Good morning brother and sisters in Christ, thank God for giving me this opportunity to preach to you. Today the topic of my sermon is SPA. Have you ever been to SPA pool in your vacation? Is it a nice place to rest, to relax and to relieve you from stress?
Today I will introduce to you a new SPA. You are not required to pay even a single cent for this SPA. You can go to there any time you need. It opens 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Do you want to know how to go there? The map is in the Bible.
Let’s turn to 2 Corinthians 12: 9. Let us read together. “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
This is the SPA I mean, the spiritual SPA formula God provides for us. The SPA formula is an acronym. The first letter S stands for sufficient grace in our God. This is what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12: 9a: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’”
The word grace in original text means generous gift. And the word sufficient means to be possessed with unfailing strength, to be enough. God’s grace is sufficient for you means God gives you generously His unfailing strength for you to persevere with your weakness. God’s grace is abundant, and He is generous that He is willing to give His grace abundantly to you. But every time He only gives you grace that sufficient or enough for you to use. Not less and not more, just enough.
Here is a good example to illustrate God’s abundant grace that sufficient to us. “A large sum of money was given to [a man named] Rowland Hill to dispense to a poor pastor. Thinking that the amount was too much to send all at once, Hill forwarded just a portion along with a note that said simply, ‘More to follow.’ In a few days the man received another envelope containing the same amount and with the same message, ‘More to follow.’ At regular intervals, there came a third, and a fourth. In fact, they continued, along with those cheering words, until the entire sum had been received.”
See, God has abundant grace, but He only gives you sufficient grace that enough for you to use. He wants you to know He has more grace to follow. What you have to do is just rely on Him totally. He will give you generously His grace enough for you to use every time you need it.
Why does God only dispense sufficient grace to us every time we need it? Why doesn’t He give us all His grace at one time to solve our problems at all? Let Paul answer you. In verses 7 and 8, Paul said, “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. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.”
Paul asked God to remove the thorn in his flesh. But from verse 9 we know God did not do so. Why? As Paul said, God allowed this thorn to remain in his flesh is to keep him from becoming conceited. Today God only gives you sufficient grace, because He wants to keep you humble, to keep you relying on Him totally. If God gives you all His grace at one time and your problem is solved at all, you may become very proud and forget about God.
From verse 7 we know Paul had a thorn in his flesh. And from verse 9 we know this thorn is his weakness. What is Paul’s weakness or the thorn in his flesh? No one knows exactly what Paul’s thorn is. Some people said it was medical problem such as earaches, headaches, acute eye problem or reoccurring attacks of malaria. Some people suggested it was lustful desires that bound Paul. Some said it was his stammering speech, that is, difficulty in speech. Also some suggested that, since Paul wrote 2 Corinthians to defend his apostleship, then this thorn refers to persecutions and oppositions from Corinthians.
We can’t know exactly what Paul’s thorn is, because he did no tell us. He did not tell us what his thorn is, because this is not his purpose here. His purpose here was to tell us that God’s grace was sufficient for him in his weakness. He wanted to tell us that although God did not answer his prayer and take away his thorn, God had given him sufficient grace.
Although we can’t know exactly what Paul’s thorn was, we know it has three characteristics. First, his thorn was his weakness that repeatedly attacked him. Second, his thorn was his weakness that he could not overcome. Third, his thorn was his weakness that affected his ministries.
Paul has a thorn in his flesh. How about you? Do you have any thorn in your flesh? You can’t know exactly what Paul’s thorn was, but you know exactly what your thorn is. Do you have any weakness that repeatedly attacks you? Do you have any weakness that you cannot overcome? Do you have any weakness may affects your spiritual life and your ministry? I have many weaknesses. I have gastric pain that I can’t take full fasting prayer. This may affect my spiritual life. I have stammering speech that I can’t speak fluently like other people. This may affect my preaching ministry. I also cannot sing well. I always sing out of tune. When I was about 15 years old, I joined junior youth choir. But I sung so bad that after one year the choir conductor had to ask me to quit and to join children choir. I know she did this in order to help me. But it really hurt me that I didn’t dare to open my mouth to sing anymore. Only after few years when I knew no matter how bad my singing is, as long as I sing from the bottom of my heart to praise God, God will be delighted. Since then I dare to open my mouth to sing loudly, no matter how other people think about my singing. How about you? You may have eyesight problem that you can’t read the Bible for a long period of time. You may have gastric pain that you can’t take full fasting. You may have other physical illnesses that repeatedly attack you and affect your spiritual life and your ministries. You may have problem in controlling your emotion. You may struggle to overcome your lustful desires. I don’t know what your weakness is, but you know it, and God knows it.
Like Paul, you might have pray to God many times, asking Him to take away your weakness. But God does not do that. He does not take away your weakness in order to keep you humble. However, God gives you sufficient grace to endure your weakness.
God’s sufficient grace is like spa, embraces you and refreshes you. His grace is sufficient for you to persevere with your weakness. This is what the first letter of SPA formula means, Sufficient Grace in God.
The second letter of SPA, P, stands for Perfect Power in your weakness. Let s see verse 9b "for my power is made perfect in weakness." God did not take away Paul’s weakness in order to reveal His perfect power. It is same today. God does not take away your weakness, in order to make His power perfect in you. He wants other people to see His perfect power in you. But how does God make his power perfect in you?
Let me answer this question by my own testimony. Since I was very young, about 4 or 5 years old, I found that I had difficulties in my speech. I couldn’t even finish a word in one breath. Then you can imagine how difficult for me to finish a sentence. I really had to strive to talk with other people. Many people laughed at me when listening to my stammering speech. To them it was very funny. But to me it was really a pain and a thorn in my flesh. My self-confidence was shattered. My self-image was really damaged by their laughs. I didn’t dare to open my mouth to speak. I became very introvert. When people, especially teachers or others who were older than me wanted to talk with me, I would become extremely nervous. Since I did not have courage to open my mouth to speak, my stammering speech became worse.
When I was a teenager, I tried to use various kinds of methods that I could find to cure my stammering speech, or at least to improve my speaking ability. But I failed. There was no any improvement. I also prayed to God, asking Him to take away my stammering speech, but there was no any difference. I really gave up.
But God did not give up on me. He gave me sufficient grace to persevere with people’s laughing. When 1 was 16 years old, 1 started to take initiative to talk with people. It was really difficult, because for me to speak a sentence was like running a 100-meter race. I would sweat a lot and cannot breathe, and I also had to stand the laugh of other people. Thank God. He empowered me that no matter how difficult it was, I could persevere. God gave me sufficient grace, to restore my self-confidence and self-image. No matter how people laugh at me, I had courage to continue to talk. I could endure people’s laughing. Eventually their laughing could not hurt me anymore. My self-confidence was built up. My self-image was built on gracious God and not on men God also gives His grace to me through other people. He sent some people to help me to improve my speech. For example, when I was here in year 2004 for my practical training, Rev. Lau Hui Ming was really a good coach to guide me to improve my speech.
At the end of year 2004, I was posted back to my home church, Logos Methodist Church. There I had opportunities to preach in two Sunday services. A few weeks after my first preaching, I was informed that some peoples said that they were amazed because I could preach so fluently, not even a word was stammer. They knew me since I was a teenager. They knew that I had serious stammering speech. But now I was able to preach fluently at the pulpit. And to their surprise, they also noticed that in my daily conversations, sometimes I still stammer slightly. They really were amazed. They concluded that it was God’s power enabling me to preach fluently at the pulpit. By God’s grace, His power was made perfect in my weakness!
Today, sometimes I still had slight stammer in my speech. But this reminds me to rely on God totally every time in my preaching. I know no matter how good or how fluent my preaching is, it is totally because of God’s grace that He makes His power perfect in my weakness.
Today, God will also make His power perfect in your weakness. You may have gastric pain. You may have eyesight impairment. You may have stammering speech. You may have other weaknesses. No matter what your weakness is, trust in God. Let God make His power perfect in your weakness. Are you ready to do so?
We have seen the first two letters for SPA formula. S stands for sufficient grace in God. P stands for perfect power in Christ. How about the last letter A?
A stands for Abiding in Christ. Let’s see verse 9c. "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” God can make his power perfect in us. But we have our part to do. What is your part? In verse 9, Paul tells us that our part is to boast about our weaknesses. What is your weakness? Boast about it. Not only boast about it, but boast about it gladly. Paul’s opponents boasted about their achievements, but Paul boasted about his weaknesses and sufferings, so that people will see Christ’s perfect power in him.
People in this world like to boast about their achievements, like how many degrees they have, how big their cars and houses are, how many credit cards they have, and so on. But we as Christians should not boast about these things. We should only boast about our weaknesses, so that people will see Christ’s perfect power in our achievements.
But what does it means by boasting about your weakness? Does it mean that you have to go around and tell everyone what your weakness is? Does it mean that you can refuse to serve God by giving reason that you have this and that weaknesses? No. It means that, like Paul, we have to conform to the cross of Jesus Christ, willing to suffer for the sake of serving God. This is what I mean with abiding in Christ – abiding in Christ in His suffering.
Because of serving God, Paul suffered many afflictions. He was even opposed by people in Corinthian Church. From Acts 20:23 we know that Paul knew there were many hardships and afflictions waiting for him. But he did not escape. He moved on bravely, because he knew and he had experienced God’s grace was sufficient for him.
In year 1994, God called me to serve Him. I struggled because I knew since I had serious stammering speech, preaching ministry was an impossible task. But God gave me sufficient grace. I did not escape from His calling. I obeyed Him and followed His calling, and He continued to give me sufficient grace. You see, now I can preach at the pulpit. Because of God’s grace, He had made the impossible things become possible.
When you face problems, failures and even opposition in your ministry, what will you choose – give up or move on?
Remember the SPA formula. S stands for Sufficient Grace in God; P stands for Perfect Power in your weakness; and A stands for abiding in Christ. God’s grace is sufficient for you to move on.
