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.