Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Stuart Briscoe brings us a message called "When We Are Feeling Inadequate." It's from his series *Knowing God Personally*, which is all about the difficult times in your life that can bring you closer to God and strengthen your walk.

So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series, *Finding God*.

In this inspiring series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let Him find you. By slowing down and putting yourself deliberately in His presence, you'll recognize that He's already there, waiting for you. You'll be uplifted as Jill explains how God worked in the lives of men and women in the Old Testament and how He works in your life too, even when you don't see Him and feel His presence.

The *Finding God* series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. And if you're able to make your gift monthly, we'll also send you a special Telling the Truth travel mug to remind you that God is always with you.

So request your resources when you give today: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here is Stuart with today's message called "When We Are Feeling Inadequate."

Stuart Briscoe: Have you ever wondered why some people just seem to be so critical? They seem to be wonderfully gifted at finding fault. If you're able to say something positive about somebody, they will always be able to put a negative twist to it.

You may point out that a certain person is really very gifted, but somebody will say, "Yeah, but..." and then the "but" follows on. Somebody's really quite attractive? "Yeah, but..." The reason for it often is this: that if there's somebody very gifted, or somebody who's very beautiful, or somebody very talented, other people are threatened by them.

They feel inadequate. They want to compete and know deep down that they can't. They're not as smart; they're not as talented; they're not as beautiful. So out of feelings of inadequacy, the criticism comes. Have you noticed how some people get really quite belligerent? They become very aggressive.

In marriages, sometimes you have the situation where the men will be even to the point of physically aggressive with their wives. Have you ever wondered why it is? Often, it's because the wives are able to do things that the men know they can't do. They have that underlying sense that the women are excelling when they are relatively ordinary.

The only way in which they can impose their will or they can prove their masculinity is by aggressively imposing themselves on their partners. They're operating out of a sense of inadequacy. Have you ever wondered why people who are well-educated, like doctors and dentists, sometimes become drug addicts?

I mean, if anybody should know better than to start dabbling with drugs, surely it would be somebody who studied the human body. Have you ever wondered how in the world anybody as smart as they obviously are can be as stupid as they become? It's because they just can't cope. They feel inadequate to meet all the demands that have been placed upon them, and as a result, they look for chemical aid.

There's an awful lot of inadequacy around. I remember talking to a very well-known professional athlete on one occasion. He'd got himself into a real mess, and he was just bailing out. He asked to have breakfast with me to explain to me that he was going to bail out and would I help pick up the bits, basically.

So we talked about that, and then towards the end of it, I said to him, "You know, there's something puzzles me about you. I wasn't around at the time, but when you were a young athlete, you were not only known as a superstar, you were also known as an outspoken Christian. Kids would rush to get your autograph, and you would not only sign your name and put the number of your uniform, but you would always write your favorite text underneath."

I said, "Those days are long gone. You're not known for any Christian testimony at all. In fact, you are very well-known for a lifestyle that is flatly contradictory. Do me a favor. Tell me exactly what happened." "Oh," he said, "that's easy. I came to the conclusion that I just couldn't live the Christian life. I just quit. I just gave up. Just felt totally inadequate." There's an awful lot of inadequacy around.

Of course, not everybody feels inadequate. There's some people who are superbly self-confident. They really think they've got the world by the tail. They can handle it. Like the young preacher who was preaching his first sermon. He stepped up into the pulpit exuding self-confidence. He'd learned the thing by heart, he'd practiced all his gestures in front of the mirror, he got this thing nailed, and he knew he was going to wow the people.

So he got up, and using the right approach that he'd watched Billy Graham use, he stepped up and he said, "Today, I want to talk to you about the remarkable incident when Jesus fed five people with 5,000 loaves and 2,000 fishes." The congregation started laughing. Well, he was a little bit unnerved by that.

He said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What I meant to say was, today I want to tell the story of how Jesus fed 2,000 fishes with 5,000 people and a few loaves of bread." No, that's not how it was. So he tried again, got the thing more and more mixed up. Fortunately, the senior minister was there, so he jumped up and did what you do at awkward moments in a church service: you sing a hymn.

So they sang a hymn. It got everybody settled down, and then he said, "Okay, carry on." So the young man had had time to scatter his collected thoughts, and he got up and he said, "Today, I want to speak to you about the wonderful miracle that Jesus performed when he fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes." Well, as soon as he got it out right, he was off and running.

He began to wax eloquent and he began to stab his preaching finger out and he began to spray two or three rows back—preach, really preach. And he was working up quite a storm, and as he was getting more and more confident, he said, "Just think what Jesus did. Fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes, 12 baskets full left over."

Dramatic gestures, all the way—lots of movement, action, very dynamic sermon. Then he noticed the man on the front row who'd laughed at him a few minutes earlier. And he said, "You couldn't have done that. You couldn't have done that. You couldn't have fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes." The fellow said, "I could have had all that stuff left over from earlier in the sermon."

And that did him. That did him. And so totally, totally deflated, he just gave up and he came down the steps. And as he came down the steps of the pulpit, the senior minister met him on the way up and said, "Young man, if you'd gone up the way you came down, you'd have come down the way you went up." Are you with me? If you'd gone up the way you came down, you'd have come down the way you went up.

You see, the problem with inadequacy is this: it all depends what kind of expectations we're operating on. If we are simply trying to meet our own self-imposed expectations, well, it may be that we're just making them conveniently doable. Or it may be that other people are imposing expectations upon us that are totally crushing us.

But when push comes to shove, what really matters is not self-imposed expectations or other-imposed expectations. What really matters is divinely-imposed expectations. What about them? The Apostle Paul talks about divinely-imposed expectations and how he felt about them.

If you have a Bible with you, turn with me to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, and the second chapter. And in it, we'll learn some very, very fascinating things about God's expectations, our own lack of ability, and what we do about it. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12, for a couple of verses, Paul just speaks a little bit about his own personal tribulations.

He's had a difficult time with the Corinthian church. They have shown him that he's not particularly popular there; some of them are very much opposed to him. There are a group of people who moved into the church who are trying to undo all that he's done. He's visited the church, tried to put things right.

In actual fact, things seem to be worse because of his visit. So he sent Titus there to see if Titus can sort some things out. He's expecting Titus to return; he hasn't come back yet. He's very worried about it. He says, "I have no peace of mind." But then immediately in verse 14, he says this: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him."

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life." And here's the question that he immediately asked: "And who is equal to such a task?" Well, like all good preachers, he answers his own question. Verse five of chapter three: "Not that we are competent to claim anything of ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent."

So Paul's statement is this: when I begin to look realistically at the expectations that God places upon me, I feel utterly and totally humanly inadequate. But I don't quit, for I have discovered that it is God who in my inadequacy makes me competent. Let's go into it in a little more detail. Paul gives us a very dramatic picture of the Christian experience as God intends it to be lived.

Verse 14: "Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ." This is a specialized picture that Paul is using. In the Roman Empire, it was customary for the emperors to move out with their generals and their great army and overcome vast regions. Now, when this was going on, the people back in Rome had no idea what was happening at the front.

There weren't any CNN reporters there. They didn't have satellite up-to-the-minute news so that you could watch what was happening on the battlefield as you chewed your cornflakes. That was not a possibility in Rome. So how did they get the feel for what was happening as far as these mighty victories were concerned?

The answer: when the triumphant emperor would return, along with his generals, they would have a procession through the streets of Rome. It was called, in the Latin, *triumphus*. In that procession, there would not only be the generals who had shared with the emperor's triumph, there would also be hundreds, sometimes thousands of prisoners of war, shackled to each other, chained to the back of the emperor's chariot. And they would be evidences of his victory.

That's the picture that Paul uses. Now read verse 14 again: "Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ." What Paul is saying is this: that a Christian is a person who is being led along by the conquering Christ as a visible, tangible evidence of Christ's victory in that person's life.

The Apostle Paul repeatedly calls himself the servant of Christ. In actual fact, the word he uses there is *doulos*, which means slave. He sees himself as somebody who has been conquered by Christ, who is chained to Christ, who has now stopped going his own way and is marching in the train of Christ's triumph as a glad and willing demonstration of what happens when Christ triumphs in a person's life.

Now think of that for a minute. A living, breathing, tangible evidence of what happens when Christ triumphs in a person's life. How does that translate as far as we're concerned? It means we get up in the morning and we say, "Today, I've got to go to the office. Today, I'm going to work in the neighborhood. Today, I'm going on campus."

And Christ intends to lead me through the office or through the neighborhood or through the campus as a living, breathing example of what a person looks like when Christ has triumphed in their life. What a challenge that becomes. There's another possible way of interpreting what he says here. That is, that he is not thinking so much of those who've been conquered by Christ, but he is thinking more of being a participant in Christ's triumph, like one of the generals who is riding along with the emperor in the triumphal procession.

Billy Graham on a number of occasions was invited to preach in the private chapel of the Queen in one of her residences in England. The reporters gathered around him after the service and they said, "Dr. Graham, what's it like to preach before the Queen of England?" He said, "It's a great privilege. But remember, whenever I preach, I always preach before the King of kings and the Lord of lords."

And every preacher better remember that. What really matters in the preaching is not primarily whether the audience like you, whether you're a popular preacher, or whether they think you're a great talker. What really matters as far as a preacher is concerned is this: is God saying amen to what the preacher is saying?

And by the way, is God saying amen to the way you play ball? And is God saying amen to the way that you conduct yourself at the country club? And is God saying amen because as you conduct yourself getting out the balance sheet, he nods his head and says, "There's my man. There's my woman. They're living before me."

But that isn't all he says. In addition to that, he says we conduct ourselves as somebody sent by God. We do it before God; we are sent by God. In other words, you get up in the morning and you say to yourself, "I am not going to work today. I am being thrust out by God as his representative into the world that needs to know the reality of who he is."

I'm sent by him, I do it before him, I'm led in the train of his triumph, and I am going to spread the fragrance of Christ wherever I go. I am going to be to God an aroma of the sweet sacrifice of Christ. I know that I will move among some believers; I'll be a refreshment to them. I know I'll come in contact with some unbelievers; I know that I'll be a challenge to them. I'm going to be sent by God, I'm going to do it before God—just an ordinary day.

And you say, "Oh, wow. Is that what it's like to be a Christian?" And the answer is yes. It is not a surprise then when Paul has spelled all this out, that he asks the 64,000-dollar question: "Who is adequate for these things?" Did you feel inadequate when you came in today? I bet you feel a whole lot more inadequate now, don't you?

You see, if you put your sights low enough, you can hit them. You can hit the target with your eyes shut. I suppose most people can dunk a basketball if you put the basket at three feet. The problem is putting it at 10 feet. And that's where God put it. Who is adequate for these things?

The Apostle Paul doesn't say, "Oh, the heck with it. Let's quit. This is nonsense." What he says is, "I am not adequate for these things. I am overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy. But my sufficiency, my competence is of God."

Guest (Male): Stuart, what benefit is there in trying to live up to God's expectations each day?

Stuart Briscoe: Sometimes when we look at the way we live our lives, I think we have to admit that we are disappointed with ourselves. We have our own expectations, and when we're perfectly honest about it, we say, "I have to admit, I'm not even meeting my own expectations." But then there's another standard that very often we try to operate under, and that one is we try to meet the expectations of people to whom we are accountable.

Sometimes not even to the people to whom we're accountable. We are very, very anxious about our image; we want to be liked; we want to be accepted. So we try to meet people's expectations, and very, very often, we fail there as well. The irony, of course, of trying to live up to my own expectations or everybody else's expectations is this: there is nothing sacrosanct about their expectations or even my own.

And the great advantage of seeking to live up to God's expectations is this: his are the only accurate ones. And so we need to overlook sometimes our own expectations and those of other people and say, "Lord, what is it you want me to do?" and try to do it in his power.

Guest (Male): Stuart, it's a challenge in today's negative world for us to be a living example of Christ's triumph. But those who are living battered, broken lives desperately need to see us do that, right?

Stuart Briscoe: Yes, I like the way you phrase that question: "today's negative world." There's an awful lot of negativism in this world, and we are in the middle of it. And this is the arena in which God has called us to live our life of discipleship. Now, very, very often when we meet people and we ask them, "How are you doing?" they will respond by saying, "Well, under the circumstances," and then they go on to recount the details.

In actual fact, when people say "under the circumstances," that is a very accurate description of where they're living their lives. They are basically dominated by their circumstances. I have often said that for many people, happiness depends on their happenings. And if their happenings don't happen to happen the way they happen to want their happenings to happen, they're unhappy.

Have you got that? In other words, they're living under their circumstances. The simple fact of the matter is this: we are expected to draw upon the illimitable resources of the risen Christ who, by the Holy Spirit, empowers us to live not above our circumstances—we can't escape them—but he does expect us to live well in the middle of them. And when we do that, we stand out in a negative society.

Guest (Male): Thanks for being with us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message encouraged you and helped you experience life in Christ. We thought you'd be encouraged by this note from a listener named Jody: "I so enjoy listening to your weekly sermons. God wakes me up early so I can be ready to listen. Thank you for all the insight you provide into God's word." Thank you, Jody.

So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled *Finding God*.

The *Finding God* series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. And if you're able to make your gift monthly, we'll also send you a special Telling the Truth travel mug to remind you: God is always with you.

So request your resources when you give today: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for listening in as Stuart shares practical advice on what to do when you're feeling inadequate. Be sure to come back tomorrow as Stuart and Jill share more life-changing truth from God's word here on Telling the Truth.