My Grace is Sufficient For You, Part 1

Greetings and welcome to the sound of a shower not thanking you for joining us today because we know Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

If you've ever been in an extended trial of faith with fiery trial. Today's message is good news for you. Jesus said, my grace is efficient for you.

If you're thinking you've heard it all before, think again and join me as we discover the significance of each word in my grace is sufficient for you this morning were going to begin in second Corinthians the 12th chapter and looking at verse seven and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure now for this thing I went to the Lord three times and I asked that it might depart from me and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So if it's read in your Bible you know that's Jesus speaking back to Paul now. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. This is one of the most powerful testimonies that Paul gives regarding himself personally and he is referring to a time when he was in a continual battle in an ongoing battle against the spiritual adversary.

He was under spiritual attack and he names what the thorn in the flesh was so we don't need to speculate and said oh it was probably this and he probably had poor eyesight.

Marie probably had this problem or that problem.

All that is erroneous speculation because the Bible tells you what it was a messenger of Satan that were messengers.

Angelo's so it means Angel of Satan, note that Satan has Angels to because when Satan went up against God, to try to dethrone him. He had talked one third of the angels in accompanying him to go up there and try to dethrone God. And we know he got kicked out they got kicked out with them.

So now there on his payroll and so he sent one of his angels with a specific assignment to buffet Paul and the word there in the Greek the literal meaning is to strike someone with the fixed punch somebody with your fist, but of course we know that he's using it metaphorically, and therefore the spiritual application is to continually mistreat someone in a violent way. I want you to understand it was not a physical thorn of sickness of any kind. But it was a spiritual thing. A spiritual thing.

Amen. And where it says thorn in IN the flesh it really is incorrectly translated because it's not referring to a preposition again because that would mean a location you know I'm in the house I'm located within the house know in the Greek it's what they call the data case and what that means is it's referring to were indicating the recipient of the thorn. So another words, instead of saying a thorn in the flesh, it would be better a thorn for for the flesh. Amen.

Let me give you a similar figure speech that we might use when something is just on you and on you and getting on your nerves and there's no let up. You say maybe it's the person he is a pain in the neck.

Amen. And we have other such things that we say, but you get the understanding.

Amen. So were talking about this messenger of Satan was not for the flash coming against him. And now this thing had going on for a while and I have to believe that Paul was accustomed to getting his prayers answered. I think he was accustomed to having to pray once you know and maybe mention it again, but you have to pray about it honestly. Make a special time of prayer where it wasn't just one of the things you're praying about, but it was not prayer of the day and three times he came to God and he was asking God the word. There is very strong. We don't use any words, archaic but it means really to plead with to plead with the Lord to remove this messenger of Satan and where it says it to be removed in the Greek you have a choice of he, she or it and it would've been correctly translated for him to be removed. Amen.

Because we're talking about a person, a messenger of Satan in Angel this is someone who possesses a mind and a personality. So for this angel to be removed. But God said, I have other plans for you. So God essentially said to him I won't remove him while the thorn I want remove the messenger of Satan on how this warfare to continue because my grace is sufficient for you, using God sometimes allows godly temptations upon our life but when he does it's because it's going to be accompanied by an increase of grace and God's grace produces strength and strength is magnified in our weakness. I always like to put it this way.

My weakness is a showcase for God strength when God wants to show off his balloting to keep his children in no way did and on the world. Where were surrounded by persecution in the natural and great persecution. Body me in the spirit God wants to show I'm able to keep my children.

He lets us go through what time of weakness and then he allows his strength to be magnified. So God said my grace is sufficient for you. Amen. And the answer was so powerful and so great. So much so that Paul stopped asking and praying for it to be removed.

He stopped asking for to be removed. Instead he started rejoicing.

He started rejoicing in the grace that God was pouring out on him. He said most gladly therefore what am I going to do.

I'm going to take pleasure in these things and when it says take pleasure. It's talking about. I see this is a good thing. Now, instead of a bad thing. I'm now seeing it as a good thing.

So he said I'm going to belts that were the glory most in this grace because it brings strength it brings glory and it brings power not tell you who doesn't want more strength doesn't want the power of God to rest on you in a greater way to be revealed globally to me. Me with his blood pouring from the theater was going reciprocally up and down and up and down over and over and over to my whole body was like electricity, but not enough in a way that was painful but in a way that was pleasurable and when did he do when I was in the midst of breast cancer saga.

Having had surgery and now facing. They wanted me to have radiation and chemotherapy and after the surgery when the surgery folks. Then he zapped me with his glory.

Amen.

So sometimes you gotta go through severe trials to see the greater glory you are glory on those ordinary humdrum days. It's when you get ahead what the crises it's when you been a long-standing battle that seems to drag on and on and on like happened to me with the back injury that I went through so many years. Amen.

So Danny concluded in verse 10. Therefore now, whenever you see the word therefore you gotta find out what it's there for, because you gotta go see what it said before it. Now I don't know what it's there for the saying because of his grace is sufficient for me. Therefore, because he said that my power is magnified in your weakness. So because of that he said I take pleasure. I counted as a good thing in my infirmities and my reproaches and my necessities in my persecutions and in my distresses for Christ's sake. I'm not going to take the time to do a word study in all these words or I'll get way off my track, but this would be a good homework assignment for you to look up in your Strong's dictionary don't look in the American Webster dictionary because you need to find out what the Greek means I don't want to be read in Greek that you probably don't care but you can look numbers up in strong amen and it'll give it to you so I boasted these things and I take pleasure in these things for when I am weak, then I am strong. That's only the oxymoron when I am with them strong one when you reach your Strong because when I am weak I am strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. It's when I'm week that his power is greater in me. When his power is showcased in me and if I did me.

Amen. So he says I take pleasure. I choose to believe that this is a good thing.

It's not what I'm going through.

It's not because I'm happy about things that I'm going through but I like the results.

I like what it brings, the more Satan attacks me, the greater the power of God rest on the amen.

Sometimes when you were, you know, like preparing to preach on a Sunday morning.

A lot of times are preparing for something big. You know that you've been asked to be due to some special it's something for the Lord and it seems like you get a big attack. You can sleep the night before.

You know it's terrible when you got a preach on Sunday morning, you can sleep all night Saturday night you were fighting the devil all night long.

You wake up in the mornings like I was idling to Hounslow to get Stan up there, much less preach, but the devil is so stupid he cannot. He's got a bad memory because he forgets that every time he pulls that's done that and then you get in there. The best of your ability Dragon but you show up and all of a sudden you get this supernatural strength and then you can preach like her house fire because that God sees you went through that attack and how we can left you and your flashing and there was nothing you did to bring it on. It's just an attack of the devil and the devil shoots himself in the foot every time when he pulls that stuff because God said my grace is sufficient for you, I want to tell you it's true story based on this, my grace is sufficient for you. It's about a family who went on vacation and during vacation, tragedy struck and their young child died. Now the father was a Sunday school teacher and when he was returning home from the cemetery where they had just buried his child.

He felt all of a sudden a strong desire in his heart that Sunday morning that he was going to preach to his class. The meaning of going through severe trials and that's a very brave thing to do when you just buried your young child unexpectedly you're on vacation and tragedy struck. I don't know what What why the child died because when I read this account. They did not give that detail.

However, he thought. I'm going to preach on. You know how to get through severe trials. Now when he checked the text for that week's lesson because something a lot of churches have by the little preplanned books for their class and you follow that along every week.

Whatever text they give you that's what you teach on and apparently that was what he did when he checked what the text would be for that week's lesson. It was this first second Corinthians 12 nine my grace is sufficient for you, so he tried writing his sermon, but he could not.

In all honesty say that those words were true for him and he was struggling he was struggling with it. So finally he got down and he knelt by his bed and he pleaded with the Lord to make these words, my grace is sufficient for you to make them true for him and why is there pleading with the Lord.

He looked up and he saw hanging on his wall a Scripture plaque and said second Corinthians 12 nine my grace is sufficient for you. Now here's what happened a few days before the family had left to go on vacation. His mom had given him this Scripture plaque and they were, you know, getting ready to go away 90s is when you know mom while ongoing just hanging on the wall and of course on vacation is when this terrible thing happened is child died. They had come home and going through all that you have to with the funeral and burial and so when he looked up there. All of a sudden he said there was not plaque his mom had hung it on the wall while they were gone and now he starts wiping away the tears from his eyes so he could gaze at it because you know it looked different to him and so he wipes the tears away and he looks up there and he realizes that some of the words are painted in different colors. The work is was painted in a very bright green and the works of mine in the words you were painted in bright colors and a message flashed through his soul and he felt like the Lord was chiding him a bit to make him realize why are you asking me to make my grace is sufficient for you, it was that was the Lord was saying, and believe it and it will become true in your life. So the lesson that he took from this and I'm quoting his words never change God's facts into hopes or please, but simply them as realities and you will find them to be powerful as you believe them now. When I read this story.

It spoke to my heart and it touched me, and the Holy Spirit prompted me to take this verse. My grace is sufficient for you, and not just highlight my and is and you but every single word in the phrase, and when I did the power of each word creates a deeper meaning and a deeper confidence in God's grace. So my grace is sufficient for you. First were my mom I is a possessive pronoun that you all know that a pronoun stands for.

Now, how many know what pronoun stands in the place of a noun and how many know when noun is a person place or thing. Very good gold stars to every body. So now I ask you this question so does the pronoun my stand for in this verse, my grace is sufficient for you, God's grace, God is speaking and when you're speaking about yourself.

I don't say Sharon's blouses, green.

I think my blouse is green.

Amen.

So God is saying, my grace is sufficient for you, so my is the pronoun that stands in the place of God. So why do we care grace grace, not grace. The preachers gray gray gray non-gay bar. That word should die name Elsa died.

Normally, everybody says mighty God technically the board is mighty God, but else should die. Let me tell you about it should die. Going back to the date Hebrew and Arabic languages should die means enough.

So when a mama was be scolding her little ones you were making too much noise or get on her nerves and it should she say you know we would find a stop at stop it but already how many get the idea. See, I want you to know what should die means means that's enough now I'm using it to shut down some bad toddler's but when God should die. Nobody else now able you are you matter what it is no problem. Medium problem big problem.

He's just on the Lord he provides for you. I can provide for you. My grace is shalom in Hebrew is much richer than English. It doesn't mean an absence of war were an absence of conflict.

It means more than that means the presence of God in all his goodness. It means his presence is able to deliver you, rescue you feel you left you a gecko completeness hollowness. That's what the white means complete while not seeing nothing broken. He's enough. Amen. It's not human grace.

It is not human, grace because that's faulty man-made grace is weak, anemic it can be arbitrary. Amen with favoritism and partiality did it to be genuine and sincere, but only go so far in runout of resource but not God's grace, not God's grace is flip over to first Corinthians 10 and you know this verse but we want to read it because we want to get the full impact of it. First Corinthians 1013 there has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. So that means the devil is a liar when he tells you you're the only one going through this.

Nobody else knows what you're going through because nobody is as bad as you have a right now, or words to that effect by all who will not suffer you to be detected above that which you are able by well with the temptation also.

I like that. They're also made the way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. So God promised, I am faithful I'm not going allow you to be tempted. I'm not gonna let the messenger of Satan you above that which you are able. I'm always gonna stop it. I'm not always going to pull you directly out of that place but I promise you that I will make all the way of the way you make at least one way and that's why when you place you gotta be looking for God, not yours. Amen that you maybe there amen. What an uplifting word of the Lord, my grace is sufficient for you. Inspired by the true story of the tragic loss of the child and how second Corinthians 12 nine was the catalyst for healing, the Holy Spirit prompted me to define each word of this phrase the intention of each of the six words and their connective meetings create a dynamic perspective that brings strength and comfort for extended and puzzling trials for the embattled believer.

It makes the unbearable, bearable, and ushers in God's glorious power you can order my grace is sufficient for you on CD for love gift of $10 or more for a radio ministry request SK 210 mailed to sound of faith PO Box 1744, Baltimore, MD 21203 or go to our estore@soundthefaith.org where MP3s are available.

You will also find scores of messages on many topics by my father, RG Hardy and myself, but to order my grace is sufficient for you by mail send your minimum love gift of $10 to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, MD 21203 request offer SK 210. Till next time. The shower not saying