Sincere Love, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In 2 Corinthians 12, 7-13, Paul begs God to remove the thorn in his flesh, but God chooses to let it remain, encouraging Paul that God's own grace will be enough. None of us relishes suffering in our lives, but often it is the very thing God uses to wake us up and help us focus our eyes more intently on our Lord Jesus. Let's listen in on this message titled, Sufficient Grace. This is part 4 of a message which was first preached on August 17, 2014.

To hear the entire message, you can visit www.delightingrace.com. This thorn, the good and sovereign God, will walk me through it and He will work through it. You might be sitting here this morning listening to this thinking, I could be more faithful to God if He would take this, and you fill in that blank, whatever this is, whatever your thorn is, because we're all a part of the human race. Every one of us in this room has a thorn, at least one, that we're dealing with. I could be more faithful to God if He would take this from my life, Lord, please take this from my life, and I will be able to be more faithful in serving you and more joyful in my walk with you, Lord, if you would just take this from my life. Listen to the Lord this morning, He is gladly willing to say, I'm going to keep it there.

Are you ready to surrender to that? Understanding that that thorn has purpose. If you don't surrender to it, then you're fixating on it and manipulating to get rid of that thorn. It becomes the focus of your life.

It becomes the definition of your character. Everything that you try to do to get rid of that thorn. And you know what? Let me tell you something.

Let me share a secret with you. To fight that thorn, you have to pay attention to it. That's exactly what the adversary wants. And paying attention to it at that level keeps you on high alert.

What do I need to do next? And it saps your resources and your strength and it robs you of your rest in God. At this point, I would quote the writer of Hebrews who says, fix your gaze on the Lord Jesus Christ. Fix your gaze on the one who made you and redeemed you and loves you deeply. And he will rescue you from the distracting noise of preoccupation. And walk with you through your thorn. What are you called to this morning?

What was Paul called to? Survival? No, we're not called to survival. You have to understand something. This world is not it. It's not it. It will pass. It will pass.

This is not it. Aren't you glad for that? Something far, far, far better is yet to come.

And the Lord has revealed glimpses of that to us. Where are you called to? Survival?

No, survival is not the issue. Delight is the issue. You are called to delight. You have to know God to delight in Him. Fix your gaze upon Him, lest you be fixated on the here and now and end in despair. What do you need to surrender to Him so that you can be about the joy of delighting in Him and thereby pointing to Him?

May God do a work in your heart and mind this morning to answer that question. Nick Vujicic was born with a rare genetic disorder. He has no arms or legs, just two small feet attached to his torso. Growing up, Nick struggled emotionally and physically to accept his condition.

But today, Nick has what he calls, quote, a ridiculously good life. Here's what he writes, when I'm asked how I can claim a ridiculously good life when I have no arms or legs, people assume I'm suffering from what I lack. They inspect my body and wonder how I could possibly give my life to God who allowed me to be born without limbs.

Others have attempted to soothe me by saying that God has all the answers and then when I'm in heaven, I will find out His intentions. Please listen to what comes next. Instead, says Nick, I choose to live by what the Bible says, meaning what God has revealed, which is that God is the answer today, yesterday, and always.

Here's the best line of the whole account. You ready for this? My victory came through surrender. Behold the power of surrender. My victory came in surrender. I say to God, I give it to you once I yielded the Lord, took my pain and turned it into something good. He gave my life meaning when no one and nothing else could provide it.

Did you hear that? There are no answers. There are so many things that we can turn to, to mask the pain of our thorns.

But they do not answer the question why. Only God can do that. And in the answer to the question why we can find rest and joy and perseverance. If God can take someone like me, someone without arms and legs and use me as his hands and feet, that's pretty good. He can use anybody. It's not about ability. The only thing God needs from you is a willing heart.

Bingo. What does this have to do with sufficient grace in terms of genuine authority? Like I said, every one of us, if you're in Christ, you are a minister. You are called to delight in God, thereby pointing to him. Nick would have no authority to speak for the goodness and grace of God if he spent his energy resisting the thorn or complaining about it.

Loved ones, listen to me. As we all have thorns, there's not one in this room that doesn't have at least one thorn. This becomes an excellent opportunity for us to become a community of grace with a culture of discipleship.

What do I mean by that? What if your thorn is anxiety or some kind of a fear? What is it like when a loving brother or sister comes alongside of you to compassionately, lovingly walk with you Godward through the thorn and to speak God's truth into your life? Listen to this, please. Speaking God's truth into your life, I don't mean the imperatives of scripture. You ought to do this.

You ought to do that. No, no, no. When someone is going through the despairing moments of life from the frustrating effects of a fallen creation, a loving brother or sister comes alongside them and walks in a Godward direction speaking the indicative of scripture into their life. God is, God has, God will.

You are. Do you see the difference? To walk with that person, to help them fix their gaze on the one who has the answer to the question, why? This level of human connection is God's design for the church and I am absolutely convinced that if and when the church does that, there's a lot of other things we won't need so much to help us cope. We all have thorns but we are called to be a community of grace with a culture of discipleship and the power of fixing your gaze on the one who has the answer to the question, why? Is the same as the Lord saying, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will what? Help you make it through the day?

That's not what he said. I will give you rest. We all have thorns. I've had mine. I have been in places of deep deep loneliness. There were times I did not want to come here on Sunday morning. The only thing, the only thing that I could do was look to the Lord and say, you are good and you are faithful. I will delight in you because your opinion alone matters. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.