For His Sake by Pastor Guy Roberts

We always want to feel in control. Like we can go it ourselves, without any assistance. However, there are some things we just can't do. Pastor Guy is here to tell us who can.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
You just listed all the things off, every one of those. He's completely
out of control. If you're layingon the ground, you've been whipped thirty
nine times close to the point ofdeath, beaten with Rob's Rod's shipwrecked,
a drift at sea for a wholeday. You learn pretty quick, but

(00:21):
you're not. Good morning and welcometo peace to you from Peace Lutheran Church
and our Vada, Colorado. Sometimeswe think that we can do it,
that we really don't need Christ.Today, Pastor Guy is going to talk

(00:42):
to us about the whole idea ofI can do it. Now here's Pastor
Guy, and we pray, GraciousFather, we praise you, and we
thank you for this day, foryour word, for the gift it is
to come and hear it speak toour hearts our lives as we leave this
place, that we may be awitness to you, and that people may

(01:03):
see you, especially in the midstof any weakness we may hold in Jesus
name. We pray Amen. Allright, So I want to introduce you.
This is an experience that we hadwhen we had our children. They
both had a very similar first ormaybe like top three first sentences that they
said to express themselves in the worldthat they're living. And they went like

(01:29):
this, some version of this.They did this, and they made a
face when they did it, bothof them identical face like this, and
they said, I do I doit. Anybody ever heard this before?
Maybe it went like this. Maybeit was me do me do it?

(01:49):
Or I do it myself. Maybeyour kids were advanced, maybe they used
a full sentence, I do itmyself. I look this up. This
is a phase. It's a phasethat kids go through from eighteen months to
like thirty six months. Praise God, they grow out of it, right,
they learn to use fuller sense,express themselves more. But while it's

(02:10):
happening, it's both incredibly frustrating becauseusually it's right when you need to be
somewhere. Is when it was likefull tantrum mode. I do it,
and it's like you don't even knowhow to tie your shoes yet, and
they're like, but I do it, and you're like, okay, here
we go. Anybody, Yeah,maybe they're doing it right now on your
lap, like you're trying to opensome goldfish for them and they're like,

(02:34):
I do and they're push and whathappens to the goldfish everywhere. Yeah,
so this is both hilarious and frustratingall at the same time. And eventually
they learn it's funny because it kindof learned that they don't can't do everything,
and they learn to kind of relyon you. And then when they
become teenagers, then they want youto do everything for them, and they

(02:55):
say, no, you do.And that's a different phase for sure,
and all of us have been there. Amen. I bet if you talk
to your parents, if they werestill here, you could call them up
and they go, oh, yeah, you totally did that. You made
us late for Grandma's blah blah blahwhatever one time, and they'd have a
story for you. And so thisis a strange thing to say at the

(03:16):
beginning of sermon, but it doesmake sense, I promise, because there
is this thing that I realized asI was reading today's epistle lesson which I'm
preaching on, is that is thatwe kind of all outgrow this phase as
little toddlers, you know, andwe learn that we have it until we
don't, and then we come backto mom and dad toddling back and ask

(03:38):
for their help or and they kindof bail us out, and we tend
to kind of learn that lesson.It's all areas of life except for one,
and that's in our relationship with theLord. Because I would submit that
if you're like me, which I'msure you are, that we tend to
be and I do kind of peopleright like I do it myself, maybe

(04:03):
you're like, like, for me, it's not even so much that I
come to a situation and I lookat God with the furrowed brow and said
I'm going to take care of this. I just forget to even think about
him. And then so something calmssome situation in life, and I'm like,
I got this, I'll take careof this. And when do I
start toddling over when I realize Idon't have it? And there I am

(04:30):
coming to God. When you readthis epistle lesson, it becomes clear,
especially in light of what's going onbefore the couple chapters leading into it,
it becomes super clear that the lessonPaul is teaching is that we don't get
to live and I do life.This life that we've been called to is
one of weakness. That's why hecan say this. It says he says

(04:58):
that for us. He says thatfor the sake of Christ, I am
content with my weakness. Well,how can he get to be to this
place? How can he say this? Because this is a statement of reality.
We are weak. It's just whowe are. There's no surprise in
this. Like in fact, let'sjust remind each other. Maybe you're sitting
to someone you just met, butturn to him and say you're weak.

(05:23):
That's right, And then you canturn you can say back, well,
thank you, Yeah, that's right. It's okay to hear this. It's
not should not be a surprise thatwe are weak. But Paul says something
in this passage that we read todayfrom Tewod Corinthians. He says that the

(05:45):
Lord had spoke to him and taughthim that my grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect inweakness. And again, this is
not something that you have to endeavoron. This is just gonna happen.
Despite our best efforts. We can'thandle all the things that come at us
in life. Our bodies are frail. We face things that are completely overwhelmed

(06:11):
us. And it's just the wayit is. But like Paul, we
can learn and will learn. Ishall submit to that. We will learn
that for sake of Christ, Iam content with weakness. Now, how
did we get here? How dowe get to a place where Paul could
say, my grace is sufficient,my power is made perfect in weakness.

(06:31):
How do we get to a placein which he could say that, for
the sake of Christ, I'm nowcontent with this. Well, the reason
why he's even talking about this isbecause he has come he is writing the
Church of Corinth, and they havehad some false teachers come in, and
the false teachers have been discrediting himand saying that he is weak. Why
would you follow someone who is weakand that he isn't even he doesn't do

(06:55):
anything. And you need to youneed more powerful, You need to you
need to rely most likely, youneed to rely on the law and God's
gift of the law and the powerof who you are by virtue of your
call being an Israelite. And they'retrying to revert the church back to before
Jesus, and so he's having tomake the case from a distance in a

(07:18):
letter that listen, listen, ifwe're going to boast about things done,
I'm the one that could boast.And he can listen to this. In
chapter eleven, we're in chapter twelvefor today. But in chapter eleven he
kind of gives his credentials. Helays it out, and I want you

(07:39):
to just to ask yourself, isthis something that you would even be willing
to do? Let alone? Haveyou experienced something similar to this? But
for the sake of Christ? Hesays, then sends many boasts. According
to the flesh, I too willboast. But whatever anyone else dares to
boast, I'm speaking as a fool. I shouldn't have to do this.
It is a foolish thing to haveto lay out all the things that we

(08:01):
do. But if we're gonna dothis game, this is what the Lord
has done through me. And hesays about these false teachers. Are they
Hebrews? So am I? Arethey Israelites? So am I? Are
they offspring of Abraham? So amI? Are they servants of Christ?
I am a better one. I'mtalking like a madman, with far greater

(08:24):
labors, far more imprisonments, withcountless beatings and often near death. Listen
to this. Five times I receivedat the hands of the Jews forty lashes
less one. Three times I wasbeaten with rods, wrecked once, I
was stoned. Three times I wasshipwrecked a night, in a day,
I was adrift at sea on frequentjourneys, and danger from rivers, danger

(08:48):
from robberts, danger from my ownpeople, danger from gentiles, danger in
the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false
brothers, in toil and hardship,through many a sleeplessness, in hunger and
thirst, often without food, andcold and exposure. And apart from other
things, there's the daily pressure onme of my anxiety for all the churches.

(09:09):
Who is weak and I am notweak? Who is made to fall?
And I am not indignant? IfI must boast, I will boast
of the things that show my weakness. How did he get to this place?

(09:30):
He just listed all the things off, every one of those. He's
completely out of control. If you'relaying on the ground, you've been whipped
thirty nine times point close to thepoint of death, beaten with robs rods,
shipwrecked, adrift at sea for awhole day, you'll learn pretty quick

(09:50):
that you're not in control. Thatthis is not an I do situation that
only by the mercy and grace ofGod. So Paul had lived enough life
to recognize that God is faithful torecognize that only by his grace, only
by his power, only by hisstrength, will he come through these things.

(10:15):
Now raise your hand. If you'reunder the age of twenty, I
want to see you. Okay,I'm speaking to you now. You're probably
pretty optimistic about life, and Ilove that about you. Amen, you're
like, I got this. Theworld is my oyster. If you're a
little kid either like what are youtalking about? But if you're from that
like fifteen to twenty five, you'reprobably in that place going yep, I

(10:37):
got this, I got all thethings, and Amen, the world needs
a lot of that. But what'sgoing to happen This is not even a
question. What is going to happento you is you're going to live some
life and you're going to realize thatnot all the situations are I do situations

(10:58):
that you can hand it. Andwhat's gonna happen is there's gonna be one
constant, present force of goodness andgrace in your life. And his name
is Jesus, and he will remainsteadfast, and he will demonstrate his faithfulness
and this will happen to you againand again and again and again, and

(11:20):
you're gonna make some dumb decisions andthey're gonna have consequences, and bad things
are gonna happen, like a hwhat's that called diagnosis has kind of come
out of nowhere for one of yourfamily members or yourself, and you're going
to realize that this world is kindof out of control. You're gonna witness
things you never thought that you wouldhave to witness, like airplanes flying into

(11:41):
the side of the building and threethousand people die, and remember that,
and it's going to change the worldaround you. Kids. You used to
be able to go to the airportand you could just kind of walk in
and go to the gate. Peoplecould go with you. Do you remember
those days when you go to theairport, they strip you down and they're
wanding you and they're they're frisking you. And it used to not be like

(12:03):
that, You remember, Man,I wish we could go back to that,
but we can't because terror is real. There used to be a day
that someone would cough in a roomand no one would even look at them.
And now someone coughs in the room, and what do we do?
Right? This is how life is. It's gonna come at you. There's

(12:24):
no but what's gonna happen as youlive life, You're gonna mature, like
Paul matured, You're gonna understand thatin the midst of those weaknesses you can
most clearly see the strength that welive in and his name is Jesus.
And it's gonna happen to you enoughtimes that you'll start to believe it,
and you'll even start to know whenit's happening that that's the case. It's

(12:48):
not gonna be just something you thinkabout. After one of the more profound
things that ever happened, sitting witha group of people in Bible study.
I've shared this before already at thischurch, but I just this is so
profound. And I asked a groupof eighty year olds what percentage of their
life do they bring before the Lordin prayer? And there it was interesting,

(13:09):
like seventy to ninety percent. AndI said, when you're in your
twenties, what percentage of your lifedid you bring? They said fifteen to
twenty. And that's how life works. So Paul is able to say this,
He's able to come forward, he'sable to say and confess and repent
that he knows he is not thestrength here but for the sake that you

(13:33):
may not be led astray from Christ. Listen and look what God has done
in my life. There's no shortageof credentials here. But that's foolish talk,
because whether I had done these thingsor not, you belong to Jesus
and his grace is sufficient for you. You live every day in weakness.
You just have to admit it.You just have to understand that this is

(13:56):
how it is. You need peoplein your life to turn you and say
you're weak, and you could saythank you, I love you too,
because that's how life is. Andit's only in those moments that we truly
see Christ. And you'll have itlike this. So I'm still speaking to
the twenty year olds, but nowlet me talk to the sixty plus year
olds. Can I get an amen? You know this life, as your

(14:20):
body ages and you become more frailand your independence leaves you, you find
that you can only turn to thatweakness is real. It comes for us
all, and yet there is hopeand Christ and Christ alone. So I

(14:46):
just want to leave you with thisthe words of Paul as he gets to
the end of this for kind ofridiculous argument that he's trying to make and
show his credentials. He says,for the sake of Christ, I'm content
with all of this, because whenI'm weak, when i'm secondary, when
I'm out of the way, youcan more clearly see Christ, and in

(15:11):
Him we are strong. Amen,we pray, Almighty God, Your word
is cast like seed into the ground. Now let the dew of heaven descend
and righteous fruit abound. Amen.Okay, So we don't live in the
world where you can cough in aroom and no one will look at you.
So we're going to greet each other, but greed in the way that

(15:33):
you're comfortable. If someone doesn't wantto shake your hand, it doesn't mean
they don't like you. Just waveat them and say, from a distance
six feet, say I love youtoo. All right, let's stand and
greet each other as weaklings. Goodmorning, pastor guy, good morning?

(15:58):
What is wrong with us? Imean, you know that's a big question.
That is a big question. We'retalking about you specifically. Well,
yeah, when we talked about thatoffline, about me specifically, but you
know I can do it. Youknow me do and those things that you
talked about, especially with your kids, you know, when they're younger and
they say those things, and youknow why is what's wrong with us?

(16:21):
We were Christians, We we readthe Bible, we're in Bible studies,
we know this stuff. But yeah, we still tend to leave Jesus as
our last resort. What is wrongwith us? Why? Why is Jesus
always the last resort? Is thevery first thing that we do is pray?
Yeah, you know what's going onhere? Yeah, I mean,
I mean the short answer is sin. But really what it comes down to,

(16:44):
if you want to elaborate on that, is our hearts are kind of
geared from birth, you know.That's who we are in a broken world
and cursed world. Is that wedeclare independence from God. And it happens
from the very earliest age. Andthat's kind of why that example of toddlers
that me me me I do kindof phase strikes home. And while we

(17:08):
grow out of that in some ways, when it seems like with God,
we just kind of don't ever fullygrow out of it for sure, and
we get better at it probably.Yeah, So that seems to resonate with
people over the years, is yeah, but that's kind of the starting place
is just to admit that about ourselves. And that's what Paul is doing here,

(17:29):
is he makes the case to theChurch and Corinth about who he is,
and he's kind of defending his apostleship. And so he does list off
a whole bunch of stuff that hehas done and for the sake of Christ.
But he uses that word a lot. I boast in these things.
But it's what it was interesting tome is that that boasting is not like

(17:51):
bragging, it's like a foolish Hetreats it as a foolishness that he is
engaging in for their sake. Thenhe and then kind of the culmination of
it, the place where he hopesto lead them in a letter is that
I have learned to be content inmy weakness, for His grace is sufficient

(18:12):
for me, and His power ismade perfect in weakness. And then the
last verse of that section, whichis when I am weak, then I
am strong, And obviously that's talkingabout Jesus. So it's very difficult for
me to be content in my weakness. I know that I'm not content.
Yeah yeah, well, weakness islike weakness is just not something that we

(18:36):
as Americans. I don't know ifit's true in other cultures. But our
culture honors and lifts up strength,you know, and power and weakness is
seen as a bad attribute. Sothis kind of flies in the face of
I think most cultures, I knowmissionaries to like foreign countries like you know
Amazon, you know, when they'retelling the story of Christ, that's one

(19:00):
of the main things that they hearall the time is that, you know,
why would we follow your god?He's weak, you allow himself to
be killed. Why would you followthat god? You know? So this
is kind of the the way Iwas tought talked about when I was being
formed at seminary was this is thescandal of the cross. This is it
just flies in the face of howwe would do it. But that's kind

(19:22):
of the point, you know,right, we don't do it. We
have broke this world and God hasa different answer for it. So things
that are really something that you can'tyou can't fix yourself, that's right,
that's going to happen, and that'syou know, the Lord is there for
us for the especially for those times. But you know, the other part

(19:45):
was, I know there's probably somepeople other than myself that are thinking.
At first of all, in ourgospel reading, we talked about you really
can't be a prophet in your owncity, you know, that type of
thing. And Jesus is going outand he was, you know, when
he was healing people, and thathe he was amazed at their lack of
faith. And then he he uhcharged his his disciples to go out and

(20:07):
do these things, do these miracles. And they did. They cast out
demons, and they and they healeda great number of people. Do you
think that the people there at thetime said, well, who is this
Jesus? Because these disciples, hisdisciples are doing basically the same thing that
he's doing. And so I knowthere's probably some folks out there, you

(20:30):
know, they're wondering, well,wait a minute, If they're doing the
same thing he's doing, how didthe people know? How did the people
know that it's that He's behind this. They're not doing this on their own.
Yeah, what do you think?I think that you know, it's
fun to speculate, speculate about thosethings. What I would say is that
I don't I can't remember anywhere thatbeing addressed. I do know that when

(20:52):
the disciples come back from from doingthat work. In another of the gospels,
not in Mark, which is thereading is from They're really excited about
the things that they did and experienced, and you can see them feeling pretty
good about it. And Jesus,I can't remember the exact way which he
does it, but I know forsure that he kind of corrects them and
redirects them. And I you know, that's probably why this passage was chosen

(21:18):
to go along with this Corinthians chapterand the readings, because in general,
this is he redirects them back toyou know, you know, this is
this is this is you. Youdo these things in my name. And
that's basically what Paul is saying tothe Corinthians is that, listen, I've
done a lot of incredible things.If anyone can boast, it's me,

(21:42):
you know. If anyone is agood Christian, it's me. If anyone
is a good Jew, it's me. You know. In fact, I'm
better than all of you, hesays. And I've been beaten and shipwrecked
and whipped and flogged the point ofdeath, and you know, I've been
lived in every kind of danger canimagine, you know, so you can
give all of that credential to hisapostleship. But the point it gets to

(22:07):
with them is that you know,listen, I will not boast in any
of those things. I will onlyboast in things that show my weakness.
I've learned to be content in myweakness because when I'm weak and then I'm
strong. And what he means bythat is when I am when I get
over myself, when I set myselfout of this, then the strength that

(22:29):
I have in the Lord is allthat that shows. And that's that's all
that matters. And so it's whichwe know, like we know that,
we confess that. But just likethose little toddlers that say I do,
we just continue. We get betterat it in time, I think,
because we get tired and older.And and the way I've shared what I
shared on Sunday and Bible Study,is that we we God demonstrates his faithfulness

(22:53):
enough times that we start to okay, we can start to believe it.
Not just after the fact, afterit's all worked out and God's taken care
of us, we start to believeit sometimes even beforehand, where okay,
this, well, this is God'sgot this firmly in hand. I don't
need to worry about this. Yeah, I'm not capable of standing up under

(23:18):
this I don't need to be youknow that that kind of stuff happens,
I think for more spiritually mature,which usually equates with age, yes,
and experience. So yeah, well, you know, there's been times in
my life, I know that whereI've gotten stronger in my weakness. And
I can remember went some bad timeswhen when my dad got so sick,

(23:38):
you know, and I can rememberfirst of all, it just thinking we
can do this, you know,And then I caught myself we who's we?
You know, And so I startedpraying, you know, for hours,
I think, you know. Butas I did that, I did
get stronger in my weakness and thinkingthat, well, the doctors can handle

(24:00):
this, we can do this,you know. No, only the lawer
can do this. And if it'snot his design or if it's not his
intent to help that situation. It'skind of like Pastor Tim talked about a
long time ago when he prayed forhis father, just relieve his pain,
relieve, you know, and hisfather passed and he realized, oh,
his pain is gone. And Ikind of had that same thing, but

(24:22):
I got stronger, you know,in that what I looked at his weakness,
thinking that the doctors are I couldmake a difference, then we can't.
Yeah, it's all about him.Yeah, when you find yourself right
where you belong, which is asa creation of the Creator, a dearly
loved, loved child. Yes,it's just a kind of a You just
learned to live there. The olderyou get, the more he experience,

(24:44):
the more he demonstrates his faith.You just you learn to not only live
there like it's some task you haveto do, but you learn to appreciate
it and be thankful that that's whereyou are. That you don't have to
be all things right. So somebenefits to getting Yeah, I have to
remember that one. Yeah, hedid our confession. It's easier to say

(25:06):
is that he does it. Idon't have to do he does very good,
you know, I just say itover and over. Well, thank
you again for that message. Wereally appreciate that. We love being here
at Peace Lutheran Church fifty seventh inField, and we hope folks will join
us here on Sundays. We'd loveto have you. Pastor Guy, my
blessings on your week. Thanks Ken, thank you for joining us. A

(25:34):
peace to you from Peace Church inour bat To, Colorado. If you
have no church home, We wouldbe delighted for you to join us on
any Sunday. Our address is fivesix seventy five Field Street in our Battle,
Colorado. Our services are at eightand ten thirty am. Bible classes
for all ages are at nine tofifteen am. You can easily access our

(25:59):
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(26:21):
like a copy of today's broadcast andno charge to you, contact us at
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(26:42):
am Reuben Holiday and may the Peaceof Our Lord be with you today and always