Is Jesus Enough, or Is It "Jesus Plus"?

Did you drift this summer? Are you ready to come back to Jesus? The prophet Malachi spoke to people who still believed in God but had slowly stopped giving Him their best. In this bonus episode of The Twelve B-Sides series, Pastor James and Pastor Rosalind explore the book of Malachi, the challenge to examine our hearts and learn to treasure Jesus for who He is. 

Rosalind: We were chatting about this before: how do we know what’s really going on in our hearts? What's a good way to ask ourselves? You said that whatever is bothering us can be a good indicator.  

James: I do wonder about that. The things that concern me most at any given time, that preoccupy me, I think they say something about my heart. 

When we moved here from the Netherlands, we were thinking, how are we going to do this? Sell a house, buy a house, move money overseas, it was a really complicated thing to figure out. And where was my heart at?  

My heart was with my wife, Gillian, who was living in one country while I was living and working in another, and we were all trying to figure out how to get our act together. That doesn't make it a wrong thing to be concerned about the value of our home or where my wife is and what's happening.  

I think in our world today, there is so much to worry about. Politics, separation, inflation, and what we are going to do; we're worried about many things that seem uncertain. And when they become the thing that occupies all our spare thinking time, I don't know how close I am really getting to Jesus in that.  

The alternative isn't just to say, 'I won't think about them', but to bring those thoughts to Jesus and tell Him, 'These things concern me. I need your help; I can't solve all this by myself.' I don't need to feel guilty about having genuine concerns for my kids or my grandkids. That's fine. But I need to bring that to Jesus and not just try and fix it all myself. 

Rosalind: That's the 'don't be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and petition present your request to God because He cares for you' idea (Philippians 4:6). That could be a good barometer for what's taking up your brain space. And Matthew 6 says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

The things that bother us often point to what our treasure is. If it's the safety of your family, then your family is your treasure, and that's not a bad thing to love your family. But it's not the ultimate thing. It is learning to surrender. It's not that surrendering my family means I never care for them. It means I trust God with my family no matter what.  

James: Trust matters. It's not a transaction. We usually can go down that line: it's a transaction, if I do this for God, He'll do something for me. If I give my tithe, He'll make me rich. If I trust Him with my health concerns, He'll heal me. As though He's obligated to do things for me, like a divine vending machine. 

Rosalind: I love this quote from John Mark Comer: ...'the reward for following Jesus is Jesus.' That's it. And I think we do 'Jesus plus.' We want Jesus, plus the nice big fancy house. Jesus plus the purse, plus my family to be safe. We want Jesus plus. It comes down to, is Jesus your prize? Is Jesus your treasure? 

James: Do you just really love Him for who He is? 

Rosalind: If you don't, I think sometimes it's because we haven't spent the time getting to know Him for who He is and spent time in prayer with Him. So if you're wondering, well, how do I even start? 

James: For me at least, it's the slowing down, finding somewhere to be quiet and just sit and be quiet. Not even pouring out a big list of requests, or telling Him things, or even asking questions. Just sit and be quiet for a while. Just listen. 

Rosalind: Because Jesus being the new covenant has made that possible for us. You don't have to bring a sacrifice to Him. You just have to pause and listen and be willing to wait for Him. 

James: People ask me, 'How do you recognize God's voice? How do you know it's Him?' I often tell a story about my wife Gill and her sister Janice. They don't look particularly alike, don't really sound alike, but when we were dating, I didn't always know that.  

I remember being on the phone, when you had real phones wired into the wall; she was living in Berlin, and I was living in Glasgow. Sometimes I could never tell who was on the phone. Is it her, or her sister? And you'd have a conversation going to the wrong place altogether.  

We've been married for 39 years now. If she phoned me up, I could pretty well tell whose voice it is, whether I saw her face or not. You learn to get used to hearing God's voice. You can tell the difference, and sometimes it takes some practice. If you're not sure, just keep trying. Sit and wait and listen. You'll hear His voice. He'll make it clear. 

Rosalind: I think it’s cool too, because as a parent, I know my kids' cry. I know my kids' voice. If I played around with 100 kids, I'd know which one is my kid's laugh, my kid's cry. Take that as an encouragement: He knows your voice too, and He's waiting for you to talk to Him. 

As we conclude our series on the Minor Prophets with the book of Malachi, here are some questions we can think about: 

• Do we love God because of what He does for us, or because of who He really is? Have we, like the Israelites, forgotten who He is? 

• Have we been treating Him transactionally, giving and doing things half-hearted, checking a box, while secretly thinking He hasn't held up His end of the bargain, forgetting that He's gone above and beyond and even sent Jesus for us? 

  
  

James: Those are really great questions. And you can’t always search your own heart. The scriptures tell us our own heart is deceitful, so if you can't really tell, ask God to show you. Ask Him to reveal what's really going on in your heart, because sometimes it's hard to know our own motives. If you're unsure of your mind, ask Him to show you, because then you've got the chance of facing up to who you really are. 

I love the word confession because I use it two ways. Confession, when we pray to God, telling the truth about the things I've done that I'm not proud of, that have let God down, that have hurt other people, that have hurt me. But we also use confession to mean confessing our faith, the words of the Apostles' Creed: 'I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.' That's telling the truth about God. When I can learn to tell the truth about me and tell the truth about God, He can change anything in my life. 

Rosalind: Let's tell the truth about who we are, and let's tell the truth about who God is! 

This blog is adapted from the bonus “Malachi: Don’t Drift” podcast produced as part of The Twelve: B-Sides summer teaching series at FAC. Watch the full episode now on YouTube and take a deeper look at what it means to treasure Jesus for who He is. 

If you want to explore a practical way to practice confession and to add accountability in your walk with Jesus, check out what it means to form a Discipleship Band at FAC.