“Not Good Enough?”
Isaiah 6:1-8
There is a video clip from the t-v show “Ellen.”
And the background to this clip is about a lady named Gladdis.
You see, Gladdis got onto the Ellen Show because she wrote a letter to Ellen complaining about where the plants were placed on the set.
Apparently, this letter peaked Ellen’s interest in “just who” this Gladdis lady was and what she was up to.
So, during one of her shows, Ellen called Gladdis on the telephone.
And Ellen asked Gladdis, “Have you ever been on t-v before?”
And this is Gladdis’ response: She said, “Well, no.”
And then she said, “But I love Jesus, but I drink a little.”
I’m not sure why she answered that way.
Ellen hadn’t asked her about her relationship with God at all.
“I love Jesus,” she said, “but I drink a little.”
When I saw this clip I started pondering, as most pastors do…
…we have some really deep thoughts about things sometimes, you know…
…and so I started pondering this phrase.
“I love Jesus, but I drink a little.”
And as I began to think about it—it started to dawn on me, “You know there is a lot of truth to this statement for a lot of people—including myself.”
Sometimes in my own life there’s this type of thing.
“I love Jesus, but…”
How about you?
Do you have this in your life as well?
For some it may be, “I love Jesus, but I talk a little too much behind other peoples’ backs.”
Or, “I love Jesus, but I use words that hurt people sometimes.”
Or, “I love Jesus, but I cheat on my taxes.”
Or, “I love Jesus, but I just don’t like myself.”
When I was a freshman in college I was walking across campus one bright and sunny day, when I came across a woman who was in my English class, and who also went to the same Bible study I went to.
She was probably in her fifties.
I was 18.
In any event we got talking and eventually the conversation turned to God.
And this woman believed in God.
She even loved God.
But then she said something that I had a hard time understanding.
She said, “Heaven must be a wonderful place, but I will never be there.”
I asked her why, and she said, “Because I’m not good enough.”
As our conversation continued I learned that she had been molested by her father as a child.
And she was also told continually by her parents that she was stupid, no good and would never amount to anything.
When she got older she married a man who abused her as well.
He called her all sorts of names and she believed him.
And so, this women who loved God and Jesus, was convinced that she would never go to heaven because she was totally sure she was not good enough.
We talked for a long time that day.
We talked about the love of God.
We talked about grace.
We talked about why Jesus had come and died.
Eventually my friend looked at me and said: “Do you mean to say that I can actually go to heaven?
Do you mean to say that I will be there too?”
In our Scripture passage for this morning we see Isaiah struggling with the problem of “I’m not good enough.”
And many of us, like Isaiah, often feel a sense of low or no self-worth.
We might think, “Who am I that God might want to send me?”
“I can’t share God’s message of hope with others.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“I’m in bondage to sin and I can’t free myself.”
We all mess up sometimes, whether it’s lashing out at a friend, engaging in self-destructive behavior—you name it.
And with these mistakes often come overwhelming feelings of guilt.
Shame.
Self-condemnation.
Humiliation.
Too often we punish ourselves for past mistakes, as if we could somehow “make up” the wrong that we’ve done on our own.
This may cause us to walk through each day feeling less-than.
We might call ourselves “losers,” “no good,” “unlovable.”
Counselors and life coaches report that the hardest person to forgive is often ourselves.
Not the friend who backstabbed us.
Or the dad who wasn’t there for us.
Or even the ex who broke our heart.
Holding on to feelings of self-condemnation can lead to stress, depression, anxiety disorders and even heart disease.
Not to mention keeping us from doing what God created us to do and from being all God created us to be.
The first 8 verses of Isaiah Chapter 6 describe one of the best known of Isaiah’s prophetic visions.
Isaiah is summoned to the throne of God and overcome by awe and terror.
God is holy.
Isaiah is not.
And this realization hits Isaiah with overwhelming force.
“Woe to me!” cries Isaiah.
“I am ruined!
For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
How many of us would be terrified to be caught in the same situation?
Would we feel ruined if we were to stand before the throne of God?
A campus minister once held a series of meetings with students on campus.
The topics ranged across the spectrum—but all the students agreed on one thing: God was extremely disappointed in them.
Don’t believe that lie!!!
In reality, God loves every single one of us more than we could possibly imagine—just the way we are and no matter what!!!
How do I know?
The Bible tells me so.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…”
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”
“God is love. There is no fear in love.”
And, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that [God] loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Paul tells us in Ephesians Chapter 2 that “it is by grace [we] have been saved, through faith—and this not from [ourselves], it is the gift of God—not by works…”
And in Hebrews it says: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence…”
What an amazing God we have.
No matter what we have done, no matter where we have been—through faith in Christ—little old me and you can approach that Holy Throne of God with confidence.
There is nothing we can do to make God love us more.
There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.
In our Scripture Lesson for this morning, Isaiah did nothing to save himself.
Instead, God did all the saving.
God sent one of His angels to Isaiah with a live coal in his hand.
With it he touched Isaiah’s mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Then Isaiah heard “the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?”
And instead of saying: “I’m not good enough,” Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me!”
God’s love and God’s grace—not only allows us to know we are forgiven, but it allows us to learn to forgive ourselves and then—gives us a reason to live—a calling—a mission for God.
That’s right, God has created us for a purpose.
And God saves us to fulfill that purpose.
Ephesians Chapter 2 tells us that we are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
We all make mistakes.
None of us are perfect.
None of us are really up to the job, but God calls us anyway.
God chooses to use us anyway.
And if we allow God, God will do great things with our lives.
I heard a story about a mother who wanted so badly for her son to become a great piano player.
So she took him to a piano concert where the greatest player in the world was performing—hoping that this would inspire her little boy to fulfill her dreams for him.
So they were sitting in their seats waiting for the concert to begin and the mother got distracted speaking to an old friend who was sitting close by.
And when she finally turned back in her seat, her son was no longer there.
She was wondering, “Where in the world did he go?”
And the show was just about to begin and she looked up at the stage, and there on the stage was her little boy.
He’d somehow gotten to the front and climbed up on the stage and was now walking, with determination toward the grand piano.
And the auditorium was packed.
And that little boy walked up to that piano and sits down and starts to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on the grand piano.
And you could begin to hear a few giggles coming from the audience.
And then the great piano player walks out behind the little boy, reaches his right hand around him and begins to fill in the notes.
And he takes his left hand and reaches around and begins to play with the little boy playing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
The next thing you know is that this beautiful sound fills the auditorium as folks rise to their feet in awe.
We don’t have to be some grand piano player.
God’s forgiveness, love and unmerited grace is more than enough to turn our fear of the Holy God into a Love for God and ourselves, and our neighbor—a love that spurs us on into service and fills our lives with great meaning and joy.
If we allow God to control the show, pretty soon our feeble attempts in this life will bring forth great big results for God’s Kingdom.
…Altar Call…
