Is HE Enough?

Recently, as several people suddenly decided to leave our

church, I was challenged to see if my commitment to my calling was as strong as it should be.

While the number of new people coming-in far eclipsed those leaving, the fact that the exodus was among people I had personally known, loved, and served for years made this especially difficult...

If felt as if the Lord was asking me, “What if everyone left? If I called you to preach/teach something that resulted in an empty sanctuary, would you do it? Is my affirmation, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,' enough for you?”

I had been studying the faithfulness of men like Daniel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and others. They often spoke to an audience of "none" in that nobody listened to their message.

Would I continue if people continued to ignore what I had taught? Will I preach to an audience of "none?" More accurately, an audience of "one," if God was the only one listening?

I struggled with this, but as is often the case when God “stretches us,” I think the answer to that is now a confident, “yes.” In fact, I'm thankful for the trial because I needed to face this question and be moved into a position to stand in the confident affirmative.

A QUESTION FOR ALL

What about you? Is Jesus enough? Is His affirmation sufficient for you to continue serving and doing what He has called you to do? Or, like so many, will you follow the crowd and preach to the choir, so-to-speak? Do you serve, give, speak and live to please others or even just yourself?

My prayer for me...and thee...is that we'd find Jesus to be more than enough and that pleasing an audience of one--Him--would be all the motivation we'd need. Better to choose, achieve, and maintain that position now, than to find out you're "not there yet" if a crisis hits. Having gone through this recent trial, I plan to fight to stay in that place...will you?

To that end,

Pastor Joel