How confident are you to face each day? How adequate do you feel to take on life? How do you deal with the challenges that life brings you each day and you own feelings of inadequacy?
A golfer who had been playing badly went to a psychiatrist who told him to relax by playing a round of golf without a ball. "Do everything you would normally do, but use an imaginary ball,".
The golfer tried it the next day. He stepped up on the first tee, imagined he got a 260-yard drive, made a fine approach shot to the green, then putted for a par. The round went splendidly and as he approached the 18th hole, he met another golfer playing the same way--no ball.
The other golfer had seen the same psychiatrist.
They decided to play the last hole together and bet $10 on the outcome.
The first golfer swung at his imaginary ball and announced that it had gone 280 yards right down the middle of the fairway. The second golfer matched his drive.
The first fellow then took out his 5-iron and after swinging at his imaginary ball, he exclaimed,
"Look at that shot! It went right over the pin and the reverse spin on it brought it right back into the hole! I win." "No you don’t," said the second golfer. "You hit my ball."
We can go thru so many deceptive gymnastics to try convince ourselves of our own adequacy when it come to facing life each day.
Lady went to a minister and said, “I must confess a great sin in my life.” “What is it?” “It’s the sin of pride. I often stand before my mirror and admire my beauty for hours on end.” The preacher replied, “Lady, your sin is not the sin of pride. IT’S THE SIN OF THE IMAGINATION.”
Prominent photographer of Milwaukee says that there are actually very few beautiful women or handsome men in the world. “It is interesting to see the number of persons who do not know that they have a crooked nose, one eye smaller, a lopsided face or some other fault. (Picasso)
When people look into the mirror they usually are combing their hair, shaving or otherwise in motion. MOTION IS THE GREAT DECEIVER, and when in motion, the faults are minimized. It is when the face is stationary, as in a picture, that the faults become apparent.” (Might explain while so many are afraid to slow down and take a good look at themselves)
We all need more confidence in life, but one way not to get it is by looking at your own picture such as on your DRIVER’S LICENSE PICTURE?
Most of us look pretty much like criminals or something else. MY THEORY is that people who drink should pose for their driver’s license so they look drunk. That way the police officer would look at it and then them and ask no questions.
Actor Tom Selleck said, “Whenever I get full of myself, I remember the nice, elderly couple who approached me with a camera on a street in Honolulu one day. When I struck a pose for them, the man said, ‘NO, NO, WE WANT YOU TO TAKE A PICTURE OF US.’”
Paul asks a question at the end of chapter 2: And who is adequate for these things? ‘Sufficient…power….ability…fitness’ Literally ‘many’ Who has enough for what God calls their life to?
Beginning in 3:4 Paul explains what truly makes us adequate:
Paul mentions all three Persons of the Trinity to show us how a God-centered, God-directed, God-saturated life functions. What is to be the source of our confidence?
4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
OUR CONFIDENCE IN IS CHRIST AND NOT OURSELVES
Sign in front of an Atlanta, Georgia, restaurant featuring fried chicken read, “IF THE COLONEL HAD OUR CHICKEN RECIPE HE’D BE A GENERAL.”
No lack of confidence in that place.
The idea has it’s origins in the OT
When Abram was 99yrs old – God said: “I am God Almighty!” El Shaddai in the Hebrew } God Almighty
God promised the He would multiply his descendants
That he would become a father of many nations / that kings would descend from him
And that Jehovah would be God to him and his descendants
Abraham fell on his face and laughed saying: “Shall a child be born to a woman who is 90yrs old – and I am almost 100?
God responded saying “Sarah shall indeed bare a son – and you shall call his name Isaac Isaac means LAUGHTER! MORE FAITH: Name kid Caleb
Shaddai comes from the root word with the idea of a woman nursing her Child and the Child Receiving nourishment Receiving strength& life
God portrays Himself to us as the one who nourishes us – Gives us strength/life.
God is able to work thru the least likely candidates
God is able to take the impossible and make it possible.
God is the all sufficient one Who makes up for all of our weaknesses, flaws, failures
When you recognize your inability, your insufficiency that is a good thing –
A)Because you to lean upon God for His strength.
B)People who think they have it all together are hard to be around.
Paul wrote to the Galatians – If a man thinks he is something when he is nothing – He is only deceiving himself
‘If the Pope had been married he would not have thought himself infallible’ His wife would have let him know his flaws
Life has a way doesn’t it of bringing us to the realization of our weaknesses!
And in HIM you find your real source of Strength
Philippians 4:13 “ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Paul asserts that true confidence is rooted in personal inadequacy.
1)vThere was no capacity in him adequate to do ministry.
HALL OF FAME OF FAITH: Hebrews 11(many have similarity of early doubt)
Moses argues – wrong guy God/I must be at the wrong bush
I am not eloquent – I can’t speak - slow of speech.
God responds “Who has made man’s mouth?”
Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” (Exodus 4:11)
Joshua is afraid – he feels inadequate. Meets Captain of Lord of Hosts at Wall
God’s answer in Josh 1:5-6 “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage.”
Gideon: Calling you to be my Leader: Valiant Warrior threshing wheat in winepress
“Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house,” Judges 6:15.
v. 16. “And the LORD said to him, ‘But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man, ”
Isaiah “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Has there ever been a people with more unclean minds and lips than modern America who even uses the name of their God to curse?
The Lord touched Isaiah’s lips with a burning coal from the altar – Said – Your iniquity is taken away Lord make in ‘in America but not of America’
Jeremiah’s insufficiency {I am too young) “Ah, LORD GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth,” Jeremiah 1:6
“But the LORD said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a youth”; You go, and whatever I command you, speak.
Today: I am too old? Paul told Timothy to let no one look down on you for your age(he was young) The question is not about my age but about my God. I AM TOO: old, young, poor, new as Christian, timid or shy, have too bad a past… DON’T LET ANYONE LOOK DOWN ON YOU BUT JUST LOOK UP TO HIM!
DL Moody was the Billy Graham of His day: Led to Christ by a shoe salesman(shoe store to win souls) and ended up preaching to millions leading 100,000s to Christ
Moody’s grammar wasn’t very good and he often mispronounced words People would laugh at Him but Moody just relied on the Lord to help him make sense
After one of his Messages a Seminary student walked up & said Mr. Moody I counted 18 grammatical errors in the first 5 Min of your Mess.
Moody Responded – Young man I am using all the grammar I got for God’s Glory what are you doing w/ Yours ?
Vance Havner. “Our weaknesses and God’s strength form an unbeatable combination!”
Oswald Chambers: “All through history God has chosen and used nobodies, because their unusual dependence on him made possible the unique display of his power and grace. He chose and used somebodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources.” Everybody can qualify as a nobody!
OUR ADEQUACY IT TO BE SERVANTS OF THE NEW COVENANT our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant,
The New Covenant is built upon the Old Covenant like the New Testament is built upon the Old Testament.
First words of the New Covenant are not Matthew 1:1 but when Jesus said from the cross, ‘IT IS FINISHED’.
God is the one who makes us Adequate for this life calling.
Fred Smith, the head of Federal Express, got the idea for his delivery service while he was in college. He wrote his thesis on the idea and his professor gave him a C-minus, disapproving of the idea.
Robert G. Witty died 5 years ago at the age of 100. At age 55 Mr. Witty approached all 6 of our SBC seminaries with an idea that we now know as ‘distance education’. He was concerned that Pastors had to leave their church fields if they wanted to pursue further education. He was turned down by all 6 of our seminaries who thought it was not a good idea. Witty responded by, even at age 55, going back to school and getting a PHD in Education. He then began some 40+ years ago a school called Luther Rice Seminary. In the next 3 years some 17,000 took advantage of this new school and many more in the years to come. People like Charles Stanley and Adrian Rogers got their doctorates from Luther Rice. My own doctorate came from a school with the exact same accreditation as Luther Rice has.
If we are seeking for God to make us adequate at things unrelated to our surrender and commitment to Him then we have no promise to claim here.
The truth is the EVERYTHING WE DO is to be lived out of our being His servants to this as our calling in life: Every 24 hours, every day at work or school, every round of golf or time of fellowship with friends.
All our moments belong to God and we are live as servants in them.
a) Not just servants but servants to our calling to proclaim and live the New Covenant.
What is the New Covenant? The basis of our forgiveness and relationship with God which comes from Christ’s payment for our sin because of God’s MERCY and our adoption as God’s children by his GRACE.
The Greek has 2 main words for “new”. new in point of time.(baby in the world)
new in quality. It brings something fresh into the situation. Paul used #2.
a) Old Covenant I try to earn my own righteousness through the Law and fall short but through the New Covenant and stand in the righteousness of Christ before God.
b) Under the Old Covenant I do the best I can in my own power but under the New Covenant I live each day by the same power that raised Christ from the dead.
Charles Spurgeon said, “Trust no man who is self-sufficient…………Christ’s men are more apt to feel their inability rather than their ability. The man who does everything for the Lord is the man who cannot do anything without the Lord. The man that knows he is nobody, God will make somebody’
Faith releases to us the Sufficiency of God! He becomes El Shaddai …..
2 Kings 4 Great Famine – people are starving – Elisha meets this widow in debt. She is in danger of losing everything including her sons to slavery. Elisha comes and asks ‘do you have anything in the house? – Nothing but a Jar of oil
4:3 Elisha said, "Go, borrow empty pots s from everywhere, from all your neighbors — empty vessels; do not gather just a few.” Go borrow as many as you can!
She had to borrow those empty vessels believing that God was going to fill them.
Her faith was going to be registered in how many pots she borrowed.
She borrowed enough to have her debt paid and enough to live on for the rest of the year. God was sufficient to meet her need!
When God looks for someone to use He does not look for those who are already full of themselves or full of pride or self-centeredness but He looks for empty vessels that He Himself can fill.
He often has to bring us to the place of ‘emptiness’ before we are finally usable to Him.
That was God under the Old Covenant telling Elijah to go gather pots to fill. God under the New Covenant says ‘you are the pots. Be filled’….believe that He will work through your life and He can multiply your gifts and talents and resources like the loaves and fishes that were put in Jesus’ hands.
OIL is symbolic of the Holy Spirit Who comes to fill our lives to overflowing so that we spill out and touch all those around us.
A) He can’t fill you unless your seek Him and surrender to His filling
B) He can’t touch others unless you allow Him to overflow your life through faith enough to be used and reach out in serving others
OUR POWER IN NOT IN OUR OBEDENCE BUT IN THE ONE WE OBEY not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
The Old Covenant is a covenant of death and condemnation. It is an impossible standard that we, because of our sin, have no ability to keep.
The New Covenant is ‘of the Spirit’ and the ‘Spirit gives life’ to us through the righteousness of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The LETTER(Law) makes us aware of our sin but leaves us without a remedy.(kills us) God is our Judge and we are condemned criminals.
The SPIRIT gives us life because God is also the FATHER who makes us His sons. It changes our hearts and makes us New Creations as His adopted children.
The law functions like a CAT scan that reveals my cancer but does nothing to cure it. The law is powerless to change my heart. It punishes but it cannot transform. The Spirit gives me new life and new desires. Now I am changed from the inside out. There is a sweetness that the Letter can never give but only the Spirit.
A farmer repeatedly invited a friend into his apple orchard to taste the fruit and make some fresh cider. The friend always said, "No, I would rather not." Finally, the farmer said, "I guess you are prejudiced against my apples."
"Well, to tell the truth, I have tasted a few of them and they are very sour."
The farmer then asked which apples his friend had eaten. "Those apples which fell along the road over your fence,"
"Those are sour. I planted them to fool the boys who live around here. But, if you will come into the middle of my orchard, you will find a different taste."
Our confidence and adequacy and power will never be realized by living along the Fringes of our faith. Those who live on the fringes of Christianity will think it a sour experience as they find it to be all about keeping lists of do and don’ts.
God invites us into the middle of the orchard where the fresh fruit is found. It comes only through the work of the Spirit in our lives.
our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, ….adequate by the Spirit Who ‘gives life’.
John 6:63"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. (Same word as used by Paul here)
Do you want this kind of lIfe?
Do you want to be adequate for all God has for you?
It begins by knowing you can’t do it on your own.
It begins when you surrender to His will and His ways in your life.
