God is Enough: To the Convening General Conference of GMC –

By Bishop Mark J. Webb – 

November/December 2024 –

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen!

I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God of God, Light from Light, true God from true God!

I believe for us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became truly human!

I believe for our sake he was crucified, suffered death and was buried!

I believe on the third day he rose again, ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father!

I believe he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end!

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified!

I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church! I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sin!

I believe in and am looking for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

I believe God has a purpose and a plan for those he created!

I believe that God chases after humanity with an unconditional, unimaginable, passionate love!

I believe Jesus is the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the door by which all enter, the vine we are called to be connected to. I believe Jesus is the resurrection and the life! I believe Jesus is the way, the truth and the life!

I believe in the principalities and powers of darkness! I believe Jesus defeats the principalities and powers of darkness!

I believe God is enough! God is enough for all that we need, all that we seek and yearn for, and all we desire to be!

This is our faith! This is what we say we believe. This is what we trust! This is what shapes and equips us as a Church! This is the truth we are called to share with the world!

There is one more important thing I believe: I believe God birthed, empowers, and sends the Church to take the name and person of Jesus into a world ruled by the principalities and powers of darkness, so that at least one more person may move from darkness to light – so that one more person may know the mercy of God and be ushered into the kingdom of heaven.

The amazing, unthinkable, irrational plan of God is that through us – you and me – the world will know the truth, love, and life only offered in and through the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus has called us. The Spirit of God has equipped us, and the power of God is within us to accomplish the plan – to fully live out the mission. We have been tasked with offering the Gospel story – the reality of Jesus to the world. We are the ones sent so that the world will know that God is enough!

I love the words we find in Luke 10: The sending of women and men to live out the task of sharing the story of Jesus. “The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name. And He (Jesus) said to them I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning” (verses 17 & 18). I love the urgency – the reality of need. I love the practicality and simplicity of instructions. I love the promise of change, the promise of success. I love the results.

Yes to the Call. In almost every state of the United States and in over 19 countries around the world, disciples of Jesus Christ known as Global Methodists have responded to the call to be the church and to take the name of Jesus to the people of their communities. We have said yes to God’s call to be the church, and God has blessed that, yes, but the call continues, and we must continue to claim the task we have been given. We must continue to decide to be a part of the plan God has for the transformation of the world.

Right now, right here, we get to say yes to being a part of the mission. Right now, right here, we get to say yes to boldly sharing the good news of Jesus in action and in word. Right now, right here, we get to say yes, so that the world will know that God is enough. 

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to be in Berlin, Germany. One evening, I had a conversation with a young clergy couple, serving in a German town about an hour outside Berlin. They were talking about the congregations they served, the struggles they face, and I asked them: “What is your greatest hope for the church?” They looked at me and then one of them responded: “that we would trust God, allow ourselves to be changed by God, and believe that through us the world will know the hope of Jesus.” That’s a good 3-point sermon. That’s a good commentary on what we find in Luke 10.

Our call. In Luke 9, Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority and sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God. Luke 10 shares the account of Jesus increasing the army as he sends out 72 with the same authority and command. These passages are a prelude to the final commission that Jesus gave to his disciples and to all who would follow: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Recently I preached a sermon where I talked about the word GO. It is a huge, little word. It’s a word we use all the time. Think about it – we use the word GO to cheer someone on toward something good. We use the word GO to warn someone to move away from danger. We use the word GO to encourage someone to persevere, to correct someone who is heading in the wrong direction, to instruct someone in the way they should be going. GO is a word we use all the time.

Did you know that the word GO – according to Strong’s Concordance – is found in the Bible 1,485 times. GO is a huge, little word and it’s a word that God uses often. A word that God speaks into my life, your life, and our life together. We are called just as the 72 to GO. And we are given the same instructions for how to live out that call.

We Have to Trust God’s Truth. “I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” You are going to have to trust me! “Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes.” You are going to have to trust me!

Our response to the mission depends upon our response to God’s call upon our lives, and that is a call to trust! Let’s not get confused. Before God calls us to go anywhere for him, he calls us to follow him. Every call story begins with “follow me and I will . . .” Trust me and I will.

If the Church of Jesus Christ is going to be used by God to bring revival to the world, the church must first be willing to be renewed and transformed by the presence and grace of God. That only happens if we are willing to trust. What are we being called to trust?

• Jeremiah 31.3: “The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”

• Ephesians 2.4-5: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of God’s great love with which God loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

• Ephesians 2.8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

It is God who loves first! It is God who chooses first! Our first call is to respond to God’s choice toward us. If we are going to be the people God desires us to be, we must settle this issue of trusting who God is. We must go deep in understanding the nature of God toward us. We must accept the grace that meets us right where we are and then molds us and shapes us and moves us to where God wants us to be and to whom God created us to be.

Responding to the call of God in our lives can never be about trying to appease God or please God, or shape God into our image or agenda. Responding to the call of God must always be about responding to who God truly is and who we truly are in relation to God.

As we continue in ministry and mission together, the ability to live out the task is directly related to our ability to trust who God is – to go deeper in our understanding of God’s amazing love for us. I hope you will continue to grow in the gifts God has given you for ministry and mission. I encourage you to become the best leaders, preachers, teachers, worship leaders, mission strategists that you can be. But none of that will allow you to live the task God has called you to if you are not first claiming God’s amazing love for yourself and responding to that love, by falling deeper and deeper in love with God.

Joseph Stowell tells of having dinner with Billy Graham at a dinner for the staff and board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Billy was eighty at the time, and Dr. Stowell asked him a question: “Of all your experiences in ministry, what have you enjoyed most? Was it you time spent with presidents and heads of state? Or was it….” Before he could finish his next sentence Billy Graham responded: “None of that, by far the greatest joy of my life has been my fellowship with Jesus. Hearing him speak to me, having him guide me, sensing his presence with me. This has been the highest pleasure of my life!”

The hope of the gospel story being shared through the people of God of the Global Methodist Church is found in the people of God of the Global Methodist Church going deep in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.  Don’t neglect your own spiritual formation. Don’t stop trusting who God is in your life and toward your life. Believe that God loves you first, and chooses you first – right where you are, just as you are.

We Must Trust God’s Power. The account in Luke 10 demonstrates the need to trust in God’s power and the results when you do. They were called to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. When they returned, they testified that even the demons were subject to them in the name of Jesus. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

I will confess to you that there are times when I feel like giving up. There are times when I wonder about the purpose of continuing in this task that God has called me to be a part of. But then I am reminded that those times show up in my life when I am trusting more in my power, my abilities, and my strength, rather than the power of God.

As God calls us to the task of sharing the story of Jesus with the world, God provides the power to accomplish that task.

• The same power that parted the red sea,

• The same power that allowed Joshua to cross the Jordan on dry ground,

• The same power that allowed Elijah to call down fire,

• The same power that allowed David to kill Goliath,

• The same power that enabled Esther to speak up,

• The same power that protected Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in a fiery furnace,

• The same power that turned water to wine, caused the blind to see and the lame to walk, the power that rolled away a stone and raised Jesus from a grave is the very power that invades our lives and fuels the task that God has called us to.

“For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).

Don’t forget that not even the dust of the world that clings to our feet has power over the message of the Gospel.

Church, it’s time for us to stop trusting our human wisdom and knowledge, our programs and outreach strategies, our abilities, credentials, and degrees. It’s time for us to claim and trust the power of God. The power of God that Jesus proclaimed when he acknowledged the faith of Peter and said: “I will build My church; and the gates of Hell will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

God has not called us to a difficult task – God has called us to an impossible task and God gives us the power to accomplish the impossible.

To those to be consecrated bishops: We are grateful for your leadership. We have seen you pursue Christ. We have seen the gifts of the Holy Spirit in you. We believe God has called you to lead us in this season.

Lead us to our first call – to trust God with everything we have – to more intimately know the nature and truth of the God we worship. Teach us how to grow more deeply in our spiritual disciplines.

Show us how to be servants of Christ. Not elected to prominence but service. Don’t get full of yourself – be filled with the Holy Spirit!

Lead us to understand and trust the power of God in our lives. Show us how you do it! Help us trust the gifts the Holy Spirit has given each of us. Remind us of the faithfulness of God’s power in the past, the reality of God’s power now, and the promise of God’s power in the days ahead.

Lead us in the mission – Proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and teach us how to do it as well. Show us how to reach the least, the last, and the lost through your actions and then your words. Hold us accountable when we make anything more important than going to where God has called us to proclaim the kingdom of God.

Living the Mission. We have been invited to be a part of an amazing task. The task of sharing the story of Jesus – the task of living the mission – and just like those first disciples, we have the hope of returning with joy saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.”

Our success at living the mission – our vitality as people called by God to share the gospel of Jesus Christ – is not just possible, it’s guaranteed, it’s promised when we trust who God is and we trust God’s power.

There’s a story about a missionary who gave a Bible to a man. When it was given to him, the man hugged it close and expressed great appreciation for the precious gift of God’s Word that the missionary had given him. He read it and was transformed by the truths of God that it revealed. He saw the missionary again and thanked him for the gift of the Bible and told him how it had changed his life. He said it was the most precious gift ever given to him and he would treasure it his entire life.

A few months later when the missionary saw him, he noticed, much to his dismay, that the Bible looked like it was already falling apart, and that many of its pages were missing. 

The missionary asked him, “What happened? What did you do to your Bible? When I gave it to you, I thought you considered it to be a treasured possession.”

The man replied. “Indeed, it is a very precious possession. It is the finest gift I have ever received. It is so precious that I knew I had to share it, so I very carefully chose a page and tore it out and gave it to my mother. Then I tore out another page and gave it to my father. And I tore out another page and gave it to my wife. Finally, I gave a page of God’s Word to everybody who lives in my village.”

Let’s be people who are transformed by the the truth of God. Let’s be people who trust the power of God. Let’s be people who believe that the message of the Gospel wipes away the dust of the world. Let’s be people who can do nothing else but Go into the world and give a page of God’s word, proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to everyone we meet and everywhere we go. It’s God’s plan! It’s God’s purpose! We are the ones that God sends . . .

So the world will know there is hope during the hopeless

So the world will know there is joy amid despair

So the world will know the amazing, unconditional, unrelenting love of God

So the world will know the forgiven life, new life, abundant life, the holy life, and the eternal life found in Jesus

So the world will know that God is enough!

Mark J. Webb is a bishop in the Global Methodist Church. Before transitioning to the GMC, Webb was the leader of the United Methodist Church’s Upper New York Episcopal Area.This sermon was delivered at the convening General Conference of the Global Methodist Church in September.