January 28th, 2001, SM: Finding and Keeping the Fullness

January 28th, 2001, Sunday Morning

"Finding and Keeping the Fullness"
Finding the Light; staying from darkness
(Visiting Missionary Speaker: Brother Reiner Harper)

OPENING: Colossians 1:1-19, KJV

The message of fullness is found in Jesus Christ

Colossians 1:17: Jesus Christ is a part of everything in this world ... the heartbeat, oil, breath ... the creator of all. Without Christ, there is no peace, joy or happiness because nothing can be sustained without him
Colossians 2:1-2: Paul pleaded earnestly ("what great conflict I have for you...") that all people would know of the full love and understanding of GOD.
James 1:17: In other words, all good things you have come from Jesus Christ. Therefore, we cannot provide for ourselves and thus call it good.
- So then why do we work and try to provide for ourselves outside of Christ? If we are, then what we're working for is not worth having
Colossians 2:5-6: People will acknowledge they believe Christ has the power but they don't walk His way (100% obey his Word--the Bible); We must walk the talk
Mohammed and Buddha never raised self from dead but Jesus did. We have evidence of everyone's dead bones ... except for Jesus'!
Colossians 2:7-9: Even though Jesus is (yes--present tense) a part of GOD, he lowered Himself to take part in our life ... to complete our life ... to save our soul.
- Our president may have somewhat of a religious agenda, but he doesn't have the time to visit/complete us, but JC does only our fullness
1 John 1:1-4: "joy" is an attribute of the Holy Spirit. So with the Holy Spirit in us, we can have that great joy, too.
1 John 1:5-7: If we say we have fellowship with GOD and walk in darkness (i.e. not obey the Bible--His Word), we lie.

To stay in His fullness...

We must walk in His light
- 1 John 1:8: To stay in the light, we must confess our sin--both the saved and the unbeliever.
  - For example, if we walk down a flight of steps with our eyes closed, we walk in darkness. What's the result? We are hindered or slowed down from reaching our destination. Therefore, we must be walking "in the light" to make the most effective, expedient trip.
  - John 14:6: The Word of GOD refers to Christ as "the way, the truth, and the life..."
We must acknowledge we possess and confess our sins (1 John 1:9).
To take GOD's name or Word in vain is to take it lightly.
- We take lightly the Word of GOD when we aren't 100% obedient to the Bible.
- Don't forsake GOD's Word to accomplish a task
Psalm 31:23: For GOD to "preserveth" us means GOD keeps us fresh, fit, to be used in any situation.
- We need to stay full, in the light, and be "meat for Master's use."

Adversary to Fullness

Colossians 2:8: Philosophy and hypotheses (which comes from philosophy).
- In this world, man has created much philosophy to rationalize the Word of GOD.
  - Man will make philosophy to explain what he doesn't understand about the Bible. However, we should simply take the Bible, GOD's Word, at face value. This is known as "faith."
  - Philosophy leads to psychology.
    - Psychology: Man studies man to figure out man (does this not make sense?)
    - Psalm 38:3,7: Why study something unsound that cannot be figured out? Just take the Bible, GOD's Word, as It is written.
- Lamentations 3:37: GOD will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7). Whatever GOD doesn't want to come to pass, He won't allow. Who can challenge that?
- Daniel 4:35: We cannot ask GOD for justification of what He does or why He does it.
- Isaiah 29:13: If we're not careful, we'll drift into the philosophy/psychology of man which is deceit ("taught by the precept of men").
- The best thing you can do for your pastor is to cross-reference his sermon with Bible because Satan will tell you pastor doesn't know what he's saying and thus "sew discord in the church."
- 1 Peter 1:25: When you're in a religious argument, just remember the Word of LORD endureth forever.
Our heart and flesh are adversaries.
- Jeremiah 17:9: At our very best, our heart is filled with deceit.
- Proverbs 18:2: The wicked doesn't care for knowledge but only to satisfy his heart's desires.
- Matthew 26:41: Be vigilant of the overpowering nature of your heart and flesh which defy being in the fullness of Christ.
- John 6:63: In the end, the flesh brings you no lasting treasure.
- Romans 7:18: There is nothing--not one thing--good about our flesh.
- 1 Peter 1:24: Our flesh temporal/destroyed due to elements of this life--like heat on grass
  - 1 Peter 1:25: But here's the good news...
- Romans 8:13: There is no strength in our flesh. GOD hates it and it will die. Hate your flesh and its desires and deprive it of its carnal wants and you shall live.
- 2 Corinthians 7:1: So let's cleanse ourselves and keep ourselves pure from vain deceit of the philosophy (and gossip) of this world.

Example of a "man of fullness"

Faith (Hebrews 11:1).
- Faith is perpetual--it is neverending and self-sustaining.
- Matthew 8:5-13: This is the incident of Jesus and the centurion and the centurion's sick servant. Read this accounting.
  - The centurion's hope was having faith in GOD's ability
  - The evidence that the servant was healed: GOD made it happen (Matthew 8:13).
- Genesis 45: The story of Joseph. (Read this chapter.)
  - Genesis 45:26-28: Joseph's father faith in seeing the wagons, alone, and not his son, was proof enough that his son was yet alive.
- When you get saved, you realize you have all the evidence we need to believe in the invisible.
John 1:1: What does the term "the Living Word" mean? It means every word of your Bible was written by GOD who lives today.
- If the Kings James Version (KJV) Bible is not the Word of GOD, why so much fighting to destroy it?

The self-examination for fullness

To have fullness, you must be saved (have salvation).
- Ephesians 2:8-9: You cannot be saved through doing good things for others. It MUST be through faith.
Psalm 23:1: To have fullness means that you need nothing in this world because GOD sees to it your daily needs are already sustained.
Isaiah 59:1-2 and John 10:9: Our iniquity (sin) places us outside where we need a door to get back into GOD. This door is the LORD Jesus.

Think of all the years GOD's hand wavers above us to reach out toward us and pull us out from being lost... just as Satan fell as lightning from heaven to the ground, don't you think GOD would save you at a similar speed--re-taking our soul from Satan.

Romans 6:23: Did GOD change his mind about the "payment of sin is death" requirement when He said we don't have to suffer death if we accept Jesus? No--GOD still required a death ... His Son.

2 Corinthians 5:21: So GOD let Jesus in our place, taking our sins to the cross. Now we are qualified to be saved by doing Romans 10:9 because of Romans 10:13.

CLOSER

In conclusion, to get the fullness:

You have to be saved
Acknowledge sin before GOD
Believe that faith is the bridge allowing you to connect to the Son and the Father
Believe that GOD has power over life and death (how could we trust Him for eternity if he doesn't?)

So what's the evidence/substance of your salvation? Is it...

Your church membership?
Your baptism?
Words of GOD (which endure forever)?

The fullness itself (your service to GOD). What is the substance of it?

Husband: why do you lead your home? For control or because GOD said to?
Why do anything you do if you can't find it in Word of GOD? That's a loss of fullness!
- 1 Thessalonians 5:24: Put GOD first in your thoughts. If it is will happen, GOD will make it happen

Make sure job doesn't take you from GOD's service.

TESTIMONY: Brother Reiner and the job application

Brother Reiner was job-hunting and found a place where he'd like to work. The problem was it was Sunday night and this business was not accepting applications until Wednesday. So Brother Reiner prayed about it Sunday night and Monday afternoon, since it was on the way, he stopped at that business and requested an application ... just to get ahead of the game when it was time to submit Wednesday. The manager said, "Well, if you're not too busy, I have a couple minutes now to talk about it." And they did talk and the manager said, "Well, I really can't do anything until I talk to the supervisor." Brother Reiner said, "Oh! Don't worry about it! I'm not even supposed to submit this until Wednesday." And the manager said, "Hold on, let me get the supervisor." And before he knew it, Brother Reiner had the job Monday that wasn't supposed to take applications until Wednesday.

TESTIMONY: Brother Reiner is granted job knowledge without experience

Brother Reiner got a job at a ditch-digging operation. Starting at the very bottom as a manual labor worker, he quickly climbed the business ladder in only three months--becoming the head boss with 25 people under his command. Brother Reiner's supervisor said, "Your predecessor had 30 years job experience but you work twice as well as he does and you don't even have half the experience he did. What happened?"
And Brother Reiner said, "James 1:5."

When you shout a happy noise for something that goes your way, imagine the thunderous, joyous shout of GOD over one sinner that gets saved.

SOULWINNING... It's the reason we're here on earth ... it's what Jesus died for.