A. God has set before us a feast, and that feast is all that He is.
1. In the Bible, this feast is called ‘the fullness of God’. The fullness of God is simply the totality of all that God is— His attributes, character, power, love, perfection and on and on.
2. God has set before us a feast, and that feast is Him. He invites us to come to Him and eat and drink until we are satisfied.
B. All throughout the Bible God uses the imagery of a feast to describe Himself.
1. Psalm 36:8 “They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.”
a. fullness: deshen and means ‘fat sumptuous food’
2. Isaiah 25:6 “And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces (fat rich food), a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees.”
a. The mountain of the Lord, His kingdom, a feast for all people.
b. ‘wine on the lees’ fine, aged wine because it was able to sit undisturbed
c. Speaks of a quiet and peaceful life
3. Psalm 23:5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.”
a. Even in the presence of our enemies, the Lord’s feast is within our reach.
b. God is able to make us overflow with Him even in when surrounded.
c. When we battle the evil one, we often focus so much on our enemy that we lose sight of the feast of the Lord that is still available to us.
d. Even when surrounded by the evil one, the Lord has set the table for us and He invites us to come and feast on Him.
e. Try to remember the next time that you are engaged in spiritual warfare that you can still have your fill of joy, peace, mercy, power, love and a sound mind.
4. One of the great challenges of this age is that we show up at the wrong feast. When our souls are hungry, we often feed on the feast of the world instead of the feast of God. (Entertainment,
social media, material things, over indulgence in sports, food, etc.)
5. Isaiah 55:1&2
1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
a. Vs 2 We spend our hard earned money and precious free time feeding our souls things that will never satisfy them. We come away restless and unfulfilled.
b. God invites us to come and eat freely of Him, without money, because Jesus has paid the price for our souls to be satisfied.
c. Our souls were created to feed on the abundance of God.
C. As a child of God you have a seat at His table.
1. In Mark 7:24-30 we read about the Syrian woman who pleaded with Jesus for her
daughter’s deliverance.
a. She was a Gentile, an outsider, and wasn’t supposed to be even speaking to Jesus.
b. What did Jesus say to her? ““Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
c. “…even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”
d. Jesus, was moved by her faith and granted her request.
2. Many Christians read this passage and totally misunderstand it. Because even though they are born again, they still think of themselves as a dog under the Lord’s table and so they beg for the occasional crumb to be thrown down.
3. But the truth is, because Jesus went to the cross and died for our sin and rose from the dead, we who were once far from God have been brought near to Him again.
a. We have been adopted into His family and are the children of God.
b. We are the children sitting at the table, sharing our food with the lost.
4. When the lost come to us hungry, we should feed them from the abundant feast that we enjoy and share the good news that they can eat like this every day too.
D. Intro summary.
1. I want to share today that the fullness of God— all that He is— dwells in Christ and that the fullness of Christ is us, His body, the church.
2. Then we’ll see how as God’s children, we can feast on His abundance and grow up into the full stature of Christ.
II. The Fullness in God, in Christ and in us.
A. All the fullness of God.
1. When we hear the word ‘fullness’ we should understand that it means all that is contained by something.
a. Ps 89:11 “The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fullness, You have founded them.”
b. Ps 98:7 “Let the sea roar, and all its fullness…”
2. It means the totality of all that is contained within something.
a. Fullness of the world(land): every mineral, every flower & insect, every bird, every leaf on every tree, every snowflake and ice crystal that in all the glaciers in the world.
b. Fullness of the sea: every shell, every tiny plankton, every fish and mollusk, all the components of seawater.
3. As Creator, God upholds the fullness of land and sea and He infinitely more vast than them. The natural world gives us a glimpse of the fullness of God and the feast that is available to us.
4. Everything needed for life can be found in one gallon of seawater. One gallon of seawater contains at least trace amounts of every naturally occurring element on earth as well as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon.
a. 2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…”
5. Scientists estimate there are 352 quintillion gallons of seawater on earth, approx 48 billion gallons for every person on earth.
a. What God has made available of Himself to each of us is infinitely more than 48 billion gallons.
b. Ian February, scientists discovered a reservoir of fresh water 1,300 feet below the Atlantic Ocean floor. Enough water to supply New York City for 800 years.
6. All of His attributes, His kindness, love, mercy, patience, faithfulness, provision, nurturing, joy, etc. is available to us without limit, 24/7, because Jesus finished the work of atoning for our sin.
B. The fullness of God is in Christ Jesus.
1. Col 1:19&20
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all
things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the
blood of His cross.
2. Col 2:8-10
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men,
according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and
power.
a. The fullness of God dwells in the Man Jesus Christ, there is nothing missing.
b. The evil one tries to convince people that there is more spiritual knowledge,
power and experiences outside of Christ.
c. But Christ is the fullness of God.
d. There is nothing of God that exists outside of Christ.
3. Vs 10 if we are in Christ, than we are complete
a. This word for ‘complete’ is pleroo and it means ‘full’
b. The fullness of Christ has made us full with all the fullness of God.
4. John 1:16 “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.”
a. The fullness of God that we feast on is available to us through Jesus.
b. “…and grace for grace…” we have feasted on grace ought to share grace.
c. Grace is grease.
5. John 7:37-39
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let
him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will
flow rivers of living water.
a. We are meant to feast on God and then overflow with His attributes.
C. The fullness of Christ in us.
1. The fullness of God is in Christ and the fullness of Christ is in us.
2. Ephesians 1:22&23
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
3. ANALOGY: The sea and all its fullness.
a. Think of the fullness of God as the 352 quintillion gallons of seawater on earth.
b. All of that is contained in one Man, Jesus.
c. We each have various capacities to contain seawater. Some more than others and we grow in our ability to contain more seawater.
d. There is enough in Christ for every believer to have 48 billion gallons.
e. But because some of the sweater evaporates, some leaks and some we pour out, we need to be refilled.
f. And the only way to be refilled is to spend time with Jesus.
4. Individually, we can’t contain all the fullness of God, but as the church, as the body of Christ, together we are the fullness of Christ.
III. How do we get into Feast Mode?
A. How do we feast on the fullness of God? How do we make up the fullness of Christ?
1. Ephesians 3:14-20
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
B. Passage breakdown.
1. It begins with prayer. We must pray and ask God…
a. to make us strong in our spirit by His Spirit
b. for Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith
c. that we would be rooted and settled in love
d. and that out of this love that surpasses knowledge we would be filled with the
fullness of God in Jesus Christ.
2. Strong in spirit by the Holy Spirit because the fullness of God enters the natural world by the Spirit. From His Spirit, into our spirit and then overflowing into the world. (This is what Jesus meant when He said out of our innermost being would flow rivers of living water.)
a. Being filled with the fullness of God is not a natural, logical, intellectual or academic exercise. It is a spiritual exercise.
3. For Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith means that we curate an awareness of the indwelling Christ in our heart.
a. It means even after we have been born again we keep a daily awareness that Emmanuel has come to dwell within us.
b. It means that we practice fellowship and intimacy with God.
c. Imagine if a friend from far away came to live with you for a while. You let them in the door but then rarely speak to them or interact with them.
d. Is that a friend? You could say “But I opened the door and let them in!”
e. We may have opened the door of our heart to Jesus at salvation, but He didn’t come to visit for a while, He came to live with us forever.
4. That we would be rooted and settled in love because God is love.
a. The fullness of God in Christ looked like love, mercy, compassion.
b. The fullness of Christ sin us looks like love.
c. Rom 13:8 love is the fullness of the Law.
5. This is our prayer to be filled with the fullness of God in Jesus Christ.
“Father, make us strong in our spirits by Your Holy Spirit, help us to live in daily fellowship with Jesus
from our heart by faith and root us in your love so that we might become the fullness of Christ.”
C. God shows us what the answer to this prayer will be.
1. Ephesians 4:11-16
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
IV. The June Prayer Challenge:
A. For the month of June, let’s pray this together as a church family.
1. From Ephesians 3:14-20
“Father, make us strong in our spirits by Your Holy Spirit, help us to live in daily fellowship with Jesus from our heart by faith and root us in your love so that we might become the fullness of Christ.”
2. From Ephesians 1:17-19
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
“Father, I ask in Jesus Name that you give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus and that You would open the eyes of my heart to understand the hope of Your calling, the riches of His inheritance within us and Your power that works for us and in us who believe in You.”
3. From Ephesians 4:11-16
“Father, I pray for unity in my family, my church and the entire body of Christ. I ask that You would grow us up into maturity so that we are no longer deceived by any ungodly beliefs or doctrines of demons. Teach us to speak the truth in love and to encourage, edify and build one another up into the fullness of Christ.”
B. The feast today.
1. As we eat together today, let’s talk about what we need to feast on from God’s table. Talk with the folks sitting at your table about what your soul needs from God and then encourage one another by prayer and the scriptures.
C. Communion: the feast of God in Jesus Christ.