Complete in Christ

[0:00] God wants you whole.

[0:19] Whole. And he can make you whole. Complete. Absolutely complete. It is not possible for a man without Christ to be complete.

[0:31] As we read, as the word tells us to be complete is to be complete in Christ. We see that in Colossians 2 from verse 8. It says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.

[0:46] After the tradition of men. After the rudiments of the world. And not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

[0:59] And notice here verse 10. And ye are complete in him. Which is the head of all principality and power.

[1:09] Ye are complete in him. Who is the head of all principality and power. Now sometimes we might feel like we're not adequate.

[1:24] I usually feel like that when I'm song leading. Especially songs that I'm not familiar with. But we can all feel inadequate, can't we? We can all feel like we're not good enough. We're not able.

[1:34] How do we answer those who say to us, you're not good enough. You're not trained enough. You're not knowledgeable enough. You're not smart enough.

[1:46] You are not able. You're not old enough. Or maybe they'll say, you're not young enough. You're not trained enough. And it's like there's this sense of that we've got to do more.

[1:58] We've got to be more. We've got to be more able, more qualified before we can do anything. There's that kind of, there's that sentiment out there, isn't there? That we're not complete.

[2:09] We're inadequate. We're not able. But the Bible says we are complete in him. Amen. You are complete in him. That's what it's telling you here in Colossians 2 verse 10.

[2:22] What is that completeness? That completeness. And how can we know it? How do you define completeness? Complete is when nothing needs to be added to it.

[2:37] It's the whole set, isn't it? It's the whole lot. Nothing needs to be added to that which is complete. It's sufficient. And to be complete, it means to have all the necessary parts.

[2:51] Now, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5, it says that our sufficiency is of God. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5, Paul writes to the Corinthians, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.

[3:12] Paul's saying, let's not get self-sufficient. As if our sufficiency is of ourselves, we can make that mistake. As some of the health, wealth, prosperity, the faith gospel, the super faith gospel, the hyper faith gospel crowd would say, it's all about you and about speaking and being positive.

[3:35] But Paul's saying, no, the sufficiency is not of ourselves, that we can big note or brag on or express ourselves as a selfish kind of, self-centered kind of gospel, but our sufficiency is of God.

[3:49] He makes us sufficient. He makes us able. And there's that wonderful completeness that you can know as God's children, as God's people. And it's not found in self-sufficiency or self-reliance.

[4:01] It's found in Christ's reliance, isn't it? And we find in Him our sufficiency. We find in Christ our completion. And we can feel inadequate, but His grace is sufficient.

[4:14] As we know Paul's situation with the thorn in the flesh, where he besought the Lord three times to have it taken, that our Lord said, my grace is sufficient for thee.

[4:29] For thee. And my power is made perfect in weakness. On that we can rely. We can rely upon that. And we don't need to listen to those voices that might discount us or make us feel inadequate or unable.

[4:48] We can rely on the power of God. We can rely on the grace of God. On the sufficiency of God. Now, back home last night, we had a power failure.

[4:59] And we had a power failure just then. We can have a power failure, can't we? A power failure. But this power, I tell you today, this power, the power of God will never fail.

[5:11] Amen? The power of God will never fail. His power is sufficient for you. His power is made sufficient in your weakness.

[5:25] He promises you that. And our sufficiency is of God. We can take heart in that. Now, Jeremiah confessed his inadequacy. The prophet Jeremiah, one of the men of God, one of the spokesmen of God, a voice for God to his nation, Jeremiah.

[5:42] He confessed his inadequacy. In Jeremiah 1, from verse 7, the Lord called Jeremiah. And what did Jeremiah say? He tried to kind of excuse himself from the commission.

[5:59] He tried to back out, I suppose, or make excuses. There's that sentiment there.

[6:10] And Jeremiah 1, verse 7, But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child. Don't use that excuse. For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.

[6:26] Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Now, I'm looking at all you good people today. I'm not afraid of your faces. You're quite a good-looking bunch here tonight.

[6:38] But Jeremiah was told by the Lord, Don't say that I'm a child. Don't be afraid. I suppose he could have been speaking to faces that were snarling and nasty and spitting at him.

[6:54] But he said, Do not be afraid of their faces. I am with thee to deliver thee. Jeremiah tried to get the point over, or he seemed to express that he was inadequate.

[7:07] And the Lord says, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go. I shall send thee. I'll make you able. I will give you the words to say. And be not afraid.

[7:19] Gideon is another one. He confessed his weakness, his inadequacy. Gideon, in Judges 6, verse 14, there he was kind of trying to kind of keep a low profile, out of sight, out of the public eye, and trying to kind of hide.

[7:38] And the angel comes and says, You mighty man of valour, to Gideon. And Gideon's looking at who you're talking to. And the Lord looks on him.

[7:49] And this is Judges 6, 14. And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

[7:59] Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Gideon says to the Lord, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

[8:14] He tried to give his excuses, you know, you've got the wrong man here. I'm from a poor family, and we're the least, and I'm the least in my father's house.

[8:27] Verse 16 of Judges 6, And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

[8:39] What made the difference? I will be with thee. Isn't that true for us? Isn't that true for you, fellow believer? He says, I'm with you. I'm with you.

[8:50] I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Gideon confessed his weakness. Moses felt weakness too. Moses in Exodus 4 verse 10, as our Lord commissioned Moses to take the people to the promised land, and Moses said unto the Lord, this is Exodus 4 verse 10, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since.

[9:18] Thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I'm slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. He tried his excuse there. Moses, oh, I'm not a good talker.

[9:30] I've not got the gift of the gab. You know, Aaron's much better than me. You know, there's that kind of sense where Moses was saying, I'm inadequate. I'm not able. I'm not sufficient.

[9:42] And the Lord said unto him, who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord? And of course, the Lord countered Moses' excuses.

[10:01] I've made your mouth. I've made the ears that will hear what you have to say. I'm in charge, basically, was what the Lord was saying.

[10:12] And he discounted Moses' objections. He says, you're able. I'm with you. And so we've seen Jeremiah, we've seen Gideon, we've seen Moses. A more contemporary example is the evangelist D.L. Moody.

[10:29] D.L. Moody, he was led to Christ by a shoe salesman, and he eventually reached millions of people in his day, leading hundreds of thousands to know the Saviour.

[10:42] But D.L. Moody had his inadequacies. He was perhaps not as well schooled as some. He had a problem.

[10:52] His grammar was not good. And he often mispronounced words so that people would even laugh at him and scorn him. And in spite of his inadequate grammatical background, Moody determined to rely on the Lord's adequacy.

[11:09] Amen? And there was one time Moody had preached some message and a seminary student, you know, someone who's going through Bible training, had a bit of a go at him, approached him and said, Mr. Moody, I counted 18 grammatical errors in the first five minutes of your mess.

[11:34] 18 mistakes in five minutes. And Moody responded, young man, I'm using all the grammar I got for God's glory. What are you doing with yours?

[11:46] You know, he was trusting in the Lord that even in Moody's inadequacy, using all the grammar I got for God's glory. You know, sometimes we can make excuses and maybe we have got inadequacies, but he makes up for them, doesn't he?

[12:04] He makes you able. He makes you able to do what he's called you to do. As a man, a woman of God, you are able. You are sufficient. You have a sufficiency. You've got a completeness in Christ.

[12:17] He is your ability. He is your sufficiency. He is the wholeness, the fullness that we can have. It's in Christ. He is enabling you and will continue to enable.

[12:30] In Christ, we have no deficiency. Amen. We have no deficiency, no inadequacy, because he makes up for our shortfalls, doesn't he?

[12:43] And ye are complete in Christ, it says. In other words, nothing needs to be added. There's some who preach a gospel where it's faith plus, and that's wrong.

[12:59] Our saving is by grace through faith. It's not of yourselves. In the saving, it's all of Christ.

[13:09] And really, in our service too, it's his enabling that helps us to serve. It's his enabling, it's his equipping. Despite our human weaknesses, despite our lack, and overruling all of our excuses, amen, our sufficiency is of God.

[13:33] Nothing needs to be added for your salvation. Nothing needs to be added of men's works, of empty philosophies, certainly none of that. We don't need to add man's rituals, or human works, or religious acts.

[13:47] We need none of that. We don't need any of that to make us complete. And sometimes as believers, we have this sense, and I was just relating to Julia, Julie earlier, that, you know, how inadequate I can feel at times to undertake that which I need to.

[14:09] And for all of us, we have that, that lack that we do feel, that inadequacy that we feel. You know, I think for myself, I'm not as well trained as many.

[14:21] There's many that are much more well trained than me. Through much better theological schools of learning than I've been in. As much as I've done various things to learn, to train, I do feel quite inadequate to serve the Lord in this capacity.

[14:38] But sometimes when we feel our inadequacy, he makes up for that, doesn't he? He makes up for that lack that we might humanly feel. And I was saying earlier with the technology failures that are so common, if everything was working perfectly, we might get two.

[14:56] Yeah, just, we'd get a little bit blase about it and we could get self-sufficient. We don't ever want to get self-sufficient, do we?

[15:08] Where it's of ourself. But we're always depending upon him. Always depending on his strength. And I know there's some going through testing times right now. In your health, in your situation, in your circumstances, those testing times help us to draw closer to him, don't they?

[15:32] They help us to lean on him because we know of ourselves we cannot attain, we cannot cope at times. But he makes up for where we lack and where we fail, where we feel inadequate.

[15:44] We have everything we need in Christ. He is everything to us. You are complete in Christ, it says. Despite our imperfections, despite our human lack and weakness, what does the word tell us that we can hang on to?

[16:03] It says, you are made partakers of the divine nature. That should stand for something, shouldn't it? Partakers of the divine nature. To think that his very nature, we are taking a part of that, that we are expressing that, that he is living in our shoes, speaking through our lips, touching through our hands, reaching our world through human vessels, weak as we are, that we can be part of his kingdom's work, part of his wonderful ministry.

[16:40] He ministers today through human beings such as we, and that we can play some part in that, that we can be partakers of the divine nature. In the Sunday school, that you represent Christ, the teachers there, you're representing Christ.

[16:55] What a challenge, what a responsibility, what a blessing it is. And even in the kitchen ministries, in the hospitality ministries, in the greeting work, in the technical side, in the cleaning and the keeping up of the maintaining of the place that we meet, all of these things are ministering unto him.

[17:18] It's for him, it's unto him and it's by him that we are made partakers of this mission, of this ministry, of this ministration.

[17:30] And we are complete in him. It tells you that he is our complete armour, if you like. The complete armour of the Christian.

[17:44] It tells, in Ephesians 6, it talks about the whole armour of God. The whole armour. Not a part, a partial armour, but the whole armour. And elsewhere, it talks about the armour of light, and it talks about be clothed with Christ, doesn't it, in such a situation, such that you could conceive of the armour as being the person of Christ.

[18:08] But we are in Christ, and he encircles us, he wraps himself around human skin, such that he is in us, and we are in him. And he is our complete armour, the whole armour of God.

[18:23] It's Christ. It's Christ in you. He is the one who will defend you, who will protect you, who will fight your battles as you are clothed in that armour of God, the complete armour, the whole armour of God.

[18:37] Friends, he is all that we need. That's the point I'm making here, that he is all you need. All you need. We see that in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30, Paul says to the Corinthians, but of him, of Christ, of him, of the Father, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

[19:08] Christ, of God, is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Christ is your wisdom.

[19:20] Christ is your righteousness. Christ is your sanctification. Christ is that which makes you holy. Christ is that which redeems you, which liberates you, and sets you free.

[19:31] We have all that we need for godly character in Christ, in him. You are complete in him. He is the completeness that we need for godly character, for godly conviction, for wisdom, for righteousness, for holiness, for redemption, for victory.

[19:46] You are complete in Christ. He has made unto you everything that you need to live the Christian life, to walk the Christian walk. And really, it is only in Christ we have this assurance, isn't it?

[20:00] It is only in Christ that we can have that assurance, that we can confess, yes, I am saved, because you are in Christ. You can say, I am sanctified because I am in Christ.

[20:12] You can say, I am redeemed by the blood of the lamb, and it is all glory worthy to the lamb that was slain unto him. Christ in you, Christ is all and in all, all we need, all we need.

[20:28] As we will sing shortly, in Christ we have complete forgiveness. Think of that. For some, they struggle. They don't feel forgiven. And they feel there is this skeleton in the cupboard that they open and look at every so often, and then they shut the door, but it is still in there.

[20:45] There is that sense of memories, of hurts, of unforgiveness, of bitterness, of situations of the past that have never been laid to rest.

[20:56] Christ is all that you need. He can deal with all of that. He can take it all away. Confess your sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[21:09] Amen. All can be removed if you put all your trust in him. Simply put all your trust in him. Christ is all, all we need. We've got complete forgiveness. We've got complete righteousness.

[21:21] Some would come through situations or as we're, as I referred briefly this morning to a Jehovah's Witness person, a woman who was delapsed.

[21:32] Jehovah's Witness, I spent some, half an hour on her doorstep yesterday and she was kind of talking about all the requirements and the regulation and the ritual and the burden and the yoke.

[21:46] She didn't talk that way but I could see that's what she was saying of the bondage that she was under to perform. Our righteousness is complete and it's not of that.

[21:57] It's all of him. Amen. He is our righteousness. He is our redemption. He is our sanctification. It's all of Christ and you have complete, complete righteousness.

[22:10] Comprehensive. You've got comprehensive cover in Christ. You've got complete blessing too, haven't you? In Christ, the blessing, not something manufactured or worked up or attained or reckoned or credited or manufactured of your own making but given, granted, gifted to you his righteousness, his blessing and you have his strength.

[22:39] Isn't that something? His enabling when you're feeling weak in your weakness I am strong he says but even in our weakness the strength because he makes up for our lack.

[22:52] The question is will you fulfil your awesome potential? Your awesome potential? Will you take the tack of these ones that we talked about of Jeremiah, of Gideon, of Moses, numbers of others who kind of said I'm not able, I'm not adequate, I'm not sufficient, I'm not learned or capable.

[23:18] It's not of that. It's all of him. It's all of him. I love it when sometimes I do ask people to do some ministry of the church or some activity and their first response is oh I've never done that before or I'm not able or I'm not listening to that.

[23:36] Just do it. It's almost how we have to be isn't it? And we need to stop that inner voice that says I can't, I can't. We need to say I can, I can, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

[23:50] Amen? Let's not hold back from what God can do and you might say well I've never done that before. Well there's always the first time. Amen? And what's holding you back is the question at times isn't it?

[24:03] What's holding me back from stepping out of the comfort zone of the shadows and stepping up? Ye are complete in him, in him.

[24:16] A jigsaw is complete when it has all of the pieces. Who's ever got one of those great big jigsaw puzzles spread out on a table and you've just about got it nailed and you think oh there's one piece missing.

[24:30] It's so frustrating isn't it? That annoying situation where there's just one piece missing, it's not complete. But friends in Jesus you are complete in him.

[24:44] You are complete in him. There's no missing pieces and yet many seem to settle for incompleteness with their lives. There's that kind of certain emptiness that missing part.

[24:56] They never realise that missing part that makes life truly full and complete. As this dear one I was talking to, he never really found peace with Christ.

[25:07] It was in a religion of works, of vain man's striving without trusting in the Saviour.

[25:19] And what a mistake to make to settle for religion instead of finding peace with Christ. To struggle with effort of flesh to meet some organisation's requirements without simply trusting and receiving on God's terms his gift.

[25:40] Receiving Christ, new life, that missing part that makes life truly full and complete. I want to assure you today, there is completeness and it's found in Christ.

[25:54] Completeness. It's found in him. And that completeness impacts every dimension of our being, body, soul and spirit. The soul, the mind, the will, the emotions, the body, the spirit.

[26:07] Every aspect and dimension and perspective of life. Christ impacts every dimension. Many people neglect the God dimension, don't they? We see in the world today, the God dimension is kind of overruled, it's neglected, it's pushed aside, it's scorned, it's derided.

[26:28] Yet without God, we are empty. Without Christ, we are empty. There's a missing part to the jigsaw puzzle. Many are wandering around in this state of spiritual confusion with this fog all around them, hanging over them because they've not found that missing piece.

[26:45] They're not complete, they're incomplete. Paul met such people in Athens, as we know that city that was so idolatrous with multiple gods on every street corner, a temple to this and that God all around the people in Athens.

[27:01] And Paul found them quite a superstitious lot in Acts 17. And they even had an idol to a God that they did not know. They just wanted to make sure the one they hadn't heard about had a little altar and a statue and a place of reverence to the unknown God.

[27:21] They just wanted to be sure to pay him some homage just in case they had ignorantly missed him. And Paul said, I declare him unto you, the unknown God, the God you do not know, I declare him to you, the invisible God, the unseen God.

[27:37] And he says in Acts 17, 22, as he addresses them on Mars Hill, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious, for I pass by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of all men, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being, as certain of your own prophets have said, for we are also his offspring, he's saying this God that you ignorantly worship,

[28:50] I'm making him known to you, he's made the heavens and the earth, he doesn't need to be worshipped with men's manufacture or effort of hands, he gives all life of breath and all things, he's made all nations of one blood, that we should seek after the Lord and find him, in him we live and move and have our being, in other words he makes life complete, we live, he is our life, he's given us the breath of life as he gave to Adam, he sustains us with that breath until he takes the breath away and takes us to himself, and the God of whom we speak, he fills us, our whole being, we live and move and have our being, we have our being in him, our completeness and of our saviour it says all the fullness of the Godhead is in him, we read how we can be made whole in Christ and we learn that he supplies our every need, as the good shepherd we're safe in his keeping and there's this wonderful truth of the spiritual wholeness when we come to seek after

[30:01] God, to find him and to live in him. So, friends, to narrow it down to some simple take home messages here, I urge you to this completeness, let's not be like this world that lives in this incompleteness, this world that lives in an emptiness without him, let's know him in whom we live and move and have our being, let's have that consciousness of God, that completeness that we can know, personally know, so we are not like those who are yet to trust him that have an emptiness, we don't want to miss this dimension which is fundamental for living life to the full, we don't settle for the partial, we look to Christ alone and we find that completeness that doesn't come from religion or man's philosophy or mindset, the world view of this world, we find that completeness that comes from him in Christ as we look to

[31:20] Christ alone for his saving, we find that true wholeness that fills us wholly and solely and completely, now the word tells us of peace, peace, I know as we've heard it put that it's the Hebrew word shalom, shalom, now in Hawaii they say aloha, to say hello and goodbye and it's aloha is alike to shalom, it's alike to, you know, I guess there's probably other words we can use that even I suppose in the English language that sense of wishing someone well when you meet them and wishing them well when you say farewell and this sense shalom has got the intent of well-being, it's got the intent of wellness, yeah, so the Strong's Concordance that defines shalom as completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord.

[32:35] Think of all those things, we can't keep that in our head, can we? But completeness, wholeness, tranquility, peace, safety, soundness, all of those words of blessing are captured in this one word shalom and when you see a Hebrew speaking person, you can greet them and say shalom, to say well hello or goodbye, it's the same word shalom and so it literally could be put to mean may you be full of well-being, may health and prosperity be upon you, shalom, may you be full of well-being and prosperity and blessing and health and this word shalom is something we can know as Bible believers, as believers in Christ we have shalom, well-being, peace, deep, deep peace and the world might be a storm all around us but we know a peace, amen, the situation might be drastic and dire and diabolical at what we're living in but we can have that peace within, amen, you can have that peace within, shalom,

[33:45] God's peace, it's full, it's complete, the Lord is my shepherd declared David, he is my shepherd I shall not want, he's enough, he's all that I need, I shall not want, he is my supply because God is my shepherd I have everything I really need, ye are complete in him, in him, your completeness is found there in him, it's where you can find it and when I was chatting with this Jehovah's witness lady again just to elaborate a little further what I put to her when she was telling about all the irksome nature of the religion that she had of Jehovah's witness belief I urged her with the words of scripture Matthew 11 28 as the Lord Jesus says come unto me come unto me he says come unto me all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light if only if only she would come to Christ if only our loved ones and friends and families those we witness to if only if only they would come unto him come unto Christ that in Christ they would find that completeness they would find that fullness they would find that shalom

[35:20] I can't help but feel how someone who doesn't know the Lord as their saviour has this huge vacuum within them as someone has expressed it there's this huge empty space this void within their heart within the inner core of their being that is emptiness isn't it there's an emptiness there there's this gaping hole this black hole this vacuum of nothingness the emptiness within because they don't know not Christ the saviour there's that emptiness within their soul and friends I urge you today he can replace your emptiness with his fullness he can replace your incompleteness with his completeness and it's not by packing in your own works or effort or adding to his work it's simply trusting his work to save trusting him as saviour that he is your redemption he is your sanctification he is your saviour Ephesians 3 19 to close it says

[36:21] Paul urges the Ephesians in Ephesians 3 verse 19 it talks about the length the breadth the depth the height the love of God and he says and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God this word fullness is again alike to that word completeness that we can be filled with the fullness of God we can know the completeness of God that we can have not that frustration of that huge jigsaw puzzle with that one frustrating missing piece but we can be complete in Christ you can know the completeness that only he can give to have that well being that shalom deep down heart deep soul deep in your substance to fill every fibre of who you are and to meet in Christ so we see ye are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power our sufficiency is of

[37:28] God let's pray Lord we thank you for your word that your word is complete it's sufficient the sufficiency of scripture and Lord that your salvation is complete it is all sufficient you're an all sufficient saviour and Lord we put our trust in you we pray each one each believer here will be stirred and encouraged to realise that completeness that we can have and to not fail to reckon on it Lord when we are challenged to serve or situations of life to not have a sense that we're not able we're not adequate but we are sufficient because you make our sufficiency Lord you are our sufficiency our sufficiency is of God that you enable us and help us Lord to to be that person you want us to be

[38:29] Lord help us to see in life where we can have a sense of unworthiness or inadequacy that Lord we can overcome that feeling as we simply rest in your filling us Lord with yourself and with your power because your strength is made perfect in weakness Lord help us Lord not to ever get to a place where we have a self sufficiency but that will at all times have a reliance upon you and your power on your spirits enabling us and empowering us for the tasks that you've put in our hands to do Lord we pray that you would be glorified and Lord if there's any hearing this that have yet to trust you that they won't go through life with that missing piece the P-I-E-C-E the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle but they can have that peace the P-E-A-C-E of God they can have that fullness of God they can have that shalom in Jesus name we thank you for your saving for the work of the cross that makes it all happen in Jesus name

[39:54] Amen Amen