Trust Me!

Text: John 6:22-34

Focus: Our life is in Jesus

Function: To help the congregation trust Jesus.

Form: Bible study narrative

Intro:

Thank you Jessie and Karen for opening up the feeding of the 5,000 last week.

In the gospel of John, the feeding of the 5,000 introduces, through an highly symbolic miracle, some deep spiritual truths.

We are going to spend 4 weeks in this one chapter in the book of John. I hope by then, the meaning of communion is much more real to you all.

At the core of today's passage is a question. It appears that Jesus questions the intent, the motivation, of His followers.

“Are you following me to get your bellies filled?” He asks.

Is God a genie in a bottle whom we call upon whenever we are in trouble and do we ignore Him the rest of the time?

Jesus isn't quite accusing them of that, but He is asking them the question. He wants them to be thinking.

Remember, John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin and most probably, Jesus childhood friend has just been killed by Herod.

Jesus had left the crowds to go to the mounting for some “me” time. A lesson in itself that even Jesus took time to care for Himself.

But He is interrupted. The crowd follows him to the dessert to listen to His teaching.

You caught that, didn't you?

Their first motivation was born out of spiritual hunger for spiritual truth.

They were in the wilderness with Jesus to hear the Word of God explained to them.

And they got hungry.

In their search for spiritual truth, their physical needs became apparent and Jesus meets their physical needs with the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.

Then Jesus takes His “me” time and goes off onto the mountain to pray.

He sends the disciples ahead in a boat to the other side of the lake.

He walks on water, and saves the disciples by calming the storm.

The crowd wakes up and finds that Jesus is gone.

So, they find him on the other side of the lake and Jesus asks them to think about why they are now following Him.

He stops short of telling them: “you chased me across this lake to fill your bellies.” But He wants them pondering.

In the context of the question: “Why are you following me?” Jesus launches some of the deepest and most symbolic teaching in the New Testament.

In doing so, Jesus sets the stage for one of the most important ordinances practiced by the Church, the sharing of the bread and the wine.

In this chapter, and in Chapter 8, Jesus makes some very strong claims to the fact that Jesus is Emmanuel. He is God with humanity. God in our midst. The Creator has left heaven to walk among His creation.

In Jesus' response we learn something about God. God isn't some mean ogre who cannot wait for His children to do wrong so that He can punish them. No, He is the source of their life.

God really is the source of our life. (repeat)

And that is the first deeply symbolic lesson taught in this chapter.

And you know this.

It may seem like a simple lesson. I know it is one of the things that we say to each other. Good religious folks make that statement because they know they should, but the question can be, do we really believe it to be true?

I believe that this is why Jesus asks the question: “why are you following Me?”

Saying “God really is the source of my life” and meaning it are two different things.

Are we, or is God, the master of our lives? Is God the master of our destiny?

Do we live in fear that we will fail, or die without having enough? Or do we live in faith that the One who created us, the One who gave all for us will indeed supply our needs?

Do we trust Jesus with everything?

And most importantly, do we trust in His grace?

By feeding the people food, while they were seeking spiritual truth, Jesus demonstrates to them that in Him, all of our lives are complete.

Jesus loves us Spirit, Soul, Mind and body and His salvation is holistic, it is for the entire man, woman and child.

In the wilderness, when tempted by the Devil to turn stones into bread, Jesus answers with Moses sermon from Deuteronomy 8: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God's mouth."

He meant that. We live in God.

Paul, when he is defending the faith to the Athenian Greeks tells them: “In God we live, and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

Jesus, when He was teaching about faith in the Sermon on the Mount tells His followers that we should not worry, we should not live in fear about anything. He tells them: “Worldly people focus on what to wear, where to live, what to eat, but we should seek first God's kingdom and all of those needs will be given to us.” (Matthew 6:33)

Paul, in telling Timothy how to preach when he is leading his church tells him to preach to the rich that their riches are meaningless compared to the eternal life that God has given them. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

And we teach and preach that. We assent to this truth. But Jesus' question gets right to the heart. Do we really believe it?

Do we overcome the natural human tendency to greed with our faith?

Are we still afraid of the future? Or do we trust God?

I believe that Jesus knows in His heart that these people really are excited about grace, about this teaching that Jesus has that includes everyone, sinners as well as highly religious folks.

For the crowd, finally, someone is making sense to them and they are hungry for these spiritual truths.

And He uses this opportunity drive home this very important concept: All of our lives are bound up in God.

Remember, this isn't just some Rabbi doing his weekly chore. This is God, the Creator, Emmanuel, with His people. He came to heal and restore them.

God means it.

And again, we have this problem of separating the spiritual and the secular.

We can tell ourselves, “okay, I believe that God is God of everything.” But, when it comes to taking a step in faith, maybe giving to a project for the Church, or for some mission, and the money for the gift is money that we would have wanted to use for something else, we may hold back.

Or maybe, when it comes to forgiving someone without condition, we hold back because we want revenge. We aren't trusting God with our lives when we do that.

When Jesus stood before the temple with the disciples, Rich people were giving fortunes to the treasury. Some of them were very vocal and visible with their gifts. And a widow gave 2 tenths of a penny, all the money she had to live on. Jesus said that her gift was bigger than anyone else's. (Luke 21:1-3)

She believed that our lives are held securely in the hand of God.

The rich were giving out of their abundance, their excess, she was giving by faith. The rich were still protecting their own wealth, but she gave all she had to live on.

Jesus is telling them, “walk by faith, and your needs will be met.”

We cant separate the secular from the spiritual.

Jesus is speaking of eternal life and The people are impressed and excited.

“What can we do to get this heavenly food?” They ask.

And again, Jesus tells them to walk by faith, don't fight and strive for the physical food and God will provide.

“Well, how?” They ask. (What works must we do?)

Their question ignores Grace. It ignores God's free gift. They want to know how to earn it for themselves.

Jesus again tells them: Believe in Me.

The word believe is translated “Trust” as much as it is translated “believe.”

“Place your trust in Me,” Jesus answers.

“Trust Me” Jesus says.

And then they ask a bold question: “prove yourself to us.”

They refer to Moses proving his leadership by giving them Manna from heaven.

Jesus corrects them, God gave you the manna, not Moses.

He is explaining to them that they are still missing the point.

When we live by faith, if necessary, God can send food from heaven to provide for us.

Jesus clearly tells them, in God we live.

Jesus is the bread. In Him we live.

But notice what the crowd is doing. They do what we all do.

Their question: “what work can we do to get this eternal food?”

Jesus doesn't tell them to go to church, read their bible, tithe their money, pray, fast or anything. He tells them simple: “trust in me.”

Trust me in everything. We cannot earn this salvation. We don't have to fear about tomorrow. Live by faith.

And I love their final request: “Sir, give us this bread always.”

It appears that they are beginning to understand.

Jesus is the source of life.

Let us wrap this up.

Jesus is the source of life, all life. We do not need to fear. We do not need to fear failure, poverty, and indignation. Trust God.

We say it. Jesus wants us to believe it.

Home at Last

Text: Ephesians 2:19-22

Focus: The inclusive nature of the Church

Function: To help people remember that the Church is made up of many parts.

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

I am still moved by a Church sign I saw 20+ years ago outside of Turkey Run State Park in Southern Indiana. I have mentioned it before, but what I saw there has become sort of a “what not to do” image for me.

The Sign read:

Independent ______ Church
Pre-Millennial
Pre-Tribulational
Dispensational
King James Only

I am sure you get the last one; I don't care if you get the first three; they refer to subsets of doctrines within Christianity.

I don't know if they were saying that when they teach, this is the perspective, the lenses by which they interpret theology, or if they were saying that the only real truth, the only people who were going to be welcome were the people who agreed with every point of their own understanding.

That is much different that they way one translation puts those first few verses: “You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building”

Paul is telling us that when we are in the presence of God, we are Home at Last.

The Church, the temple of God is a place of welcome. Everyone who wants to come in gets a place here.

Once inside, God continues the work of transformation.

I have a pastor friend who is getting very political on his Facebook page.

He doesn't like the current administration and he is vocal about it, to the point where all of a sudden he has lost his ability to speak his mind in a kind way.

There are a lot of mean things said by the news pundits. But all of that kind of rhetoric is not the language of Christians. Especially Christian leaders.

I sent him a note asking him if someone with a different political viewpoint was welcome in his Church.

Paul is talking about the welcome to everyone in the Church. We know of its welcome because it is built on Jesus and the way He welcomed sinners, sinners like me.

But, drawing lines in the sand is human nature. We want to believe that our own beliefs are reasonable and defensible.

But the thing is, sometimes people reach opposite conclusions with as much integrity and sincerity as those who have different views.

Who is welcome in the Church?

What political party is welcome in the Church?

Which viewpoint of the end times, or prophecy, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the copy of scripture that we use, the style of music that we use and the list goes on is the correct one?

In all of these things, what is worth fighting over and what isn't?

Let us go back to our text, because it speaks about the inclusive nature of the Church.

Sometimes, when I am doing Bible study in a specific passage, I like to start with the conclusion first, and then follow the logical steps that gets us there.

So, in our passage, verse 21 states:

We (point to chest), the people, are the temple, the place where God dwells on earth.

People ask the question: Why the Church? Why is the Church still here on earth? We are the place in which God dwells.

Remember, the Church is not the building, it is the people.

When we leave this building, the Temple of God leaves this building and goes out among the world.

I can show you a picture of the US Capitol, the Taj Mahal, the Parthenon in Greece, the Coliseum in Rome and the Bear Creek Church of the Brethren and most likely, by sight, you would recognize the building.

In the same manner, we are this temple, that represents Jesus to this world.

And just as the US Capitol building represents something, so also, the temple is a symbolic design that represents a place where people can come and find rest and healing in God.

And in an important way, that is our point, our purpose.

Verse 19-20 speaks to the process whereby we get to this temple and it uses the metaphor of construction.

The temple is the Body of Christ, the people, the believers.

The foundation of a building supports a building.

It is the prophets and the apostles. It is God's Word, the prophets who in the Old Testament called out error and reminded the believers of their purpose. They also foretold the future, especially what it will mean when Jesus comes.

The apostles, along with the prophets, wrote the scripture down for us.

We preach those words here.

The foundation is the Word of God.

And a foundation starts with a cornerstone.

We have one outside, it has recorded the original date, and the date for the major addition.

But back in the day, when tape measures and laser devices with a reliable standard of measurement weren't available, the cornerstone also provided an accurate measure of what each dimension represented.

Because standardization was not as easily done, the cornerstone was the pattern that defined every other measurement.

The Cornerstone is Jesus. He is the standard by which we measure everything else.

This is a beautiful and symbolic description of the Church:

• Here, people are home at last
• It is made up of people, not bricks and mortar.
• It's principles are based on the Revelation of the Prophets and the Apostles, God's word.
• And at the center of everything is Jesus Christ.

So, let us go to verse 22.

This building is spiritually knit together.

We are spiritually knit together.

But that doesn't look like the case when I mention that sign, or when politics get involved. During the Civil war, both sides believed that they were working under some sort of divine mandate. The North believed that they were working to free the slaves, the South believed that they were working to preserve the individual autonomy of the states.

And they started killing each other over it.

But we are spiritually knit together.

That does not sound like warfare.

“Knit together” speaks of an interdependence upon each other.

Indeed it is. In 1 Corinthians 12, brother Paul speaks about this body and tells us that if one member cuts itself off from the body because the other part of the body has a different function, or a different perspective, it will die and the body will suffer.

We are spiritually knit together.

This is a place where we live and depend upon each other.

I love the first text we read together: Romans 10:9-13

In one sense, Brother Paul gives a formula for the prayer of faith, the prayer of salvation.

He says that If you believe and you confess you will be saved.

With the heart one believes, we spoke of it last week when we spoke of seeing with spiritual eyes. When a person believes, they are made right with God. And then, it overwhelms the heart, and they confess it with their mouths, and then they are saved.

But a formula is not what Paul was after. Because the very next verse he makes it more simple: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Everyone.

We assume that “calling on the name of the Lord” is some sort of prayer, or request, for God's help.

I am positive it does not refer to taking the name of the Lord in vain.

We assume that it is some sort of statement of faith.

And then it starts to get pretty tricky.

I have met some pretty big scoundrels who called on the name of the Lord, but there just didn't seem to be anything like the behavior of Jesus in their lives. They lived selfish existences and did not care for their fellow man.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 and 25 that there will be many who come to Him, some of them even preaching and healing in His name, and He will say that He never knew them. And it was because they did not love their neighbor as themselves.

So, just exactly where is this line between saved and lost?

Does it go all the way back to that Church in Indiana that had it so narrowly defined that only an handful of their neighbors would have believed exactly like them? And were they more concerned about proving their doctrine to be better than others than bringing people to Jesus?

And here am I, making a critical statement while our text is telling us that we are spiritually knit together.

A pastor friend of mine back in Pennsylvania had some people in his church who were gifted, and licensed counselors and marriage therapists.

So, based on their gifts, they began a counseling ministry that grew quickly.

They did a lot of “marriage” counseling for couples who were living together.

And some of them came to Jesus and wanted to join the church.

His elders took exception to them because they were living in sin.

It caused problems and eventually the pastor was forced to leave the Church.

This starts getting messy. Who is in and who is out?

Go back to that image of the Temple. That building with a symbolic design that calls people back to God.

You wonder if it is a building with bars over the windows and doors to keep people out, or a pavilion that is open, a place of beauty where people can come in and find rest and healing for their souls

At exactly the same time, I had another preacher friend who was the “head chaplain” of us three Police Chaplains.

Police work isn't easy. It is tough on marriages. The acting captain had a bad divorce. He was living with his girlfriend, and they needed some relationship counseling.

This other friend gave it without any judgment and had the support of his elders.

The Chief and his girlfriend were baptized. No one said a word of judgment.

Three years later, they were married. God did it in His time.

The one church wouldn't tolerate “sinners,” the other Church let God heal in His time.

How diverse is the Church?

How welcome are sinners?

How welcome are saints?

I love Charles Wesley, as he was organizing an entire denomination, the Methodists. There were, as always, conflicts and he kept things simple with three rules that he heard from an Old Moravian Preacher:

In the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials, diversity, and in all things: Love.

We see that listed in our passage, the building has a cornerstone, a template, a measuring device for what the essentials are: Jesus is the Essential, the cornerstone.

It has a foundation, some of the things that are non-essential, scriptures that have various meanings that can only be applied to specific situations, and we have records of different applications in the way the apostles had different emphasis in their ministries. The foundation is the scripture, The prophets and the Apostles, and all though they all agree on the cornerstone, Jesus, specific applications vary.

That does not mean the Bible has errors and inconsistencies. It is God's word and it is reliable.

As varied as the gifts, genders, upbringings, status and personalities, different men and women had different passions.

In those things, we must have a commitment to diversity.

God made us different in order to get more things done and to reach more people.

It proves that Jesus truly is central and it proves that we really can love each other.

That is the only way we can be spiritually knit together.

We must not forget that we are God's dwelling place in this world. We are the building that people who need God's healing have to come to.

We will keep to the essentials when we keep focused on Jesus.

Love Wins

Text: Ephesians 1:15-23

Focus: Discernment

Function: To help people see things from a Biblical perspective

Form:

Intro: I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker last week. I don't know his full story, but I guess that he spent some time in Seminary.

We were talking about the bible and the many ways it is, and can be, interpreted.

He said: “People point to passages of scripture and then use them to justify whatever they want to believe.”

He listed and example. 2 Corinthians 6:14. In the King James it says “Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers...” The Bible says that partnership, and I believe it is talking business partnership, between people who live by Biblical value of making sure that business is win/win should not be business partners with people who have the ethic that it doesn't make a difference if a transaction harms the other person.

That is the way I interpret the passage.

He cited that the same passage was used to first deny inter-racial worship, and then to deny inter-racial marriage.

He was misquoting passage, obviously because he must have first heard it that way because he was saying “I have always heard that the bible says people of different races cannot sleep together.”

Now that passage has nothing to do with interracial anything. But he heard it that way.

But he was telling me how shocked he was when someone came to him and said, that it means men can only sleep with men and women with women.

Churches all over the country are having fights about Homosexual rights.

I refuse to get into the politics around it, but something sad is happening in the process.

People are bashing each other over the heads with metaphorical biblical hammers.

If we take to heart the meaning of today's text, perhaps we won't be caught up in bickering that goes on.

This passage of scripture is indeed about discerning God's will from the scripture.

This is his prayer for them: ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,

I believe that first and foremost in the mind of God is God's hope that people will know Him.

God created us to be His children. God created all of humanity to bring them all into His family.

God gave us the Bible so that we can know Him. God gave us the bible so that we can know what He wants for us.

Listen to how he explains it, from the text: ¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,

I think that phrase “With the eyes of your heart enlightened....” is a beautiful way to say the process by which God makes known to us His will and His word.

Seeing with the eyes of our heart:

According to Genesis, both men and women are made in the image of God. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is a Soul, God the Father, a Body, God the Son and a Spirit, God the Holy Spirit.

Oftentimes the phrase Spirit/Soul are both used to refer us to the heart, the inner being, the spiritual person, that part of of that lives forever and communes with all that is around us.

So, when he speaks of “the eyes of our heart...” he is telling us to have, or take on, a spiritual understanding of this world.

I had a parishioner who was a research scientist at Penn State University.

One day he told me of an article in the science journal:“Scientific American.” The article was written in the mid 1990's and it was about how spiritual scientists were becoming.

It was a form of a prediction of the shift in culture from Modernity to Post-modernity.

Science is great. I love it and believe in it. But it doesn't give us all the answers. We can make an Nuclear bomb, but should we use it?

Science can make it, but can it help us discern whether or not we should?

Brother Paul is appealing to the spiritual side of people and asking them to look inside, to their guts, where the Spirit of man and God resides and then they should make their decisions.

And let us go back to verse 17, God's desire is for us to be in relationship with Him.

So, if our spiritual eyes are opened, enlightened, then it will always leads us into the grace, nurture, love, mercy and forgiveness that is inherent in the family of God.

Walter, the man we spoke about last week thanks you for your prayers. He told me that what I said about him was awesome and he was glad that he wasn't judged for having his opinion.

God is a big boy and He would rather have honest and sincere questions than platitudes that don't quite cut it.

I mention that to mention another co-worker who got a bible application for her smart phone.

One day, out of the blue she blurts out: “Phil, God's word is so alive, so beautiful, so wonderful!” “Every time I read it, it jumps out at me, like it is speaking directly to me.” That is what it means to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened.

So, I am going to ask you to open your bibles here and help me list off just exactly what we are able to see with our spiritual eyes:

Let me do an exercise with you. I want you to shut your eyes while I read verses 18,19.

With your eyes shut, I want you to look at these verses with your spiritual eyes.

I will read them, and I want you to list off whatever word or phrase seems to strike you.

Let us discuss that:

Verse 18: Hope, Riches of his inheritance. What does that mean?

Verse 19: Immeasurable greatness of His power. What does that mean?
-How great is immeasurable? (as great as He is).

Now, let me read verses 20-23.

What sticks out to you?

I want us to notice something.

I hinted at the beginning of the message that the Bible can be misused and twisted for someone's own purpose.

I hope that I am not guilty of it, but we all of us are after all, only human.

What I notice the most about this passage is the appeal to Jesus Christ and His sacrificial love for us.

I believe that the treasure that our Pastor, Paul is speaking of is Christ's great power to forgive us.

Romans 8 tells us this: Who can bring any charge against us? What charges can stand against the love of Christ?

Who is the Devil to accuse us when God is the one who defends us?

Whatever charge brought against us has to be more powerful than God. And since God is the creator of everything, what charge can stand?

NONE!

God choose to leave out a lot in this passage. And what seems the most blaring to me is any mention of anyone's sin.

So why would people use the Bible to condemn another?

Do they understand the power of grace?

And the sad thing is, the people who seem to do it the most are those who claim to know God the most.

Jesus tells a story about those who would judge others in Luke 15.

Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son who does a despicable thing, walks away from the Father's love, care and protection. Squanders his share of his father's fortune and realizes that he has erred. He has sinned.

When he comes back to the father, he wants to return as a slave, at least that way he could eat.

Apparently his father took good care of his slaves, and he took better care of his sons.

He calls himself a slave. But the father calls him a son.

This is the problem, as we have mentioned, with shame. It tells us that we are not worthy.

And it is the problem with pride, because we can look at this kid as a lazy bum and judge him.

But neither of those opinions take into account the love of the Father.

The boy had the eyes of his heart enlightened and he saw the tremendous power of forgiveness given to him by God.

The parable goes on the tell of the elder brother. And Jesus gives this parable to try to open the spiritual eyes of the religious leaders.

The elder brother was jealous. He told his father that he was treated like a slave. He believed his own story.

He was angry about the Father's grace toward his brother who seemed worthless.

Now, the younger brother has the eyes of his heart opened by the Love of God. His problem, he believed was his badness.

The elder brother had a problem as well. And that problem was what he believed to be his own goodness.*

He believes that he, compared to his brother, deserves to be the son.

He started whining and complaining. Dad, you never even gave me a goat, or let me have a party with my friends, but this worthless brother of mine returns after insulting you and you throw him a party!

It is like a dam has opened up inside of him, things he wanted to say for a long time came rushing out in his anger.

The younger brother's sins have separated him from the Father.

The elder brothers pride, self-righteousness have separated him from the father.

But look at the Father's reaction:

And the father could have been angry.

But instead the father says, “all that I have is yours...”

You are my son.

His father refused to be hurt or retaliate. He just loved on that elder brother.

He wasn't God's son because of his goodness, neither are we. We are God's sons and daughters because of God's love.

That is the power of forgiveness.

Remember, verse 17, God wants everyone, everyone in his family.

And that is why, instead of mentioning other people's sins, or his own faithfulness, Paul points people to Jesus, to the Cross, to the visible proof and demonstration of God's love for all of humanity.

We can't use the bible as a club, and we cannot dismiss its claims as irrelevant.

Because in all of this, God is bringing us back into His family.

*The dialectic between believing in his goodness and believing in his badness, as well as the title for the sermon comes from Rob Bell's book: Love Wins

CONCL:

Let God Be God

Text: 2Corinthians 7:7b-10

Focus: Grace

Function: Grace overcomes our shameful past.

Form: GOK

Intro:

The story is told of a young preacher, a gifted intellectual, who graduated top of his class in Seminary. He knew a lot, but as the story goes, he spent more time proving what he “knew” and “had learned” than he did praying and discerning God's will for his congregation.

He was busy in the work of the church, but lacking in discerning the Holy Spirit.

One day, he stepped into the pulpit to preach with a perfect thesis, three points to support and an excellent grasp of the theology behind his scripture text.

And God loved him. God loved him enough to let his mind get confused. Somehow his notes no longer made sense. He broke out in a sweat and before 10 minutes was up, he was ready to crawl into a hole and cry.

A wise old parishioner, who recognized the pitfall of pride, said to him: “If you had went into that pulpit with the same humility that you had leaving it, you might have succeeded.”

Pride. It will get you every time.

Some lessons are hard to learn.

Our pride gets in the way.

And, as I mentioned, God loved that preacher, so he let his tongue get tied in order to teach him a lesson of humility.

Brother Paul had the same experience.

Paul saw God do a lot of good through him.

He prayed, and the dead were raised. He prayed and prison doors were opened. He prayed and the blind received their sight. On at least one occasion, he was stoned to death, died, carried to heaven by the angels, had one of those special revelations like we read about in the book 90 minutes in heaven, or “heaven is for real.” Another time, a poisonous snake bit him and he just shook it off.

The miraculous way that God worked in him was pretty incredible.

I don't know about you, but if all that was happening to me, I might start to get a big head.

But God loved Paul, just like God loves us.

And to keep him from getting a big head, the bible says that he got a “thorn in the flesh.”

He had a problem. A messenger of Satan. It may have been the sort of problem that other people noticed and criticized for, or, it may have been something that was known between only God and him that would have devastated him if others were aware.

We don't know what it was.

Many people believe that it was a continuing problem with poor eyesight. (Gal 4:15) Others believe that it was a struggle with some sort of sin that he couldn't get the victory over. (Provided Paul wrote Hebrews. Hebrews 12:1)

Others have even said that it might have been the scandal of a divorce in his past.

I am glad it isn't defined, because every one of us, in one area or another, has areas we struggle in and we wonder why we continue to face certain issues.

Last week we saw how shame keeps us down. I said that shame is Satanic. And I base that on this weeks text.

This is in context. But these passages are no about shame, these passages fit together to tell the story of Grace.

And here is this great leader telling us how throughout the course of his ministry, he is facing something that keeps on reminding him that God is God, and he isn't.

He is reminded by this trial that he keeps on having.

He is reminded that although he may be seen by some to be a superstar apostle, when it all boils down, the only thing that has made him a success is God working in him.

Listen, Satan knows how to keep us down. In Revelations 12, he is referred to as “The Liar... ...The one who has deceived people from the beginning...” and “...The the accuser of the Brethren...”

His job is to accuse. And he does it by lying. Oh, it may feel true to us, or to others, but it is always a lie because it does not take into account the loving grace of God.

It is a lie. Just as Satan lied to Eve and Adam and told them that they will not die if they rebel against God, he lies and tells us of how far short we fall.

John 8:44 tells us that Satan is a liar from the beginning and that he is the father of lies. It is his nature.

We have to remind ourselves that shame is from the Devil, the father of lies. Let us unpack that.

I have a co worker who thinks a lot about this. (Introduce Walter if he is here... ...If he isn't let them know that I wrote this with his permission.) He wonders if God can forgive him for the things that he was ordered to do as a soldier in Afghanistan. He's like me: desperate for salvation. He knows it.

Last Sunday, we got into a discussion. He was defending the devil. He wonders if it is fair that the devil gets all the blame when God created him with the ability to create evil.

He asks honest questions. Some of the questions can only be answered with an appeal to God's love and mercy.

He wonders: If Satan is God's pawn in the great scheme of things, is it fair for God to judge him?

God, not being evil, did not create evil, but gave Lucifer, Satan, the ability to create it.

Now think about the world's first lie. Before Adam and Eve rebelled, the only thing they knew was purity and good. If they made a choice, it was between two good things.

They never had the dilemma of choosing the lesser of two evils, like should a woman remain in an abusive relationship?

But when their eyes were opened, they now had the sorrow of the choice between good and evil.

Satan promised them they would gain and be wise like God.

But when their eyes were opened, the only thing they gained was a perception and experience of evil.

How sad.

Their son murdered his own brother and eventually, they died. It is sad.

The only thing they gained from their rebellion was death and destruction.

And it all came from a lie.

And the devil is still lying.

He likes to destroy.

My friend is desperate for the peace that comes from knowing his sins are forgiven.

Christians have a had time believing grace because it seems too good to be true to us.

(If he isn't here) Pray for him. (If he is here) Welcome him as someone just like us. People who need grace. I imagine that (IF he isn't here) he (If he is here look at him) you is/are thinking, there are mothers without children, wives without husbands, fathers without families and children without parents who are crying out to God for some sort of justice on their behalf because of what he was ordered to do in a war.

He blames war, or his commander. I imagine that he wants to defend the devil because God may have created the devil with the ability to create evil. And in that sense, God allowed evil to come into existence. And, if God didn't stop it, how can God be fair in His judgment of Satan?

These are deep questions that I have no real answer for.

So why mention them?

Because God boils it all down for Paul in His answer to Paul: MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU...

But I know this, that in the final plan of things, the actions of God on behalf of humanity is Love working through God's grace, His mercy.

So here is Paul, with some sort of reminder of his own failures, his own weaknesses.

Paul wants this reminder to go away.

I think he started to get proud and God reminded him that pride was indeed the downfall of the Devil.

So, he has this thorn in the flesh, a constant reminder of his own imperfection.

I preached last week against shame and the difference between the hope that God gives us when He wants to set us free and the shame that the Devil uses to keep us in bondage.

This is all in context and that theme is continued here.

Until we get to heaven, there will always be reminders of our failures.

Brother Paul is calling out to God to be free from the reminder. “Lord,” he says, “remove this from me.”

God didn't remove it.

But remember where that reminder comes from.

It is not from God.

It came to him right from the source of evil itself. Satan. The Devil.

Whether you believe Satan is a personal being, or the embodiment of evil, the fact still remains, liberal or conservative, everyone agrees, evil is still in this world.

My friend got angry when I mentioned the devil because it all seems like a convenient little scapegoat to him.

But we admit that evil exists. He has been a part of it in a way that I thank God I have never had to witness.

Paul is aware of it.

And God is directing him to the remedy for evil.

Grace.

God's only answer was “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made manifest in your weakness.”

Whether that thorn in the flesh was a terrible regret from a past failure, a continuing sin that no matter how much he prayed about it, he still fought it, or a physical illness, in every one of those situations, he was reminded that it wasn't him saving himself. He still needed Jesus to save him.

We still need Jesus.

I suppose that is why some Church traditions share the bread and wine every week, it becomes a constant reminder to them that every single week, every single day, they need Jesus as much as the first day that they called on Him for salvation.

This thorn in the flesh keeps us from the sin of self-righteousness.

Paul, if he let his head get into, had become a super Christian. And if one gets proud, the glory goes from God to a man.

God doesn't want his ministers to be worshiped.

God wants them to be respected, but no more than anyone else.

I see the danger that Paul is facing in his own Spiritual journey.

It would be possible for him to compare his own level of commitment to those around him.

He was born in wealth, educated in the finest schools and had proved himself to be a relentless pursuer of the law.

He was the head of the first Gentile church. Because of him, there were hundreds of Christian congregations across the entire Roman Empire.

When he prayed, he got results. It may have seemed to him that he was able to get better results than others.

And having gone that far, he could begin to believe the praise that others were giving him.

Gods loves Him, so God keeps him humble. God keeps him in a place where he is reminded that except for God, he was no better than any other Christian out there.

It was God at work in him, not his ability.

Paul preached and practiced faith. So what happens when the preacher of faith who tells people to trust God for a miracle has a problem that he cannot overcome by faith himself?

Some people would understand, love and support him. People who were jealous of him, but full of integrity might wonder to themselves if he really was so mighty in faith if he has his own problems.

His enemies, or enemies of the faith will downright mock him.

On one level he preached faith, and yet had some sort of continuing problem that he couldn't overcome.

He realizes something that I wish I could remember every single day.

God said to Paul, “I am not afraid of OUR success, Paul, even though you are weak. Because although you are the center of the attention at times, it is me at work.”

In God's perspective, the weaker we are, the greater God becomes.

We can listen to the Devil's lies, his whispers in our ears of shame, and criticize ourselves and lose hope and focus. We can listen to the criticism of others and lose hope or focus.

Where does criticism come from? It comes from the devil, the accuser of the Church.

It is true, we are far from perfect.

But we are God's.

And God doesn't see our imperfections. God sees what can, will, and does happen when His power works in us.

Grace is indeed enough.

And that is right where we are at.

You don't have to be super Christians to succeed. God is at work. We don't have to be an huge mega-church to prove that we are successful, God is at work.

When we are weak, God is strong. The smaller we are, the more we depend on God.

His grace is all we need.