Eaten by Worms

 

Read Acts 10-12

In the second service, we will examine Acts 10, Peter’s vision, and his follow-up visit to Cornelius, the Roman centurion. This will bring to the forefront of your thinking some basic things you should consider as you live out your faith.

 For now, let’s follow Peter to a unique verse in the New Testament. Peter drew Herod’s attention. Herod had already put to death the apostle James, brother of John. The ruling Jews seemed to like it so he set his sights on Peter.

Peter was taken into custody and guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. That’s a hefty guard for one man. During the night Peter is rescued by an angel of the Lord. It’s quite the act of stealth, walking out right past the guards.

Unlike other prison accounts in the New Testament, these guards get what they all feared—a death sentence for letting their prisoner escape.

Herod didn’t find Peter in Judea so he went on to Caesarea and made a speech. During this speech, people hailed Herod as God. He didn’t deny it. God was watching.

The scripture says that an angel of the Lord struck down Herod. It doesn’t say that the Lord killed him. He struck him down, and then Herod was eaten by worms, then he died.

On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

Eaten by worms. There’s a Bible study that I could probably get some third and fourth-grade boys to attend. The men’s group might go for that one.

Eaten by worms. Really? How graphic was that? Was it all in 30 seconds, like in an Indiana Jones movie, or did he just lie where he was for a week, and the worms did their damage at their own pace?

Eaten by worms.  Did the janitor say, “I’m not cleaning that up.?”

Eaten by worms. Really, Tom, this is today’s scripture?

Think about it. I don’t preach scare the hell out of you sermons. I want you to come to know God through his Son by the message of love that we carry with us. They will know that we follow Jesus by our love.

But we should know that tomorrow is not promised.

We should know that all will stand before God, but only the believers have the blood of Jesus to protect them from God’s wrath on the wicked.

We should know that there is a consequence for rebelling against God.

This whole thing doesn’t work out well for those who cling to their wickedness.

We should know that heaven and hell are all real.

We should know this with absolute certainty. Your mission and commission are not only important but urgent.

God desires none to perish. He desires all to come to repentance and eternal life. Our part is to help others come to know this God of love.

The fact that tomorrow is not promised will not affect our eternal destination, but it should get us in gear for our present mission. It should create a sense of urgency.

So, do we anticipate being eaten by worms? Probably not, but at any given time, your heart may not go to the next beat. For you, only your geography changes.

At any given time, your neighbor’s heart may not go to the next beat. Have you done all that you need to do to share life in Christ Jesus with them?

We see people that we say we care about all the time. We see them at ball games and at Walmart. We see them at work and at school. We comment on their posts. We cross paths more times than we count.

Our destination is secured. But can we say, “Mission Accomplished!” when we get there? Did we share the gospel with everyone that we should have? Did we complete our mission?

Mark this on your calendars. Tom took the words eaten by worms and prompted you to share the good news. Yes, you get a discipleship challenge even out of eaten by worms.

Amen.

Food or People: There is No Dichotomy!

 

Read Acts 10

So, we dive into this single chapter of Acts and find Peter staying at the house of a tanner named Simon. These are not the ultimate accommodations. His host works with the skins of dead animals.

Peter can’t complain. He has a nice spot up on the roof.

Realize this is the same Peter who revealed Jesus was the Christ and the same one who told Jesus he wouldn’t let anyone harm him. Nobody was going to kill him. Deny him? Are you kidding me?

We know that Peter. We also must know the Peter who addressed hundreds, perhaps thousands, in his sermon on Pentecost. What we see at this time is Peter 2.0. He got the Holy Spirit upgrade, and he is spreading the word.

But for the moment, Peter is relaxed on the roof, so much so that he goes into a trance and sees a vision. It is a vision of foods that might have been regarded as unclean or common in the Hebrew faith.

He is told to get up, kill, and eat. His response was 100% the old Peter. Ain’t no way! Never done that before. Not starting now. Ain’t no way.

This was the Peter who told Jesus that he would not let them kill his Master, the same Peter who said there was no way Jesus was going to wash his feet, and the Peter who denied Jesus three times. This was Peter 1.0 in full operation.

God, in this vision, chastised Peter for calling something unclean that God had made clean. It was slightly reminiscent of Job being admonished by God. Where were you when…

God told Peter, “Just who are you to say what I say is clean is anything else?”

Who are you to call unclean what I have made clean?

That’s straightforward. These creatures are now worthy of your consumption. Case closed, sort of…

Concurrently, a Roman Centurion named Cornelius had a vision as well. Even though he was a Roman of some standing, we discover that he was a man of God, and God through his angel told him to send for Peter.

Cornelius dispatched men to retrieve Peter.  They arrived after about a day's journey, coinciding with the end of Peter’s vision, which concluded with God telling Peter to go with the men waiting for him downstairs.

Peter obeyed. He didn’t get started until the morning, and he took a few Hebrew believers with him, but he did not hesitate.

Cornelius was overjoyed to see and received Peter. He overdid it and fell down before him. Peter explained that he was just a man.

But he quickly moved to sharing the gospel and the story of the Lord Jesus Christ. The people received Jesus as Lord and the Spirit came upon them.

And the Spirit came upon them.

The Spirit came upon them; these pagan, gentile, supposedly godless people (though the household of Cornelius was surely an exception)  had just received the Holy Spirit. Peter is surely well out of his comfort zone, but not for long.

Peter had to put all of this together quickly in his mind. What was he thinking?

God sent me here.

I did what Jesus told me I would: proclaim his gospel wherever I went. This time, it was into a gentile household.

God gave these Gentiles the Spirit of God.

Conclusion: Who am I to say these people on whom God has bestowed his Spirit are unworthy or unclean? I just learned that up on the roof with food.

God has been leading me to see that he is claiming his entire creation, and among the best parts are the people.

It’s about people.  Yes, it is. Whoa! How can we not also baptize them?

Then that stuff about eating food that was previously unclean isn’t right. Oh, it’s right. If God called it clean, then it is clean.

God didn’t say this vision is for instructional purposes only and not to be taken literally. It was instructional. It was literal. It was also a figurative way of inserting a harbinger of something that would follow. We see a lot of that in God’s word.

So, it’s about food? Yes.

But I thought it was about people. It is.

What? Which is it?

There is no dichotomy. We have to create one to create a conflict where one does not exist.

Is it exclusively about the food? No. Is it exclusively about the people? No.

God is reconciling the whole creation to himself. For a time, God spoke to humankind mainly through one people—his chosen people. He spoke and acted through pagans as well, but the bulk of his efforts were through his chosen people.

He separated his people from the other peoples of the earth in different ways. They would have a sign in the flesh, at least the males. They would be given rules to follow, practices to implement, and a diet not given to the rest of the world.

They were also given a land and an identity, but today we are looking mostly at the diet.

These people were set apart for God.

But we live in an age where God is calling everyone to him. Everyone!

What separated no longer separates. Today, the separation lies between those who have called upon the name of the Lord and those who will not.

There is no Jew or Gentile in Christ.

We have a sign in the Spirit, not a sign in the flesh.

We don’t have a menu. We have a holy temple to care for, and what goes into it matters.

We are not restricted. We are liberated to do what we are designed to do: Bring glory to God.

When we catch the idiom of this, life gets more exciting and abundant. We have less of "can I do this or not do this" and more of "I just thought of a new way to bring glory to God."

No one is unworthy of receiving the gospel. We must not put our human parameters on our God-given mission, our commission. A man named John Wesley took the gospel to those deemed unworthy and ended up with a denomination.

God reset some parameters, some of which concern our diet, but our mission is to go into the world with good news—good news for all people.

So, what does that mean? As we live our lives, we:

Look for fewer

·       Dos and don’ts

·       Can and can’ts

Look for more opportunities to

·       Be known by your love

·       Be light and salt

·       Bring glory to God

In this age, we have fewer restrictions on ourselves, not so we can focus on ourselves and our comfort more, but so we can live more fully for God and bring glory to his name: Not so things are easier, but so the things we do bring glory to God.

This whole business of bringing glory to God’s name should become increasingly important to us as we grow in faith and God’s grace.

We begin our days with thanksgiving and praise, followed by the acknowledgment that your grace is enough. Then, we start looking for ways to bring glory to God.

It so much less about can and can’t and so much more about being liberated to bring glory to God.

Amen.

 

Last Things

 

Read 2 Corinthians 13

Imagine only having received the end of this letter, and this was the only counsel that you had. OK, this part starts with the word “finally,” so you might think something was missing. Let’s say you woke up for the end and only heard this piece of counsel.

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.  All God’s people here send their greetings.

OK, I could get something out of that. It does not mention the blood of Jesus, salvation, new creation, old self, pressing on towards the goal, but maybe we might get something from it. Maybe?

Such as:

Rejoice. Have joy again. Maintain this joyful condition.

Lean into restoration. It’s reconciliation and forgiveness. It’s restored relationships with each other. God restored us. Let us restore each other. Move from broken to restored. Go ahead and get there.

Encourage each other. It’s not a competition and if it is, we are on the same team. You win when I win and I win when you win. No nitpicking.

Be of one mind. That can’t be any individual mind. We must seek the mind of God. We must realize the mind of Christ that we have been given. Yes, this is give up yourself and your selfishness.

Live in peace. God grants us peace that we can’t understand. We should grant each other peace. We long to live in peace with our Lord and each other. The latter takes human, perhaps superhuman, effort at times. But peace should be what we want for all.

Great one another with a holy kiss. Great each other as you would your mother or sister, husband or brother, or the cutest little baby, for we are all family in Christ Jesus.

If this is all that you learned from Paul’s letters, then you missed a bunch. But if you have been studying Paul’s letters, keeping your nose in the rest of the Bible, praying and seeking God, then these last few items make a good wrap up.

It’s as if Paul is saying, we covered some tough stuff. Some of it might take a lot of effort. I will help with correction and encouragement when I get there, but for now…

As you await my coming…

In the meantime…

Continue in joy, be reconciled and restored to one another, be of one accord in the Lord, live in peace, and treat each other as valued family members, because you are.

In the next service, we will discuss seriously getting ready for Paul’s visit and the perfect tool for the job, but for now, Paul says, “Here are some bite-sized pieces to chew on. Go ahead, get started. You can do this for sure.”

For us, today, get along with each other while you work on yourself. Putting his words into practice may be painful, but there is joy in the people you do that with.

Amen.

Examine Yourself!

 

 Read 2 Corinthians 13

So Paul continues his weakness, strength, and grace is enough vein through the end. He said he would like to have a good visit when he came and not have to wield a heavy hand.

I’m coming and will give it to you with both barrels (anachronistic metaphors now?), but I would prefer that we just rejoice in reunion with believers who are all peddling as fast as they can. That would be the optimal.

C’mon guys, get it together before I come.

How could this church with multitudes of problems get ready?  The same way that we should. We should examine ourselves, Paul noted in the context of the faith that you so desire to live, examine yourselves.

Let’s do the drill. What is faith? (Hebrews 11:1)

It’s the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So, are we living in the faith? Are we living by faith or by sight?

This is a look yourself in the mirror question. How much am trusting God? So I say that I trust him, but won’t take one step beyond my comfort zone without a complete understanding of what’s happening? Is that living by faith?

But if we want to make something tangible out of these letters, our direction is to test ourselves.

Test yourselves. What’s the metric? Faith.

How can I test myself? What tools do I have? You know this one. The Word of God is sharper than and double-edged sword. It divides soul and spirit, joints, and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

How do I know which scriptures to read? This is the no-brainer of no-brainers.  (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

All scripture is God breathed. You can intentionally cherry-pick some scriptures for manipulative purposes and come up with some really absurd stuff, but you can’t search the scriptures asking God’s Spirit to guide you and go wrong. It’s all good counsel and correction and it promises to equip us.

God’s word has efficacy. It does not return void. It does its work. It accomplishes its purpose.

So today’s message is to examine yourself. That’s a piece of cake. We are getting out early today. Nothing to this, well, except that whole part about self-examination.

We can look at others all day and not get worn out finding fault. When we look at ourselves, we quickly grow tired of the exercise.

There is posting the Bible verse and liking the Christian memes, and there is putting the words of our Lord into practice and measuring how we did.

C’mon. You know the secret handshake. We talk the talk and make a show when we walk the walk for a couple of minutes a day, but really, who wants to do this work?

Who really wants to examine themselves?

Do you remember my journey through discipleship, discipline, and passion?  We are motivated to get started at something, let’s go with pleasing the Lord. But we have to take on the yoke of our rabbi, put his words into practice, and in this pick up your cross daily discipline, develop passion.

For what? Bringing glory to God. This should be a big part of our lives.

If we want to bring glory to God as an unchanged creature—the old creation,if you will—we are spitting in the wind.

The new creation demands a new self. We must remove the old self by examination. We must come to a place where we say, “That’s not me.”

“That’s not Christ living in me.”

I think “That dog don’t hunt” will work too.

Is there evil in the world? Yes. Unequivocally, yes.

Do we put on the full armor of God? Absolutely, yes.

Are we engaged in never-ending battles with evil? Probably not. We have battles with evil. We are equipped in the name of Jesus, but most of the time, we battle with our human nature and our own understanding.

Paul challenged the Corinthians to examine themselves. Are you truly living by faith, or does your old sinful nature still govern you? Does your own understanding get in the way of trusting God more?

Paul said that he would sort out the troublemakers and hard cases when he got there, but he would just as soon show up for good fellowship and celebration with the other saints who were peddling as fast as they could to bring glory to God.

Paul has been steering these believers away from the compare and contrast game of who is your favorite apostle. Paul has been prompting these believers to give up the competitive nature of what they are doing, following this teacher or that, and start doing the things that bring glory to God.

Judging, coveting, picking, and choosing might be good stuff at the state fair, but it is not a plan to take the gospel to the world. What is?

Share the good news and concurrently examine ourselves and grow in God’s grace.

I remember that song… Know him and make him known.

To make some real gains, you don’t need extra sermons. You need more self-examination time.

To grow using God’s strength in our weakness, we don’t need Wheaties; we need eyes to see our weaknesses.

To improve ourselves, we don’t need to hone our optics on others. We need to address the plank in our own eyes.

To continue in discipleship is to pick up the cross of self-examination daily and make the adjustments.

To grow in God’s grace, we examine ourselves with the word of God, and we do not require a second opinion. Accountability partners are great, but the word of God alone is sufficient counsel.

Self-examination should be daily, and self-examination and cleansing should be weekly or monthly. More than the daily once-over, we should schedule ourselves for a heart, soul, mind, and strength examination.

The word of God will do this for us, and we need not rely on another’s human interpretation to apply the word of God to our lives. Confessing to one another is good, but that’s for another day. For now, it’s just you and the word of God.

Recovering addicts who use the Twelve Steps come across a step that no human, sober or inebriated, wants to undergo. I think it is the fourth step. Conduct a searching and fearless moral inventory.

Ask yourself the questions that everyone is afraid to ask and have the courage to discover the answer. Only in knowing ourselves so well can we become new again. We have to find all of the junk, the trash, the dung that we let live in ourselves before we can get rid of it.

I say today, that I don’t think anyone can conduct such a searching and fearless inventory without the Spirit of God illuminating God’s word. But when we find our weaknesses, we connect to God’s strength.

It’s all theoretical until we examine ourselves. The scriptures sound solid in theory, but self-examination requires us to put them into practice.

Self Examination is recurring and also prompted by certain things in the life of the church body. The Lord’s Supper is one of those things. Remember Paul’s words from his first letter to this church. (1 Corinthians 11)

Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

Paul is telling us that this moment of self-examination is like Jesus washing our feet. Didn’t see it coming but it was the last thing to be done. The body was clean. Only the feet needed to be cleaned, and Jesus did the work of the lowest servant.

If you have been keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, pressing on towards this goal of bringing glory to God’s name, and confessing to God on a regular basis, this only takes a moment.

But if you avoid self-examination throughout the day or week, this moment can become awkward.  Whether it is relief or time for a Rolaid, we should all take the opportunity to give up anything and everything that stands before us and coming to the Lord’s Table in celebration.

Remember the words, My grace is enough for you.

The victory is already won. Our weaknesses are venues for God’s strength to be displayed in us. Now, let’s examine ourselves so this whole weakness and strength thing moves from the theoretical to the abundant life category.

Examine yourself. The dividends are divine.

Amen.

My Grace is Sufficient for You

 

Read 2 Corinthians 12

I like to write. Business writing is typically active voice, indicative mood. People tend to gravitate to the passive voice and subjunctive mood. I think the terms have changed somewhat over the years, but I know the voice and mood parameters.

Traditional drama, the Shakespearean stuff, climaxed in Act III, Scene II, though there was always more to follow that you didn’t want to miss.

Today, if you want to read a joke online or get the most current news, you have to read and follow a link and then jump through the hoops of these crazy advertisements. That’s monetized social media.

The sermon usually builds to the end. I like to end mine with affirmation,  challenge, or both!

This morning, I will use the newspaper article mantra. This isn’t the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the reporter. I wish they would teach that again in journalism school. The press so valued in our Constitution was to be the watchdog of government, not its lapdog or attack dog. Some recalibration is needed, but that’s a Tom thing, not necessarily a universal truth. I miss Walter Cronkite.

This newspaper mantra to which I refer is this:  DON’T BURY THE LEAD. So, I jump right to the heart of the matter. God, your grace is sufficient for me.

Your grace is sufficient for me!

Imagine starting your day with thanksgiving. It makes sense. We are thankful people. We know how much God loves us, and starting our day with a thank you is just good stuff.

We are a grateful people, but what if we continued that spirit of thanksgiving by telling God every morning, “Your grace is enough for me.”

Imagine telling God every day, “I don’t have to ask you for anything for my life to be complete. Your grace did it all. I do not fear death. Sin thinks it can get the best of me, but your grace goes way beyond my sin.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Imagine stepping into each day already having won the day by rejoicing in the grace of God. Imagine—maybe some of you don’t have to imagine because it’s reality for you already—but imagine starting each and every day like this.

You are singing Celebrate, Jesus, Celebrate as your feet hit the floor.

C’mon, Tom. You don’t deliver sermons designed to make us feel good. What happened to “You will have trouble in the world?”

It’s still there along with the second part of the verse, “Take heart, I have overcome the world!”

To live is Christ, to die is gain. Still there.

Picking up your cross every day and following Jesus. Still there.

Persecuted for the name of Jesus. Still there.

These seem to be in conflict with “Your grace is sufficient for me.” They are not. There should be no dissonance in your mind.

God’s plan is for us to live in right relationship with him for all eternity, not as sheep and cattle in blissful ignorance and without the mind of Christ and an understanding of sin, death, hope, despair, trouble, salvation, kindness, gentleness, anger, hate, and more. And through these, we see the love of God at work in our lives.

Paul continued in that vein.

The victory for us was won in the blood of Jesus on a cross atop Golgotha two thousand years ago. It is realized in us with our profession of faith.  It is the free gift of God.

And you know what I will say next. What will we do with this incredible gift? I hope you stayed awake for this part over the years. The top response is love. Love God. Love each other.

For those who really want to be complete in Christ, love others as much as Jesus loved and still loves us.

Of course trust and obedience come next. Of those, trust is generally the most difficult, but surely has a big payoff.

Obedience is not simple lock-step compliance. I have shared my continuum of acceptance on occasion. Quickly, it’s Reject, Comply, Accept, and Embrace. The obedience target is embrace. God, I’m doing what you told me to do, and I am so in tune with the Spirit that you placed inside of me that it feels like it was my own idea.

This course that I am set upon is our discipleship. That’s no surprise. We have heard that more than a thousand times over the past several years. Typically, that involves some work.

I want to touch on something that I covered last Sunday at the first service. It will be repeated only for a few of you. Here goes.

We are motivated to please our Lord and be faithful to him, but motivation doesn’t get us to the goal. It might get us started but it can’t finish the work.

What gets us there? Discipline.

You might think that is just modern leadership wisdom, and it is, but it is in concert with the concept that we know as discipleship.

Discipline is following a course for efficacy. Do the things required for as long as necessary to achieve the desired results. This is not just when I feel like it or get around to it. It’s daily picking up your cross.

Disciples follow a leader and put his words into practice. For a disciple to achieve the desired results of becoming more like his teacher—his rabbi if you will—he must have discipline.

Motivation is great for getting you started. Discipline stays the course. Discipline moves you closer to the goal. Discipline corrects you when you veer from the course.

And discipline, I dare say, promotes passion.

Motivation: I want to please God.

Discipline: I take this step to draw nearer to God and my goal of pleasing him.

Passion:  l love it when I sacrifice, face resistance, get slapped on the back of the head, stumble and get back up and press on towards the goal. I can’t think of what life was like before I was compelled to bring glory to God with every step, even my missteps, when I am strong and especially when I am weak.  Hopefully, you associated the weight lifting and rope climbing analogies with our weakness and God’s strength in this service last week.

Passion, purpose, and pressing on towards the goal is more than alliterative, it pleases God because we continue in steps big and small, and even some repeated, towards the goal we have been given by our Lord and Master.

And here’s the thing, you can’t get me off course. You can’t sell me a bill of goods. I am all in.

So what’s with this "your grace is sufficient" business if we still have to go through trials, work at pleasing God, and do this whole overcomer thing?

Your grace is sufficient for me, and we affirm that we are part of God’s victory over sin and death. We acknowledge the unfathomable. We have already won the day. You can do anything you want to me, and you can’t change the fact that I will be in right standing with the Lord and in the presence of the Lord. I know that whatever comes at me in this world is not enough to take that away from me.

That victory is mine. It is blessed assurance. It is well with my soul. It is peace that is more than I can comprehend.

Well then, why did Jesus say ask, seek, and knock? Why the Parable of the persistent widow? Why pray at all?

You are not God’s great experiment. You are the crown of his creation. He wants to dialogue with you every day. He wants to see you grow and learn, even if it takes a couple of attempts, even if it’s a couple of hundred tries.

He loves the overcomer spirit that you desire so you can please him. We are his children. He loves us. He will never kick us to the curb.

We should acknowledge, celebrate, and rejoice in the fact that none of our trials can take the ultimate victory that we know in Christ Jesus away from us.

God is sovereign.

God won the victory for us.

God wins. We win. There is some win-win for you.

But ask God for what you need. He wants to give you good gifts. Sometimes, that gift might be to let you grow in the trial and come out closer to him at the end. Sometimes, it is to take away anxiety but let you pay off the house like you scheduled your mortgage to do.

Sometimes, it is to take a problem away or show you that it was never really your problem.

Sometimes it is to rock you out of your comfort zone so you can get into this abundant life mode and do some real living.

Whatever it is, it is part of our growth. Our victory, our blessed assurance is already in place.

God, your grace is enough, but let’s see if we can build upon that foundation and reach as high as we can in bringing glory to your name. That’s moving from discipleship to discipline (pick up your cross daily if you will) and graduate into passion.

There is a parallel track that I might label purpose. You may get my mantra on purpose again before I leave, just not today. But it runs in parallel to passion.

I should discuss Paul's letter a little more. He is still arguing about weaknesses and strengths.

He is still asking for some indulgence with his foolishness, and by that, he means boasting in his resume. You have seen the meme that someone not capable of violence is not peaceful; he is harmless. If you are capable of violence, you must choose to be peaceful because there are other tools at your disposal.

That’s generally on target, but it parallels Paul’s thinking on this foolishness business. He could play the resume game and probably win. He didn’t do the three year tour with Jesus, but he suffered for the name of Jesus more than anyone else I see in the Bible.

Paul could have done well in the resume game, but he chose not to, mostly. That is to say, I could play that game. Here is a glimpse of what it might look like, but I count all of those worldly accolades—to include the religious ones—as dung.

What counts for everything is the grace of God on which I build everything else. God, you have laid the foundation in grace, and that in itself is enough. If I botched up everything else, I would still be with you forever, even though it might be like escaping a fire with only the singed clothes on my back.

I want to do more, and I want you—church—to do more. Let’s build on what is already enough, not for our glory but to bring glory to God.

For the believer desiring to grow in the Lord's ways, our requests and petitions become more about glorifying God. This must be a big deal for us. It is a big paradigm shift for those who have only been consumers of God’s mercy and grace.

How did we get here? Paul had some affliction. We are not sure what, but likely it was his vision or arthritis that made writing difficult.  When you end up writing a whole bunch of the New Testament, either would be important.

There is a sovereignty discussion to be had with his thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment him. Every good gift is from above. There was an incredible revelation that came from this gift, so I am calling it a good gift and not a punishment.

Like the Law of Moses, it was given for Paul’s own good, and as it turns out for our enduring benefit as well. But we have this whole God using Satan thing so was it directed, permissive, the syntax of the day or something else.

That’s a study, not a sermon, but surely worth the effort if it’s on your heart. Remember this.

Paul was given this thorn in the flesh. He asked God to take it away three times. It was obviously something that Paul wanted out of his way in this ministry.

God said, “Better than taking it away, I will use it to reveal a truth to you. It’s worth sharing.”

My grace is enough for you.

No matter the trials of the day, the week, the years, and the decades, you always have my victory, my strength—especially in your weakness, and this blessed assurance that your salvation is assured in Christ Jesus.

This grace is sufficient. If that’s all we ever received, we have enough. But we know that God wants so much more than enough for us. He is the God of good gifts. We might call him El Shaddai.

Do you remember Jesus saying that even you with corrupt and sinful hearts know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more does your Father in heaven know how and desire to give his children good gifts?

I’m not burying the lead. I’m not holding the best for the last. I’m not venturing into figurative language or even more Marine Corps examples and analogies. I do have to ask, did anyone try to climb a rope this week?

Start thanking God from the moment you awaken tomorrow. Then, let him know that his grace is sufficient for you. That’s an affirmation, a celebration, and cause to shout for joy to the Lord.

Then say, “Show me, teach me.” What? Your ways and your paths. Now you are ready to tackle the day in a life that’s already claimed victory.

In the words, “Your grace is enough,” you are saying: GAME ON.

Here is the thing about living in God’s mercy and his grace. It’s kind of a big deal. Not only am I good with God’s grace being enough, but it also brings me quickly to the worst that could happen to me, which is that someone kills me. But all that would do is change my geography, and maybe the search committee schedule.

Let’s live an abundant life and see how much glory we can bring to Jesus. This grace thing is big—it’s bigger than our sin. It is our foundation for an abundant life. Let’s live to the full.

It’s Game On! Your grace is sufficient. Game On!

Amen.

Read also: It Would Have Been Enough

It Would Have Been Enough

 

Read 2 Corinthians 12

Extra Reading: Dayenu: It Would Have Been Enough

So, we come to the words, “My grace is sufficient for you.” You will hear more on that in the next service, but let’s do a little background work first.

God gave these words to Paul. Do you think he was surprised?

He shouldn’t have been. I will take you two places this morning. The first is a glimpse at Psalm 136. We have done this before in antiphonal format as it was written, usually with me reading the lead and the congregation responding with, “His love endures forever.” It will sound familiar.

Psalm 136

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords:

His love endures forever.

That’s the antiphonal format—the call and answer. You know when I mention that I have these conversations with God. They are mostly on my walks and sometimes on a long drive. I ask in my mind and he answers via the same routing.

I get to ask whatever I want. Sometimes, I know exactly what the response is. Sometimes, I’m surprised.

The psalms encourage us to have out loud conversations with God, about God, or about God's mighty acts—you get the drift. They are aloud and generally spoken among a group of believers.

Paul knew the psalm and the antiphonal format. He was also a Jew and a Hebrew, and he knew the Dayenu. It was a significant recounting of the Exodus of Israel  in verse or song.

Dayenu (“It Would Have Been Enough”) is a song traditionally sung during the telling of the story of Exodus at the Passover seder. The song’s stanzas list a series of kindnesses God performed for the Jewish people during and after the Exodus and concludes each with the word dayenu — “it would have been enough.”

I thought that most of the antiphonal stuff from the Old Testament was done marching to the temple, but I watched the current season of The Chosen—at least the season you don’t have to pay extra for to see it as soon as it’s released—and loved the presentation.

Each disciple sat around the table and led one part. That means every disciple knew every part, as every Hebrew should have. Here is how it goes.

If He had taken us out of Egypt and not made judgments on them, it would have been enough for us.

If He had made judgments on them and had not made them on their gods; it would have been enough for us.

If He had made them on their gods and had not killed their firstborn, it would have been enough for us.

If He had killed their firstborn and had not given us their money, it would have been enough for us.

If He had given us their money and had not split the Sea for us, it would have been enough for us.

If He had split the Sea for us and had not taken us through it on dry land, it would have been enough for us.

If He had taken us through it on dry land and had not pushed down our enemies in the Sea, it would have been enough for us.

If He had pushed down our enemies in [the Sea] and had not supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years, it would have been enough for us.

If He had supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years and had not fed us the manna, it would have been enough for us.

If He had fed us the manna and had not given us the Shabbat, it would have been enough for us.

If He had given us the Shabbat and had not brought us close to Mount Sinai, it would have been enough for us.

If He had brought us close to Mount Sinai and had not given us the Torah, it would have been enough for us.

If He had given us the Torah and had not brought us into the land of Israel, it would have been enough for us.

If He had brought us into the land of Israel and had not built us the ‘Chosen House’ [the Temple], it would have been enough for us.

Sourced from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/dayenu-it-would-have-been-enough/

So when Paul asked God to take away his affliction and God told him that My grace is sufficient—enough—for you, do you think he was surprised?

Nor should we be surprised in our current reading.  This grace that we have is a sufficient answer to our every prayer. It’s not always the answer that we want, but it is always sufficient.

It is always enough.

This week, consider the fact that even if God never answered a single prayer the way we wanted him to, it would still be enough.

There’s something to chew on.

Let’s chew on it in the context of “My grace is enough for you.’

Amen.

Tom’s Provocation for 2025

 

Tom’s Provocation for 2025 (Revision 1)

 

The plank-in-the-eye obstacle to modern Christianity is to acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that God’s own Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own understanding in such high esteem.