Foundations | Week 1 | Joshua Paul | Echoes Church

We're talking about foundations, and that's the beginning of this new series. We're gonna unpack our core values here at Echoes, and the very first one is simple, but it is powerful. Jesus is our answer. Period. Jesus is our answer. See he is the cornerstone,

the foundation of all things in our life, yet too often we try to over complicate it. We try to redesign it, redefine it, we try to debate about it, but it stands true for all of time. Jesus will always be the answer for every desire and longing of the human soul, but we have to choose to put him at the center of it all.

And so that's what we're gonna unpack today. Because if he's not the center, then the lives we try to build, even things that could be considered good, will inevitably fall apart if they're not in his original design. And talking about something that is not meeting the original design,

how many of you have fallen into what I call the black hole of Nellis auction? Getting some chuckles there, also getting some eye rolls from the spouse of the person that was laughing, the person that raised their hand, their spouse was definitely rolling their eyes. So my wife has gotten into this thing,

I would call it a little bit of a problem. So

she's all excited because she's buying stuff for a fraction of the cost in which it would normally be charged. Let's say, I'm all for it. I'm the saver in the family. I'm the frugal one. If I can spend less on something instead of more, I'm all about it. But here's the other side of that reality.

We now end up with a bunch of junk that we never needed before.

And and that's the tension I think. So my wife is all excited because she's saying, we saved x amount of dollars. We've saved so much money buying this because it's normally cost this. But then I have to turn around and say, no we actually spent x amount of dollars on stuff that we never needed.

That's where the tension is and I normally lose that battle. But I say that because recently she bought a bookshelf on Nellis auction.

And you know you put in a bid and you win. I don't know you win something that you paid money for, but we won it I guess. We got it. We paid for it. We then go to pick it up. The description on there is open box, perfect condition, had not yet been assembled.

Alright. So the images you see is literally a box that's been opened, taped back shut, and then stock images of what the bookshelf is supposed to look like, what the original design is. So I take this home, I put it together, you know, less than the two hour project, finish up with it, I just I remember it vividly.

It was in our front room, I remember this vividly. I step back, I look at the bookshelf, just kind of tilt my head and go, Alright. So the bookshelf has shelves and the bottom has cabinets and on the cabinets there's handles for the doors. Know most cabinet handles are like this side by side. These ones were like this.

And so I go back to the instructions and I'm like, oh, that's not right. Okay. So then I go to the cabinet, I literally open it up, I'm like, alright, the hinges have to go in the inside, the pre drilled holes for the handles are only there and there, finish and outside's here, you can't go in the inside.

And I step back again and it dawns on me. This was manufactured wrong or they sent me two left doors and one's upside down. And then it really hits me.

This is why it was on sale at Nellis Auction Site and I'm the chump that ended up with it, bought it, picked it up, brought it home, built it, and now I have a janky bookshelf. Alright. I say that because I started to think, man isn't that just kind of how life goes sometimes? We build a life that functions.

The bookshelf functions. It's standing, it can hold stuff on the shelves, the cabinets technically open and close. It's just a little bit off of the original design. See, we build a life that functions.

We have a job, we have a roof over our heads, we have all three meals of the day, we have a full calendar and schedule full of work stuff, family, school, extracurricular activities, sports for all the kids. None of those are bad things, but when we don't build them on the right foundation,

maybe something in us is always telling us and there's just still something off. And my question for you is what part of your life right now, again, not even necessarily a bad thing, but what part of your life right now just feels a little bit off? Just a little bit outside of the original design, a little offset

of what you think it could be. See, we chase things of the world, not always bad, but when the foundation is wrong, we can't expect it to stand as long as it's supposed to. And that's what Apostle Paul is addressing in the book of Colossians. As we dive into this idea of foundations that Jesus is our answer,

Apostle Paul wrote this book to a church. I would say similar to our church, a growing church in a city full of people that have these competing ideas, different backgrounds, and religious ideologies and philosophies that sometimes create conflict.

And Paul's writing to them to say, you don't need more than Jesus, you just need more of Jesus. Or in other words, you don't need a different design, you just need the right foundation.

And so that's where I want us to build our foundation right now, on who Jesus is, what he does, why he matters, and then we collectively choose to make him our answer for everything.

So let's open up to Colossians one verses 15 through 20. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and supreme over all creation, for 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. He existed before anything else and he holds all of creation together.

Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning supreme over all who rise from the dead, so he is first in everything. For God in all of his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and 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.

There's a lot to unpack there, so I just wanna kinda dive into each verse. Verse 15, this is revealing who God is, and it's Jesus, the person of Jesus. It says Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. So we see right out the gate, Jesus is not a reflection of God, Jesus is the revelation of God.

Jesus is not just a mirrored reflection of God's characteristics, Jesus is the embodiment of God. He wasn't just a picture, he's the picture.

And maybe you've heard this statement before, maybe you've read that passage before, maybe you've been a Christian for a while, and you're like yeah I get it, I'm all for it. Here's what I want us to understand though, contextually speaking, this would have been a theological

disruption to the original audience that received this passage. Alright, so all throughout the Old Testament, the Jewish audience had this natural reverence and awe for God's invisibility. See through Moses, God spoke through Moses to his people, but Moses didn't even see God the same way as we see in Jesus.

And so in Exodus 33, there's this passage that says, no one may see me and live. So the Jewish people are living in this reverence and this awe, this submission of God's invisibility. So then now in the New Testament, this guy to show up, this man, Jesus of Nazareth, as they know him, just a carpenter,

and to say he is the visible image of the invisible God would have been blasphemous, unless it was true. It meant that the God of the old testament, the one that they had righteous fear for, is now the one walking among them in flesh. It flips the entire idea of God's transcendence around. What was once invisible

and infinite, now is visible and intimate. It is personal, it is relational. That's that's a heavy thought to try to comprehend. So let's paint a picture. Who remembers twenty, thirty years ago when you used to have to actually get your photos developed?

Remember this? Alright, before the iPhones, before all the Instagram filters, know, I know like Polaroids are kinda making a comeback which is cool, but I'm talking a separate device, you would take photos on it, never see what they look like, you go to the store, you drop off a roll of film, you go home, three to five business days later, you go back to the store, you pick up these photos in an envelope, you open them up, and you hope that just maybe one out of the 20 plus photos in there will be good because the rest are blurry. If it's at night, the flash would be on and all of our eyes would be red, which was crazy.

And then, you know the one photo that was gonna be okay, of course, someone blinked. Here's what I wanna show you. There's a delay in that process. See when you took the photo, the image was already there. It just had to go through a process before it revealed itself to us.

And that's what Paul is addressing here. That's what he's trying to say about Jesus. All throughout history, past, present, future, all throughout history, God has revealed himself through prophets, through laws, through creation, these glimpses, these hints of who he is, who his characteristics are,

but then Jesus shows up on the scene and he now is the final developed image of God. The invisible now visible. He is now what was untouchable, touchable. Both fully God and fully man. And now as followers of Christ, the community of Echoes, we get to be a part of that revelation.

And that's the beauty of the mission statement here, why I love it, that we are called to help people echo the life of Jesus in their everyday lives. We are the echoes of Jesus. We are the echoes of the characteristics of God. And my question is, when people look at your life, are they seeing a clearer picture of God?

When you encounter people at school or in the workplace tomorrow, on Monday, and they didn't know that you go to church on Sunday, are they seeing a clearer picture of who God is? When you go out with your buddies, Thursday night football, Buffalo Wild Wings, wherever you like to go, How you act,

are they seeing a clear image of who God is or a distorted blurry one? On Saturdays, when you take your kids to all the different sports and extracurricular things, are you acting a fool or are people seeing a reflection of who God is? A clear image of his characteristics. See, we get to be the echoes of Jesus,

but what are people seeing in your life? Because the only way to echo Jesus is to know Jesus, and the only way to know Jesus is to see Jesus and to behold him and choose to make him the center of your life. What are people seeing in you?

We continue in verse sixteen and seventeen, it says, all things were created through him and for him, he holds all things together. So let's try to wrap our head around that for just a moment. All things created through him, for him, held together by him.

So for those of us in the room that maybe think a little more analytically, logically, scientifically, mathematically, maybe a little less feelings and you're drawn more towards data, That's how I'm wired. I look at this picture of the earth and the solar system.

Alright. So we're obviously just looking at a linear kind of representation of this. We know that it's three-dimensional. We know that it's orbiting around, we're not supporting flat earth right now, we're just looking at a flat image okay? Alright so the earth, 93,000,000 miles from the sun.

I want to break down a couple of realities of how precise and perfect God created us. Any closer to the sun than 93,000,000 miles, all of life on earth would burn up. Any further away from the sun, all of life would freeze.

Alright, now let's go another layer down. The earth rotates once every twenty four hours moving about a thousand miles per an hour and it's tilted perfectly at 23.5 degrees on its axis. This is important because this is how we experience seasons,

not so much here in Phoenix because it's just hot and then not as hot, but everywhere else around the world experience seasons and that rotation every twenty four hours is how we have night and day. Perfect precision in creation. Let's go another layer down. The atmosphere that we live in, it has 21% oxygen.

Everything else is nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and a bunch of things I don't know how to pronounce, but here's what's important about the oxygen. Any more than 21%, if there were any open flame, we would never be able to control it because oxygen is what fuels fire, so everything would burn up. Any less than 21% oxygen,

people like you and I, creatures that are complex, we would not be able to breathe. So just three factors and there's far more than that, but those three simple factors paint this picture of that God created all three things through him, by him, held together by him, for him,

and he created us uniquely. None of this was by accident. We were not by accident. The same Jesus who spoke light into darkness in the beginning of all time, the same Jesus who holds every star and planet in place and knows them by name, the same Jesus who holds all of the galaxies in motion is the same Jesus holding you and I together

now. But when we step outside of that design and just one degree, one degree off, and we try to do this life ourselves, it will

fall apart. And rarely does it happen overnight. Rarely does someone wake up one day and they're like, I'm gonna ruin my life today, let's do this thing. Like I'm ready, let's just make a mess. That's not how it happens. Rarely does it happen overnight. It's a subtle, slow drift. You stop praying as much as you once did,

and then down the road you're like, why don't I feel as close to God anymore? You stop reading the word of God as much as you once did, and then you start wondering why is culture shaping my perspective of life? And why has it begun to be skewed and distorted?

You stop showing up in community, and you stop serving, and you stop going to your crew, and then you wonder, why do I feel so lonely? Those things happen, and then you start comparing your life with everyone else's highlight reel on Instagram, and then you start asking yourself, why don't I feel as much joy or peace

or comfort? And then when all of that starts falling apart, then you have to start numbing the pain. You start self medicating, taking things or doing things, looking at things that you shouldn't be partaking in, and then you ask yourself why have I begun to lose my soul? So where have you started to drift?

Again it doesn't happen overnight. Don't fool yourselves to think it happens overnight, it's a slow subtle drift. But where in your life have you started to drift? Where are things starting to fall apart? Because it's not just some huge decision you make to just run from God.

You don't show up at church on Sunday and then just you drive away and you're like, I'm not into it, we're done, let's go this way, it's all about us. No, it's this subtle, this subtle drift. And the drift doesn't happen because you reject Jesus, the drift happens because you start to replace Jesus.

The drift doesn't happen because you're like, no, I'm not into that anymore, I don't believe in that anymore, it's false. It may lead there, but it doesn't start there. The drift happens when you start to replace Jesus. So what I'm asking you is where are you drifting?

Where are you not focusing on Jesus, you keep replacing Jesus? Because we don't want to get to the rejection. We want him to be the center of everything. We want him to be our answer, period. Because when the one who holds everything together, everything we just talked about, all of creation, Like I can't even, I can

say those things logically, I can't even begin to comprehend that weight in reality. All of creation perfectly precise on purpose and yet he cares about me. So where have I begun replacing Jesus in my life? Verse 18 continues on, Christ is the head of the body, the church.

So the word head here is meant both literal and metaphorical. Alright, so Paul is telling us that yes, it is about authority, but it's also about a source. So think about a river for a moment. Rivers and the water in them don't just exist randomly, it comes from something. Think about a lake, a natural spring,

the river head, that's where the source of water comes from, and that's what Paul is addressing. Yes, Jesus is in charge, but he's also the life source from which all things flow to the body as he says the church, and the church is you and I. All of life flows from being aligned with Christ as the head of our lives.

And that's why alignment matters, because if the head and the body aren't aligned, there's dysfunction. But when the head and the body are aligned, man, that's when new life begins. That's when the joy that God desires and has designed for you really starts to take place.

But there's this research that's been done to the group Gallup, and they said the number one reason why people leave an organization is a misalignment of vision. Misalignment of vision is the number one reason people leave an organization.

Practical example, in the last few years, you've probably seen it, people will post on social media, I'm boycotting fill in the blank because of fill in the blank. There was a misalignment in vision, they then chose to leave said organization. Maybe for some of us it's a job.

Maybe a job you've been at for a long time, maybe a job you love, but you recognize man they're not going where I feel called to go. There's a misalignment and vision, so you step away. See the same reality happens in the church. We lose the purpose and the conviction of Jesus being our answer period above all else,

and we get bent about something that's preferential and we choose to leave the church. When that happens, we're choosing no longer to hold tightly to the gospel and the power of the conviction of salvation and we choose to let that be loose and then hold tight to our preferences about most of the time non essential things.

And by doing that, what we are doing, what we're saying is we're putting God in this little tiny box. Something we can manage, something we can comprehend, something we can control. We take that little box, we put it on the shelf of the janky bookshelf from Nellis auction. We walk away,

we say God stay there, I got this. And then we fight about stuff that doesn't really matter. Now don't hear what I'm not saying. We all have preferences. God has wired us all uniquely and perfectly in his image, we're the ones that broke it.

But God has wired us differently on purpose, it's what makes up a body. We're not all supposed to be thinking and doing the same things. But that's where this all falls apart. Alright. For for Echo's church, if you don't know, I'll make it very clear now. We are a non denominational church.

What does that mean? There are pastors and leaders and theologians from centuries before us that were so convicted about fill in the blank that they created a denomination around something that became a core value. I'm not saying that's wrong.

What I'm saying is for Echo's church, pastor Daniel and I and our team, we stand in a place of non denominational because we believe the only thing that's black and white to us currently is that Jesus is our answer and we hold closely to the gospel

and the salvation that matters here on earth before heaven. That's why we wanna help more people echo the life of Jesus in their everyday

lives. The denominations are not bad and they're not wrong, but we live in a non denominational state because we say, we think those are a little more gray than we think black and white, and so we are gonna choose to stand firmly

on the foundation of Jesus first above all else, and then everything else be open handed to have conversation with. To give honor, respect, and grace, and love to those that may disagree with us. Think about this for a second. This is one of my favorite Timothy Keller quotes, but I'm just telling you right now,

it is convicting. It is convicting. If God never disagrees with you, then you may not be worshiping God but an idolized version of yourself.

I mean I heard the mhmm. Alright. Let that sink in for a second. If God never disagrees with you, you're probably not worshiping God, but an idolized version of yourself.

And I've taken this just another layer down, I'm nearly not as smart as Timothy Keller, but I put a little subtext. If the church never disagrees with you, you're probably not a part of a church, but a cult.

If the church never disagrees with you, then that means the Holy Spirit isn't convicting you, and if the Holy Spirit's not convicting you, it doesn't mean you are stepping into sanctification to become more like Christ, and that should be our sole desire because he is our answer period. We are going to disagree.

Echoes Church, our community, we are going to disagree on things. You and I are going to disagree on things. Pastor Daniel and I are going to disagree on things.

But you know what? What we will agree on? Fighting for unity and alignment that Jesus is our answer and we will stand on the sole conviction and purpose that while we have breath in our lungs, we will help more people echo the life of Jesus in their everyday lives. That is what matters.

Everything else will be open handed and we can talk about those things, but let's do it with respect, with honor, with grace, and with love.

Continue on in verse nineteen and twenty.

Through him God reconciled everything to himself, making peace through his blood on the cross. So through Jesus, everything that was broken by our sin is now being brought back into alignment with him. Alignment, key word again there, with God's original design. Reconciliation

with Christ isn't overlooking sin, reconciliation is Jesus overcoming it. The reconciliation that God is calling us back to through himself, by himself, for himself, extended to us to be with him, is not overlooking our sin, it's overcoming it, it's washing it away clean.

The blood of Christ didn't just patch things up for us when we mess things up, it actually solves it all. It's the full price that was paid. This this verse in Romans five it says, while we were God's sinners, we were reconciled to him through his son's death on the cross. I honestly, I hate reading that verse. While we

were God's enemies. While you and I were God's enemies.

While you and I were doing the things we shouldn't have been doing. While you and I were making decisions we knew we shouldn't be making. While you and I were trying to build a life that was off the original design that Jesus has provided for us. While we were his enemies, he still reconciled us to himself through Jesus

on the cross. It wasn't partial, this was complete realignment and connection to him. And it doesn't start with our effort. That's the beauty of it. It does not start with anything we have to do. It started with his sacrifice for us. And that's the the beauty and the power of this particular passage ending at the cross.

See, the story began with creation, now it ends with redemption just in five verses, but then you take the whole bible, Jesus is the author of it all, from Genesis to Revelation,

the Old Testament, the New Testament, 66 books from front to end, Jesus has woven through it all. Revelation 21 says, behold, I am making all things new. So the same Jesus who created everything, eternity, all of the galaxies, everything set in motion, created you and I, and he wants a relationship with you and I.

That's why we have to choose and we hold tightly to the value that Jesus is our answer, period. Not one of many, the only one. Jesus is our answer, period. The fullness of our life on earth. It completely depends

on if our foundation of faith is centered on Jesus or not. If you want to experience the fullness of life that God has not only designed for you, but desires for you, you have to make him the foundation. We have to stop trying to do it on our own.

The greatest miracle of Colossians one in this passage is not his creation, this cosmic creation, though it's miraculous and it's beautiful, but that is not the greatest miracle. It isn't his creation. The greatest miracle is his invitation to you and I

to reconcile you back to himself through his son. Out of everything he made, all of the beauty that we've ever seen, every incredible sunrise or sunset, every mountaintop we've ever hiked, every field we've ever walked in, river we've ever floated down, whatever it may be, man, just think about incredible,

How incredible the world is. How precise it is and not done by accident. Out of all of that, it's secondary to you. That's secondary to you. You are his purpose. You are his prize. You are his pursuit. And if you wanna make Jesus the foundation of everything in your life today, I wanna give you that opportunity.

Because I know we're walking into the space and we're carrying things and we're wondering, man, where did I get off track? Where did I drift too far? And I'm just saying, let's not replace Jesus. Let's choose to refocus on Jesus. Let's put him back where he's always belonged, the center of our life. Jesus is our answer,

period. And so I wanna ask us all to to bow our heads and close our eyes.

Maybe for some of you, I don't know, if you got in the room today and this is your first time here or maybe you've been a few times, I don't know who invited you, how you stumbled in here, Google, Instagram, you drove by the school, a family, a friend, whatever it is, I promise you. I promise you.

If you're struggling with something, you're not here by accident.

Think about the precision and excellence and perfection the way the Lord has created creation,

and then think about how much he cares about you. And so I wanna lead us in a prayer. There's no magical words. There's no formula. Just a conversation between you and the Lord.

And maybe for some of you, this is a a first time decision. You're just saying, man, I've tried to build this life myself, and it just keeps falling apart. I build it back up, it keeps falling apart. I build it back up, and then it drifts, and then it keeps falling apart.

And you're just willing to go all in with Jesus. I want you to pray this prayer with me, and maybe for others, maybe you said yes to the Lord years ago, but somewhere along the way you started drifting just one degree off, one step further away and you're ready to come back home to him,

I would love for you to pray this with me as well. Lord, we give our lives to you right now.

Lord, I confess my sin and my brokenness. Lord, I'm asking for your forgiveness, God. Make me right with you, Lord. Be the center of my life, the foundation of everything that I choose to build my life upon, and now would you be the answer to all my needs, all my desires.

I invite you into my life today and every day moving forward. And Lord, I may never understand it. I correct that. I will never understand it all. But I choose to surrender the things that I do and relinquish control. Have your way in and through me, Lord. Before anyone looks around, before anyone opens their eyes,

there's just two people I wanna ask something of you. Two groups of people. If you said yes to Jesus for the very first time today, hear me say this, the Lord knows you, the Lord sees you, the Lord heard you, the angels in heaven are celebrating. There is a party going on because of that decision you just made.

But I would just love to be able to connect with you and celebrate that decision. So everyone's heads are bowed, everyone's eyes are closed, if you just said that prayer for the very first time, would you just be willing to slip your hand up for me? Oh, yes. Yeah. Yes.

For others in the room, if you said that prayer and maybe it wasn't the first time, but it was it was in due time for you to recommit yourself to Jesus, for you to put him back in the center of your life, for you to put him back as the foundation, the author of all things.

If that was you, would you just lift your hand up with me? You just recommitted your life to Jesus. You said, Lord, I need you now. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

You, Lord, for all those individuals who are choosing to put you first, who are choosing to hold closely to the gospel, the conviction of salvation, that above all else, Jesus is our answer period. And all God's people said, amen. Amen, church. Can we celebrate those decisions today?