Full Of It

Full Of It

How To Be Filled With God’s Fullness

6/16/04

I. Introduction

A little girl sat at the breakfast table with her parents one morning. Dad was reading the newspaper. Mom was making waffles. The little girl sat, wide-eyed, staring at her orange juice. She thought for a minute, and then asked the question, “Daddy?” “Yes, sweetie,” he said. “Jesus is God, right?” “Yes,” he answered. “Then God lives in my heart, right?” “Yes, sweetie, God lives in your heart.” “Ok,” she said, then she sat quietly for a while, and took a sip of her juice. Then she asked another question, “Daddy?” “Yes, sweetie,” he said. “How big is God?” “Well, God is big. Remember the song we like to sing, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands?” “Yeah,” she answers. He says, “God is big enough to hold the world in his hands. That’s big, isn’t it?” “Yeah, that’s really big.” She seemed content with his answer, and she again sat quietly and had another sip of juice. “Daddy, if God is that big, and he lives in my heart, wouldn’t He stick out?”

A lot of times, great wisdom comes from the mouth of a child. And this little girl’s statement is no exception. If God is living on the inside of us, he not only would stick out, but He should stick out. Tonight’s message is “Full Of It: How To Be Filled With God’s Fullness.” There’s a prayer that Paul prays for the believers at the church in Ephesus, in which he prays that the church would be filled with all the fullness of God. And so I’d like to take the next few minutes and talk about what that means.

II. What is the Fullness of God?

Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV “14For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

All the fullness of God is talking about more than just one experience or one aspect of His truth or power. It points to a broader spirituality, balanced through participating in all that God has to offer.

In the Greek, the word for fullness is pleroma and it means full number, full complement, full measure, copiousness, plenitude, that which has been completed. The word describes a ship with a full cargo and crew, and a town with no empty houses. Pleroma strongly emphasizes fullness and completion.

When you go to a restaurant or place of business, a lot of times they have these signs that plainly state the maximum capacity of that particular building, meaning that when that building has exceeded or gone over that number, it’s full.

When you try to get tickets to a concert on the day of the concert, sometimes it may be sold out, which means that there are no more seats or tickets available because the arena or civic center is full or occupied.

When you’re on vacation at the beach and you’re riding down the strip, a lot of the hotels will have a sign that says No Vacancy, when that sign is lit up, it means the hotel is full or occupied.

Well, when the building of your life has reached maximum capacity, when every seat in the arena of your life has been occupied by God, when there’s no vacancy for the enemy or anything that opposes God, you’re full of Him.

Are you so filled up with Him that your thoughts, your actions, your feelings are aware of His presence and His control?

The one who is filled up to the fullness of God will want what God wants, and there will be no conflict. The one who is filled up to the fullness of God will show Christ through his life. He will love as Christ loved, he will walk as Christ walked.

1 John 2:6 NIV “6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

When you’re filled to the fullness of God, you’ll live just like Jesus. When you so identify with who Jesus is and what He does, you’ll begin to recognize God’s fullness.

III. Be Filled

What are some practical things you can do to recognize God’s fullness?

1. Discover His Will

God’s Word is His will. When you read God’s Word, you’ll begin to be aware of His fullness that lives in you. You’ll begin to find yourself in Him and find Him in you.