GRACE SUFFICIENT 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Transcription

1 GRACE SUFFICIENT 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 SCRIPTURE 2 Corinthians 12: I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know God knows. 3 And I know that this man whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows 4 was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. 7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. PRAYER INTRODUCTION Martha Sell was a rather large woman who attended my home church in St. Marys, OH. Her voice was as big as she was, and when she laughed, you could hear it two counties over. Martha and her family lived along US 33 between St. Marys and Wapakoneta back before the state moved that highway to the other side of her family s farm and turned it into the four lane highway that it is today. Back then, in my elementary school years, US 33 was a heavily traveled, two lane road, filled with semis, farm equipment, and, of course, lots and lots of cars. On this particular day, just about daybreak and right about the time traffic started to increase along US 33, Martha peeked out her front door to see if the newspaper had arrived. There was enough daylight that she could, from just inside her doorway, see the paper sticking slightly out of the newspaper box that was attached to their mailbox on the other side of the highway. And so, like every morning about this time, Martha went out to get it. Page 1

2 Usually, though, when Martha went out to get the paper, she would already be dressed for her job as a secretary at an insurance company. Her normal morning routine was to get up, get dressed, do her hair and make-up, and then casually stroll down the sidewalk and across the road where she would retrieve the paper and wave to her friends and neighbors as they zoomed past her on their way to work. She would then return to her kitchen where she would read that paper while she ate her breakfast and drank her morning coffee. Starting the day in that way was relaxing for her something she looked forward to each morning. Today, though, was different. Today she was on vacation. Today she didn t have to go to work. That meant she didn t have to get dressed or put on her makeup or do her hair before she went out to get the paper. Today, instead of her normal business attire, Martha was wearing her comfy slippers and a fuzzy pink bathrobe over the top of her nightgown. Today her hair was still in curlers as she peeked out the front door. So today, in addition to making sure the paper had arrived, Martha also wanted to make sure there was no traffic on the road, because she would be horrified if anyone she knew saw her dressed like that. Seeing a rare opening in the traffic, Martha quickly left the porch and scurried across the yard. Keep in mind that Martha never scurried anywhere, but today she needed to get that paper before another car possibly someone she knew came down the road and saw her. So, today, she scurried. Her strategy was almost flawless. Almost. Just before she got to the edge of her yard, Martha was tackled by the family s large Saint Bernard. At the time of this particular story, the dog was pretty young no longer a puppy but still filled with all of the playful energy of a young dog. Seeing Martha, all decked out in pink and running through the yard, the dog naturally thought she wanted to play. And so he obliged. There alongside this busy highway this very large dog and a very large woman rolled around in morning dew. Every time she would start to get up, the dog would pounce again, and they would roll and roll and roll. Martha couldn t generate the words to tell the dog to stop. Knowing how absolutely absurd this scene must have looked, all she could do was laugh. And when she laughed, she laughed loudly. And because she was laughing so hard, the dog thought they were having fun, and so he continued to play. By now, of course, the momentary break in the traffic had ceased. Cars and semis streamed up and down US 33. Some even honked a greeting as they passed. No one stopped, because they heard Martha laughing. She was having fun. Over the next several weeks, many of Martha s friends and neighbors told her how they had seen her playing with the dog that day which only made Martha laugh again. That story recalls one of two images of Martha that I have. The other image is seeing her lying flat on her back in my grandparents yard. She had fallen off their small porch and had severely broken her back in the fall. She was hospitalized for several weeks. I Page 2

3 would later hear her tell our congregation that her fall was the best thing that had ever happened to her. I still remember her words. Sometimes, she told us, God has to put you flat on your back in order for you to start looking up. Think about her statement as I read once again these words from 2 Corinthians 12: (God) said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore (Paul writes) I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (vv. 9-10) It may well be that, as you heard these words read today, you thought to yourself, Oh, that s a familiar statement. And it may also be true that, as you heard those words read today, you thought to yourself, When I am weak, then I am strong That s pretty hard to believe. I confess that I struggle with that one. There are some statements of Scripture that I can easily accept and believe: My God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19) I will never leave you or forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6) Those particular statements have never been challenges for me personally. But my faith gets stretched pretty far when Paul writes, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, difficulties. A more contemporary translation (The Message) uses different words: abuse, accidents, opposition and bad breaks. If we were putting this into our own words, we might use words like cancer, divorce, unemployment, rejection, financial problems, grief. I know what those are. I can tell you my share of stories. I typically think about those as the negative times in my life. Those are weak, not delightful! It s when there is no abuse, no accident, no opposition and only good breaks when everything is going swimmingly that is when I feel strong! That s where I find delight. And apparently I m not alone. Paul describes himself in much the same way. Most scholars agree that the unnamed man who had these wonderful visions of paradise was Paul himself. He could describe events when his life was perfect so perfect that he could boast about them without embarrassment or hesitation. But then something happened. A thorn in the flesh is what he calls it. It s an irritation of some kind. The Message translation calls it a limitation. I like that. Paul has a limitation. Page 3

4 We don t know for sure what it is. We just know that it interrupted his ideal life. It was enough of a limitation that Paul prayed about it, asking God to intervene and fix the problem. Three times he prayed. It might actually have been three times, or the number three might be a symbolic way of saying I prayed a bunch of times about this. Either way, the point is clear: Paul saw this thorn as a limitation, and it made him feel less than good about himself. And he wanted God to take it away so he could be strong again. A lot has changed in the world since Paul s time, but here is one thing that still remains: the belief that our limitations are signs of weakness. Paul initially believed that. I still struggle with it. Perhaps you do too. Here s the good news. The belief that limitation equals weakness? It s a lie. It s not just wrong. It s a lie straight from the pits of hell, delivered by a messenger from Satan (v. 7). The truth is that my limitation plus God s grace is more than enough to make me strong. More than enough. The word in most translations is sufficient a word defined by the dictionary as enough to get the job done. So in the Scriptures we see that: 5 loaves and two fish are sufficient to feed 5000 people 300 soldiers armed with swords and torches are sufficient to rout a sizable army A little shepherd boy and his slingshot are sufficient to defeat the Philistine giant Sufficient, that is, IF God s grace is added to that lunch, those soldiers and that sling. If it isn t added, it is nothing more than a limitation. But with God s grace, it is enough. It s sufficient. The feeding of the 5,000 is part of today s Sunday School lesson as well, so the response of the disciples really stood out to me. When Jesus told them to feed the multitude, they said We have here only five loaves and two fish. Did you catch that? Only. Our resources are limited. Then Jesus said, Bring them here to me. And this limitation fed 5000 men plus women and children. With lots of leftovers. Now, I suppose I could stop the sermon right there. But doing so would leave a very big question unanswered: How do I get from verse 8 to verse 10? Look at those verses. In verse 8 Paul is pleading with God to remove the thorn and in verse 10 he is delighted that he has it. From pleading to delighted. That s a big transition! So how did Paul do it? How did he get from pleading to delighting with regard to this limitation. Page 4

5 #1: He prayed about it. Get this: It is not a sin to pray that God would remove a limitation. It wasn t a sin for Paul, and it won t be a sin for you. In fact, the Scriptures tell us that one of the reasons we do not have something is because we have never asked for it. Paul prayed about it, and so should we. #2: He prayed until he received a Word from the Lord about it. For Paul it was three times. I have never personally had that kind of rapid response. I can tell you about things for which I have prayed for many years. There was, for example, about a five year period of time before I came on staff at Grace where I was praying about God s direction for my life. Five years!! But, however long it takes, it is perfectly okay to pray up until the point where the Lord tells you His opinion about the prayer. There is no guarantee the limitation will go away. If it does, praise the Lord! And congratulations! You have received God s abounding grace in a wonderful way. #3: Once he had God s Word, he began to look for evidence of God s grace in his life Paul s limitation did not go away. It remained. And so might yours. So if it does remain, pay attention! As a result of his thorn, Paul experienced the abounding grace of God s power. For when you are weak, then you are strong. You might even find yourself coming to the position of Paul himself boasting in your limitation. Can you imagine? Look, world! I have a thorn in my flesh! To God be the glory! But know this God s grace is sufficient. It is more than you need for whatever you face. One more note: God s grace is even sufficient for your salvation I haven t referred directly to the other passage of Scripture (1 Timothy 1:12-17) from today s service. There Paul identifies himself as the worst of all possible sinners: a blasphemer, persecutor and violent man. Talk about limitations! Yet God forgave him, and saved him. Here is a trustworthy saying, Paul writes, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Page 5

6 CONCLUSION Many of us have become great pretenders about our thorns in the flesh. When someone asks How are you doing? we respond Fine when the truth is that our world is falling apart. And, unfortunately, we sometimes try that with God. It is OK to say I hurt! This is the moment of grace, for as we admit our limitations to God He adds His abounding grace to the situation. It s almost as if He is waiting for us to get to this point, waiting for us to stop pretending that we can do it, waiting for us to try all of our other resources, until we recognize that our real strength comes only from His grace in our lives. This is the point of challenge for me getting to the point of I can t so that He can. Or in the words of my friend Martha Sell, getting to the point where I have no option but to look up. But this the moment when the power comes. This is where it ceases to be something I can do and becomes the miracle that only God can do. You see, when I am weak, then I am strong. Listen again to the words of the Apostle Paul from our text today. This time, I m going to read them from The Message translation:...so that I wouldn t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began to appreciate the gift. It was a case of Christ s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take my limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that once cut me down to size abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. I encourage you take a moment focus on whatever the limitation is in your life. You know what those are and if you don t, you might spend these next few moments praying that God would reveal it to you. Page 6

7 And I invite you to pray that God would remove it. Don t ever feel guilty for doing that. But then add this prayer to the first one. Lord, we both know about this thorn in my flesh. I hate it, Lord. It hurts. And it makes me feel so helpless, so weak. I want to feel strong, Lord, but that strength is not in me. I can t do it. So today, right here, right now, I pray that the truth of this Scripture would be applied to my life. Let Your abounding grace be sufficient for me, so that in my weakness, I might be strong. In Jesus Name. Amen. Page 7