======================================================================== PURSUING FULLNESS IN CHRIST by Alan Martin ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of fully knowing and experiencing Jesus Christ personally, rather than just engaging in religious practices or traditions. The goal is for every believer to be filled with the Holy Spirit, rooted in Christ, and to live a life that reflects the character and fullness of Jesus. The focus is on being equipped to live a godly, righteous, and holy life in every aspect, demonstrating the power of God through our actions and responses. Topics: "Personal Relationship with Christ", "Living a Spirit-Filled Life" Scripture References: Colossians 2:9, Ephesians 5:18, John 15:11, Acts 6:3, Isaiah 54:13, Proverbs 3:5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of fully knowing and experiencing Jesus Christ personally, rather than just engaging in religious practices or traditions. The goal is for every believer to be filled with the Holy Spirit, rooted in Christ, and to live a life that reflects the character and fullness of Jesus. The focus is on being equipped to live a godly, righteous, and holy life in every aspect, demonstrating the power of God through our actions and responses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ You know it's a strange thing that being a Christian you can actually miss Jesus Christ. You can miss him entirely and actually place your faith in things that are not Jesus the person. And I want to just try to make sure that that does not happen to any of us. That's what Paul is concerned about here. See to it that no one takes you captive through what appears to be wisdom or basic good principle. Becoming involved in things that may even seem right and important and needy, but at the same time causing us to drift away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if we miss the person of Christ, we have missed the gospel. And we can get we can get Jesus Christ confused with church and Bible and being around God's people. And we want to make sure that we are experiencing Jesus Christ. And actually that is my main responsibility as pastor. Here in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 13 where Paul explains the reason that the Lord has given apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors teachers. Paul said or Paul wrote, so Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, and the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to equip his people for for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity of the faith and our own personal comprehensive knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. That means as a pastor, my goal should be equipping you to attain to the measure of all the fullness of Jesus Christ. And it can't be my purpose to just make sure you're here or make sure you have a Bible or make sure you give your tithe. Those are good things. I have failed if I am not helping you experience all the fullness of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it's only as we fully know him that we receive the power that God has invested in him to live a godly life. We see this in 2nd Peter chapter 1 I think it's verses 3 to 5. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him. So God has given everything we need for life and godliness but that comes to us through fully knowing the Lord Jesus Christ personally. And we must understand being in church, having a Bible, being moral, voting conservative is not the same as knowing the Lord Jesus Christ fully. That's what we want to focus on. What does it mean to come to the fullness of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and as a believer being fully equipped. Equipped so that you have every spiritual grace available to you to do every part of your life well pleasing to God in your relationship as a husband and wife, in your relationship as a parent, as a grandparent, in your relationship with your employer or your employees if you happen to be the owner of the company. So that in every responsibility you have and in every place you are you are fully equipped to be pleasing to God to do what's right and to stand out like a star in the universe with the beautiful grace of God. That's what we are to be equipped to do and that was Paul's concern. This idea of fullness coming to the full knowledge of Lord Jesus Christ. There's a group of words in the New Testament that are used to express this fullness or translated fullness but the family of words they're all related to this idea. Each one is seeking to emphasize the term of maximum. To maximize. You and I should be seeking the maximum experience of the power of God available to us in Jesus Christ. Power to control our mind. Power to guide our words. Power to affect our actions. Living under the guidance and direction of God in such a way that we are so different than who we used to be that the Bible describes it as we are new creations. The old things have passed away and all things have become new because we are fully equipped by God's power in Christ to live a new godly, holy, righteous life. It affects our speech, our thoughts, our actions, our responses, every single area of our life. That's the fullness the Bible is speaking about. The word, this word fullness or fulfilled was often used in the New Testament in this way. In order that the scriptures might be fulfilled or come to pass. In other words, in order that God's purpose might become completely realized, this event would happen. One of the scriptures, one of the places that this is used is Luke chapter 4 verse 21. When Jesus is one of his first recorded sermons, he's speaking in a synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth and he says that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's anointed me to preach the good news to the poor, to open the eyes of the blind, to unstop the ears of the deaf, to set at liberty those who are bound, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he says, after that he says, today this scripture is fulfilled. In other words, it has come to pass. It's happening right now in its fullness before your very eyes. And this fullness is something we need to understand, especially in regards to God's righteousness found in the law. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 17, the great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, do not think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but in order to fulfill them. Until heaven and earth pass away, not the least stroke of a pen or dot of an eye is going to pass away until all things come to be, or all things come to pass. So the purpose of Christ is to fulfill the righteousness in the law. Paul understood that in Romans chapter 8, the very first part of the chapter. It says, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was to the flesh, God did in sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering from sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that, here's the purpose for all of that, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. All the righteousness of the law, loving our neighbor, being just, being kind, being merciful, doing what's right, speaking what's right, acting what's right, all of that might be fulfilled through walking in the Holy Spirit, and receiving all the power for life and godliness that God made available through our knowing Jesus Christ personally. So I'm going to go to some scriptures that Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Colossians, Colossians chapter 1 verses 28-29. Paul said, Jesus is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Jesus Christ. So that was Paul's goal for all the churches he established, that everyone in his churches would be fully mature in Jesus. Now that's different than sitting in a pew, paying your tithe, being moral, voting conservative, doing what you think is right. Fully mature in Jesus means acting like Jesus, speaking like Jesus, thinking like Jesus, doing right as Jesus did, blessing those who curse you, doing good to those who hate you, praying for those who despitefully use you, being perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. That's what it means to be fully mature in Jesus Christ. And Paul said, this is the end that I constantly work towards, struggling with all the energy that Christ so powerfully is working in me. And this is, Paul always had this as his goal. And it's interesting, you don't see in the places where he stated his goal, he's not just trying to get people into heaven. I don't know how that happened. That's not my goal for you. My goal is for here and now to live in Christ, to be fully equipped and fully living in all the power that is available to us in Jesus Christ. Because if we're experiencing that, we'll make it to heaven. There won't be any question. But there are those who are looking to go to heaven and they're not living in the fullness of Christ now. And I think you're on thin ice. Because there are going to be people who stand before him and he says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you and it took them by surprise. They fully thought that they knew him. They fully thought they were going to be in heaven. But those are people who never knew his fullness and his power in this life. And if we know him in the way that he desires for us to know him now, that we can be assured. That is what produced confidence that we'll receive a rich welcome on that day when we enter into heaven. But here's you can see what's on Paul's heart in the way he prayed. Let me read you a couple of his prayers. One from Colossians, one from Philippians. The first one is Colossians chapter 9 verses, chapter 1 verses 9 and 11. Paul prays, for this reason, since the day we heard about you we have not stopped praying for you and we continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that this Holy Spirit gives. So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way. Remember what the idea of worthy, in case you weren't here. The idea of worthy is from the balancing scales. On the one side, God is holy, God is righteous, Jesus is Lord and if you believe in him you obey him. What's equal to that? What's worthy of that? What's worthy of that is your speech, your life, your conduct, your actions all reflect his holiness, his righteousness, his grace and power. If your life is not reflecting his righteousness and holiness, you're not living a life worthy. There's an imbalance there and that's, this, Paul is praying that these Colossian believers be filled with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that they can, they can live a life that's worthy and may please God in everything. Every relationship, every response to the things that you face in your life, God be pleased in everything. And he goes on, so that you'll be bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God and being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. This is what Paul prayed for the believers that he, he helped found the church. Actually these, in Colossians, he had never met personally. He had heard about them and was writing a letter letting him know that even though he had not met them, this is what he was praying for them. Philippians, a church he did found, Paul was praying this in Philippians chapter 1 verse 11, and this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and all depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. The word there is the same word, fullness. Your life would be full of the fruit of righteousness. What do you think the fruit of righteousness is? The fruit of righteousness are the things that other people around us can see in us. A beautiful attitude. They can see meekness. They can see lowliness. They can see self-control. They can see the fruit of kindness. They can see the fruit of patience. They can see the fruit of gentleness. And Paul's praying that these believers be filled with this beautiful spiritual fruit. So that, so that God is honored by the lives of his people. And it, and what, when that's how we're living, when the fruit of righteousness is being displayed in our life, we're pure and blameless. Not just pure and blameless before God. Pure and blameless before men. You can live in such a way in Jesus Christ that your wife can't blame you for anything. You're a good husband. You speak well. You think well. You're considerate. You're led by the Spirit. You're a good father. You're a good employer. You're a good wife. This is the goal. Filled with the fruit of actually knowing Jesus in a powerful way. So that the others around you are continually blessed by what they see. That's what Paul's praying for. Pure and blameless, not just in the eyes of God, but also in the eyes of men. And he also prayed this for the, for the, the church in, in Ephesus that he also founded. This is found in chapter 3 of his letter to that church. He says, for this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. And I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. Because see Paul knew that the believers on themselves didn't have it in themselves to be able to live this way. I've got that. You don't need to tell me that you don't have this within yourself to live this way. That's why we need to pray for one another that you be filled with God's power. So that God's power can enable you to live this way daily, consistently, regularly, as an evidence to the people in the world that God is real. Because I guarantee you what? They don't think that God's real just because you show up here on Sunday morning. They don't think God's real just because you carry a Bible. They don't think that God is real just because you claim that you believe in God. They want to see. Most, most of the people the world out there live in Missouri, the show-me state. They you show me. I want to see it. Don't just tell me what you believe. Show me. Because actions, say it? They speak louder than words. And unless our actions are demonstration of the power of God, we're not proving the existence of God by our lives. If our actions are contradicting what we claim to believe, the world considers us to be hypocrites. And that's a fair criticism. If you've ever put that bumper sticker on your car, let me encourage you to take it off. The one that says Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. I'm acknowledging that we're not finished yet. But there's more to our life in Christ than just being forgiven. There better be more of a difference between us and the world than just we're forgiven and they're not. That's not the gospel. We will talk about that. Sometimes people mistake the gospel to be God forgives. No, no. Jesus is the gospel. And part of our relationship with Him is God's forgiveness. But that's only part. There's far more to the good news of Jesus Christ than just God's forgiveness. Far more. He goes on, Paul says this, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And I believe that means for others when we grasp how much God loves people. And we know this love that surpasses knowledge. Here's what results in that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. Now, I don't know what your personal experience is. Because that may sound to you like pie in the sky. But it wasn't to Paul. Paul believed that there was a level of fullness in Christ. Fullness of spiritual life that was dynamic. Now, the problem in our day and time is that we may not know very many people who live this way. Now, because we do not know very many people who actually experience this fullness, does that mean it's not real? Diamonds are rare. You don't find them all all over the place. You don't find them walking down the street. You have to dig for them most of the time. Are they real? Even though they're rare? Yeah. Things can be very rare and still very real. Jesus himself said this, wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many people enter therein. And narrow is the way and small is the gate that leads to life. And how did he finish it? Few. Only a few find it. So, what if I were to say, take that and apply it right here. A few people in this place can actually find the fullness of God. And some people, some of the rest might be saying, you know what? I don't think it's possible. But the few can and do and will. We can trust that. So, here's a key for this. And this is where I want to direct the rest of this message from the book of Colossians, back to chapter 1 verse 19. Hear what Paul is saying in this. For in Jesus Christ all the fullness dwells. That's what he said in 119. And then he restates it again in Colossians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. He says, for in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form. And in Christ you are being made full. So, one source for all. So, for fullness. And I want your attention. For fullness, it's the person of Jesus Christ. That's where the fullness of God dwells in the person of Jesus Christ. The fullness of God does not dwell in the church. It won't dwell in your Sunday school class. It does not dwell in any religious tradition or denomination. The fullness of God dwells in the person of Jesus Christ. And if you don't find that fullness in Jesus himself, you'll never find it. It's not in any one church. It's not in Catholic. It's not in Baptist. It's not in Methodist. It's not in Presbyterian. It's not in reading the King James Bible. It's not in being able to read the Koine Greek. It's in a person. It's in the person of Jesus Christ. And if you and I do not learn to live fully connected, fully rooted and established in the person of Jesus Christ, we'll never find it. Listen to this language very carefully in Colossians chapter 2. Listen to this language. This is verse 6 and 7. So then, just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord. And that means for those of us who are Christians, at one time we receive Christ Jesus the Lord. But here's the language. Listen carefully. Just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him. Okay? You see here the in him? Rooted up and built up in him. Now I want you to focus on in him. Thinking about the cross is not being rooted in him. As a matter of fact, the Bible never said and Jesus never said, for God's whole of the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in the cross shall have everlasting life. What did it say? What does it actually say? That whosoever believeth in him. There's a lot of people who believe Jesus died on the cross for them, but they're not being rooted and established in him. They're not living in him. They're not drawing the way they think from him. They're not drawing the way they respond from him. They're not letting his life saturate theirs and make them a new creation. So we're talking about something some people don't even understand. They're without the Holy Spirit and it's foolishness to them. Because coming to church and being a member of the church is not the same as knowing Jesus being rooted and established and built up in him. Because it's in him the fullness of the Godhead dwells. And we have to learn how to live in him to experience that fullness. And how do you know you're experiencing that fullness? Well, if the fullness of God comes that Jesus has, that's in Jesus, if that fullness is working in your life, what do you think it's gonna look like? In a simple word? What's it gonna look like? It's gonna look like Jesus. It's gonna make you like Jesus to your wife, it's gonna make you like Jesus to your husband, it's gonna make you like Jesus to everyone you work with. It's gonna make you like Jesus to your neighbors. That's what it's gonna do. This is the fullness, I want to encourage you for us to pursue knowing together. John said this in his Gospel of John, he says, from the fullness of Jesus, we all receive grace for grace. Because Jesus was full of grace. So here's how I see that. I receive the grace of Jesus so that I can share the grace of Jesus with you. I receive the grace of Jesus so that I can share the grace of Jesus with my wife, with my children, with my grandchildren. I seek to receive the fullness of the grace of Jesus so I can receive that grace with my fellow church members. It's from him. It's not from knowing scriptures. It's not from memorizing certain facts in the Bible. It's not from attending Sunday school. Those things can help us come to know Jesus. But the only way to experience what I'm talking about is actually receiving the life of Jesus in your own life. Where his life basically transforms and takes over your own. You live in him, he lives in you. That's what the Bible speaks about. That's what it really means to know Jesus. And this was Paul's concern for every believer. Listen to what he hoped for in his letter to the believers were living in Rome. He said, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I want you to imagine someone being filled with the Holy Spirit and they are literally overflowing with hope. Every time you meet them, regardless of whether it's easy or difficult for them, they're constantly full of hope. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. Do you know anyone who's just always joyful? Rejoicing in the Lord? Always? Not negative? Not down? Not up and down like a roller coaster? Not hot and cold? Paul sought for believers to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The fullness of joy. Isn't that what Jesus said? Didn't Jesus want our own joy to be full? You remember what he said in John 15? These things I have spoken unto you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. God wants more than just for us to have some joy. He wants our joy to be full. And I will say this, on full display, even when it's very difficult. Most all of us can be have joy at the amusement park or on vacation or when the grandkids are there or when things are going well, when your bills are paid. The joy of Jesus is on display in a situation like where Paul, who was it with with Paul and Silas? They were in the jail? They had been beaten. They had been flogged. Their backs were ripped open after a flogging and they were in stocks, meaning they couldn't move around. So they were sitting on this cruddy dirt floor in the lowest part of the prison, unjustly treated for just sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with people. And what were they doing at midnight? They were rejoicing in the Lord, praising God. Joy on full display. And with that, with that display of joy and an earthquake, two events came together. An earthquake came and shook the prison so that it so affected the structure, the doors fell off from the walls and all the prisoners were free. Well, the jailkeeper, the guard that was on duty, he freaked out, of course, called for a light and he was going to kill himself because you lose prisoners and it's your life for them. That was the law in the Roman culture at that time. So Paul calls out, it's totally dark, knowing that what may be about to happen calls out to the jailkeeper saying, don't harm yourself. We're all here. The joy that they had been displaying and now this genuine concern for this man led him to say, brothers, what must I do to be saved? And we have that opportunity when people see us in our difficult situations and they see instead of our murmuring and complaining, instead of our getting down in the mouth and losing it, if they see us rejoicing in God, praising God, counting it all joy, if they see this, that may be the very time, whether they ask us or not, that may be the time that they're asking themselves, how does that person do it? I wonder what's going on in them to enable them to respond in this way. It's just, it's something beautiful. Okay, I think I've said this, I just want to wrap up this part of the message by making sure we understand that we're not, when I'm talking about coming to know Jesus Christ fully, I am talking about coming to know a person and the person can communicate to coming to know Jesus Christ as a friend. Yeah, you're not going to see him with your eyes, but he's there and he can communicate to you and fellowship with you and be with you. Like the old song says, and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known. That type of relationship is different than knowing Bible facts. That type of relationship is not being able to say, well we believe this and we believe this, we believe this and it's not in ritual, it's not in just being religious. You don't find this type of life does not happen through just trying to change yourself through religious practices. It doesn't happen that way. This takes the very life of God, the very person and presence of the Holy Spirit filling you, filling you with the life of Jesus where you get to experience Jesus himself being filled with the Spirit like people in the New Testament. We just named some people in the New Testament who were filled with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist, right, was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born in the mother's womb. His mother Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit, the mother of Jesus. Peter on the day of Pentecost with those disciples, 120 believers gathered in the upper room. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just at one time either. Later on, a couple of weeks later when they were praying for boldness because the Jewish leaders were threatening the early church with severe punishment if they kept preaching in the name of Jesus in the in the synagogues and the temples of Jerusalem. And so the believers gathered together and they prayed for boldness. And it says again, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. So there is something that's different than learning a new verse, isn't it? That's not just saying a prayer or listening to a message. This is experiencing the life of God in a changing, dynamic way, being filled with the Spirit. That's what we're talking about. To where we know the Lord Jesus Christ, to where we are regularly being filled with the Holy Spirit. You remember in the book of Acts, a situation arose, a potential crisis in the early church because so many people had stayed after Pentecost and just not returned home. There were people from all over the Mediterranean living in Jerusalem and worshiping together as the only early church. Some were Jews and some were Grecian. They were from the Mediterranean. And somehow it happened that in the daily distribution, because they were having to share food with one another because a lot of people were not living at home. So they were having to share their food. In that process, some of the some of the women who were from Greece were being overlooked. And so a crisis kind of occurred. And remember how the apostles said to solve it? They said, look for among you and choose seven men who are known to be. Now that's interesting. What are you looking for? But here's what it says. Known to be full of the Holy Spirit. Wow. So it's possible. Now by saying that, let me ask you a question. You think they would have had to say that if everyone was full of the Holy Spirit? That means it's possible that some here are full of the Holy Spirit and others are not. But knowing Jesus fully is a life of being filled with the Holy Spirit. And that's what Paul told the Ephesians. You remember? Most of us can quote it. Ephesians 518, being good Baptists, we can quote this part especially. Be not drunk with wine where is excess. That we got that part down. But how many, but how many of us have the second part down? Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. The literal translation in the Koine Greek was this, be continually being filled with the Holy Spirit. And I'm going to ask you, this is because this is what we're talking about. We're talking about knowing Jesus in such a personal way where his strength, his characteristics, his conduct, his beauty, all the fullness of the Godhead that's in him is suddenly made available to you and I on a moment-by-moment basis. That's what we're talking about. Being filled with the Spirit so that the life of Jesus is actually strengthening us. His strength is being made perfect in our weakness. And so that we begin to speak like him, think like him, act like him, respond like him more and more. That's the goal of all believers. That's my responsibility. And that is so different than listen to what the pastor says or do what your Sunday school teacher says. All of those ministries, the pastor, teachers, your brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all to have the same purpose. That every single one of us fully knows how to live in Jesus ourselves. We have our own dynamic, real, daily, personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what that would make all of us? I don't want to scare you, but you know what it would make all of us? Saints. We would be saints. We would be spiritual, godly, righteous, holy, obedient, beautiful examples of those who know God. That's what we'd be. And that's the goal. And it's we cannot settle for. We believe in Jesus and he forgives us of our sins and we want to go to heaven and not that other place. That's not, that's not the fullness we're talking about. And we're not talking about, okay, we just spend a little bit more time reading our Bible. No, we're not talking about that. It may involve seeking and searching and asking to be filled. It may involve pursuing so that God does this dynamic work. But we're talking about something that God does. That we are filled with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how does this work? Here's what Jesus said, that when the Holy Spirit comes, he is going to take from what is mine and he's going to be make what is mine known to you. That's what he's going to do. So that means the wisdom of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is going to take the wisdom of Jesus and make it known to you whenever you need it. You're unsure about what to do. You're unsure how to respond. You're unsure how to pray. The Holy Spirit will literally take the wisdom of Jesus and show you what it is. You need patience. Maybe someone in your life is kind of, it's difficult right now because they're just, we're having some issue. We need patience with one another. The Holy Spirit will literally take the patience of Jesus and show you how to receive it so that you can be as patient as he is toward that individual. See how that works? Just act whatever you need. Whatever you need, the Holy Spirit will show you that Jesus is full of this grace and he's full of that grace so that you and I can have that available to us moment by moment. This is knowing Jesus. This is living in Jesus and it's interesting. The church, that's to me, this is the whole direction and goal of the church. Is it all of us, every one of us, not just me, not just your Sunday school teacher, every one of us know Jesus this way. We walk with Jesus this way. So that there's, so that being a saint, being godly, being holy, being righteous is normal. That's what normal for us. That's who we are because we know Jesus. That's who we are. Now, some are young and need help growing into them. That's where we started. Remember, Paul said that the reason God gave pastors and prophets and apostles and evangelists is to help every one of us come to this place. So I just wanted to talk about that this morning. My desire for you, our mutual goal and vision as a church should be every single one of us being filled with the Holy Spirit, knowing Jesus personally, so that every area of our life, the Holy Spirit is taking what we need in that moment from Jesus and actually making it known to us. Whether it's caring for your aging husband, whether it's a mother responsible for children, whether it's a grandparent seeking to raise, help raise grandchildren, whether it's a young lady or young man living in a culture that is pretty unstable and toxic right now. It's the goal of the new covenant where the Lord says, all of them will know me. All of them. Every one of them will know me from the least to the greatest. That's to me, that's what I'm called to do, is to help us together, to encourage us to become a family where that's what we seek to do. Every one of us seeks to help every other one of us to fully know Jesus. I want you to just think with me, how sweet would life be if you actually learned to draw from the Lord Jesus every single moment of the day, so that in those times when something suddenly springs up and becomes difficult, who Jesus is and all that he has to share with you is right there. Right there. That to me, that's heaven. That's heaven now. That's life that I desire to experience now, and I desire to help us experience it. And I will tell you this as I close, the more of us, or each of us, I should say, each of us that begins to experience this will be like a billboard proving the existence of God to all the people in our life. Carrying your Bible is not going to prove it. Knowing you drive over here to attend this church service, that's not going to prove it. Telling them that you believe Jesus died on the cross is not going to prove it. There's a whole lot of people that believe that, and that were at the bars last night. But the direct proof is in the evidence that God is so at work in you, filling you with the Holy Spirit, that you are coming to this fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it just, it looks purer, cleaner, more beautiful, more gentle, more kind, wise, progressively, not instantaneously, progressively. But it's something that is just, that's the goal. That's the goal of the church. It's my responsibility as a brother in Christ to seek to help every single one of us. So are we getting this? Okay. We're getting that this is in the person of Jesus Christ. It's not in a tradition. It's not in a church. It's not in learning more facts from the Bible. When you experience Jesus in this way, the truths in the Bible become the way you live. Like for example, if you read the book of Proverbs and you see the wisdom there, that will be how you live. Because the Spirit of God in you is bringing that fullness of the work in you. Okay? ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/N7gsV4BK5iE.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/alan-martin/pursuing-fullness-in-christ/ ========================================================================