Confidence comes not from discovering greater things about yourself or tapping into your inner potential. Confidence comes from seeing how big and how powerful God is, discovering His purposes for your life and His commitment to carry them through, and then just getting swept up in them. Hey friends, welcome to the Summit Life podcast. I'm Molly Vitovich. Before we get started today, let me tell you about an easy way to stay in the loop with everything happening here at Summit Life.
When you sign up for our weekly newsletter, you'll get regular updates from Pastor JD, including recent messages, free resources, and stories of how God is at work through this ministry. It's the best way to stay connected and never miss what God is doing. And when you sign up today at jdgreer.com, we'll also send you a free digital resource designed to help you apply scripture to everyday life. This month we are offering a free five-day devotional drawn from our teaching series, Not God Enough. It's designed to help you begin expanding your vision of who God truly is through scripture, reflection, and guided prayer.
Over five short readings, you'll explore how a small view of God can weaken faith. and how rediscovering his greatness changes everything. Today on Summit Life, where does true confidence come from? Let's find out. All right, Exodus chapter 3.
If you got your Bible this weekend, and I hope that you brought your Bible. Exodus chapter 3. This is our third and final week of a short series that we are doing called Not God Enough. The big idea in this small series is that all of our spiritual problems ultimately go back to a view of God that is too small. The first week, if you remember, we saw in the story of Job that a lot of our doubts Really originate from the fact that we assume that God is only a slightly bigger, slightly smarter version of us.
And so we assume that we naturally will be able to figure out everything that He is doing. The second week, we saw that one of our ongoing temptations is to reshape God into a form that we like better. And that kind of God feels for a while like He's easier to believe in because He doesn't contradict us or confuse us. But I showed you last weekend that such a God only ends up corrupting us spiritually and disappointing us bitterly.
So a lot of our dissatisfaction and a lot of our unhappiness ultimately go back to a view of God that is too small. Today, today I want to show you from Exodus 3 how the universal experience of insecurity. Insecurity. I mean, that feeling inside of you that you are not enough, not enough to face life's challenges. How that also comes from a view of God that is too small.
In the book, I tell the story of experiencing insecurity one night when I found myself standing face to face with a group of convicted felons.
Now you'd say, well, I'd probably experience insecurity at that moment too. Yeah, but it's probably not what you're thinking. I am referring to a meeting that I had with some of our brothers in the prison ministry. One of them told me in this meeting. That he had always assumed that as his release day approached, that he would just be overwhelmed by feelings of excitement and anticipation as he's getting ready to restart his life.
He said, He said, But you know, as this release day approaches, and they're going to just open the doors and I'm going to be able to walk out a free man. He said, What I'm feeling is not excitement and anticipation. What I feel, he says, I feel overwhelmed by fear. He said, What if I don't have what it takes to function in the real world anymore? I mean, look what I did the last time.
I messed it up. And what if now, you know, what 10, 15, 20 years later, what if I don't have what it takes to succeed? What if I just mess it up again? Insecurity is that voice inside of you that whispers, I am not. Blank enough, and you figure out what goes in that blank.
In fact, just ask yourself: what most often goes in that blank for you? I am not. Good looking enough. I'm not athletic enough. I'm not young enough, smart enough, funny enough, spiritual enough.
Maybe you just got hired for a job and now you're not sure you can do it. And what's worse is you're pretty sure nobody else thinks you can do it either. And so you're pretty sure that when you see other people gathered around the water cooler at work and they're laughing about something, you're almost positive that it's you that they're laughing about. Or maybe you just embarked on some new phase in your life. You just became a mom.
Or maybe it's a new chapter in your career. Or maybe you're going into retirement and you're just not sure if you've got what it takes to really succeed in this chapter. Y'all, every parent that I know feels like this. Because there is nothing that destroys your sense of self-competence like having a child. I heard a guy tell me one time that the only possible way, it was a mentor of mine.
He said, JD, the only possible way for you to be happy as a parent is to lower your expectations on everything. Maybe you just started dating somebody and you're not sure if you measure up to their family's expectations. One guy told me, he said that every family dinner I go to feels like a tryout, like I'm being interviewed. I feel like at some point they're going to excuse me from dinner and they're all going to have a vote as to whether or not I get to stay around as a part of the family.
Some of you are married, by the way, and you still feel like that's happening at these family dinners, right? I know of one guy who told me that a girl broke up with him because she said he was too insecure. And he said, JD, what am I supposed to do with that? I mean, if I was insecure before, And then she breaks up with me because I'm insecure. Where does that leave me now?
Maybe you feel like God has called you to a ministry that you just feel utterly incapable for. I talked to a lot of our church planners and a lot of our missionaries who actually are listening right now, and they say, That's totally me. I answered the call, and then I got here and felt like I didn't know what to do. I felt like I just felt overwhelmed by the possibilities and impossibilities. See, all of us at some point experience insecurity.
In fact, in the age of Instagram and Twitter, I think this problem is a thousand times worse because no matter what I do, there's always somebody out there doing it better. I refuse to go on Twitter and Instagram on Valentine's Day because no matter what I do for Veronica, I'm like, I'm happy because I got her a dozen roses and took her to a favorite restaurant. But then there's some friend of mine from college that got his girl a pony and took her backpacking through Europe. And I'm like, oh, please don't let my wife see that.
Well see, Exodus 3 opens up with Moses as a pretty insecure man. He had started out life pretty secure. He was a good-looking guy with a lot of confidence. He had a high-paying job. He was Pharaoh's adopted son.
But then, in his early 20s or so, he felt like God was calling him to do something. Namely, he thought God was leading him to deliver Israel out of Egypt. And so, when he tried it, things went bad. The Jewish people mocked him and rejected him. Pharaoh, his adopted daddy, disowned him, and then he ended up killing a man.
Now, y'all, that's a bad day at work, right? Can we not agree? Everybody hates you, your boss fires you, and you kill somebody on the way out to the parking lot. That's a bad day.
Well, Moses flees into the desert. Where he ends up marrying a nomad girl and spends the next 40 years tending the sheep of her father. I mean, talk about a life fail. Yo, when you're in your early 60s and you're tending your father-in-law's sheep and still living in his basement, that is a serious failure to launch. Exodus chapter 3, verse 1.
That's what opens up this chapter.
Now, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. You just should read that and then read in your Bible, right? Life fail right there. And he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness, and he came to Hereb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.
Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, It didn't burn up, so he turned aside to go see it. And Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight. Why? The bush does not burn up. And God called to him from within the bush, Moses, Moses, and.
Moses said, here I am. Do not come any closer. God said, take off your sandals. For the place where you're standing, Moses, is holy ground. Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid. to look at God. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am confused. concerned about their suffering.
So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians.
So now, Moses, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I? Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? And bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
Now, hold on just a second. When did the conversation turn to Moses? Up until that point in the conversation there in verse 11, we've been talking about God and what God wanted to do. But now, Moses very subtly makes himself the point of the conversation. Commentators say that this reveals the deep insecurities that Moses was carrying around from his previous failures.
In fact, commentators point out that that statement, who am I, is an echo of the very question that the Israelites had thrown back in Moses' face the first time Moses had tried to rescue them. If you go back to chapter 2, verse 14, when Moses had shown up the first time to try to rescue them, the Israelites had said, Who are you? And who do you think you are that you could come and actually pull this off? Moses' repetition of this question shows us that their doubts had seeped into his soul. Maybe that's happened to you.
Somebody criticized you for so long that you started to believe those things about yourself. Maybe it was a dad. Maybe it was your dad that put that kind of doubt on you. Maybe it was a teacher or an ex-spouse or maybe an abusive boss. The point is, they threw shade at you for so long that you started to believe them.
That's what happened to Moses. Verse 12. Verse 12. But God responded to Moses, Moses. I will be with you.
This is really important. Notice how God deals with Moses' insecurities. He doesn't do it the way that we usually do it in our day and age. He didn't pull Moses on a talk show and reinforce him with positive thoughts or help him discover his inner tiger. He didn't say, Moses, look into the mirror and repeat after me: my name is Moses, and I am a bad man.
And Moses, visualize yourself walking into Pharaoh's court and experience the feelings of taking Pharaoh down, now look into the mirror again and say, I am Moses. None of that. God just subtly shifts the narrative back to himself. He says, Moses, I will be with you. Why are you talking about you for?
You see, that's because this, and write this down, that's because confidence didn't come from a better assessment of your potential. Confidence comes from a clear view of God.
So, God doesn't start talking about Moses and say, Moses, you're just not seeing yourself the right way. He says, Moses, right, eyes here, look at me. Moses still doesn't get it, so he keeps talking about his deficiencies. Notice verse 13. Moses says, Well, what if this happens?
Or what if that happens? What should I do? What should I do then? Verse 14, kind of humorous. God totally ignores Moses' questions.
Instead, he spends the next nine verses focused entirely on what he, God, has done, is doing. and plans to do. He says, Moses, this is not about you having what it takes. Moses, this is about me accomplishing my purposes. You've got a role in that, Moses, yes, but the power, the success in this, that belongs to me.
Moses, I don't need you to be a victor, I need you to be a vessel. I'm the victor, I'll work through you.
So let me say it again. Confidence comes not from discovering greater things about yourself or tapping into your inner potential. Confidence comes from seeing how big and how powerful God is, discovering his purposes for your life and his commitment to carry them through, and then just getting swept up in them. It reminds me of the story I heard one time when I lived in.
Southeast Asia is a missionary, an older man who was a neighbor of mine told me a story that he said happened when he was in you know when he was 10 or 11 years old at some time in the 1950s he said he said there's a group of Southeast Asian fishermen from their country there that were discovered off the coast of their island floating hanging on to the wreckage of a ship Small ship, a small fishing vessel, and he said that the Coast Guard rescued these guys, and these fishermen complained about a cow that attacked them from heaven. And so they just, their version of the Coast Guard was like, surely this was some kind of drug deal that went bad, some kind of smuggling, something illegal.
So they put these guys in prison and they printed the story in the paper.
Well, this older man told me, he said, about a week later, a group of American servicemen very sheepishly came forward. There's a base not far from where I lived in Southeast Asia, and Americans have a runway, a little strip out on one of these islands. And this guy said that these American servicemen said we had our B-52 bomber and we were planning to take off. And as we were ambling down the runway, a cow walked across the runway and we thought, hey, this cow doesn't appear to belong to anyone. We'll just take him with us to our destination.
When we get there, we'll slaughter the cow. We'll all have prime rib tonight. It's going to be a fantastic evening.
So he said, we didn't really have room up in the cockpit for the cow.
So we put him in the bomb area. And he says, when we crossed 10, 15,000 feet or whatever, something happened and the cow just lost his mind. The cattle started kicking, I don't know if it was the altitude or what, but we didn't know what to do. He said, so he was standing right above the bomb doors, so we did what you would think to do. We just opened the bomb doors.
Now, I have no way of verifying whether or not this story is true, but this old man from Southeast Asia told me it was true. And if it is true, all I can think about is first, what was going through these fishermen's minds as they're looking up and they're trying to describe, is that a cow dropping to us from the heavens? Right? And then I wonder what was like the last thing going through that cow's mind. I mean, these fishermen are like, we better move, you know, and the cow's like, you know, cow's like utter destruction ahead, you know, like this.
Sorry, I got to milk this analogy for all that it's worth. If it happened, if it happened, I don't know. The other thing I wonder is, I mean, you think about the cow. Poor cow just walking through the field eating grass. Happens to make his way across a runway.
No idea where he is. When all of a sudden he gets swept up in forces beyond his comprehension and beyond his imagination. What Moses is experiencing in Exodus 3 is a little bit like that. Because suddenly he is just kind of as he's minding his business, he gets swept up in the purposes of God. You see, the way that you find confidence in life is not getting God on your side.
The way you develop confidence in life is you begin to live out the purposes of God that you discover from scripture. Many people make a critical mistake in reading the Bible. They assume the Bible is primarily about them. That it's a manual of spiritual tips for helping you achieve your spiritual purpose and helping you find the will of God for your life. The Bible is primarily about God.
It's not about you. Page after page reveals who he is, who he is, and only when you come to an awareness of who he is can you discover who you are. Only by becoming confident in his purposes are you ever going to be able to become confident in yours. You see, many of you have tried to find the will of God entirely in the wrong way. You've focused on what is the will of God for my life, and you've put all the emphasis on the word my.
You don't discover God's will by narcissistically looking at your life. You discover God's will. You discover what he's doing in the world and then you align your life with his purposes.
Some of you have approached God trying to see how he can help you achieve your purposes. You've gotten it all wrong. We are supposed to approach God surrendering to his purposes, and that's where a real sense of confidence comes from.
Well, see, that's what God is trying to very patiently show Moses. He's trying to say, I've got a purpose and I want to use you in it. And he drives this point home. By introducing to Moses a name. Verse 13: Moses said to God, Suppose I go to the Israelites and I say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you.
And they ask me, What is his name? What shall I tell them then? God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am. has set me.
To you. The irony, of course, is that the name that God uses is not really a name, it's a verb. In Hebrew it is Hayah. In fact, it's a great Hebrew word. It's classic Hebrew.
Hayah. You want to say it? Everybody say it together at all campuses. Hayah, all right? It sounds like you're karate chopping somebody, and the person in front of you ought to be wiping a little something off their neck if you say it right.
Gaya. And it literally means I am, or it means to be. It's a cognate of the verb to be.
Now, we write it now. We say it as Yahweh or Jehovah. That's how we usually transliterate it. What God is saying to Moses is, Moses, I don't really have a name because I'm not like anything else you've ever experienced. I don't come from anywhere.
I'm not going anywhere. I didn't have a beginning. I'm not going to have an end. I don't have needs. I don't require any help.
I don't get tired. I have no limits. I am unbounded, unchanging, always and forever the same. And that means I'm not intimidated by Pharaoh, nor am I limited by Egypt's power. The burning bush is supposed to give us a glimpse of God's eternal, self-sustaining nature.
The fire that burned in the bush burned continually without burning up the bush.
Well see, fires need fuel, right? And when the fuel is consumed, the fire goes out. But the fire that Moses saw was self-sustaining. It did not require any kind of fuel. In the same way, God, the eternal I am, needs no external fuel.
Nothing precedes him. Nothing sustains him. Nothing contains him. And so God says to Moses, if I, the eternal, I am, the all-sustaining one, is on your side, Moses, do you really feel like you need anything else? Is there anything else you need beside I am with you?
All those places in your life, Moses, that you feel like you are not I am. It's no longer about who you are or are not. It is about who I am. You know, when you step back and you think about it, Moses actually did have a lot of undiscovered potential. And when you think about it, Moses had been uniquely equipped to accomplish this task that God had called him to.
I mean think about it. For the past 40 years, Moses has led sheep. Through the very wilderness that God is now going to have the children of Israel escape through. You know what that means? That means that Moses knew the terrain, he knew the trails, he knew the mountain passes, he knew the watering holes.
Plus, as a herder of sheep, he knew something about managing unruly crowds. And as a former son of Pharaoh, He's learned how to read and write legal documents. He's seen firsthand how to set up a government and so forth. He's been uniquely equipped for this. This should have been.
This should have been his, for you children of the 80s, his karate kid Mr. Miyagi moment. Right, you remember that scene, Mr. Miyagi's, after he's had him, you know, sand the floor and paint the fence and wash the car? You know, he thinks he's been wasting his time, but all this time, Mr.
Miyagi's been teaching him the basic moves he needs to defeat Johnny in the karate tournament. This should have been Moses' Mr. Miyagi moment where he realized all this last 40 years, it's all been divinely orchestrated to prepare him for this very moment. But Moses can't see that. Moses can't see that because he's so focused on himself.
And listen to me: whenever you focus on yourself, whenever you focus on yourself, you will always find yourself overwhelmed by insecurities because you will always end up finding some obstacle that is greater than what you bring to the table. In time, Moses is going to come to see the things that God had done in his life, and he's going to appreciate God's sovereign preparation of him for the task. But what is most fascinating to me in this passage is that God, in trying to give Moses confidence, doesn't point any of those things out, even though they were true. He doesn't say, Moses, wake up! I've been preparing you the whole time.
You do have what it takes. Instead, all he says is, Moses, I'm with you. Walk forward in confidence, knowing that what I have called you to... I will supply you four. And as Moses does that, he starts to see how God had indeed been ever-present in his life and had indeed been preparing him all along for the great work that he had for him.
My question for you is, what if you looked at your life with the eyes of faith? What if you started to believe that literally in everything? In the good and the bad, the exciting and the disappointing, the tragedies and the triumphs. There had been a sovereign, loving God behind it all, preparing you for his purposes, just like he said he was. And that that same God was now calling you forward.
Trusting you, or telling you to trust the one that faithfully prepared you, would also be the one who would faithfully see you through. That is where confidence comes from. God does not deal with Moses' insecurities by teaching him anything about himself, even though Moses had a lot to learn. In this moment, God dealt with Moses' insecurities by calling him to focus on who God was. Because again.
Confidence doesn't come from a clear self-assessment. It comes from a clear view of God.
So when Moses responds, which he's about to, God, I am not. Eloquent enough, smart enough, successful enough. God responds, I didn't choose you because you were any of those things, Moses. I got enough of both of those things for the both of us. Moses, it is true, you are not, but I am, I am God enough.
In fact, throughout Scripture, we're going to learn that God usually doesn't choose the guy that says, oh, I know exactly why you chose me. I was so talented that you just had to have me on your team. You see, that kind of guy almost always clogs up the line. And when he or she accomplishes something great, they just say, finally, the world is recognizing my talents. God prefers instruments who are broken, instruments who feel insufficient, instruments who know that they have to lean on God, instruments who, when they accomplish something, say, I have no idea how it happened.
It must have been God at work in me. That's why Paul in the book of 1 Corinthians says, It's not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise, not many strong. God chooses the weak and the despised, so that the glory will go to him. I would actually go so far as to say it this way: feeling inadequate. is a prerequisite to being used by God.
And if you don't feel inadequate, he's not going to choose you.
So Moses says, but God, I'm not good enough. And God says, I know. I am. God, I'm not skilled enough. I know I am.
God, I'm not confident enough. I am. To find your confidence in me. This spring, when you give to Summit Life, we want to say thank you with a powerful resource from Pastor JD. With your gift of $45 or more, we'll send you a copy of Not God Enough, a book that invites you to rediscover the greatness of God.
So often without even realizing it, we shrink God down to something manageable, something familiar. But in this book, Pastor JD reminds us that God is far bigger than our fears, our doubts, and our expectations, and that encountering Him changes everything. Not God enough points you to a God who is worthy of worship. Strong enough to handle your hardest questions and powerful enough to transform not just your faith, but your life. Your generous gift helps Summit Life continue sharing clear, gospel-centered teaching with listeners across the country and around the world.
And this is our way of saying thanks for being a part of that mission. To give today and receive your copy of Not God Enough, Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or visit jdgreer.com. Mm. God says, Moses, I am the God of very unpromising material.
Moses, you may not be, but I always am, and I am this. overcomes your notness. At Christmas at our Christmas at DPAC services, I told you that throughout Israel's history, God would re-invoke this I am name whenever Israel was in a time of great need. And then, what God would do is, he would attach to that name Jehovah or Yahweh. He would attach to it whatever it was that Israel lacked.
and whatever he planned to supply for Israel in himself. In fact, that name Yahweh, Jehovah, appears in your Old Testament 6,519 times. In your Bible, in English, it's written as capital L-O-R-D. Whenever you see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's always signifying it's the name Yahweh or Jehovah. And they always attach to it whatever Israel lacks, and it's like the most beautiful truth in scripture.
I know, by the way, that I went through some of what I'm about to go through that are Christmas at Deepak services, but I consider what I'm about to share with you like a really good meal you eat at a restaurant. When you eat a really good meal, you don't be like, wow, glad I experienced that once. I'm satisfied for the rest of my life. You're like, nope, can't wait to get back there and have that meal again. I had a meeting in Nashville not too long ago and a friend, the guy that invited me for the meeting, took me out to this restaurant.
And I'm telling you, they had this appetizer. How do I describe this? It was like a king-sized Snickers bar made out of bacon. And on top of it, it had this maple cotton candy. This was the appetizer.
I get out of the restaurant, I call my wife, I'm like, we got to figure out some reason to come to Nashville for whatever reason because we got to go to this restaurant. It was so fantastic. And I know I just totally grossed some of you vegetarians out, but just imagine like a pesto-wrapped tofu soybean burger or whatever it is in your world that you think is good. But you just can't wait to get back and have that, you know, have that experience again. This, what I'm about to share.
Is the truth in Scripture? That's like the whole meal. This is the gospel that you come back to again and again and again because it satisfies your soul. God's use of the I am name throughout scripture. Is the essence of the gospel.
So in Exodus, When the people of Israel are wounded and sick because of their sin, God reveals Himself to them as Jehovah. I am Rapha, which means. Healer, I'm your healer in Leviticus when Moses lays out the law. The law, that great description of how to walk uprightly before God. And the people say what we say.
How could you ever live up to all these things? God says, Jehovah, I am Machedesh Kim. I am your sanctifier. In other words, I'm the God who will enable you to actually walk with me. When Jeremiah was discouraged by Israel's persistent failures and how they refused to walk faithfully before God, he looks at heaven and he says, God, how are we ever going to survive?
How can you not just destroy us? God says to Jeremiah, Don't be afraid because Jehovah, I am Tishkidnu, your righteousness. I am going to become your righteousness. I'm going to be your righteousness when you have no righteousness. In Ezekiel's day, when the people of Israel felt scared and alone, and they felt besieged by their enemies all around, God said, Don't be afraid, Jehovah.
I am Shamma, the presence. I am the presence of God with you. When David felt lost and confused with no friends left in the world, he called God, Psalm 23, Jehovah Rah, the Lord, my shepherd, to Abraham, who faced an impossible circumstance with no seeming way out. God declared to him, Jehovah, I am Jireh, your provider. And to Isaiah, who wasn't sure that he would survive another day, God declared to him, Jehovah, saw by oath, I am God, your defender.
I am the God who will never stop fighting for you. We'll see in the New Testament, Jesus is going to take this I am name. He's going to take this I am name in Greek, it's ego-ami. It's how he would have, what's how it's written in your Greek New Testament. And he's going to attach it to himself.
And he's not just claiming to be God, he is doing that. But he's also going to apply it to the areas of brokenness that we most experience, showing how God will be the fullness in all these places that were empty. For example, to those who hunger, Jesus says, John 6, 35, I am the bread of life. To those who thirst, he says, John 7, 38, I am the living water. To those in darkness, Jesus declares, John 8, 12, I am the light.
To those who need a fresh start, John 10, 9, he says, I am the door. To those who feel abandoned, John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd. To those who feel lost, John 14, Jesus declares, I am the way. To those who feel confused, I am the truth. To those who are afraid of death, I am the life.
These are what Jesus wants to be to you. To the unrighteous, Jesus declares, I am your righteous covering. To the powerless, he says, I am your defense. To the empty, he says, I am your fullness. And to the dead, I am your resurrection.
To the defeated, he says, I am your everlasting hope. That means to those of you who feel overlooked, if you've been cut from the team or passed over for promotion. What God says is, I am your way, I am the plan for you, and I plan to use you in a significant way in my kingdom, and I have promised to give you a future and a hope and to make you a blessing. The Bible's message, you see, is not about your self-actualization. The Bible's about God.
It's about what God is for you and what God can accomplish through you. The gospel is not that given enough help. You could become righteous enough to earn heaven. The gospel was that Jesus came and was righteous enough in your place and then died the death that you'd been condemned to die in your place so that he could literally become your righteousness. The Christian life in the same way is not about moral self-improvement.
It's not about God giving you help to make you an awesome person. It's about Christ working the power of a new life in you and through you. Paul says, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. It's not even I who live anymore.
It's Christ who lives in me. You see, only one person in all of history was ever able to live the Christian life successfully. And y'all, he was so good at it, we named it after him. the Christian life, the Christ life. And now that Christ lives in you.
And you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Why is it that I can stand confidently before God? Why is it that I can stand confidently before God? Because Jehovah Tiskid knew Jesus has become my righteousness. God made him who knew no sin to become my sin so that I could become his righteousness in him.
Why is it that when I look at life, I'm not afraid? that I'm going to be alone or abandoned. It is because Jesus is my Jehovah Shama, God, my presence. Why is it that I can face my trials with confidence? It is because Jesus is my Jehovah Jire.
He is the God who always provides for me. Why is it that I can have hope that this body that is falling apart and this soul that feels plagued by all kinds of doubts and troubles and temptations is one day going to be with him in glory? It is because Jesus is Jehovah Rapha. He is God my healer. How do I know that I'm going to be successful in the next chapter of my life?
It's not because I'm awesome. It's not because I've learned a bunch of stuff. It is because Jesus is Jehovah Machedesh Kim. He is God my sanctifier. You see, Jesus' name literally in Hebrew is Yahshua, which means God, I am your salvation.
He became my salvation. And that means that all that I need, all that I lack, all that I could never be in myself. He is the great I am for me and in me. I'm not enough. You are not enough.
Moses was not enough. But God has got enough for Moses and for me and for you. And that's the whole gospel. You see, I realize that you come into here this weekend. You're carrying around all kinds of deficiencies and worries and insecurities.
and feelings of inadequacy of your own. Maybe it's because you're a new parent. Maybe you feel that way as a husband, as a worker, as a student. trying to live the Christian life, whatever. Scripture says, you ready for some discouraging news?
You ready? It says Christian says you don't even know the half of it. Um You're so weak. You can't even guarantee you'll be around tomorrow. You're so small and pathetic.
That it is a sin, James chapter four, literally a sin for you to promise anybody anything about tomorrow because you don't even know that you're gonna wake up tomorrow and don't have the power to make it happen. James says, you're like a wisp of smoke. Or James 5, like a blade of grass, the slightest shift in wind direction, the slightest change in temperature, and you're a goner. In the scope of the universe, he says, you're so small and insignificant and pitiful, you don't amount as to a grain of sand on the ocean floor. You're so powerless that Jesus said, apart from him, you literally couldn't do anything good.
You're so wicked that he had to die to save you. You're so evil that the book of Romans tells you that there's literally nothing good that dwells in your flesh. And if there is anything good in your flesh, it's only because God is working in you both the will and to do of his good pleasure.
Now I know at this point you're like.
Well, thanks. This is so uplifting. I am so glad I came this weekend. Thank you, Pastor JD, for making me feel like nothing. Thank you for making me feel small.
I am not trying to make you feel small. I'm telling you that you are small, okay? There's a big difference in those two. I'm not trying to make you feel anything, I'm trying to make you realize something. You are small because only when you see.
that you indeed are not, are you ready to lean into the great I am? After our Christmas at Deepak services, one of our pastors wrote a poem. About this one that I thought was worth sharing with you. We call the poem enough. Goes like that's enough.
The words so simple, so captivating, so full of promise, yet so full of deceit. Beckoning me toward a paradise that elludes me, a beautiful garden whose fruits are always fresh, but always. out of reach because I am not enough. Not smart enough, not strong enough, not caring enough, or good enough, or successful enough, or beautiful enough. Not enough to meet the simple challenges of today, not enough for the weighty troubles of tomorrow, not enough to feel at peace right now, not enough, not nearly enough to offer.
Anything of worth to an infinitely worthy God. I am not. But he already knows. And he says to me, I am. I'm not smart enough or strong enough or caring or good or sufficient or successful or beautiful or.
God enough. I'm not God enough to satisfy the endless demands of that deceptive word, enough. And I was never meant to be. But these lips of mine are bold enough to cry for help. These hands of mine, weak and empty, are ready enough to be filled.
This heart of mine, deceived and deceiving, is still desperate enough to yearn for paradise. Only one God is God enough to give us that green and garden paradise. The God of everything chooses to be the God of this nothing heart. He takes me as his own. This is enough.
This is enough. I am not. He already knows. And he says to me, I am. You see, when you realize that God has declared His great I am name over you in the midst of your insecurities.
I told you that should make you read and understand the third commandment in a new light. The third commandment, we looked at the first two last week. Here's the third one: You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. This was always taught to me growing up is don't use God's name as a cuss word. Don't say, oh my God, or Jesus Christ, or something like that.
And that's true, you shouldn't do that, all right? And that's included in this commandment, but that doesn't, that's not the fullness of this commandment. Notice specifically, it's not a command about how to use God's name. It's a command about how to take God's name. And I describe it to you like this.
In times past, there was a Beautiful girl. Who had the attention of all the guys whose name was Veronica Marie McPeters? And on the greatest day of her earthly life, She traded in that McPeters name and she became a career.
Now on that day when she took my name, she became part of me. She became one with me. All that was mine. became hers. There wasn't you know, that much.
It wasn't that great of a deal for her, but nonetheless, that's what happened. We'll see in the same way. When you became a Christian, you literally took the name of God to yourself. You took the name I am, and that means. That all that he is You now possess.
The Apostle Peter would go so far as to say that we have become partakers of the divine nature. Literally, his nature has been fused with ours. Paul would say we become inheritors of all the divine promises. All the promises of God are yes in Christ Jesus, because even though you didn't deserve the promises, Jesus deserved them all, and now he's become one with you.
So, guess what you get when you get him? You get all the promises of God. And what that means is that when I say no to God, or when I falter in courage because I think, but God, I am not blank enough, then I am taking his name in vain. Because even though it is true that I am not enough, he is enough, and I've become one with him. And he is now these things in me and through me.
So when I say, God, I can't be a good parent, he says, I know. I can. You say, I can't make it. He says, I can. You say, I am so doubtful.
And he responds, but I am so faithful. You say, but God, I'm so dysfunctional. He says, yep, but I am so complete. You say, I am so deficient. He says, but I am so sufficient.
You say, I'm so sinful, and he says, Yet I am so graceful. You say, I'm at the end of my rope, and he says, Yeah, I got another one, and it's as long as eternity. And so, when the Pharaohs in our lives say to us, Who do you think you are? We respond now with Moses, I don't think I'm anything. But see, I know the great I am.
And when the haters in our own hearts whisper, you are not, we shout back, you are right. But it doesn't matter who I am. It matters who he is because I am one in him.
So, my challenge to you this week, here at the end of our series. is to name your insecurity. to write it out. To actually say, write it down, do this later. Say, I am not blank enough and put whatever goes in that category most for you.
And then what I want you to do is right underneath it, I want you to write something else. I want you to say, yet in Christ, I am. And I want you to put in that blank the sufficiency of Christ's character, whatever Jesus is. I am not blank enough, but in Christ I am fully supplied. I am sufficient.
I am righteous. I am more than a conqueror. I am an overcomer. I am all that Jesus was because He is in me and now He does these things through me. Feeling inadequate is a prerequisite.
To being used by God. Whenever you see God call somebody throughout Scripture, it's almost always the same. We see it with the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was just, I mean, he was a destroyed hot mess. In the book of Acts, when God called him, what God said to Paul when he called him is airily similar.
To what he says to Moses, Acts 26:16. Paul, rise up and stand on your feet. You're flat on your face. I've appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness of the things which. You have seen the things which I will yet reveal to you.
Here's the question. Who is the actor in that verse? Who's the actor, y'all? Who's the one that is doing the stuff? Is it Paul?
Is Paul beginning to realize his self-actualization? No. Jesus is the actor. He's getting caught up in God's global purposes. I've got A plan that I want to use you for.
And when you discover this plan, you're going to have a sense of confidence that you never discovered. Arguably y'all one of the most powerful men in history. One of the most powerful men in history who's made the biggest change was a man named William Wilberforce. His efforts, historians say, in some ways single-handedly brought the slave trade in Europe to an end. But historians tell us he was one of the most physically unimpressive men you would ever imagine.
He had severe scoliosis, so much so that he was a hunchback. You never see this in the pictures because they always just show him at an angle you can't tell, but he was severely hunched back. One of the history books that I was looking at referred to him as an elfish, misshapen little figure. The kids at his school when he grew up, his high school, constantly mocked him. They called him a shrimp.
They would put him on the table because he couldn't defend himself and they would just make fun of him. But sometime after college, William Wilberforce discovered who God was, discovered the purposes of God. And he took his little deformed life, if you will. And he put himself onto God's runway and he felt heaven's wind at his back, and he literally changed the world. What he discovered in that moment was not his inner potential.
He didn't self-actualize, he didn't tap into his inner tiger. What he discovered in that moment was the purposes of God, and that God can use very weak and broken instruments to do incredible things.
Some of you are where he is.
Some of you are like Paul. You're morally flat on your face. And what God says to you. in either situation is rise up. and stand on your feet.
Stop looking at your limitations and look instead at the power and the faithfulness of the Christ who is calling you. That's where confidence comes from. Y'all, it's like I've said throughout this series, over and over and over and over again, all our spiritual problems go back to a view of God that is too small. Many of you don't really have a sense of purpose in your life, and let me tell you why. It's because you've been trying to fit God into the margins of your life.
You've been trying to get him to help you with your purposes. I'm talking about something altogether different. I'm talking about coming to God and putting a blank check down at his feet and saying, God, it's no longer about getting you on my team. It's about me surrendering to what you want. And when you do that, you're going to feel this divine confidence in heaven at your back because you are going to be surrendered to his purposes.
You say, well, how do I do that? There's really two stages, I would say. Stage one is just surrender. You got to surrender fully to God. Stage two, you got to get involved in a local church.
I don't say that because I'm trying to get you to be a part of our church. Maybe it's another church you need to be a part of. That's fine. But see, it's only in a local church that you can discover the purposes of God.
Some of you get really emotional in moments like this. You're like, yes, Jesus, I'm going to do it. That's great. I love your emotional response. But you need to follow that up by getting involved in a local church where you can learn his purposes.
The difference in those of you who actually follow through with this and those of you who don't is not how emotional you are in this moment. It's whether or not you follow through on this by getting involved in a local church and discovering the purposes of God for you, your family, and your future. That's the decision I want you to make. Stop trying to fit God into the margins of your life and instead reorient yourself around His agenda. You were created to find your identity and your sufficiency in the arms of an everlasting God.
In addition to Pastor JD's book Not God Enough, which inspired this teaching series, we also have a 21-day devotional based on the book. This guided journey walks you through scripture, using reflection and prayer to help you confront doubts, expand your understanding of God's greatness, and build bold, steady faith. When you support Summit Life this month, we'll send this devotional directly to you by email as our way of saying thanks. You can grow bold faith by rediscovering a truly great God. Learn more at jdgreer.com.
We'll see you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries. Yeah.
