The First Word FROM FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BONITA SPRINGS SERMON BY REV. DOUG PRATT JANUARY 10, 2016 COMMUNION MEDIT ATION o I wouldn t get a big head, I was given the gift of a S 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 appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer; these limitations that 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. 2 Corinthians 12, The Message A Governor in a Hurry He was running late. His staff had overscheduled him, and he had to be at an important meeting on campus at the state university over an hour s drive away. The Governor raced to the waiting SUV and hopped in the passenger seat. An experienced State Trooper, with years of training in safe driving, waited behind the wheel. The fast but sturdy vehicle squealed out of the mansion driveway, its lights flashing and siren wailing, and took the quickest route to the
Turnpike. Once through the toll plaza, the driver stepped on the accelerator and got it up above 90 to try to make up lost time. The Governor sat back, reviewing his speech, completely confident that he was in a totally safe vehicle, chauffeured by a totally reliable professional, and that all the traffic would move aside and make way for him. And then it happened: a big truck up ahead, its loud engine obscuring the police siren, unexpectedly swerved into the Governor s lane. Crunching metal and shattering glass, and in an instant Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey was in a fight for his life. His body was tossed like a rag doll because he had neglected to buckle his seat belt. The same thing happens every day on America s highways, to less-notable passengers. In nearly every car trip you and I have ever or will ever take, seat belts are totally worthless and irrelevant. They don t do anything for us. It s only that most rare and unexpected moment when we will need them desperately and when it will be too late to put them on if we ve forgotten to, as the Governor did. We could safely ignore our seat belts if we knew with 100% certainty that nothing at all eventful or dangerous would occur on the trip we re taking. But of course we never know never know if the short drive we ll take next home from church, to Publix, to the beach, over the river and through the woods to grandmother s house will be the one when we will need that safety belt. Traveling Life s Highway My primary message to you today is not, however, primarily about traffic safety though that is, of course, a good thing to be conscious of. I am here to talk to you about life in its broader dimensions, from a spiritual perspective. And I want us to picture our lifetimes as being like long trips down a highway, from birth to death, the on-ramp to the off-ramp, moving in one direction only. And as we drive down this road, there can be long stretches when we are totally safe and secure and when it feels as if we need no help or assistance or support, no seat belts to protect us. We re fine, the trip is going smoothly, the road is clear of obstacles, and we re mak- 2
ing good time. We look at some people who appear to be cruising in the fast lane, absolutely secure, with no worries. Professional athletes, billionaire software tycoons, powerful politicians, TV anchorpersons, movie stars and recording artists: they seem to have no problems, and certainly don t appear to need God. At any time in our lives when everything seems to be going well we can be lulled into spiritual complacency. As we cruise down life s highway we can think: I don t need any seat belt. I m a good driver, there are no accidents ahead, and I ll be just fine. But none of us can ever know for sure what lies around the next bend in the road, what tomorrow or next year will bring. No matter how skillful and careful a driver you are, there will be some predictable fender-benders in your road. Every one of us will get older. Every one of us will lose someone we love. Every one of us will have health problems, because these bodies were not built to last forever. And eventually every one of us will come to the catastrophic crash we call death even those who seem this day to be on top of their worlds. It will happen to you and me. When the crash comes, will we have our spiritual safety belt securely attached? That s the choice we each make. Just as, when we climb into a car like the Governor did that day, we decide either to buckle up or not; so each person decides whether or not they are going to attend to their spiritual life or neglect it. The only safety belt designed and approved by our Manufacturer, the Lord God Himself, is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That s what we need to be truly safe in our trip through life. There are people who conclude that they don t want it or need it. There are a lot of people here this morning who have decided that we re not going to take that risk. We re going to make sure that we re buckled up tightly to Him. Paul s Experience Let s go back to our scripture text for today. The Apostle Paul is writing to us with great intimacy and candor, sharing with us his 3
own experience. He begins in this passage by acknowledging the temptation to try to go down life s highway blissfully. He had a lot going for him: he was, from all we can tell, a world-class genius, one of the most brilliant men in history; he had a first-class education; he had political connections; on top of that, he had some amazing visions and experiences that were out of this world. It was all enough to tempt him into thinking that his life s highway was smooth and danger-free. But then he had an accident, a painful fender-bender. Something happened that reminded him of the dangers of life. We don t know exactly what it was quite possibly a physical illness of some kind, or another difficulty. Paul isn t specific about his problems, and it really doesn t matter. What matters is how he responded to this sudden interruption in his smooth ride. He earnestly asked God to take the problem away. That would be the first instinct of all of us, and there s nothing wrong with pleading for help or healing. But it didn t go away. Instead, something greater happened. God showed him the importance of staying closely buckled up. He taught Paul unforgettable and transforming lessons about how to trust, how to live by faith, how to deal with the problems of life. A more contemporary writer has described his experience in terms that mirror what Paul went through: I asked God to lift my burden; instead, He gave me a stronger back to carry it. This is what Paul discovered: My grace is enough; it s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness I just let Christ take over, and so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. Paul s Response The Apostle does not get tripped up or distracted by trying to figure out WHY these things have happened to him, to fix blame, or to untangle all the causes and effects. That s simply not possible, nor is it necessary. The right question to ask when we face life s challenges is not Why did this happen to me? but What should I do now? It s not the reason why something happens, but our response to what happens, that really matters. As we look at how Paul responds to his handicap, let me point out two things that may be most helpful. 4
First, the Apostle chooses to be grateful for what he is experiencing, and to consciously look for the blessing in the midst of his trouble. He is able to see that the handicap he is dealing with is in some ways a gift. And that puts a whole different perspective on it. I believe there are many of us here today who have, likewise, had some difficult problem in our lives, but we have discovered that it was really a gift in disguise that having to deal with it made us better, changed us, softened and humbled us, sensitized us, made us more grateful or more mature. Second, Paul chooses to depend on God and not just on himself. He daily surrenders his situation to the Lord and waits upon the Lord s strength. It figuratively sends him to his knees in prayer. Was Paul a believer in God before the handicap arrived? Yes, we think so. But he really learned to live a life of faith and dedication precisely through his hardships. Some of us are undergoing trials right now that we would certainly not have chosen for ourselves. But as we do so we are personally discovering the truth of our scripture, that God s grace is enough to bring us through. All You Need We began by thinking about our personal journey down the highway of life. And none of us can possibly see into the future to know what potential accidents may be awaiting us. Frankly, I don t think any of us would want to know what the future holds. It could be too frightening, too overwhelming, too paralyzing. It s so much healthier and better to buckle ourselves up in a close, daily relationship with God and then travel down the highway trusting Him to be there and help us and protect us in whatever comes. When we need Him, He ll be there for us. And ultimately, when our trip reaches its end, He will deliver us safely to our eternal destination. I want to close with this story a true experience shared by a woman who survived the Holocaust. Her name is Corrie ten Boom. She was a young girl in Nazi-occupied Holland in World War 2. She and her family of Christians had risked their lives to hide some Jews from the Nazis but finally they were discovered. As Corrie and her 5
family were anticipating arrest and shipment to a concentration camp, she was terrified of what lay before her. And then her mind drifted back to a vivid childhood memory. Years before the war, when she was a young girl, her father had taken Corrie with him on a trip to Amsterdam. They arrived at the train station and Corrie wanted to explore and play and run around, as young children do when they re waiting. Finally the train arrived, and as they approached the passenger car Corrie s father handed her the ticket to give to the conductor. Corrie began to reflect on that. Father did not give her the ticket beforehand, but only right at the moment she needed it. And suddenly her mind was filled with the truth of our scripture: My grace is enough; it s all you need. God our Heavenly Father doesn t give us grace in advance to store up for the trials we face. Instead, He gives it to us just as we need it and it will be sufficient for what we face. 9751 Bonita Beach Road Bonita Springs, Florida 34135 239 992 3233 fpcbonita.org