The Sermon Fullness by David McGee
Jul 19, 2015
Fullness (28:47)
Referenced Scriptures: Colossians 2
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The scriptures below are from the WEB Bible.
Colossians 2
1) For I desire to have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
2) that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,
3) in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
4) This I say that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.
5) For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6) As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,
7) rooted and built up in him, and established in your faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
8) Be careful that you don‘t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.
9) For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
10) and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;
11) in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;
12) having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13) You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses;
14) having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he has taken it out that way, nailing it to the cross;
15) having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16) Let no man therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
17) which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ‘s.
18) Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19) and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God‘s growth.
20) If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
21) "Don‘t handle, nor taste, nor touch"
22) (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men?
23) Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but aren‘t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
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That's good. Well this morning I'm looking at the le of fullness and in it's in collages chapter two. But as we think of fullness. Sometimes we hear me I always allocate that with food. So when I eat too much I'm overly full and having to learn how to only eat enough so that leaves so that we don't gain too much weight. And perhaps that we would with that somehow we would lose some but fullness here in especially in verse. I believe it's verse nine where you find it here in my notes that for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And when Paul is writing We're going to kind of look at this verse by verse for a little while and Paul is writing this to come against the doctrines or the problems that were coming to the early church. And they were combining religious they were combining religions they were putting the Christian faith in with parts of Judaism and parts of the Greek thought. And you know parts of other things and putting them together they somehow come up with a religion that was the watered down approach to Christianity and the watered down approach is that Jesus Christ there is no other way. He is the fullness of the head in Christ is the fullness the completeness of what wants to say and what wanted to reveal to us through Christ and through His Word. So it's interesting I received the book this week from a particular denominate Well I guess it's a denomination from the particular church that would. It's not on the fringes of Christianity. And they were they gave a book about what makes them so unique and so different and how everyone else who doesn't believe in this particular truth is wrong. And I heard a il ration in this this past week that really got me to think perhaps a little differently. And in Australia you know they have these farms and the farms are comprised of thousands and thousands of acres. So some people put fences around their farms to keep their cattle and their livestock in. But other farmers drill and have water the watering hole is in the center part of their land so the watering hole keeps all of the animals close within the range of their farm land their land that they own. And and I think of Christianity and how all of the churches have built their senses that protect our religion and our doctrines about Jesus Christ and we look at the world and the world looks at Christianity and what they see they see our fences they see how we argue and fight and how that this is right and this is wrong and we need to have boundaries. always had boundaries. It's why we have the Ten Commandments. He gave the boundaries but and he gave the laws not to fence people in but to draw them close to And so our senses our need to be tore down and they need to be light houses and light posts that speak of the truth of 's word. And as we see those truths of 's Word we find ourselves following those truths to Jesus because he. As the water of life. Jesus is the water of life he is the fullness of and in the fullness of in Christ we dwell there we dwell in we live in that place of fullness we live in this place of completeness in Christ. You know we often find ourselves thinking that we're lacking. You know like today I am sick. Now I'm not sick I am a well person fighting off my sickness that is me excuse me while I cough about my sickness. But that isn't my sickness I'm a well person you know I am a healed person fighting off a disease or fighting off a problem I have and I am a wise person and searching for more wisdom to deal with my situation. I am 's blessing to the community and to the people around this. Searching for ways to touch people's lives. If you see you're the same way in your own family. I am 's blessing I am 's revelation to my FIL family to my neighbors. I am 's best out there for and what we're doing. We're being ourselves we're being this person that created and we can heard the story of a young man who in school was told that he was just an average student or a below average student and that he would never amount to much. And so when he graduated he was a C. or below student and he believed that and so he got a job in a factory and he lived he worked there at one of the lowest positions possible because he didn't believe that he was able to be any different because someone had told him something and he believed that well that factory closed and he moved to another factory. And whenever he went to apply that factory at that place they did an I.Q. test on all of their employees. They come to find out that he was not. At an average person. He was a genius in fact his I.Q. was greater than anyone else I've ever been in. Applied for a job in this factory so he began then to realize that his thoughts and his ways of thinking were not because he was below or know he was abnormal but that he was above it and he was greater than you know he had abilities that he had never used because he heard someone tell him he was incomplete while he went on then to be a developer and had his own business and has a number of patents and things for the work field that he is in and it's all because it was proven to him that he was not what somebody told him. And you see in the fullness of Christ in the fullness of Christ it isn't that we are lacking. It's that is giving. It isn't that we have failed. You know we're not a failure but we have failed. We are not a sinner but we have sinned we are Christian we are believer we are we have been saved by the grace in the mercy of we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. We have been bought by the blood of Christ. We are very special in his eyes and he is his will and purpose for our life. And so as we see ourselves as uniquely special is we see ourselves as uniquely part of the plan of You know I think back of the events of life the events of what we've gone through and how that honor them in has been a part of the whole plan has been a part of all the plans and all the things that ever happen in our lives. Now I may not have seen it. I may have been rebellious and not gone along with the plan because I had better plans. But is that we look back over and you know I've referred refered to this. This is a miracle. This this book because I've been told all my life you can't write worth a darn. You can speak but you can't write. And all my life I would never write because teachers have red pens and all my papers that I've ever written were really marked up with red ink because I never knew sentence structure I knew it but I it just didn't flow together but I had some good ideas and that's why I guess I became a preacher. Got that. So I pray for the good ideas. I've always prayed for wisdom. You know this is my selfish. There's a revelation. I always pray for wisdom because I figured if I was why I could make a lot of money. OK Now Solomon was the wisest man he had the greatest wealth in the world and I soon learned that that doesn't work that way that it works in the idea that our wisdom is not about getting and our wisdom is about giving. You see whenever we help enough people get where they need to go we will find ourselves being where we need to be. That's the John Maxwell quote. When we help enough people get where they need to be we will find ourselves arriving at the place that we're supposed to be and see whenever we look at the fullness that we have in Christ. We're seeing how that Christ is Britain is the positing that fullness inside of us that completeness. Now it's like where we have felt of course we fail all have sinned and come short of the glory of but we're not a failure. So I have to I have to understand the difference that I am not a sinner I'm a saint. I have sinned but I have been forgiven and Christ has forgiven me because he has a plan and a purpose for my life not only here but in eternity. So where I am as we look at it and say in every in this scripture here it. And one of the verses it talks about being overwhelmingly thankful. Which verses it talks about for thankfulness just in Jesus. Just so then just as you receive Christ Jesus Lord continue to live your lives in him rooted and build up in him strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overwhelming with thanks thankfulness overwhelming with thankfulness. You know we talked about fullness and then overwhelming with thankfulness. Is this approach that everything in my life. I am giving thanks to for because that may not be the end of it. This is but the beginning of it that we see it is perhaps not very good but being thankful about our life in our position and about this thing and that thing we are finding that we are giving thanks to who is in control and we are asking him to make good all things work together for good that is that work in my life for the good of my life and all the things I see as failures or faults are not really that at all because I am being thankful to for his ability to take care of me and my provisions and the things that I need in my life. So whenever we see ourselves as finding fault finding failure finding things difficult. That doesn't mean that somehow we've ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. We are here by appointment. We are here by. Why divine a point to be who we are at this place in our lives for a purpose of serving and it says here Paul says I I want you to know who how hard I am contending for you and for those in Laodicea Paul are saying this is a real struggle. It is a real struggle in the spiritual realm and I am contending for your faith. But I want you to know something is don't get caught up in the things that are man made that are intellectual a sense are the Greek thought for a lot of things. Or the Jewish traditions don't get caught up in these things that take you away from the fullness of . Don't get caught up in the things that would pull away from what we find in Christ. I remember I think of whenever we did the Ornish program at the hospital which is a very good program and it was a heart disease reversal program which diet exercise relaxation and group support relaxation was yoga and and I don't I don't have a problem of yoga but I know that if you take it to a certain extent it's a religion. So there are parts of it that are good for relaxation and stretching and bending and all that kind of stuff. But then there are parts of it that are part of a religion and the part of religion is as you sit up on the floor. You're in a certain pose or posture. You can receive the energy from Mother Earth flowing through your body to give you strength. Hello. Well then why start take. Well OK with then we started taking it to another step and another step another step and we find ourselves going down the road that we're not supposed to travel because it is it is a delusion. It is the looting the folders that we find in crisis. So there is nothing wrong with meditating thinking on Christ thinking on the Scriptures but to look at 's creation as the source of our strength. We failed. Mother Earth is not the source of our strength even though there may be an energy field in it. Gravity may be part is part of our ours but it is created it to be there to hold things in place. If is created the world in the stars in the whole system to be systems of the universe to be held together by gravity. Something you cannot see but yet we feel the effects of. We don't have to have faith because we understand that we don't have to have faith that if you throw a ball up in the air this going to come down. We know that gravity is that work. While our faith is understanding the fullness of is. I understand that is with me and so therefore in everything I give thanks to because just like gravity it's going to come down. You're throwing up it's going to come down. So in the fullness of I believe that His power is going to flow through my life and it no matter where I am at in any situation is there. And what has for me in my life is more than what I can see. We don't go around thanking gravity for holding us together holding us to the earth every day. It's just there. Well one person said why am I. Why is it that the older I get that my body seems to shrink in size. It's called gravity. And that's true. I'm a well person putting off like this. So so we see the effects of gravity we see how it works but we you know we know how it works but we don't see it. So in our faith the good word planted in someone's life the good word planted in someone's life will grow. It will mature and will multiply it and will make the provision. will cause it to grow. And so as we see here my goal Paul says is that they may be encouraged in heart encouraged encouraged means that we have courage to face the difficulty. The problem that is before us we have courage. Courage doesn't come from not an absence of fear. Courage comes because we believe there is something there that there we believe that there is hope in what we're doing and is the author of Hope. So we have courage to do our job and to do it to live our life and to do what is best in the sight of because we believe we know that has promised an answer. has promised the harvest. has promised possibilities. has given us a vision of that which isn't here yet. Just like gravity we don't go around worshipping gravity but we worship the who made all this place and made it to come together. And is making our life come together. So my goal is to and my goal then is that you may have the encouraged in heart and that you might be united in love. You know one of the greatest fears of life is the fear of being hurt. Emotionally and and so a lot of them can be very guarded because we don't want to get hurt. But the love that has for us doesn't have strings attached when we fail. doesn't pull back his love and withdraw it from us. We just shut the door for it getting to us. It doesn't stop it from getting it. It doesn't stop from loving us and continuing to put our life before us so that we can finally hopefully make the right choice to get ourselves back in line. And what do you know has been there all the time. So love doesn't have strings attached. Therefore 's love for us doesn't this is not removed because we fail. We have failed but we are not failures. We have sins but we're not centers were say and doesn't mean that we are perfect it means that we know of the one who is perfect and that he has a will and a purpose for our life and he is working all these things into a place into a position and we are following this will following this plan knowing that it's leading me somewhere and that thirty five years ago we came here knowing that had brought us here for a plan and how that all of these things have been led to deal not only with this church but with the community with our with our region with our denomination. And I mean all of that has come from this place and taking you know David to El Salvador and the thousands of people there and all that has gone on from right here. And that's just my life our five children. What about your god has been a work in you guys been doing this in effect. Work in each of you to change you to change your life to give us a vision and idea goals of where we're going and is at work and is going to take us to the end. He's not going to leave this incomplete. He is going to furnish that which he has started. is going to finish the work he's already started. Now that doesn't mean we're going to finish this afternoon. And whenever we're dead we're finished. If you're a dead you ain't then it's OK Say Yes Amen. Now it means you're not dead. I'm not dead a man I'm not dead I'm still alive all those who are still alive say amen. That's good thank you very much want to make sure that we find this perspective of what is doing and then he says so that you may have the full riches of complete understanding you may have the full riches of complete understanding. Now what were the Colossians doing. They were watering down their understanding of Jesus they were taking the teachings of Christ put a little Greek thought in their mythology. Take a little Jewish tradition and mix it with Christianity and there we got a we got a good religion. No Paula saying you've got to be aware of those who would water down belittle degrade the fullness and one of the ways that you're going to recognize the fullness of Christ is that you may have the full riches of complete understanding the full richness of complete understanding. Well I don't all think or you don't. you only want to knows all things. The full riches of complete understanding is I understand enough to be thankful to for where I am at. I understand enough that life is not out of control. The government is not out of control and the world is not out of control. is in control of all things and these people may make decisions in rebellion against but they are only going to fulfill his plan no matter how rebellious they may be. is going to work his plan through through this world. If is going to use evil people to bring about the full the fulfillment of His plan how much more so is he going to use the righteous that is going to use to be to the fullness of our understanding. That I understand enough to be thankful. I understand enough that is in charge and that he loves me. I understand enough that I can believe that can do the impossible in my life and in the life of the people around me. I understand enough that is capable of moving mountains. I understand enough to know the god king can do the impossible because he said it so I understand that and with that understanding then I begin to pray. I began to approach the difficulties I begin to tell people. It is that obeying the commandments. It's coming to Jesus. It isn't how bad your life is it's how great Jesus is. Jesus come to Jesus and everything is going to change come to Jesus in your life will be different. I understand completely that loves me and he loves my family loves my kids he loves my neighbor he loves them. Person that's running the furthest away from him. He loves the worst of sinners. He loves them all. He loves them all. They've run away from his love but that doesn't change his love for them. And if loves those people that are running from him so much we need to recognize how much he loves us who are his children who have come to him to receive the promises to receive the blessing to receive the goodness of to receive the overwhelming riches of His glory the fullness of the fullness of is I believe all things are possible. I believe that even though people may say it can never happen to you yet that bright you know. I remember I remember at the school with and the first time he he said to me how did you get into college. I'd like to give him my book because you know it doesn't matter what people say or think it matters what 's purpose or will is for our life and can take us where we never dreamed because what he wants in our life is so far above what we can ever ask riffing. So if that is the perspective that I am to have then I can do what has placed before me. I can live this life knowing that has blessed me and I can be thankful for everything that comes into my life even if I don't feel good. Even if things get all messed up and get turned around and upside down it doesn't matter is in charge and your turn right side up. If it's not today it will be tomorrow because I believe in the fullness of the law riches in the fullness of the knowledge that I have in Jesus Christ nothing will. We're separate me from him. Nothing can come between us. Nothing is impossible I am his child and the recipient of his blessing I am the recipient of his power. I am blessed because is in my life and he is in my heart and in my thoughts. He's in my actions I am blessed. Well what if you sin you're forgiven I am blessed I am for going. I am driving a sale but I am not a failure. I may be a saint and I may do something wrong but I'm still screwed. I am to be forgiven and keep going in the direction. There's one more quit the words of our mouth are the rudder of our ship the desires of our hearts. Art's feel when I write that down. Your words are your broader your belief is your motor and your desires your fuel and then your words. That's a thank you. Your words are your right or you will follow your the word you your life will follow your words your desire will fuel and what the other one of your beliefs is what makes it all come together and work. So I believe that all things are possible. I believe that has made a difference in our lives. I believe that is a work in our lives in our community. Don't be confused by what you say what you see. Be led by his word and all. While yourself to speak the goodness of Amen that's that you receive that today in a minute. So Father THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for your blessing upon our lives and for the goodness that we find in you that our hopes and our dreams are fulfilled in Christ and in you there is fullness of joy as your right hand there are pleasures forever more. And we are your child to celebrate with you the victory that is ours. Through Christ Jesus. Amen amen. bless you. That's good. Well this morning I'm looking at the le of fullness and in it's in collages chapter two. But as we think of fullness. Sometimes we hear me I always allocate that with food. So when I eat too much I'm overly full and having to learn how to only eat enough so that leaves so that we don't gain too much weight. And perhaps that we would with that somehow we would lose some but fullness here in especially in verse. I believe it's verse nine where you find it here in my notes that for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And when Paul is writing We're going to kind of look at this verse by verse for a little while and Paul is writing this to come against the doctrines or the problems that were coming to the early church. And they were combining religious they were combining religions they were putting the Christian faith in with parts of Judaism and parts of the Greek thought. And you know parts of other things and putting them together they somehow come up with a religion that was the watered down approach to Christianity and the watered down approach is that Jesus Christ there is no other way. He is the fullness of the head in Christ is the fullness the completeness of what wants to say and what wanted to reveal to us through Christ and through His Word. So it's interesting I received the book this week from a particular denominate Well I guess it's a denomination from the particular church that would. It's not on the fringes of Christianity. And they were they gave a book about what makes them so unique and so different and how everyone else who doesn't believe in this particular truth is wrong. And I heard a il ration in this this past week that really got me to think perhaps a little differently. And in Australia you know they have these farms and the farms are comprised of thousands and thousands of acres. So some people put fences around their farms to keep their cattle and their livestock in. But other farmers drill and have water the watering hole is in the center part of their land so the watering hole keeps all of the animals close within the range of their farm land their land that they own. And and I think of Christianity and how all of the churches have built their senses that protect our religion and our doctrines about Jesus Christ and we look at the world and the world looks at Christianity and what they see they see our fences they see how we argue and fight and how that this is right and this is wrong and we need to have boundaries. always had boundaries. It's why we have the Ten Commandments. He gave the boundaries but and he gave the laws not to fence people in but to draw them close to And so our senses our need to be tore down and they need to be light houses and light posts that speak of the truth of 's word. And as we see those truths of 's Word we find ourselves following those truths to Jesus because he. As the water of life. Jesus is the water of life he is the fullness of and in the fullness of in Christ we dwell there we dwell in we live in that place of fullness we live in this place of completeness in Christ. You know we often find ourselves thinking that we're lacking. You know like today I am sick. Now I'm not sick I am a well person fighting off my sickness that is me excuse me while I cough about my sickness. But that isn't my sickness I'm a well person you know I am a healed person fighting off a disease or fighting off a problem I have and I am a wise person and searching for more wisdom to deal with my situation. I am 's blessing to the community and to the people around this. Searching for ways to touch people's lives. If you see you're the same way in your own family. I am 's blessing I am 's revelation to my FIL family to my neighbors. I am 's best out there for and what we're doing. We're being ourselves we're being this person that created and we can heard the story of a young man who in school was told that he was just an average student or a below average student and that he would never amount to much. And so when he graduated he was a C. or below student and he believed that and so he got a job in a factory and he lived he worked there at one of the lowest positions possible because he didn't believe that he was able to be any different because someone had told him something and he believed that well that factory closed and he moved to another factory. And whenever he went to apply that factory at that place they did an I.Q. test on all of their employees. They come to find out that he was not. At an average person. He was a genius in fact his I.Q. was greater than anyone else I've ever been in. Applied for a job in this factory so he began then to realize that his thoughts and his ways of thinking were not because he was below or know he was abnormal but that he was above it and he was greater than you know he had abilities that he had never used because he heard someone tell him he was incomplete while he went on then to be a developer and had his own business and has a number of patents and things for the work field that he is in and it's all because it was proven to him that he was not what somebody told him. And you see in the fullness of Christ in the fullness of Christ it isn't that we are lacking. It's that is giving. It isn't that we have failed. You know we're not a failure but we have failed. We are not a sinner but we have sinned we are Christian we are believer we are we have been saved by the grace in the mercy of we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. We have been bought by the blood of Christ. We are very special in his eyes and he is his will and purpose for our life. And so as we see ourselves as uniquely special is we see ourselves as uniquely part of the plan of You know I think back of the events of life the events of what we've gone through and how that honor them in has been a part of the whole plan has been a part of all the plans and all the things that ever happen in our lives. Now I may not have seen it. I may have been rebellious and not gone along with the plan because I had better plans. But is that we look back over and you know I've referred refered to this. This is a miracle. This this book because I've been told all my life you can't write worth a darn. You can speak but you can't write. And all my life I would never write because teachers have red pens and all my papers that I've ever written were really marked up with red ink because I never knew sentence structure I knew it but I it just didn't flow together but I had some good ideas and that's why I guess I became a preacher. Got that. So I pray for the good ideas. I've always prayed for wisdom. You know this is my selfish. There's a revelation. I always pray for wisdom because I figured if I was why I could make a lot of money. OK Now Solomon was the wisest man he had the greatest wealth in the world and I soon learned that that doesn't work that way that it works in the idea that our wisdom is not about getting and our wisdom is about giving. You see whenever we help enough people get where they need to go we will find ourselves being where we need to be. That's the John Maxwell quote. When we help enough people get where they need to be we will find ourselves arriving at the place that we're supposed to be and see whenever we look at the fullness that we have in Christ. We're seeing how that Christ is Britain is the positing that fullness inside of us that completeness. Now it's like where we have felt of course we fail all have sinned and come short of the glory of but we're not a failure. So I have to I have to understand the difference that I am not a sinner I'm a saint. I have sinned but I have been forgiven and Christ has forgiven me because he has a plan and a purpose for my life not only here but in eternity. So where I am as we look at it and say in every in this scripture here it. And one of the verses it talks about being overwhelmingly thankful. Which verses it talks about for thankfulness just in Jesus. Just so then just as you receive Christ Jesus Lord continue to live your lives in him rooted and build up in him strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overwhelming with thanks thankfulness overwhelming with thankfulness. You know we talked about fullness and then overwhelming with thankfulness. Is this approach that everything in my life. I am giving thanks to for because that may not be the end of it. This is but the beginning of it that we see it is perhaps not very good but being thankful about our life in our position and about this thing and that thing we are finding that we are giving thanks to who is in control and we are asking him to make good all things work together for good that is that work in my life for the good of my life and all the things I see as failures or faults are not really that at all because I am being thankful to for his ability to take care of me and my provisions and the things that I need in my life. So whenever we see ourselves as finding fault finding failure finding things difficult. That doesn't mean that somehow we've ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. We are here by appointment. We are here by. Why divine a point to be who we are at this place in our lives for a purpose of serving and it says here Paul says I I want you to know who how hard I am contending for you and for those in Laodicea Paul are saying this is a real struggle. It is a real struggle in the spiritual realm and I am contending for your faith. But I want you to know something is don't get caught up in the things that are man made that are intellectual a sense are the Greek thought for a lot of things. Or the Jewish traditions don't get caught up in these things that take you away from the fullness of . Don't get caught up in the things that would pull away from what we find in Christ. I remember I think of whenever we did the Ornish program at the hospital which is a very good program and it was a heart disease reversal program which diet exercise relaxation and group support relaxation was yoga and and I don't I don't have a problem of yoga but I know that if you take it to a certain extent it's a religion. So there are parts of it that are good for relaxation and stretching and bending and all that kind of stuff. But then there are parts of it that are part of a religion and the part of religion is as you sit up on the floor. You're in a certain pose or posture. You can receive the energy from Mother Earth flowing through your body to give you strength. Hello. Well then why start take. Well OK with then we started taking it to another step and another step another step and we find ourselves going down the road that we're not supposed to travel because it is it is a delusion. It is the looting the folders that we find in crisis. So there is nothing wrong with meditating thinking on Christ thinking on the Scriptures but to look at 's creation as the source of our strength. We failed. Mother Earth is not the source of our strength even though there may be an energy field in it. Gravity may be part is part of our ours but it is created it to be there to hold things in place. If is created the world in the stars in the whole system to be systems of the universe to be held together by gravity. Something you cannot see but yet we feel the effects of. We don't have to have faith because we understand that we don't have to have faith that if you throw a ball up in the air this going to come down. We know that gravity is that work. While our faith is understanding the fullness of is. I understand that is with me and so therefore in everything I give thanks to because just like gravity it's going to come down. You're throwing up it's going to come down. So in the fullness of I believe that His power is going to flow through my life and it no matter where I am at in any situation is there. And what has for me in my life is more than what I can see. We don't go around thanking gravity for holding us together holding us to the earth every day. It's just there. Well one person said why am I. Why is it that the older I get that my body seems to shrink in size. It's called gravity. And that's true. I'm a well person putting off like this. So so we see the effects of gravity we see how it works but we you know we know how it works but we don't see it. So in our faith the good word planted in someone's life the good word planted in someone's life will grow. It will mature and will multiply it and will make the provision. will cause it to grow. And so as we see here my goal Paul says is that they may be encouraged in heart encouraged encouraged means that we have courage to face the difficulty. The problem that is before us we have courage. Courage doesn't come from not an absence of fear. Courage comes because we believe there is something there that there we believe that there is hope in what we're doing and is the author of Hope. So we have courage to do our job and to do it to live our life and to do what is best in the sight of because we believe we know that has promised an answer. has promised the harvest. has promised possibilities. has given us a vision of that which isn't here yet. Just like gravity we don't go around worshipping gravity but we worship the who made all this place and made it to come together. And is making our life come together. So my goal is to and my goal then is that you may have the encouraged in heart and that you might be united in love. You know one of the greatest fears of life is the fear of being hurt. Emotionally and and so a lot of them can be very guarded because we don't want to get hurt. But the love that has for us doesn't have strings attached when we fail. doesn't pull back his love and withdraw it from us. We just shut the door for it getting to us. It doesn't stop it from getting it. It doesn't stop from loving us and continuing to put our life before us so that we can finally hopefully make the right choice to get ourselves back in line. And what do you know has been there all the time. So love doesn't have strings attached. Therefore 's love for us doesn't this is not removed because we fail. We have failed but we are not failures. We have sins but we're not centers were say and doesn't mean that we are perfect it means that we know of the one who is perfect and that he has a will and a purpose for our life and he is working all these things into a place into a position and we are following this will following this plan knowing that it's leading me somewhere and that thirty five years ago we came here knowing that had brought us here for a plan and how that all of these things have been led to deal not only with this church but with the community with our with our region with our denomination. And I mean all of that has come from this place and taking you know David to El Salvador and the thousands of people there and all that has gone on from right here. And that's just my life our five children. What about your god has been a work in you guys been doing this in effect. Work in each of you to change you to change your life to give us a vision and idea goals of where we're going and is at work and is going to take us to the end. He's not going to leave this incomplete. He is going to furnish that which he has started. is going to finish the work he's already started. Now that doesn't mean we're going to finish this afternoon. And whenever we're dead we're finished. If you're a dead you ain't then it's OK Say Yes Amen. Now it means you're not dead. I'm not dead a man I'm not dead I'm still alive all those who are still alive say amen. That's good thank you very much want to make sure that we find this perspective of what is doing and then he says so that you may have the full riches of complete understanding you may have the full riches of complete understanding. Now what were the Colossians doing. They were watering down their understanding of Jesus they were taking the teachings of Christ put a little Greek thought in their mythology. Take a little Jewish tradition and mix it with Christianity and there we got a we got a good religion. No Paula saying you've got to be aware of those who would water down belittle degrade the fullness and one of the ways that you're going to recognize the fullness of Christ is that you may have the full riches of complete understanding the full richness of complete understanding. Well I don't all think or you don't. you only want to knows all things. The full riches of complete understanding is I understand enough to be thankful to for where I am at. I understand enough that life is not out of control. The government is not out of control and the world is not out of control. is in control of all things and these people may make decisions in rebellion against but they are only going to fulfill his plan no matter how rebellious they may be. is going to work his plan through through this world. If is going to use evil people to bring about the full the fulfillment of His plan how much more so is he going to use the righteous that is going to use to be to the fullness of our understanding. That I understand enough to be thankful. I understand enough that is in charge and that he loves me. I understand enough that I can believe that can do the impossible in my life and in the life of the people around me. I understand enough that is capable of moving mountains. I understand enough to know the god king can do the impossible because he said it so I understand that and with that understanding then I begin to pray. I began to approach the difficulties I begin to tell people. It is that obeying the commandments. It's coming to Jesus. It isn't how bad your life is it's how great Jesus is. Jesus come to Jesus and everything is going to change come to Jesus in your life will be different. I understand completely that loves me and he loves my family loves my kids he loves my neighbor he loves them. Person that's running the furthest away from him. He loves the worst of sinners. He loves them all. He loves them all. They've run away from his love but that doesn't change his love for them. And if loves those people that are running from him so much we need to recognize how much he loves us who are his children who have come to him to receive the promises to receive the blessing to receive the goodness of to receive the overwhelming riches of His glory the fullness of the fullness of is I believe all things are possible. I believe that even though people may say it can never happen to you yet that bright you know. I remember I remember at the school with and the first time he he said to me how did you get into college. I'd like to give him my book because you know it doesn't matter what people say or think it matters what 's purpose or will is for our life and can take us where we never dreamed because what he wants in our life is so far above what we can ever ask riffing. So if that is the perspective that I am to have then I can do what has placed before me. I can live this life knowing that has blessed me and I can be thankful for everything that comes into my life even if I don't feel good. Even if things get all messed up and get turned around and upside down it doesn't matter is in charge and your turn right side up. If it's not today it will be tomorrow because I believe in the fullness of the law riches in the fullness of the knowledge that I have in Jesus Christ nothing will. We're separate me from him. Nothing can come between us. Nothing is impossible I am his child and the recipient of his blessing I am the recipient of his power. I am blessed because is in my life and he is in my heart and in my thoughts. He's in my actions I am blessed. Well what if you sin you're forgiven I am blessed I am for going. I am driving a sale but I am not a failure. I may be a saint and I may do something wrong but I'm still screwed. I am to be forgiven and keep going in the direction. There's one more quit the words of our mouth are the rudder of our ship the desires of our hearts. Art's feel when I write that down. Your words are your broader your belief is your motor and your desires your fuel and then your words. That's a thank you. Your words are your right or you will follow your the word you your life will follow your words your desire will fuel and what the other one of your beliefs is what makes it all come together and work. So I believe that all things are possible. I believe that has made a difference in our lives. I believe that is a work in our lives in our community. Don't be confused by what you say what you see. Be led by his word and all. While yourself to speak the goodness of Amen that's that you receive that today in a minute. So Father THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for your blessing upon our lives and for the goodness that we find in you that our hopes and our dreams are fulfilled in Christ and in you there is fullness of joy as your right hand there are pleasures forever more. And we are your child to celebrate with you the victory that is ours. Through Christ Jesus. Amen amen. bless you.