MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU
August 6, 2006 AM
Sermon Outline
2 COR 12:7-10
INTRO: A few weeks ago I was reading this very familiar passage in which the apostle Paul refers to his "thorn in the flesh", and I came to v. 9. I could not get beyond the Lord's response to Paul's prayer ... "My grace is sufficient for you." For some reason on that particular day those words seemed to be both meaningful and challenging. I could not help but wonder just how content I am with that assurance. I wonder, too, just how many times I might have responded, "Yes, but..." Can I be as accepting, gracious and positive as the apostle was? May I, this morning, visit with you about this assurance from the Lord ... with the hope that I am not only able to help you, but also myself.
I. THE GRACE OF GOD - TITUS 2:11-14
A. God's grace brings salvation
1. Eph 2:8 - "For by grace are ye saved through faith..."
2. neither the works of the law of Moses nor of merit can bring salvation
B. God's grace has been manifested ("appeared")
1. Lk 2:27-32 - "...mine eyes have seen thy salvation..."
2. God's grace appeared in the form of Jesus, His Son - Jno 1:14
C. God's grace is instructive
1. Acts 20:24 - "...to testify the gospel of the grace of God"
2. there is a message from God - that message is the gospel - that message is a provision of God's grace
II. THE GRACE OF GOD IS SUFFICIENT...
A. To provide our salvation
1. God has provided sufficiently and perfectly
2. any thought of salvation other than that which God's grace provides is insufficient, ineffective, useless
3. so, Heb 2:9 - Jesus' atoning death is "for every man"
4. I need to be comfortable, assured in the simplicity of God's salvation!
B. To provide for our direction
1. life presents us with so many choices, challenges, dilemmas
2. and I know that we so often try to meet these things with our own knowledge and wisdom -and too often the results are not satisfying
3. Acts 20:32 - God's grace has provided the up building word - and it is sufficient, all we need, perfect (2 Tim 3:16.17)
4. when life's questions come, go to the word of His grace for answers
C. To provide for our hope
1. "hope" seems to wane in the face of life's realities
2. so many people in our world (perhaps even among us) find themselves with little or no hope for the present or future - life is hard!
3. Titus 2:11-13 - the ultimate hope even if life has been hard, exasperating
4. but God's grace provides hope in prayer - 1 Jno 5:14,15 ... and here is a daily "answer" to real life - Ps 46:1
D. To provide for our comfort
1. not "creature comforts" - but comfort in times of anxiety, distress
2. Phil 4:7 - this is what is desperately needed by so many of us
3. 2 Cor 1:3,4 - from v. 4 I get the impression that God's comfort may well come via others (the church?) who have experienced that comfort!
4. yes, we have the comfort of the scriptures (Rom 15:4) and of prayer (Phil 4:6) - but the comfort of faithful, mature Christians is so "here, and now"
III. BUT DO WE WANT MORE THAN THIS?
A. We are so rooted in this world and in this life
1. everything is so immediate, so pressing, so "necessary"
2. our eyes and our lives are so connected to the temporal - demanding
3. bills to pay, doctors' appointments, children to "taxi", jobs to work - care to give to sick children, spouses, aging parents
4. these are our realities - and they just will not wait
B. So, the world can tend to become consuming in importance
1. the answers we want are who'll pay the bills, taxi the children, etc.
2. to suggest to one who is overwhelmed by life's realities that God's grace is sufficient may not be terribly satisfying
3 "I need real answers to today's problems ... now"
4. so, too, did the apostle Paul
C. I know that there must be reordering of the way we think
1. that is essentially what the Lord told Paul
2. yes, life has its realities - but by finding true satisfaction in our relationship with the Lord our perception of those realities can change - as did Paul's
3. contentment in God's grace takes the edge off of so many dilemmas
4. so, I need to seek the sufficiency that exists in God's grace!
CLOSE: Maybe I just need to have those words etched in mind as a response to things which confront me each day - "my grace is sufficient for thee".
Cecil A. Hutson
06 August 2006