July 22, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.
Memory is a funny thing! It never seems to be nearly as reliable as we
think it should be. For example, two
hours from now, what I remember about what happened in church may be completely
different than what you remember. In
fact, if you and your husband, or your wife, or your children should decide to
discuss the sermon as you are eating lunch today, I guarantee that each and
every one of you would remember the sermon differently. You would remember it differently because each
one of you would remember the things that specifically spoke to you, or moved
you in one way or another. You may even
find that while you remember a specific sentence, your husband, your wife, or
even your children may not remember that sentence, but will remember the
sentence spoken immediately before it or after it, while you, yourself will
have no memory of either of those sentences!
What is it about our memory that makes it so easy for us to remember
some things and not others? What is it
about our memory that allows us to forget almost all of the bad things that
happened in our lives when we are enjoying good times, but at the same time
does not allow us to remember many of the good times when we are living in
troubled times? Though I could easily
spend a whole sermon simply trying to answer those questions, you have not come
here to learn about your memory! Rather,
you have gathered here today to be reminded of God’s grace and how he lavishes
it on you, especially in troubled times.
Now, if there was one person who was intimately familiar
with God’s grace, it was the Apostle Paul.
After all, through the pages of the Scriptures, we have been privileged
to see exactly how the hand of the Lord was at work in Paul’s life. Though we met him as Saul, the man who stood
watching over the cloaks of the men who were murdering Stephen, and giving
approval to their actions, not much later, we saw the Lord Jesus at work in
Saul’s life, granting him grace, calling him to faith, and sending him out into
the world to preach the Gospel to all nations.
Though there were many times and many ways that Paul saw the Lord at
work revealing his grace even in times of trouble, Paul relates a very
unexpected way in which he was reminded of the Lord’s grace as the Lord’s hand
was at work in Paul’s life. Paul writes,
“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. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9
But 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 about my
weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s
sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians
12:7–10, NIV84)
To keep Paul from becoming conceited because of the
incredible visions the Lord had given him, the Lord’s hand was at work in
Paul’s life, sending Paul a messenger of satan to torment him. Though Paul prayed to the Lord and pleaded
with the Lord that the Lord would remove this thorn from his side, the Lord’s
answer was simple, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Though it may seem strange that the Lord our
God would work in this manner, by giving this thorn, the Lord was causing Paul
to continue looking to the Lord for help so that the Lord might continue to
remind Paul of the grace he lavishes on his people, especially in times of
trouble like we are facing today!
After all, what hardships aren’t we facing
today? Well, we are living in a world
where sin has become the accepted norm.
Christian values have been set aside as old fashioned and out dated,
just like Amos faced when no one wanted to hear the message of God’s judgment
upon Israel. Sadly, like it was in the
days of Amos the prophet, God’s Word has become an inconvenient truth that must
be changed into a message of soft platitudes that will serve as salve to many
an itching ear. Not only that, but it is
becoming acceptable and even expected that children as young as fourth and
fifth grade will begin to explore their own sexuality, and begin to discover if
their attractions lie with the similar or the opposite sex. It has become expected that teens and college
students will have multiple partners until they finally settle down by moving
in with someone, bring children into the relationship, and then maybe after a
long, drawn out trial period, they might finally decide that they should get
married. Even though, in many cases
they, have taught that this is not pleasing to the Lord.
We are living in a nation where over 38 million
unborn children were legally murdered in our country between 1973 and 2005 ,
not to mention the millions that were legally murdered in countries all around
the world. Add to that the children
whose lives are being terminated because pre-natal screening has determined
that there is a good chance that they will be born with Down’s syndrome or some
other birth defect. Not only is that,
but assisted suicide, which has been accepted in many other nations around the
world, beginning to be accepted here in America, as both Washington State and
Oregon have laws allowing assisted suicide.
From this it is easy to wonder how long it will be until assisted
suicide becomes mandatory for those with certain injuries, diseases, defects,
or even for those who have reached a certain age. All the while God’s Word goes unheeded and
those who speak out against these things are simply disregarded.
Not only that, but we are facing a global recession
that some say is shortly coming to an end, others say has a way to go before it
is over, and still others are predicting will become a world wide depression in
the next year or two. We are living in a
country that is no longer united like it used to be, but is divided over so
many issues—the war, the economy, governmental spending, political ideology,
even religion and sexuality—as God and same sex rights have been the subject of
many court battles. Add to that the
politically charged topic of same sex marriage, which is on the ballot this
November, and all the advertisement seeking to make Christians feel that they
cannot and should not stand up for the truth of God’s Word.
Yet, besides all this, what other thorn do you have
poking in your side? Do you have a
difficult time controlling your temper?
Do you struggle to control your alcohol intake? Do you suffer from depression? Are you dealing with a medical
condition? Do you feel alienated from
all your friends or your family? Are you
unemployed? Are you struggling
financially? Are you experiencing a
major change in your life right now? Are
you enduring something else, something unusual, something unexpected, something
out of the ordinary? Then listen again
to what Paul has to tell you, “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. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to
take it away from me. 9 But 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is
why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in
persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2
Corinthians 12:7–10, NIV84)
Though dealing with a thorn in the flesh is never a
fun experience, it is something which the Lord places in our lives to remind us
of his all sufficient grace. It is
something that the Lord does to force us to take our eyes off ourselves, point
them heaven ward, fall to our knees and open our mouths in prayer. It is in this way that the Lord seeks to draw
us closer to himself even as he reminds us of the grace that he has lavished
upon us. For the grace our Lord has
lavished upon us is the full measure of grace in Christ Jesus our Savior! It is the grace that has been made perfect
even in our weaknesses! For, before we
were even weak, when we were nothing more than road kill on the highway to
hell, it was our Savior who found us and enlivened us with his love. It was our Savior who healed us with his
grace. It was our Savior who restored us
with the salve of his forgiveness and then led us of the highway of destruction
to the path of eternal life. It was our
Savior who continues to remind us of his grace and his love for us as he walks
beside us on the path to heaven. It is
our Savior who even assures us that no matter what we face in this life, though
we may feel weak, though we may even be weak, his power is made perfect in our
weakness, because his grace is sufficient for us!
So, even though we are living in a world that has
accepted sin as normal, disregarded Christian values, seeks to ignore God’s
Word, and simply refuses to listen to those who proclaim the truth, we will
continue to live in the grace of Christ our Savior. Though we are living in a world where we seem
weak when our children and others fail to heed parental and pastoral admonition
against sexual sins and living together before marriage, our strength to
continue proclaiming God’s truth comes to us from the grace he bestows upon us
by faith. Though very few people heed what
we have to say make known what the Lord has to say about abortion, and suicide,
God’s strength is made complete in our weakness as we follow his will and speak
his judgment against those who refuse to listen and his forgiveness to those
who turn to him in repentance. Though
there are many who are trying as hard as they can to eliminate God from every
aspect of our lives and even seeking to do away with those who clearly speak
God’s Word, we are still strong. We are
strong in the grace that our Savior has lavished upon us, the grace of the
forgiveness of sins; the grace, which assures us that our Savior will never
leave us nor forsake us; the grace that assures us that no matter what we face,
we belong to the Lord our God.
What greater reminder could the Lord give us today
than the reminder of his grace and his love for us! Though our memories might be selective at
times and our personal memories may not always agree with our husband’s memory,
our wife’s memory, or even our children’s, today we have been reminded and
assured of the Lord’s grace. For it is
through his grace that we are strong through faith in our Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
