The illustrations in this sermon were found here on Sermoncentral.com.
2 Cor 12:7b-12 (NASB)
7b for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!
8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Introduction:
In our passage this morning, God informed Paul that His grace was sufficient for him to survive and for him to lean on God for strength and that even in Paul’s weakness, he is made strong through the grace of God and the sufficiency of God.
This morning I want to ask the question… Are you living a life that is leaning on the sufficiency of God? Or do you only trust in what you can see or touch? Let me give you an example…
A college student was assigned to give an illustrated speech to his class. He knew that he was going to be graded on creativity and ability to drive home a point in a memorable way. So he chose a subject and the title of his speech was, “The Law of the Pendulum.”
He spent 20 minutes carefully teaching the scientific principle that governs a swinging pendulum. Basically he told them that the law of the pendulum is that a pendulum can never return to a point higher than the point from which it was released.
This is because of friction and gravity! When the pendulum swings back, it will always fall short of its original release point. And each time it swings the arc will grow smaller and smaller, until finally it stops. This stopping point is called the state of equilibrium, where all forces acting on the pendulum are equal.
For his illustration the young man attached a three-foot string to a wooden block and secured it to the top the blackboard with a thumbtack. He pulled the top to one side and made a mark on the blackboard where he let it go.
Each time it swung back he made a new mark. It took less than a minute for the top to complete its swinging and come to rest. When he finished the demonstration, the markings on the blackboard proved the law of the pendulum.
At this point, the student asked how many in the room believed in the law of the pendulum and that it was true. All of his classmates raised their hands and so did his teacher. Thinking the young man was finished, the teacher started to walk to the front of the room.
But actually class had only just begun! In this classroom hung a large crude, but functional pendulum weighing about 250 lbs. The student invited the instructor to climb up on a table and sit in a chair with back of his head against a cement wall. Then the student brought the 250 pounds of metal up to the teachers’ nose.
Holding the huge pendulum just a fraction of an inch from the teacher’s face, the student once again explained the law of the pendulum he had explained before.
He said, “If the law of the pendulum is true, then when I release this mass of metal, it will swing across the room and return short of the release point. Your nose will be in no danger.”
The student looked his teacher in the eye and asked, “Sir, do you believe this law is true?” There was silence and beads of sweat that were forming on his upper lip and then weakly the teacher nodded and whispered, “Yes.”
The student released the pendulum. It made a swishing sound as it arced across the room. At the far end of its swing, it paused momentarily and started back.
The student later recalled that he had never seen a man move so fast in his entire life as the teacher dove out of the chair and onto the floor (Ken Davis, How To Speak To Youth, pp104-106).
It was easy for this teacher to believe in the law of the pendulum when it was all theory. But when his life literally depended on the law of the pendulum he showed that his belief was only theoretical.
Is that not how many of us are when it comes to living the life God has called us to live?
It is SO easy for us to believe in God’s sufficiency in the church on Sunday morning or in a Bible study. It is easy to say YES I rely on God, fully and totally when things in life are going well…
But when we get into the real world… when things don’t go as we have planned… when life begins to get ‘inconvenient’ for us… when we are called to live as God desires… and to rely on His grace to be sufficient for our lives… there are too many of us who like this teacher do not believe in it when it comes to ‘reality’ and the stepping out on faith to believe it!
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I want to repeat something I mentioned last week… Self-Sufficiency is the idol of choice in today’s church!
So often after we become Christians and Christ has saved us, we tend to believe that we must DO things so that we can be good and so we can show the world we are a Christian…
However, God’s Word, reveals just the opposite to be true. There is absolutely NOTHING we can do to make us GOOD! Oh sure, we can do good things (as the world sees good) and the world will praise and lift us up for those things… but what we seem to misunderstand is that… it is NOT the good deeds that make us who we are…
As believers, we DO good NOT because we are good, but because Christ is good and it is Christ who dwells within us. We can tell the world about His goodness only because HE has blessed us with His presence and goodness.
In our church today there are some of us who sit in our pews week after week and believe that we can handle everything that life throws our way – and yet we get MAD at God when the things of this world are TOO much for us to handle!
Matthew Henry once said, “We have no sufficient strength of our own… All our sufficiency is of God… We should stir up ourselves to resist temptations in reliance upon God’s all-sufficiency and the omnipotence of His might.”
This morning I want to speak to you about the sufficiency of God and His wonderful grace! I want to tell you how that by the grace of God we are sustained!
1. Life’s Problems (v.7b):
7b for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!
Here Paul is addressing a problem that he his having in his life. Many have speculated that this was a physical ailment such as an eye problem, but whatever it is, Paul is definitely having difficulty with it…
Life’s problems are unpredictable at best and there are many of us, who are taken by surprise by the problems of life, but there are 3 things about problems that we can know and when we know these things it helps us to face them and rely on God to work them out for us…
The first observation I have about problems is that they are…
• Never desired…
Here we see that Paul was human like the rest of us and he wanted his problem to ’disappear’! He did not want to deal with it, so he asks God to take it away.
I don’t know ANYONE here today that would tell anyone that they look forward to the problems of life… and that they were glad that they came their way.
In dealing with the problems that we face in our lives, I can rest assured that NONE of them are problems that we DESIRE to have…Another observation I have seen about problems is that there are…
• Never convenient…
This was definitely an issue with Paul and it is obvious that he believed this problem was holding him back and he was not able to do what he believed he could do if it were removed from his life. To Paul, this was a terribly inconvenient thing that he wanted removed from his life…
Likewise, the problems of life NEVER seem to come when we are prepared for them or when we have the time to deal with them…
Have you ever had a car break down on you JUST as you coast into the repair shop that is running a special and because you are their 1000th customer your repairs will be free?
No usually the car breaks down just when you have had to spend an extra few hundred dollars on little Katie’s new braces or little Bobby’s broken arm…
Oh yeah, and the car NEVER breaks down on the way HOME from work, but seemingly only on the WAY to work…
It NEVER breaks down when your plans for the weekend are empty, but only when you are planning something really special…
I can remember in 2004 we were planning a family vacation to Arkansas and the day before we were supposed to leave the a/c in our car failed and went out… we had to put our car in the shop and drive Joanna’s (my daughter’s) older and not as comfortable of a car to our vacation. Now that was NOT convenient and neither are our problems
The problems of life come when they come and we have to deal with them and that reveals my 3rd observation about the problems of life and that is that they are…
• Never easy or painless…
It is obvious to any who read this passage to see that this ’thorn’ in the flesh was a very painful and difficult thing for Paul to bear. The word ’implored’ used by Paul in his prayer means a soul wrenching or a gut wrenching plead… he was in pain!
But what we need to understand is that the problems of life bring pain, grief, struggle and suffering into our lives… this is a fact of life. Problems, in and of themselves, bring pain not joy into our lives.
Here in this verse we can see that Paul was facing all 3 of these aspects of his problem. This problem was not something he desired; in fact we see that he prays for God to remove it…
This problem was not something that was convenient, in fact, it was really inconvenient because Paul was struggling to deal with it and still take care of his ministry…
Finally we can see that his problem was not without pain or struggle as we find Paul describing this problem as a problem that was meant to torment him… anytime torment is involved you can rest assured that pain and suffering are involved!
The problems that face us in life are things that are either God allowed or God induced. The book of James calls on all believers to count it all JOY when troubles come our way because it makes us grow and become stronger in our walk with Christ…
The unfortunate issue about the problems of life is that fact that we try and try to fix things by means of…
2. Human Solutions (v.8):
8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
Here we find Paul praying for God to simply remove this ’thorn in his flesh’ from his life. Paul is seeking his own solution by simply removing it… He is going to God with his problem, but do you notice how Paul does not ask for God’s solution but proposes his own solution for the problem… and he does it 3 times!
When problems come to the believer there are usually 3 ways that we deal with them… 1) we either do what Paul does and pray for God to remove it, or 2) we think this is NO biggie, I can handle this and we try to deal with it on our own power OR 3) we bury our head in the sand and hope it goes away!
But what we have to realize is that when we begin to deal with our problems under our own power, we hurt our walk with Christ because it cause us to become…
• Self-centered…
When we ’tackle our problems under our own power’ we can only see our issues and they become the most important thing to us. And when that happens, what God desires of us falls to the way-side!
And we find ourselves buried in grief, doubt, and trouble. Our problems begin to overwhelm us and we feel like God has abandoned us!
But God did not go anywhere… He is there… the problem with us handling our own problems instead of giving them to God is laid out by Tommy Tenney, the author of the book The God Catchers. When he says, "It’s NOT that your problems are too big— perhaps it is because your worship is too small."
John R. Cionca, on page 33 of his book, The Victors: Overcoming Toxins That Poison the Believer he said, “One of the adversary’s most useful schemes is to keep Christians focusing on their problems rather than on God’s provision”
So with that in mind, when troubles come into the life of a believer, we need only to go to our knees… we can read where Peter tells the church in Rome that we can cast our cares or anxieties upon Him because He cares for us because He loves us!
So often we try to do things on our own because we think we can handle things and we think we know what’s best… and simply do not listen to God. And the reason that we don’t listen to God is because we would rather take the…
• Band-Aid approach or the quick fix…to any and all problems.
Paul simply wanted God to remove the problem, and for most of us that sounds like the smart thing to do. That is because the human approach to problem solving is always the road of least resistance.
We try and try to correct the things that are bringing us grief, but our solutions are based on the here and now! We pray, "God Take it away!" But the problem with that is that we cannot know what lies ahead!
How many times have you thought you KNEW what was best, only to find out in due time that your decision and action caused you MORE grief than the problem itself!
So often we try the band aid approach, when we need to cut out the infection and deal with it directly. We know that we cannot simply place a band aid on a sore, it must first be cleaned, washed and then treated with medicine before putting on a protective band-aid… to put a band-aid on before doing these other things only brings on infection and greater suffering.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever tried to do things on your own and NOT listen to God and you found out that your way brought you even more difficulty than the original problem ever would have…
Our way never leads to solutions, only to more problems… but there is another aspect of human solutions that hits home right here and it is that we humans strive for…
• No pain or struggle desired…
This ties directly into the human desire for pleasure… we do not want to be inconvenienced with any grief, pain or struggle in our lives. I would say that we all want to live totally comfortable lives,
But did you know that too much comfort is actually a dangerous thing! Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley did an experiment sometime ago that involved introducing an amoeba… An amoeba is a single celled organism… I had to look it up…
They introduced an Amoeba into a perfectly stress-free environment. They provided it with the ideal temperature, optimal concentration of moisture, constant food supply-the amoeba had an environment to which it had to make no adjustment whatsoever.
With all of its needs taken care of you would guess that that it was a happy little amoeba. This is because whatever it is that gives amoebas high blood pressure had been taken away.
Do you know what happened? It died! Their conclusion was that apparently all living creatures, even a single celled organism like the amoeba, demands challenge in their life.
We require change, adaptation, and challenge the way we require food and air. Comfort alone will kill us!
When teachers want students to grow, they don’t give them answers-they give them problems! It’s called a TEST! When God desires us to grow… He gives us a test!
If someone gives me the answers, I may get a good score on a test, but I will not have grown. Just as our bodies simply will not grow stronger without being challenged to the point of exertion, so it is with our mind and spirit.
Our desire for continual comfort is an excuse for us not trusting that God can and will care for us, in all situations!
Ortberg, John. If you Want to Walk on Water, you’ve got to Get Out of the Boat…
God brings tests and trials into our lives… or He allows them to come into our lives. He does so because He desires us to grow and mature in our faith. But these trials and troubles are not so that we can come to rely on ourselves… God puts them into our lives so that we can learn to trust in Him and lean on Him and rely on the sufficiency of His grace and mercy!
When humanity relies on its own solutions we find ourselves in trouble and in more misery than our problems were causing. As believers we cannot look to our own solutions but we must look to God and to…
3. God’s Solution (v.9):
9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Here Paul shares with the Corinthians what God had shared with him. God told Paul, lean on Me and all will be well. And what we find is that Paul believed God and we find that he actually began to rejoice in God’s counsel…
Likewise, we must look to God when troubles and trials come our way. When we focus on solving our own problems it makes us self-centered and the believer must be…
• God-centered…
Paul listened to God and allowed God to lead him and guide him when it came to this issue. And as believers we cannot look at a trial in our lives and think it is all about US!
Stop to think about it for just a moment. God is the creator of the universe; He is all-knowing and all-powerful. You are a finite creature that has severe limitations and your knowledge about life and the universe is severely limited… WHO SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO?
Our way leads to MORE trouble, but God’s way leads to solutions for our problems and peace in our heart. Those solutions are not always what we may think, but trusting in God gives us a freedom to lean on Him.
God must be the very center of the believer’s life! Our thoughts and desires must be focused on Him! And when difficulties come our way, like Paul, we must rejoice in the fact that God has promised to be with us… either He will deliver us FROM the storm or THRU the storm.
When we trust in God, we no longer have to rely on a band-aid solution, because God will always provide…
• Long term/ Permanent solutions…
In v.9 we find that Paul came to the realization that a quick fix was NOT the answer and he realized that God’s presence in his life was much greater than anything else he could experience.
In her book “Let’s Roll: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage”, Lisa Beamer reflects on the loss of her husband. She says, “Slowly, I began to understand that the plans God has for us don’t just include “good things”, but the whole array of human events. The “prospering” that God speaks about in the book of Jeremiah is often the outcome of a bad event.
I remember my mom saying that many people look for miracles- things that in their human minds “fix” the situation. Many miracles, however, are not a change to the normal course of human events; they’re found in God’s ability and desire to sustain and nurture people through even the worst situations.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped demanding that God fix the problems in my life and started to be thankful for his presence as I endured them.”
So often we fail to understand the wonder and greatness of the presence of God in our lives. We are so focused on ourselves we miss the joy of Him. He can and will provide a solution that is solid and long lasting to whatever is in our lives… we may not agree with Him, but we must trust HIM! The preacher Ernie Merritt once said, "The problems that are over my head are under the feet of Jesus."
• No pain/No gain (Struggle = Spiritual Growth)…
Paul realized that God’s presence in his life was more important than his own physical comfort. Likewise we need to understand that for us to grow in Christ… for us to grow closer to Him… there is going to be growing pains!
In our lives we have to come to the realization that there will be pain and difficulties. There is nothing in life that creates more deep seated anxieties than the false assumption that life should be free from anxieties and problems.
Just like the man or woman who is going to the gym to stay in shape… they do not go there to relax and sip tea and eat snacks… they go there to work and that work is hard and it is difficult and it is painful at times.
But you will hear them say with joy, "no pain… no gain" in other words you cannot get physically fit without the pain of working out. The same applies to spiritual growth, it is going to take great effort and work on your part and there are times when it is going to be painful and difficult!
We have to remember to focus as Paul did… focus on Christ and the fact that it is much more important for us to KNOW Him and have His presence than our own personal comfort, for He is the source of all joy and comfort and He will NOT deceive us or mislead us!
4. So How do we respond? (v.10)
• Paul’s response…
10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
• What will yours be?
Chuck Swindoll lists what he calls the "four spiritual flaws":
Flaw #1: Because you are a Christian, all your problems are solved. And we must remember that the Enemy seeks to destroy our walk and our fellowship with God, so he is at work!
Flaw # 2: All the problems you will ever have are addressed in the Bible. (When your computer crashes, please don’t go to the Bible. Go to your computer manual or call technical support.) But in dealing with patience or forgiveness…you can and should go to God’s Word.
Flaw #3: If you are having problems, you are somehow unspiritual. (Remember Job was spiritual, and that was why he had all those problems.)
Flaw #4: Being exposed to sound Bible teaching automatically solves all your problems. This is not true because hearing Bible teaching is not the same as obeying what the Bible teaches, you must put God’s teaching into action in your life… then refer to flaw #1!
Our response must be like that of Paul. He recognized that God’s presence was the most important thing in his life. His problems paled in comparison to his walk with Christ.
We must understand that problems are a fact of life, that we live in a broken and fallen world and troubles are going to find us!
We must understand that God allows this to happen so that we can grow in our trust and reliance of Him in our daily lives.
We also need to come to the understanding that without struggle… peace would mean nothing to us…
Without suffering, comfort would be empty and meaningless…
Without the need to strive, we would grow complacent and wither on the vine!
Our source of salvation is in God, our source of service is in God, our source of giving is in God and finally our source of sufficiency is in God as well! We must learn to rely on God for our deliverance!
Conclusion:
This morning you have heard how Paul dealt with a great difficulty in his life. You have heard how Christians should approach the difficulties of life.
Are you approaching the difficult times in your life like Paul did in our passage today? Are you turning it over to God and relying on His sufficiency to take care of you?
This morning you may be harboring something in your heart or life that you need to let go and let God take care of! Maybe you are holding onto a problem that God has shared with you that He would deal with, but you have to let it go!
As Bro Jerry comes to lead us I am opening up this altar for you to place it all at the feet of Jesus… there is NO problem to big that they won’t fit at His feet! Won’t you come and give it to God?
If you are here this morning and God is dealing with you on a deep spiritual level… I call on you to let go of your pride, let go of your fear and step out and allow God to deal with you and cleanse you and make you brand new in Christ!
You see God has a plan for your life but there is an enemy out there, one we call the Devil and the devil has a plan for your life as well:
1) Doubt - To make you question God’s word and His goodness;
2) Discouragement - To make you look at your problems rather than at God;
3) Diversion - To make the wrong things seems attractive so that you will want them more than the right things;
4) Defeat - To make you feel like a failure so that you don’t even try;
5) Delay - To make you put off doing something so that it never gets done.
Paul Fritz
Don’t allow the Devil to ruin your eternity! Step out now and give you heart to Jesus Christ, I urge you to come when the music starts!
