Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 85 | You're Not Enough

Episode Date: March 13, 2019

A recent video by Hillsong Church reiterates the common lie of today: You're enough. The reality is, you're not. Copyright Blaze Media All Rights Reserved.

Hello, relatable listeners. Happy Wednesday. I hope you guys are having a great week. And I hope that this just gives you the motivation that you need to get you through your week. So it's Wednesday. We are going to talk theology. I hate that it's not theological Thursdays because that sounded so good. But you can think about this as like a midweek motivation.

I don't really know if that's what I want to say. But like Wednesday, you know, if you grew up Baptist like me, you went to church on Wednesdays and Sunday nights. And so you can think of this kind of as church, but of course, not as church because I'm a woman so I wouldn't be preaching in front of the mixed congregation. You know what I'm saying? But Wednesday is just going to have to be theological Wednesdays,

even though it doesn't sound nearly as catchy as theological Thursdays. So today, on this theological Wednesday, we are going to talk about a video that Hillsong put up with Haley Bieber in it. Now, this is the second time that we have used something by Haley Bieber as the foundation or the impetus for a conversation about theology, really about wrong theology. I don't want it to seem like I am singling her out at all. I think that she is beautiful. She is talented and she might just be kind of navigating what it means to be a Christian and the public eye. Maybe she's working through some of her theology and she is being sanctified

in that. I think that's great. I don't want it to seem like I'm bullying her or that I'm singling her out and harassing her bad theology. I am not. I imagine. I imagine that. I imagine, that it would be really hard to be sanctified and coming to terms with what it means to have your identity be in Christ in such a public sphere because then people like Hillsong interview you as if you're some theological expert and then all of your views are out there when really maybe you're still trying to figure it out maybe you are still working through your salvation with fear and tribbling which is something that we are all called to do unfortunately what we have seen and this is only a tiny tiny snippet from a longer interview that I didn't fully watch

because I had to give my personal information in order to watch it, and I didn't want to do that. So I just watched the snippet, and we're just going to talk about the idea behind this snippet, and we're going to use that as a jumping off point. This really doesn't have very much to do with her at all. We're not even going to get into Hillsong, which has its own set of problems.

It's just the idea that she said, a lot of you guys sent me this video. We're going to use the idea that she talked about as our jumping off point. So let me play you that really short clip, really fast. I think that every person have had that feeling that they're not enough for something, for someone. When I question that myself about being enough for people, for someone, for this industry, for my job, for what I do, it's like you are because God took his time to create me and put me in this place. Right. That's your answer right there. Wow. You're

enough because he created you because you are existing and living and breathing on this planet. Okay. So what you heard from her was that you are enough because God created you. And that sounds really good. I mean, a lot of what she is saying, I think, relates to people because it's legitimate. Everyone struggles with insecurity. Everyone struggles with feeling insufficient. Everyone struggles with the opinions of other people. And if that does dictate our worth and define how valuable we are. And so what she's saying relates probably to a lot of, especially young women, because we kind of deal with all of these standards in our head that we think that we have to reach. And so it sounds very comforting. It's like a balm for our soul when

we hear you. You are enough because God created you. And as a Christian, you might hear that and think, yes, that's absolutely true. I'm so glad that she gets that, that you are enough because God created you. I'm not going to overanalyze what she meant or what she didn't mean by that because, like I said, this is a small part of a larger interview. But I'm going to take that one line that a lot of Christians, I think, would probably agree with that you are enough because God created you. And I am going to talk about why that is fundamentally untrue.

It sounds really good because we're told. other people's opinions of you don't define your worth. You should be looking at God. You should ask God how valuable that you, how valuable you are. And it's true that because you are a human being, you are made in the image of God. And because you are made in the image of God, you are more valuable than any other creature on earth. Because you are the only part of creation. You are the only kind of creation that has a soul. Because you have a soul, you have an eternal death. destination. And because you have an eternal destination, you have a purpose and that purpose is found in Christ. So yes, as a human being, saved or not, you are valuable. And you are worth more than any other

creature, any other part of creation that exists in this universe. So it is true that because you are made by God, you are valuable. You are different. You are set apart from the animals, from the plants, from the other parts of creation. But it is not true that because you are a human being made by God that you are enough. That is not true. If you are enough

because God created you, then there is no need for Jesus. God made you incomplete. He made you insufficient. He made you to be dependent. If that were not true, if that were not true, If you were enough, simply because God made you, then there is no need for Christ.

All you would have to do is lead a moral life, find what makes you happy, and do that. And unfortunately, that's what a lot of Christians think, that as long as you can look to God and remember that you are enough, that you are loved, and you can feel good about yourself, then you can go on living and it's all good. As if that was the only reason why the Bible was written, as if that's the only reason that God exists for us. That's the only reason why Jesus came to die so we could feel good about ourselves and remember that because we are made by God that we are enough. But quite frankly, we are not. Like I said, we were made incomplete. We see throughout the Bible time and again when men and women

thought that they were sufficient without God, that when they thought that they were sufficient in and of themselves. When they thought that they were independent, that destruction ensued, when they insisted that they were enough, things did not end well. Think about the Garden of Eden. Eve wandered from God's commands. She lingered too close to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She was tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit.

And what did the serpent say? If you eat this, you will be like God. You will have his power. You will have his wisdom. You will know the difference between good and evil. Therefore, you will be independent. You won't need him anymore. You'll be self-sufficient.

You will no longer be reliant. You will no longer be lacking. You will have everything. And then we know what happens after that. Things did not end well, not only for Adam and Eve, but also for humanity. I'm reading through the book of judges right now, which is a beautiful book that makes so clear, just like many other books in the Bible, if not every book in the Bible. just how needy we are of God, that whenever people turn from God, whenever they disobeyed,

whenever they insisted that they were enough, that they knew better, that destruction ensued, that people suffered, that people died. They learned the hard way that, yes, indeed, they are made to be dependent on God, that they are not enough. So Haley Bieber is right in that we do all feel that at times we are not enough. but the comfort for that nagging feeling of insufficiency that we all have, that nagging feeling of inadequacy that we all feel is not that, yes, you are sufficient, inadequate, and worthy simply because you're a human. If that's true, then we don't need Christ.

The truth is, is that I am completely empty. I am completely useless. I am completely inadequate and sinful and depraved and have no capacity for righteousness but God. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. That's Ephesians 2. Jesus died because you and I are not enough. Jesus suffered a gruesome death on the cross and rose again three days later because you and I are not enough. We are wicked sinners in need of the Savior. We are not enough. Ephesians 2 says that we are dead apart from Christ. We talk about that line a lot on this podcast. Dead means dead. You are nothing apart from Christ. Romans 5.8 says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Romans 510 says, for if while we were

enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? So that means that before Christ, we were nothing. We were dead. We were enemies of God. No, we were not enough. We were completely insufficient and we were bound for hell. As Psalm 14 2 through 3 says, the Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, any who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. So what makes you and I enough is not simply that we are human, not simply that we are here, not simply that we exist, but it's Jesus, not the fact just that God created us, but Jesus completes us.

Jesus makes us whole. Jesus makes us worthy. Jesus gives us our identity. Jesus gives us salvation. He gives us righteousness. He makes you and I enough. So with a non-Christian, if a young non-Christian woman is struggling with insecurity, She's struggling with inadequacy.

It does no good for me to say, you are enough. You're enough as you are. You don't need to worry about anything. You're fine as is. You're enough just because God made you. No, that leaves out the best part. That leaves out the hope of the gospel. Yes, you are made in God's image.

But that means, as you've said, we have a soul. That soul is eternal. It has an eternal destination, which means you've got an eternal purpose. That purpose, your eternal salvation is found in Jesus. You want security that lasts. You want stability that last. Look to Jesus. So the line that you are enough because God made you is almost this very subtle, this very indiscernible, almost symptom of this me first Christianity of this self-love Christianity. If you are enough because God made you, and that's it, then you have no need for real biblical Christianity outside of just what it does

to make you feel good about yourself. Jesus becomes, as we've talked about, this gal pal who is just here to remind you that you're fine, that everything you want to do is good, that whatever happiness you want to pursue is okay by him. He's just here to tell you that you're good enough. But that's not who Jesus is. That's not what the Bible says. Nowhere in the Bible does God tell someone, want that you are enough. In fact, we see God a lot saying you can do nothing without me. You're not good enough without me. You don't even know how to be holy. You don't even know how to seek me. That's not even your choice. You can't even think about doing something truly good without me because all of you are corrupt to your core. The Bible does not describe Jesus as a gal pal who is here to tell you

that you are enough to make you feel good about yourself and to condone whatever pursuits you have. Jesus is Lord of your life. He's not here to coddle you. He's not here to make you feel pretty. He is here to completely wreck shop, to completely tear it all down. He opens up your heart. He looks around. He says, this is mine.

All of it. There is not a single part of this life that I am not going to claim as my own. as C.S. Lewis says, Jesus does not come into your life to torment the natural self, but to kill it. Colossians 3 3 through 5. Your old self has died and your new life is kept with Christ in God. Jesus comes in and says that nothing in your life is going to come untouched. Nothing in your life is going to go unexposed. No sin is not going to be made light. No darkness is not going to have light shed upon it. You can't hide. You cannot fake it. you can't pretend.

I am laying claim on everything Jesus says. He says, you're mine now. And it's time to get to the hard work of sanctification. Oh, you thought that I was just going to come in and save you. You thought that I was just fire insurance. You thought that this was only about salvation. Just sit back and get ready because we have a lot of work to do. And he also says, this is going to hurt.

He says, I'm going to ask you to do things that you didn't think were possible. You're going to go through things that you think are unbearable. I'm going to ask you to give things up that you thought that you could never give up. I'm going to ask you to talk about that sin that you never thought was going to be out there. I'm going to tell you that you need to share that struggle, even though it's embarrassing for you, even though it's shameful for you. And he says that no one said that dying to yourself was going to be easing. No one said that self-crucifixion was going to feel good.

But the Jesus of the Bible, aka the only Jesus that exists, does not promise us comfort. He does not promise us ease. He does not promise us that we are going to always feel good about. ourselves. He's not going to promise us that we are going to feel enough just because we were made by God. What he promises us without fail is himself. He says that when I save you, that when I sanctify you, when I lead you through this life that is at times going to be filled with suffering, that is at times going to be filled with sacrifice and even anguish. The one thing, the only thing, you, Ali, you, whoever is listening to this, can count on is that I will not leave you.

That's what Jesus promises us. When I told you that you are mine, I meant it. I made you mine when you didn't want to be mine. I made you mine when you didn't deserve it. You think that I'm going to give up on you now? Jesus says to us, he promises us himself. He says, I am sufficient. You're not, but I am.

I'm your security. You might be insecure. but I'm your security. I am your shepherd. I left the flock to go after the one lost sheep. I left the 99 to come after the one. He says, remember the father and the story of the prodigal son. He says, that is me. When you squandered everything, when you dishonored me, when you were at your lowest, your darkest points, I saw you at a far off distance and I ran to you. I didn't turn my back on you. I didn't chastise you, I ran to you. And Jesus says, I didn't, I didn't run because you were lovable. I ran to you because I am love. The gospel of self-sufficiency misses this. It misses the best part of

the whole glorious exchange of the gospel that without Jesus, we're nothing. That the beauty and the miraculousness of the gospel is just how wretched we are apart from God, how incomplete we are apart from God, who being rich in mercy decided to save us anyway through Christ. And that Christ has given us his righteousness, he's imputed his righteousness, that against all odds, against all probabilities, all of anything that we can understand, he made us holy, that he has wiped our slate clean. That means that we had a slate that needed to be wiped clean. I don't believe, I just don't believe that it is possible. to understand the gravity of the gospel without understanding just how depraved all of us are apart from

Christ. We've talked before. I think a lot of times we think of the really bad people as enemies of God, as dead in their sin, you know, the Hitler's of the world. They're really bad. They are the enemies of God. And then you've got the kind of moral people in the middle who they're not enemies of God. They're not dead and sin. They're living a good life. Sure, they don't believe that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life, but they're fine. And then we've got, you know, the really good Christians that know God really well, but we kind of got this scale of evil to good and enemies of God, really, are you going to call some good charitable people enemies of God? And the Bible says yes. The Bible says that not one of you is righteous without me, that you can't even think a righteous

thought without me, not really, maybe by worldly standards. but not by mine. I think we've completely lost sight of the absolute holiness of God. Like we don't understand what perfection is. We kind of measure him by our standards of good. And so we assume that he measures us by our standards of good as well. And he doesn't. He measures us by his standards of good.

And because we couldn't reach that, he sent us Christ, the only one who has been able to reach that standard. I think we've completely lost sight of God's holiness. And because of that, we are unable to see our own unholyness. And therefore, we don't understand any justification for his wrath. And so we paint God as this live and let live moral relativistic guy who just wants you to be happy and just wants to make sure that you feel beautiful and that you remember that you're actually really good at your job, that you're actually a really good mom.

And that, you know, you're not so bad when you look into the mirror. and that it's okay that you've gained a few pounds. Not to say that God doesn't have something to say about those things, but we pretend like that's why he exists, that he is the engine for our self-love, that he is the justification for our self-care, not a wrathful, holy God who has every reason, every reason to be done with us, to cut us off forever

and to let us spend eternity in the damnation that all of us deserve. We've completely forgotten about that, and we think that he's just one of us, that he's the power behind all the selfish pursuits that we want, and that's not who he is. Jesus says that when I come into your life, everything is mine. Everything. There's not one thing that I am going to let go untouched. Not one part of your heart that I'm not going to explore. Not one part of you that I'm not going to expose and you're not going to be able to fake it anymore. And the thing is, is that insecurity is real. Inadequacy is real. Looking in the mirror and

feeling ugly, feeling bad about yourself is real. I have gained weights while I have been pregnant. I don't look the same as I did before. And I look at old pictures of myself. I'm like, wow, I really took for granted how skinny I was back then. I look really. I do not look ever, like I've ever looked before. And part of it is pregnancy. Part of it, let's be honest, is the waffle fries that I eat every day. There is certainly insecurity that I have about my body. There's certainly insecurity that I have when I step on the scale when I put on certain clothes that should fit even though I'm pregnant when I look at myself in pictures, whether it's on TV, whether it's speaking. I certainly have insecurity. I do. But the balm for my insecurity,

the answer to my insecurity is not just that I'm enough. It's that I have an eternal purpose that is so much bigger than this body that I have. And yes, of course, discipline is important and managing your behavior in a healthy way and being a good steward of your body is important. But when insecurity comes, because it's inevitable for all of us, the answer to that is that you have an eternal purpose

and an eternal identity in Christ who is enough on our behalf when we are not. It's not really that we're beautiful just because God made us beautiful. That is a wonderful thing to think, or that's a wonderful thing to know that, yes, God did form us all in our mother's womb. We are wonderfully made. Of course, we are supposed to take comfort in that.

But the belief that we are sufficient apart from our salvation in Christ is simply wrong. And it only comforts us for so long when we forget about that. Because the truth is, the truth is that the hope and the help for all of our very real insecurities is, is that Jesus is enough, that he has a purpose for you that transcends the image that you see in the mirror that is bigger than the number on the scale that is more important than your 9 to 5 job. He's bigger than what you're going through. A lot of times we think that our tragedies define us, that our struggles define us, but he's bigger than that. He's bigger than your miscarriage. He's bigger than your broken marriage. He's bigger than your bankruptcy. He's

bigger than your breakup. He's bigger than your failing grades. He's bigger than the death of your mom. bigger than your diagnosis. The answer to all of these very real, very hard things is not you and your sufficiency. It is God's. And there's freedom in that. A lot of people say, I've gotten this recently, oh, you're being phariseical, you're being legalistic, just let people find their way to God as if the truth of the gospel somehow can be subjectively. applied to people based on how they feel. And this comes from not a place of nitpicking, not a place of criticism, not a place of wanting to put anyone down or to say that anyone's wrong and I'm right, but a place of not wanting people to miss out on what the Bible tells us the gospel is,

which is this beautiful, freeing reality and which we recognize our inadequacy. And instead of convincing ourselves that we're enough, we depend on and count on Jesus's adequacy. And I don't want people to miss out on the freedom of self-forgetfulness. The freedom that comes along with realizing how depraved you are, how unholy you are, how unable you are to muster any strength, any goodness, any true morality whatsoever, how unable you are to save yourself, to sanctify yourself, and rely fully on Christ and allow him to do the work that he wants to do in your life. I don't want people to miss out on that. That is the beauty of Christ. A lot of people are going to call you a Pharisee for caring about

good theology. A lot of people are going to call you legalistic for saying, okay, the self-love stuff isn't cutting it. Okay, here's what the Bible says about this thing. I know you want to feel that way, X, Y, Z person, but here's what the Bible says. Of course, there's a way to do it with grace and and with truth and with love, of course. But being silent about these things isn't an option. People call you a Pharisee because they don't want to hear what you have to say, because they don't want to hear what the Bible has to say, as if believing in the Bible and speaking biblical truth is somehow Phariseical.

The problem with the Pharisees is that they didn't have any faith in their hearts. They were whitewashed tombs. They looked good on the outside. They didn't have anything on the inside. And of course, if that's any of us, we need to examine that. and we need to repent from that, and we need to ask God to save our wretched souls, of course. But if you have a conviction of what the Bible says and you want to speak biblical truth and you care about good theology, do not let anyone bully you into being silent by calling you

a Pharisee. They don't want to hear it. Of course not, because it is so much more comforting and it is so much easier. It is so much more culturally convenient to say, God is fine with however you are. He just wants you to remember that you're enough. That is so insanely unbiblical. It is so untrue. It is so counter to the gospel and the people who believe that are missing out.

They are missing out on the truth that Jesus offers us. But in today's day and age, when we are placed in the center of our own universes, when we are told that we are the only prism through which any kind of truth should travel and we decide how we want to apply it to our own personal lives and however other people want to decide it is fine too, it's very hard to push back against that and say, no, there's actually an absolute truth. And the absolute truth isn't found in me. It's not found in you. It is found in God's word. The only tool that we are given for knowing any kind of objective truth. And of course, we look at the natural world for scientific truth, but nothing is ever going to contradict God's word.

You also hear a lot of people saying, well, the justification for my theology is the Holy Spirit. Well, the Holy Spirit is never going to go against what God's word says. The Holy Spirit is God. So it's not going to change based on culture. I remember in college having conversations, both where I said this and where other people said this, I feel okay with doing what I'm doing right now, whether it was like stupid relationship, poking up with a guy, drinking too much, whatever it was. I feel okay about doing this because I don't feel any conviction.

And I think that if this was wrong, God would probably convict me that this was wrong. not so much. Not so much. It's very easy to get hardened to our own sin and harden to our own bad theology by kind of putting the blame on God and saying, we've got no responsibility for our actions. And of course, you get numb to the bad things that you believe in the bad things that you do, the longer that you do them. The Holy Spirit is never going to contradict the Bible. It is always going to be a messenger and a convictor of, not of God's word, but it's going to use God's word to convict us and to tell us what is true and to remind us of the truth and the power of the gospel. So again, the comfort for all of the things that you are going

through, for the struggles that you have is not that you are enough. It's not that you're enough because God made you. It's because it's that you are inadequate, you are insufficient, you are not enough, and yet Jesus is. So that's the message that I have for you today. I hope that you guys enjoyed it. I hope that you have a wonderful Wednesday, a wonderful rest of your week. Please give me any feedback that you would like. Please feel free to write me a review. And if you have any questions, if you have any questions, since I'm probably going to be answering questions this Friday or next Friday, please feel free to email me, ali at the conservative millennial blog.com. You can message me on Instagram. I love that. I just

can't get to all of the messages. So it's a little bit difficult. sometimes. So email me, Alley at the conservative millennial blog.com, and I will try my best to answer them. If you can keep them, like, just a few sentences, then that helps me, it helps me understand what is being asked and what is being said. And if you have any criticism or anything like that,

obviously feel free to reach out to me about that as well. And we will be having a fun conversation on Friday. And I hope you guys are looking forward to that. And thank you so much for listening. I will see you in a couple days.