SPEAKER_00: A warm welcome to you.
SPEAKER_00: My name's Duncan.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the leaders here at City Church.
SPEAKER_00: It's great to be with you this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: But before we come to this passage, let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: Loving Father, I thank you for your truth.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for who you are, and I thank you that you love and you desire to speak to your children.
SPEAKER_00: I pray as we come to your word, by your spirit, would you help us?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to see you with fresh eyes?
SPEAKER_00: Would you encourage our hearts?
SPEAKER_00: I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ here today who are clinging to you and yet struggling.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for them as they want and desire to know you, to love you, and yet feel distant from you.
SPEAKER_00: Would you draw close?
SPEAKER_00: Would you encourage them through your word today?
SPEAKER_00: Would they know your assurance in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And would we all grow in love for one another and love for you, for your name and your glory?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Is Christ enough for you?
SPEAKER_00: Seems like a basic, simple question.
SPEAKER_00: Is Christ enough for you?
SPEAKER_00: I know if you're here today, if you are a Christian, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you know how you should respond.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the right answer is.
SPEAKER_00: You know you should say, yes, of course, Jesus Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the reality of our lives is the reality that we go through seasons of questioning.
SPEAKER_00: Seasons wondering, is Christ actually enough?
SPEAKER_00: For some of us right now in this room, we may be struggling to see that Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: You're here today, and you know that's how you should think, how you should feel, but it's not.
SPEAKER_00: That's not your reality.
SPEAKER_00: You want it to be, but it's not your experience.
SPEAKER_00: You want to say yes, but your life at this moment, it's hard to see that that is actually true.
SPEAKER_00: My longing is as we come to this passage, this letter, is for us to see, to know, to feel that Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's for all of us here.
SPEAKER_00: Because even though if you're not in that place, you might not be struggling, you might know with assurance Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: There are going to be times, there are going to be seasons, moments where you will struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Moments where you will question.
SPEAKER_00: And as we come, my prayer is that God would just work in this moment, in this time, that we would not be people leaving here this afternoon just saying Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: But actually, we would leave with a fresh assurance that Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is Paul's longing for the believers in Colossae.
SPEAKER_00: He longs for this church to know that Christ is enough, that they do not need anything else.
SPEAKER_00: Christ will not disappoint them.
SPEAKER_00: He will not fail them.
SPEAKER_00: As the culture around them screams different truths, different gospels, Paul is reminding them not to believe the lies.
SPEAKER_00: Don't look to them, don't believe the lies around you.
SPEAKER_00: Though people are wanting you to pull away from the faith, don't.
SPEAKER_00: Though the devil himself would love to see you run from Jesus, hear these words from God.
SPEAKER_00: Know his love, his care for you.
SPEAKER_00: From the start of this letter, we see the desire Paul has for these believers.
SPEAKER_00: As we've been walking through this letter.
SPEAKER_00: And here in our passage in verse 1, we see that.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you.
SPEAKER_00: It is very clear that Paul has an affection for these believers.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the reality of Paul's situation is that it would have been easy for him to just look inward.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been easy for him to just be concerned with what he is going through.
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul isn't just writing this, relaxing on some beach.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just chilling, being like, be encouraged, Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: No, Paul is writing from prison.
SPEAKER_00: He is in prison, suffering for the gospel he is proclaiming.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been easy for him to think about himself, to be consumed by his own concerns, his own thoughts, his own struggle.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He can't but write to these believers.
SPEAKER_00: He longs to write to them because of his love for them, to be encouraged, because they are rooted in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul crying out through these words of this letter, Colossians, know my heart for you.
SPEAKER_00: Know how I long for your good.
SPEAKER_00: Be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: As we gaze into this letter, it's not hard for us in our time here in Dublin to consider how this speaks to us.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we face loads of pressures around us to conform to the culture around us, to believe what the culture says is true to be true.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not decreasing but increasing.
SPEAKER_00: More and more.
SPEAKER_00: Pressure to conform to what the world believes to be true.
SPEAKER_00: Pressure to think and believe that the Bible and our relationship to God is actually worthless.
SPEAKER_00: No Christian is alone in this.
SPEAKER_00: We all will face this.
SPEAKER_00: We all will have these pressures as people seek to tear us down, as we seek to be the people God has called us to be.
SPEAKER_00: So how are you feeling?
SPEAKER_00: How are you feeling about your faith today?
SPEAKER_00: How are you feeling about your Savior Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: I know in this room there's going to be a mixture of feelings.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us might be rejoicing in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Woo, Jesus! He's great.
SPEAKER_00: Other of us will be struggling.
SPEAKER_00: Struggling to believe that he is who he says he is.
SPEAKER_00: Struggling to know that.
SPEAKER_00: To cling to that.
SPEAKER_00: For all of us, we need to see with fresh eyes the reality of his goodness and glory toward us, knowing he is enough.
SPEAKER_00: Hear the words of God toward you today.
SPEAKER_00: Let the Spirit illuminate you to what is real, what is true, what you so desperately need, what I so desperately need.
SPEAKER_00: As we walk through this passage, there are three questions I want us to consider.
SPEAKER_00: How can we know Christ is enough?
SPEAKER_00: Why is this important?
SPEAKER_00: And finally, what now?
SPEAKER_00: And they should be on the screen just to keep you orientated.
SPEAKER_00: So how can we know Christ is enough?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse one with me.
SPEAKER_00: For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love to reach all the riches of the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: The Colossian Church are struggling under the weight of these cultural beliefs around them.
SPEAKER_00: False teachers wanting to take them away from the very foundation of their faith.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul is doing here is building a case for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Christ being enough.
SPEAKER_00: That is what he's doing in these opening verses of this letter.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's been doing up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a teenager, I went with my family to the Alps on holiday.
SPEAKER_00: It was great.
SPEAKER_00: It was a great privilege to go there.
SPEAKER_00: And it is one of those places in the world that I just think is just so breathtaking.
SPEAKER_00: It is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: As you just look out, it is one breathtaking view.
SPEAKER_00: And we were on this chalet, in this chalet, not on it, we didn't get on the roof.
SPEAKER_00: We were in this chalet, and we would wake up, I would wake up in the morning, I would go to the window, open the curtains, and just see this beautiful view.
SPEAKER_00: This glorious view.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the view I saw, even though it was beautiful, even though it was glorious, was only a fraction of this mountain range.
SPEAKER_00: It was only a glimpse into how beautiful and glorious this mountain range is.
SPEAKER_00: And here, as we see this letter unfold, what Paul has been doing is he wants us to be captured.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to see.
SPEAKER_00: He is drawing back the curtain on who Christ is and what Christ has done.
SPEAKER_00: That is what he's been doing.
SPEAKER_00: Exposing the beauty and the grandeur of Christ, calling the Colossians, lying for them, brothers and sisters, come and look.
SPEAKER_00: Come and see who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Come and see the object of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: How glorious, how beautiful he is.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, it is just like me, stood at that window.
SPEAKER_00: As I see it to be beautiful, as I see it to be glorious.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, what is so amazing, what is so wonderful is there is no end to the beauty and glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You will never get there, you will never arrive there.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen it all, I've captured it all.
SPEAKER_00: That is the glory of this.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is wanting to build their confidence in the object of their worship.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is crying out to them.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that he is enough?
SPEAKER_00: As we come to this passage, his desire is to realize that they can rely on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is also exposing the means.
SPEAKER_00: One means in which Christians are able to grow in our assurance of who Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: He is saying there is no depth to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But here's a way in which you can plumb the depths of his beauty, of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: So how does he do this?
SPEAKER_00: How are the Colossians able to plumb those depths?
SPEAKER_00: How are we able to plumb those depths?
SPEAKER_00: Look at the passage.
SPEAKER_00: It is through being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In this letter, Paul reveals the reality of our union to Christ, that if you are a Christian, if you are trusting in Christ, you are united to Him in what He has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just united to Christ, you are united to those who are His people.
SPEAKER_00: The union that has brought us into unity with other believers, other Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And I hear you thinking, come on, but other Christians are kind of annoying.
SPEAKER_00: They're not the best at times.
SPEAKER_00: Do I really want to be united to them?
SPEAKER_00: Duncan, I get the whole loving Jesus thing, but really, other believers, do I really have to love them?
SPEAKER_00: Or is that just me?
SPEAKER_00: You guys are, oh, I love everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Great, good for you.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what God has done, though.
SPEAKER_00: What God has done in the work of salvation, He calls us into a new people, a new humanity in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He has called us to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is in that unity.
SPEAKER_00: It is in that the church will grow toward full assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Paul longs them to grasp this, be knit together in love.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is not just something of a nice idea.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't some sort of hippie community that's just about love.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: This is the very means by which God has designed his people to grow in confidence in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Confidence in who he is and what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: United it to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If we neglect this, if you neglect this, you will struggle to grow and develop in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I know here in 2020, this idea, this sort of life is hard to imagine.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to understand.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a culture that is so individualistic.
SPEAKER_00: A culture that calls us constantly to consider self rather than the other.
SPEAKER_00: A culture where self-awareness and self-indulgence are lifted up as this is the way to live.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you gain life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: Don't believe the lies.
SPEAKER_00: As you look through this book, God's Word, what we find is God isn't just saving individuals.
SPEAKER_00: He is saving a people, a people of faith, as we are joined in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout Old Testament, New Testament, the object of their faith is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As the Old Testament believers looked forward, they look towards Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, the promised one.
SPEAKER_00: And this side of the cross, we look back and we are joined together in Him.
SPEAKER_00: He is the object of our faith, whether old or new.
SPEAKER_00: It has never been about individual salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be clear, that's not saying that your salvation doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: It's great, it's wonderful, it's glorious.
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm saying, it is through your salvation, you are being brought into something more beautiful, more glorious than yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That is what is happening.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I want all of your hearts to be encouraged through being knit together in love.
SPEAKER_00: Because reaching assurance is not an individual pursuit.
SPEAKER_00: There are ways we can grow in our lives as believers.
SPEAKER_00: We can read the word, we can pray individually.
SPEAKER_00: And that is wonderful, and you need to and you should do that.
SPEAKER_00: But he's saying the church is here to serve you, to grow you, to help you see more of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The way in which God has chosen to use his church is for the building up of one another and the glorification of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The true church are people saved by grace through faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: People who are growing together.
SPEAKER_00: People who love like this.
SPEAKER_00: The language of Paul is purposeful.
SPEAKER_00: If you are not knit together with other believers, you will struggle.
SPEAKER_00: You'll miss out.
SPEAKER_00: If you think you can make it on your own, you will end up lost.
SPEAKER_00: Because the purpose of being united to Christ brings us into the unity with one another.
SPEAKER_00: And he uses that unity.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how we are doing.
SPEAKER_00: How are we as city church doing?
SPEAKER_00: How knitted together in love do you feel?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is of utter importance for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is the means by which we grow, a means by which we grow in our assurance of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is the means by which we grow in our understanding of the knowledge and the wisdom that Christ has, the riches of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is what we long for, that is what you long for, that is what I long for.
SPEAKER_00: Your soul cries out for it.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes against fully and completely the lies of the culture that throw at us.
SPEAKER_00: Be you, love yourself, find your own truth within.
SPEAKER_00: Those are utter lies.
SPEAKER_00: They are empty words.
SPEAKER_00: Because we have not been created for isolation, we've been created for community.
SPEAKER_00: The very fabric of who we are proclaims that.
SPEAKER_00: So, brother, sister in Christ, the call to love is an outward call.
SPEAKER_00: It is a fight for us in our time not to just give in to the world and what the world lays before us as truth.
SPEAKER_00: Not to just give in to the lies that we face within.
SPEAKER_00: Because my heart and your heart is ultimately selfish.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy for me to love myself.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy for me to seek what I want.
SPEAKER_00: That's my natural sinful desire.
SPEAKER_00: Making my life about me.
SPEAKER_00: It's very simple.
SPEAKER_00: And you might go, Duncan, you're terrible.
SPEAKER_00: But I can say that pretty confidently because I know that's true of you as well.
SPEAKER_00: That is us all.
SPEAKER_00: We naturally love self.
SPEAKER_00: And what's so ironic about that is that actually what we're hoping for, the life that we hope that will give us, when we pursue what we think will make us happy, when we go after what we think we need, thinking, I need me time, I need what I need, that won't give you life.
SPEAKER_00: It brings death.
SPEAKER_00: We are called out of ourselves to love him, to love others.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus asked by the teacher, when he was on the earth, what is the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_00: He says this, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest and first commandment, and the second is like it.
SPEAKER_00: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on to say the whole law is summed up in these two.
SPEAKER_00: And as Paul encourages the believer, he calls them to be to knit together in love, because this is where the great gain is to be had for the believer.
SPEAKER_00: When we grasp this, when we give in to this sort of life.
SPEAKER_00: But let's be real.
SPEAKER_00: It can suck.
SPEAKER_00: It can.
SPEAKER_00: It can be difficult, it can be painful, it can be tedious to live like this.
SPEAKER_00: Relationships take time, they take investment, honesty, openness, exposing yourself toward others.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just simple.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're willing, if you're longing to gain more of an assurance of all that Christ has done and is doing, if you long to be reminded of the joy of your salvation, cling closely to your brothers and sisters in Christ, who are united to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Because the reward is so great.
SPEAKER_00: In my life, I long for more relationships like this.
SPEAKER_00: I long for these sort of relationships united in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not shallow on the surface relationships, but deep and meaningful.
SPEAKER_00: There are a number of men in my life who I have walked with for a number of years.
SPEAKER_00: And those relationships have affected me.
SPEAKER_00: I have an affection for those brothers in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that is precious.
SPEAKER_00: They have encouraged me, they have challenged me, they have loved me.
SPEAKER_00: And I know my faith is built up because of those relationships.
SPEAKER_00: They are good for my soul.
SPEAKER_00: It has been a kindness of God toward me to have such godly men around me.
SPEAKER_00: I value them so deeply because how God uses them in my life to grow my affections for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But it requires willingness to continue to press in, to continue to have a common desire for the other person.
SPEAKER_00: All of us long for this.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters around us, this is what will bring you joy.
SPEAKER_00: Joy to your soul, joy to your being.
SPEAKER_00: Because of our union in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: People who love you, who know you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking on the surface level, no.
SPEAKER_00: Because I know what it's like.
SPEAKER_00: We come to church and it's like, how's your weeping?
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: When inside you're thinking, terrible.
SPEAKER_00: It sucked.
SPEAKER_00: I've had so many issues this week.
SPEAKER_00: And you feel like you have to put that mask on.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what we want to create here.
SPEAKER_00: We are all broken.
SPEAKER_00: We are all in need of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: People who love you, who see you and know the real you.
SPEAKER_00: These are life-giving relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Today, how are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Because I long for us to be more like this.
SPEAKER_00: I long for us to grow more in this way.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not even about me.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's call for us to be knit together in love.
SPEAKER_00: Community groups, Sunday lunches, meet up during the week, opening up our homes to one another, cooking meals for someone who has a baby.
SPEAKER_00: These are all things that we do at City that are not just stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We do them to try and help cultivate this sort of community.
SPEAKER_00: Using these things of ways in which we become knitted together in love.
SPEAKER_00: Being with one another.
SPEAKER_00: You've not been called to attend a church.
SPEAKER_00: You've been called to be a part of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Those are two different things.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't for me to just lay before you as a leader of this church, because actually, this is for your good.
SPEAKER_00: This is for my good.
SPEAKER_00: God has designed us and given us each other to help us grow toward Him.
SPEAKER_00: We will all miss out when we just see church as something we attend rather than be a part of.
SPEAKER_00: Let's long to reach all the riches of full assurance, of understanding, and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Brother or sister, if you're struggling, if you're so struggling, you're in the pit where you're like, is Christ enough?
SPEAKER_00: Reach out, seek help and encouragement from those around you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek to have brothers and sisters in Christ speak words of comfort and truth to you.
SPEAKER_00: My longing is our relationships will be captured by our unity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We will be a community where the person who is suffering, the person who is grieving is not alone.
SPEAKER_00: That there is a brother or sister in Christ beside them weeping with them because they feel their grief, because they know them, they love them, they are for them.
SPEAKER_00: The person rejoicing is not just rejoicing alone, but they have brothers and sisters around them rejoicing in their joy because they feel their joy.
SPEAKER_00: That is not just say we are a family, but rather display it in the way in which we live as a family united in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer is that God would do this work among us, struck by the love we have in Him.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be wonderful if people came here?
SPEAKER_00: If people came into this community of faith and they went away and they were just utterly struck.
SPEAKER_00: Those people, that church just loved each other in a unique way.
SPEAKER_00: I was struck how they cared, how they loved one another.
SPEAKER_00: That is what we want to be.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: Cling to him, but cling to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Because the danger is clear.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says why this is important.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
SPEAKER_00: This culture that we've been thinking about of the false teaching growing around them, and here as we sit here, we will experience this reality.
SPEAKER_00: People saying our faith isn't true.
SPEAKER_00: And as challenges come, as people bring other beliefs, Paul doesn't want them to give in.
SPEAKER_00: Paul longs for the Colossians, when arguments come, that they will be utterly confident.
SPEAKER_00: As Christ is the object of their faith, as we know and grow in our assurance together, it is in that place, in that community of faith, that no matter what plausible argument, and that's important, this isn't a crazy argument.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't wack-a-doodle arguments.
SPEAKER_00: These are plausible arguments.
SPEAKER_00: But when they come, there is such a complete assurance in Christ that they do not even make us question.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are so secure in Christ, nothing can touch that.
SPEAKER_00: Because the danger of isolation is clear.
SPEAKER_00: I have seen people, good friends of mine, walk away from their faith.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the first signs was them beginning to distance themselves away from the body.
SPEAKER_00: Slowly but surely, giving over to isolation, finding community elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00: If you increase in your isolation from brothers and sisters in Christ, you increase being persuaded by the lies around you.
SPEAKER_00: You increase the likelihood of forgetting the truth in which at one time you may be passionately defended and rejoiced in.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a game, it's so dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: It's about our eternal destiny.
SPEAKER_00: When people in subtle ways begin not to allow other believers in, when you don't go to those around you to find help, because the voices around you will just grow louder and louder.
SPEAKER_00: Because the voices do not stop.
SPEAKER_00: It's naive to believe that there is not a war going on, a spiritual war for your soul.
SPEAKER_00: And though there is confidence in the victory Christ has won, we need to cling to what he has given us.
SPEAKER_00: The people of God continue to know his goodness toward us.
SPEAKER_00: Walking away from the church, his people is incredibly dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't hear this, if you don't heed the warning, you're opening yourself up to delusion, to believing the lies of the world.
SPEAKER_00: The confidence of the Christian is found in community of faith that orientates itself around the person of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Every healthy church orientates like this.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that is the design God has for his people.
SPEAKER_00: Building assurance in who he is and what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: So what now?
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine the Colossians hearing this.
SPEAKER_00: They've seen this picture of who Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's been painting it for them, and he said, Look, this is how you do it, through being united together.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we need to do, Paul?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard for us to feel the weight of Paul here and what he's revealing.
SPEAKER_00: Because as I said, he has been building this picture of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Christ as God's image, God's wisdom, God's mystery.
SPEAKER_00: And as he has been exposing the glimpse into the glory of who Christ is, he now roots it.
SPEAKER_00: He roots it in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Because since chapter 1, verse 5, he has not actually mentioned Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: He's been building this picture of Christ, who Christ is, what he's done, how he has completed what we need.
SPEAKER_00: Now he brings them back.
SPEAKER_00: This Christ, the one who is all this, this is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This man, God come in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Do you grasp that he is not lacking?
SPEAKER_00: He is all you need.
SPEAKER_00: There is no good thing that he with will withhold from you.
SPEAKER_00: When you first received his gospel, do you remember that time?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember when you went from darkness to light, from death to life?
SPEAKER_00: Remember that.
SPEAKER_00: The passion you had, the security you knew.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Continue in that.
SPEAKER_00: He is enough.
SPEAKER_00: He will continue to be enough.
SPEAKER_00: Walk in him.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a life lived out of your own strength.
SPEAKER_00: It is a life only possible if your dependence is upon Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is your very life now.
SPEAKER_00: There is no life without him.
SPEAKER_00: The moment we neglect Christ Jesus in our lives is the moment we forget who he is.
SPEAKER_00: To believe the lie that are going to make it through, that we think we will do it on our own, to strive to work at our own salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That is not how this works.
SPEAKER_00: The life of the believer is a life of complete and utter dependence.
SPEAKER_00: Moment by moment, living out of our true identity in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do you grasp how secure that position is, though?
SPEAKER_00: The one who is the image of God, the one who all creation came into being through, the one who is the head of the church, the one who has conquered all spiritual forces of evil, who rules over every single thing in his creation.
SPEAKER_00: And as you and I come here today, if you're a Christian, he reigns in you.
SPEAKER_00: That is how secure you are.
SPEAKER_00: It is that we will never get there on our own.
SPEAKER_00: Your confidence is in who he is and what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: And it continues to be.
SPEAKER_00: There is not a day that will go by as a Christian that you will not need to depend upon him.
SPEAKER_00: From the moment you put your faith into him, faith in him, to the moment you die or Christ returns.
SPEAKER_00: As the Spirit testifies with your spirit that he is enough.
SPEAKER_00: It is in that place you will know what it is to be rooted and built up.
SPEAKER_00: In your identity in him, that he helps you, he grows you by the Spirit's work, knowing and feeling the reality of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: In this, we are immovable, completely secure because of our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Clinging to Him, clinging to His people, growing more and more into who He longs us to be.
SPEAKER_00: How else would we respond other than thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_00: If you truly get all that He's done for you, that it's not about you, it's about Him.
SPEAKER_00: Your dependence on Him.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to try and strive and work for it.
SPEAKER_00: He has done it for you.
SPEAKER_00: All we can do is give thanks.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is completely and fully for you in your faith in Him.
SPEAKER_00: Even when you struggle to feel that, because your emotions will deceive you.
SPEAKER_00: You will have moments where you do not believe that to be true.
SPEAKER_00: As the lies of the world rage, what you and I need to do is come back to our identity in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is where my security is.
SPEAKER_00: Where else do I need to go?
SPEAKER_00: What else do I need to do?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: When my very being is able to declare that Christ is enough.
SPEAKER_00: So, brother and sister in Christ, be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: Not by me, but by God, who has worked for us through his son by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You may feel faint-hearted, but there is sweetness here for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows.
SPEAKER_00: In that pit of despair, he sees you, he knows you, and he has you.
SPEAKER_00: As you cling to him, keep walking slowly but surely.
SPEAKER_00: He has always been and will always be enough for you.
SPEAKER_00: Even when you don't feel that.
SPEAKER_00: All of us will go through seasons of dullness.
SPEAKER_00: Seasons of struggle in our affections towards him.
SPEAKER_00: And I get it, I've been there, I felt that.
SPEAKER_00: I felt the deadness within my own life.
SPEAKER_00: But do not doubt his faithfulness, his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is only by grace I stand where I stand.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get here because I've worked hard.
SPEAKER_00: I get here because God has been so kind to me in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Showing me grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_00: You sit where you sit because God has been so kind towards you.
SPEAKER_00: Showing grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_00: And as we conclude, I want you to hear these promises.
SPEAKER_00: Brother, sister in Christ, hear this promise toward you.
SPEAKER_00: I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.