Title: His Sufficient Grace (Lent Day 31 Sermon)
His Grace is Sufficient
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 10 Therefore, for the sake of Christ, I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, privations, persecutions, and hardships, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NKJV)
On the 31st day so far, as I preached the Word, I personally received the most grace from yesterday's Word out of the many precious words. “As long as we are in Christ Jesus, nothing in creation can separate us from the love of God. No matter how difficult life is, there is nothing to be afraid of. The problems you struggle with cannot separate you from the love of God. You can overcome with the love of God who loves you. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Even you yourself cannot separate yourself from the love of God. Therefore, you can no longer say, 'God doesn't love me. God has forsaken me!’ I can’t put it into words. God's call to us in Christ Jesus can never be canceled. The God who began a good work in us will justify us, sanctify us, and glorify us.”
Paul is clearly against the trend of our time. Who would believe that weakness is better than strength? If someone brags about their weakness, how can that person be considered a normal person? “I rejoice in my infirmities, I rejoice in my reproaches, I rejoice in my poverty, I rejoice in my persecution, in my worries and anxieties,” Paul says. His words sometimes sound like those of masochists who take pleasure in abusing them. Why would he say that? The reason was that he knew that there was a purpose of God in everything he went through.
Paul had many painful experiences. Among them were chronic diseases that he had been ill for a long time. It was “a thorn in the flesh” as the Bible says today. He pleaded with God three times to remove it. This does not mean, in a literal sense, that he prayed three times. He continued to pray over this matter. However, God did not grant his request. Instead, God said, “My grace is sufficient for you.” “You are asking for the thorns in your body to be removed, but you are already in My sufficient grace. The time will come when you will understand my love and my mercy.” Instead of removing the thorn from Paul's body, God responded:
Can you guys understand the meaning of these words? We do not know what the thorn in Paul's body was. But what is certain is that the thorn made Paul's life painful. So he prayed for the thorn to be removed. However, God's response, saying, “My grace is sufficient for you,” completely changed the meaning of the thorn. The thorn was not to be removed, but to be thanked. Because there was a thorn in Paul's body, God's grace was being "sufficient" to Paul. In other words, the thorn in Paul's body was the channel of grace that made Paul ask for God's grace.
There was a 23-year-old young man who lost his mother in elementary school and lost his father in high school and was appointed as an assistant professor at Florida State University in the United States.
After that, he was a researcher in nuclear engineering at MIT, an associate professor at New York Institute of Technology, founded the Nuclear Fusion Research Institute, and returned to gold at the age of 32, serving as vice president of the Korean Academy of Sciences, president of KEPCO, and minister of science and technology. .
Then something like a blue sky happened to him. His son was diagnosed with chronic nephritis and had only five years to live. His son suffered from severe depression and attempted suicide twice, and his wife suffered a car accident. Unexpected hardships arose in his family. He came to the church with the feeling that a drowning man caught straw. He had never been to the threshold of a church in his lifetime, and he only knew that the church was a place for ignorant women to go, so he found the church. He was awkward, but like everyone else, he fell down and prayed. He begged to save his son. But there was no response. Then, finally, he heard a voice saying, “Do you know how much I love you? Have you ever thanked me for your son? Give thanks for your son!” This was the response he heard.
After that, his son recovered brightly and positively, got a job at Pan Am Airlines at the age of 20, got married, and was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage. This time, there was no hope, and he had no choice but to take off the ventilator with his own hands. He is now testifying of the God he met through his son's suffering. He is Dr. Geunmo Jeong. Giving such a son for 22 years was the channel of God's blessing for that family.
Listen to the testimonies above. You will never understand the words, “My grace is sufficient for you,” until you truly need such grace. If you meet death, you will be embarrassed, not knowing what to do. However, if you are a Christian then you will know what to do. You will be humbled in the face of death. And you will be in desperate need of God's grace. Then God will say the same to you. “My grace is sufficient for you!” I have seen such cases countless times. When you need it, God's grace will then overflow. However, you will not receive it until you truly need it.
The Lord said to Paul. “My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” Do you know what this word means? That means, when you are going through a trial beyond what you can do on your own, you will rely on God's power rather than your own. People only know that God can solve their problems only when they go through things they cannot do on their own. And, at that time, people will finally depend on God.
God sometimes allows us to do things that we cannot do in our own strength. God makes things happen to us that only Himself can solve. Why? By experiencing such events, people realize how powerless they are and their weaknesses. If we depend on any power at a time like this, it will be God's power, not our own. If God solves those problems then, we will know for sure. It is God who has solved this problem. We are not ourselves.
The suffering you are going through is an opportunity for God to reveal His grace and power. Your weakness and helplessness are the best opportunity to reveal your power to God. So, acknowledge and accept your weaknesses. Take a look at the people around you. No one wants to be weak. It's just people who want everyone to be strong. Do you want to be strong too? Do you live a life of faith to become a strong person? If you want to be truly strong, first accept your hardships and weaknesses with joy. Only then will you see the full manifestation of God's grace and power in your life. When God works within you, you become truly strong.