How to Rely On The Sufficiency of Christ

Good morning, everybody. Like Matt said it has been a good while. This is only the The second second time I've had this opportunity since my ordination. So as you guys can imagine. Very excited have been very excited to get back to getting an opportunity to share the word with you guys.

If you want to turn to Matthew chapter 18 with me, that's where we will get started this morning Matthew 18 and we're gonna read a brief passage just to set the tone for.

Today's.

Sermon.

Just started verse 1 it says at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said verily I say unto you Except you be converted and Become as little children.

You shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name Receiveth me.

Heavenly Father we thank you so much for this wonderful day that we've had together so far thank you for just the glorious opportunity for us to be able to meet on each and every Lord's Day and to As I mentioned a second ago just be uplifted to be refreshed by our fellowship among one another to get to be in the midst of so many people that we all love and care about so much and of course at the same time be abiding in your word together be lifting our prayer requests to you as a Local body and to just worship in fellowship together in unity and again in your word.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to do that today. We ask that your spirit be present that this message is blessed that everyone is encouraged by it and One more time Lord did just our time together is blessed today.

We ask these things in your name. Amen. So you guys get me for the next four Sundays? Hopefully that will be a blessing to everybody and what we're going to do since I have that designated amount of time is Dive into kind of a mini series if you will on a particular Topic that is so broad that you may even think it's funny that we try to tackle it in The number of weeks that we have but I do think we're going to be able to cover.

Enough.

Within this broad-ranging Topic to be encouraged by it to be blessed by it over the course of four weeks. And that is the overarching idea being the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Now there are many many aspects to that particular topic We're going to dive into a few of them over the course of the next three weeks specifically Today is going to be more of an introduction to it.

So Before getting into the substance of what will be a pretty brief series that we're starting today I wanted to open it up with a sermon that could kind of act as a call to worship to some degree a reminder of who we are as Christians as Believers so that we can begin to rely on Christ's sufficiency in our lives to the fullest degree so Understanding that Christ is sufficient is one thing and that's obviously a great starting point but getting to the point in each and every one of our lives in Relying on such a thing actually having faith and trust in the Lord to such a degree that we feel his sufficient Presence.

What do I mean by sufficient? I mean that he is enough. He Jesus Christ the person is enough to fill our every need or every Desire to actually make us feel fulfilled in our lives and whatever our life endeavor may be To get to that point to rely on him to rely on his sufficiency to the point where we can start reaping the benefits and feeling the blessing of such reality as believers, so While we can certainly get the sense Of the sufficiency of Christ in areas like salvation like life in general Like grief being in times of sorrow, which by the way are all areas.

We're going to be addressing over the next three Sundays after.

Today, I.

Feel that some special attention should be made on what it takes to fully submit to his. Sufficiency in the first place, which is what we're going to be doing today. Now like the disciples as we're going to demonstrate in just a moment.

It's all too easy for our desire to rely on Christ in the first place. It's it's easy for that desire to wane for us to get to a point where perhaps especially Not long after our conversion, you know, there's that fire in there.

There's that new thing that new desire and passion for the Lord and his word and spreading his word that we've never felt before and it's You know a feeling in an experience like no other and yet as life progresses beyond that initial conversion We know that we can lapse into spaces and of time Phases in time where that desire that passion that fire wanes a little bit and We may actually end up finding ourselves in a particular place that Puts us relying on ourselves our own capacity.

Our own intellect perhaps our own abilities and whatever situation may be to handle the situations before us. Perhaps even to handle the sorrow that is before us the gravity of whatever situation we have before us rather than The sufficiency of Christ the disciples did that we're gonna demonstrate what that looks like in just a moment.

But again, it's all too easy for us to do it as well for that desire to wane as that desire is replaced with Perhaps the trivial cares concerns or pursuits of what life has for us. The distractions that it tends to bring our way when things are going generally.

Well We don't typically feel the need to rely on Christ's sufficiency. And then what happens is we create kind of that habit of not relying on him in the good times when the bad times come if you want to think about it in these terms all of a sudden we're out of the habit of relying on him and all of the sudden.

When things aren't going well, we're not used to going to him and we have trouble doing so in some cases and so It's worth reminding ourselves of the importance of relying on him in the first place relying on his sufficiency in our life in the first place.

Getting in the habit of relying on it in all times in all phases of life. So when the tough time when the tough times come like what we'll be talking about a few weeks from now We are prepared for it.

We are prepared to rely on him. To the nth degree the sufficiency of Christ is all about the reality that we can have freedom from sorrows freedom from the Heaviness of Sorrows the anxieties of the world having any concern whatsoever with what other people may think about us which in a time such as this.

When true biblical Christianity is lived out in practice when we are functionally Christians and not Christians in name only all of the sudden we realize we're not such popular people and There are a lot of unflattering thoughts being tossed around by those around us that can bring us down as well.

Relying on the sufficiency of Christ could be an antidote to that as well. We're realizing that what others may think about us and let me let me be really specific here. When I say what others think about us, I'm not talking about this Postmodern idea of you know, people need to accept me for who I am.

That's not what I'm talking about. I am talking about not caring about what people think about us when we put the Bible's Methodology for living life at the forefront of our lives when again, we live as Christians in practice.

Not just a name only in that context. We don't care about what others think about us. Why? Because we are relying on one greater than them. We're relying on one greater Than those around us the vain priorities that may subtly Replace our concern for Christ all of that will begin to vanish as we remember the importance of relying on his sufficiency now.

I am personally burdened have been for quite a long time, but that it has been Exacerbated since feeling called to the ministry. With the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters around us It doesn't take a lot of time to to go out and see this in play.

But to see our brothers and sisters around us struggling with Truly grasping the freedom that they have in trusting the trusting the Lord trusting Christ as Lord of all to the point where everything I just mentioned those anxieties the the thoughts and the cares of the world can disappear and In so many contexts again, we see brothers and sisters struggling with these issues and it stems from not having a grasp of relying on Christ's sufficiency in all of life after all he is Lord of all and that would include all of life.

Encouraging them to the point where they can rely on him as their primary concern and Asking the question as they just move from one phase of life into the other is what I'm doing is what I'm thinking about.

Are my plans pleasing to him? There is a little bit of a cause and effect there if you don't begin with relying and trusting in the Lord and relying and trusting in his sufficiency. A necessary effect of that starting point will be living life unsure about everything and maybe not even having a care in the first place of Asking and what I am what is what I am doing even pleasing to the Lord is what I am doing right now.

Even what he wants me to be doing. Did I even ask? Well again, these are all issues that so many Christians today Struggle with but if you backtrack a little bit and you begin to point them back to Christ as the sufficient Lord of all insufficient in fulfilling your every need in life.

Then you give them some bedrock to work with once again, of course. It doesn't help that we live in a culture that is very confusing. We live in an what you might call an egalitarian culture and what that means one of the results of that is that it strips all of us of our proper perception of God's created order it strips us of our ability to perceive the things in the way that life should be as It was laid out by God in the first place his design in what brings true fulfillment in all things.

His involvement in our lives to the point where he's watching us and everything that we do everything that we say everything that we think you're going to be grasping for that feeling of fulfillment if you stray away from his created order and that is the Substance of our current culture, of course headed up by the devil himself it is to confuse everybody to strip us of those perceptions to make us forget about what God's created order actually is and That leaves everybody grasping for air.

As they're in a freefall of looking for fulfillment in life and wondering why they don't have it. Why are all of my hopes and dreams collapsing before me all the time in real time, and I can't find any relief from it.

Well again, it's the result of the culture that we find ourselves in. So it makes it all the more important for us as believers and as those that are out and discipling our brothers and sisters out There especially if we notice that they find themselves Struggling with this with these issues to bring things back into focus to rely on the sufficiency of Christ in all things.

He is the benevolent shepherd. He's already that he fulfills his role 24 -7 already He is watching his flock and because of that because he's benevolent he is going to either be disappointed or pleased with the actions of his sheep.

A Loving shepherd or a loving father, whatever analogy you want to use will be displayed in his pleasure in the good that they do in his displeasure his the fact that he is displeased in the wrong that they are doing so.

The question comes back to are we pleasing him? How do we please him and that begins with relying on his sufficiency in our lives? This isn't a reality that we get or knee we certainly don't need to but I would say we don't get to take it lightly our desire as His sheep because we are his sheep Should be to please the shepherd to please him in all things to glorify him in All things so to get us there to have this newfound Appreciation for Christ's efficiency in our lives as we begin to talk about this for the next month I'd like for us to consider the model citizens of God's kingdom.

Who are they? How do they live their lives? What do they look like so that we can then model our lives after these particular citizens of God's kingdom? Who are the model citizens of his kingdom? How can we set ourselves up for success in this world?

That's gone. Absolutely mad and Rely on his sufficiency to the extreme degree. Well look one more time at the passage that we began with Matthew 18 starting in verse 1 and we are going to see who exactly these model citizens are and why that plays such an important role for us as Believers at any stage in life.

Does it matter how long we've been saved? Does it matter how old we are? Why we need to come back to this particular principle is the starting point for relying on his sufficiency. Look at 18 verse 1 Of the gospel of Matthew at the same time and by the way, that's going to be an important phrase.

We'll look at in a minute at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Now this is a shame because this is a demonstration of the depravity of man.

Broadly.

Specifically though it is a demonstration of the innate selfishness that people tend to have in every single person in this room. Every single believer in the world will struggle with the very Selfish inclination that the disciples find themselves in here.

These are guys that are walking hand-in-hand with the Lord In their lives and yet they still struggle with selfishness. They still struggle with the same sins that we may find ourselves stumbling into On any given day again excellent demonstration of how each of us are in this room.

What is their concern? What are they thinking about here? What are they worried about? Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Well, they're obviously thinking about themselves. That's what their main care of at this point.

Now. This is a little rabbit trail because the hype is real. Those are a lot of fun speaking of sufficiency. This is actually a really great way a really great example of how the sufficiency of scripture works.

So Again, this is a rabbit trail. We're talking about the sufficiency of Christ in our lives. But there is this concept of the sufficiency of scripture that being that we can rely on God's Word. For everything and that of course includes from from that it includes the infallible, you know.

Belief in its infallible nature its veracity its tenacity its inherent Perfection all of these things stem from the sufficiency of scripture. It is sufficient for our lives and this is actually a great example of how that works because you have people say well XYZ isn't in the Bible explicitly spelled out and of course that is an attack on God's Word.

Being sufficient. Well here what we have is we have the disciples Prioritizing a very specific Selfish pursuit over against the agony of our Lord. Why do I say agony? Well, we're gonna take a look at the context of this here in just a second.

They put themselves before him. They put themselves before everything else. They have this selfish inclination. Just like other humans do as well. Just like all humans do. Now is our primary selfish concern being first in the kingdom of heaven?

Well For some people it very well may be. It might be something else though status love pleasure for many people pipe dreams the next thing that will Kind of invoke that that good feeling that next hit of dopamine.

Whatever it may be our cares and concerns for all these different areas of life. That all come back to our selfish desires our selfish wants our selfish needs. They they will inevitably Come to light and we will struggle we will have the temptation of making that the the center thing.

Well, that's what the disciples just did. They just did that themselves and so we can look at this. Their particular selfish struggle here was worrying about who was first in the kingdom of heaven. Not necessarily any given thing that we may struggle with any given selfish desire that we may struggle with.

But.

Selfishness is a uniquely human problem. And so we can learn from this it stems from our depravity like I said earlier and it is a It has a really special way of messing a lot of stuff up when when we we stumble upon it and when we let Selfishness become our primary desire in life Though the circumstances might be different for any given person.

We see the problem of selfishness here demonstrated. So that's just one way maybe a minor example of how the sufficiency of scripture works. It is showcasing the effects of selfishness so we can learn something from this story as It relates to our own selfish desires our own so our own selfish pursuits, even if it's not seeking Who's gonna be first in the kingdom of God you get my point?

So maybe the circumstances are different but the result or excuse me the cause and the effect Dynamic is exactly the same now. How do we know that? They are being particularly selfish here. How do we know the disciples are struggling with selfishness here?

Well go back just one chapter in Matthew go back to chapter 17 and you're gonna see the immediate context. For this dialogue between Christ and his disciples. Remember we've only read the first verse of chapter 18 so far.

At that same time came the disciples unto Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Well what preceded that? Take a look at chapter 17 verse 20 and you will find Something pretty interesting here.

It says in Jesus said unto them because of your unbelief Prevarily I say unto you if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you shall say to this mountain Remove hence to yonder place and it shall be removed and nothing shall be impossible unto you how be it this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting and While they abode in Galilee and here's the key verse in 23 while they abode in Galilee Jesus said unto them Excuse me verses 22 and 23 The Son of Man shall be betrayed in the hands of men and they shall kill him in the third day.

He shall be raised again. Remember a minute ago. I mentioned that the disciples were exhibiting this selfishness. While Jesus was agonizing what was he agonizing it was this this is what happened right before chapter 8 verse.

Chapter 18 verse 1 the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. They shall kill him in the third day He shall be raised again and look at what the disciples immediate reaction was and they were exceeding.

Sorry.

So.

This is fascinating because First at the beginning of chapter 18 it begins with at the same time. So the verses the main verse of the the main passage of focus here in Matthew 18 is happening immediately after Jesus describes his agony and we learned that the disciples immediate reaction to that agony was sorrowfulness the disciples immediate reaction was grief and in chapter 17 verse 23, but It proved to be very very short-lived because you get to chapter 18 verse 1 and what do they do their focus on?

Christ and his agony shifted Into turning themselves into busybodies arguing about who is the greatest in the kingdom? Just like any other little meager human would I mean, it's not that they were particularly bad.

It's that we're all particularly bad. And so any one of us could fall into the same Interesting Exhibition of human selfishness, even when the Lord is sitting there telling them what's about to happen to him their main concern.

Their initial concerns. Concern is another thing their initial concern of sorrowfulness, but their main concern is this it is. Wondering who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So just to kind of round out that rabbit trail I was talking about a minute ago.

I just want to use that as an example as an opportunity to say let's let's not let that be us. Let's as we turn our eyes on the sufficiency of Christ in our lives in its fullness. And as we progress through this idea over the next month, let's not us forget about it.

Let's not us replace his sufficiency with any selfish desire any given human being can have all of us Struggle with it. This is not a unique thing to any one particular person or any group of particular people.

It is a uniquely human thing Due to our depravity, but we have grace. The Lord is faithful. We can be faithful to him. We have the capacity because of this new creature that lives within us including the Spirit himself.

To not have to fall for that trap that the disciples fell for here. We don't have to replace our focus and our reliance on his sufficiency with whatever our selfish pursuits may be so again, that's just something that For all of us to think about that is a good opportunity this particular passage Sheds some light on the importance of not putting ourselves before the Lord or before anyone else for that matter.

Look at verse 2. We're back in Matthew chapter 18 again verse 2 we're going to continue this main passage that we began with in Jesus called a little child unto him. He called a little child unto him and he said him in the midst of them.

Isn't this an interesting response to their Self is quite selfish question. They could have been rebuked. He could have been like are you kidding me right now? Instead he demonstrates something that all of us can learn from and in doing so shows us what the model citizen of his kingdom looks like so that we can copy or imitate that citizen and rely on his sufficiency and Jesus called a little child unto him and said him in the midst of them and said verily I say unto you except ye be converted.

And become as little children. You shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. There are two steps given there number one be converted. So it all begins with salvation. Obviously in order to become a citizen at all of his kingdom it begins with our regeneration.

It begins with the with the work of salvation by God in his people. So be converted is the first step, but there's a second step and I believe the second step is a specific Call to our responsibility as believers and that is become as little children.

Be converted become as little children and then what happens you inherit the kingdom of God. Look at verse 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child. So it does take some humbling.

It's not necessarily all that easy to become like a child to have the faithfulness of a child humble yourself as. This little child the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven and who so and who so shall receive one such little one.

One such little child in my name receiveth me the model citizens of the faith. Little children now, why are they the model citizens and how does this come back to our topic of the sufficiency of Christ?

Namely for this particular sermon. Relying on the physical sufficiency of Christ how to rely on the sufficiency of Christ. That's kind of the question that I'd like for us to think about answer today.

How do we do that? One of the reasons why this is such a Important example for Jesus to use is because children naturally in Let's emphasize that word a little bit. Naturally. It is in their nature. It's what they want to do.

It's what their desire Is it is what is built into them by God himself. They are naturally reliant on the sufficiency of whom? Of their parents. They naturally rely on the sufficiency of their parents with all faithfulness in all things.

It's kind of an amazing thing. It's actually rather astonishing because you can see even in examples and It's somewhat devastating too. You can even see that in examples of broken homes perhaps. That even when the parents are falling short Those kids still have that natural inclination to rely on them in all things to rely on their parents.

What better example could we possibly have? For ourselves in our total reliance on Christ in his sufficiency than to look at the little ones They have this natural.

Desire.

They rely on that sufficiency of their parents with all faithfulness in all things. When a child is afraid of the darkness outside of the window at night when they think that they see Something in the corner of their room or something in the closet.

Who do they run to? They're running to their parents. And that is a reliance on the sufficiency of their parents to protect them against anything. They expect it. Not only do they desire it but they expect it and they go to their parents in order to protect them for those things.

Solomon tells us trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean in Excuse me lean not unto thine own understanding. He tells us that in Proverbs 3 5.

Okay.

We said a little bit of groundwork and Pointing out who these model citizens are and why it's important that Jesus points us to them and says be like them be like this Little one sitting on my lap humble yourselves and be like this little one.

So now we know we're supposed to do that. But let's think about some of the common pitfalls.

That.

Mature Believer, well any believer at any at any phase in their experience in their walk with the Lord could fall into and this is Particularly a pitfall in our 21st century American culture. Think about what Solomon just said.

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart. Lean not into thine own understanding. That's Proverbs 3 5. Self-examination Introspection. Figuring things out by our own Capabilities or perhaps even our lack thereof.

We may not even have capabilities, but we still are relying on ourselves is A tremendous issue in the church of the 21st century. We have been totally infused with the idea that if we look within we look within ourselves and Try to understand ourselves a little bit better.

That there we can find the answers to our problems. Think about it just for a second. I mean it won't it won't take long for you to think about the many different ways in which that message has been infused in Our lives in this century, but certainly even at the end of the 20th century as well.

It's in.

It's in all of the Messages that are broadcast whether it be regardless of the medium it's everywhere. Having a better understanding of ourselves. Self-focus self-examination. Actually prioritizing that over the sacrificial responsibility of taking care of others.

Including your own family in some cases. Secular philosophy secular psychology is permeated. With this idea now the issue of course with relying on yourself. Is that that is a totally hopeless source of understanding?

It's a totally hopeless source of understanding or solution to life's problems in our lack of fulfillment. There's a whole lot of ideas that are obviously bouncing around here. It all comes back to a reliance on Christ's efficiency.

But.

If we are not focusing on him if we're not relying on him and yet wondering why on earth. We don't feel the fulfillment that we were promised to feel as we progress and grow into adulthood. Life gets really confusing really fast.

So we go to people for help and what's the advice? Introspection. Self-examination understanding yourself get to know you and so on and so forth. It's a big problem though because the Prophet tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it.

The Lord searches the heart. I try the rain say it the Lord even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. So you will reap what you sow. The Lord knows our hearts.

He knows that we can't find the answers within and he warns us not to try to. But even still we take our eyes off of the reliance of his sufficiency. And we put the focus on everything else anything and everything else.

I say we I'm generalizing a lot. Believers in general the church in general, but this can be an issue that any one of us myself included my word. You know, can I testify to these being issues in your own personal life?

These are things these are pitfalls we can follow. You know fall into ourselves taking our eyes off of that sufficiency of Christ putting it on something else. And so Jeremiah in chapter 17 verse 9 tells us the heart is deceitful above all things who can know it.

That is the last place we want to go for determining the solutions to our Problems to our lack of fulfillment to our hopeless pursuits. Think about it for a second if our heart is in and of itself the most deceitful thing in existence.

Because that's what Jeremiah just says the heart is deceitful above all above all things. We think the devil is deceitful. We think his demons are deceitful. We think the world is deceitful. The most deceitful thing in the universe is our own heart.

So how on earth should we expect to find any answers to any problems in any category of life. By means of introspection by means of self-examination by means of learning more about ourselves if Anything if it sheds any light at all.

It is a reminder a testimony of how deceitful that heart actually is. Unfortunately though That's not the conclusion most people come away with. It can be a very dangerous thing in Christians. Unfortunately can fall prey to that too.

Perhaps not on the same degree that the the secular world the unregenerate do but it is it is a temptation. It is a problem that we need to avoid as much as we possibly can. Our hearts are deceitful. The only answers That we're going to get if we do get any answers at all through self-examination are going to be deceitful answers.

If we have the problems that we find if we have if we we stumble upon problems in life and our first. Our first reaction to it is trying to figure things out. More likely than not depending on how far you take that depending on how introspective you get more likely than not you're going to be getting a deceitful answer to how to solve the problem and.

Then the snowball begins and eventually the avalanche and then we wonder why does life feel as hopeless as it does. The responsibility of man cannot be overstated. Of course, it's. We will never not emphasize the sovereignty of God in his viewpoint over things.

Especially with examining the word that he gave us but as we live in real time our responsibility Cannot be overstated because we want to avoid that snowball. We want to avoid that avalanche and yes, we can look back.

We can see the way that the Lord works. We could say that we can see the way that his sovereign hand was moving over situations that were bad even at the time but that doesn't change the reality and the importance of us.

Living our lives as close to the biblical methodology that God gave us. Living as closely to that as we possibly can so. The heart is deceitful above all things. Let's not go there for figuring out the solutions to our problems.

Self-examination if you put a focus on that. When you do that, you have the potential to be a direct affront to the sufficiency of Christ. It's not one thing that you're just kind of being a little bit goofy but depending on how far you take it you might very well be a direct affront to the sufficiency of Christ and That is an area that is a Position that we don't want to find ourselves in because in him is the answer to all of the problems in the first place.

Now you might be thinking great point great point Ben, but Jeremiah was referencing the stony heart of the unregenerate. I Now have a heart of flesh from the Lord. And so surely it's not as deceitful as the unregenerate's heart surely.

It's not the most deceitful thing. My heart's not the most deceitful thing in the universe. Well. In 1st Corinthians chapter 4 and by the way, that is certainly true. We have a heart of flesh. We no longer have that stony heart as Ezekiel tells us we that stony heart was removed.

It was replaced by a heart of flesh. That is a representation of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Absolutely true. Positionally, we are in Christ joint heirs with him. We are forgiven of our sins, but We still live in an earthen vessel.

So it's very true in our regeneration is in fact salvation from hell as well as every other Lesser Lord his brother rocky would say but Paul as a regenerate person as the preeminent example of All Christian faith and practice as the preeminent Apostle.

Look what he has to say. He made it very clear that we as people even as believers are insufficient For figuring everything out on our own in 1st Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4. You can write this down if you want to look at it later.

You can look at it with me. It says for I know nothing against myself. What does he mean by that? I? Self-examined myself. I can be you know, if I am introspect introspective if I do examine myself. If I do consider my heart my mind where I'm at right now.

I Not finding anything against myself. I know nothing against myself but what does he say after that and if there was ever a person that we could trust and Actually meaning what he said when he says I find nothing against myself.

It was Paul. So he was legitimately a Good person not only by the world standards, but by his own standards in his mind in his heart of hearts. He found no fault in himself With regard to just good living, you know good in human terms good from the human viewpoint being again that exemplary Christian To be imitated by other all other Christians.

But after he says that after he makes it abundantly clear, I find nothing against myself. He says yet. I am NOT justified by this. But he who judges me is the Lord. The Lord is our judge. He is the one that sets the standard not the world.

So by the world standards even be a introspection. We may be able to come out with this conclusion of you know, what? I'm not such a bad person after all and Yet we're not justified by this. We're not acquitted by that regardless of how good we are by the world standards.

We're not justified by it. The Lord is our judge. He holds us to a higher standard and How on earth can you even come close to striving for that standard that seems? abundantly too far for us to reach.

The one and only way you can begin is to rely on his sufficiency. To rely on the sufficiency of Christ in our lives and that it is his righteousness By which we are seen righteous it is his peace that we receive when we need it.