You Are Complete

You are complete Hebrews 13:20-21

• • I think a lot of people are searching after something to satisfy them. 
  • Its like when I eat something and I keep grabbing something from the pantry until I find that one little morsel that finishes the day. I’ll keep nibbling until I find it. Even if I’m not hungry. 

• Its funny when it comes to your pantry. Its not funny when it comes to your soul. 

• You are complete in Jesus Christ. Everything was accomplished on the Cross. 
• The dissatisfaction you may suffer from is often directly connected to not understanding your completeness in Christ.
• The Christian life starts with what Jesus has done, continues by what Jesus does in us, and ends with Jesus getting the glory.

1. You are complete because Jesus is your foundation

• • 20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
  • The writer of Hebrews is giving a prayer and a benediction to the reader
  • Reminding them of what they have been taught and on whom this truth is built. 
  • The God of peace. The world was in chaos and sin, and God himself has once again inserted himself into the human story to bring his peace to the world. It is God’s nature to bring peace
  • The risen Lord. Christ is risen from the dead. He sits at the right hand of the father and is interceding as our high priest on our behalf. His resurrection is the proof that His sacrifice was accepted and that our justification is secure.
  • The great Shepherd. We are being led by Jesus himself through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not left guideless wandering souls. We are being led by Jesus into His will for our lives.
  • The blood of the everlasting covenant. His covenant is in blood and it is everlasting. He cannot and will not break it. We have been sealed with blood and are in an eternal covenant with him. 

• These truths become the foundation and backbone of a life that is complete in Christ

• 1 Cor 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
• God gives peace. Christ is risen. Christ shepherds us. Christ secured the covenant with His blood.
• So what does that mean for me? I have peace with God. I am forgiven. I am being led. I belong to God. /// What exactly am I still wandering around looking for?
• I think often the sense of incompleteness in people is because they haven’t internalized this
• They wonder about how God will deal with them, if they are forgiven, if Jesus is leading, if they are still in covenant with God. And like me in the pantry– they keep nibbling to find satisfaction
• Your foundation must be the simplicity of the Gospel- I am forgiven and reconciled to God///
• This is a firm foundation that keeps you from wondering if you are missing something
• Sometimes the thing you think you are missing is what you had at the beginning of your salvation. Jesus Himself.
• Col 2:6-7 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
• Spend more time in thanksgiving. Thank God for having his peace in this world. Thank him that you are completely forgiven of all your sin. Thank Jesus that he’s leading. Thank him for his covenant of grace that is everlasting for all eternity. 
• Its like this. You sin. Feel shame. Go around all these theological mountains trying to figure out the why, and the source, and the means, etc. The foundation? I am complete in Christ. 
• 2 Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
• This is the largest theological argument of the book of Hebrews. The old covenant could never bring the worshiper to final perfection. Sacrifice after sacrifice. Priest after priest. Year after year. But Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever. ///
• The new covenant is in Jesus. Its not a ‘I used the wrong spoon’ I’m going to Hell situation
• It’s “7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith,”

1. You are complete because Jesus equips you

• • Who of us at times have been faced with a task that we feel unequipped to complete?
  • we go to YouTube. You watch a bunch of videos, you get some knowledge and move forward
  • And then you go and stand in sprinkler supply area for over an hour and go back 5 times. 
  • But our spiritual life isn’t like that. Your problem is not that you don’t have enough knowledge, its that you don’t have enough surrender. Surrender is the pathway to being equipped. 
  • This is why Heb. can encourage with- “Make you complete in every good work to do His will.” 
  • The end result is his will, and he’s the one doing it, but do to work, you need to be equipped. 
  • Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
  • If we are his workmanship created for Good works, he’ll give us the tools we need
  • And what is the equipment we need? love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
  • The purpose of Hebrews and the Bible was never knowledge for the sake of knowledge

• Its to continually push us back to Christ as our sufficiency for every spiritual task of life

• • And again, we’re faced with these conundrums of our life, where we’re trying to figure out what to do, and how to fix it and how we can equip ourselves for the work- and its found in Christ
  • quoted this verse already, but lets go back to it for sec- Gal 5:22–23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…
  • This is a great road map for relationships- be loving, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and have self control. Not many of you would argue with that. 
  • And in our own strength- we might be able to dutifully and begrudgingly walk it out. 
  • But when we have Christ as our foundation, and we’ve surrendered our will to him, it’s the spirit of God working in us, for his good pleasure, where this fruit manifests that’s not of ourselves
  • I’ve seen it. A man who has no joy. Angry, frustrated, and they don’t change- God changes him
  • Now the tool of love and joy that was needed in his relationship has been deposited by God
  • This is why Jesus said Jn 15:5 …for without Me you can do nothing.
  • And we can’t. I am not properly equipped for patience of myself. But through Christ I am!  
  • God calls you to stuff. Marriage, kids, work, relationships, discipleship, sanctification
  • And you’re there in the midst of it- he gives you the tools necessary to accomplish it
  • Because here’s a truth that we all know intrinsically- people can act, but the only real manifestation of it can only come through the Spirit. I want to love, I don’t want to act it. 
  • So next time you find yourself struggling- remind yourself- he has made me complete. Its in me. 
  • And its not you. Its never been you. Its not your effort and ability, its your awareness///

• First time built a fence, I’d dig a hole and find a stone, I’d dig wider to get it out. Took a long time. Then I once saw a guy using a pry-bar. Next time, I used it. Amazing results. 

• Use your tools or God’s tools. See how much more effective the work is for him!

But here’s the ultimate truth of it- 

1. You are complete because Jesus works in you

• • “Working in you what is well pleasing in His sight.”
  • When you got saved, and you came to Jesus, the Holy Spirit entered you to regenerate you and to equip you. Everything God has given you to live the Christian life is made effective in you through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
  • Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
  • You were sealed with the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and now you are called to walk in the Spirit. Because of that, the power that now indwells within you is not of yourself. 
  • 2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
  • Isn’t this what we want? The Spirit of God living, dwelling, moving and working within us?
  • Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
  • When you live a righteous, moral, obedient Christian life empowered by the Holy Spirit, its for His pleasure and His glory, not primarily for your own benefit. The by-product is that you experience blessings as well. But its him doing it. Not us. 
  • Here’s what you’ve probably experienced- there is often an abiding sense of the spirit of God walking out the will of God within us that is not of ourselves, but the spirit of God moving upon us in our lives
  • Its like this- we agree that there is nothing good in us? At our core we are inherently selfish and if we live in the flesh, our natural desire is for self-preservation and self-promotion?
  • Given the opportunity, apart from the spirit, we will always default to self-benefit.

• And there’s this war in our flesh- where we are going to have to decide what we will yield to

• Will we yield to self or the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit within us?///

• Galatians 5:16-17 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
• Romans 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
• When we walk in the Spirit and refuse to present our members as instruments of sin- instead present ourselves to God, we yield ourselves to the working power of the Spirit in our lives.
• Practically it looks like this- my desire is confrontational anger and self preserving action withing a relationship. I am in the moment and I realize this fleshly truth rising up within my person
• At that moment I don’t give into it. I immediately remind myself of the indwelling spirit within me and yield to it. “Lord, have your way.” “Holy Spirit I yield to you in this moment” “ I am complete in you, I don’t need to fight for myself and defend myself” “have your way Lord”
• God is working something in you. Allow him to do it. Don’t destroy what God is trying to build

1. You are complete when Jesus gets the glory

• “Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
• To give God glory means to live, speak, worship, and act in a way that makes His greatness visible and gives Him the credit He deserves.
• We don’t add glory to God like He was lacking something. He is already glorious. We recognize it, reflect it, declare it, and point others to it.
• Is your heart cry- Philippians 1:20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
• This is the Christian life. Our whole existence all day every day to live for HIS glory not OURS///
• obeying Him because He is worthy thanking Him instead of taking the credit living in a way that reflects His character using your gifts for His purposes letting your good works point people to Him making much of Jesus instead of making much of yourself
• So when a man walks out his completeness in Christ, he becomes less and Jesus becomes more
• Matt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
• This is the Father’s will for your life. That you would bear much fruit to draw men to HIM
• Many people who have declared they want salvation don’t want submission. They want to hold onto their own desires and plans. They want protection but wont change their posture
• A posture of submission to the will of God admits our completeness in HIM and relinquishes our innate desires and submits every last part of our lives to his ultimate glory in our lives. 
• Practically- this means our desires- we desire what he desires because it brings him glory
• This means our plans– our current and future plans are now subject to what is best for him
• This means our resources- what we have is an instrument for HIS glory. He owns it, not us
• This means our Focus- we no longer focus on what meets our needs, its what brings HIM glory.
• Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
• That’s it- I give you my all- my body. This is reasonable based on what God has done for me. I will not be like the world. They live for self, I will not. This is not natural to me, my mind must be renewed by the Spirit of God within me so that I can be used as an instrument of HIS glory. 
• You are complete. You are complete in him. Your foundation is in Him. You have been equipped by him. He is the one doing the work in you, its not of you. You have been made complete for this purpose- that your life would direct others to Him and bring Him glory.