Welcome to Calvary
Church with Skip Heitzig. We're so glad you've
joined us today. In Paul's letter
to the Colossians, he declares that
Jesus holds everything together from the majestic
to the microscopic and everything in between. Work and family,
friendships and faith. In this series,
Pastor Skip explores the practical application
of Jesus's preeminence so we can make sure that Jesus
is at the center of it all. (SINGING) Always only Jesus we
glorify in everything we do. I feel like I should have
worn a hat for some reason so I can be like you guys. Boy, that sounded
really, really good. Would you turn in
your Bibles, please, to the book of Colossians
chapter 2 this morning? Great to see you. Hey, I've heard that
this is the best service of all the services. I just heard that from somebody. I think they come
to this service, actually, who told that to me. But just don't tell the
other services that you are. Colossians chapter 2. So I brought this with me. No, my name is not Mike Lindell. [LAUGHTER] But this is my pillow. All of us have one of
these I'm guessing. Not all of us have a good
relationship with this. Some people get up at night. Some people find it
hard falling asleep. There's a thing called
sleep deprivation. If you've ever
had that and tried to function during the day, you
know how difficult that can be. A couple of true stories. One man said, I once
spent five minutes searching desperately
for my cell phone. This is a guy who
didn't get enough sleep. I spent five minutes
searching desperately for my cell phone complaining
the whole time about it being missing to my wife
who I was talking to on my cell phone. [LAUGHTER] This went on until
she timidly asked, are you using your
cell phone right now? It was such an out of body
experience that I just hung up. Here's another man who
didn't get enough sleep. He admitted this. He said, many years ago I
had to do a presentation. And when I got to the meeting
and opened up my briefcase, I realized that I had
been carrying a backgammon board all morning. Not his briefcase. He was there to play a game. So if you have
trouble with this, if you have trouble
sleeping, you're not alone. Between 50 and 70 million
Americans find it difficult, have some kind of sleep disorder
for a variety of reasons. Sometimes those reasons
are physiological reasons. It could be they had
too much caffeine. It could be that they
have physical pain and it's hard to fall
asleep when you're in pain. It could be that
they have a breathing problem like sleep apnea. And then other times it's
an environmental reason. You're too cold,
you're too hot, there's too much light in the
room, your husband or wife is snoring or moving and you
find yourself affected by that. Sometimes people go
to sleep but they can't sleep because
they are dealing with things emotionally. So for instance, they have
anxiety about the future or they're replaying the
past events of that day or they are angry at somebody. It's unresolved anger. They just keep stewing
in it over and over again in their minds. Or they have a
guilty conscience. Guilty conscience will give
you a bad relationship with one of these. Strained relationships,
depression, all of these things will keep you up or
get you up at night. Now, I've given this
message the title What Keeps An Apostle Up At Night? Not to suggest that Paul the
Apostle had trouble sleeping. I don't believe
necessarily that he did. But I say that as an
expression because something is bothering him. Paul the Apostle is greatly
concerned about an issue. In fact, if you
look in verse 1 of-- I'm not going to hold this
pillow the whole time. So if you look at
verse 1, notice how he begins this chapter. I want you to know
what a great conflict I have for you and those
in Laodicea and for as many as I've not seen my
face in the flesh. Conflict, struggle, agony. It means an intense strain. Paul is bothered
about something. Something's keeping
him up at night. This is not unusual. If you know the
writings of Paul, remember when he gave
that little list, or that rather long list
of all the things he has suffered as an apostle. 2 Corinthians 11. Perils of robbers,
perils in the seas, had rocks thrown at me,
et cetera, et cetera. He ends by saying beside
the other things, what comes on me daily my deep
concern for all the churches. So what you're about to read is
that concern for this church. Chapter 2, again, verse 1. I want you to know
what great conflict I have for you and those
in Laodicea, for as many as I've not seen my
face in the flesh that their hearts
may be encouraged, being knit together
in love, and attaining to all riches of the full
assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery
of God, both of the Father and of Christ in whom are hidden
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say, lest
anyone should deceive you with persuasive words, for
though I am absent in the flesh and I'm with you in
Spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the
steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him rooted,
built up in Him, established in the faith as you
have been taught, abounding in it
with thanksgiving. Beware, lest anyone cheat
you through philosophy and empty deceit according
to the tradition of men, according to the basic
principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him who
is the head of all principality and power. All right. A couple of things. Number one, Paul
never met this group. He didn't start this church. We think Epaphras
started this church. Epaphras went to Paul. Paul's in prison in Rome. He hears what's going on
and it bothered him enough, conflict he talks
about it, bothered him enough to write this letter. And what is bothering him,
what is keeping him up at night is there's these new ideas
infiltrating the church at Colossi and at Laodicea. Little thoughts, new ideas,
novel, fresh ideas about Jesus. So Paul's concern is
that these teachers are so good at what
they do, so persuasive that the church is going
to be swayed by them. So Paul is very vulnerable here
when he says that bothers me. That keeps me up at night. Mark Twain once said a lie
can make its way halfway around the world while truth
is still lacing up its boots. It's true. It's true that falsehood
travels quickly. Lies travel quickly. Gossip travels quickly. Truth makes progress
sometimes at a snail's pace. Well, we have 10 verses that
I want to take you through. I just read them to you. True confession,
when I originally outlined this paragraph, I
had like six or seven points to bring you and I thought,
no, I got to try harder. So I discovered that I could
boil it all down to three words, three basic concerns. And I'll state them
in just single words. Three basic concerns of Paul. Believe, behave, beware. Believe. I want you to know something. You've got to know it,
understand it, believe it. Behave. Not just know. You must grow in that. You've got to grow
in your lifestyle. And then the third one, beware. Be slow to entertain other
people's bad opinions about Jesus. So these three words,
believe, behave, beware. Let's take each
one one at a time. First of all, believe. Now listen, Paul's
first concern for them is that they believe the
right things about Jesus. That they have an
understanding and a knowledge. In fact, in verse 2 he
uses those two words, that their hearts may be
encouraged being knit together in love and attaining to all
the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the
knowledge of the mystery of God. That's his basic concern is that
they have the right knowledge and understanding,
which will affect their love in that church. Now, I'm going to have you
look at a word in verse 2, the third word in, hearts. That their hearts
may be encouraged. Here in the West, here in
our modern Western culture, we speak of the heart. Once we get past
the fact that it's the vital organ of
the body, we usually talk about the heart as the
place where we feel things. Your emotions. The seat of your emotions. And we Christians even do this. We'll say things like it's
not about head knowledge. It's about heart knowledge. You've heard that before. It's not that you know
things in your head. You've got to know
things in your heart. And we often set up
a false dichotomy of your heart versus your head. That's a very unhealthy
paradigm to set up. Because from a
biblical perspective in ancient Near Eastern
biblical perspective, the heart was the mind. They're synonymous
with each other. It says in Proverbs 23, as a man
thinks in his heart, so is he. So it's the place where
you process your thoughts. It is the seat of your will. It is the place you understand
or don't understand things. That is your heart. So we might talk
about the heart, but this is the biblical
heart, the mind, the will, the understanding. So what Paul is saying in these
first five verses is this. Look, I'm really concerned
that you guys have doubts in your mind as to
who Jesus Christ really is. And those doubts about Jesus
are going to disrupt your unity or what he calls being
knit together in love. Also there's an
overarching emphasis in this entire paragraph. And that is the emphasis of
contrast between Jesus Christ and human philosophy. Look at verse 8. Beware lest anyone cheat
you through philosophy and empty deceit according
to the tradition of men, according to the basic
principles of the world and not according to Christ. So I want you to know, believe,
understand in your heart. There's these
philosophies out there that are against what to be
true, what you have been taught is true. And those philosophies are
spread by persuasive words. Again, look at verse 4. This I say lest anyone
should deceive you with pervasive words. Now, I'm drawing your
attention to all this because I want you to
see all of these things are mental activities. Mental activities. They need to
understand who Jesus is, that He's the
creator, the sustainer, the head of the church,
the reconciler of humanity. Now he adds a couple more. The repository of all
wisdom and all knowledge. And by the way, in Jesus is all
of the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So Paul is setting out the
truth of who Jesus is as opposed to false philosophies. They need to believe. They need to know. All right. What you believe about Jesus
is the most important thing about you. That's what A.W.
Tozer once said. He said what a person
believes about God is the most important
thing about that person. I'll take it a step further. What you believe
about Jesus Christ is the most important
thing about you. All of us are theologians. You might think, well,
I'm not a theologian. I don't do theology. Actually you do. You have some opinion
as to who God is. Everybody does. You can't avoid
being a theologian. The question is are you
a good one or a bad one? So the more you know and
understand the truth, the more you will be
able to detect error. The more you are
able to detect error, you will be able to
stand up against those who promote error. That's verse 5. Though I am absent in the
flesh, I am with you in Spirit, rejoicing to see
your, notice this, good order and the steadfastness
of your faith in Christ. Those happen to
be military terms. Good order, steadfastness. It speaks about soldiers
who stand in formation and make a solid united front. Standing together for the truth. So knowing the truth will
keep you standing strong and help you stay together. I'm going to throw something
on the screen from one of my favorite commentators. James Montgomery Boice
wrote, "We do not have a strong church
today, nor do we have many strong Christians. We can trace the
cause to an acute lack of sound spiritual knowledge." You've heard me say stuff like
that over and over and over again over the years. "They have forgotten
what God is like and what he promises to do
for those who trust Him. Ask an average Christian
to talk about God. After getting past
the expected answers, you will find that his God
is a little God vacillating sentiments." Now, if you ever wonder
why I do Bible exposition, this is why I do it. If you ever wonder why
always a Bible study every time I come
to church, you guys got to spend a long time
doing a Bible study. This is why. I don't want anyone
who comes here to ever be spiritually illiterate. I want you to be the
best loved and best fed congregation in this state. [APPLAUSE] And frankly, I am scared because
I know what the Bible says about the last time. It's funny how a lot of us get
so into end times, last days, we're in the last days. Good, hallelujah. But understand what comes
along with the last days. Deception comes along
with the last days. That's part of the
promise of scripture. 2 Timothy, Paul says the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. That's the last days. But according to
their own desires because they have
itching ears, they will heap up for
themselves teachers and will turn their
ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. You want to know the truth? If the average church cut
out time from the sermon and played more music
and sang more songs, most people would
be OK with that. If the average church
took away exposition, and I'm of the opinion
that most churches already have taken away exposition,
and if they replaced it with exhortation, people
would be OK with that. Jeremiah chapter 5. God says to the prophet, an
astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land. The prophets prophesy
falsely and the priests rule by their own power and my
people love to have it so. Here's a case in point. In the year 1636, not
that I expect any of you here to remember what
that year was like. But let me tell
you, in 1636, that was just 16 years after
the Pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. They decided 16 years
later we need a school. We need to educate
preachers, clergymen for the gospel's sake. And they decided
to name the school after one of their best
known young preachers by the name of John Harvard. And Harvard University
was founded. And the founding fathers
stated their purpose. After God had carried
us safe to New England and we had builded our house,
I love the way they talked back then, we builded our
houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood,
reared convenient places for God's worship and
settled the civil government, one of the next things
we longed for and looked after was to advance learning
and perpetuate it to posterity. We want our kids and
grandkids to grow up smart. Dreading, listen
to this, dreading to leave an illiterate
ministry to the churches when our present ministers
shall lie in the dust. Well, good and bad. Yes, Harvard University didn't
leave an illiterate ministry, but they did leave an
unbiblical ministry years later. If you look at Harvard
University and their school of theology now, they
are so far to the left and have denied most
every central truth of the Christian faith. So this is what kept
Paul up at night. He could see that this
was a possibility. I want you guys to know,
understand, believe the truth about Jesus. So believe is his
first directive. Second one, behave. Don't just believe but behave. Let your activity catch
up with your mind. Verse 6. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord. How many here have
received Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior? OK, good. You're the ones that are saved. If you have received Christ
as Lord, you are saved. So as you have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, here it is, so walk in Him
rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as
you have been taught abounding in it with thanksgiving. His first concern
is that they know. The second concern
is that they grow. That they know
the truth but that they grow in their trust
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He uses the term walk. We've already looked at this
once before in this letter. As you have therefore
received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him. What does it mean
to walk in Christ? That's your lifestyle. That's what you do
every day of your life. A walk is a biblical
term for your lifestyle, how you conduct your life. It's the consistent conduct
over an entire lifetime. It's how you live your life. That's your walk . He already used this word
in chapter 1 verse 10 when he said, I pray that you
might walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him. He will use it again
in chapter 3, verse 6. Because of these
things, the wrath of God is coming on the
sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once
walked when you lived in them. You used to have a
lifestyle as an unbeliever of an unsaved person. And he will use the word
again in chapter 4 verse 5. Walk in wisdom toward
those who are outside. That's the unbelieving world. Be very wise around unbelievers. That's the walk of the believer. Now, the idea here for
walk in Him is simply this. Continue to believe the
truth about Jesus Christ. Don't stop believing
the truth about Jesus. And let the truth of Jesus
affect every part of your life. That's your walk. Let it affect every
part of your life. This is what breaks
a pastor's heart. This is what keeps
a pastor up at night is he thinks about
people that once were vibrant in their faith. They were growing
in their faith, growing in their experience. They were very involved. They were so excited
to follow Jesus. They're not here anymore. They're gone. Hey, where's so-and-so? I haven't seen that
person in a long time. And you find out, well, they
stopped coming to church. They stopped
reading their Bible. They stopped hanging out
with other believers. They stopped praying. They just stopped. They just stopped. So we can't stop. We have to make progress. We have to continue to walk. Now, I'm going to drill
down in verse 6 and 7 for just a moment. Because what I find here
is that Paul tells us there are three things
we need to do in order to have a healthy walk. Number one, and I'll
give you the principle, then I'll show you the text. Number one, keep
moving forward so that you don't slip backwards. Keep moving forward so that
you don't slip backward. That's verse 6. As you have received Christ
as Lord, so walk in Him. That is in the present tense. In other words, OK, you
once received Christ. Awesome. We're glad that you got
saved whatever day you did. But now walk in Him. Continue constantly, daily. Walk in Him. Don't stop. Keep moving forward so
you don't slip backward. Charles Haddon Spurgeon
put it this way. The Christian life is like
climbing a hill of ice. You can't slide up. Makes sense, right? Any of you ever hear
about somebody upsliding? What happened to that Christian? Oh man, he upslid. No. We say he backslid. Nobody upslides. He says, if you want to
know how to backslide, stop going forward. Cease going upward and you'll
go downward of necessity. You can never stand still. Maybe we should even
say it this way. Maybe we should say if you're
not going forward then you actually are going backward. This is why we talk
about next step cards. And we don't just
have next step cards because we like to
print stuff on paper. Let's just print stuff up,
because churches do that. No. We believe that every single
one of us, self included, have a next step to take. We can never plateau and
say, been there, done that. Got the t-shirt. I'm a Christian, I'm mature. All of us need a walk. So keep moving forward so
you don't slip backwards. That's number one. Number two, grow down
so you can grow up. This is all under
the banner of behave. Grow down so you can grow up. Look at verse 7. Rooted. That's downward growth. And built up in Him. That's upward growth. Rooted and built up in Him
and established in the faith as you have been taught. So grow down so you can grow up. Or I'll put it another way. Go for depth, not breadth. Go for depth. Get a root system. Get a root system in
your Christian life. A tree has to grow down
before it can ever grow up. A tree has to develop a root
system before it can ever have branches and leaves and fruit. So good fruit depends
on a good root. Good fruit depends on good root. I learned years ago
that I need to-- the Lord told me this. Focus on the depth
of your ministry and let me take care of the
breadth of your ministry. So at this last service,
the first service this morning, I met a family. They were sitting right
over in this section. And they came. They came all the way
across the country from Kansas City and
Savannah, Georgia just to be a part of
this church service. This gal turned 70 years of age. She had a brain tumor. This last year, her
kid said, what do you want for your birthday? You want to go to Hawaii? She says, I want to
go to Albuquerque and I want to sit in
that church because I'm a part of that church online. That's my birthday wish. Came all the way
across the country. Now, I didn't years
ago think, how can how can I get that to happen? How can I get people to do that? Just worry about
the depth and God will take care of the breadth. So get a root system. Christians are not
to be tumbleweeds. And we know a lot about
tumbleweeds around these parts, right? Some of us even decorate
them for Christmas, I notice. Tumbleweeds really
have no root system. That's why they blow
around everywhere. So I discovered that
tumbleweeds, get this, have a single narrow root
that turns brittle with age. It sounds like
some people I know. Very narrow and they
grow brittle with age. That's not how you want to
live your Christian life. Because a tumbleweed, because
they have a limited root system, it's why they
have a short life. That's why they blow around
with every wind of doctrine. So a fruitful
Christian has roots. Jesus said, I am the vine. You are the branches. Stay connected to Him. Stay abiding in
Him at all times. You will grow. So keep moving forward so
you don't slip backward. Grow down so you can grow up. And the third part
of behaving is this. Thinking should
lead to thanking. Thinking should
lead to thinking. After all this great theology
and after all this knowledge and stuff that he
gives and throws down, he says at the end of
verse 7, abounding in it with thanksgiving. That is the effect
of a good theology. If you are down in the mouth and
always pessimistic and always bummed out, I'm guessing there's
something you don't understand. There's something lacking
in your theological construct because the mark of
maturity, a healthy Christian, spills out with gratitude. Paul the Apostle, the guy
who was in jail a lot, got beat up a lot is the guy
who said in I Thessalonians 5, in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus for you. Not in everything
complain for this the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you, but in everything give thanks. So believe, behave, and
then finally the third word is beware. And he says that. Look at verse 8. Beware lest anyone cheat
you through philosophy and empty deceit according
to the tradition of men, according to the basic
principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him that is in
Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him. Who is the head of all
principality and power? You notice he uses
the word philosophy. I like the word. I took philosophy for a master's
degree program years ago. Studied all sorts of different
philosophical constructs and really got to understand
how utterly confused these people are. And here's unregenerate man
trying to figure out life and not doing a really
great job out of it except noticing certain
things and writing them down and disagreeing with that dude. And so the word philosophy,
I actually like the word. It comes from two Greek words. Phileo, which is to
love, and sophia, which is wisdom or the right
application of knowledge. It simply means somebody
who loves or pursues knowledge or wisdom. Philosophy. In one sense, every one
of us is a philosopher because we all have a worldview. Everybody grapples with the
question, why am I here? What is the purpose
and meaning of life? But Paul uses the
word here philosophy not in reference to
loving wisdom and loving knowledge and college
courses on philosophy. Paul uses the term
philosophy to mean this. Man's attempt to find out by
his own intellect and research those things which can only
be known by divine revelation. That's what he means. Man's attempt to find out by
his own intellect and research those things which can only
be known by divine revelation. Well, who is doing
that in Colossi? That group we've been
telling you about every week. That group of heretics. That group of people that
were talking smack about Jesus and making up
stories about Jesus and infiltrating the church. They became known as
Gnostics later on. They became known as Cerinthian
Gnostics and Docetic Gnostics. I'm not going to take the
time to explain that today. But here's what I want you to
understand about these people. They used familiar
words, familiar Christian words with different
meanings of those words. So they had the same
vocabulary, but they happened to have a different dictionary. So they said God and
Jesus and those Christians go I know about God
and I know about Jesus. But the meaning poured
into God and Jesus was from a different dictionary. It meant something
completely different. So the label was not
accurate as to the contents. Years ago when Gerber baby
food started marketing its baby food in Africa, the
continent of Africa, they made a fatal
mistake in packaging. Because they packaged
their product like they would package it in
the United States. If you pick up a baby
food jar from Gerber, what's on the front of it? A baby. A cute little baby. That's what sells it here. But in Africa, there are many
countries where the illiteracy rate is very high. So they don't read. So companies in Africa
typically will put on the label the contents of whatever is
in the product in the jar. So for somebody in Africa to see
a baby on the front of a jar, it's like, I'm not touching
that jar if that's what's in it. So they just, they
didn't do well. They didn't do well in Africa. A few years after that,
the Pepsi Cola company was marketing in China. And their slogan on their
product, on their can was this. Pepsi brings you back to life. Nothing wrong with that. That's a good slogan. Gives you a little pick up. We know what that means. Pepsi brings you back to life. However, in the translation
something was lost and it came out
this way in Chinese. Pepsi brings your ancestors
back from the grave. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, did they do well? No, they didn't do well. So these are innocent mistakes. There's no babies in jars. There's no ancestors that
come back from the grave. But my point is this. Heretics' words are like
putting wrong labels on jars. They're putting wrong labels. Same vocabulary,
different dictionary. Wrong information. Wrong information. And cults are notorious
for doing this. This is why people get confused. We have conversation with
cultists, people involved in errant belief
systems, and we go, well, they say they
love Jesus and they say they're born again. Drill down deeper and find out
what they mean by born again and what they mean by Jesus. Chances are it's not
the same thing you mean and especially with the
Bible means by Jesus. Go beyond just the labeling. Find out the definition. So he says beware, that's the
warning, lest anyone cheat you through philosophy
and empty deceit. The word cheat is
sometimes translated if you have a NIV take you captive. Don't let anybody
take you captive. A better translation is don't
let anyone kidnap your faith. These heretics were
nothing more than spiritual human traffickers who were
kidnapping people's faith. They were coming
into congregations and they were finding young,
impressionable believers and taking them aside and trying
to push their stuff on them. And Paul warned about
that not only here, but he warned about that
in so many other places. Church of Ephesus. Paul spent three
years in Ephesus. When he's leaving that town,
he said, this is Acts 20, after my departure, savage
wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Men will arise
from your own ranks to draw away disciples
after themselves. Almost every person
I've talked to who's been involved in some kind
of cult, many of them, most of them, were at one time
in solid Christian churches. Solid Christian churches. But somebody got on their
ear and drew them away. And it's not just people who
would come into a congregation by subterfuge and do that. Sadly, pulpits are weak. And when pulpits are weak and
ministers are off the wall, there's little hope for anybody
who would listen to them. A magazine survey of over
3,000 Protestant ministers revealed that a
considerable number of them rejected altogether the
idea of a personal God. So why are you even in
the pulpit, Mr. Preacher, if you don't believe
in a personal God? God they said was
the ground of being, listen to these terms,
the force of life. May the Force be with you. The principle of love. 56% rejected the virgin
birth of Jesus Christ. Foundational principle
of scripture. 71%, these are ministers,
rejected the idea of life after death. Again, what are you even-- work somewhere else. 54% rejected the bodily
resurrection of Jesus Christ. And a large majority,
in the 90 percentile, rejected the idea that there
would be a personal return of Jesus Christ to the Earth. So what does Paul have to
say about stuff like that? Verse 9 is what Paul has to say. I love his answer. Verse 9. For in Him in Christ dwells,
means permanently dwells. It actually means settled down
and make itself at home in. In Christ dwells
permanently all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily
form or the Godhead bodily. Now, that verse, verse 9, if
it's not marked in your Bible and you don't mind marking your
Bible, any of you guys mind-- is it OK to mark your Bible? Mark that verse. It is perhaps the clearest
verse of the deity of Jesus Christ in
scripture, if not one of the most clear, solid places
where the deity of Christ is shown. It shatters arguments. It was effective against
the Gnosticism of Paul's day that denied the deity of Christ. Pull this verse out. If you speak to somebody who's
involved in Christian science or they're a Jehovah
witness or they belong to the Unity school
or the theosophy movement or Mormonism or Unity
school of Christianity, all of these that deny the
deity of Christ, show that one. In Jesus Christ dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. In that verse, there's a word. Fullness. See the word fullness? That happened to be a
buzzword for the Gnostics, for the heretics. They loved this word fullness. And this is what they said. They said the fullness of God
was divided up, the pleroma. That's what the word fullness
means or that's the Greek word. The divine pleroma,
the fullness, is divided up in its expression
among the various emanations that came from God. So remember I said there's
all these little sub gods, angelic beings
that came out from God. Jesus was one of them. The pleroma, the
fullness of God, was divided in all those
different emanations, all those beings, and it
decreased the further down the ladder they got. And Paul knew that. He knew that they
were teaching that. What Paul is saying this. Jesus did not get part of it. He got all of it. All of it. The fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Jesus Christ. It was a solid frontal blow
to that heresy of the time. But let's close where
he closes the paragraph. This is to me the
most personal part. Verse 10. And you are complete in Him. You are complete in Him. Gnostics said you're
not complete in Him. Jesus is a good start. It's a good place to start. We're going to take you into the
deeper knowledge, the fullness, the pleroma of God, to all these
little steps and philosophies and legalistic practices. Paul is going, uh-uh. If Jesus is all you've got, it's
because Jesus is all you need. In Him is the fullness of God. And by the way, verse 10,
you are complete in Him. Same word. Pleroma. Fullness of God is in Jesus. Jesus made you complete. He completed your life who is
the head of all principality and power. So what kept Paul the
Apostle up at night? What kept him up
were two things. Number one, the
Christians in Colossi who were complete in Jesus
but they didn't think they were complete. And number two, unbelievers who
because they were unbelievers were indeed not complete. All human beings are
incomplete without Christ. I have Jewish friends who have
given their lives to Jesus, and they have an interesting
way of describing their life. They say, I am a completed Jew. Their terminology. What do you mean
a completed Jew? Because, well, Judaism
always anticipated Messiah. We sort of set the
groundwork for y'all. And so that's my
heritage, Jewish, but now I've met the Messiah. I've met Jesus. I am a completed Jew. And that's a good description,
because human beings are incomplete until
they come to Christ. Jesus makes you complete. You are complete in Him. So if you're not a believer
this morning, if you haven't personally received the Lord
Jesus, let alone walk in Him, you just haven't
received Him personally. You may be religious,
may be a good person, but you haven't personally
come to a place where you said, I am giving my
life to Jesus, now is the time for you to rest
your life on the pillow of God's grace and be complete in Him. And if you are a believer this
morning and somebody's saying, yeah, well, I'm glad you're a
Christian, but you need this and you need that. Listen, you are complete
in Jesus Christ. You need to hear that message. You're complete in Him. [APPLAUSE] Now, it could be that you
don't know what you have. There's a lot of people who sort
of live like they're actually millionaires in
the bank, but they feel like they need a
second, third income stream even though they've
got everything they need. It's in the bank. Just go find out what
you have in the bank and use what you got. There's a lot of us believers
who are spiritually wealthy but we just don't know
what we have in the bank. That's why we read the
scripture all the time. To discover what's
in the bank book. But you are complete in Him. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for the word of God. Thank you for the complete work
of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Nothing can be added to it. Like Jesus said on the
cross, it is finished. We believe that it
is finished indeed. Father, I pray
for every believer here, first of
all, this morning. I pray that every believer,
every child of God who is feeling inadequate,
who is feeling isolated, who is feeling like they haven't
met up or matched up or been enough or need more, I pray,
Lord, that you would just reveal to them day by day and
week by week just how rich, how wealthy they are because
they are in Christ and Christ is in them. And I pray, Lord, that
they would discover how complete, how full you
have made them positionally before God. But then would you make it
experientially the same? Would you give
them the experience of completion and fullness
in their daily life? A fullness of joy. A fullness of satisfaction. A fullness of thanksgiving. Would you do that
for your people? Lord, we pray you would. And we pray, Lord, that
we would put these things into our walk, our practice
that they might be a reality. And then Father,
I pray for those who may be with us this
morning but they have never made that all important first
step of saying to Jesus, be my Lord, be my Savior. I'm giving my life to you. I'm beginning my Christian
life by receiving the Savior as my Savior, not just
the Savior of the world but my personal Lord and Savior. Our heads are bowed. Our eyes are closed. Before we close this
service this morning, is there anyone
here who hasn't done that yet that is
personally received Jesus as Savior asking Him to
forgive them of their sins. Have you not done that yet? Or is there anyone
perhaps who is here who is not walking with Him? Maybe at one time you were but
you stopped you walked away. You're not living a
life of obedience. You just need to come back home. Get back on track. That describes anyone
here, either of those two descriptions
describe you and you are willing to change and
give your life to Christ this morning, would you
just raise your hand up as we close this service? Raise it up and keep
it up for a moment so I can acknowledge you. I see a couple of hands
right there in the middle. Yes sir, God bless
you in the back. Just raise your hand up
so I can acknowledge you. Off to my right, a couple
of hands over here. Awesome, you guys. That's just honesty. We're just getting real before
each other and before God. Think of somebody in the water. They're drowning and they reach
their hand up to say God, help. God bless you in the way back. Anybody in the family room? Anyone outside in the courtyard? Raise your hand up. There's a pastor there. Anyone in the balcony? Awesome, awesome. Thank you, Father, for these. There's just a whole bunch
of people that have just come to the realization that
they need to rest in you and completely lay their lives
on the completed work of Jesus Christ and be complete in Him. It doesn't get any
better than this. Thank you, Father, for them. Strengthen the decision
that they are making at this moment in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand to our feet. As we sing this
final song, I'm going to ask those of you
who raised your hand, and I saw somebody way
in the back, somebody in the balcony, some off
to the side, in the middle, I'm going to ask you to
get up from where you're standing, find the nearest
aisle, walked down the aisle, come up to the front. I'm going to lead
you in a prayer when you get here to receive
Christ as your Lord and Savior. We're going to do
this deal right now. So if you raise your
hand, please come this way and allow us the
opportunity to love on you and congratulate you. Yes. Yeah, come on. Come all the way up front. Welcome. Good thinking. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Come on up. God bless you, girls. How you doing? Nice to see you. Thanks for coming. God bless you. If you're in the balcony,
just come down the stairs. If you're in the middle of a row
and it seems a little awkward because there's so many people,
trust me, we know this routine. If you're in the
middle of an aisle and you were to say
excuse me, you're going to watch that row
part like the Red Sea. We are so accommodating
to people who are making decisions like this. We'll even applaud you
as your come or stand with you as you come. Come right up to the front. Come right up to the front. Thank you, Lord. [APPLAUSE] If you're outside and
you raised your hand, a pastor will walk you inside. So we'll just give
it a few moments. But again, let me
just encourage you that you don't just raise a
hand and let me acknowledge you. I think it's important that
you, like we said in the word, you walk, you
actually walk forward. Because Jesus said, if
you confess me before men, I will confess you before
my Father who is in heaven. If you deny me before
men, I'll deny you before my Father and
all the Holy Angels. So this is an opportunity
to just come clean. Come out of the
closet as a Christian and say I'm going to follow
Jesus in public on purpose. I'm all in. I'm giving my life to Jesus. Anyone else? We'll give you that opportunity. Step up. [APPLAUSE] All right, you guys. Come on up. Come on up. Way to go. I'm going to lead those of
you who have walked forward, I'm going to lead
you now in a prayer. I want you to pray this
prayer out loud after me. You say these
words to the living God who is listening
to you right now and is so willing
to receive you. So say this. Lord, I give you my life. Lord, I give you my life. I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I believe He died on the cross. I believe He died on the cross. I believe He rose again. I believe He rose again. I turn from my sin. I turn from my sin. I repent of it. I repent of it. I turn my life to Jesus. I turn my life to Jesus. To follow Him. To follow Him. To obey Him. To obey him. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Help me to live for you. Help me to live for you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, amen, amen. Thank you so much for joining
us for this message from Calvary Church. We would love to know how
this message impacted you. Share your story with us. Email mystory@calvarynm.church. And if you'd like to support
this Bible teaching ministry with a financial gift,
visit calvarynm.church/give.
