Well, good morning, brothers and sisters.
Before I go into the topic that I want to share, I just want to check: does everyone have their Bibles with them?
So today we have a little competition here, right? I will ask for help in reading verses. I will give you the reference, and we will see whether the younger ones or the adults read it first. We all know my Bible is new, and the pages are very sticky. But the adults are very experienced in reading their Bibles; they can get to the verses really fast.
So we will see who reads the references first when I ask for help. I am counting on you, adults or younger ones. All right, guys—challenge.
A few weeks ago—or a few days ago—one of the brothers asked me a question that stuck in my mind. When he asked me, I thought, “Okay, it is a normal question,” but it kept coming back to me.
The question is: Is God enough for you, or is God enough for me? For sure, there are a lot of other parts to that question, but the phrase that kept me thinking was, “Is God enough for you or me?”
If I come and ask you randomly, of course you would say, “Brother, God is enough for me. We all depend on Him in our daily lives.” But if you think about a few scenarios in our lives—whenever we are going through suffering or challenges—what then?
For example, if I lost my job, if I lost someone dear to me, or if I quarrelled with my wife and could not come to terms with her—there are so many challenging situations in our lives. In that particular situation, is God enough for you to get over it?
Is God enough for me to go and speak with my wife, even though I do not agree with her? Is God enough for me to go and speak with my brother or sister when I disagree with them? Is God enough for me when I am going through a difficult situation, when I have lost my job and need to depend on God?
That is one side of it. I thought God was speaking with me regarding the sufferings and challenges that I face. But as I kept meditating on that phrase, I also thought there was another side to the question.
Is God enough for you when you have everything? Is God enough for you when you are comfortable in your life? Is God enough for you when you are earning a very good salary?
Whenever we start earning good money or leading a comfortable life, we all think about earning more, being more comfortable, getting a more expensive car, a bigger house, or something like that. We all go through that situation.
Today, I am going to speak about the two sides of this question: Is God enough when you are comfortable, and is God enough when you are suffering? I will take a few examples from the Bible—some life stories of people, what they did, what we can learn from them, and how it will help us in our lives.
When I was thinking about this question and all these thoughts were running through my mind, I was reading Acts 2. Can someone please help me read Acts 2:25? You can read it in any version. If I read it, I will read it from the King James Version.
For David speaketh concerning Him,
I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
for He is on my right hand,
that I should not be moved.
When I had this question and these thoughts in my mind, God spoke to me particularly through this verse. David says, “I foresaw the Lord always before my face: for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.”
David had been through highs and lows. He had made mistakes in his life. He had done everything, and now he is testifying: he foresaw the Lord always before his face. He says, “He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.”
God is always before your face, and He is at your right hand to lead you and guide you. We will consider the lives of several people and tie their examples back to this verse.
This is the main verse we are going to speak about. Remember: David foresaw the Lord before his face, for the Lord was on his right hand. It is the same for us too.
Now we will apply these two scenarios to a few people from the Book of Acts: Barnabas, Ananias and Sapphira, and Brother Stephen. Let us dig a little deeper into what Scripture says and see whether we can tie it back to Acts 2:25.
Let us take Brother Barnabas as our first example. Turn to Acts 4:36-37.
And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas,
(which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,)
a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
having land, sold it,
and brought the money,
and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
This is the first time that Brother Barnabas is introduced in the Book of Acts. What is the Bible testifying about him? In Acts 4:37, it says that, having land, he sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Why did Barnabas sell the land that he had and lay the money at the apostles’ feet? In those days, the apostles were working for the Lord, and they needed help from the believers who had accepted Jesus Christ.
Barnabas, without thinking about the material things he had, sold the land and laid all the money at the apostles’ feet. What can we learn from him through these simple verses?
We can see his humility. He did not want to preserve what he had. He had the humility to present everything at the apostles’ feet. He was not saying, “I sold the land and am giving you money, so now I have authority over you.” No. He simply gave them the money and placed it at the apostles’ feet.
We can also see his love for God. He was not saying, “What will happen to me if I sell this land? What will happen in the future if I need money?” He had love for God and no fear for the future.
We can also see his willingness to serve the kingdom. He not only sold the land and gave away the money; he travelled with the apostles and served the Lord for His kingdom.
Most importantly, we see his faith toward God: “God is going to take care of me.” That was Barnabas’s mindset. Even though he had everything, even though he was comfortable, even though he could have lived a normal life, he left everything, sold what he had, and served the Lord.
I am not saying that we need to sell everything we have. I am not saying, “Sell everything you have, come to the church, and serve the Lord.” I am saying that we should not love the material things that we have.
If God comes and asks me to sell my car or to give away some money that I have in savings, I should be ready to leave it. I should be ready to let it go. I should not be thinking that I need to save some of the money for myself.
That is the example that Ananias and Sapphira set before us. Right after telling about Barnabas, Acts 5:1-11 gives us the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
When they sold their possession, they kept back part of the money they had received, and they lied about it to the apostles. Why did they have to lie about it?
In Acts 5:3, Peter said to Ananias:
Why hath Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost?
They lied about keeping some money. The result is found in Acts 5:5:
And Ananias hearing these words fell down,
and gave up the ghost.
That means he died. Ananias died, and Sapphira also died in Acts 5:10.
What can we learn from Ananias and Sapphira when we compare them with Barnabas? One became an example of someone who served the Lord and worked for the kingdom. But Ananias and Sapphira became an example of the Lord’s punishment.
Acts 5:11 says:
And great fear came upon all the church,
and upon as many as heard these things.
They became an example of punishment. One became an example of serving the kingdom of God, and the other two became an example of judgment.
When God gives us everything and we are comfortable, we need to be content to let it go. We should not love material things too much. Whenever there is a need, we should be ready to help, even when we are going through some suffering or challenges ourselves.
That is the kind of heart that God expects from all of us. Even as students, when you are getting good grades and everything is comfortable, you need to be ready to take some time off and spend time with God.
God is asking us to spend time with Him rather than spending all our time trying to improve our standard of living. That is one side of the coin: when we are comfortable and when we have received blessings from the Lord, we need to have the mindset of Barnabas. We need to be ready to let things go.
We can become complacent when we are comfortable and have everything. We may not be prepared to let go of the things we have when the time comes. Again, I am not saying we must sell everything, but we need to be ready to let go of material things.
Now we have seen one side of it. Let us come to the other side: when we are suffering, is God enough?
We will take Brother Stephen as an example and see how he stood for the Lord when he was suffering. Before we go into his suffering, let us see what Stephen was like in his life. The Bible clearly helps us understand his character.
Turn to Acts 6:5.
And they chose Stephen,
a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.
Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Even in Acts 6:8, we read:
And Stephen, full of faith and power,
did great wonders and miracles among the people.
He was a great man. He depended on the Lord. He had faith in the Lord. He was full of the Holy Spirit and did great wonders for the Lord and for His kingdom.
If we had a man like him these days, he would be very popular. He would be surrounded by people, and all the news channels would cover him. He must have been well known in those times too, because the Bible testifies that he did great wonders.
But being so great—a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, doing great wonders—what happened to Stephen?
He was martyred. He died because people stoned him. His own people, the Israelites—his brothers and sisters—stoned him. He suffered a terrible death.
He also faced accusations. If you read Acts 6 and 7, you can see how the people of Israel accused Stephen and said that he had done something wrong. So many people accused him, and they stoned him. He suffered a lot.
But being full of the Holy Spirit and having great faith in the Lord, Stephen testified about the works of the Lord. He testified about the works of God in the Old Testament and about Jesus Christ, who died for every one of us.
In Acts 7:55-60, we read:
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost,
looked up stedfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God,
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.Then they cried out with a loud voice,
and stopped their ears,
and ran upon him with one accord,And cast him out of the city,
and stoned him:
and the witnesses laid down their clothes
at a young man’s feet,
whose name was Saul.And they stoned Stephen,
calling upon God, and saying,
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.And he kneeled down,
and cried with a loud voice,
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this,
he fell asleep.
Even though he was being stoned, even though people were accusing him and he was about to die, what was he doing? He was praying for the people who were stoning him. He was praying for the people who were trying to kill and accuse him.
What was Stephen’s mindset? He was looking into heaven, and he saw Jesus Christ before him. He knew that he was going to be with Him after he died. That is why, in the last minutes of his life, he was praying for others.
If we look more deeply at Stephen’s mindset, we can understand it through the teaching and mindset of the apostles. Let us read Acts 5:41.
And they departed from the presence of the council,
rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for His name.
The context is that Peter and the other apostles had been in prison. After they were released, this was their testimony: they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
They were rejoicing because they had suffered shame. They were not complaining or saying, “How could they do this to us?” They came out rejoicing in the name of the Lord because they had suffered for the Lord.
That was the training Stephen received, and he displayed it in his life. That is the mindset we need to have when we are suffering. When we are going through difficult situations, we need to rejoice because God has counted us worthy to go through that suffering.
We are counted worthy so that we can help others and testify to the greatness of the Lord whenever we come out of that suffering. We are counted worthy by the Lord, and that is the main reason we need to rejoice.
It is not about the blessings we receive or whether we come out of the suffering. God has counted us worthy. That is the mindset we need to have whenever we are suffering.
God is enough for us. God is enough for us when we are going through suffering.
Barnabas had everything, and he sold it. He was trained and worked for the Lord. Stephen went through suffering and faced accusations from the Israelites, but he did not move. He had been counted worthy, and he rejoiced in the Lord even until the last minute.
What was the outcome of these two people? One had everything and gave up everything for the Lord. The other suffered, praised the Lord, and saw Jesus Christ in heaven.
Who trained Paul? Turn to Acts 9:26-27.
And when Saul was come to Jerusalem,
he assayed to join himself to the disciples:
but they were all afraid of him,
and believed not that he was a disciple.But Barnabas took him,
and brought him to the apostles,
and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way,
and that He had spoken to him,
and how he had preached boldly at Damascus
in the name of Jesus.
Who took Paul in? Barnabas. Barnabas had been trained by the apostles, but when the apostles were afraid of Paul because of the things he had done, Barnabas took him in and supported him.
Barnabas had the mindset of serving the Lord and working for the kingdom. He understood where Paul was coming from, took him in, and helped him. We know what Paul did afterward in his ministry.
And what about Stephen? Who was there collecting the clothes when Stephen was being stoned? Saul was there.
Saul must have heard Stephen’s testimony—all the things that God had done. He must have heard Stephen say that he saw Jesus Christ in heaven and was ready to go. When you hear something peculiar, it stays with you.
This is what I believe: when Saul was on the road to Damascus and the Lord visited him, one of the first things he said was, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” He directly addressed Him as Lord.
He did not ask, “Who are You?” I believe that through Stephen’s testimony, Saul could recognise that it was the Lord Himself who came and visited him.
The outcome of these two mindsets—when someone had everything and left it, and when someone suffered and rejoiced in that suffering—is that we have Paul. We have all been blessed through the work that Paul did.
Do you see how believing that God is enough for you brings forth fruit that later generations enjoy? Barnabas took Paul in and helped him. Stephen laid down his life so that Saul could hear what God had done.
After this, I thought, “Yes, God is really enough for me.” Even when I am suffering, even when I have everything, I need to stay with the Lord. I need to see the Lord’s face before me and believe that the Lord has my right hand and will lead me. He is enough.
But then I had another question, a follow-up to the first question: Am I good enough for God?
Now the question is directed toward me. I can say to everyone that God is enough for me, but when I have done something wrong or when I am in a difficult situation, I ask myself, “Am I really good enough for God to serve Him or to be called His child?”
Are we good enough for God? Are you good enough for God? You can say, “Yes, I am good enough for God, because He laid down His life for me. He made me in His own image.” You can say that.
But whenever you have made a mistake, whenever you have done something that God would not appreciate, what will be your answer? Can you still say that you are good enough for God?
There have been many days in my life when I have come before the Lord’s table and wondered whether I am worthy enough for this table—worthy enough to take part in it. We all have these kinds of questions.
To answer that question, God began speaking to me through a very small character hidden in Acts 16.
We all know what happened when Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Acts 16. The prison keeper was saved because of the things he saw before him that night.
We are discussing Acts 16:7-31. We do not need to read the whole passage, but how did Paul end up in that prison?
Paul actually wanted to go to Bithynia. Acts 16:7 says:
After they were come to Mysia,
they assayed to go into Bithynia:
but the Spirit suffered them not.
Paul, Silas, and their companions wanted to go to Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit did not permit them to go. Then, in Acts 16:9, a vision appeared to Paul:
There stood a man of Macedonia,
and prayed him, saying,
Come over into Macedonia,
and help us.
That is why Paul went to Macedonia instead of Bithynia. After arriving in Macedonia, he helped Lydia and baptised her. She invited Paul and his companions to stay at her house, where they preached the gospel to her family.
While they were there, they came across a young woman possessed by an evil spirit. This woman was being used by others to tell fortunes, and they were making money through her.
After she saw Paul, she began following Paul and his group. Paul became troubled and commanded the spirit to leave her. Because he healed her, the officials and magistrates put Paul and Silas in prison.
For the prison keeper to be saved, Paul’s whole journey was changed. He was brought to Macedonia for this prison keeper—a Gentile guarding the prison.
Let us look more deeply at how the prison keeper was saved. Acts 16:26-31 says:
And suddenly there was a great earthquake,
so that the foundations of the prison were shaken:
and immediately all the doors were opened,
and every one’s bands were loosed.And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep,
and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword,
and would have killed himself,
supposing that the prisoners had been fled.But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying,
Do thyself no harm:
for we are all here.And brought them out, and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?And they said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
I think that prison keeper was in deep trouble even before Paul arrived. He might have been facing trouble in his life, but he was ready to take his own life.
It was not only because he was afraid of the magistrates and officials, who would punish him if Paul and Silas escaped. I think he was already in deep trouble before Paul arrived.
Right after he heard Paul, his question was, “What must I do to be saved?” He was not asking, “What must I do to be saved from the magistrates?” He knew that Paul and Silas were children of God. They had been singing, and he must have heard these things.
His question was right on the mark: “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s response was not, “We did not escape, so the magistrates will save you.” No. Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
The prison keeper was saved through Paul’s response. Paul helped him, and he and all his household were baptised.
God orchestrated Paul’s journey to save this one prison keeper. So when I ask, “Am I good enough for God?” I can look at this prison keeper. Was he good enough for God? Yes, he was precious to God.
To save him, God orchestrated Paul’s entire journey and brought him into that prison so that this prison keeper could be saved.
Let us tie everything together. We have Barnabas. We have Stephen. Through their mindsets, Paul was helped and influenced. Through Paul, this prison keeper was saved.
God is enough when you have everything, and God is enough even when you are suffering. Fruit comes out of all of those things, and you are at the centre of God’s plan.
He orchestrates everything for you. You are very important to God.
Even though you may think God is not enough for you, or even though you may think you are not good enough for God, God always considers you precious. God always loves you. He shows His immeasurable grace upon you.
You may think, “I am not good enough for God.” You may think God might not be enough for you according to your situation. But God always loves you. He orchestrates everything in your life so that He can bless you, save you, and draw you closer to Him.
He wants to have that personal relationship with you. You are always good enough for Him. You are more than good enough for Him, because He knew you when you were in your mother’s womb. He created you in His own image. His love and affection for you are immeasurable.
Let us tie all of this back to Acts 2:25.
We all think that God is in heaven looking down on us, but David says that God is right in front of you. You just have to look at His face, believe that you are good enough for Him, and believe that He is enough for you.
Have that personal relationship with the Lord. Hold His hand so that He can lead you and guide you in your life, no matter what kind of situation you are in.
Whether you have everything, whether you are rich or poor, whether you are suffering, whether you have lost someone or lost your job—nothing changes these two truths:
You are good enough for God, and God is enough for you.
This is the thought that God has put in my heart, and I wanted to share it with you. Thank you.