Jesus Over Everything, Including Our Differences

This past weekend was a crazy one! I had the privilege of performing a spoken word at an amazing youth conference on Saturday night a couple hours away. The next day, I got to preach for the first time in front of our new church home.
It was a weekend that encapsulated a wide range of what I've gotten to do as I join God's work in this world. I went from crazy kids and big lights to a sanctuary with stained glass. It was the biggest swing in mood, setting, and atmosphere that I've experienced in quite a while.

One of the themes of this conference was Jesus Over Everything, and it came up in my sermon the next day, too. It's interesting to think about just what that means. We grow to expect God to speak in certain ways and situations. We get accustomed to how we want God to interact with us. For some people it's in the routine and in the expected, the familiar prayers and creeds. For others, it's in the crazy and in the unknown, the raised hands and hoarse voices. And we criticize or cast a wary eye on things that don't fit our model of engaging with God, or of people who are figuring out their own relationship with God.

Jesus is over EVERYTHING. He is God who is God in every. single. area of our life. And He's a God who shows up in lots of different ways. We all have things that we are predisposed to connect with more, and I think that is a beautiful reality of the God we serve. He doesn't force us all to find Him in one specific way. We find God in dim lights and in prayer rooms, in soft gatherings and in loud arenas, in a study with three people and in a stadium with three thousand.  He's the God over all music, all services, all....everything!
Paul writes to the Ephesians that "...God placed all things under his (Jesus') feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way". 1

So that's why I can say that this was a most amazing weekend. I went from being in a room with hundreds of students dancing and singing their hearts out, to a small sanctuary on Sunday with an organ on the stage. And God was present in both spaces.

As long as Jesus is at the head of and at the center of what is being done,
as long as the Gospel in it's fullness is being preached,
as long as people are gathering and going out
and showing that love and mercy to those around them,
then it's okay.
Jesus is over everything. Every style, every person, every heart. Let's celebrate and continue to press into the things that MATTER-how we live and love together in the way of Christ.


1- Ephesians 1:22-23

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