Alright, week two, stuff happens. Talked about it last week, I asked some of you if you got some stuff and all of you raised your hands. You ever heard of this guy, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? He, I'm sure you have, he wrote a couple hundred years ago into every life some rain must fall.
There's a song about that. Turns out, I want you to know this, Longfellow is a plagiarizer. He ripped it off, he stole it from Jesus, who said, describing his father, he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. You see, Jesus taught it, Longfellow stole it, we know it, but sometimes when rain falls us and it falls us, and when stuff happens to us and comes into our lives.
And it's hitting a fan all around, there is a kind of a natural reaction, which is why is this happening to me? I'm a good person, I didn't kill anybody, I go to church, I'm a Christian, I'm a follower of Jesus. I watched what that guy said on TV last night and he said, if I just gave enough money and just believe bad stuff wouldn't happen, I'd get a promotion. I went to Guatemala, God why?
Are you letting stuff happen to me? Now, I'm not immune from this, in fact, in fact what I would probably tell you is, I'm worse at it than you are, because trust me, there have been many late night arguments that I have had with God, I have on several occasions, laid out for God my resume. Do you know what I've done for you? Are you aware of who I am?
Because you don't seem to be participating in this, the way that I thought this was gonna go down, right? He doesn't do many times, much to my frustration, many times he does not do what I'm asking him to do. I'm not immune from stuff, and either of you. That's why guys, it's so important, this series is so fundamental, we have to understand why stuff happens, because if we don't understand that it's gonna happen, we're gonna get confused about God, we're gonna lose our faith, we're gonna give up, if we just keep telling our kids, no, no, no, just follow God, and everything will go well.
It won't, you're setting them up to lose faith later in life, when something happens that's not well. I know there's lots of well-meaning people out there, maybe speaking as best as I can in their mind about God, that if you just believe enough or perform well enough or pray hard enough, stuff won't happen. Hear me on this, you know what that is? That's religion.
No different than any other world religion, just Jesus' name is stuck on it. And I am here this morning to tell you, that is not what Jesus taught. It is not true, and you won't find it in the Bible. The Bible is, as we said last week, not a book, chockful of stories about people's lives, that just keep getting better and better.
Things were great on Monday, and then Tuesday, I got a promotion. My children listened everywhere I said, and I got the beach house. Our story is a story about people who somehow, in the midst of, I need a load of stuff, holding on, finding faith, choosing faith, even when in the midst of all of it, it seems at the moment that God is disinterested or in their plight, he's absent. It's people learning that God isn't controlled, even when it seems like the world is out of control.
If you're here last week, we learned a couple of foundational things as we launched off. The first is, one of the reasons that stuff happens. Stuff happens, it rains on the righteous and the evil, because in this world, things are not as God would have it to be. Paul writes that everything and all of creation has been, quote, the words he used, subject to frustration.
None of it, it's all frustrated. Everything and all of creation is not working away. God wanted it to work. That includes you and I.
Paul goes, we're all of it, everything in creation, including you and I, in bondage to decay. He says, it's so bad that everything and all of creation is groaning, waiting just one day, longing for the day. When the brokenness, the sin will be eradicated, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. The stuff Jesus talked about, a place without sin or dying or death or tears.
But Paul says, right now stuff happens because this is not that day. The creation that you are in, the body you are in, the mind that you have is broken. Because while we're made in the image of God, what sin has wreaked in our life and in this world is not as God designed us to be. Please understand, people get this confused all the time.
You know, people go, well, God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't make mistakes. But we, and everything around us, is not the way God meant it to be, it is broken. We do not naturally think the way that God wants us to think.
Have you ever taken a turn at nursery upstairs? No child's first word is mom or dad, it is? No, no. I've watched children upstairs.
And you know what I've watched as the children play with their toys? They have a genuine disinterest in sharing them. In fact, when approached to share, it's usually met with getting clocked in the head by the toy. That's natural.
Things are not the way that God designed them right now to be. That's why Jesus says in this world, you're gonna have problems, some stuff's gonna happen. Because you're dealing with a broken world and have it by broken people. And Jesus said this brokenness is gonna be a challenge for those who are trying to follow Him.
They're gonna get confused. So last week we got some context. Rain falls on all of us, because all creation is subject to this frustration. But this week, I wanna take it out of the general, I make it more personal.
I wanna talk about your stuff. Last week, unbelievably, I went to see my friend Diane when I spoke over earlier. Diane, I mean, she was like, oh, we need to plan my service. I said, plan your service.
Are you crazy? We got plenty of time. And Diane knew something I didn't. But I just shared a teaching, a video teaching that some of our small groups are gonna be working on.
That's why I want you to get into these small groups. That had talked about the concept of God not doing what we want Him to do. I've shared this story with you over the years too, because it's a troubling story. I mean, really, if you were gonna write the Bible to try to convince people that Jesus is who He said, He says, you wouldn't include this story, because this story doesn't make them look good.
In fact, Jesus knows it doesn't make them look good. You guys know, some of you know who John the Baptist is, right? John is not a Baptist. I mean, he's not like a Southern Baptist.
So if you come from a church background, he's not a Baptist. He was called the Baptist because he baptized people. He used to stand out in the Jordan River and he would yell to people out in the streets. You need to repent.
You need to change the way you think, because the King of the God is very near. Now, John knew this because John was actually, not just a friend of Jesus, he was a relative of Jesus. I want you to understand how well John knew Jesus, okay? Think about this with me.
John, if you know the story, when Mary, Jesus' mother, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, her relative, who's pregnant with John. John leaps in Elizabeth's belly. In utero, John knew who Jesus was. In utero.
And he grows up and he's doing his baptizing thing, prepare the way for the Lord, right? And here comes Jesus one day. And maybe you've seen it in a movie, John looks up, right? He says, behold the Lamb of God who taken away the sins of the earth.
It was John, he knew Jesus so well. It was John that said, I'm not even worthy of untying his sandals. And if John wasn't pretty sure of, and convince of who Jesus was before all of that. When he baptizes Jesus, the scriptures teach that heaven's open, the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus to make a dove and a voice comes out from the heavens, saying, you Jesus are my son whom I love with you, I am well pleased.
I mean, if you are John, you have to be pretty sure who Jesus is. I mean, really sure. In fact, John is so sure of who Jesus is. He gets bolder in his predictions.
In fact, he starts calling out to the religious leaders and the civil leaders, you need to repent too. You need to change the way you think too. That didn't go over all that well. And so John finds himself in some prison somewhere, kind of in a dungeon-y type of thing, hungry, cold, scared, because the rumors are, he's gonna lose his head, and he does.
And so here's what John does, because John really knew who Jesus was, and he had a lot of faith, but his circumstances changed. They took a turn for the worst, and so when John's disciples come to this, and to bring him some food, John says, listen, I need you guys to go back and ask Jesus a question for me. And what John says to ask Jesus is so interesting, because I think it's a question that you and I would ask, given the same set of changed circumstances. It's the question that you and I do ask, maybe not out loud because we don't want to be that presumptuous, but maybe internally when our circumstances change, John asks, and by the way, if you think your faith is stronger than John's, I mean, come on, let's be real.
So John asks a question that a lot of us do when the stuff hits the fan. John doesn't send his disciples back to Jesus and say, Jesus, what do you want me to do in order to reach out to my jailers with the good news of the gospel? That's not what he asks. John doesn't send his disciples back and say, Jesus, don't worry about me.
You'll go on without me. I'm doing great faith, fantastic. Don't worry about me. Our Commonwealth fair must become before our individual good.
That's not what he says. Doesn't say, go tell Jesus, my faith is really strong right now. Here's what John, John who left in the womb, John who heard the voice from the front, here's what John sends back to the men to ask Jesus. When they came, they asked, John the Baptist sent us to you.
He wants to know, are you the one to come? Or should we expect somebody else? See, if you want to know what happens, and we have to be honest, you're gonna just have to see in this talk, why honestly it's so important for a Christian community. If you want to see what stuff happens, what happens when stuff happens, even to the greatest of men, even to men of amazing faith, if you want to know what happens when stuff happens, don't look any further than John, because when stuff happens, doubt happens.
Doubt creeps in. You know, I was really sure about this, Jesus, but I'm not so sure anymore because my circumstances changed. Here's the thing you have to know, and you know this. Jesus loves John the Baptist.
In fact, here's what Jesus said about John. He said, I tell you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John. There is no human being that has ever lived that is better than John the Baptist. And with that in mind, I think this is why Jesus's response is so troubling.
At that very time, Jesus cured many, who had diseases, sickness and evil spirits, and Jesus gave sight to many who were blind, many. And so we replied to the messages, go back and report to John what you've seen, and what you've heard. I mean, the blind received sight, the lame walk, those who have leproseered cleanse, the deaf hear, the dead erase, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Now some of you know that when Jesus was doing what he was doing was citing an Old Testament prophecy, which Jesus knew John would understand, and it would be confirming that he was the Messiah.
But here's kind of the human way of what John was hearing. John, look at all the things I'm doing for everybody else but you. They're all getting cured, blind, they're saying, another version of this says, the prisoners are being set free, not you. You ever feel that way?
Especially in Christian communities where it's like, wow, God seems to really be moving. A lot of people's lives, at least that's what they're telling me. I mean, based on their Facebook post, God is just coming through for them, like, oh, over the place. My life sucks.
Right? I mean, that's just, but Jesus, my stuff. I got stuff going on, Jesus. Kind of been praying about it, but you don't see the answer.
It's serious stuff. I got kids stuff, job stuff, work stuff, health stuff. Jesus, my cancer. So what I shared with Diane just a week ago was that you might be asking it too.
All of us, one day, are gonna find ourselves in a season or a moment when we're asking God, I don't understand God, what's the deal? I prayed, I asked and you're not stopping the stuff. Maybe you start to wonder because you're not better than John, okay? I mean, I love you.
You're good people. You're not better than John. I mean, John was really sure. And John goes, oof, I'm not so sure anymore.
I'm not so sure you're the one. You might be wondering where he is, why he's not acting, but the truth is that the silence of God in your life does not show you that God loves you any less. He loved John the Baptist like crazy. He was the greatest human being ever born of a woman, and he wasn't coming to get John out of jail.
See, he still knows your name. He still loves you. He still knows about your stuff. He knows what you're going through.
He knows it might not seem that way. He knows it might not feel that way. You know why he knows? Because the line that he says next is so interesting.
Again, you would never write this. But here's what Jesus said after the disciples turn on and go, okay, I guess you're gonna have to go back and tell John, everybody's getting everything except him. And Jesus looks around and goes, he says this, blessed is anybody who doesn't stumble on account of me. In other words, in this life, in this world, when the stuff is exploding all around and you're just asking simply if God would get you out of it and he's not listening, Jesus is going, listen, I want you to understand blessed is the person who's still gonna trust in me, even when they don't hear me.
Blessed is the person who still believes when the stuff does not stop, when the cancer is still spreading. Blessed is the person who still follows me despite the fact that they can't see me or feel me. Blessed is the person that still loves and trusts and believes even though right now I'm a disappointment to them. Blessed are they who don't stumble because of me.
It's underlying, an underlying principle in this series. Is this God not coming through for you or answering your prayer in the way you want it answered or doing for you what you want for him to do in the middle of all your stuff is not a reason for giving up on faith. I like I want to speak, put it this way. God's lack of cooperation is not an argument against his existence, it's kind of funny, right?
If lack of cooperation proves someone does not exist, my kids would not exist. And I think if you ask my kids, if lack of cooperation shows that someone does not exist, dad does not exist. But certain seasons of life in the middle of a stuff, it feels that way, Jesus knew it. Now Paul, remember we talked about Paul last week, right?
Here's Paul, Paul was this really righteous Jewish guy. He kept all the laws, I mean if you think you're good to keep in the 10 commandments, he was keeping like 600 laws and then this upstart Jewish tribe gets going at saying that Jesus, this Jesus, this convict was the Messiah and you know it's becoming a problem for the church. So Paul, because he's such a believer, he's so righteous, he decides he's gonna step out in faith and he's gonna persecute this church. So Paul is like leading the persecution against Jesus' church until Paul meets the resurrected Jesus one day on the road to Damascus.
Paul comes into this incredible faith and so he starts planting churches, telling the truth about who Jesus is that he came and lived and was resurrected again. And if you would but change the way you think and if you would believe on him, he would give you a new life and he would begin to live in you and through you. And Paul's setting up these churches all over the place for the gospel. And so he's really good and he did everything he should do.
So based on what I watch on TV at night, he should get that promotion, Jenny. But Paul as we showed last week, he said, well here's what I got, I received 40 lashes five times, I was beating three times with rods once, and he just goes, and once I was pelted with stones. Three times I was shipwrecked, I spent the night and day in the open sea, I've been constantly on the move, I'm in dangers from rivers and bandits, I'm a danger in the city and the country at sea, I've labored in toil and I've gone without sleep, I've known hunger and thirst and I've gone without food, I've been cold and naked. See Paul had stuff in his life.
It wasn't just stuff, but I mean some of that you could go, that's true, but Paul also had some personal stuff because you've got personal stuff too. Because the scripture's teaching about 20 years or so that Paul was in this ministry as he's planting these churches all around the Mediterranean, Paul was afflicted with something, there was something wrong with him personally. And it was an obstacle that caused great consternation from, definitely personal in its scope and it was screwing up what God called him to do. And you know what Paul did when Paul had an issue in his life, something was really driving him up and it was screwing up what he wanted in his life, Paul prays.
And when he prays, you know what he hears? No, no, no. But then he finds something that I think that you and I can find, he finds what John found. He finds a God that's not coming through for him, who's seen the absent, distant or disinterested in his plight.
But Paul makes this discovery about God in the midst of the stuff that is profound because I think we would all agree that just like John, Jesus loves Paul but he's not coming through for him. Paul's got this stuff not just generic stuff but he's got a personal issue that he needs healing from. And God says no. Now that should be a little encouraging if you've been praying like crazy and nothing's getting fixed.
Paul says I learned something, I learned something in the know. Paul, this guy that wrote half of the New Testament. Here's the story of his issue and his prayer and his discovery. You find a letter he wrote to the church and the city of Corinth.
Paul was telling them how much God had given him in terms of knowledge about the future and about spirituality and about the church. But then he says, however, in a sense, therefore, because I've been given all this stuff, in order to keep me from being conceded, this is the reason this is happening to Paul. Therefore, in order to keep from being conceded, in order that for the purpose of keeping me from thinking too much of myself, in order that I might not get cocky, in order that I might not become too sure of my own strength, in order that I might not think more of myself than I should rely on myself totally, believe in myself more than I should, because this is a pride issue. Pride is at the center of all sin.
Paul says, in order to keep me from starting to really think about me, and then I should rely on me, I was given. As the word given here is in the Greek, the Paul was writing the word given there with the most common word used for a good gift, like a birthday gift or a Christmas gift. It was a word of blessing. Paul, you need to be broken of your pride, so what did God give you?
A plaque? Let go and let God. Paul, what did he give you? Did he give you a book five ways to be humble?
Paul, what did he give you? Did he give you a WJD bracelet? Because that'll change everything. Paul goes, I was given this gift to keep me from being proud and relying on myself.
I was given a thorn in my flesh. In modern day, Norman Clature, me might say that he was given a real pain in the butt. I got some stuff. I was beaten and robbed and shipwrecked, yeah.
But this is something else. This is something internal. This is my own issue. Now no one knows what the thorn was.
Theologians have argued over this for centuries. Some people think it had to do with Paul's eyes, because there's places in his letters where he talks about, he's not able to see right. And so maybe his eyesight was really bad, and it was embarrassing for him. He was bumbling and stumbling around.
He looked silly. He's trying to look authoritative, but he can't see. Other theologians have proposed that maybe it was an epileptic issue, and Paul had seizures. And if you had a seizure in that day, they'd just kind of assumed you were possessed by demons.
So maybe it was that, Paul's going, this is embarrassing. I'm talking about God, and I'm having these seizures. Some have said it was malaria. Others have said it was what were referred to as super apostles, which were coming into the city saying, don't listen to Paul, don't listen to Paul.
He's not religious enough. He's not religious enough. You need to be more religious like us. No one knows what it was for sure, but it was really serious.
In fact, Paul says it was so serious. He describes it as a messenger of Satan. Again, nobody knows for sure what that means. Is that like, just a he-braic Satan saying, like, I just got back from the date from hell.
It was a mess unto us so bad. And he says it's tormenting me. I was given this thorn. It's so bad, I think it's like hell.
It hurts like hell. It's tormenting me. It's not a mild inconvenience. Everywhere he goes, everywhere he went, even in his ministry calling, it was always there.
Paul's doing the most important job that's ever been done by man. He's got this thing. He's got this stuff in his life, in his body. And he goes, look, three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
Three times I asked God to fix it. I don't think he just means, I prayed, I prayed, God, would you please take this away? No, God, would you take it away? No, God, would you take it away?
No, he didn't do it. Because that's how we tend to do it, right? I'm in front of him. I'm gonna pray for this.
I didn't Paul say, look, these were seasons of prayer. Maybe he fasted over this. Maybe sacrificed. I mean, he really poured himself out.
And you gotta think it's Paul, and what's gotta be so frustrating is Paul sees God curing people of thorns everywhere. Healing people could go city to city and we would talk about Jesus. The Holy Spirit would give him the power to heal people so that he could speak with authority. In fact, Paul had so much healing power from God.
Here's what Luke wrote, Luke wrote this book called Acts, and it talks about the early church and the Acts of the Apostles. It says God did extraordinary miracles through Paul so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured, and evil spirits left them. Can you imagine how frustrating this is for Paul? People are being healed by my hanky, right?
I gotta snot rag in my pocket. That is healing people. And I'm trying to do something, you know, if I'm Paul, I'm gonna start reciting my resume. God, do you realize what I'm doing down here?
And you're not coming through for me. Paul keeps praying. No, he keeps hearing, no, no. So if you're like Paul and you're stuff and you're praying and praying and you're praying and all you're getting is no, no, no.
I think you need to hear what Paul says he hears from God because it's not just from Paul, it's for all of us that get confused. This is what Paul said he heard from God. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. Paul, I'm not gonna be taking it away, but I want you to understand my grace.
It's not going away anyway, anytime soon Paul, you're gonna have to deal with this, but I want you to know my grace is going to be sufficient for you. That little Greek word there is keros, my keros, which means my kindness, my blessing, my favor, my strength. That will be enough for you. Your strength, Paul, is not gonna be enough to get you through.
Your faith isn't going to get you through. Your knowledge, your accomplishments, your resume, none of that is going to help you right now, Paul. But here's what I'm promising you. That my grace, my favor on you, my blessing on you, will be enough for you.
And he says, as he goes, because this is so counterintuitive, okay? This goes against everything you've been taught and you see on TV all the time. For my power, God's power is made perfect in weakness. See, as Christians, we love it when God's power is made perfect in strength.
I want God to use my successes to show how strong he is. God's impulse, my power is gonna be shown to be its absolute best, it's gonna be made perfect, not by your accomplishments, not by your wins, but by your losses. See, you're gonna go home and you're gonna watch the Super Bowl today. And you're gonna watch some guy, some guy that Christ, follower, and he's gonna score a touchdown.
And at the end of the Super Bowl, they're gonna ask him, you know, tell me about that Super Bowl, and the guy's gonna go, before I do, I need to give credit to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's awesome. We love that, because God is being glorified. God's strength is being shown through that victory, except God has this issue, he goes, yeah, that's really good, and I don't thank you.
That's good. But if you really wanna see my strength, if you really wanna see it, wait until you see what I'm gonna do in your weakness. Wait a sec. I need to pull, he's gonna pull, you know that whole hanky thing, that was cool.
But wait until you see what my strength is going to do for you now in your weakness in your stuff, and we know this. I have a friend who's, he's in this marriage, and it's a difficult marriage. He struggles in the marriage, and his partner's not the easiest person to love. Every time we talk about it, I'm like, it's not trying, sometimes I, you know, look, I'm like, if I was you, I'd give up.
He's like, no, this is the woman that got get me, and I am determined to love her. And God's grace is sufficient for me. His strength is the fact that I'm not running from this. I'm going to love this woman.
When I went to see Diane last week, I sat down with her, I told her this story, and I said, so, you know, what do you think? And she said, well, she said, I want you to know, I'm not afraid to die. And I said, what? I mean, yes, you should be afraid to die.
She's not afraid to die. I mean, I'm disappointed. Wanted to be at my daughter's wedding. It looks like I'm not going to make it.
But his grace is sufficient for me. So when Paul understands this, he starts to go, wait a minute, so God's strength is at its best when I'm at my weakness, weakest. And he comes to a conclusion. Here's the conclusion for you this morning.
Paul says, therefore, if that's true, since God's strength and glory are going to be known and seen when and in my stuff with my thorn, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to boast all the more gladly about my stuff, not about my successes, but I'm not going to tell you about all the churches I started. I'm going to tell you about all my failures. I'm going to boast about my weaknesses.
So that Christ, here's the key. I'm going to revel in it. I'm going to roll around in my loss and weakness because that's when Christ's power rests on me. That is why for Christ's sakes, I delight it.
I delight in insults and hardship and persecution and difficulties because when I'm weak, there's a power available to me that's not available anywhere else in the stuff with the stuff. Paul here's God saying, Paul, no, I'm not fixing it right now. Maybe you're hearing things like, no, I'm not bringing a guy into your life right now. Or no, I'm not going to change his free will.
I'm not going to just kind of change things there. No, I'm not giving you the promotion. No, you're not getting the A on the test. You're not going to study for it.
No, you're not going to come in first place. The county's next week. But I want you to know, if you will just stop striving so hard to get out of the pain and to change the circumstances, if you will own the stuff I can give you a power to overcome something that you've never even experienced. Anything like it?
He says, my power is going to rest on you. This is why, can't you just be honest with why the church in North America is so weak? You know why? Because we all walk in here every Sunday, dress nice.
How are things, brother? Blessed. How about you? Great.
So are your Facebook account? Congratulations on your daughter, sir. Attract me. And that new car, you got fantastic.
Right? Because this is what we do. Nobody boasts and weaknesses. That's what losers do.
Paul goes, no, no. The reason you're not experiencing any power in your life. The reason that God is just something you read about, but you're not experiencing your life, is you're trying to fix everything yourself. You're trying everything you do to strive to change your circumstances.
And I'm telling you, if you would just rest, if you would just embrace, in a sense, these issues, I can give you a power like you've never experienced any before. See, there's no power in doing it ourselves. There's pride in arrogance and self-sufficiency. This is why it's harder for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said, than for a camel to go through and I have a needle.
Why? Because the rich man's proud. He doesn't need God. He's not even experienced God.
He's his own God. This is why when you go to third world countries, this is why when you go to Guatemala, you come home, you go, I felt God there, like I never felt anywhere else. Because they need his power there. Some of you know this.
You know, AA, there are 2 million people in AA right now. Do you know why AA is by far the best substance abuse recovery program ever discovered? Because they figured it out. Step one, we admit we're powerless over stuff in our lives.
And our lives are unmanageable. Paul goes, you've got to own the weakness. My marriage is not great. My kids are out of control.
My career is in the tank. My finances are on mess. Step two, I came to believe that the power is a power greater than myself that could restore us. It's the gospel.
That's why it works. That's why Paul concluded. And we know. In all things, even in the stuff, in the muck, God is at work for those who love him and have been called according to his purposes.
Band, if you guys would come up. If you don't want to see Diane last week, I feel bad because I lied to her. I thought she had. And the doctors had said, well, Diane, you know, it's three months, the three years.
And so I said, Diane, I'm going to be here. She said, don't, you know, pastor, don't leave me. I said, Diane, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving.
I'm going to be with you every step of the next three years. I said, well, I literally said, you're going to be so sick of me being here. You're going to be chasing you off. I never got to see her again.
But when I went there that day and she said, yeah, I'm disappointed. I'm a little discouraged. Not because she got healed, but because of her faith. Renskin and Tim are up here this morning.
Some of you know they lost their child a couple months ago. Second service, I got them preaching. I looked up and he saw the two of you and said, I'm so inspired by you. The power of God is so glorified in your response, in your weakness.
We all have some thorns. You've got some stuff. And I know you want it gone. But there's an element where if you would just embrace the brokenness, let it go.
Trust God. Believe in God. There is a power available to you, one like you've never imagined.