Complete

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear and champions faith in God. It emphasizes the importance of being complete and sanctified in all areas of life. It encourages obedience to God's word and the pursuit of holiness. It reminds us that we are God's people and that our purpose is to please Him. It highlights the need for brokenness and the process of sanctification. It concludes with a reminder of God's love for us and our worth in His eyes. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org 1 Thessalonians 5.23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is it about completely that is so important? It's defined as having all the necessary parts, fully carried through, highly proficient. But I like the definition as it relates to insect metamorphosis. Complete is characterized by the occurrence of a pupil stage between the motile immature stages and the adult. What is motile? A person whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action. So complete is the stage where a person who dreams about motion is developing from immaturity to maturity and motion. The earth was formless and empty, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. Genesis 1.2 Yahweh is a God of motion. God is about completeness because He wants to develop us from beings who dream about motion to beings who move in Him. It took Jesus three years of intensive teaching, dying for us, being resurrected to life by the Father, appearing to Saul in person, blinding him, having Saul learn to reinterpret the entire Old Testament that Saul had been trained in from his youth and part of a missionary journey before Saul. Now Paul was able to say, For in Him we live, move, and have our being. Acts 17.28 It took a while. It wasn't painless. But Paul got to be an adult and move in the Lord. The results of that were churches all over the world and two-thirds of the New Testament. Even then Paul didn't consider himself complete. Neither should we. Sanctification is a journey for an entire lifetime, and it doesn't end before we're at the throne. It probably doesn't end there either, but that's the end point that we can see from here. Samuel said to the people, Don't be afraid. You have indeed done all this evil. Yet don't turn away from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Don't turn away to go after vain things which can't profit or deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for Himself. 1 Samuel 12.20-22 This is our walk, serving the Lord with all of our heart. It's the prime reason for being. We were made by the Lord for the Lord. Colossians 1.16-17 We are His. We were made to experience life with Him, worshiping Him, obedient to Him. We threw that all away. In Jesus we can get it back. It is only through Jesus that we can get it back. Choosing to do what we were created to do. Jesus came so that we could get back to the Father. We are His gift to the Father. But Jesus doesn't give imperfect gifts. Jesus gives perfect gifts. Even as all good things come from the Father, all good things come from Jesus, because Jesus only deals with what comes from the Father. So He can only give back to the Father what He received from the Father, which will be perfect. In Him we are perfected. That means we are complete. That means no little bits left over. The whole point in the Old Testament of getting the Jews to remove the leaven before the Passover was to get that point across that even a little bit of yeast will change the entire batch of dough, which means even a little bit of sin will poison the whole person. A few people that are poisonous, you've poisoned your whole church. A few churches that are poisoned, you've poisoned your whole denomination. A few denominations that are poisoned, and you've poisoned the whole reputation of the entire church in the world. Jesus says, no compromise. God says, no compromise. I was watching a video once about a family in Palestine and their life there, and how the Israelites were pushing them out and pushing them out and taking over the territory. And the woman gets so irritated she finally calls out to an Israeli guard and is demanding to know, why can't we have just this piece? You have the whole rest. Why can't we just have this piece? And it was really a picture to me that when God calls you to inhabit an area, you're to inhabit the whole area. And it isn't good that just a small piece, because that's then a small piece that you're not giving to God. We can't have sin in ourselves because that will be an area we're not giving to God. We are not sinners by nature. We're redeemed and we're new creatures in Christ. Humanity was never a sinner by nature. We're not born with a sin nature. We're born with a fallen nature. That means we're born with a dead spirit with no hand at the till guiding us. But this world is full of guidance, all of it ungodly. And we choose it and we choose it and we listen to it and so sin by sin by sin we become worse and worse, but even just one, even if you only did it once, you would be unrighteous, unholy, unable to reach the Father. Jesus came to sanctify us or to enable us to be sanctified by the Father every last piece. We need to be a perfect gift and to be a perfect gift we need to be sanctified. Now that's not us doing it, that's Jesus doing the work in us. All we need to do is commit to that journey and walk where he tells us to walk. We are his gift to the Father. We need to give ourselves over to him. I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All things that are mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them. I am no more in the world, but these are in the world and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are. John 17, 9-11 Jesus gave us to the Father. It's the only way we can get to the Father, which is why Jesus asked the Father to keep us in himself. To remain in Jesus, we need to be sanctified. Not all at once in a moment, but by a process of bringing things to him and submitting them, one after the other, no compromise. Don't let the world tell you it's okay. Don't let the world tell you that you need to have it happen. Just as the Israelites deserve to have their country that God set aside for them with no one living in it. The Palestinians might have been in there, for hundreds of years, but they were immigrants to that country. Now, in the natural, there's no easy answer to this. I mean, we don't want to see people ripped out of the country that has been their home for hundreds of years. But on the other hand, it is the nation of Israel. It is Israel's place and Israel's country because God said so. So, I don't know where I fall in the debate other than to say this. I will say that they are God's people and they deserve every bit of territory that God says and God will also have a plan for the Palestinians. We've just got to figure out what it is by asking Him. But in our lives, it's easier because there's no politics. There's no human rights ideas. There's no, oh, but they're suffering to concepts. It is either sin or it is not sin and we are to dig out every piece of sin and submit them, every last one, to take the Word and use it to purify us by letting Him do the work. We renew our minds by the Word so that we are able to comprehend and walk in His ways and then He takes that Word that we've put inside ourselves and He uses it to purify us and sanctify us. John 17, 17. It is the only standard of truth that there is. Everything else is human opinion. Every scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3, 16-17. The Word is good for our instruction. The Word is what sanctifies us. The Word is what gives us a look into what the Lord says is righteous and good. Therefore, worship by the Word is all about pleasing God. We should be seeking to please Him, not out of fear or to follow the rules, but because He loves us. He loves us so we love Him. If we love Him, we should want to please Him, to be what He wants, to act how He wants, to live how He wants. We can't please Him in ourselves, in unrighteousness, in deeds, words or thoughts apart from Him. He is holy and there is none other like Him. 1 Samuel 2, 2. He is unique. Deuteronomy 6, 4. If we want to please Him, we need to be holy as He is holy. Now, if you have a room of darkness and you make light happen, the darkness dissipates. Darkness cannot exist in the presence of light. This is a fact. Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? 2 Corinthians 6, 14-15. We are not righteous. We have sinned. It does not matter that our spirit has been cleansed of sin. This body we inhabit is still flesh that is unrighteous. We need Jesus. It is by Jesus that we can be righteous because we adopt His righteousness. Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the unrighteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. 2 Peter 3.18. But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8.11. In Jesus we become like Him. This is the gift He gives us. We are crucified into Jesus. It is in Him and by Him and for Him that we do anything. John 15. We have to get to the point that we realize that we are nothing in and of ourselves. That it is Jesus who enables us to stand before the Father. That without Jesus' righteous Spirit covering us, we would burn away. Jesus asks us to wear His yoke that is both easy to bear and light. Matthew 11.18-30. He asks us to learn from Him. Jesus didn't operate by feelings. He had them, but they did not run His life. Feelings aren't real. They are input from the world, input from our bodies. They are not what we listen to. We take them into account, but then we look to the Lord for guidance. Sometimes we have already had that guidance and we can run with it as the feelings come up, like taking your hand off a hot surface before it burns. Sometimes we need to prayerfully submit something to Him for vetting. This is why obedience is better than sacrifice. 1 Samuel 15.22. It is living the principle of our heart before our feelings. Our hearts need to be set on God. Jesus said, Jesus said, Jesus was talking about our habit to get caught up worrying about our next meal, our clothes, our jobs, and all the rest of the stuff around us. He is warning us not to worry, that giving into fear like that doesn't solve anything. It doesn't do anything but get us stressed and waste our time. That the Father knows our needs and will meet our needs. That we should be focusing on the Lord and the rest of it will all fall into place. Because the Father cares for those who care for Him. Romans 8.28. If we seek Him first, put Him first, and worship Him, all the rest of everything will come into line. This is not a life free of persecutions or testings by the enemy. Nowhere does Jesus promise that. If a life of ease is what was coming, we'd have no reason to crucify ourselves. Luke 14.27. We are seeking God first and God is putting us in His refiner's fire to purify us. Malachi 3.2. This isn't always a pleasant experience. Sometimes it comes through tears on the repentance floor. 1 John 1.9. Sometimes it comes as we are persecuted and bullied because of our faith in Jesus. Matthew 5.11-12. Sometimes it comes as we beat down the old person and walk away from it into what Jesus has for us. Colossians 3.5-6. We need to be broken because we are not holy. We gain intimacy with Jesus through our brokenness because Jesus went through all that we did and knows what we are going through. Hebrews 4.15-16. Intimacy brings compatibility as we leave more and more of ourselves behind and become more and more like Jesus. John 3.30. Our purpose is to submit ourselves to God, broken and without ego, laying ourselves on our cross and nailing ourself to it, to let Jesus purify us and the Father to resurrect us to life in Jesus, to let the Lord sanctify us with His word, renewing our minds to His glory, to set our feet on the path that the Lord lays down and joyfully walk where He wants us to do what He wants and when. It would have done no good for Moses to have parted the Red Sea a month before the Israelites got there or to have opened it the night before a month after they left Egypt. The miracle was only good for one place and for one time. That is how we need to look at any and everything He asks us to do, whether it is solely for our own benefit or a service to others. If we obey the commandments and statutes of the Lord, He will set Himself up as our God and we will be His children, His people, dedicated to Him. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let's cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Hebrews 7.1. What a great promise! What a great action to take! The one marvelous and amazing, the other a process that can last a lifetime, but a lifetime reverencing God, a lifetime of kneeling broken before Him. The thief on the cross started by hurling insults and mocking Jesus. Matthew 27.44 But that thief couldn't keep it up. He could see those that loved Jesus there watching their Lord suffer. He saw how Jesus reacted to them and those crucifying Him. He saw Jesus' love. And as He died and came to the end of who He was, a broken and dying thief, there was a change of heart. Luke 23.40-42 In His brokenness He came to Jesus, and we must do the same every day. When we enter willingly onto the path of sanctification, we are signing up for some intense times. We are signing up to be broken. We are signing up for His yoke. We are signing up to be obedient. But we are signing up for nothing that isn't good and right and natural. He is worthy of honor and praise. He is worthy of taking our lives in His hands. He is our good Father. He is our good God. He is the One with which we fellowship with in perfect love. He is righteous. He is holy. Thank You, Jesus, for enabling us to partake at the Father's table. May we never lose sight of who You are and who we are. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Proverbs 3, 11-12. God corrects us. He loves us, so He does not let us wallow in misery. He does not let us walk in unrighteousness. He does not let us compromise. He does not let us carry sin along, indulging in the ones that don't matter. He loves us, so He disciplines us. But He also does not let us wallow in our brokenness, unless we insist. He does not leave us there. Yes, we are to crucify ourselves. Yes, we are to drop ego. Yes, we are to be obedient to His will and His Word. But He doesn't leave us on the repentance floor. Like with Abram, He calls us from our old country to our new. From our old family to our new. From our old self to our new. We have to leave it all behind, despise it all. Country, creed, family. Walk away from all that and into Jesus. We get to leave the old behind and discover our new selves in Jesus, to become the person He sees us as. We remain broken, but we are broken before Him. Jesus broke His body before the blood could do its job. If we let the blood do its job, we will be broken before the throne and able to walk in all that the Father has for us. We leave the self broken so that we can be resurrected into Jesus in new life. After that, it is our choice whether or not we remain in Him, if we stay in Jesus or if we return to the broken self. It will still be us the redeemed spirit, but we will either dwell in His overcoming victory or in our broken self. Will you keep the broken flesh crucified so that you can walk in Jesus? Or will you walk in brokenness without the victory of Jesus? We must be broken before Him because we are in this flesh body. But we don't have to remain there. Our souls can walk in Jesus even as our spirits do. We can see ourselves forever as sinners saved by grace, or we can see ourselves as the redeemed of the Lord, new creations in Jesus the Christ. In both we are broken on a daily basis, but in Jesus we also have victory. Which will you choose? Where will you abide? As we close, remember that you have worth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this today. God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that He loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you just because you're you. 1 John 4 9-10 tells us, By this God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent His only-born Son into the world, that we might live through Him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin, and it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because He first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.