Living with Questions 7

Living with Questions: Am I Good Enough?

I. Introduction: Review from last weeks question: Am I Valuable Enough?
A. Determining value by going back to how it was made (guitars, violins, rings)

1. We are created in God’s image – Gen. 1:27
2. Value is determined by WHO created us and made us regardless of what we can do.
3. Value comes from the Creator, not by the creation

B. Am I valuable enough to be loved? 1 John 4:16 – And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

II. Living with Questions: The Question for today is: Am I Good Enough?

A. Valuable, but . . .

1. Bring in a local newspaper or news website and look at all of the stories that suggest or imply that there is something wrong in the world. Talk about things you’ve seen lately.

2. If I am a valuable person why don’t I feel that way?


3. If God made me in his image and loves me, why does God feel so far away sometimes?


4. Any belief system need to explain what is wrong with the world. We don’t want balance between good and evil, we want goodness without evil, health without brokenness.


5. Life is difficult, it is hard. We at times feel broken, afraid, hiding and struggling.

B. A Broken Beauty

1. The Beginning: Genesis 2:16-17
a. God creates us with will
b. God creates a world with moral choice

2. The Beginning of the End: Satan distorts the truth - Gen. 3
a. He questions God’s Word – creates doubt
b. He denies God’s Word – creates distrust
c. He substitutes his own lies – creates defiance from truth

C. The Rise of Evil: Twisted Things

1. Evil as a PARASITE: It needs something good to ruin.
a. Goodness creates life. Evil murders life.
b. Goodness creates gifts. Evil is the thievery that robs others of their gifts.
c. Goodness creates marriage. Evil twists it into divorce.
d. Goodness creates love. Evil twists it into lust and/or hate.
e. Goodness is the original life-giving thing. Evil is utterly unoriginal.

2. Evil as MISSING THE MARK
a. Failing to live up to the our title as image bearers of God
b. We are broken and battered – Romans 3:23

3. Evil MURDERS LOVE – Matthew 22:37-40
a. A broken relationship between us and God
b. A broken relationships with others

D. The Establishment of God’s LAW

1. God’s Law given to us for the purpose of:
a. Order for their society
b. To reveal what the character of God is like.
c. Helps us to be what we were made to be.

2. In light of sin, God’s Law actually:
a. Revealed our brokenness
b. Revealed how we are victims of other people
c. Revealed how we are victims of our own poor choices

E. The Search for DELIVERANCE: Who will deliver me, mend me, rescue me, help me, and love me back to being what I am supposed to be?

1. The LAST Adam – 1 Corinthians 15:45
a. The First Adam sent us into the wild
b. The Last Adam came to lead us back and make us fit for home!

2. The SUBSTITUTE – 2 Corinthians 5:21
a. We became RIGHTEOUS: Jesus took on our sin so we could take on his righteousness
b. We can LOVE the right kind of way: Jesus offers forgiveness that restores our relationship with God and others

III. Our Response: So what are you going to do about it?????

A. FAITH is trusting God

B. We put our TRUST in the work that Jesus has done for us

C. We are FORGIVEN for our brokenness

D. We are restored to a NEW BIRTH to walk in God’s love and to be the way he created us to be

“Am I good enough? I’m afraid not. But there’s Someone who is. Someone who will clean us up, bandage our souls, smooth our the twisting sin does to us, and put us back on our feet. This Someone doesn’t come from within the Wild, but from outside of it. He invaded history to rescue us, and now he invites us to follow him Home.” – p. 195

NEXT WEEK: WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT HEAVEN?