8-9-09 Series: You don’t have what it takes; # 1 You’re Not Good Enough?

 Series: You Don’t Have What It Takes – Week 1

Big Idea:  We’re not good enough; Satan twists that truth and uses it against us to keep us passive, afraid, and immobilized as difference makers; God uses this truth to humble us and prepare us for a life of love and selflessness.

 

In this series, we are going to look at four different truths that God wants to use to set us free, but if manipulated, our spiritual enemy, the Devil, or the Thief, will use these same truths to hurt, oppress, and enslave us and keep us from the good life that God created us for.  The first one we are going to examine this week is very personal to me; it’s the truth that we will never be good enough. 

 

No matter how hard we work to try to please God, we will never be good enough to please God.  Satan loves to use this truth to beat us down and talk us out of being who God calls us to be. 

 

You may hear it like this:  “You want to go to life group – YOU? You don’t know enough Bible and you’ve never gone to church before and “What if they ask you a question that you don’t know the answer to?” You know you’re not good enough. You are still doing things that you know are wrong. Someday you can go to a life group when you get your life together, but right now, you’re not good enough. Have any of you ever heard those words? That’s truth that’s been twisted and distorted by your enemy, Satan.

 

You may want to help make a difference in the lives of others, but who do you think you are?  You know you’re not good enough.  I mean, you think you could lead a Life Group? You lead a life group? You don’t know much about the Bible, and as soon as you start, someone’s going to ask you a question and you’re not going to know the answer or you’re going to say the wrong thing. You’re not good enough! That’s truth that’s been twisted and distorted.

 

Oh, so you want to help out with the youth?  Who do you think you are?  I mean, you know you’re life isn’t clean enough. Remember that word you said out loud just last week.  I mean, you think you can be an example to teenagers for Christ?  Maybe when you get your life all straightened out, because right now you know you’re not good enough. That’s truth that’s been twisted and distorted.

 

You want to be a witness to someone at work?  Well, they’ve heard about you, and they know about some of your problems.  You can never be a good witness. You know you’re not good enough, so you don’t even try.

 

Oh, you want to be a bold Christian leader in your community and you want people to know your business is a Christian business, but as soon as you go public with your faith, you know you’re going to screw up, because you always do.  Don’t even think about it.  You’re not good enough.” 

 

You don’t come to prayer at 10:10 on Sunday morning, because you’re not a good enough pray-er. If you open your mouth to say something, you’re going to say something wrong, you’re better off not going at all. That’s truth that’s been twisted and distorted.

 

One of the things that I had to recognize in order to be what God wants me to be, I needed to recognize that I will never be good enough.  I was a perfectionist and it’s really hard thing for me to admit, I’m not good enough, nor will I ever be.

 

But what’s really cool is that’s not bad news when I start seeing it through God’s eyes.  In fact, to recognize that I cannot please God by my works can set me free from a bunch of fear and anxiety. I can never gain God’s approval by doing things for his kingdom . . . but I can receive God’s approval, and that can set me free to do great things with God. Confused? Let’s work on it. 

 

Let’s look at some of the greatest leaders in scripture. You are going to see some people that recognized they would never ever, ever be good enough.  Let’s look at four of them. 

 

In Genesis 18:27, we see Abraham. He didn’t say, “Hey God, I’m da man.”  Instead, when God appeared before him, he said, “God, I am nothing but dust and ashes.”  You’ve heard the phrase at funerals, “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,” it means you’re dead and you’re going to return to the ground that you came from. Abraham is basically saying, “I’m nothing before you, God” Abraham was considered the Father of Christianity.

 

In Isaiah 6:5, when Isaiah saw God, he said, “I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips.  I don’t have what it takes to be in the presence of a holy God.  I am ruined.”  I’m nothing when I stand before God. Isaiah was considered a major prophet in the Old Testament.

 

Luke 5:8, Peter, when he had fished all night and caught nothing, is told by Jesus to row out into deep water and let his net down and Peter did this and there were so many fish in his net that the fish almost sank the boat. Peter said to Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord.  Get, out of here.  I can’t even be in your presence, because I’m a sinful man!  I am not good enough to be here, Jesus.”  Peter spoke boldly about who God was and he was revered as one of the “Greats” that began the Christian church.

 

Paul, in I Timothy 1:16, said this, “Jesus, He came to save sinners of whom I was the worst of all.  I am the one least deserving of the grace of God.”  Paul was the best evangelist and church planter in that early church.

 

All 4 guys realized that they were nothing – they were sinful, they weren’t perfect by a long stretch. But God uses all four of them in great ways to be difference makers here on this earth.

 

Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The most righteous person – the person who looks like there life is all together has sinned and fallen short.  No matter how you judge yourself, you and I have sinned and we all fall short. 

 

We fall short of God’s standard, and so for many of us, when our spiritual enemy starts to tell us, “You’re not good enough,” he takes truth and uses it in a way to bring condemnation.  Many of us slip into what I call the performance trap.  We take on this idea and we say, “If I could only be a little bit better.”  It’s why many of us are perfectionists, and we start to feel a false sense of pride or security when we are performing well.  We also feel a false sense of condemnation and guilt when we are not performing well, and we slip into the performance trap. 

 

The apostle Paul very likely lived under the pressure of the performance trap.  In Philippians Paul gives us what you might call his resume of righteousness.  He says, “If there was anyone who was ever good enough, it would have been me and he goes on to tell us his pedigree of righeousness. He says this:

 

I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully that I was never accused of any fault.”  That statement right there is a blow-away statement.  “You follow maybe Ten Commandments.  The Pharisees followed 613 commandments, “and I was never accused of breaking any of them,” he says.  “If there’s anyone who has reason to put confidence in their works, I do.  I was under the performance trap.”  Philippians 3:4-9

 

How does that play out in our world today?  How do you experience the destruction of this works/righteousness performance mentality?  Two ways.  The first is that so many of us attempt to please God by following rules.  Now, rule following is a false standard of measurement, because the rules vary depending on what church you’re in and what group of Christianity you’re about. 

 

Some people would say, “Well, you know, I feel good about God, and God must feel good about me because of what I do.  I must be okay with God, because I read my Bible today.”  Or, “I must be okay with God, because I prayed today.  I must be okay with God because I serve the church,” or, “I gave money to the church,” or “I shared the good news of God with somebody.  You know, they were on the side of the road and I rolled down my window and yelled Jesus loves you, dude”.  And so, I must be okay with God because of what I do.” 

 

Others would say, “Well, I feel good about God, or God feels good about me based on what I don’t do.”  “Well, I don’t sin like you do.  I’m right with God because, I don’t listen to secular music.”  Some of you, you know, you listen to secular music, but I, I only listen to Christian music, so I’m right with God because I don’t, and I don’t watch rated “R” movies.  And I don’t even watch ‘PG-13’ movies, if there’s sexual stuff in there.  Violence is okay, but not sexual stuff.  And I don’t go to Hooters, except for once when the chicken wings were cheap, but I don’t do these things so therefore, I’m right with God.  I don’t drink and I don’t smoke and I don’t chew, and I don’t run with girls who do, and so because of what I do, or because of what I don’t do, then I’m right with God.” 

 

We attempt to please God by following rules.  It’s the performance trap.  When we are doing good, we feel good; and when we don’t feel like we are doing good, we feel bad.  We feel far from God.  The performance trap. 

The second area of the performance trap, and this has hit me personally, is when we start to believe that our worth, our value, how good we are, is based on what we produce and how we perform.  We believe that our value and our worth with God, or even with other people, is based on what we produce or how we perform, but that’s just not true with God and it shouldn’t be true with us.

As a kid, I practiced my little trick, whatever it was, skateboarding or you know, peddling my bike with no hands, or whatever, and I’d say, “Mom, dad, watch!  Watch.  Watch.  Watch.”  And soon as they’d watch, I’d crash.  I wanted to be approved based on my performance, but whenever the pressure was on, I tended to fail. 

“Did I make a good enough grade?  Am I acceptable?  Oh, I made a bad grade.  I must not be acceptable.”  In the church world, I ask the question, “Am I a good pastor?”  Well, it depends.  “Did you like my sermon?”  Well, most people don’t say when they like it, but boy, you guys tell me when you don’t.  So, you know, when I hear from you it sounds bad, “Oh, I must not be valuable, because I’m not producing good sermons.

Am I valuable?  Well, is the church growing?  Oh, I must be valuable.  Oh no, the church isn’t growing.  I must not be valuable.”  And I start to think wrongly that my worth is based on what I produce or how I perform.  And what Paul says is, “Hey, I had a better performance than anybody.  If anybody could have been good enough, it was me.  Listen to this from Paul:

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness. Philippians 3:7-9 (MSG)

I can never work my way to please God. I can never be good enough to please God. I can never stop sinning to the point where I please God.  The only way I can be made right with God is by faith, and by seeking to love God with all that I am.  It’s not Jesus plus good works.  It’s not Jesus plus religious efforts.  It’s not Jesus plus not sinning.  It’s about falling in love with God.  It’s about following the example that God set before us when he came down in the person of Jesus. It’s about striving to love like him.

We are loved by God for who we are, but when we love him and follow him, we become who we were created to be and that blesses us and it blessed God. We don’t earn our value because we follow rules.

Let me give you an example. I have two kids. They are great kids . . .most of the time, but they screw up regularly just like every other kid. They’re not perfect, nor will they ever be. Do I love them less when they don’t follow the rules? NO! I love them just as much. I don’t love my kids more when they’re following my rules and less when they aren’t. I love them the same, always.

However, do I get angry when they don’t follow the rules? Why? It’s because I know that their choices are not going to bring them or I blessing. Their worth is not determined by how well they follow the rules, but their blessing is. Their worth is not determined by how well they follow the rules, but their blessing is.

Let’s make it even simpler. Let’s say that I tell a young child not to touch a hot stove. That’s the rule. The rule is there for a reason – it’s there so the child doesn’t get hurt, but let’s say the child does not listen to me, and they go and touch the hot stove and receive third degree burns on their hand. They’re crying. I love them, so I am upset that they’re in pain. We head to ER and we both spend the night in hospital and get very little sleep.

Is my child less valuable to me? No! Are they and I less blessed because they didn’t follow the rules? Yes! Is there less goodness in our lives because they didn’t follow the rules? Yes! Are they less valuable, No!

You and I are the children of God. We have been created and wonderfully made by his hand. Our value is because we belong to him. He is our Father in Heaven and we are his children. Our value does not come from how well we follow the rules that he gives us. Our value comes from being in his family, being his children. Our value doesn’t come from how well we follow God’s rules, but our blessing does.

You cannot be good enough to earn your value.  All of your best works, they’re as Paul says, “Dog dung”

My works, my religious efforts – dog dung.  I don’t have what it takes. I’m not good enough, and instead of being something that beats me down; instead of allowing Satan to use that truth against me, and to tell me that I’m not good enough to enter God’s kingdom, I can say, “I know I’m not good enough, but Jesus paid the price for me. And because of this, I’m not under an obligation to perform.

The reason that I follow Jesus is because I understand that he loves me and that his ways always lead to blessing and goodness and the defeat of evil; his ways always lead toward healthier relationships and even when I screw up, he’s doesn’t leave me or forsake me; he’s there, and he picks me up and dusts me off and he points me toward his truth and a better way of doing things. I love that about him. And I don’t just love that about him, I love him and I’ve vowed to follow him all the days of my life. In him, I’ve never been so alive. I’ve never been more free; I’ve never experienced so much goodness.

Now check this out.  God didn’t call Paul because Paul was good enough.  Did He?  He called him by His grace. Grace is underserved favor. God called Paul by His grace, “but when God called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles,” that’s when everything changed. 

The problem is, too many of us want to say, “But when I am good enough, then I can make a difference for God.  But when I finally get a little more understanding in God’s word, then I can make a difference.  Or when I get my prayer life where it needs to be, then I can make a difference.  Or “when I get the sin out of my life that’s been bothering me for so long, then I’ll be able to make a difference.”  Or when I get my life straightened out, then I’ll be able to be bold at work.  Or “when I get my marriage back to where it really needs to be, then I can be a spiritual leader for my children.” Or “when I …” and the problem is, we can’t.  We don’t have what it takes.  We never will.  In our own power, we cannot succeed.  That’s why the truth that Satan uses to beat us down is the same truth that God used to set us free.  And, all of a sudden, what Jesus did becomes good news.  The pressure is off.  It’s not up to you to try to do it.  It’s for Christ to do through you.  We’re just called to love him with all that we are.

Wherever you are weak, that’s where His strength is made perfect.  When God forgives you, it doesn’t matter when Satan tries to bring up the past.  You are forgiven.  When God empowers you, no one can stop you.  When God heals you, it doesn’t matter what the doctors say.  When God calls you by His grace, that’s when everything changes.  That’s why the Gospel is the good news.  You can’t be good enough.  It’s the good news.  Jesus did what you couldn’t do.  That’s why you surrender your whole life to Him, and Him alone.  Here’s the key statement, I want you to write it down. 

Project: When I realize that God accepts me through Christ, I am no longer living for His approval, but from His approval.  I am no longer living for His approval, but from His approval

 “There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So, if I am doing great, or if I am not doing so great, that doesn’t determine my standing with God.  I don’t need to feel the guilt and the failure; instead, I feel the acceptance and the love, and I please God out of the strength and the security of knowing that I am right with God through Christ, and that changes everything.