Complete In Christ (2)

Scripture Intro:

Scripture Intro Psalm 1, which was our devotional reading this morning, is a rich treasure of encouragement to the child of God. Look the first 3 verses again …….

Psalm 1:1–3 (NKJV) — 1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

–If you have ever driven in the country on a fishing trip or sightseeing, you can always tell where the river is by the trees. –There is always a row of trees lining the edge of the river. Always. –The reason for that is that the trees near the river’s edge get nourished from the river even when there is a drought in the rest of the land. –The trees' roots go down deep beneath the river bottom and find water and nutrients they need even when the surface looks dry and barren. –They are able to stand tall because their roots go deep. –Listen as Paul encourages the Colossian church to stand tall in Christ by letting their roots go deep in Him. Read Col 2:6-10

Introduction

–The message that Paul brings home in this passage is a message that every Christian today needs to know and understand.

–God sent His Son Jesus to complete you in every way that you need completion.

–You can stand whole and complete before God only by walking steadfast in Jesus.

–Jesus has everything you need and you cannot get what Jesus has for you anywhere else.

–Christians today need to understand that because there are ill winds of false doctrine blowing today just as there were in Paul’s day.

–You need to stand fast in Christ so that you won’t get blown around chasing false doctrine. You need to stand tall in Christ so that you may receive the fullness of what God has in store for you in Christ.

–But how? How do we go about standing fast in Jesus?

–Well, life is a journey, and we are moving rather than standing still,

–So when we talk about standing fast in Jesus what we are really talking about is walking steadfast in Jesus.

–As we walk thru this life’s journey we need to maintain a steadfast walk in Jesus.

–How do we do that?

–The answer is in the text, so let’s turn to the text to discover what are the essentials of walking steadfast in Christ.

–

To walk steadfast in Christ you must; Let your roots go down in Him Col 2:7a

Colossians 2:7a NKJV

rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

–To be rooted in Christ means that you have planted your hope in Him. –The faith and hope that caused you to seek out God in the first place is the faith that secures you in Jesus. –When your roots go down in Christ it means that you trust your salvation to Jesus. –You believe the words that Jesus spoke to His first disciples. –“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” (John 14:1, NKJV) –In other words, you believe that the salvation of God resides in Jesus and you trust that. You are anchored in Him. –When your roots go down in Christ you appreciate the fact that He paid dearly to secure your salvation. –You recognize that the sacrifice He made was because He loved you. –As the Apostle John said .. “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) –It is the love that Christ has already shown for us that anchors us in Him. –When your roots go down in Christ it means you have committed your well being to Jesus because you know that He cares for you. –You can take the advice of Peter when he said… –“cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. “1 Peter 5:7 –When your roots go down in Christ you are not shaken easily because you know that God will not let go of you. –Storms may rise up all around you and you don’t despair. –You don’t give in to despair because you remember what Jesus said about His sheep… John 10:27–30 (NKJV) — 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.” –If your roots are deep in Christ you can stand tall and weather any storm because you are anchored in the storm quencher, Himself. –The same Jesus who stood in the midst of the sea of Galilee and commanded the wind and the waves to be still is at you side ready to quench your storms.

To walk steadfast in Christ you must; Let your roots go down in Him

That is the start, but you need to be able to continue in Him. Look at the text again….

To walk steadfast in Christ you must;

II. Let your life be built on Him Col 2:7b

Colossians 2:7b NKJV

rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

–When you build your life on Christ you learn to let go of the things which have held you back in the past. –Paul had some great things in his past. He had some great achievements as a biblical scholar.. –He also had some major failings when it came to the church. He was a persecutor of the church. –But he determined to leave it all behind and just focus on reaching for the high goal of standing complete in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13–14 (NKJV) — 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

–When you let your life be built on Christ you have to let go of some things that held you back. –Move on from the failures and faults of the past and look to please Christ today. –Move forward with the goal of pleasing God rather than the goal of gaining treasure. –You also have to let go of the idea of building your life around your possessions. –If your life is built around the things that you possess, you will ignore the things that Christ wants you to hold dear. –Truth, faith, love are principles of high esteem in Christ’s Kingdom. –You will set these items on the back burner if personal wealth is your motivating force. –If you are not careful a spirit of covetousness, the desire to always have more, will rob the joy and fruitfulness from your life. It is easy to become obsessed and not realize it. –Jesus warned His disciples of this as He dismissed the man who wanted Jesus to settle the estate between he and his brother. –Luke 12:15 (NKJV) — 15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

–Jesus then told the parable of the rich fool who built bigger and larger barns to hold greater wealth and then died before he could spend what he had. –When you build your life on Christ you begin to establish the Lord’s principles as your principles. –That means you have to listen to the Lord about what is valuable and what is not. –When your value set begins to match the Lord’s value set, you are then building your life on a solid foundation. –Listen as Jesus illustrates this point in the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 7:24–27 (NKJV) — 24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

–You are building your life on a solid foundation when you build on the principles of Christ. –If you build your life on Christ’s principles your values and your motives will change also. –If you build your life around Christ the profit motive will have to take a back seat to love, because love is the prime directive of the Lord. –John 15:12–14 (NKJV) — 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

To walk steadfast in Christ you must; Let your life be built on Him

But when you begin to do that, when you step forward to build your life on Christ some things will be easier than you thought because the Lord will strengthen you as you go.

You won’t have to do that job alone, all you have to do is listen to the Word that the Lord has given you..

Look at the text again. …

To walk steadfast in Christ you must;

III. Let your faith be strengthened by Him Col 2:7c

Colossians 2:7c NKJV

rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

–Our faith will be strengthened by Christ when we allow His teaching to come alive in our lives. –When we live the Word that we read , our faith is strengthened. –When we live the Word instead of giving lip service to the Word our lives will be blessed. –James explains that if we don’t receive the Word into our lives , we forget who we are. ….James 1:22–25 (NKJV) — 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. –Too many Christians forget who they are because the Word of God is not a reality in their lives. That is why they are not fruitful. –If we live by the Word Christ has given us our lives will be fruitful and not frustrated. Jesus said that fruitfulness follows faithfulness. John 15:7–8 (NKJV) — 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. –If we begin to live by the Word, the Word will go down into our souls and fix our real problems instead of the surface problems that we try to cover up. The Word of God has the power stir things up inside us. –Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) — 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. –The Word of God has the ability to get down to where we live, (in our hearts) and fix us if we let it. –And you will know when you have begun to live by the Word because you will begin to see your joy increase. When the Word dwells in you joy will flow from you. Pauls tells us this in…..Colossians 3:16 (NKJV) — 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

To walk steadfast in Christ you must; Let your faith be strengthened by Him

You do that by walking in His Word.

And finally as you walk in the Word of the Lord and He sends grace and joy into your heart what does the Lord need you to do? Look at the text again ….

To walk steadfast in Christ you must;

IV. Let your thanksgiving go forth to Him Col 2:7d

Colossians 2:7d NKJV

rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

–If we are busy thanking God, it is hard for us to have a pity party. –It is hard to keep a negative attitude when you consider that you are part of God’s glorious plan. –Even during times of distress God can give you joy if you will receive it. Listen to what Peter said…

1 Peter 4:12–13 (NKJV) — 12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

–If we are busy thanking God it is hard to give God’s credit to someone else. –Or something else. Like luck or your own wisdom, or astrology. –If we acknowledge God as the source of our blessing and make a regular habit of thanking Him we won’t be lead astray by false doctrines. –If we abound with thanksgiving to God it will be real hard for the devil to lead us astray. –That is the warning that Paul was delivering to the church both then and now.

Colossians 2:8 (NKJV) — 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.

–When you are busy thanking God you won’t be easily led astray by the traditions of men or by the deceit of the devil or by human philosophy or worldly logic. –God gave all of Himself to us in Jesus Christ, we need to overflow, to abound, to rejoice in thanksgivings to God for sending Jesus Christ to us.

Colossians 2:9–10 (NKJV) — 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

To walk steadfast in God’s ways, you must give thanks to God.

If you don’t keep thanking Him, you won’t keep walking with Him. O no you won’t

To walk steadfast in Christ you must; Let your thanksgiving go forth to the Lord.

Conclusion / Celebration

–So now we return to the question with which we began.

What are the essentials of walking steadfast in Christ?

To walk steadfast in Christ you must;

I. Let your roots go down in Him. You can’t be a lip service Christian, or the first troubling wind will blow you away. You must have your roots firmly planted in Christ.

To walk steadfast in Christ you must; II. Let your life be built on Him. Build your life around the things that God values and the world will not be able to take away your joy.

To walk steadfast in Christ you must; III. Let your faith be strengthened by Him. Strengthen yourself by His Word. The Lord said heaven and earth shall pass away , but my Word shall never pass away. (Matt 24:35)

To walk steadfast in Christ you must;

IV. Let your thanksgiving go forth to Him. Get busy thanking God, and the world the flesh nor the devil will be able to get a hold on you. Elevate yourself out of the reach of evil by praising God continually.

–This world is in a terrible shape , there is evil all around, but we stand complete in Christ, we need to keep walking in Him. –The world in which we live seems to be coming apart at the seams. –There is dysfunction all around, but we stand complete in Christ , we need to keep walking in Him.

God gave all of Himself to me in Christ and I am complete in Him.

–I stand complete in Christ –I still have troubles in my life but I stand complete in Christ. Christ overcomes all of my troubles and gives me the victory over each and every problem that I turn over to Him. –I stand complete in Christ. –I still have a sin nature. I was born with a sin nature like everyone who has come into the world as the seed of Adam, but I now stand complete in Christ. –I can say like Paul, that the good that I want to do, I don’t do, the evil that I don’t want to do, that I do. –O wretched man that I am. What can save me from this body of sin. –Thanks be to God that thru Jesus Christ I can serve the law of God thru the power of the Spirit even though the flesh yearns to serve sin. I stand complete in Christ. I may not be perfect, but I stand complete in Christ.

–I am not perfect, I still sometimes have a troubled mind, a fearful heart and a mean spirit.

–But with all of that I stand complete in Christ.

–How can that be? Thru the power of Jesus Christ my Lord.

–The Lord calms my troubled mind and give me a peace that surpasses all understanding.

–The Lord strengthens my fearful heart and give me a faith that allows me to face giants and win the victory.

–The Lord overrides my mean spirit and gives me His Holy Spirit and I am able to express a greater love than I thought possible.

–I may not be perfect, but I am complete in Christ, I am going to keep walking in Christ

–I still have troubles in my life but I stand complete in Christ. I am going to keep walking in Christ.

–The world is in trouble, but I stand complete in Christ. I am going to keep walking in Christ.

–I stand complete in Christ. I am going to keep walking in Him. What about you?

What about you?