Preparing the garden for winter ** Who is the center of your life?

Isaiah 9 : 6 

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Life is determined by a single choice… who or what will we center our lives around?

The choice we make will influence our decisions and shape who we are and our values…

To center one’s life around themselves and their own desires… will eventually lead to destruction…

On the other hand, when we center our lives around the Lord Jesus Christ…

we experience His Love, His provision and His and perfect peace.

All of eternity centers around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

He is the all-important, eternity-changing, and humanity-redeeming Son of the living God.

    Colossians 1 : 15 tells us, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” 
   Hebrews 1 : 3 says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

   Revelation 19 : 16 says, “On his robe and on his thigh, He has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

To center our lives around the Lord Jesus Christ is to build our foundation on the unshakable center of all eternity.

To build our lives around Jesus, is to place the anchor of our hope in the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Only Jesus is faithful to his Word. Only Jesus will accomplish everything He has promised us.

   1 John 2 : 17 says, “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

It is the will of God for us to have our lives centered around Him!

When we center our lives on Him… we become more like Him.

And we will desire to live the words of Paul in...

   Philippians 3 : 10 : “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

You see, the Christ centered life’s aim, is to glorify God.

But do not confuse a Christ-centered life with a religion-centered life.

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were religion-centered.

They were able to recite the rules, and the codes… just like a kindergartner can recite their ABC’s…

but Jesus harshly rebuked them…

They were Law-centered but not love-centered…

and that makes all the difference.

A religion-centered life is based upon performance by man-made standards.

While, the Christ-centered life rests in the finished work of Jesus on their behalf and a desire to stay close to Him.

The will of God is to center our lives around his loving presence.

God’s greatest commandment is that we would simply love him with all that is within us!

We are called to live differently than the world around us by centering our life around Jesus Christ and His plans for our life…