Jesus is Enough
I Sought the Lord • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Last week we asked, “What do you do when you don’t know what to do?”
The question for this week is, “What do you do when God answers, but the answer is not what you were expecting?”
or
“What will make you happy?”
17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
There is an intentionality here - people don’t stumble out of a pit!
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
call = repent, return
mind = heart - seat of the will
Literally saying, “but I turn my heart back to this, and I have hope”
“This” gives him hope - the opposite of despair
What is the “THIS” that Jeremiah calls to mind?
God is ALWAYS loving. (22)
God is ALWAYS loving. (22)
The opposite of this statement is one of the biggest lies Satan uses when we are seeking God.
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
covenant love - He cannot NOT love you.
The fact may not match the feeling, but the feeling cannot change the fact.
The fact is - God can ONLY be good toward you.
(only for those who know Jesus)
God is always loving because he IS love
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Each day you experience God’s grace. (23)
Each day you experience God’s grace. (23)
his mercies never come to an end;
God is not Popeye (That’s all I can stands, i can’t stands no more!)
You cannot exhaust God’s grace toward you.
You cannot sin too much or worship too little that God’s grace cannot cover.
Your sin or lack of worship may bring natural consequences
God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of his light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.
Charles Spurgeon
23 they are new every morning;
If you can count on the sun to rise, you can count on God to love you, forgive you.
If you woke up this morning, expect a fresh expression of Gods grace toward you today
new is not brand new but a renewal - a revival of God’s love toward you.
Each day is a fresh opportunity for God to shower his common grace and remind of his special grace.
if Gods grace is renewed each morning, why isn’t yours?
Some of us are more stingy with grace toward ourselves than God has toward us.
great is your faithfulness.
Because God’s covenant love toward us never ends, because they are renewed every morning, God shows himself to be faithful.
Notice how this is in the second person
Jesus is enough. (24)
Jesus is enough. (24)
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
20 And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. 26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.
‘ I desire you more than anything on earth’
17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”
Joni Eareckson Tada - quadriplegic
I sure hope I can bring this wheelchair to heaven.
Now, I know that’s not theologically correct.
But I hope to bring it and put it in a little corner of heaven, and then in my new, perfect, glorified body, standing on grateful glorified legs, I’ll stand next to my Savior, holding his nail-pierced hands.
I’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus,” and he will know that I mean it, because he knows me.
He’ll recognize me from the fellowship we’re now sharing in his sufferings.
And I will say,
“Jesus, do you see that wheelchair? You were right when you said that in this world we would have trouble, because that thing was a lot of trouble. But the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on you. And the harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be. It never would have happened had you not given me the bruising of the blessing of that wheelchair.”
Thank you for the wheelchair?!?
When we understand that Jesus is enough, the burdens of this life become blessings when they remind us Jesus is enough.
Jesus is worth more than all you can gain on earth and worth more than all you can lose in death.
What is the greatest thing in heaven? If you said HARPS - you’re wrong.
It’s Jesus - He’s the reason heaven is HEAVEN.
New Living Translation Psalm 73
I still belong to you;
you hold my right hand.
We can have the best part of heaven here, now if even not fully.
If Jesus is enough for eternity, is he not also enough for the temporary?
If Jesus is not enough for you now, nothing else will be
If you have trusted in Jesus then He is enough and you have hope because he is faithful!
If you have not trusted in Jesus, then you will never find enough and you need Jesus!
so what does God expect from you? Perfection?
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
God responds to your seeking not your perfection. (25)
God responds to your seeking not your perfection. (25)
Doesn’t say God is good to those who are perfect. Doesn’t say God is good to those who are good. He is good to those who seek him.
God IS Goodness
He is seen as good by those who seek him.
wait = active hoping
seeks = seek with care, enquire
The more we seek him, the more we return our hearts to his faithfulness
Jesus is your full and final hope. (26)
Jesus is your full and final hope. (26)
26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Are you a quiet waiter?
How do you wait quietly?
Prayer
For Jeremiah the salvation was from the physical dangers he was in, but hope will ultimately come through Jesus.
Jesus is enough.
to redeem all that is not well.
as the ultimate reward when things are not well.
It is not that he can give enough. He IS enough.
Jesus had just fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.
People had seen this
Jesus sends the disciples ahead
storm comes
Jesus walks on water
Jesus gets into the boat
they immediately land on the other side.
22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
(Were they seeking Jesus or stuff from Jesus?)
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever come
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
If Jesus has the words of eternal life, then he is enough for eternity and the temporary.
