Christ Is All I Need

The following sermon excerpt entitled “Christ is All I Need” was preached by Jonathan Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Wednesday evening, 8/11/2021.
Because many just got back from camp last week, decisions are fresh on our minds. Sermons about going home changed and living godly lives result in decisions. I remember the ride back from camp with a list of decisions. I am going home changed. The topic of tonight’s sermon was not clear in mind, though. I had the idea that I was going to go home and try really really hard to live godly. A lot of times that leads to frustration and disappointment. God wants us to understand tonight that godliness is not about our willpower to change. A changed life does not come through what I do but what Christ has done for me. Christ is all I need. And that’s the title tonight: “Christ is All I Need.”
Text: Colossians 2:8–9 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
The theme of the book of Colossians is Christ is sufficient. Christ is all we need. It’s not Christ plus something extra. It’s not “yes, but…” Three times in this passage Paul says it’s not “yes, but…” It’s yes period. Christ is all you need. Paul warns against three sets of dangerous teachings that say Christ is not all you need. They all follow a pattern. It does like this:

Good works don’t save you, but good works make you godly.
You don’t have to work at all to gain God’s forgiveness, but you must work like a dog to gain God’s love and approval.
Being birthed into God’s family is through the power of God, Living day to day in God’s family is through the power of me.
Justification by faith, sanctification by works.
Being born again has nothing to do with my performance, being godly has everything to do with my performance.
The whole idea is Christians receive God’s free gift of salvation and then try to maintain God’s favor by their accomplishments. We are going to read three ways Christians do this. What Paul says about this at the end of the passage is startling, very startling. Through all of this, Paul is reminding us, Christ is all we need.
The goal tonight is to read this text and understand what it means, what it doesn’t mean, and what we are to do with it.
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Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.