His Grace Really Is Sufficient

Anthony D. Krones

Faith Throughout Trouble • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

2 Corinthians 12:7–10

Endurance

A Person having Faith Only

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His Grace is always sufficient despite our struggles, no matter how bad they are...

Notes

Transcript

Church family, this sermon will not be long, as you know I am want to do.

The Relapse

For those unaware, in June 2020, I had a significant relapse in my Multiple Sclerosis. It was Father’s Day and I was elated at what my family had been doing for me to celebrate the fact that I was Dad. I felt so very special, and it was all due to them.

Unfortunately, however, something was happening that I wouldn’t enjoy, that I had no idea could have known was going on.

You see, the major trigger for an MS relapse is stress. My first episode was brought on by a whole MESS of stress that I was dealing with in June of 2018. That’s neither here nor there.

That said, I was undergoing stress and had no idea.

What could be going wrong? I was surrounded by my wonderful family! I was socially distanced at a restaurant that had nobody in our section eating a food that I enjoyed (for those curious, it was Red Robin and their delicious Impossible Burger)! What could possibly stress me out to cause an MS relapse?

Well, did you know, church family, that, in addition to bad stress, there is apparently GOOD stress?

Yeah, I had no idea that it could affect me in the same way bad stress could.

So, in the middle of dinner…I started feeling…odd. The right side of my face started to and then went totally numb.

That’s…not good. I started getting vertigo and getting dizzy. I knew what was happening.

Vashti drove me straight home, and luckily I had a leftover prednisone tablet from my last relapse. For those unaware, prednisone is a steroid. Steroids are used to control MS because MS is an autoimmune disorder. This means that my immune system is actively attacking the nerve coating in my brain (called mylein), creating a new lesion. It’s a lot like having frayed wires in your fuse box at home. Things start going a little…haywire.

The next day, I sent a message to my doctor who sent me a full prednisone prescription. All good, right? I was on a new medication for my MS and I had JUST started it and he wanted to give it a chance to work.

Relapse Part II

So there I was, in November 2020, and we’re preparing for Thanksgiving. It’s awesome. We are planning what is probably the absolute BEST meal. It is going to be epic! Quorn roast! Gluten free stuffing! Green bean casserole (my favorite), amazing mashed potatoes (Beth did a particularly noteworthy job this year), a cranberry chutney (it was so amazing), and a rather…interesting version of an Italian Wedding cake. It was a new gluten free recipe and…well…we learned a recipe NOT to use. We ate it anyhow but we used too much xantham gum in it.

That said! It was still amazing, even the planning.

But then I woke up. My left hand was numb. The right side of my face was numb. And now my right hand, lightly, as well as the tips of my fingers on my right hand. Very not good.

Sent a message to my doctor: This is going on - what do I do?

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I got a message: Go to the ER in Birmingham to be evaluated.

I am, however, stubborn. I was NOT going to the ER in Birmingham the day before Thanksgiving. So, Thanksgiving passed…numbness worsening, and got to Birmingham on Friday.

The Pity Party

So, I’m there. For like, 8 hours in the ER, and am in the process of getting admitted.

Then the realization hit me: I am two hours or so away from my kids and wife. I cannot have but 1 visitor every 24 hours so nobody is likely to visit me, and how bad is my relapse, and, and, and, and...

And I cried out “God, why?”

I began to feel sorry for myself, something fierce. Every time it got particularly bad, every time I got on the phone with Stacy, or got to see Gideon on video chat, I would bawl like a baby afterwards.

The Chaplain

Frankly, I could not tell you his name. He was of average height and build, and I was told he was a Protestant chaplain. When he came in, I explained that I was trained in ministry and was a pastor, albeit in semi-retirement. He nodded and said that was helpful.

We spoke at length. I cried as I told my story. He was kind and yet, firm in his affirmation that yes, I was suffering. But Paul, too, suffered, with God allowing Satan to torment him.

Let’s take a look at that. Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10:

The New International Version Chapter 12

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh,d a messenger of Satan,e to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.f 9 But he said to me, “My graceg is sufficient for you, for my powerh is made perfect in weakness.i”j Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delightk in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,l in persecutions,m in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Let’s unpack this for a moment, shall we?

The Thorn

What happened? God, in his infinite wisdom, decided to proactively help Paul by keeping him from being conceited, that is excessively proud of oneself, by allowing Satan to inflict some sort of malady upon Paul. What is this malady? According to some commentators, it was severe depression and anxiety over the state of the churches he had founded. Others say that it was some sort of opposition to his ministry or message. Others, myself included, like to believe that it was a physical malady, unspecified in nature. You can probably guess why. In fact, after my first major episode, no less than three Adventist pastors felt led to share this verse with me. I identified with Paul in this.

Who here has been afflicted with a thorn in your side? Some thorns are bigger than others, but I think we can all agree that we’ve all been through or by a thornbush once or twice in your lives. Young people, if you haven’t, prepare yourself for the day you do. It will come without warning. I say this not to scare you, but to prepare you spiritually and emotionally, for the inevitable. Like many other things in the human condition in this life, thorns abound here on Earth.

The Prayer

I recieved many a visitor over the course of my first hospital stay. One of my visitors was my head elder at my Holdrege church as well as her husband. I don’t think she ever said an angry or stern word to me until then (or afterwards for that matter). Pauline said to me, “Pastor, why have you not called the elders together to pray over you.” My response shocked her: “Because God hasn’t told me to.” “Maybe this is God telling you,” she replied, more sternly than I’d ever heard from her in 2 1/2 years. I was gentle with her. “Pauline, God has already been clear on this, and even gave me a sign. I can pray all I want about this, but this condition is here to stay, with all of the trappings and trouble that comes with it. I don’t know why he allowed it...” I stopped. I did realize why he did it, which I shared with her (that’s another sermon for another day; suffice it to say that God was using it to, among other things, bring me back home to Alabama and our Harvest church family). In any case, she grudgingly accepted what I was having difficulty accepting: God was in this, and that for a reason.

Likewise, Paul prayed, our verse says, three times for his affliction to be removed.

How many times have you been afflicted with a hurt, a disease, a situation that you prayed, desperately, for relief from? I’m not talking about the quick and fervent prayer when that police car going the other direction when you were speeding. No, I’m talking about the cancer diagnosis. The upcoming eviction or bankruptcy. The pending divorce or separation. The child you love that walked away from their faith.

The Sufficiency of His Grace

Oooooh, boy this one is the most difficult to deal with and to hear.

When Paul prayed, the answer he got was not just “no,” but the most and least comforting thing one can hear in the midst of a prayer for relief of suffering:

“My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In the words of my children’s generation: Oof. Big oof.

His Grace “is sufficent?!” What is that supposed to mean?! I’m suffering, I’m in pain, I’m hurting, and all I get is Grace?!

But here is the kicker, church family: His Grace really is enough for us when we are weak.

Let me break it down for you:

If everything is going well, all your needs and even maybe some of your wants, are being fulfilled, how likely are you to reach out to God to help you with anything? Hmm?

But when you are in distress, when you are hurting, when things are at their darkest and bleakest, and you have absolutely zero recourse other than to just rely on God for whatever help He can provide? That’s the point!

God will do literally anything to get our attention and get us focused back on him, even in the extreme measures. A wise man once told me, regarding our shared calling into ministry “For some of us, the only way He [God] was going to save us was to put our butts into ministry.” It was true for me. But for some of us, myself included, we needed further extreme measures.

Church family, many of you remember me from when I left this building on the day before my graduation from Oakwood University, preaching my last sermon with energy and zeal. I carried that energy with me to my first and last district.

But God had to teach me some things. When we get laid low, and God’s response to our prayers is simply “My Grace is sufficient for you,” we cannot help but rely on Him on a daily basis.

How has God given you nothing but Grace when you are down and almost out? How many times have you had to rely on God because nobody and nothing else was going to help you or comfort you?

Made Perfect in Weakness

Church family, I’m going to admit something embarrassing to you, but for good reason. I also want to say that I want no pity or sympathy for what I am going to share.

I look like I can do for myself and care for myself, don’t I? The truth of the matter is that, after my last relapse this past November, and frankly, long before that even, since August 2018, I cannot do for myself some basic things due to my own thorn. My wife has to help me dress. My children have to help me move from place to place when I am too tired or unsteady or help me up when I fall, and yes, for those medically trained, I am a fall risk. They make me wear the bracelet at the hospital. Brothers and sisters, I often choke on my own saliva, let alone food. I have to use special eating utensils, I use a power chair or, at minimum, a cane to get me everywhere. I struggle with memory and ability to speak (except when preaching, apparently, praise God Almighty), let alone speak clearly, so I see a Speech Therapist. I have had a cognitive decline to the degree that the VA took my ability to manage my own money, making my wife my fiduciary. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Why do I tell you this? Because, like Paul, God has allowed this to demonstrate His perfection. I will proudly tell of my weaknesses because God is at work in my life! He has continued to bless me, in spite of myself, to the umpteenth amazingness time and time and time again!

Paul says “THEREFORE, I will BOAST all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Brothers and sisters, I tell you now that Jesus is at work in me more than he ever has been, on a level of intimacy that I had only hoped to achieve. Is our relationship perfect? No, I’m still human. But He’s doing a marvelous thing with me and mine. I wouldn’t trade that for my health ever.

And what do I have to complain about, really? God takes care of us financially, via the VA. God provided a home for us back here. He provided a church for us with you. He provided a way, through this pandemic, for my family to grow closer to each other, even if we can get on one another’s nerves.

So I ask you this: how is God made perfect in your weaknesses? How much has God blessed you? If you are feeling down and your life is falling apart, have you turned to God and thanked Him for what you do have?

For the Sake of Christ

Paul, in his many letters, always brings things back to Jesus. Of course he does, because Jesus is the end all be all of everything, right? Can we agree on that? Okay. If we can’t, give me a call and we’ll talk about it.

Paul says that, for Jesus’ sake, he is actually happy about his own weaknesses, insults hurled his way, hardships he endures, persecution he experiences, and in difficulties he faces, because, now pay attention to this, he does this because for when he is weak, ONLY THEN is he strong! Why? BECAUSE HE NO LONGER RELIES ON HIMSELF AND MUST RELY ON JESUS!!!

How often do we rely on our own strength, our own abilities, our own power to do this or that? Hmm? WHY ARE WE LIKE THIS?! We need to rely on Jesus for everything! Going through financial hardships? Jesus. Going through a divorce, a separation, or other marital or relationship difficulties? Jesus. Going through a difficult time in your health? JESUS!!!

In words of author Watchman Nee, Christ is the sum of all spiritual things. In the words of Norman Geisler, to understand the Bible, look for Jesus. John MacArthur says Jesus cannot be ignored! Heck, Sister White gave us Steps to Christ!

Closing

As we close out, I want to say that because Jesus is the end all be all of everything, Brothers and sisters, God’s Grace really is sufficient for each of us. I pray His Grace on each of you, in whatever season of your life you find yourself in so that His power may be made perfect in each of you, so that each of us may be conformed to the image of His Son, so that, when that last trumpet sounds, each of us may be called by name by He who is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Way, the Truth, and the Life: Jesus.

Numbers 6:24–26 NIV

“ ‘ “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” ’