Beloved Church Family,
As I write, we are welcoming a new minister onto our staff and the wheels of growth and discipleship are turning. A mighty wind of change is in motion, and our church is poised to see God do some amazing things. I encourage you to get to know Sean and his family and to be a source of personal encouragement to him as he begins his tenure in our community. And because the Horton family is now here and beginning a new ministry, I take some time to reflect on my own ministry. As a pastor, I personally struggle a great deal with feeling like I am doing enough and like I am preaching well enough. It’s the same problem a lot of men have when wrestling with their own ego. Am I talented enough? Am I pleasing to my family? Am I a good provider? I am not alone in asking these questions.
For men and women, the questions may or may not be different, but anyone who is responsible for a job or a family has some kind of self-doubting question that nags at them and ultimately each of those questions is a way of asking the world, “Am I good enough?”
God has already answered that question for all of us, bluntly. No. No you are not good enough. And it stings to hear a loving God say that to us. But as the Bible says, “There is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:3b NIV) It can be daunting to find out that you are not good enough, at least at first. But after some time, you may find it to be a great relief that you don’t have to be good enough. You can quit trying so hard to please God by how well you say the right things or avoid the wrong thoughts or serve in the right way or behave guided by just the right morals.
In fact, when you first come to God, standing in his presence, you have to realize with no uncertainty that not only are you not enough – you’re dead. And that is great news! Because Jesus came not to make men religious, or good, but to make dead men live. “As for you,” Paul says in Ephesians 2:1, “you were dead in your transgressions and sins.”
You don’t have to try to live up or measure up or straighten up or pick yourself up to be loved by God, because there simply isn’t enough you could do to be accepted by God. He has already accepted you through Christ because of what he has done on the cross, not because of who you are or can be, or anything you have done or can do. That is why the Bible is not God’s instruction manual for life, as some have said. It isn’t about us, it’s about him and his amazing story of the amazing things he does so we can feel for once that what he has done is enough and there is nothing left for us to do but be his. God has called all of us, a bunch of nothings, a bunch of dead nobodies, to be his people. It is more than we all deserve and the beautiful thing is that no other qualifiers are allowed. You don’t have any requirements or prerequisites, you don’t have to be better. You just have to be his.
I have chosen to live this way, and let this knowledge of Christ permeate me life as much as I can, as a husband, as a father, as a pastor, as a provider, and as a Christian, and I encourage you to do the same. From time to time, the devil may come and tell us to try and be good enough, or to try and live up to something. But our duty is to point to Christ and say, “I am dead, and Jesus makes me live.” May you dead ones rest in a new life given to you by Christ, knowing he is more than enough.
In His love,
Bro. Joseph