Pastor Jerry Zepnick's sermon, titled 'Complete in Christ,' explores Ephesians 4:11-16, emphasizing the importance of having a firm spiritual foundation rooted in Jesus Christ. He draws an analogy between physical construction and spiritual life, highlighting how improper foundations lead to instability. Pastor Zepnick asserts that believers are made complete only through their relationship with Christ, without needing additional rituals or human philosophies. He critiques false teachings and religious organizations that claim authority over scripture, urging believers to find completeness solely in Christ. The sermon discusses the role of spiritual growth in achieving unity within the church and stresses that Christians are created in God's image, with their ultimate citizenship in heaven. Through scripture references, Pastor Zepnick underscores that believers' identities and spiritual maturity are anchored in their union with Christ, challenging them to live out this completeness in their daily lives.

The text tonight is really based on Ephesians 4, 11-16. And so, as we go through tonight's text, the heading is really foundations of the faith and how important that is as a believer to stand in the faith, to be firmly planted on the foundation. And tonight's sub topic is complete in Christ, that we are complete in Christ. And so I found a whole bunch of Bible verses that tell us and walk us through this reality that we are complete in Christ. And as you know, the last couple of weeks I've been listening and it is imperative that the believer be founded in the word of God.

That this, and I'll never forget what you're saying, this is not the rock. Jesus Christ is the rock. This is the word of God. This is the infallible perfect Word of God that we need to spend a lot of time in to become more like Jesus. And so we can't forget that.

But it's a very dangerous thing to step one way or another. But think of a verse that man might plan his ways, but the Lord drives the path. We look at it in the end and we really don't have, if we're willing to follow what the Lord wants us to do, we really don't have a say. And his path is so much better than mine, so much better. And so that experience up there, we're talking about foundations of faith.

And as we got up to Canada and I was talking to my brother-in-law Joe he has a house that he built in 2019 I went up there and helped him build it he had just gotten foundation and wasn't even backfilled all the way and we went up and built the house And so it turns out he's been having just the grievous time with moisture in his basement and the foundation moving on him. And so as he had multiple experts come in for thousands and thousands of dollars to try to figure out what was wrong with that foundation, the problem was that it was not properly drained in the first place. There's not the proper drain tiles put around the outside, the inside. It wasn't the proper fill put around the basement that would allow the water to pass through. And so in the end, he ended up basically digging like a molt around that pouch and redoing a whole bunch of that and allowing that water to pass out the back and then back filling it with better fill.

And so he had what was an insufficient contractor helper kind of guy to start out with this project. And as it got down to the end, it just didn't go like he wanted it to. And then you fast forward two or three years, he started having plaster cracks in his walls. And so it really made me understand in a braver way the spiritual foundation of the church and how important that is in our personal lives and in our church corporate life. And Josh talked a lot about that last week and I appreciate that.

There are those who are struggling as false churches now. I've seen their foundations were laid on garbage, and they fall apart. They do not glorify God, they do not worship God, not the God of the Bible anyways. And it comes back down to me, it's that it is all about Christ. It is fundamentally, foundationally, it's all about Jesus.

And when we're going through the book of John, I think of 20, 30, 20, these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. And that believing you can have life in his name. It all comes back down to Jesus. And so Christ is is fully God and believers believers share in his, I have this written down that I thought of before, believers share in his spiritual fullness without needing extra rituals or human philosophies. And I can't, Joshua, tell me who it is, but the sum of philosophy is nothing more than a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that's not there.

J. Vernon McGee. Who? J. Vernon McGee.

J. Vernon McGee. Yeah. And so, this is, this is the sum of the religions that we see out there. They're based somewhat, like Joshua was saying last week, somewhat on human philosophy and human understanding, and that pulls it together.

But the reality is that we're complete in Christ. We don't need to add these things, these rituals, these human philosophies. We have multiple churches, and it doesn't just mean the Church of God Restoration or the Catholic Church. There's churches all across Green Bay that are Christian professing churches or are solid Christian churches that have ritual mixed in with them. And so it's not always bad to have something within the congregational worship that is a regular thing.

I don't know what classifies it as a ritual or not, but Ephesians 2, 4 through 7 says, But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace yet and safety, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness for us in Christ Jesus." See this is a work of God to the wretched sinner. While we were dead in trespasses, he raised us up. We didn't raise us up, He raised us up. And it's his kindness toward us, his kindness for us in Christ Jesus. See, Christians are made complete only through their relationship and through their union with Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah. There is no other completeness that we have. We can't have completeness in our way, in our will, in our rituals. We will never have completeness in there. And so we lack nothing for salvation or spiritual life because all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ.

And if we have Him, we have that And we need nothing else. And so being complete in Christ, I think about Psalm 139, 13-16. It reads, For you formed my inward parts, You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from you. When I was made in secret and skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And your book, they all, and in your book they were all written that day's fashion for me, when as yet there were none of them." This is just the coolest scripture how it tells of God's love for us and God's design and plan for us before we were even formed, before we were anything. He knew us and He had that planned for us. He, it says, you covered me in my mother's womb.

This is a work of God. This is not something that we have done. This is not something that we had a part in our salvation. It's not something that we have a part in. And so these churches that I am I'm unusually close to and that is the COGR, Church of God Resurrection, and the Roman Catholic Church.

I have family in them yet, and I study them. The COGR, I don't think I have family anymore because it's crumbling apart by God's grace. And so they believe, though I've heard this from both sides, that it is the work of God through their religious organizations, through their people, their apostles, their popes, their bishops, that they are appointed by God, they are vicars of God, to usher the masses into heaven. And so this is their personal belief. You won't find anything like this in the Word of God, but this is what they believe.

And anytime that a person tells you that you need to follow them or their dispense or their doctrine, their words, their sayings, It's just turn around and run. It is a horrible thing. But they believe that they are, the COGR believe that they are the apostles appointed by God that have authority over scripture that have the ability to condemn man or to usher them into heaven. And so this is something that's not a myth. It's a very real thing.

And also in our country, we have what is something huge, new going on in New York City that rolls out the red carpet for the Muslims. And when you look at the back end of that, That is not how God designed that. You cannot be complete in Islam. You cannot be complete in their beliefs, in their doctrines, in the way that they are. You can never be complete.

Women and children are not considered anything but livestock to them, possessions. And so it's something that you won't find what completeness in Christ is until you go into the Word of God and you submit your heart and your soul and your life completely to Him. That is the only way that you will find completeness in Christ. And so, The first point I think I have here is who I am in Christ. And it's not a worldly philosophy, but a biblical one.

Like we were saying, Genesis 1.27, it reads, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. See, to know what our purpose in life is to know that we are complete in Christ, we have to realize, I think, basically number one, that he made us. He made us.

And if we can be complete in anything else, it would be a craziness, it would be ludicrous that we would be complete in something other than our own Creator. So God created man in his own image. This is the highest compliment to humanity ever. How can we ever deserve? How can we ever earn?

How can we ever appreciate fully the reality that we are created in the image of God? That is, to me, something that we have not ever earned. That is the greatest gift, the greatest favor aside from God giving us His son. And so, Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, which is kind of the core of where I'm kind of sitting here, it says, and he himself gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every kind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and lived together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." This is Christ's work in us.

This is Christ's work in the body, in the church. He didn't make any dead parts. Everything is active and put together in perfection. It is for our good, for our growth. It says that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine.

Why? Why is that? It's because God gave us His word. It's because He gave us each other. If Andrew tells me next week, hey, I heard about this really really really cool church where they could they can help me grow eight inches and lose 28 pounds.

I'd be like, Andrew, God made you perfect just like John. Turn around and run. But unfortunately, there is that going on. There is a plethora of that going on, these false promises. And so we need to know the Word of God and to grow in Christ as a body and He will make us complete in Him in that way.

The second Corinthians, I actually had a commentary on that, says, immaturity, believers who never become involved in aggressive service for Christ, never emerge from being spiritual children. They're undeveloped through lack of exercise. It was to such that the writer to the Hebrews said, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again. And it talks about these gifts that were given here, and it says, then as the gifts equip the saints and as the saints engage in active service, they grow up in all things into Christ. Christ is the aim and object of their growth and the sphere of growth is in all things.

In every area of their lives, they become more like Him. As the head has its way with the church, His body will give an ever more accurate representation of Him to the world. See, as we grow in Him as a church, or representation to the world around us, as a Christian testimony, as children of His, and being complete in him, it goes out. And people see that right away. If we're sitting back in here and we're yacking at each other and bickering back and forth, then we can't quite get along.

What attraction is that to the outside world? That's not at all. So, 2 Corinthians 5, 17 reads, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new and that's that's us that that is the believer a new creation we're a new creation in Christ not a new creation in something else.

We're a new creation in Christ. We're His work. And when He does that work to us, we live for Him. Because we can't help it. We have the Holy Spirit living in us.

And we want to. The things that we used to love, we hate. And the things that used to drive us nuts, now we love it. We can't get enough of church. We can't get enough of reading God's word.

We love being in service to the Lord. And that's not how we were. At least I'll say that for myself. Colossians 2, 9, and 10. And this is this another key verse for this, but it reads, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

And you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. And it made me think right away of how complete we are in him there was a back to this here but there's a man by the name of Aaron Robards Wolfe was born in 1858. No, in 1858 he wrote this hymn and this hymn is called Complete Envy And that song is based on this text right here, Colossians 2, 9, and 10. And that song, like I was saying, I'll study and as the reality that comes to me, the theme of what is being studied, Hymns, old hymns come to me sometimes and so this one is it's called Complete in Thee and it reads like this because I'm not going to sing it for you. Would you like to come and see this for me?

Go ahead, David. Okay. It reads, Complete in thee no work of mine, May take, dear Lord, the place of thine, That blood hath parted, bought for me, and I am now complete in thee. Ye justified, O blessed thought, and sanctified, salvation brought. Thy blood hath pardoned, bought for me, and glorified, I too shall be.

Complete in thee no more shall sin that grace have conquered rain within thy voice shall bid the temper fleet and I shall stand complete in thee complete in thee each want to supply and no good thing to me denied. Since thou my portion, Lord, will be, I ask no more complete in thee. Dear Savior, when before thy bar all tribes and tongues assembled are, among thy chosen will I be. At thy right hand complete in thee. Ye justified, O blessed God, and sanctified, salvation brought, Thy blood hath parted, bought for me and glorified I too shall be the rich just thick meanings be behind these old hymns they just they really hit hard is is really something that I think we've lost over the decades, over the centuries.

We have lost our being sold out for Christ in a different way because our culture, I believe, pulls us in a direction that makes it hard for us to even identify what is biblical Christianity and being sold out for Christ. Galatians 2.20, one of my favorite verses of all time. It reads, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

That is how complete we are in him. It's his work. It's not ours. We have died. He has done something with us.

And so this is something that stands above and beyond what any religion can offer. Philippians 4.13, I think everybody knows this one, and it seems to be a favorite of a lot of people that I think misunderstand it, but it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. There is a reality to that. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And we need to realize or recognize that it is in Christ alone that we have our strength.

It is not in our strength that we're doing something that glorifies God, it is in His strength, it is His work, And so it's not what we can do with our efforts. All the work and all the soup kitchens and all the world doesn't send anybody to heaven. We're not going to go to work and become successful millionaires with huge pensions and retirement plans and then work with the church and be back to the church. We're not going to saddle up next to God and help him do his work. No, he doesn't need our money.

He doesn't need anything. He needs, He wants your heart. That's what he wants. If there's anything else, he would have said so in his word. He's looking for broken men and women to live for him.

In John 15 and 16 it says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. Do you notice the context there? Whatever you ask the father in my name, he will give you but first, it says, go bear fruit. It says, I chose you and I'm pointing to you. They should go bear fruit.

That's why we're created. Bearing fruit unto the glory of God, not unto our bank account, not unto our habitable dwelling, not unto our personal happiness, but unto the glory of God. There is not another way. And so this is what He will give you if you ask it in His name. He will give you fruit.

He will give you whatever you ask that you're doing in your life that brings glory to God. And so we need to be careful what we what we ask for. We need to in our prayers, we need to, number one, ask if what are we praying about? Am I praying for something that brings glory to God? Am I thanking God today for the persecution in my life?

That draws me closer to Him. And one thing to keep in mind too, our goal, we think of everything on earth and how we need to feather our nest here, right? It's so important to have our comforts and our vacations or fun times. Nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with recreation.

It is biblical. Jesus went up to the mountain. He went fishing. He didn't have to. He just told him to put the net off the other side.

I'll watch here. And, but there is this Philippians 3.20 which says, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eerily wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven. You might be an American, you might be a member of this church, You might be a member of a city council of multiple different organizations, but your citizenship is first and foremost in heaven. Your citizenship is not here.

And so the life that we live that Christ is created us for is His glory in heaven. It's not for us. We are complete in Him because he created us for himself. Now our ultimate citizenship and our ultimate destination is heaven. And that's it for the glory of God.

And so 1 Corinthians 3.23 reads, and you are Christ, and Christ is God. You are Christ. I don't know how much more plainly it could be than that reality that you are Christ. We are not our own. No part of us is our own.

Nothing that we own, nothing that we have, nothing that we do is our own. It's all God's. It's on loan to us. See, we make X amount of money and some people say, well, I'll tithe 20% and some people say, well, I'll tithe 10%. It's in the Old Testament command And so people are kind of around that ballpark on it.

But in the end, it's all his anyhow. You can tie it 20% or 10%, but that 90% that's sitting in your wallet yet, that's not yours. That still is. That still is. You're accountable for every penny of it.

And one day you will be. And so we need to be understanding rightly that we are complete in Christ, that we're not complete in ourselves or any identity that we have here. Our identity is in Christ. So Colossians 3.20 says, "'For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. Your spiritual identity and your wholeness are anchored all in Jesus.

It all comes right down to being in Jesus who reigns over all powers and we have no reason to be defeated lies. We are complete in Christ. What does that look like? I've known and I know I've said this before but I've known Christians that do nothing but complain. They do nothing but whine and cry about their goings on, what's happening in their lives.

Oh, woe is me. It's like the yoke, you know, anybody wants to win the pool. It's a good day if it really is. And a rain cloud follows them around. And that is no way for a Christian to be.

We are complete in Christ. This is a joyous thing. There is no way that we should be walking around defeated as Christians. We walk around in the joy of the Lord. God has saved us.

God has conquered the devil in us. He has saved us from hell. He has created us something that is for his glory, we are his now. And if we're his, what kind of a representation of his are we if we walk around just unhappy, just whining, just complaining all the time, or talking bad about other people? It's not how we're created.

It's not what we were saved for. We're saved for a right representation of Christ. There needs to be that joy in your life as a Christian. If you don't have the joy of the word in your life, you need to go back a little bit and revisit your relationship with Jesus Christ and say, am I, why don't I have that joy? I'm supposed to have that.

And I think sometimes we look past that. And that's not saying you can never get mad. I mean, I was on one of the work days for yesterday, and you got that buffer zone between you and the guy in front of you. It's just about a good distance, just not quite okay. There's not much space and this person in this lane just right there.

They're this close to your bumper. That doesn't make me happy. I don't yell or nothing, but I just like, come on, really? That is just disappointing. But you know what?

They're going through something too. Somebody taught that miserable person how to drive, I guess, and did a bad job at it. But it's how we react to things. It's how we walk through life with the joy of the Lord. You know, how we interact with other people, do we show the love and the grace that that God has shown to us as we walk through life?

Philippians 4 19, and my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. See, God provides everything that is required for us, for life and for godliness, through our connection to Christ. This is God's gift to us. James 4.1. It reads, but let patience have his perfect word, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Patience? I need some of that. See trials, they help to shape and mature, Christian. They take us and they shape us and change us and mold us as a person. And so, it brings us toward more of a complete Christian, a functional, a steady, more even killed believer.

And I recognize that. It took a while, But I recognize that through the passing of my father and how that took a while for me to understand God's plan through them. And it wasn't for me to breathe and then get past it. It was for him to change me. It's for him to shape and change and mold me.

It's a good kick in the pants, and it moves you from here to there, and it matures you, it changes you. And that is the love of God that allows that to happen. And so Colossians 1.28, it says, "'Him we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect or complete in Christ Jesus.'" Spiritual growth is the process of living out that full grown maturity you already possess in Christ. It's walking that walk. And Josh talked a lot about that last week and Pastor Rick did the week before, but it's about that perpetual, continual motion of walking in Christ.

There is no break. There is no stopping. There is no, well, today I'm going to give myself a break and I'm going to be walking in a Pickers for a while, just for a break. It doesn't do anything. There is none of that.

So, 1st John 2, 6, it reads, he who says he abides in him thought himself also to walk just as he walked. See, the difficulty in applying what we know to our everyday walk is very real, but it's completely attainable. But God didn't make any lone ranger Christians, and he didn't make any of us smart enough to figure it out on our own to not have to read the word of God and not have to be in the fellowship of believers. He brought us together for this purpose and it's ultimately for his work. And we have we have 77 different names and titles in the scriptures.

Beloved, priests, slaves of righteousness, little children, heirs of promise, holy people, plus like 70 more. This is what we are called in the Bible. And these are all terms of endearment as I see it. Each one of these is all because of Jesus Christ. This is all because of God's work through his Son, Jesus Christ.

And so since we're complete in Christ, we're lacking nothing to live up that journey that he has placed us on, this spiritual walk that Christians are called to. And so I think my challenge tonight is let's do it. You know, we're given the tools. Let's do it.