I appreciate very much the Worship Choir's ministry
this morning and through this year. Today is
the last day they'll be singing for us for the
summer as they take a break and we'll be back
in September. As you see in our bulletin, we
are in a transition in our music ministry and
we want to be praying for God's direction. We're
grateful for His provision for people like Mark
Rhodes who will be filling in for us over upcoming
weeks. How many of you Ladies in particular and
I recognize some men do housework as well Sweeping
and that sort of thing particularly in the day
in which we live when Women are often working
outside the home and there's a shared sense of
responsibility for the home, but how many of
you? Homemakers male or female Feel like you
are a class a Homemaker. Everything's clean at
home. My goodness, what a humble group today.
What a humble group. We discovered this last
week that we were among those apparently numerous
Minnesotans who have had guests come to live
with them that we didn't know about. We discovered
a nest of, I shouldn't say we discovered the
nest initially, we discovered the evidence of
carpenter ants in our home. Apparently they've
been quite bad this year. And so we've been talking
to some extermination companies. Now my wife
is a good homemaker. I mean, she keeps a clean
house. We have four children, and you don't understand
what that means. Three of them are teenagers.
You understand what that means, probably. But
you know when you have somebody come to your
home with a flashlight, and they go down into
the netherworld of your home, the basement, and
they poke around in every corner. They lift up
insulation that hasn't been touched since the
house was built. and they shine back in there
looking. You just wonder what's going through
their minds. What a filthy place this is. They
look around and they probe until they find what
they're looking for. It creates a sense of unease
on the part of the homemaker. At least this one.
You feel a little invaded. Maybe even a little
bit embarrassed because while you pick up most
of the things and you try to clean up most of
the dust, there are cobwebs and suddenly those
things just stand out when there's somebody around
there with a flashlight looking around. You just
feel a little incomplete. In our case, our basement
is not complete after 10 years of living there.
It will be someday, Lord willing. But we just
felt a little bit invaded because here we had
an inspector who came to examine the true condition
of our home. I believe that our world today is
a little bit like our home. Our world today dreads
the presence the reality of the inspector with
the capital I. And well it should. Because our
world is incomplete. It was rendered incomplete
by the fall of Adam into sin. And we who are
his descendants are therefore a fallen race We
are incomplete and live in an incomplete world.
The evidence that we had difficulties in our
home could be found in traces of sawdust here
and there. Or some winged creatures that were
about an inch long, but which seemed three feet
long when I first saw them flying around our
home. There are evidences of problems. Our world
gives evidences of its problems. It evidences
its incompleteness, for example, in the philosophies
of our age. In our text today in Colossians chapter
2, a text that was read earlier, verses 9 and
10, The text is preceded by a warning of the
apostle. He says, see to it that no one takes
you captive through philosophy and empty deception,
according to the tradition of men. Paul is not
knocking all philosophy. There is such a thing
as a Christian philosophy, after all. But he
is warning about worldly philosophies, like those
that are still around today, which he describes
as both empty or hollow, nothing really to them,
and they are deceiving. They subtly ensnare the
pride of man in order to lead him astray. Paul
says to believers, don't be kidnapped by these.
Our world today has its philosophies. There is
the idea, for example, that matter is eternal.
that the universe that is here has always been
here, that matter is eternal and therefore it
is a denial of God's existence as the supernatural
one. But many of the ideas, the rationalizations
of man today are built upon this philosophy that
matter is eternal. The universe has always been
here. Things are now like they always have been.
Then there is the philosophy or the idea that
man is an evolved creature. This, of course,
has become the dogma of our day. And if people
do not bow the knee to this dogma, then they
are ridiculed. It is a denial, however, that
God, as the supernatural one, especially created
man. It is a deceitful philosophy and idea. And
then there's the idea of the autonomy of man,
that man can do what he wants to do, that there
is no accountability, which of course is a denial
of God's right to judge. These are the philosophies
that in part embrace our day, and they represent
the incompleteness of humanity. Sartre said,
life is an empty bubble on the sea of nothingness.
How well he encapsulates where human philosophy
leads. A big zero. Nothingness. Just as the apostle
says by the Spirit, empty deception. The world
evidences its incompleteness also by its various
addictions. Ever learning yet never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth is one thing about
the world and its incompleteness. But another
is that the world is constantly trying to find
something to fill up the void. A variety of addictions
fill our day. There is, of course, sexual addiction
that we hear more and more about. Drug addiction.
Alcohol addiction. And then there are the great
addictions that which have invaded even the Church
of Jesus Christ. The addiction to entertainment
and pleasure. Always having to have noise around
or having the radio on or something playing.
The television on. Going to this event or going
there or for that reason. The addiction to entertainment,
to pleasure, evidences the incompleteness in
man. He's trying to fill up what is missing.
And then there is the incompleteness that is
evidenced by humanity's own inhumanity. The devaluing
of human life. When medical professionals in
our own city are seeking to end human life over
the objections of the husband of that wife who
lies in a comatose state. Now granted, there
are many gray issues, many unclearly defined
issues in medical ethics these days. But it seems
to me we are seeing an increasing devaluing of
human life. There is the needless suffering.
that humanity forces upon masses because of political
and power conflicts. We are told that thousands
if not hundreds of thousands of people may starve
to death again in parts of Africa, including
the Sudan and Ethiopia. Why is that? Well, it
is not merely because of drought. though that's
what we usually hear. But a great deal of the
starvation and the inhumanity there is created
because of conflicts in power groups in those
countries. There's political problems. And when
supplies are sent, they're not delivered to the
people who are starving because they're on the
other side of the political question. Man's inhumanity
to man. The victimization of children. the senseless
crimes that are committed against other people.
What I'm trying to illustrate for you is the
incompleteness of the human race. And what I've
talked about are but a few, really, of the symptoms
of humanity's brokenness, emptiness, separation
from God, which I'm calling its incompleteness.
It is true that there remains something of the
image of God in every human being. But the fact
is that the fall into sin ruined that image and
we all share the common traits of what it means
to be sinners. We can thank God that it is just
that condition of being a sinner. for which God
sent his Son into the world that he might deliver
us. Look back a page or two in your Bible and
Colossians to the first chapter in verse 13 where
the Apostle says, for he, God, delivered us from
the domain of darkness and transferred us into
the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins. God has
done a wonderful thing in providing for us a
Savior. In Jesus Christ, God provides for us
a Savior who makes believing sinners whole and
complete. He changes us radically from what we
are by our first birth and our relationship to
Adam. When we are born anew, and given a relationship
to the last Adam, Jesus Christ. By our first
birth, we were left incomplete because of our
sin, and we all gave evidence of that in one
way or another. By our new birth, however, there
is a completeness about us, a wholeness. Now
our text today in Colossians 2, verses 9 and
10 says, And I want to read from the Living Bible
as it's printed on our worship folder. For in
Christ there is all of God in a human body. So
you have everything when you have Christ. And
you are filled with God through your union with
Christ. He is the highest ruler with authority
over every other power. The first thing that
we see here is that Jesus Christ is the fullness
of God. In Him, all the fullness of deity dwells.
That is, all of the divine essence, all that
God is in His nature dwells in Christ. The last
several months we've been talking about the God
that we worship. And we looked at a variety of
the truths about Him. That he lives, that he
gives, that he judges, that he unites, and so
on. Now the apostle says that all that is true
about God, the deity, is found in Christ. The
fullness is in Christ. He lacks no quality. He
is missing no attribute which belongs to God.
For all of the powers, all of the attributes,
all of the essence of God is found in Him. And
notice that it says that this fullness, D -W
-E -L -L -S, dwells in Him. That word means to
settle down and to be at home. To settle down.
to be at home. Some of you will be going on vacation
this summer and some of you may be staying in
motels along the way or a few of you may even
be going to resorts where you can spend a few
days or a week or two weeks relaxing and having
fun. As wonderful as the accommodations may be
and even though you may unpack your suitcase
and put the clothes in the drawers of the dresser
or the chest there in the room where you'll be
staying, you're not really going to be at home.
You're not going to be able to settle down and
really relax like you do in that home which may
not be quite as lavishly appointed as that room
or that suite where you're staying. The bed at
home may have a few lumps in it. It may even
have a few low spots. or a big low spot, or it
may even have its waves after years of lying
in the same place. And that motel bed feels hard,
flat, and you sort of get used to it, but it's
not home. You really settle down when you come
back home. The Bible says that the fullness of
God finds its comfortable resting place in Jesus
Christ. All that God is fits in Him. That's where
it belongs. That's where it resides. That's where
it dwells. And notice the S on the end. It's
continuous. It's present. It's always true that
the fullness of God continually dwells in Jesus
Christ in bodily form, even today. He has a glorified
body, but He is in a body in heaven, and the
fullness of God dwells in Him. There is no incompleteness
in Jesus, you see. Now he goes on to say, in
the 10th verse, something that's most amazing.
He says, and in Him, You have been made complete.
Now you need to park there for a moment and let
that try to soak into your mind just a little
bit. You have been made complete in Christ. The
word is actually the same root word as the word
fulness in verse 10. It can be read this way,
and this is the way Dr. Kenneth Wiest translated
it, and you are in him having been completely
filled full with the present result that you
are in a state of fullness. The previous verse
said that the fullness of all that God is dwells
in Christ and now he tells us and you are filled
full in him. The same idea of fullness. Now this
does not mean, of course, that you and I become
God when we become Christians. But it does mean
that God gives to us a complete salvation with
everything that we will ever need given to us
at that moment. Tonight we'll be looking at this
text a little more, but in 2 Peter 1 .3 Peter
writes, seeing that his divine power has granted
to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
Everything. And in John chapter 1 and verse 16
it says, for of his fullness we have all received.
Christ's fullness and all that that means about
Him, we have all received grace upon grace. We
share in the goodness of the nature which God
is. Having been made full, he says, with the
continuous result that we are always complete
because of our union with Jesus Christ. Do we
need a right standing with God? Sinners do. Because
sinners have a wrong standing with God. Sinners
are on the judgment side. They need to be transferred
from that kingdom to the kingdom of God's Son.
We get a new position in Jesus. The Bible calls
it justification. We are declared righteous in
God's sight. No longer are we sinners as God
sees us. But we are declared His people who are
saints and righteous. We are justified. Do we
need a right standing with God? We get that in
Jesus. It's provided. Do we, as people in this
world, desire to have some kind of purpose in
life? Do we desire to have some reason for being
here in this world and going through its experiences?
Of course, we want some kind of sense to it.
That's why the world struggles with all these
philosophies. What is the meaning of life? Well,
in Jesus Christ we have that, for we've been
sanctified. What that simply means is that God
has set us apart for His purpose. And so now
we have purpose. It's God's purpose for us being
here. We may not understand all that that means
at this point, but we know there's a reason for
what we experience. We're sanctified. What about
our sins? What about those things that we do
that are wrong, that are displeasing to God even
after we become His children? The Bible says
we have parted. Do we need that? We're deceiving
ourselves if we say we don't. Every day we need
to come to Him in open acknowledgement of our
lives. But in Christ we always have pardon. There
is no limit to God's forgiveness. God is always
willing to extend mercy to us and to restore
us. We have that. But what about beyond this
life? If we have purpose, what about beyond death?
Do we have anything there in Christ? Well, that's
the best. The best is yet to come. We are glorified
in Christ. What that means is that we are going
to inherit His glory. And we will live in glory
forever. Yes, in Christ we have everything. All
our needs in this world and the next are met
in Jesus Christ. We lack nothing. That is our
position. It's permanent. How nice it would be
if we could all practice that. Because all of
us experience still incompleteness because we
haven't learned yet how to appropriate fully
our fullness. That's what growing is about. That's
what we hope to talk about as we get into 2 Peter.
How do we learn more to get our hands on that
which belongs to us in Christ? How do we get
that applied into our lives? How do we grow?
Well tonight we talk about the foundation of
it all. Now there's none of us that has fully
yet appropriated the fullness that we have in
Christ. But folks, the first thing we need to
do before we actually begin appropriating is
to recognize it. And to go to Colossians chapter
2 and verse 10 and to write that across our minds
and across our hearts when it says, and in Christ
you have been made full. Complete. As David said
in Psalm 23, 1, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want." He said, I have everything. And through
the rest of the psalm, he enumerates the fullness
of the sheep of the Lord. Well, I tell you, there
are some wonderful implications to this completeness.
In the first place, it means that you can do
all things through Christ. When Paul wrote this
letter to the Colossians, he wrote some other
letters, too. He was in prison. He was under
arrest in Rome, chained to guards. It was his
first imprisonment. And he wrote to the Ephesians.
He wrote to a brother named Philemon. And he
wrote to the Philippians, as well as the book
of Colossians. Four books written during that
period of time. And to the Philippians, the apostle
made a wonderful claim in that fourth chapter.
He said, I can do all things through Christ who,
what? Strengthens me. Who strengthens me. Do
you have an opportunity for witness out there
in front of you? And you're saying to yourself,
how in the world will I ever be able to do that?
How am I going to go back home this summer and
see my grandmother or see my parents? How am
I going to go and stay with my brother and sister
-in -law and be a witness to them? What am I
going to say? Where will I get the courage? I
can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. You're complete in Christ. He will give you
what you need in that moment Are you facing a
difficult decision? Maybe it's whether to retire
early Maybe it's whether to pull the plug on
a business Maybe it's whether you ought to be
married How do you know if it's the right decision
You can do all things through Christ who strengthens
you. You're complete in Christ. In Him you will
find direction and wisdom and insight to guide
you. Paul says in that very same context in Philippians
4, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances
I am. Because you are complete in Jesus Christ,
my friend, You also can be content in every circumstance.
Are you passing through a time of material prosperity?
Or is it the other end of the spectrum? My wife
sat down in the bed last night just as I was
falling asleep to talk for a while. Not the first
time. I don't know what there is about communication
in a marriage. It's hard to find that time when
both of you really feel like communicating, doesn't
it? And so I got my toothpicks out, propped them
in my eyes. She didn't talk long. She said, I
have discovered a principle. And she said, it's
profound and I know it's going to surprise you.
And I got my pen out. And I said, what is it?
She said, it seems to me that the rich get richer
and the poor get poorer. Now she wasn't claiming
originality mind you, just profundity. We talked
about that for a while and you know literally
that is true and especially in the socioeconomic
situation we're in in our country today. The
middle class is being squeezed and it's going
both directions, most of it down. I don't know
where this message finds you economically, but
can you learn to be content with what God brings
to you? Paul says, whether I abound or I have
little, I'm content. I've learned, he says, to
be content in whatever state I am. I used to
laugh when I heard Vernon McGee say that that
proves that the Apostle Paul could not be from
Texas. because he said, I've learned to be content
in whatever state I am and no Texan could ever
say that. Well, he wasn't talking about a geographical
setting. He was talking about the quality of
life. And here he is chained to a guard on each
side and he says, I've learned to be content.
I'd have to go to school a while longer for that
one myself. What's God teaching you about contentment
in monetary things? What about your singleness?
Some of you struggle with that. Because you really
desire to be married. And marriage is a wonderful
gift. But you know so a singleness? Paul says,
I have learned to be content. Personally, I think
Paul had been married earlier in his life, and
for reasons we don't know, because we're not
told, he certainly was not married in the time
of his apostleship, his writing of scripture.
He was single. He says, I've learned to be content.
Can you? Some of you are struggling with infertility.
Up to this point in your lives, God has not blessed
you with children. Can you learn to be content
in what God has given you at this point in your
life together? You're complete in Jesus Christ.
You know you don't have to have children to be
complete. You don't have to be married to be
complete. You don't have to be rich to be complete.
Because my Bible says in Jesus Christ you have
already been made complete with abiding results.
He says another implication of this is that you
can stand alone for righteousness. We fear to
stand alone. We think, oh, I can't do it by myself.
Yes, you can. You can go to that family reunion
and you can stand for Jesus Christ even if you're
the only Christian in the whole family. You can
be the lone Christian in that professional association
that you belong to. You can stand alone in your
peer group. Why? Because you're complete in Jesus
Christ. Those who don't know Christ around you,
frankly, are not complete. But you are in Christ.
Finally, you can find your identity in Jesus
Christ alone. Some people find their identity
in other things. They find it, for example, in
their ability. Yesterday, some of the men of
our church gathered for a pancake breakfast here,
which by the way was wonderful. Lots of pancakes
and fatty sausage. Tastes so good. And then we
heard Jeff Seaman speak, who played for the Vikings.
You know something I so appreciate about this
man? Oh, he can tell stories about football that
keep you on the edge of your chair. But his identity
is not found in having played football for the
Vikings. Some people find their identity in what
they do Some people find their identity and being
busy even busy in ministry Oh, they're running
here, and they're running there and people are
looking to them and my They feel like they're
worth something because all these people are
coming to them My Bible says in Jesus Christ
were complete not because we have people coming
to us Not because we have abilities of this sort
or that but because we're in Christ. That's our
identity. That's our completeness. In Jesus Christ,
I need nothing. In Jesus Christ, I can want nothing.
In Jesus Christ, I can lose nothing. In Jesus
Christ, I can gain nothing because Jesus Christ
is my all in all. You're ready for the inspection
if you're in Jesus Christ. God can take His flashlight
out and come into your life and what He's going
to find there is all clean, forgiven and justified
and sanctified and pardoned and glorified and
complete if you're in Jesus Christ. How wonderful
is this gift of God that we call completeness.
Let's pray together. Father, may our hearts today
just soak in this truth. We need it. We need
it. And may we shun every other false attempt
to find fulfillment and completion and determine
that your Word is true, that if we have trusted
in Jesus Christ, we have been filled full in
Him. and we are complete. In His name we pray,
Amen.