"God Is Enough!"

Condensed Sermon Series #2
By Reverend D. Edson Ames
Senior Pastor
Boonville Wesleyan Church

Introduction: I’m a hunter; but only in my mind. I watched a program about a young man who wanted to hunt a certain kind of deer in the Scottish Highlands. He hired a man who had lived and hunted the deer all his life. They went into the mountains and finally saw the deer very far away. He put his rifle on the ground with a tripod and killed the deer when all he could see is the silhouette against the sky. I was reminded of 2 things:

1. If you’re hunting for big game don’t use a shotgun

2. To bag a trophy may require extra effort and sacrifice

I have had a vision of being a great hunter so I bought a wii game at Bass Pro Shop. I don’t expect I’ll hang any trophies, but it’s the closest I’ll come. It’s not the real way it’s just a substitute.

Through the records of man and God it is a repeated fact that people are always leaving the ways of God and going their own way. We often try to substitute the easy false way for the more strenuous right way.

I want to give us some ammunition for our hunt for the hearts and minds of those who have tried to substitute the false gods for the Real God.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:35-39 NKJV)

Let’s bag a “trophy” for Jesus this week with 1 shot: GOD IS ENOUGH!

1. It is human nature for people to get bored and restless with routine.

-Moses had gone up the mountain to receive the commandments and the people got tired of waiting for God to do something, so they made a golden calf.

- While Israel was in the wilderness, God fed them manna from heaven but they got tired of that, even though it had everything they needed to live on, so they demanded

something else. God sent them quail (birds) until they grew sick of them.

- People find God's goodness boring. After a while they get tired of it so they mix something with it.

2. For many Christians God is not enough.

- They want what the SALVATION the cross of Jesus provides, but not what it demands.

- They want God's protection while living their worldly ways. God's ways become boring

so they want more.

- They invent "religious" entertainment" to "pep" up their "worship" services, God is not enough.

- They want physical healing more than spiritual healing.

3. The Christian won't be where he/she ought to be until he/she gets to a place where God is enough.

- Those who desire and pursue the presence of the Holy God and stand in awed silence are satisfied.

- Those who are obedient and seek only God's will are satisfied with what God does.

- We have to live here in this world but we don't have to be like it.

- Many take the things of the world and "sanctify" them saying those things are necessary for spiritual happiness.

- The presence of God brings more delight and satisfaction than all the invented gadgets, things and programs of the entire world.

4. "Stand in the way, and see for yourselves, and ask for the old paths, the good way, and you shall find rest to your souls." (Jeremiah 6:16)

- They are ancient and eternal with no time quality attached to them.

- God's creation, our response and relation to God, human sin, human redemption, the incarnation, the indwelling Christ, the union of the soul with God.

- We will never be where we ought to be until these things become to us the source of

excitement and satisfaction.

- We will not be bored with God.

- We will not make God's redemptive plan merely an escape from Hell.

- We will center our affections upon God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

5. The person who is where he/she should be with God will require very little from the world.

- It is amazing how much God will meet one's needs.

- It will not be God plus something else.

- It will be God - everything.

- In the world, yes, but that person's anchor will be God and if cut off from all the comforts and things the world provides, he/she will still be perfectly at rest for God will

be enough.

CONCLUSION:

1. Can you say that through the difficult times that God has been enough?

2. Are you confident that in the days ahead GOD IS ENOUGH?

3. Will you tell someone this week that you have experienced through your trials and heartaches — GOD IS ENOUGH?