Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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*Intro*
I like it when things are complete.
One of my pet peeves is when I order something, to find out there are parts missing.
The other day Jenny ordered some books and when the box came, they sent all the books we ordered but one wrong book.
That is frustrating!
The order was not complete.
I like complete meals.
I feel incomplete without a little dessert after a meal.
I am sure with your paychecks you make sure you are always getting the complete amount you are owed.
I get upset at myself when I do not complete a book I started.
I know professors are disappointed when papers or projects are incomplete.
We moved into our new place around March and we have been getting things for our house since then, but there was always something we felt was missing.
We got the baby room done, but then all our pictures still had to be hung up.
Then we needed a kitchen table.
Then we needed a painting for the living room.
Jenny has assured me that our home is now complete.
I liked that feeling.
In fact, one of my favorite lines in film is from /Jerry Maguire / where you guessed it, “I love you…You complete me.”
The theme of chapter 2 of Colossians so far is that Jesus Christ is totally sufficient and we are complete in Him.
Sometimes we may feel so incomplete as a person.
We don’t always have it together.
Relationships fail.
Work load is heavy or not enough work for those of you who are self-employed.
Sin patterns have a hold on us.
Satan seems to play with us like a puppet.
Marriage is straining.
We may be physically exhausted.
Parents are demanding.
Despite our feelings, the Bible says that ultimately we are created for the Lord and to have a relationship with Him.
I can tell you from experience that when I am right with God, I experience His fullness and receive the grace to endure whatever I am facing.
We are complete in Him.
In Colossians 2, Paul says He is sufficient for us to be a true church (Col.
2:1-7) and sufficient for us in light of the deception of the world (Col.
2:8-10).
No need to look anywhere else or follow any other teaching.
We have it all in the person of Jesus Christ.
The world is looking to “live it up!” and the “full life,” but really only believers can experience it, for only believers know who they were made for.
Jesus said, “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come to give you life and life abundantly!”
(John 10:10).
Today we are going to look at the “so what?” of the truth: You are complete in Him from Col. 2:11-15.
Look at Col. 2:10.
My translation says, “You have been filled in him.”
Other translations say, “You are complete in Him.”
How complete are you?
In our text this morning, we have four different aspects of being complete in Christ.
On our own we are incomplete, but in Christ we are complete.
Notice all the references to him.
We are going to look at four ways He has made us complete.
First,
*I.    **Complete Relationship: I am no longer caught in religion** (Col.
2:11).
*
 
In Col. 2:11, Paul brings up circumcision.
When you see circumcision, think, “Old Testament Israel.”
Every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day of his birth (Lev.
12:2-3).
It was the sign that he belonged to God and that he belonged to Israel.
So for the rest of his life, he would know he was different, set apart by God.
Also, it was a picture of the desperate need that man had for the cleansing of his heart.
In Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses told the people of Israel, saying “Circumcise then your heart, and stiffen your neck no more.”
Deuteronomy 30:6: “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.”
The Lord commanded the Israelites of Jeremiah’s time to circumcise themselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of their hearts (Jer.
4:4; cf. 9:26).
God was always concerned with your heart; the internal, not the external.
Paul said in Rom.
2:29: “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.
His praise is not from man but from God.”
Here’s where the people of Israel made the mistake.
They got caught up in the fact that they were circumcised and thought that made them right with God.
They got caught up with religion without a relationship.
They went through the ceremony, had the symbol, but not the reality.
At times they worshipped idols and committed all kinds of wicked behavior, but assured themselves, “but we were circumcised, so we’re good.”
Before they knew it, they were carried off into exile and God in His grace, brought them back again 70 years later.
Perhaps the false teachers said that all the males at Colossae need to be circumcised.
Now after all, they were predominately a Gentile congregation and God couldn’t accept them unless they were circumcised, they might have said.
Paul understands religion.
He was caught in that trap himself.
But Paul here doesn’t really address the issue itself, but flips it by saying, “If you want to talk about circumcision, it was already done when you believed on Christ!”  Look at what he says:
a)    It was a God thing, not man.
He says it was a circumcision “made without hands.”
In other words, it was not something man can get done.
It was totally something God does.
It happened when they became believers.
Religion is a man thing.
Say this prayer 200 times.
Climb these steps over and over.
Travel to this city and kneel 100 times facing west.
God is after our heart.
b)   Only God can cut the power of sin in our lives, which religion can never do.
Notice he says, by “putting off the body of flesh.”
Our flesh is the impulse within us to rebel against God.
Our flesh is what says, “me, myself and I.” It is your flesh that is always pulling you away from God, even after you believe.
But before you are a believer, there is no fight against sin or desire to please God.
When sin says, “jump,” you replied, “how high?”
But when you became a believer, the Holy Spirit lives inside you and cuts that power cord and help you live a life pleasing to God.
We will talk about this more in a second.
But religion can’t set us free from sin.
You can go to church every Sunday of the year or repeat the Lord’s prayer every second of your life, but the power of sin will still reign in your heart.
c)    Only experiencing Christ’s work on the cross will get you the relationship.
The latter part of verse 11 says, “by the circumcision of Christ.”
This does not mean when Christ was circumcised when he was eight days old.
Rather it is a gruesome picture of the cross.
Christ was circumcised that day as his whole body was “cut off” to pay for our sin.
Illus: I understand religion.
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