Why Me? | His Grace Is Sufficient

If you were here last week and remember vicar’s sermon theme, it was why me? Why has God chosen me? Why has God chosen any of us to be the bearers of good news to tell others about Jesus? There’s nothing special about me In general and please don’t be offended by this. There’s nothing special really about any of us Maybe you feel the same way. I do. I am not a celebrity. I don’t hold sway with multitudes of people We’re just average people for the most part living average run-of-the-mill lives But indeed we are special because God has made us special He has made us his own dear children and as vicar told us last week God has chosen us To be his messengers to the world regardless of what we think of ourselves Regardless of our own insecurities We are God’s people his nation of priests to the nations In our text for this week. Paul is asking the same question. Essentially. Why me? But this week the question has a different meaning Paul is not asking why he was chosen to bring the good news to the nation specifically the Gentiles Since his conversion preaching the gospel has been his life’s work Instead Paul is asking why he was struggling with some affliction That the lord allowed to plague him And you get the sense from the reading of the text that whatever Paul was struggling with whatever Paul was going through Was something he thought was a hindrance to his ministry and he wanted it gone And he prayed and pleaded with the lord three times to remove and to take away this thorn in his flesh My dear friends I will go out on a limb and guess since that many of us if not all of us Have asked god that question. Why me? Why lord are you allowing me to struggle with health issues for so long? Why? Do I deserve this? Why are you allowing me to be treated unfairly while other people say false things about me? Why did this thing happen in my life? Why did that thing happen in my life? Maybe you are asking maybe you’re not asking those questions now But i’m willing to guess that at some point during your lives you have asked that question And maybe we have asked those questions with a hint of self-reliance and self-centeredness in our hearts I Need to do this in my life I Want to do that in my life and this burden lord this burden that you have given me Is preventing me from doing the things that I want to do And whatever it was that paul struggled with it tormented him In the greek it has this idea that it was beating him that it was hitting him that it was striking him I say that to say That sometimes the things that happen the bad things that happen to us in our lives they hurt They are no fun to deal with they are no fun to endure They can be tough Thankfully the lord does not treat us as our sins deserve He doesn’t punish us for being self-centered or self-reliant He doesn’t punish us for questioning him and his will for our lives Instead god says to us My grace is sufficient for you And we don’t often think about all the grace that god lavishes on us on a daily basis God provides us with everything that we need in life He provides us with shelter Now it may not be the house or the home that we want, but it is the shelter that we need in life He provides us with food and clothing Maybe it’s not filet mignon or maybe it’s not louis vitton clothing But he provides us with the food and the clothing that we need in life My grace is sufficient for you And then god has already shown us and given to us the ultimate grace Before he created the world he chose you and I to be his own He saved us through the power Excuse me through the waters of baptism and through the power of the gospel So what paul was asking and sometimes what we are asking for is more grace But our heavenly father knows best god knows What is best for us? In the first verse of our text, Paul describes why god allowed him to be afflicted with some ailment Paul begins the verse by saying that he has been given this thorn in the flesh this affliction Lest he become conceited and he finishes and in the Greek it finishes with those very same words Lest he become conceited God knew that for paul’s faith. It would be better for him to be afflicted Father knows best and god knows that it was better for paul to have that affliction Have that affliction rather than to not be afflicted In our first reading this morning god says to us in jeremiah 17 verse 7 Blessed is the one who trusts in the lord whose confidence is in him Paul needed to be reminded of that fact and sometimes So do we We should forget about being self-reliant forget about what we want But instead put our full faith and trust In the lord our hope is in the lord and what he has done for our salvation And what he does for us on a daily basis the grace that he shows to us on a daily basis until we reach our heavenly home The lord knows what we need in this world, but more importantly He knows what we need to sustain and to grow our faith Romans 8 chapter Romans 8 verse 28 reminds us of this when he says And we know that in all things god works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose Dare I say it sometimes the hardships that we go through in life are god’s way Of bringing us closer to him so that we realize that we have to rely Solely on him to put our trust and our confidence in him These are little reminders that god gives to us that he is our savior and that we should always rely and put our faith and trust in him God’s grace and his mercy and his power as it says in our text are made perfect in our weaknesses When we rely on him when we rely on him for our salvation His power and his grace is displayed in our lives When we rely on him and not ourselves We allow god’s will for our lives to take precedence and when we trust in him fully Then he displays his power in our lives God then shows us just how much he loves us So in our weaknesses We can boast like paul and all things because of what god has done for us When someone insults us because of our faith we can boast about what god continues to do for us When we endure hardships and persecutions because of our faith We can boast about what god has already done for us When stresses arise in our life and they will We can boast about how the lord is carrying us through those difficult times So why do bad things happen in our lives? We don’t know we don’t always know but here’s what we do know That the lord will turn those bad things into good for us that the lord will work them out for our good So why me? Why us? Why do we suffer through trials and tribulations? The answer is this It is because god loves us and he wants us to realize that his grace is sufficient sufficient for all of us in all times Amen