contact a leader or Kevin and Kristi Funk.