Not Enough, Just Enough, Or More Than Enough

NOT ENOUGH, JUST ENOUGH, or MORE THAN ENOUGH

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: Lacking a Little

1. A man went on a ski trip and was knocked unconscious by the chairlift. He called his insurance company from the hospital, but they refused to cover his injury.

2. He asked them, "Why is the injury not covered?" They answered, "Because it is a pre-existing condition." He said, "That’s impossible! Being hit with a chair lift is not a pre-existing condition!"

3. "No, but no one but an idiot would get hit in the head by a chairlift. That makes you an idiot, and we consider that a pre-existing condition."

B. THESIS Spiritual Poverty: an imperfect analogy

1. If you put money into the bank, time after time, then when you need something, you can go to the bank and take out some of what you’ve put into it.

2. The same happens in the spiritual realm. When you get built up in the Spirit & the Word, and you suddenly need something from God – like an answer to prayer, a healing, a new infilling, someone needs deliverance, you’re resisting a satanic attack – then you can turn toward God and make a withdrawal from your spiritual surplus. But if you haven’t been putting something in, then there’s nothing in your spiritual account to draw out.

3. We’re supposed to store up anointing or spiritual fullness to be used in time of need. Remember the 10 Virgins who waited for the Bridegroom. They had to have oil enough for the moment but also EXTRA OIL to sustain them through the period beyond what they thought they needed. Five of them did not have enough.

4. THE POINT: We don’t need to get just enough of God for the moment, but we need to have an abundance of His presence, extra-excess-anointing to take care of bigger-than-normal needs.

5. There are 3 conditions the people of God find themselves in when they meet a crisis: Not Enough, Just Enough, and More Than Enough. This is a message about spiritual poverty or spiritual abundance.

I. NOT ENOUGH ANOINTING

People who have “just enough,” often fail in their Christian life, because they didn’t know the extent (strength) of the enemies’ bondage or the extent to which they would be put to the test. Examples:

A. THE NINE DISCIPLES

1. The 9 disciples who couldn’t cast out the spirit (Mt. 17:19-20) are a good example. When tested, they did not have enough anointing/ power of the Spirit, in their lives, to cast it out. Jesus told them, “This kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting.” Jesus meant that the disciples were supposed to have prayed and fasted enough, beforehand, to gain extra power before they got to the test.

2. Jesus often spent evenings, mornings, and sometimes whole nights in prayer, so that when He faced implacable demons or severe healing needs or resurrections, He was sufficient for the need.

3. Some wrongly assume that Jesus automatically had power because He was the Son of God. Paul revealed that Jesus relinquished His automatic right to His power when He became man (kenosis, Phip. 2:7, “he emptied himself, taking the very nature of a servant”). Jesus made Himself like us and began deriving His power from the Spirit (as our example), the same way we’re supposed to – by prayer, fasting, and spending time communing with God, & being filled with His Spirit.

4. But this requires the seeker to have a spiritual appetite. You have to “hunger & thirst after righteousness” or you will not be filled. A. W. Tozer said, "Before we can be filled with the Spirit, the desire to be filled must be all-consuming. It must be for the time the biggest thing in the life, so acute, so intrusive as to crowd out everything else. The degree of fullness in any life accords perfectly with the intensity of true desire. We have as much of God as we actually want.”

B. THE ROCKY SOIL THE SEED FELL ON

Another example of a Christian who didn’t have enough was in the parable of the seed which fell on rocky soil (Mt. 13:20-21; Mk. 4:16-17; Lk. 8:13). This is the believer who is superficial, who doesn’t have depth in the Word & the Holy Spirit, Jesus said they’re more likely to fall away in times of testing. Because of their shallow experience they don’t have enough spiritual reserves to survive difficult times.

C. THE FIVE FOOLISH VIRGINS, Matt. 25:1-13

A third example of not having enough anointing is the parable of the 5 foolish Virgins. They did NOT have enough of the oil to keep their lamps burning through the night until the fourth watch and the coming of the Bridegroom – Christ.

1. Here is the mistake of the five foolish virgins: they didn't realize the toll that darkness would take on their resources/fuel; it went on longer & stronger than they anticipated. Christians make this mistake today.