Tired Of Feeling Like You're Not Good Enough?
-
The Lord said, "Love thy neighbor." I know some of you are thinking, "But God, you haven't met my neighbors." There's some of the things that we have, uh, happened with our neighbors. Maybe it's the car dispute. You know, like whose cars are parking where, and you can't get out of your house because they're halfway across your driveway.
Maybe it's the low-hanging tree problem, you know? Maybe it's you wake up one morning and the back fence is gone. The guy thought he had the right to pull your fence down. You're gonna pay half for the new fence. You know, what happens in neighborhoods is sometimes a cosmological s- small example of what's happening in life generally.
And what about this one? The 24/7 volunteer security guard, the yapping, barking dog. Yeah? That low hum that... Who... What's better than waking up at 4:00 AM for a little dog saying, "Good morning," And he's barking at the wheelie bins and everyone's barking mad. Hmm. So we're going to talk today about another barking dog, annoying, relentless, barking dog, and, uh, we're gonna call it the low hum From my experience, hmm, I was, uh, pastoring on the Gold Coast until 2006 in a little church at Broadbeach, and I'd reached the point where half my life had been pastoring.
Like, I was old enough to know that the most part of my life had been serving God, serving others, and, and I had come to a place where my great grab bag of skills and talents, uh, were sort of imploding on me. And I started to feel that sense of which, you know, maybe I'm not quite enough for the job I've got in front of me.
I began to feel like, you know, maybe it's time to do something different. And God, with, with God's help, he, uh, helped me to decide to step down. I took what I call my Sabbath mode. It's like the gap year, but mine was three months, where I could just stop for a moment and stop being Pastor Len and start to be me.
And my family sighed a sigh of relief and said, "Ah, got a gap here to, to reassess." There was so much hum going on, that sense in which I'm not quite there. Maybe you've felt it too. We've reached that place where you kind of, uh... There's a particular exhaust- exhaustion that doesn't have an obvious source.
Like, you're not, uh, in a crisis. You're functioning still. You're showing up for what you need to do. But underneath everything, there's this low hum, a quiet but persistent sense that you're not quite enough. You should have gone further along by now. You know that sense of which, when am I ever gonna get there?
You know, I've been doing this Christian thing for so long, and I don't seem to have achieved what I thought I would have achieved. And there's the danger we're gonna talk about, what I expect and what God expects. If people really knew what's inside of me, they'd be less than impressed. I don't know if you've ever felt that way.
So we called it Old Habits Die Hard. The reason we have several different speakers come at the one topic, it's like holding up a diamond and you wanna sort of turn it around to get different aspects of it, you know? So God in his humor puts people like me up front so that we can have a go at it as well from our perspective.
Yeah, that's true. So most people we know, though, are operating under some form of this hum, their own barking dog that's in the background saying, "Yep, yep, yep, you're not there yet. You're not... N- n- you've got something to do." And the person who serves relentlessly because they're Quite sure grace won't cover them.
Or the person who picks up their Bible religiously every day and reads their verse for the day, so I can tick that off. At least I've done that, you know? Instead of looking for life in Jesus, that's a different motivation altogether. Or the time where we feel like, you know, I'm not sure after 20-odd years of being a Christian, am I really saved?
What a place to be at, right? When God is, has been close to you and working with you, and you still don't have that sense of closure or finished work in you. I don't know if you ever felt that way, but we're kind of addressing those things today. Most of us have learned to manage the hum, to keep functioning despite it.
We try to fill the gap with other things like performance. Maybe I'll just do a bit better. Maybe I'll add something to my list of things I have to do. Good, godly things, you know, that might help. Just be busier. But this low hum has a, a name. The New Testament writer, the Apostle Paul, calls it condemnation.
If you're not sure what that is, insert judgment, right? Denunciation, disapproval, any of those synonyms will work. When you don't think that you're really at the place where God can bless you, you know, the whole statement about God forgives our sins, well, that is generally true, but specifically not for me.
There's something about me that doesn't qualify for that So the New Testament writer has something definitive and helpful to say. That hum, that barking dog has a name, but the answer isn't more effort. It's a declaration. So the Spirit of God, you know, He's going to replace the list of rules with His own presence.
This is what we're aiming for in our Christian living, to be at a place where we're not relying upon ourself, and there's a reality shift. Spiritual growth is not upgrading the old for new, but it's actually like it's replacing the broken engine in our car with one that's more powerful, one that will get us to the destination.
Let's talk about three shifts in thinking that we could look at. The first one is there is no checklist for Christians. You're gonna say that's sacrilege, right? What are you talking about? I don't have to do anything? Exactly. The moment you say, "God, you have to accept me because I did something. I felt this or I've, I've been faithful," then you've missed the whole point.
Moving away from rules and enforcing those rules. The other thing is a new motivation. How do we get to that place of solitude with God? Serving out of love rather than out of fear. And then there's the new power that we need, relying on God's internal strength over my personal willpower or m- my, my won't power.
You know, I won't do that. As soon as you say, "I won't do that," it's like the chocolate principle. As soon as you say, "I won't have those Tim Tams," What's in your mind all the time? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we come to this hinge word in our scriptures today. We're gonna come to it. In Romans 6, um, Pastor Kev helped us out there.
We should we keep on singing, sinning, singing. Should we keep on sinning so grace will increase? Absolutely not. The, the formula isn't, I know God will forgive, so I can just excessively sin. That's the cop-out. There's something more mature to do with that. In Romans 7, we, we heard about, uh, it's like being chained to a body of death.
Thanks, Pastor Kev, for that horrible, grotesque illustration you gave us. The... Apparently, the Romans got it from the Etruscans or somebody. But if you killed somebody, they would take that dead carcass and put it on you with chains, and as it rots away, you, oh. Face to face. Coming face to face with death.
And Paul says after saying, "You know, the very good thing I wanna do, I can't do it." The thing that I know not to do, I do it. But who can spare me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. And that's why we come to the therefore in our scripture today. When you see the word therefore in scripture, you always ask, "What's it there for?"
Yeah, I know. I got it from Bible College. But it works. Too often we don't look at the context of a verse to understand it. We've just been through that context now, and now we come to the beautiful part, Romans 8, "Therefore, there is now," listen, "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And we all say, "I understand what you're saying, but that doesn't apply to me."
Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit, who gives life, has set, set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. Something had to give for my sin.
It's either me or Him. He says, "Choose me." God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering, and so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us. Your debt is paid Your debt is paid. Can I say it one more time?
Your debt is paid. Stop trying to accept that you've got a debt. We had a reading this week in our SOAP. I don't know if you got to it, but in this Isaiah 43, it's really weird. I've never seen it this way before. God said, "It's for my sake that I forgive you. I forget your sins. It's for me. I don't wanna be troubled with thinking about your impurities forever.
I've forgiven you, let them go." How dare I insult God by bringing up my sin all the time and living there? Yeah. Hey? That's weird. But that's God. He loves us so well. What the law was powerless to do, Christ did for us. God, through Jesus, had made a change that is eternal in consequence. It's that barking dog, that low hum has been put to silence.
You see, the law can't do anything more than be a mirror to us. It reflects all the time all the things you've done wrong. You look in the mirror and you say, "Oh, I've sinned there, I've sinned there, I've sinned there. I can't uphold that standard." And God says, "I know. I'm not asking you to be enough" I'm not asking you to be enough.
Just believe in the enough that I am- Yeah ... for you. Is that good? That's great. Yeah. Live with that. Okay. So God sent Jesus to do what the law never could do. He absorbed the condemnation entirely. He dealt with our sin once and for all at its root, and made possible a life lived in the Spirit's power. The Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Not will set you free, but has set you free. The transaction is complete. The condemnation has been fully absorbed. Your guilt is expunged. You're acquitted. Go free. Freedom is not a future goal you earn, it's something you live from. You know, I thought about this. What did Christians always say about being in Christ?
There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and the consensus is, according to AI- Being... No, seriously, I, I looked at the scripture. Being in Christ means that Jesus' new reality has completely swallowed up your old life. Yes. This new life is swallowed up by your... swallowed up your old identity.
Isn't that great? So notice what Paul doesn't say. He doesn't say there's less condemnation if you're trying really hard. And, yeah, he doesn't even say there's no condemnation if you've had a good week. And he doesn't say... What he really says is, "There is now no punishment, no condemnation, no inadequacy in you at all."
It's not about you, after all. You know, God is really saying, "I don't care what you do." That's sacrilege, I know. But think about it. He's saying, "I don't care what you do. I care whether your allegiance is to me. I care whether you've understood just how complete my saving grace is for you." Can you do better?
Like, imagine you're an atheist for a minute. Oh, I feel so sad for those guys. Why? Because they have nothing to hope in, nothing to offer the world. Without the reality of what God has done for us, we're very, very sorry people. And I'm not being proud and saying, "Oh, look at me, I'm a Christian." I'm saying this is the reality of life in the universe.
You're either with the one who knows or you're not. And the one who knows, knows you're sinful, says, "As far as I'm concerned, there is no, not one skerrick of lack in you." Let's all breathe. That's where we need to operate from according to Jesus. Think of it like upgrading your whole system from the inside out, a new way that you process everything.
Essentially, you stop trying to drive the broken car by pushing it uphill, but you just relax back in the new electric motor. No, the new system- ... that God has given you. It's a new power in the Spirit. For many of us, the thought that we don't have to do anything seems foreign, almost unholy. But you don't.
You don't have to do anything. But there's no free lunch, right? Guess what? Jesus said, "I've set you free. I've paid." It wasn't free, really. The price was paid by Him. Surely it can't be that easy. I hope you'll live this week and the rest of your life knowing that it's that easy. You hear what I'm trying to say to you?
Let go of all that burden of trying to be religious, trying to be just the way Pastor Kev wants you to be. No, I'm serious. He's one of the first proponents of this understanding. A beautiful thing. Old habits die hard, but they must die. And the old habit of believing that I have to do something, that's a bad one.
Let me tell you about Aristotle Onassis. If you weren't born, like, more than 30 years ago, you won't know who I'm talking about. But, uh, there was a guy named JFK, the President of USA. His wife, after he died, went and married this very rich, wealthy guy in Greece named Aristotle Onassis. Very wealthy in his own time, one of the billionaires of the world.
And apparently, allegedly, he said one time to a friend of his, "Look, I know you're struggling, but here, take my check. It's a blank check, and this check has no figure on it. Whatever you need, just write that figure on. I've already signed it. It's yours." Wow. You see, Aristotle saw something in that man that the man himself wasn't quite ready to accept.
So, the man took the check gratefully and, and looked at it, and thought, "Isn't that wonderful? I've got this resource," and immediately put it into a drawer in his, uh, study and went on to have great success in business and never opened the drawer to take out the check. Just knowing that he had this endless resource was enough for him to change the way he thought about himself and what he could achieve.
And I would like to say that what we have in Romans 8:1-4 is more than just a blank check from a billionaire. It's Jesus saying, "My resources are endless. Your debt now, present, future, all covered by what I've done. If I haven't been effective in dying for you, then don't believe me." Yeah. "Don't trust me."
Don't say you're a Christian and then live the poverty of thinking you've gotta make it. That's heavy, isn't it? But I love it. It's not only the promise psychologically of having peace, but more than that, a spiritual peace and assurance that in this present moment, God has made us more than enough So we who are believers do not have to wait until the end of life to know that we're secure.
The knowledge of now no cond- condemnation removes the paralyzing fear of failure. Isn't that great? We don't have to fear that we're not gonna make it. So every time this week, whenever you feel like that voice of punishment and judgment coming upon you, every time that low barking dog comes at you, just rip out Romans 8 Chapter 1.
Rip it out. Yeah, rip it out and speak over it- Yeah ... confidently. It's not a magic formula, it's a declaration of what is real in God's eyes. And there, He's the one that really matters. Let me share this beautiful quote. It's, uh, um, attributed to a lady named Nancy Spiegelberg, and she famously wrote these words: "Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup, uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment.
If only I had known you better, I would have come with a bucket, running." That's what we, we often come with a small cup saying, "Please, Lord, just a little bit. I just need a little bit to get me through." And he says, "Where's your bucket? Let me fill you up. Let me give you more than you have, have ever needed, because that's who I am.
That's my generosity So who are those who succeed in faith? Those who come with God's blank check of unlimited grace. They come boldly before the throne of grace. It's not boldness of us, but boldness in the truth. Not performance anxiety, not the fear of being found out. The quiet confidence of people who know they are free.
It's not a pipe dream It's not pie in the sky. This is what Christ Jesus' new covenant really means for us. Worship team's gonna just come now, and as they prepare to come, we're gonna worship God. They're gonna sing a song. You may want to just sit there and let it flow over you. The idea of this reflection song is not to get you emotionally up, up, going up or something like that, but give you a space to reflect.
Imagine a Gold Coast community that genuinely operates without condemnation, not because it ignores sin, but because it has absorbed the declaration of Romans 8:1 so that deeply that low hum has been replaced by something else. And it starts with each of us choosing to live from the declaration instead of from the hum.
We choose. If God has moved you today, and you are either in this place or at home, just know that he wants you to do something, but not in what we usually think of. He wants you to surrender to him and accept what he's done and say, "Lord, I'm sick of trying." And just say, "Good, I've been waiting for you."
Stop trying and just be. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The spirit of life has already set you free from the law of sin and death. Freedom is not something you earn, it's something you live from. A.W. Tozer, one of my heroes of faith, said, "The only sin Jesus ever had was ours And the only righteousness we can have is His.
When the enemy comes saying, "You call yourself a Christian? I saw what you did. I listened to that, s- the thing you just said. I know who you are." And you say, "Take it up with my boss. He says there is no condemnation. Get behind me, Satan." Mm. Hey? Let's do that. Amen. Yeah. So one last quote here. It came from, uh, God Met Me There on the Facebook.
Very good source. It, it might have been in RightNow Media. There comes a moment when you realize you've reached the end of yourself. You've prayed, you've tried, you've planned, you've fought, and nothing changes. We often think that's where hope ends, but Corrie ten Boom discovered a secret that only c- complete dependence on God can teach.
She said, "When we are powerless to do a thing, it's a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus." When we can't do it, we step into Him. Be in Christ. What a beautiful exchange; our weakness for His strength, our inability for His power, our empty hands for His sufficient grace. God has never asked you to be enough.
He asks you to trust the one who always is. Your limitations are not a barrier to God. They're often where He begins to work. Mm. So stop measuring the size of your problem and measure the size of your God instead. Yeah. His ability has no limits. As God speaks to you, I just wanna pray with us, uh, pray over us today.
Father, we receive Your truth today. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We believe it, not as theology, but as our new operating system, our new reality. Despite our weakness, we are powerful in Your ability. God, we choose to live from that freedom today. Amen. Thank you