Today, we’re beginning our second message in our series, “Jesus Strong.” Last week, the message was, “Jesus Strong: Because You’re Not Strong Enough.” Today, I’ve entitled the message, “Jesus strong: Because His Grace is.”
Our text will be 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. You can go ahead and turn there in your Bible, and we’ll read together in just a few minutes. That’s 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 9 & 10.
While you turn there, let me tell you a story.
A preacher’s Sunday sermon was Forgive Your Enemies. Toward the end of the service, He asked his congregation, “how many of you have forgiven their enemies”?
About half held up their hands.
Not satisfied with the response, he then repeated his question. As it was past lunchtime, this time about 80 percent held up their hands.
He said, let me give you a moment to think about that and say a quick prayer to help you forgive. After a minute of silence, he then repeated his question again.
Every person responded, except one small elderly lady.
“Mrs. Jones?” asked the preacher, “Are you not willing to forgive your enemies?”
“I don’t have any,” she replied, smiling sweetly.
“Well, Mrs. Jones, that is very unusual. How old are you?”
“Ninety-three,” she replied.
“Wow! Mrs. Jones, what a blessing and a lesson to us all you are. Would you please come down in front of this congregation and tell us all how a person can live ninety-three years and not have an enemy in the world.”
The little sweetheart of a lady tottered down the aisle, faced the congregation, and said “I outlived the old hags!”
Well, it turned out that she wasn’t such a great example to put up in front of the Church – but, even though I have to twist it pretty hard to do it, I think we can still dig a grain of truth out of that story, which is this – God’s grace will ALWAYS overcome and outlive your sin and mine. All of our weaknesses – our failures – NONE of them are a match for His grace.
This is a good time to read our text, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. I’ll be reading from the English Standard Version, which I’ll have up on the screen as well:
“… 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
I’m here to tell you today, God’s grace is always sufficient because He is all powerful and His grace is everlasting.
Nothing can match God’s power.
Sufficiency of His Grace:
What does God mean when He says, “My Grace is sufficient for you…”?
Corrie Ten Boom, in her book, “Tramp for the Lord,” told about an old woman she met during the Communist persecution of Christians in Russia.
The woman had MS, and her body was badly bent and twisted as a result. She stayed on a small sofa, propped up by pillows, unable to move most of her body.
The only part of her body she could control was her right hand. She spent all day and into the night, every day for years with an old typewriter, typing one letter at a time with her index finger of that hand. It’s what she was typing that I want to share.
She was translating Christian Books into the Russian language. She translated and typed parts of the Bible and books written by great Christian teachers.
Always using just that one finger—peck … peck … peck—she typed out the pages.
Quoting from the book, "Not only does she translate books,’ her husband said as he hovered close by during our conversation, ‘but she prays every day while she types. Sometimes it takes a long time for her finger to hit the key, or for her to get the paper in the machine, but all the time she's praying for those whose books she's working on."
Corrie continued: “I looked at her wasted form on the sofa, her head pulled down and her feet curled under her body. ‘Oh Lord, why don't you heal her?’ I cried inwardly.
Her husband, sensing my anguish of soul, gave the answer.
‘God has a purpose in her sickness. Every other Christian in the city is watched by the secret police. But because she has been sick so long, no one ever looks in on her. They leave us alone and she is the only person in all the city who can type quietly undetected by the police.’"
One day Corrie received a letter from that lady's husband telling her that on the very night of her death, the woman had worked until midnight, still typing.
Take another look at our text again… :
“… 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Just focus on that for a moment and really let it sink in.
Do you have fears, inhibitions, worry, stress and doubt?
You know what? We talk about problems being caused by stress, worry, fear… but, in reality, those things are not the causes; they are the outcomes, the results from when you try doing things in your own power.
You are not relying on God in the affected areas of your life. Joy, peace, love and a viewpoint in God’s eternal glory come when you put your full trust in Him and let the strength of our great God lift you up.
When I try to take over – that’s when I get beat down! It must be full trust in everything in your life; everything. No matter how difficult and trying as it may be.
Why? Well, think of it this way… We serve a God who knows all of our unknowns.
Remember, our God is omniscient. O-M-N-I – omni, meaning ALL and S-C-I-E-N-T – from the same word as science meaning “knowledge.” God is OMNISCIENT – HE KNOWS ALL THINGS.
Why is that important to us? He knows ALL things. That means that He knows everything that I know, think and do. Well, that’s almost scary!
But it also means that He knows everything I don’t know – everything I can’t see coming – everything hiding around the corner waiting to pounce on me – and, everything I wouldn’t understand even if I did know it!
HE - KNOWS – ALL THINGS - and in Romans 8:28, He promised: “… that in all things (There it is again) God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV)
So, God KNOWS ALL THINGS and WORKS in ALL THINGS for our good! That means that He even works through the things we don’t know, can’t see, and wouldn’t understand if we did, to bring about good for us!
So, what do we have to fear?
Isaiah 26:4: “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” (RSV)
Isaiah 40:31: “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (NRSV)
So, what does God mean when He says, “My grace is sufficient for you…”? He means that His grace is great enough to take your weakness – and turn it into something great for His glory.
Has it ever occurred to you that the thing you most want removed from your life might be the very thing that God will use in the greatest way for His glory? It’s so easy - too easy to become defeated by what we view as our set-backs in life.
His grace is sufficient! And because it IS sufficient,
We Have to Push Ourselves Aside:
One of the most difficult things for most of us to do and yet one of the most important things that we can do, is to get out of God’s way!
Get myself out of God’s way!
Move MY will aside and allow GOD’s will to rule.
In the Book of Judges, Gideon was afraid. He questioned God; he even hid in a winepress when God asked him to save the Israelites. But God turned his fear and anxiety into courage and might.
He does the same for us when realize the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
It is when we lose ourselves, or, to put it more bluntly, when we get over ourselves – THAT’S when God can shine through us, and THAT’S when we will do things that many will remember.
We are called to bear good fruit. For some of us, maybe we’re not there – maybe we’re falling short of that goal; but, any fruit farmer knows that the tree doesn’t grow in a day.
For example, an apple tree takes 4-6 years from a seed to full maturity to produce fruit. But even a full-grown apple tree, if it isn’t properly cared for and fertilized can give bad fruit.
The same is true for us. Are we trying to nurture and grow ourselves in our own power or are we getting out of God’s way and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work in us?
Jeremiah 17:5-6: “Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. 6For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.”
What is being fed to your spirit? What fruit are you producing?
Philippians 2:13: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (ESV)
This is the truth of all of this in our lives. You must get out of the way and push yourself down so that the Holy Spirit can be raised up to feed you. Then God will produce good fruit by Him, through you, for His glory.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. The opposite of that is that I can do nothing unless it is THROUGH Christ who strengthens me.
Remember when the disciples were arguing over which one would be the greatest in the kingdom? Jesus sat a child with them and said this in Luke 9:48: ““Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.””
Now, this isn’t the point of this sermon, but just an important little detour.
You know, I’m always shocked when I hear about a church prioritizing adult worship over children’s ministry or a church board refusing money to run a youth and children’s ministry. I mean, like, do they not even READ Jesus’ words, or do they just not care?
I think I can speak for our leadership as well as myself, because we’ve been pretty much on the same page on this, but that just isn’t going to happen here! The children are the future of not only this congregation but of the Lord’s Church in this world.
Think about this… If our fathers and mothers and grandparents and others hadn’t invested in us when we were young, we wouldn’t be here today. This Church wouldn’t be here today! It is our responsibility to invest in them with everything that we can – time, effort, money… whatever it takes.
More to the point of the message though, while it’s obvious that Jesus is making the point that caring for and leading the children to Him is very important, but He’s also using the child as an illustration of humility for all of us to learn from.
To better see that, the same story in Matthew 18 gives us that in more detail:
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Now, remember, He was talking to His disciples.
Basically, what He just said to the disciples who, remember, are arguing over who will be the greatest in heaven, is, “Straighten up and humble yourselves like this child or you won’t even GET to heaven, much less be the greatest …” In other words – push YOURSELF down, so I can lift you up.
God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Jesus said to His disciples that the most-humble will be the greatest in the Kingdom of God….
In other words, God is in the business of transforming weakness into strength.
It’s been said that “God uses broken things. Broken soil produces a crop, broken clouds give rain, broken grain gives bread, and broken bread gives strength.
As I prepared this message, I found this story of George Frederick Handel. I read that when he wrote the “Hallelujah Chorus,” his health and his life had hit rock bottom.
His right side was paralyzed and he was facing bankruptcy and total failure. On top of that, some leaders in the Church of England had become critical of him and his work.
The odds against him seemed insurmountable. And it was then that he composed his greatest work—Messiah. They say that he barely ate at all for the 24 days it took to write the work.
It seems that when Handel was weak—he was strong.
When we reach rock bottom in our lives, we find that Jesus is already there, and as 1 preacher I read put it…
And we might just find that Rock Bottom isn’t such a bad place to be—because Jesus is with us…
…and His power is made perfect in our weakness.
When we are empty of self—we can be more filled with God!
Thirdly:
You Actually Grow Weaker When You Do it on Your Own:
Have you ever broken a bone? I have … several of them, in fact! I broke my left ankle, my left wrist – twice, my nose - twice, cracked 2 ribs, several fingers, a bone in my hand – twice, well, actually it was 2 different small bones at 2 different times, and fractured the side of my skull – (maybe that might explain a few things to you!) Anyway, I think that covers most of my broken bones, but if you give me a minute to think, I might remember another 1 or 2…
My mom just kept a running tab with the orthopedic doctor in the medical building she worked in!
Well, anyway… what do they do when you break a wrist or arm after they set it? They put a cast on it. What does that cast do? (Besides make you itch uncontrollably!) It keeps you from moving the joint. They call it immobilizing it.
The first break on my wrist was a bad one. If I remember human anatomy class, the radius is the bone on the thumb side of the arm, it was broken and sticking up. The ulna was split near the full length of it almost to the elbow.
They set it, then put a cast on it with my elbow bent to 90@ and the hand bent down, like this. Now, I’ve slept once or twice since 8th or 9th grade when the break occurred, but I think they had me in a cast for something like 4 months if I recall correctly. I do remember being disappointed when he cut it off, x-rayed it, then told me he had to put a new cast on it for another month because it still wasn’t healed well enough.
Anyway, when he finally cut it off my arm looked really weird! It was tiny… like really skinny. Then he said, go ahead, straighten it out. I had to really work hard to do it, then when I relaxed it sprang back to the bent position.
It’s called atrophy. The muscle had severely weakened because of lack of use. I had to carry around a ball and squeeze it a lot to build my muscles back up and strengthen it.
The same thing happens when we don’t exercise our faith. See, one component of faith is confidence that God will take care of me because He always has before.
BUT, if I do it myself, I develop confidence in MY ability to do it, but then when I CAN’T and I need God to be there for me, I don’t have the same confidence that He will catch me, because I’ve not allowed Him to prove to me that He can and will! My faith is weaker because I haven’t trusted Him.
Whenever you face trials, anxiety seems to be stuck to you like your best friend and maybe that’s true for you right now.
When you wake up in the morning, is it doubt that stares you in the face when you look in the mirror? Or do you rise with a song of God in your heart knowing that whatever happens – whatever the day, the year, whatever your life may bring – God is the One Who controls it all.
Joshua 1:9 says : “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (NIV)
Isaiah 12:2 reads: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” (RSV)
The Apostle Paul acknowledged all the troubles he faced in life, but he says that the Lord rescued him in all of them.
It doesn’t matter whatever you’re going through, if you hold on to God and His Word, He will save you.
Paul came face to face with death many times but he had peace because he knew that he had a crown of righteousness waiting on him. He didn’t give up his “good fight of faith” for the Lord because he knew that God’s grace was always sufficient for him.
One last thought to take home with you today…
Paul realized what we all must acknowledge; suffering and trials of this life are ALL temporary. They will and do come to an end. What does not end is the glory and love of God for you. That remains for eternity.
And the truth is, you can’t gain any of this if you are looking to self-help anything. You cannot look inside yourself to find strength and inner peace. You can twist yourself into the shape of a pretzel, stick your head under your underarm and chant… for me it would be more of a moan from pain… but whatever you try… All the meditation, yoga, eastern mystical chants to focus your inner chi… or whatever you try… it is all powerless! It can’t bring you real peace!
Only Jesus can give you the Peace that passes all understanding, because He is the Prince of Peace. Only He can give you the path to be born again and to become spotless. Only He can bring the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and only through Him can you become cleansed, justified and born again – by His strength!
CLOSING
Psalm 118:6: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Some material derived from the message “When I Am Weak”, submitted to Sermon Central by Kenneth Sauer
