Stop Trying - Start Trusting - Look to Jesu

I. Welcome

Well, good morning. My name is Jamie Bennett and I’m the discipleship pastor here at TBA.

It is good to be gathered together this morning with each other, in the presence of the Lord.

So, we’ve been in a series this last few weeks called Transforming Grace and we’re exploring the ways in which the grace of God changes us. The key phrase that kind of summarizes this series is that the sanctification journey is not about behavior modification, but Spiritual Transformation.

We’ve discussed how Spiritual Transformation requires you to find your purpose in God, and to find your place among God’s people. We’ve discussed how your habits play a role in Spiritual Transformation by keeping you from falling into legalism or license. We’ve talked about how your thoughts shape your identity, and how God uses different means to shape you. Last week, Stivey brought us to the foundation of all Spiritual Transformation and that is that we must be born again to have the Spirit and you can’t have spiritual transformation without the Spirit.

This week, we’re going to build on that but first, I want to take a look at a particular idea that is a barrier to the Transforming Grace and that idea is all about you.

II. Intro

Have you ever made statements like this:

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“If it’s to be, it’s up to me”

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“God helps those who help themselves”

or maybe,

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“You can be anything you want to be, All you have to do is try hard enough”

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“I am enough”

or

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“I am a self-made man “ or “self- made woman”

How about:

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“ You are stronger than you know”

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“ Life is what you make it so make it good”

Or from the little green sage-

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“Do or do not, there is no try”

All of these sound really inspirational; they make you want to get up and go do something. The only problem is that they’re all a lie. Not a single one of these things teach you something about the way that the world actually works.

Isn’t it interesting, here in America and through-out the Western developed world, our highest value is individual expression. That’s why those phrases speak to us, because its speaks to our highest value, which is the unrestricted expression of the self.

Let me rephrase that…

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Personal expression of individual autonomy is the highest value in the world today.

We abhor weaknesses and glorify strength, self-sufficiency, and man-made accomplishments.

Think about it this way-

Even Christians will travel a thousand miles to hear a sports superstar or a popular entertainer give inspirational speeches about their accomplishments- simply because that person is famous for doing something big for themselves.

How pervasive is that in our world?

So there’s a latin phrase -

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Incurvatus in se

- This is a Latin term that was first coined by St. Augustine and means to be turned or curved inward on oneself, rather than outward toward others or toward God.

The Anglican Bishop, William Temple, once said,

our sin means that we make ourselves, in a thousand different ways, the center of the universe. But then our soul is bent over, turned in on itself, separates itself from the source of true life and nourishment, and eventually starves itself of spiritual oxygen, shrivels up, becomes hard, and dies.

This is actually an apt picture of Personal expression of individual autonomy - the soul bent in on itself.

Let’s look at this problem from a different angle:

Let me ask you this- How many of us would travel a single mile to go hear someone testify about all the things they stink at?

Or consider this illustration:

If you’re looking for a new job and you put together your resume, do you highlight accomplishments or do you write in your failures too?

Employers don’t hire for failures, so of course you don’t put failures on there- you put all your personal career successes.

Let me illustrate one other way-

How many of you like sermons that teach you how to improve your life?

Or put another way, how many of you want to hear a sermon that teaches you that you’re weak, that you’re not able to do anything good and that without God’s help, your works are nothing better than rotten eggs.

Personal expression of individual autonomy is the highest value in the world…

The question we have to ask is, is it our highest value too?

But if we know Christ, If we know him,

then we know that there’s something off about that, right?

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How do I live out a life of dependence on God’s Grace when everything in this life says it’s up to me?

Well, I’m going to give you the answer to the question up front, and then we’ll see what the Word of God has to say about it.

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Stop trying to be somebody

Start trusting in the transforming grace of God

Look to Jesus who is somebody

III. Passage Intro

Transition:

So to help us get started,

I want to introduce you to a person who would have many great things to boast about.

He lived about 2000 years ago. He was a big shot.

He studied under the greatest theologian at the time.

He probably would have risen to a very prominent position in his religious order.

His name was Sha’ul, and he was a brilliant student of the Law of God and a respect young protege in the religious order the Jewish people called the Pharisees.

He was so fervent for God and for God’s word that he even began to hunt down and prosecute what he thought were traitors to the faith. He even presided over the execution of one of these so called followers of the way.

He was all of those things and probably much more… that is, until he encountered the risen Lord himself. Yeshua ha mashiach….. or as we call him, Jesus Christ.

This man, Saul, the Apostle Paul, went on to become the most famous evangelist of all time. He spread the gospel across the Mediterranean world. Think about this: he brought the gospel to the gentiles, was hand-picked by Jesus himself, and wrote a third of the New Testament.

That’s a pretty big resume.

And yet, in one of those letters, the Apostle Paul says this:

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2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (LSB)

7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!

8 Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me.

9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

For all that Paul could claim, for as stellar of a resume that he could put together, Paul says that he will boast in his weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in him

A. A Thorn in the Side to Help US Stop Trying to Be Somebody

Take a look at verse 7 and 8 again. Paul says he was given what he calls, a thorn in the flesh. He also calls it a a messenger of Satan.

Paul says he pleaded with the Lord 3 times that it might be removed. Now keep in mind, when Paul says he pleaded, he’s not just talking about what Stivey calls “Cheetah Prayers” -

Paul wasn’t just walking along feeling bad from whatever this thorn in the side is, and offered up: Hey God, it’s me Paul. Please remove this thorn in the flesh. Of course, your will be done. Amen. —-

— No, what Paul is talking about is pleading. It probably began with an hours long fast, face planted on the ground, sweating and restlessness, all through the night, praying the Psalms, praying the prayers, offering one’s who life to the Lord—- pleading with God, please remove this thorn in the flesh.

Sometimes Cheetah prayers are good, they help us pray without ceasing over all things in our lives. But Paul was pleading with the Lord but the Lord doesn’t move.

And why you might ask? Well Paul gave us the answer already. In verse 7 he says: to keep me from exalting myself. Because of all the great revelation he had been given from Jesus, Paul had things to boast about. But this thorn in the flesh reminded him that boasting about yourself is not only unnecessary, it is wrong in the Lord’s eyes.

Brothers and sisters, if the Great Apostle Paul has need to be kept from exalting himself, then we most certainly do to.

And that’s the first step. We need to recognize that what the world teaches is wrong about and embrace the truth:

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We need to stop trying to be somebody. Weaknesses teach us who we really are and what we really need.

Isn’t it interesting that God thinks humility is more important than comfort. God wants us to become unbent- he doesn’t want us curved in on ourselves, focused on our accomplishments in this life. He wants us to forget about the things we think we’re good at and remember just how weak we really are.

There’s a reason why God does this. Frankly, it’s for our own Good, but Paul goes on to provide us the answer as well.

B. Start Trusting in the Transforming Grace of God

You see, God doesn’t allow us to see the promised land and then bring us back into the valley to suffer because he’s sadistic.

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No, we see that the Lord does answer Paul’s prayer even though he doesn’t remove the thorn in the flesh. The Lord says to Paul,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”

You see, there are two inter-related types of grace that the Bible teaches us.

First, we understand that Grace in it’s most important sense is the unmerited favor of God given to us as a free gift through faith in Christ, whereby man can be saved.

But the second kind of grace is God’s divine assistance given to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is that everyday grace that we need for sanctification and endurance.

Last week, you heard about that first type of grace, the grace that leads to salvation.

Today, we’re learning from the Apostle Paul that there’s a transforming type of grace that teaches us to endure and to be strengthen in the power of the Holy Spirit despite our weaknesses.

John Piper Comments on this passage and says:

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“God’s design is to make you a showcase for Jesus’ power. But not necessarily the way the market demands: not by getting rid of all our weaknesses; but by giving strength to endure and even rejoice in tribulation.” (1)

John Calvin once said that men have no taste for this type of grace, until they are convinced of their need of it and they immediately forget it’s value until they are continually reminded by awareness of their own weakness.

Behavior modification says eliminate your weaknesses. God’s transforming grace says I will give you Spiritual Transformation so that you might learn to rejoice in your weaknesses.

Once we figure out that we don’t need to be somebody in God’s kingdom, the door opens for us to

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Start Trusting in the Transforming Grace of God

If we want to become unbent, we have to stop trying to be somebody and start trusting in the transforming grace of God.

There is no other way, and in fact, you have to do this every day.

We don’t store up grace to save for another day.

This is like the manna that came down for the Israelites to pick up every day. They couldn’t hold onto it for the next day because God designed it to be good for only one day.

In the same way, God has designed his providential, Spirit-empowered grace to be appropriated by us on a daily basis and this is for our good…. because it teaches us to rely on him every day, and not just every once in a while.

But maybe you’re wondering, how do I appropriate that?

How do I take up this grace on a daily basis?

C. Look to Jesus, who is somebody

The answer to this is simple. Paul says I will boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

In other words, Paul say’s: I will look to Jesus!

When I’m weak, I’ll look to Jesus.

When I have insults thrown at me, I’ll look to Jesus.

When I have hardships, I’ll look to Jesus.

When I’m persecuted, I’ll look to Jesus.

When I suffer, I’ll look to Jesus.

Paul says that when he is weak, then he is strong. How can he say that?

He can say that because he has Jesus.

And because he has Jesus, then whenever weakness comes upon him and whenever circumstances look dire and dark, he can look to Jesus who is like a personal light house on the stormiest seas of life.

Paul understands that he can:

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Look to Jesus, Who is Somebody! The Only Somebody!

You can make that a write down.

You see, just like Paul, this transforming grace helps us to recognize that we need to look to Jesus for all of our needs. Paul, who wrote most of his letters from jail says that we can find contentment even in the worst of circumstances because we have Jesus.

And so, this is the lesson for us today. Transforming grace teaches us that,

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Stop trying to be somebody, Start trusting in the transforming grace of God, and Look to Jesus who is somebody.

V. Closing

As we close, I want you to recall the story of David and Goliath. You know the story where the young shepherd boy David killed the giant Goliath with nothing more than a slingshot.

Now, I know it’s popular today to talk about overcoming your personal giants.

You’re having a bad day at work, but you find away to turn it around and you say, well the enemy wanted me to have a bad day but I overcame that giant.

Then you can take a selfie and post it on instagram, with the caption,

“Slayin Giants Every Day”

But I don’t think think that’s really what the story of David and Goliath is all about.

You see, you and I, we are weak.

You are not King David. And neither am I.

You see, there’s another group of people in that story that is often forgotten.

You and I,

we are the cowering Israelites who are scared to death of the giant Goliath. The Scriptures say that on hearing Goliath’s boastful words that King Saul and ALL of the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

That’s us.

They needed a hero and so do we.

Jesus is the true hero of our story. Where we are weak, he is strong; and he is the one who slays the giants through his transforming grace.

Brothers and sisters, if you have Jesus, then you have everything you need. There is no need to boast, to express oneself as successful in our individual autonomy.

We have a hero that is for us and this is so much better than the world’s way.

So, as we close,

[and BAND- You can Come Up]

I want to leave you with a prayer that you can pray to proclaim the power and the purpose of Jesus for your life.

Some of you recently heard this if you were on the recent 3-day weekend retreat that we just had.

But I couldn’t think of any other way to close today than to revisit this prayer.

This prayer invokes the hero who brings God’s Transforming Grace to us. It’s called the Breastplate of St. Patrick and you received a copy when you came in today. If you missed getting a copy, then you can pick one up at next steps.

If you have it in your hands, you can follow along as I read this,

Listen to this prayer from St. Patrick:

I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through belief in the Threeness, Through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.

I arise today Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism, Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial, Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension, Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today Through the strength of the love of cherubim, In the obedience of angels, In the service of archangels, In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward, In the prayers of patriarchs, In the predictions of prophets, In the preaching of apostles, In the faith of confessors, In the innocence of holy virgins, In the deeds of righteous men.

I arise today, through The strength of heaven, The light of the sun, The radiance of the moon, The splendor of fire, The speed of lightning, The swiftness of wind, The depth of the sea, The stability of the earth, The firmness of rock.

I arise today, through God's strength to pilot me, God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's shield to protect me, God's host to save me From snares of devils, From temptation of vices, From everyone who shall wish me ill, afar and near.

I summon today All these powers between me and those evils, Against every cruel and merciless power that may oppose my body and soul, Against incantations of false prophets, Against black laws of pagandom, Against false laws of heretics, Against craft of idolatry, Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards, Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul; Christ to shield me today Against poison, against burning, Against drowning, against wounding, So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

Brothers and sisters, that’s a powerful prayer.

Make that the sole focus of your life and I promise you this:

If you stop trying to be somebody, start trusting in the transforming grace of God, and Look to Jesus who is somebody,

Then, the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.

It’s in his wonderful powerful name we pray and worship this morning,

Amen.

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Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) (Christ’s Power Is Made Perfect in Weakness)