Good Enough Christian 100 Ebook Giveaway

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Speaker 1: Hey, Dr. Bill here. I'm breaking into the normal podcast and YouTube series with a big announcement. I'm going to get back to the series next show. In October 2026, I'm giving away 100 free Kindle ebook copies of my newest book, Good Enough Christian. Get one and let as many other Christians know about this as you can. First come, first serves. The link for the free Kindle e-book on Goodreads is this, www.goodreads.com forward slash book forward slash show forward slash 255-788-075. Again, www.goodreads.com forward slash book forward slash show forward slash 255-788-075. And I'm going to repeat the link at the end of the show today. The book has recently won the International Impact Book Award and has received three five-star reviews from Reader's Favorite. I'm so gratified. Praise the Lord. What is it about and who is it for? That's what I want to speak with you about in this show. So let me ask you a question. When was the last time you actually felt loved by God? And not when you knew God loved you, not when you could quote the verse, not when you sang the worship song. I'm asking something different. When was the last time you actually experienced the deep humanly speaking, unreasonable sense that Jesus Christ looks at you and delights in you as you are. Now, if your answer is, I'm not sure, no shame, you're not alone. In fact, after more than 30 years as a pastor, counselor, speaker, and author, I've become convinced that this may be one of the great hidden problems in Christianity today. We believe the gospel. We believe Jesus died for us. We believe we're forgiven. We believe we're going to heaven. But somewhere along the way, many of us stop expecting to experience the love of God, Father, Son, and Spirit. And that's what my new book, Good Enough Christian, is all about. It's a book about why so many sincere Christians feel stuck and what might happen if we learn to live from God's love instead of constantly trying to earn it. The book was released in July of 2026. It's available in paperback, Kindle, Audible, Barnes & Noble. But today, I don't want to give you a book commercial as much as I want to talk about something I think all of us need, because the truth is, Christians, we're all a little beat up. Welcome to Gospel Rant Podcast and Dr. Bill Sinyard YouTube channel. I'm your host, Dr. Bill Sinyard. We're free wherever you get good podcasts, of course, on YouTube as well. So please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below if you're listening on YouTube. Thank you sincerely for that. And also, thanks for making Gospel Rand Podcast one of the top 10% podcasts in the world and a top 60 of Christian podcasts in Colorado. I'm very excited, by the way, and blown away that in the last month, Gospel Rand had almost 4,000 downloads. That's amazing. Thank you. And it's great that the Gospel is getting out. The gospel rant is getting out. And so I'm so pleased. Thanks for listening. Every week, we hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love that loves the unlovable, unloved, unlovely, unworthy, unlikely. And that's all of us on any given day, if we were just a little bit honest. Yep. I want to get right into it after this brief word from our sponsors. I'll be right back. So let me take you back to a Sunday morning. I was preaching on God's love for Christians. At one point I said God's love is innately for the unlovable, the unloved, the unlovely, the unworthy, and the unlikely. And then I added, that's all of us on any given day if we were just a little bit honest. Well, during communion I invited the congregation to ask the Holy Spirit to help them feel Jesus's love for them as they were right then, not as they thought they should be or how they thought Jesus thought they should be. You follow me? And then something happened. After the first service, five men came up to me. Several were crying. They told me that this was the first time they had felt the love of God in years, maybe ever. Some weren't even sure they had ever felt it. And then women began telling me the same thing. These weren't people who had rejected Jesus. They were Christians. They were churchgoers. They had prayed the prayer, asked forgiveness, believed the gospel, believed in Jesus, believed in the cross, and yet they something essential was missing or preventing them from experiencing the good stuff. They knew they were supposed to be loved. They just weren't experiencing it. And that experience became one of the seeds of this book and why I wrote it after delaying for 10 years, because I didn't want to screw this one up. And I began asking myself, how did we get here? How did People, well-meaning people who believe the greatest news in the history of the world, end up as though God merely tolerates them at best. Maybe you've heard the voice. You're praying and something inside of you says, you're not good enough. You read your Bible. Oh, you should be doing more. You miss a few days. See, see, this is why God's disappointed in you. You sinned. Maybe God is really tired of you this time. You compare yourself to other Christians. Look at them. They've got it together. Why can't you be more like that? Yeah. So what do you do? Well, maybe you try harder. You pray more, read more, serve more, give more, attend more. You sin less. Good on you. And then maybe, just maybe, you'll finally become the kind of Christian that God enjoys, God likes. But That's one problem, right? You know what it is. It doesn't work because the standard keeps moving and the voice keeps talking. You prayed enough yesterday. Well, today you need to pray more. You read three chapters. Someone says, read five. You serve faithfully. Maybe you should be witnessing more. And eventually Christianity becomes a performance review, a treadmill of And we're always getting a disappointing evaluation, we think. I've called this the Christian malaise, that strange, spiritual, murky condition where we continue showing up, but we've stopped expecting anything to happen. We attend church. We take communion. We sing. We pray. But, man, deep inside, we're wearing a spiritual mask, and we know it when we're honest. And we're standing six feet away from God because we're afraid to get too close. You know, the celestial COVID standards. Well, here's the provocative idea behind Good Enough Christian. What if the problem isn't God's reluctance to love us, to love you, to love me? What if the problem is that we have trouble trusting a love this good, this unbelievable? Think about your own experience of love. Most of us learn, you know, very early on that love can disappear. People disappoint. People reject. People withdraw. People shame us, criticize us. People leave. Sometimes people love us when we're successful and pull away when we're not. So our brain learns something. It learns to protect us. It learns to predict relationships. And here it is. Here's the prediction. If I behave this way, then I have a better chance of being accepted or liked. If I fail, then I'm going to be rejected. If I perform well, I'll be loved and they'll delight in me. And that's a useful survival system formula until we bring it into our relationship with God. Because Christianity comes along and announces something almost impossible for our brains to believe. God knows everything about you. Everything. And because of Christ, he still loves you. Not the cleaned up version. What does that even look like? Not the future version. Come on. Not the version you promised to become. You. Right now. The book describes this tension through Scripture, attachment theory, neuroscience, and the work of the Holy Spirit. And that last part is where things get really, really, really interesting and worth hearing about. Your brain isn't simply a calm theological machine asking, is this proposition true? It's constantly predicting. It's constantly trying to figure out what happens next. And it uses your previous experience to make those predictions. So if your relational history has taught you love must be earned, more than likely, then the gospel says, no, love is given. Your brain says, well, that doesn't make any sense. If your experience has taught you failure produces rejection, then And even though the gospel says Christ died for you while you were still a sinner, your brain says, what? Oh, no. If you spent your life trying to become acceptable, then Christianity comes along and announces you're already accepted in Christ. That inner critic says, well, no, there's gonna be a catch. That's why I love the language of Scripture in Ephesians 3 in particular. Paul prays that we might actually grasp the width and length and height and depth of Christ's love. And he noticed that. He doesn't merely pray that we understand the doctrine. He prays that we'll experience the vast dimensions of it. That's noticeable. And that's one of the central questions of Good Enough Christian is, what would happen if we actually expected to experience this love of God, the Father, Son, and Spirit? And this is where the Holy Spirit becomes absolutely essential. And I think we've forgotten that, or we don't mention it as much as we should or could, because I don't think the answer is try harder to feel God's love. That would simply turn God's love into another spiritual performance. Instead, Scripture tells us that God pours his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5.5, pours. And that's not just drip. That's an extravagant pouring language. And in Ephesians 3, Paul prays that believers would be strengthened by the Spirit in their inner being and come to know the love of Christ. So one of the arguments I make in Good Enough Christian is that we have often overlooked one of the Spirit's most beautiful ministries. His passion, his lane, is to make the love of God experientially real to people who have learned not to trust love, or even be afraid of love, or be defensive when someone reaches out in love. The Holy Spirit doesn't simply give us more information. He takes the truth we already know and begins making it real inside of us. Experiential. And not merely God loves me, but God loves me. God actually delights in me. I'm safe in his love. I don't have to perform for him. I don't have to become someone else before I can come home. And that's different. And that's just not knowledge. There's a faith aspect to it. We talk about that in the book as well. What What does faith accomplish and where does it come from and how do I access that more? Let me give you a picture that I use in the book. This might be helpful for those of you who are visual. Imagine a scale, zero to ten. Zero represents the way we sometimes imagine God feels about us when we've really, really messed it up. And ten represents the Father's delight in the Son. Okay, now be honest. Where would you put yourself on that scale, zero to ten, right now? Three, four, six. Maybe you've been having a good week. Seven. Not likely, by the way. Here's the second part. Jesus already secured ten for you. Completely. Permanently. Not based on what you're going to do or have done or will do. Yeah? You don't climb your way from a 4 to a 5 or a 6 to a 10. Christ has already done that. And you could never accomplish it anyway. I mean, to be honest, we're talking about Christ and his perfection. See, that's why Good Enough Christian isn't about lowering the bar of Christian maturity or actions. It's about changing the direction of our spiritual lives. We don't strive our way into God's delight. No, we learn to live from it. And that requires faith, which comes from God as well, from the Holy Spirit as well. You'll see what I mean. And that's a very different way to live. So who needs this book? Well, first of all, me. You. But particularly if you're discouraged, this book is for you. If you've been beating yourself up because you aren't the Christian you think you're supposed to be, this book is for you. If you love Jesus but feel spiritually exhausted, this book is for you. if you've wondered whether God's disappointed in you, this book is for you. If you've been serving Christ for 20 years and suddenly realized you've stopped expecting to experience his love, man, this book is really for you. If you've left the church because Christianity has become a performance rather than a relationship, well, you know, I hope someone gives you this book. And if you're the person who says, I believe all of this, but Yeah, I guess I'm not feeling it anymore. I wrote this book with you in mind. And by the way, me in mind, because this isn't just about Christians who are struggling with some spectacular crisis. It's about ordinary Christians. The 99%, people like you and me, people who have been let down by love, by relationships, by religion, people who are carrying shame and just burying it. Boy, it comes bubbling up. People who have been quietly told their failures, people who quietly wonder whether they're you know, really lovable or ever lovable. People who believe the gospel intellectually, yeah, but have trouble allowing the gospel to reach the deepest places in their hearts. And by the way, and I talk about this a little bit, one of the biggest reasons we do that is fear. Fear of being hurt again by relationships because nothing has hurt us more than relationships gone south. And this is important. This is where I want to shift gears a little because I didn't write Good Enough Christian just for individuals. I think this book, and it's designed to become a discipleship tool, a spiritual direction or spiritual formation tool for churches and small groups and discipleship groups. Pastors, group leaders, elders, teachers, listen to me for a minute. I mean, think about the people sitting in your congregation. Some are thriving, but I suspect some Many, most are pretending. Well, meaning, right, subconscious. Some are hanging on by their fingernails. Some haven't told anyone how discouraged they are. Some are wondering whether they still belong. Some have been Christians for decades, but have never really learned to receive the Father's delight. That would surprise them that God's delighting in them, dancing over them, Zephaniah 3 right now. What if you could put this book into their hands and say, let's talk about this. And that's what I hope churches will do and discipleship groups and evangelizing organizations will do. I mean, why would somebody evangelize the gospel that they're not experiencing? Or imagine the other way around. What if they're experiencing the gospel? What an amazing evangelist they'll become or disciple maker and valued member of other small groups. I mean, you know, once you start hiding, you start hiding. And it's easy to hide in the pews, right? So Good Enough Christian is valuable as a small group Bible study. We have questions. We have exercises in there. I'm developing a leadership guide for group leaders as well. But here it is. Just take a chapter, read it together, open the scriptures, talk about shame, perfectionism, rationalism, attachment, the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 3. Talk about the way our experience of human love shaped how we expect God's love to be received, and then ask the question, what would change if we actually believed that God delights in us? We don't tell people to now just believe harder. Again, that's one of the chapters. You're not going to be able to pull that off. They've tried. So this is the discipleship training conversation, not just information. We've got plenty of information. We need transformations. I also think there's something else here, an evangelistic tool. We keep asking why people aren't running towards Christianity and why aren't unbelievers beating down the doors of our churches? Why does Christianity sometimes seem irrelevant to people who are desperately needing hope? But there are obviously many answers. But here's one question I think the church needs to ask itself. Are we offering people out there good news that they actually imagine wanting, because the gospel isn't merely, here are some things you should believe. It's an announcement. There's a God out there who loves the unlovable, who lifts the beat up, who can love that person. Do you want that? Do you want to be embraced by God, be danced over by the Creator in a way that you've never been danced over before? The end of loneliness. That's something that's relevant. And you don't have to earn the embrace. I'll show you how it's actually been earned for you. Jesus has already done what you can't do for yourself. Yeah, it's crazy good news. It's almost unbelievable. And yet it's true. See, I think good enough Christian can be used usefully in evangelism because it begins with a deep human question. What if the love you've been looking for is actually available? You, as you are, by the way. There's a whole chapter where I have a conversation with a composite person based on a lot of conversations called Rallo. I think you'll find that very interesting. But let me make something very clear. Good Enough Christian is not a book about lowering the bar. It's not don't worry about sin. It's not God doesn't care how you live. It's just not. It's not feel good about yourself, right? Matter of fact, quite the opposite. It's about discovering the foundation from which genuine transformation can happen to you, to you alone, as you are. You know, if I spend my entire Christian life trying to convince God to love me, I'm going to exhaust myself. And that's where most people are, most Christians are. But if I begin with, Christ has made it so God loves me. And then, you know what? My motivation to obey changes. That love that God pours into me through the Holy Spirit, Romans 5.5, actually bubbles up to over people in the two great commandments, love God and love your neighbor, starts happening. I sin less because my motivation has changed. My prayer changes. My worship changes. Repentance changes. That addiction is a little less powerful over me. Relationships change. My sense of identity changes. And evangelism, what the good news changes. See, I'm no longer trying to prove that I'm good enough. I'm learning to live as someone who has already been embraced. And that's why I say in the book, there are only good enough Christians. That's Jesus' work, not mine. And not because we're good, not because we perform well, not because we understand everything, but because God's grace is God-sourced. God's faith is God-sourced. The four anchoring realities I developed are simple. One, God pursues and embraces the unworthy. That's the only thing he doesn't. That's salvation. That's redemption. The unworthy. Two, we're often too bruised and guarded to imagine such love. Three, faith itself is God's gift, not something we manufacture by trying harder. This is a big deal. And lastly, our response, we just ask and dance a little. See, I love that picture. Ask, receive, dance. Let me bring this back to where we started. When was the last time you felt loved by God? And maybe your answer is yesterday. Good, wonderful. Don't change a thing. That's great. Do it again. Whatever you did, do it again. Or more likely, maybe it was a year ago or 10 years ago. Maybe you've never been able to answer the question. Maybe you've been afraid to admit that. Yeah, okay, you're not alone. Because here's what I want you to hear. You aren't disqualified because you're struggling to experience God's love. You're not a defective Christian. You're human. It's not all your fault. Your brain has learned ways of protecting you. God made it that way. Your experiences have shaped your expectations. Your disappointments have taught you caution. And perhaps you spent years protecting yourself from the very love you've been preaching and singing about. But the gospel is bigger than your defenses, the power of the Spirit. The Spirit in you, in your inner being, Paul says, is bigger than your shame. Grace is bigger than your failures, and the love of God is bigger than your ability to understand it. Well, I'll say a few more words in closing after this word from our sponsors. So here's my invitation. If you're discouraged, don't simply try harder, please. If you're beat up, don't simply beat yourself up for being beat up. If you've stopped expecting God to meet you, to delight in you, don't assume that's the end of the story. Ask. Yeah. Ask the Holy Spirit to make the love of Jesus real to you, not as you should be, not as you hope to become, as you are with all of your warts and blisters and failures right now. And if you're a pastor or small group leader, evangelism leader, I want you to consider something else. Take Good Enough Christian and put it in the hands of your people. Use it as a discipleship study, a foundational one. If people feel loved by Christ, by God, Father, Son, and Spirit, they're going to want more. Use it to start conversations. Use it with discouraged Christians. Use it with people who are wondering why their faith feels dry. Use it with people who are trying desperately to become good enough. And perhaps use it with someone who isn't sure they believe any of this yet. Because sometimes the first step towards faith isn't telling someone to try harder. Sometimes it's helping them discover that they're already being invited home. And that's what the book is about. It's about the astonishing possibility that Christianity isn't primarily about becoming more lovable to God. It's about having to experience the love he already has for us through Christ. I'm Dr. Bill Sinyard, and after more than 30 years in ministry, I've come to believe something I wish I had understood much earlier. God's love is not waiting for you at the end of your Christian performance. It's where the Christian life begins. Yeah, and it should be noticeable. So stop trying to become good enough for God. You already are, because Jesus is. And now, let's learn to live from that. The book, Good Enough Christian, Why So Many Christians Feel Stuck and How to Experience More Available in paperback, Kindle, Audible, and Barnes & Noble. I'm working to publish a leadership study guide out soon. If you're a pastor, small group leader, or Christian who knows someone who's discouraged, beat up, or quietly wondering whether Christianity is supposed to feel like this, this book could be a very good conversation starter. Yeah? And remember, in October 2026, I am giving away 100 free Kindle e-book copies of my newest book, Good Enough Christian. Get one and let as many other Christians know about this as you can. The link for the free Kindle e-book is www.goodreads.com forward slash book forward slash show forward slash 255-788-075. And first come, first serve. The hundred will only last a little while. So go get them. Take heart, child of God.