Almost True: Week 3

Well, let's just address the elephant in the room, which

is the shirt.

That I'm wearing. It says, I am kenough.

It's from the Barbie movie that was released recently, and

I told my wife this week, I said, I'm going

out on a limb wearing this shirt to church.

If you haven't seen the movie, it's a.

Social critique of a lot of culture issues and topics

in our day and age. For example, one of the

plot themes is Ken, the Barbie doll.

Ken. He has an existential crisis in the movie.

He doesn't know what his value and his identity is

apart from Barbie.

His attachment to Barbie.

In the movie, he says, it's always been Barbie and

Ken or Barbie, but there is no just Ken. He's like,

who am I without Barbie? And so Ken goes on

this journey through the movie to find his identity, to

find his worth, to seek out his value, and in

the end, Ken discovers that he has an identity apart

from Barbie, that he doesn't need to depend on her

to have worth and value, and at the end of

the movie he says, I am Ken.

I am keenough.

It sounds silly and maybe cheesy, but this is a

culture message in our day and age.

You are enough. The culture says you are enough.

We see this message in different places, and many of

us we crave this assurance.

We want to know that we are enough.

Some of us are fighting self criticism, self doubt. Some

of us are trying to keep back in security and

negative self talking. We're looking for an assurance that yes,

I'm enough. I don't have to keep overperforming and overfunctioning.

I am enough the way I am. And we see

this message in many different places. I think about the.

Blogger writing to young moms, exhausted moms who are sleep

deprived and exhausted from keeping up with diapers and bottles

and kids, and those blog writers say, mom, you got this,

you are enough. It's the young adults who are trying

to start out their life, start a career, pay down

some debt, save for a house, or save for a wedding,

and there's plenty of YouTube motivational videos that say.

You got what it takes, you can do it.

Or the person who's depressed, a person who's sad and

fearful and dealing with insecurity.

There's plenty of social influencer.

Messages that are saying you are enough the way you are.

Let me translate what you are enough means. It means

there is nothing wrong with you.

You are unique and special.

You're not lacking anything, and you can define yourself any

way you want because you are enough.

Now.

That sounds encouraging, doesn't it. I mean, it even sounds

a litle bit like Christianity. I mean, after all, we

often say God loves you, God values you, He holds

you worthy. You don't have to impress God, come as

you are. The message you are enough sounds true, but

it's only almost true. I want to be honest today.

I want to tell you the truth. The truth is

you are not enough. I am not enough. There is

something missing, there is something broken, there is something damaged.

We are not enough because the Bible tells us in

Romans three, verse nine, Jews and Gentiles alike are under

the power of sin. As it is written, there is

no one righteous, not even one.

In other words, no one is enough.

We are lacking, we are insufficient, we are deficient, we

are not enough. Culture says you are enough. The Bible

says you are not enough. Now if you're new to

church or new to Christianity. I'm sure this is exactly

the message you were hoping to hear today. As you

pulled into the parking lot. I'm sure you said to yourself,

I hope the preacher today tells me there's something wrong

with me. What I'm saying is there is something wrong

with me. Without Jesus, I am terribly broken. And if

you've been here before, you've heard me share openly and

honestly about my struggles, about my sin issues.

Before I started my life to.

Jesus, I was bitter, angry, addicted, and resentful. I was

lonely and hurting and desperate. There was something deeply wrong

with me. It was incredibly insecure. Sin had a hold

on my life. Addiction gripped my mind, anger filled my heart.

I was broken and I needed healing and I was

not enough. But Jesus found me in my brokenness. Jesus

met me in my despair. Jesus met me in my loneliness,

and he changed me, and he healed me, and he

forgave me.

His grace has changed me.

Now, somebody listening, you might be thinking, well, I understand

intellectually that I'm not perfect.

Like I'm just human. We all make mistakes. Nobody's perfect.

But you know I am a pretty good person. You know,

I try to be honest. I don't steal.

You know, I'm polite. Polite people are not enough. Or

you may think, well, I'm not as bad as my.

Coworker, like like you should hear that, hear what comes

out of there mind.

I'm not that bad. I'm not as bad as the

person in my class. I mean, she you should hear

about her life. She's bad.

Comparison is not enough. Church people are not enough. Polite

people are not enough. Generous people are not enough. Kind

people are not enough. Environmentalists that take care of the

planet are not enough. Being a good dad or a

good mom is not enough.

We are not enough. The Bible continues in Romans three twelve.

All have turned away. It doesn't just say some have

turned away.

They're really bad or the bad or the bad have

turned away. Those violent criminals have turned away. All have

turned away. They have together become worthless.

I looked up this word worthless in Greek, and it

actually translates not enough.

I'm kidding, Actually I didn't do that, but you get

the idea.

All have become worthless. No one who does good, not

even one on our own. We are not enough. Let

me tell you about a friend of mine. This is

a true story. I've changed some of the details just

to protect my friend's privacy.

But she was growing in her career and excelling in

her job, and her career.

Took her away from her hometown and she moved several

states away to pursue her career, and she was excelling greatly.

Then there came a point in her life where my

friend wanted to move back to her original hometown to

be near her aging parents because they needed some.

Extra care and extra support.

As my friend began job searching and she found on

the internet a perfect job.

Near her hometown and her family. I mean it was

a perfect job.

It was in the same industry that my friend had

been working in for nearly two decades, a very similar

job to the one that she was trying to leave behind.

And she was perfectly qualified for this job. She knew

the area, knew the community.

It was great.

And so my friend setting the application and waited and

waited a few more weeks, and then waited a few

more weeks, and I just knew, like as soon as

the job search sees my friend's application, it's it's guaranteed.

And then my friend received an email reply that said,

thanks for applying, but we are looking at more qualified candidates.

Nobody is more qualified than my friend. This is a

metaphor for how sin works. Sin disqualifies you. No matter

how good you look, you are disqualified. No matter what

your religious resume looks like, your pedigree looks like, you

are disqualified. You are disqualified from heaven, you are disqualified

from eternal life.

And we are not good enough. But that's why Jesus came.

Jesus is good enough. Romans three twenty three continues.

For all have sinned and falls short of the glory

of God and are freely justified by His grace. Say grace,

his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

We are saved by God's grace. It's not something we earn.

Say grace. It's not something we deserve. Say grace. It's

not something you buy with good work.

Say grace. His grace is enough.

We are not enough, but his grace is enough because

his grace covers us.

I'm gonna put on a different.

Shirt shirt says his.

Grace is enough.

His grace is enough when you are lacking, when you

are insecure, when you don't have what it takes.

His grace is enough.

Is that. In Corinthians, the apostle Paul wrote about God's grace.

Paul is arguably the greatest Christian who ever lived. And

even though he had weaknesses, he had insecurities, he had insufficiencies,

he knew that God's grace was greater. One Corinthians twelve

nine says he God said to me, my grace is

sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

God's grace is enough because God's grace covers us. His

grace covers your insecurity. His grace covers your shame. His

grace covers your failures and your mistakes. His grace covers

over the thing that you're hiding that you want no

one to know about. His grace covers that secret in

your past. His grace covers you. His grace is enough

where we are insufficient. Jesus is sufficient where we are lacking.

Jesus fills in the gafts where we are broken. Jesus

heals us.

His grace is enough. Now so far, you may agree

with most of what I've said, you may be a Christian, you've.

Put your faith in Jesus, you've asked for forgiveness, you

believe the gospel, but do you still struggle.

With feeling like you're not good enough.

There is a false gospel that even Christians believe. And

this false gospel says Jesus saved you, so you must

show him you're good enough. It's the gospel that says

he saved you, so don't mess it up. Don't screw

it up. He saved you from hell, but you got

to show him that you're good enough.

Just this week, I'm thankful I.

Was able to pay a large medical bill that our

family has had and I was working with the hospital

trying to negotiate a way to settle this bill, and

thankful that the hospital was helpful and they forgave twenty

percent of the bill that we owed. Super thankful for that,

But I still had to pay eighty percent.

I still had to do my part.

It wasn't total forgiveness, it was just partial forgiveness. Some

of us believe this false gospel of partial grace. Jesus

has saved you from hell, but you got to do

your part. You got to show them you're good enough.

Jesus is major way to heaven, but hey.

Don't mess it up. And there's something inside of us

that motivates us to prove that.

We're good enough, to cover insecurity, to cover up weakness,

to show that we're good enough. This motivation is as

old as time. This motivation is as old as human history.

Even the very first human beings struggled with this insecurity,

not good enough. I'd like us to go all the

way back to the beginning for a moment, all the way.

Back to Genesis. You may know the story. Well. God

created the first human beings, Adam and Eve.

They were without sin, there was no problem, there was

no evil, there was no brokenness. I mean, things were good.

And God gave the humans' freedom to live, to enjoy

the world, to work, give him freedom to succeed. And

God gave them one instruction Genesis two. The Lord God

commanded them, you are free to eat from any tree

in the garden, but you must not eat from the

tree of.

The knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat

from it, you will certainly die.

So see the relationship between God and humanity was built

on trust.

God trusted the human beings to take care of the world.

He trusted them to be faithful to him, and Adam

and Eve trusted God to be good, trusted him to

be good enough. It was built on trust. And then

the devil enters the picture. Genesis describes the devil as

a serpent, and he tests the trust between God and humanity.

Genesis three to one says, now the serpent was more

crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God

had made. He said to the woman, did God really

say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?

See, he's testing the trust.

Did God really say he's manipulating the trust? And Eve

tries to defend and say, well, we can eat from

every tree except just this one. In verse four, you

will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman,

for God knows that when you eat from it, your

eyes will be open, and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil. The devil says to Eve, you

can't trust God. He's lying to you. He's keeping something

back from you. And this is how every temptation begins.

Every temptation starts by doubting that God is good enough.

Every temptation that you face, everyone that I face starts here,

doubting that God is good enough, doubting that you can

trust God.

It's the whisper that says you can't trust God. He's

hiding something.

He's got ulterior motives. He's too busy to worry about you.

He's holding you back from your potential. You can succeed

on your own, you can decide what's right for you.

So Adam and Eve they doubt God's trust, and they

eat the forbidden fruit. And what happens verse seven, And

the eyes of both of them were opened, and they

realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together

and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his

wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he

was walking in the garden in the.

Cool of to day, and they hid from the Lord

God among the trees of the garden.

I wonder if you've ever been so ashamed that you've

just wanted to hide. Adam and Eve were ashamed of

their nakedness. They were ashamed of their decision. They were

ashamed of being exposed. They were ashamed of who they were,

so they hid.

Shame is the worst.

I believe that all of our feelings and emotions are

from God, even the unpleasant ones, sadness, anger. They may

be unpleasant, but they're a part of.

God's creating us.

But I believe shame is not from God. Shame is

straight from the pit of Hell. Because shame wants to

lie to you. Shame wants to drive you away, and ultimately,

shame wants to make you hide from God. I've shared

before about my own shame. Many many years ago. I

was addicted to pornography and I was.

Ashamed of it. I hid it.

I didn't want anybody to know about it, and this

was before smartphones.

I found pornography on my computer and I learned how

to hide my Internet history.

I'm not how to cover and hide my tracks, and

I was paranoid that somebody would find out that I

would be found out and exposed, and so I hid it,

covered it up, kept it hidden. Shame tells you to hide.

Shame tells you that you're alone. Shame tells you're the

only one who deals with this. Shame says that if

your friends find out, they'll judge you. Shame says that

if the pastor knows, he'll be disappointed. Your spouse will

reject you.

You're all alone.

So keep it hidden, keep it secret, Hide, hide, hide, hide,

let nobody ever find out.

It's the voice of shame.

And this is where the message you are enough praise

on our shame.

The message you are enough tells us you need to

fix this shame problem.

Or it might say, minimize it, ignore it, put on

a false reality. Take matters into your own hands. And

isn't that what Adam and Eve did. They took matters

into their own hands. Look closely at verse seven.

What did they do? So? They sewed fig.

Leaves together and made coverings for themselves. They took matter

into their own hands, and they covered their nakedness with

fig leaves.

They covered their exposure with fig leaves.

There are modern day fig leaves that we try to

hide behind. Modern fig leaves are how we overcompensate for

not being enough.

It's how we hide our insecurities.

It's putting on a fake facade so nobody knows our weakness.

It's keeping a smile on when meanwhile everything inside is

falling apart. Minimizing the hurt, minimizing the pain, trying to cope.

Many of you know that I lived in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

for some time.

That's where my wife is from.

And Pittsburgh is really a region made up of a

lot of small towns and villages and boroughs all around

the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. And one of those small

towns is an industrial town called Johnstown, and it was

part of the steel industry in that region. And in

the eighteen eighties, nineties, and nineteen hundred era, the steel

industry was booming in Pennsylvania, and Andrew Carnegie.

Was at the top of the steel industry.

He was the most powerful, the most wealthy, the most influential,

and he had a big reputation and a public image.

At the height of his steel empire, he sold his

company for four hundred and eighty million dollars back then

his net worth it was calculated in today's dollars.

His net worth was three hundred and nine billion dollars.

I mean, he was the Jeff Bezos, the Elon Musk

of his day. He had influence, he had power, he

had a reputation. It's where the end of his life

Carnegie became very generous. He did a lot of philanthropy.

He gave away the majority of his wealth. He helped build

more than two thousand, five hundred public libraries. He started scholarships, foundations, schools, hospitals.

I mean, he just was super generous.

And Andrew Carnegie often visited the area near Johnstown because

he was a member of a private club, the South

Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, near Johnstown, and he and

his family with vacation there and socialized with other elite, powerful,

influential people. They go boating, fishing, and in May of

eighteen eighty nine, Johnstown was devastated by a terrible flood.

For several days, the.

Rainwaters had been building up and the South Fork damn

could not keep back the flood waters, and without warning,

it broke, sending more than twenty million million gallons of

water rushing into Johnstown. Within minutes, whole buildings were wiped out,

houses were swept away. More than two thousand people lost

their lives in just a moment. It was the most

deadliest flood in American history.

And it could have been prevented.

Because the South Fork dam that broke was owned by

the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, of which Andrew

Carnegie and others were members of the club had deferred

maintenance on the dam, and they began to erode.

The club used the dam to create the man made

lake for the recreation.

At one point, the club even lowered the height of

the dam so they could build a roadway so the members,

like Andrew Carnegie, could travel more conveniently to their club.

Those changes could have prevented this deadly flood. Now, the

club was never held legally responsible, but everybody knew.

The court of.

Public opinion knew that this club of elite, influential, powerful

people were culpable. And Andrew Carnegie tried to save face.

He began investing to rebuild Johnstown. He began doubling down

on his generosity. He began trying to shape his reputation,

and one month after the flood, Andrew Carnegie published a

little essay called the Gospel of Wealth, and he outlines

how the wealthy in society have a moral obligation to

help society advance for the common good, one month after

that flood, trying to trying to create a new reputation,

a new legacy for himself. Modern fig leaves are how

we overcompensate for not being enough. Now you and I

are probably not ever going to be responsible for a

devastating flood like that. But don't we overcompensate for our

own insecurities. Don't we try to hide our own shame

and failures. Think of the executive who's ashamed of something

in their past, or ashamed of the family they come from,

or some failure, and so they try to cover that

with power.

Money, status, success.

It's the person who's been abused and in order to

cope with that, they minimize the trauma it wasn't that bad.

Or it's the addict who hides.

Behind empty promises, the person who is bullied and so

they put on a tough exterior and make a vow

that they'll never be taken advantage of. Again, it's the

Christian who still feels shame and guilt from the past

and tries making it up with going to church and

giving money and serving.

And this is where the message you are enough lies

to us. You can take matters in your own hands.

You can hide, you can cover it up, you can

look presentable, you can look good enough. Or sometimes the

message I am good enough is an excuse. Well, I

don't want to deal with this thing in my life,

so that this is just the way I am. I

don't want to address this hidden thing. This this is

the way I was born. I can't change this is

this is me. But I want to tell you the

Gospel of Jesus is greater, and the Gospel of Jesus

covers us. When I was in addiction, I overcompensated for

fear of being found out. I didn't want anybody to know,

and so I hid and I looked good on the outside.

I went to church, I did good things.

I put on this fake mask of goodness, and if

you looked at me, and you would think that I

was a.

Pretty good person. I had, I had good religiosity. These

were my fig leaves. But deep down, when I.

Was left alone with myself my thoughts, I knew that

I was deeply addicted to sin.

And I was broken and desperate.

And so I tried overfunctioning to deal with my shame.

I tried bargain with God and saying I'll do better.

I'll clean this up. Because I believe the false gospel.

I believe that I needed to show God some of

my worthiness. I believe that I needed to show God.

I can use self discipline to clean up. But the

harder I tried to clean up my life. The harder

I tried to use self discipline, the more addicted I became,

and the more ashamed I became. I was stuck. My

fig leaves were not enough. In Genesis three, Adam and

Eve try to cover up with these fig leaves, and

then God comes looking for them. We read in verse nine,

but the Lord God called to.

The man, where are you?

He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I

was afraid because I was naked, so I hid like me.

You may know this story, you may have read it before.

I've known this story since I was a child, and

I see Adam's.

Response, I was afraid.

It seems like a rational response, I'm afraid, and I've always.

Based on that.

I've always imagined that God's tone is angry and disappointed,

and that he says, where are you?

What have you done? You've let me down?

But what if we reimagine God in this story as

he truly is. What if we reimagine his tone as

who he truly is, the loving, compassionate, graceful, heavenly father,

How might his tone sound?

Where are you the tone of a father looking for

his child? Where are you?

The tone of the Creator looking to be reconciled to

his creation.

The question where are you is the question that the.

Father continues to ask you in me when we hide

behind fig leaves, when we hide in shame and in

our brokenness and our.

Insecurities, God gracefully asks where are you. It's an invitation

to come back home.

The Father kindly asks where are you to the person.

Who is fearful of being found out.

The Father gently whispers where are you to the one

who is stuck in shame.

He patiently calls where are you to the one who.

Is rushing and racing through life only to avoid dealing

with the past. The Father lovingly said, where are you

to me, a young man addicted to sin, broken, hurting, lonely,

needing healing.

Jesus sought me in my brokenness. Jesus met me in

my pain.

Jesus found me in the midst of addiction, and he

came looking for me because he loves me. God's invitation

is to leave behind the shame, to uncover the fig leaves,

and come home.

This is grace and that's why I'm so excited. The

Church of the Crossing is starting a new ministry very soon.

Just this spring called Celebrate Recovery, and it's all about

more of God's grace. It's not just for addiction and recovery,

it's for anybody who needs grace for hurts, habits, and

hang ups.

It's gonna be a Tuesday night worship service.

And we have a team that's already been training every

week to prepare to lead this new ministry. And I

think there's an info session coming up if you want

to learn about volunteering and getting involved.

You can learn more about that.

I promise this ministry is gonna help many of us

and help many in our community receive.

More of God's grace.

Adam and Eve were ashamed, and they covered up their

shame with fig leaves, and God came looking for them.

He looks for them behind the leaves. He looks for

them behind the shame, and what does he do. He

covers them in grace. Genesis three twenty one says the.

Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his

wife and clothed them. He covered them. God compassionately removed

the fig leaves and covers them in grace.

It says that they were.

Covered in garments of skin, animal skin, likely a lamb,

an innocent lamb, was sacrificed to cover Adam and Eve

with grace.

This is what grace is.

The innocent is substituted for the guilty, and just like

an innocent animal, died to give them grace. Jesus died

as our substitute on the cross so that we can

receive grace. On the cross, he absorbed the wrath of God.

He paid our price. He paid the punishment that we

deserve so that we can be covered in grace. He

is the lamb of God that was shed for us.

Romans three twenty three says all have sinned and fall

short of the glory of God and are freely justified

by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ.

Jesus.

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the

shedding of blood to be received by faith. Atonement simply

means a sacrifice for sin. Jesus was sacrificed so that

we could be forgiven, so that we could be covered

in grace.

Galatians three puts it this way.

All of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed

yourselves with Christ. If your faith is in Jesus, you

are covered in Christ. Baptism is a picture of God's grace.

When you go under the water, the old you, the sin,

the shame, the regret is all washed away, and when

you come out of the water, you are clothed in Christ.

And I'm excited that we are celebrating baptist next week.

Several people have already signed up to be baptized. If

you have not been baptized and your faith is in Jesus,

it's not too late.

You can sign up as well.

I want to end by telling you when I was

stuck in addiction, I needed healed. I was tired of

living a lie. I was ashamed, I was embarrassed.

And I felt like a failure because I couldn't fix

it all on my own.

My fig leaves were not enough, my self discipline was not.

Enough, My will power was not enough.

And I believe that somebody listening today needs to hear

that clearly, your willpower is not.

Enough to save you. Your willpower is not enough to change.

We need grace.

And so I remember, in the middle of the afternoon

on a weekday, alone in my bedroom, I called out

to God and I said, Jesus, take control, and he did.

He set me free, He healed me, he.

Changed me, he transformed me, He brought me in, He

redeemed me by his grace. And so now I stand

here today saying that shame has no claim on me.

I have been changed by grace. I'm covered in his grace.

The grace of God is enough. His grace is enough

to set you free from your worst addiction. His grace

is enough to heal what's in your past. His grace

is enough to save you from sin. His grace is

enough to bring you out of death. His grace is enough.

Have you Have you received that grace? Have you heard

the Father's invitation? Where are you?

Have you heard his voice saying come home? I want

to invite us all to respond to what we've just heard.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

And I want to invite you if you are not

in a relationship with Jesus.

That means, if you are living in sin, and you

recognize that you want to be forgiven, that you want

eternal life in heaven, I want to invite you to simply.

Pray this prayer to God. You can repeat after me.

You can say, Dear God, I admit that I'm a sinner.

I admit that I'm not enough, but I believe Jesus

died for me.

Jesus took my place, and I believe he rose from

the day to save me. Today I confess that Jesus

is lord of my life.

And with our heads still bowed, no one else is

looking around, just me.

But if you prayed that prayer to trust Jesus, would

you be brave enough to raise your hand.

I just want to see you. I just want to

tell you that God loves you. I see you. God

loves you. Sin has no claim on you. Shame.

You are set free from shame. Your sin has been forgiven.

Amen. Amen.

Amen, Father God, we thank you for your grace. We

thank you for your grace.

Amen.

I want to invite you to stand, and I want

to celebrate God's grace today. Can we just celebrate? I

want to ask you, and I want to hear you

say it out loud. What saves you? Say grace? What

heals you, What redeems you, what changes you, what transforms you?

What sets you free? Give him praise what you give him?

Praise? M m hm.