Enough is Enough

Do you pray enough? Do you worship enough? Do you read your Bible enough? Do you serve the church enough? Do you give enough? Do you do good enough?

Most of us will sigh now. Our cheeks may flush a little. Our shoulders may slump. Our “hearts sink.” And we will probably shake our heads as we say, “No. Probably not.”

How many of us have prayed, “God, I’m sorry. I know I don’t pray enough.” Or read enough or serve or worship or give enough. Who hasn’t felt this way sometimes? I suspect most of us feel this way more often than not.

So here’s the question: What is enough?

If we agree we don’t do these things enough, then we must feel we know what enough is, right? There must be some line we’re supposed to be across, some bar we’re supposed to rise to. So what is it? If we’re going to feel a little ashamed, a little embarrassed, a little guilty, a lot burdened because we’re not making the grade, then we must know what the grade is, right?

Is that what he’s looking for, before he’s not disappointed in us?

One hour a day? Two? Five? Maybe one hour meditation, combined with constant prayer awareness, mixed with two hours of Bible Study and a forty-five minute worship session? Would that be enough? Is that what God demands of us? Is that what he’s looking for, before he’s not disappointed in us? Is that what the Gospel tells us?

The word enough is defined as “to the required degree or extent” or “as much or as many as required.“

Let’s see what the Gospel requires.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:17

And God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Eph. 2:4-6

he is completely and absolutely unwavering and unstoppable in his all consuming love for you.

The Gospel tells us that God loved us even when we were not nearly enough. When we were “dead in our trespasses” God loved us with GREAT love. No matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been or all the ways you’ve failed and shamed yourself and abused and been abused and cheated and lied and debased and betrayed and turned away from God, he is completely and absolutely unwavering and unstoppable in his all consuming love for you. So much so that he gave himself up for you with joy. You were not nearly enough, but he loved you and made a way.

The Gospel tells us that there was only one Son, one man full of grace and righteousness, one enough in all existence. And that enough has a name– Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God.

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12

“You need your encounter with the God who speaks.”

At St. George’s we’ve been working through a sermon series on the book of Judges. We’ve seen that whenever the people of Israel tried to be enough on their own they’d fail, over and over. This past week Todd Cantelon preached on Judges 6. He said this: “You don’t need a better plan. You don’t need to be a better person. You just need a Holy moment… You need your encounter with the God who speaks.”
And what has the God who speaks told us in the Bible?

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him[Christ Jesus]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 2 Cor 1:20

You have been transferred by God from the land of not enough into the Kingdom of Enough

God has spoken through his word and declared that Jesus is enough. He is the Yes, the fulfillment, of all of God’s promises and the only enough there is. And the only enough we’ll ever need. And if we call him Lord and believe God raised him from the dead, the Gospel tells us that God has made us alive together with him and in him. Our very life, born fresh and new by his grace, is enough. Our life dwells in enough. It is in the only enough there is. You have been transferred by God from the land of not enough into the Kingdom of Enough, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. There is no standard, level, bar, grade that he has not fulfilled for you and won for you and raised you above. There is nothing left for you to accomplish for you to be saved, loved, reconciled and made new. That’s why the Christian life is marked by praise, thankfulness and joy. We have not only been called “enough”, but we have been made enough. Fact. There is no other enough than the enough we have in Christ Jesus.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Imagine trying to get into a room that you are already in. How frustrating and bewildering that would be.

If we strive and labour and wrack our minds for how we might improve ourselves and thereby become “enough” we are trying to get into something that we are already in. If you are a Christian you are in Christ and you are in enough. Imagine trying to get into a room that you are already in. How frustrating and bewildering that would be. So are our attempts to get into enough, if we don’t realize that because of Christ, God has already put us there.

“Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the Law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2

So next time we recognize we haven’t prayed in a while and are tempted to hang our heads in shame, to lift a burden of guilt up on our shoulders and say, “I know I don’t pray enough,” let’s remember there is only one enough. And every Christian is alive in Him and has his Spirit. Instead let us pray, “Abba Father, who loves me, I want to pray more. I want to worship you more. And give more and love more. Open my eyes to see just how free and alive and enough I am because of you! Because I want to live out the new life you have raised me into in Christ Jesus, my Lord and Saviour, my joy and love and my enough!”