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.

God's Strength Realized in My Weakness

Read 2 Corinthians 11

Paul dealt with the barrage of accusations that had been thrown at him from many directions and the believers in Corinth had surely heard.

Paul wasn’t a real apostle. He didn’t walk with Jesus. He wasn’t one of the twelve. The other were super apostles.  Previously, he had tried to steer these same believers away from this compare and contrast game and get them to the mindset of we are all on the same team.

We are reaching the lost with good news and trying to live a holy life.  We don’t have time for this nonsense, but the logic did not slow down the debilitating effects of this nonsense.

So Paul says, Finna play the game for a minute. Yes, I took some liberties with that one.

Have those others been beaten and run out of town?  Imprisoned? Shipwrecked? Bitten by a snake? Stoned and so much more?

Paul was told that he would suffer for the name of Jesus and for preaching the gospel and he was. While most of the other apostles would eventually die a gruesome death; they did not endure the litany of trials that Paul did.

Paul might have thrown a pity party over all of his trials and suffering. His shortcomings might have been his undoing. His weakness might have disqualified him from service to God and those to whom he was sent.

But…

In baseball, if you get a hit one out of three times, you are superstar. In basketball, if you hit one out of three free throws, you are riding the bench.

The pitcher who threw a perfect game, threw a lot of balls—and probably even bounced a couple in the dirt—even though nobody successfully got to first base. If he threw every pitch over the plate, he probably wouldn’t have that perfect game in the books. Batters would be teeing off if they knew every pitch would be over the plate.

Resistance training—weightlifting—builds strength. If you can lift a lot of weight, you are considered strong. The more you work out, the stronger you get. Do the work and do it the right way and you can lift more over time.

But there are limits, right? You can’t just show up one day and add fifty or a hundred pounds to your max and expect to lift it right then.

But what if you could? Sometimes you can.  On many Navy ships, the weight room is forward. Sometimes the up and down movement of the ship can help us lift more than we can really lift by ourselves. What?

You settle in on the bench press and instead of getting ready to lift 300 pounds, you go for 400. Just before the front of the ship goes down, you lift. It’s like you are just holding the weight in place and the ship moves you away from the weights.

Just like that your arms are fully extended with a 400-pound lift fully accomplished. Should have gone for 500 pounds Lowering the barbell can be tricky. If you lower the weights as the ship rises up again, it’s like 500 pounds coming down on you. Don’t try this without a couple of good spotters.

Anyone know how to climb a rope? It can be a challenge but less so if you use your largest muscles. They are in your legs.

The preacher has really lost it today. How do you climb a rope with your legs?

Stand before the rope with this hanging ascension device centered between your legs. Wrap one leg around the rope. Jump as high as you can and grab on and hold on. Now raise your legs—your knees—to your chest, higher if possible. This is a hands-free procedure as you are holding on with both hands. It may take a little practice to catch the idiom.

Next, put the heel of your boot on top of the ankle of the other leg with the rope sandwiched securely between.  Remember that you are not climbing with your arms. The arms and hands are just holding on.

Now, stand up with the rope secured between your feet. This lets you reach farther up the rope. Reach as high as possible and hold on. Now raise your legs again.

Your legs will be singing old Sam and Dave songs. OK, they just sing Hold On, I’m Coming.

Repeat until you reach the top of the rope. Your arms are not nearly as strong as your legs. They just need to be strong enough to hold on.

The truth of the matter is that compared to your legs, your arms are weak, even if you think you are strong. Your legs are so much more powerful. Now, back to the letter.

Paul might have thrown a pity party over his many trials and suffering. His shortcomings might have been his undoing. His weakness might have disqualified him from service to God and those to whom he was sent.

But…

God’s strength was manifest in Paul’s weakness.  God’s strength is fully present in our weakness.

We have discussed gestalt before.  It is integrity. It is complete. It is the whole is more than the sum of its parts business.

 We are not complete without God. We can’t do what we are designed to do without God. We are not able to do what we are called to do without God. The daily trials of our lives show us that we can’t do this alone.

Actually, we can for a while. I know the force of personality drill. I’ve done it many times. It gets you up the hill. But we can’t sustain it. It’s like climbing a rope with only you arms.

We are too weak, but in our weakness lies either defeat or clarity.  In the letters to the 7 churches of Asia, John noted a word that Jesus used several times.

Overcome!

We are to be overcomers, but we are too weak. The challenges of this world will defeat you if you count only on your own strength, which is so often too little, too weak to accomplish much.

But with God, we are complete and overcome the troubles of this world.

Man! That’s some powerful but maybe a bit too philisophical philosophical and theoretical stuff. I don’t know if I can relate. It’s a little too conceptual to put into practice, or is it?

When the car that is still a dozen payments from being paid off breaks down and it’s big-time repairs on the horizon, it can seem like game over.

When the sheriff delivers the eviction notice, it seems like all you can do is cry.

When the 200^th day of sobriety doesn’t become the 201^st, it can seem like it was all for nothing.

When you have been busting your butt on the job for a year, but you are among those getting the pink slip in the downsizing, it can feel like everything is hopeless.

When the loved one is gone far too soon and we feel helpless, we can feel as if the very essence of life has been sucked out of us.

When the marriage doesn’t seem worth the effort and both people are ready to throw in the towel, you might just ask, “What’s the point?”

What’s the point?

Paul could have said, “I deserve a medal.” He could have said, “Enough is enough!”  He could have just thrown in the towel. He could have become bitter or cynical or angry. He could have cried out, “Why me, Lord?”

But surely, he remembered the words of Jesus, though he did not quote them. You will have trouble in the world, but take heart—take courage—I have overcome the world.

Our trials and tribulations, our suffering and sadness, our tests and temptations might just be the best vision plan on the planet. For in our weakness, we hone our vision. We have eyes to see the strength of the Lord completing us in the very things we dread the most.

James noted that we should consider such trials as pure joy. They are the means to our completeness. These terrible things reveal that the greatness and strength of the Lord lives in us.

It’s not game over, it’s game on!

Game on!

Had our lives been smooth sailing every day, our vision would have never been what it is. When we realize and affirm that we are broken, fall short, and can’t do it all ourselves, then we can have eyes to see God’s human design, and that design says we are incomplete without the Lord.

That’s just the way the owner’s manual reads. God’s strength is manifest in our weakness.

Our legs climb the rope. If we could climb it with only our arms, we might never know the power in our legs.

The movement of the ship lifts more than we possibly can. If we could press 400 or 500 pounds just because of the toned muscle bulk in our arms, we might never leverage the laws of physics. We don’t actually get stronger, but we still moved that 400 pounds like it was nothing.

This weakness in ourselves revealing God’s strength in our lives, is like soaring on the wings of eagles. Without God’s strength realized within us, we are surely grounded.

And without our weakness, we are too often blind to his strength. There’s a paradigm shift for you. There’s a paradox many never realize. There’s the power of God taking us from death to life.

It’s not something that happens automatically. There is this little thing called trust. We must trust that our weakness is an opening to God’s strength. Only in faith can we realize this.

Our own understanding says throw in the towel. Paul says, “Don’t you dare give up!” The best is yet to come, but only if we have eyes to see this dynamic of God’s strength manifest in our weakness.

So, what is this morning’s message?

Dive into life. Don’t despair with every mistake. Swing for the fence or bunt and run like crazy, but don’t hang your head when you don’t make contact or get thrown out by half a step. Live!

Only in forsaking worldly expectations and criticisms, can we find abundance.  And abundance does not always reside in making every shot or batting .400. Sometimes abundance, the fullness of life, is only manifested in our mess.

I have put my weakness before you in this morning’s message. The guy who likes to write mixed far too many metaphors.

In my menagerie of mixed metaphor madness and missteps, it will not be my alliterative recovery, but God who can tell you and I believe is telling you to live and live to the full and realize his strength in our weakness.

You still need to study for tests, show up on time for work, make your car payments, take every though captive, and the other good steward type of things that we know to do, but weakness is not always failure. Sometimes our weaknesses become our corrective lenses and we see God’s strength at work in us.

A macro view of Moses’s life might say that he spent 40 years thinking he was somebody, 40 years finding out he was nobody, and 40 years realizing what God can do with a nobody.

If you are in Christ, the end of the road is never the end of the road. The end of your rope is never the end. Weakness is not failure unless you refuse to see God’s strength at work.

That doesn’t mean that we try to mess things up and cause trouble for ourselves and deliberately put ourselves in bad situations. It means that we press on towards the goal of loving God and each other and if we don’t measure up somewhere, God is more than enough to measure us up to the challenge and he brings completeness to us.

We know that God uses everything for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, and that includes our weakness.

We should embrace that recognizing and owning our weaknesses is part of the journey that gets us to God’s strength.

God has no shortage of win-win dynamics for us. Let’s trust him more today than we did yesterday and go for it. Live with passion for our mission and commission and kick fear to the curb.

God has more than enough strength to account for our weaknesses. Trust him and then trust him more.

Amen.

 

Stick to the Gospel not what is Trending!

 

 

Read 2 Corinthians 11

Let’s catch a little from Paul at the beginning of the chapter.

I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me!  I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.  But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

What’s this foolishness business that Paul is talking about?  It’s this whole Paul is not as good as others. He didn’t walk with Jesus. He is not a super apostle.

We have talked about this before, and Paul’s direction to the church in Corinth was just Don’t play that game. Paul’s counsel to himself might have come anachronistically from Winston Churchill, who might put the counsel in these terms. You won’t get anywhere if you stop to throw rocks at every dog that barks at you.

The counsel to us? You are in the good news business. You are to bring glory to God. You are to be holy as God is holy. You are to be known as followers of Jesus by your love.

Paul was talking to the church at Corinth, and he is talking to us. It’s the Hebrews 12 message—eyes fixed on Jesus.

Sometimes the attacks were against Paul himself, the ad hominem strategy often used when the facts and logic don’t support your position or cause, but in this chapter, Paul shifts the focus of what he calls foolishness to the vulnerability of these relatively new believers.

Had he been writing to the churches in Galatia, he might have said you were running a good race, who cut you off? What’s he talking about?

He doesn’t specify much here, but from his other epistles, we can presume that he is talking mostly about the Judaizers.

There is one God. There is one Christ. There is one Spirit. There is one gospel. There is one way to the Father.

If anyone preaches anything else, they are full of horse hockey! I’m not talking about equestrian ice sports. I am talking skubalon!

But you wouldn’t be the first to be deceived. He recounts the story of Adam and Eve and the minimal effort that the serpent had to put forth to get Eve to rely on her own understanding.

We humans are vulnerable to things that should not make sense to the sound and sober mind. Paul uses an analogy that he also used with the Ephesians, Christ and the church as Husband and wife.

You were promised to one husband. It might be hard for the guys to get in tune with this analogy, but don’t be afraid. It’s metaphorical not allegorical. Try this. Don’t be two-timing the Lord. That’s our motivation. The term is fidelity.

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 cannot 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 of discipleship.

Discipline is to follow a course for efficacy.

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, whether I feel like it or not.

Passion:  I 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.  More on that in the next service.

Passion, purpose, and pressing on toward the goal are more than alliterative. They please 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.

In the context of Corinth, I’m not falling for the serpent’s ploy to use my own understanding against me, so I steer off the godly, Christ-centered, Christ-anchored course set for me.

For us, there is but one name by which we may be saved. There is one gospel and one Spirit of God. We have one Master, one Lord, and one Teacher.

But there is so much more stuff out there these days, and the marketing strategies are both bold and subtle.

I read a post a while back. I knew the person. It dealt with addiction and faith. It went something like this.

I am thankful for God and the scriptures that got me through my addiction and into recovery, but now it’s time to move on to something more. I need to see what else is out there.

Was your husband with you through this time? I knew he was, so I crafted this statement in parallel to the post. I did not post it. Those are personal conversations, not public discussions. Here goes.

I am thankful to my husband, who stood by me through my addiction and into my recovery, but now it’s time to move on and see who else is out there for me.

Ouch! I thought my comparison with discipleship and discipline was on target. It leads to efficacy. But it also led me to Paul’s statement once again.

I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.

Think about your husband or wife telling you they were mostly faithful. What’s a good percentage?  How about eighty percent? Ninety percent? Ninety-nine percent?

Fidelity means all in. We are all in following Jesus. We are all in on the one true gospel. We are all in as belonging wholly to the Lord.

Don’t be fooled. Salvation is in Christ alone. We will fall short. We are weak in so many ways, but we had better be faithful to the Lord and his word.

As Peter said when so many turned away from the Lord and he asked the twelve, “Do you want to go too?”

Where would we go, Lord. You have the words of life.

So, what do we in this body do in this time?  The answer comes via the letter of our Lord to the First Century church in Ephesus.

You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen and repent. Do the things that you did at first. 

Don’t be fooled by false gospels, concocted doctrine, cunning, and deceit. Be faithful to your one and only husband, who is the Lord.

Do the things that you did when you first fell in love with your Savior.  Don’t go two-timing the Lord.  Stick to the gospel not what is trending.

Stick to the gospel!

Amen.

This is not a competition!

 

Read 2 Corinthians 10

 We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Some of Paul’s battles are fought because of jealousy and contempt. Others don’t like what he has accomplished. He was not one of the disciples who followed Jesus for three years. He was the oddball. He couldn’t be as good as the regular apostles, who might be dubbed super apostles.

That was part of the challenge before Paul. Division was a real thing in Corinth, and it does its best to invade every church body it finds.  It’s as if Paul gets to the point where he says, “Enough!”

This is not a competition.

We are not enemies with you or the other apostles who are legitimately doing the work of the Lord.

We are coworkers in Christ. Yes, I am different from the dozen who followed Jesus in the flesh. Here’s the kicker: You will be, too!

This is not an election. There is no campaign. We are not comparing resumes. There will not be a series of three debates.

The goal here in what we are doing in your area is to make you a light unto the world. We want you to be the salt of the earth. We want you to be known as followers of Jesus by your love.

And…

Here’s the kicker: We want you to clone what we have done and become missionaries to this lost world.

You are not going out to make followers of Peter, Paul, Apollos, or any other servant of the Lord. Your objective is to take the good news that we have in the Lord, not in any other human.

Your goal is to do what we did with you and do it with others. Go into the world with good news. Unless God tells you to go to Spain or Egypt, then go across the street or to the next village over and share the good news of life in Jesus Christ.

You will be sharing with some who may know your pagan ways. You will have to explain the old self and new self to them, using the term "new creation" or "new creature."

You need to be learning, studying, and praying because you will soon be the vessels that carry the good news to your neighbors and future generations.

You are not just working on yourselves—and we all need a lot of work—we are reaching out with this gospel of salvation and peace. You must become teachers and evangelists.

The Spirit that lives within you must be—to use Paul’s words to Timothy—fanned into the flames of action.

It’s the same as it was with Abram. You are blessed to be a blessing. The blessing that you are to carry to others is the gospel of truth.

You are to take the truth to the world, at least those within your purview.

By the way, this applies to us in this place and this age as well. It’s grist for the mill business once again. Everything we go through, every sermon you hear, every scripture you read, is grist for the mill as we fulfill our commissions.

Yes, we want to grow in God’s grace and become better people. That’s a noble goal, but as we advance towards that goal, we are gathering others to go with us.

We seek others to replace us, for this gospel must continue to be shared with all generations.

Paul will discuss metacognition, and we will discuss that in the next service. In the chapter ahead, he will warn us about others distorting the gospel.

For now, know that we are being prepared to be evangelists, among other things. We must not only receive God’s grace but also share it.

Amen.

Take Every Thought Captive

 

Read 2 Corinthians 10

Paul gets a little personal here. He has heard the gossip that Paul is bold in his letters but timid in person. He talks big when he is somewhere else, but not when he is with us.

Paul mentioned before that when he comes to visit, he hoped for a time of fellowship, not discipline. He wanted hugs and friendly meals with friends, not people to chastise.

What is Paul saying?

We are all on the same team. We are not competitors. We are surely not enemies. We should be friends and coworkers in the gospel.

The battles we face are mostly in our minds. We do not look at scorecards of accomplishments, but Paul could play that game if required. To use the leadership metaphor, we all need to get our eyes off the scoreboard and on the ball.

This morning, we get to talk a little about one of my favorite subjects—metacognition. We will examine thinking about thinking and consider Paul’s words to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

Is that an analogy, a metaphor, or some other figurative tool? What if it is as literal as it gets?

Remember, the battle is in our minds. We don’t just kick bad thoughts to the curb; we make them obedient to the will of our Master. 

Any thought that somehow enters our mind is challenged. Halt! Who goes there!

Halt! Who goes there!

To challenge every thought, we must have a perimeter. Any thought that enters that perimeter is challenged, and if it stands in accordance with our Master’s instructions, it can stay.

And every other thought is not just dismissed, it is made to be obedient to the will of Christ. If the thought enters our minds, there is a battle—a battle of wills if you will—and only the will of our Master is acceptable.

Last Sunday, I mentioned that you can’t go through life with the paradigm that life is a minefield. Yes, there is God’s way and there is everything else, but we can’t let fear govern and just creep along through life. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and run our race of faith. We don’t sweat the troubles of this world.

But we can’t be passive either. It’s not Que Sera, Sera. It’s not whatever will be, will be. It’s not whatever. That mindset is called cheerful fatalism. If you are a cartoonist like Gary Larsen, then you might use this cheerful fatalism for a little gallows humor.

The rest of us need to avoid it at all costs.

We don’t worry, we are not anxious, we don’t sweat the circumstances of the world, but we are not passive. Our minds are always engaged, and we are always on the lookout for those things that don’t get to live within our security perimeter.

The passive mind is like a sponge that does not discriminate. It will absorb whatever comes its way, be it good, bad, or ugly. The passive mind is indifferent to God’s way and everything else.

The passive mind grants equal access to the thoughts of Satan and the thoughts of God. That dog don’t hunt! We justify the passive mind, thinking that God will use it all for good.

Yes, God will use everything for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, but that’s no excuse for us to tune out this thinking business.

You might think Tom loves this metacognition business, but is it biblical? Really, does the Bible even talk about thinking?

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Before we fight the stray thoughts that enter our minds, we fight the battle outside the lines. We are proactive in thinking about specific things. We don’t have to fight thoughts in our minds if our minds are already engaged in thinking on good things.

We are not passive.

We are proactive in our thinking.

In Paul’s earlier letter to this congregation, he said:

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.

Our thinking and the Spirit's leading inside us need to be in sync. We want our thinking to be in accord with God’s directions.

Too often, we ask him to align with our plans. Our own understanding has confounded our thinking. We want God to bless our plans, and he does when we align them with his plans.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, we get these words.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

You might be thinking that this thinking stuff is just Paul, so let’s consider Isaiah’s words.

You will keep in perfect peace

    those whose minds are steadfast,

    because they trust in you.

The prophet noted that peace comes with a steadfast mind—a mind that trusts in the Lord.

Most of our battles are in our minds. Our battlefields are not places like Thermopylae, Waterloo, or Iwo Jima. I’m sure we could relate to some intensive mental combat in our minds even though the battles may or may not have names.

We do not fight most of our battles in the physical world. The strongholds that we demolish are falsehoods, lies, and deception. Our primary weapon is the truth, and we are not passive.

Peace is not passive.

And now I get to do another favorite thing. I get to cover some grammar and syntax in the sermon. It’s Christmas come early for me.

How should most professional writing be designed these days?  Correspondence is usually present tense. The target audience for most professional writing is at an eighth-grade level. That one still seems odd.  Here’s the heart of professional writing:

Active voice, indicative mood.

What?  We should use the active voice and the indicative mood. That’s how we communicate real things.

As opposed to?

Passive voice, subjunctive mood.

It’s the difference between “I’m doing this” and “Whatever will be will be.”

It’s the difference between being proactive with God’s directions and what-ifing something until you are overcome by events.

It’s the difference between putting your Master’s talents to work at once and burying them in the ground.

It’s the difference between doing something and explaining why it can’t be done.

And it’s all happening in our minds. Our minds prompt us to action, and our minds convince us to do nothing. The battle and the battlefield are in our minds.

Paul says that we have to be proactive. We take this cognitive fight to the enemy. We think on good things. We renew our minds in the word of God. Our hearts and our minds trust the Lord.

Our thinking is proactive, not passive.

We are a sponge for God’s directions and repel all that runs counter.

Any thought that enters our minds without proper authority will be captured, then indoctrinated, or destroyed. There is no catch-and-release.

No worldly thoughts live rent-free in our minds. If they show up, they are in for a fight.

One of Paul’s secular contemporaries was Plutarch. He said: The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.  We are to fan the flames of our God-driven minds.

When the world thinks it has us beat, remember, we have the mind of Christ.

God’s ways and thoughts are not ours. They are so much higher than ours, but we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of God that lived the human life.

We have the best counsel ever.

It’s still God’s way and everything else, but we have the mind of the only One who has ever lived God’s way in a human body. So, here are your thoughts for Sunday lunch.

Our thinking is proactive, not passive.

We are a sponge for God’s directions and repel all that runs counter.

Any thought that enters our minds without proper authority will be captured, then indoctrinated, or destroyed. There is no catch-and-release.

No worldly thoughts live rent-free in our minds. They are in for the fight of their lives.

One last analogy, for now. Do we take the gifts of our minds and God’s directions on how to use them and put them to work at once and produce a return for our Master, or do we bury them in the ground?

That’s the big picture. For now, work on taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ.

Amen.