Is Jesus Enough?

In light of the political climate and the continual denial of Christian values in the public square, I see a necessity for the leaders in our churches to be "real" with our congregations about the weight of our relationship with Christ.

Here are just a few thoughts I shared this morning with our congregation:

Jesus is all in all. He is the goal of our salvation and He is the prize. It is Him we should cherish above all else. Our savlation is not simply: heaven or hell. The culmination of our salvation is the worship and glory of the Father through His Son. 

In light of that fact, I ask you this morning, do you love Jesus for what he gives you or because he's Jesus?

If you love Jesus for what He gives, you will walk away from him; because if it hasn't already happened to you, someday your faith will be tested.

After years of waiting, Abraham finally gets the son God had promised him. Can you imagine the joy and hope that came with the birth of Isaac. Abraham finally had the son that would lead to a blessing of the nations. His faith in God was now stronger than it had ever been. He must have been the happiest man on the planet. I can imagine he and Sarah rejoicing together as little Isaac took his first steps and the jubilation they felt when he spoke his first words. Abraham spent years raising this child for whom he had waited so long, teaching him to hunt, gather, and provide for his own family some day. 

 Then the unthinkable happened, God told Abraham to kill him. The son that had long been promised to Abraham. The son through whom a great nation would be born. This son, God commanded be put to death. How could this be? Why would God ask such a hard thing of Abraham? These are the types of questions we would ask. Abraham, however, did not. We read of his reaction in Genesis 22:3-5, "So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac...Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Abraham not only obeyed God's command, he referred to this sacrifice as worship! The question that rises in our minds is "Why?" It is because Abraham didn't love God for what he gave him, but for who He is! 

That I know of, God hasn't asked you to kill your own son. But He has promised that those who love Him will be tested and tried. My question for you is how will you pray when you lose your job? What will you say of Him when you lose your house? How loud will you sing to God when you lose your spouse to cancer? How good does God seem when your child dies in a theater looking down the barrel of a gun?  

Friend if Jesus is not your treasure, if He is not enough, you do not know the God of the Scripture. If you look to Christ for what He gives you, you have a god that has been made up by wicked men who, under the influence of the Enemy, have sold you a lie! If you love Jesus for what He gives you, you will question, if not deny, His goodness, His love, and your faith.

But if you love Jesus for who He is, you will pray to a Father who provides for the smallest sparrow when you lose your job. You will worship the One who owns cattle on a thousand hills when your house is taken. When Jesus is your treasure, you can still sing of his loving kindness when you lose your spouse to disease. And when your child is shot in cold blood you can cry out with the Psalmist "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 73:25-26)

May Jesus be your all-consuming pursuit and your magificent obsession.