What does it mean to believe?

July 8, 2018 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 Children’s Sermon My grace is all you need, for my power is strongest when you are weak." (v. 9, TEV) Object: a He-man doll or a shirt picturing He-man. Lesson: Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you recognize this person I have here? (Show them the doll or the shirt.) How do you know so much about He-man? (They will tell you all about it.) Yes, that's right. He's on television. And we see him in the toy stores and in comic books. How strong is He-man, really? (Let them fill you in.) How did He-man get to be so strong? Where did he get all those muscles? Do you know anybody in real life that is like that? Do you know anybody who has so many muscles he can just about knock anybody flat he wants to? (They may know somebody like that. Let them offer some replies.) Do you think Jesus had a lot of big muscles like He-man? (Talk about it.) The Bible doesn't tell us, but it doesn't sound like it. Or, if Jesus did have any, it doesn't sound like he used them to act big and tough. Instead, Jesus acted gentle and kind and loving to people. Do you think that was a strong or a weak thing to do? (Talk about it.) Some people don't believe it, but when you love somebody, that's a strong thing to do. You don't have to be He-man to do that. Some people think loving people is a weak thing to do. But Jesus showed us that's not true. When Jesus died on the cross a lot of people thought he was the weakest man in town. But on Easter morning he turned out to be the strongest person in the universe. He died on the cross to love us, and that looked weak, but it was stronger than He-man for him to do it. Some things that look weak are really strong. Love is one of them. CSS Publishing Co., 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 Common English Bible (CEB) Paul’s visions and revelations from the Lord 12 It is necessary to brag, not that it does any good. I’ll move on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven fourteen years ago. I don’t know whether it was in the body or out of the body. God knows. 3-4 I know that this man was caught up into paradise and that he heard unspeakable words that were things no one is allowed to repeat. I don’t know whether it was in the body or apart from the body. God knows. 5 I’ll brag about this man, but I won’t brag about myself, except to brag about my weaknesses. 6 If I did want to brag, I wouldn’t make a fool of myself because I’d tell the truth. I’m holding back from bragging so that no one will give me any more credit than what anyone sees or hears about me. 7 I was given a thorn in my body because of the outstanding revelations I’ve received so that I wouldn’t be conceited. It’s a messenger from Satan sent to torment me so that I wouldn’t be conceited. 8 I pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me alone. 9 He said to me, “My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness.” So I’ll gladly spend my time bragging about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power can rest on me. 10 Therefore, I’m all right with weaknesses, insults, disasters, harassments, and stressful situations for the sake of Christ, because when I’m weak, then I’m strong. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible It must have been in 1998 when I was able to take a two week teaching with the Dalai Lama. The Kalachackra is a teaching on world peace, it is held in a different place in the world every two or three years. And people come from all over the world, to be a part of this teaching. The Dalai Lama’s brother, who has since passed was a professor at Indiana University, so they hosted a teaching. Even though Bloomington, Indiana is a 5 hour drive, it was an exotic trip. I slept in a tent for the teaching, with a group of buddhist. Since I had a car, I was asked to host a family from Tibet that needed a ride everyday from the camp ground to the tent sight. They set up a grounds area to look like Tibet on the university. I remember there were many Christians who stood outside the grounds protesting and declaring that the Dalai Lama was going to hell because he did not believe in God. But I must say, that I learned a lot from that experience about what it means to be holy. About the experience of the sacred. We had to gather as a group. We had to pray for 8 hours a day, for 5 days before in order to prepare our hearts before we could even start to listen to the teaching on world peace. I remember one day, someone shouted to the Dalai Lama what did any of this have to do with world peace – and he responded back – that there was no such thing in the world as world peace. He said that as soon as we learned to find peace within our own hearts, then we don’t get so hooked on the problems of others. When we find peace within ourselves, then we will be at peace with the world. That is the only world peace that there is. I don’t totally agree with all of that – but there is some truth in that. I could share lots of stories about that experience, but today I wanted to share an experience that happened toward the end of the teaching. One of the last days after lunch, he wanted to teach us to go up through the 7 levels of heaven to reach the throne room of God. I remember he told us to eat a very light lunch and not to drink a lot of liquids, because as we travelled spiritually to the different levels of heaven, that as we were purified in spirit, whatever was inside of us was going to come out. At the first ten minute break in our prayer time, the bathroom line was filled with those of us who did not believe him. Christianity and Buddhism have a lot of differences, but they also have lot of similarities. There is a book written in the 1400’s which also outlines how to travel through the 7 levels of heaven to the throne room – it is called the interior Castle. It is a certain time of prayer that helps you to travel to each level of the castle to get to God. Having that experience with the Dalai Lama helped me to understand what Paul is talking about when he speaks of a man who was caught up into the third level of heaven. In the Jewish understanding of heaven, heaven had three levels, and the third level was the highest you could go and to reach the throne room to see God. He says, he is not sure of how the man actually got there, he doesn’t know if it was a dream, a prayer, or an out of body experience, he just knows that the man made it to heaven and lived to tell about it. The mystic always has aimed at that moment of wonder when “the seer and the Seen are one.” In their traditions the Jews said that four rabbis had had this vision of God. Ben Azai had seen the glory and had died. Ben Soma beheld it and went mad. Acher saw it and “cut up the young plants,” that is, in spite of the vision he became a heretic and ruined the garden of truth. Akiba alone ascended in peace and in peace came back. We cannot even guess what happened to Paul. We need not form theories about the number of heavens because of the fact that he speaks of the third heaven. He simply means that his spirit rose to an unsurpassable ecstasy in its nearness to God. Scholars agree that when Paul says that he knows a man – that he is talking about himself. Many other preachers were starting to criticize Paul and say that he was too down to earth, and that he did not speak of visions, so he was not a true man of God. So Paul says the he does not want to brag about spiritual experiences, but he has seen God and lived to tell about it. In church we often speak of that place – heaven. The place beyond pain and suffering and darkness, the eternal place where God lives. Heaven is once again one of those concepts that crosses the boundaries of many religions and cultures. Some call it Paradise, or nirvana, or enlightenment, or Shangra- la – and we all tend to wonder what it looks like and exactly how do you get there. Is it really a place? Are our loved ones there? And do you have to die in order to get there? Video of someone who claims to have been to heaven. The new testament speaks of heaven, speaks of paradise – the Persian version of the concept. Paradise was a wooded garden. When the king of Persia liked you, invited you to walk his gardens. Paul speaks of seeing the face of God. Walking and talking with God. For us who have never been to heaven, much more likely to find God in the plain, boring everyday task of life. God not in the throne room, but with us in life. Most likely to find God in the midst of our pain and suffering. Go to heaven to find God, God comes to life to find us. Paul talks of meeting God – says that God gave him a thorn in his side. Speculation for years about what this thorn is – physical condition, epiplespy, stuttering, mental condition. We don’t know, doesn’t matter. Messenger sent from heaven to torment me – caused a lot of pain and suffering. Whatever it was it kept him humble and calling on God for a sense of relief. The greatest lesson of the scripture – as he prayed, hoped for change, heard that still voice – My grace is sufficient for you. Whatever the pain, whatever the burden – Gives us grace to get through it. Where would you be if it were not for God’s grace in your life? "He giveth more grace when burdens grow greater, He sendeth more strength when the labors increase; To added affliction, He addeth His mercy, To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance; When our strength has failed ere the day is half done; When we reach the end of our hoarded resources; Our Father's full giving is only begun. His love has no limit, His grace knows no measure, His power no boundary known unto men; For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth and giveth and giveth again."—Selected. How do we come face to face with God? By we don’t have to go into the throne room, usually we can face our pain – and find God there with us in the midst of it – giving us to strength to deal with it and to go on with our lives. God grace is sufficient for all that we go through. Like Paul, is in our weakness that we discover the strength of God. Let us pray….. Our Burdens St. Paul writes in II Corinthians 12:9, "And God said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee . . .'" What a hard thing that is for us to accept. We are like the old man riding down the road on a donkey while he carried a 200 pound sack of wheat on his shoulder. Someone asked him why he didn't take the weight off of his shoulders and strap it to the donkey. "Oh, no!" he protested. "I couldn't ask the donkey to carry all that weight." Many of us are carrying burdens today that we do not have to carry. Only our lack of faith, trust, and confidence that God really is alive and able to relieve us of our burdens keeps us in bondage. How frustrated Christ must be with our lack of faith. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Sometimes We Need the Thorn Someone once asked Abraham Lincoln why he wouldn't replace a cabinet member who constantly opposed him. Lincoln told the story about the farmer who was trying to plow with a very old and decrepit horse. Lincoln noticed on the flank of the animal a big thistle caught in the animal's hair. Lincoln started to pull it off and the farmer said, "Don't remove that thistle, Abe! If it wasn't for the sticker, this old horse wouldn't move an inch!" That means, treat your problems as challenges. People who are difficult to work with, problems that seem insurmountable - notice how they keep you digging inside yourself for greater strength. In the end, you accomplish great feats, not in spite of, but because of your problems. Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, www.Sermons.com One lovely thing we may note, for it will help a little. The word Paradise comes from a Persian word which means a walled-garden. When a Persian king wished to confer a very special honour on someone specially dear to him, he made him a companion of the garden and gave him the right to walk in the royal gardens with him in intimate companionship. In this experience, as never before and never again, Paul had been the companion of God. "My Grace is Sufficient for Thee" (II Corinthians 12:9) Booth-Tucker preached in Chicago one day, and out from the throng a burdened toiler came and said to him, before all the audience, "You can talk like that about how Christ is dear to you, and helps you; but if your wife was dead, as my wife is, and you had some babies crying for their mother who would never come back, you could not say what you are saying." A little later Booth-Tucker lost his noble wife in a railway wreck, and the body was brought to Chicago and carried to the Salvation Army barracks for the funeral service. After others had conducted the funeral service he stood there by the casket, looked down into the face of the silent wife and mother, and said, "The other day when I was here, a man said, I could not say Christ was sufficient, if my wife were dead, and my children were crying for their mother. If that man is here, tell him that Christ is sufficient. My heart is all broken, my heart is all crushed, my heart is all bleeding, but there is a song in my heart and Christ put it there; and if that man is here, I tell him that, though my wife is gone and my children are motherless, Christ comforts me today." That man was there, and down the aisle he came, and fell down beside the casket, and said, "Verily, if Christ can help us like that, I will surrender to Him,"