Rising Above Our Limitations

 My Message for Sunday Dec. 02, 2012 Galatians 4:12-14

 ¹² Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. ¹³ You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. ¹⁴ And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

 

Most people today would say that Paul had no limitations; but beloved they are wrong as today’s message will tell us. 

It is not the starting point but how you finish the race or as they say back home it is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog!

 I can hear Paul says: Brethren, I urge you to become like me” (v. 12).

 

Most people would say; “What an arrogant bold plea.”

But as an old gospel preacher once said; the gospel must be seen in the person who seeks to communicate it.

Here we see Paul’s willingness to reveal his humanity and his physical condition and illness must have been serious.

 While we do not know what his affliction was, we do know that it was chronic, very painful, repulsive, and humiliating.  

 Why do I say that: Because in (v. 14) that Paul actually rejoiced in the fact that the Galatians did not “despise” or “reject” him.

 Looking at the Greek we find that that v.14’s literal translation is to; “spit out or spit upon.”

 In other words the Galatians did not spit in Paul’s presence which was the custom in that day: When people wanted to ward off an evil spirit or turn away from lepers.

 This kind of language indicates the extreme nature of Paul’s affliction and points to the fact that it must have been very repulsive.

 What Paul actually says here is, “You did not shun me and you did not spit, although my physical condition was trying to you.”

 With all this going against Paul still he pleads: “Become as me.”

 It is Paul’s final request: “Here me for I have become one of you.  This reminds me of the true story of Father Damien: who say to the lepers in Hawaii; “we lepers.”   

 The gospel is always personal as the call of the gospel is from person to person, addressing our very personal secrets places of our lives.

 The gospel message dives deep in to the core of our being: toe the secret places where we live; touching our like and dislikes; to our decision making and our compromises;  when we weep and where we rejoice.

 The gospel is always personal: The issues of the gospel; is much more that just: heaven and hell; peace and justice; good and evil; divisions and reunion, sin and righteousness.

 All dimensions of the gospel in our lives are personal in the response to the demand of holiness the gospel brings through Jesus Christ.

 We can clearly see that “personal” must not be mistakenly interpreted as private or self-indulging.

 Remember that Jesus’ sharpest condemnation was against those who saw spirituality as self-indulgent - religious discipline rather than a loving concern for the poor and suffering.

 Matt. 23:23 Holman Christian Standard Bible) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.

Jesus makes it clear that the central concern of religion is not self-indulgent, but loving service for others.  

 Christianity bring peace, love, and joy through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and it brings more often than not, the strength to bear our pain when our thorn in the flesh is not removed.

 Christianity brings meaning to our lives and the lives of others as we travel down the Jericho road called life.

 In other words; like the traveler who we identify with the one in need! 

 As we lend our hearing ears to the crying and our helping hands to strangers in all in Christ’s love.

 It is not the size of the church in Christ, but the size of Christ in the church:  As Christians our holiness is to be personal but not to be private.

 Just as our personal holiness must find expression in social holiness, not just meeting our selfish needs or the needs of our church

 The true task of a Christian church is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and to share the one true gospel as we fulfill the Great Commission.

Rising Above Our Limitations 

 Another great lesson here is that our limitations do not have to limit God to use us.

 We would not say that Paul was limited in the scope of his ministry and yet; we know that Paul suffered a great affliction. 

 We may not know for sure what it was, but whatever it was, we know it was bad and we also know in that day sickness was regarded as God’s punishment for sins, it would have been natural for the Galatians to treat Paul as if he were an evil man and not a messenger of God.

 It must have been that Paul handled his affliction in such a Christ-like manner that even his limitation became an asset. (V. 14 “You received me as an angel of God, even as you would Christ Jesus himself.”

 What one does with their limitations is not only a measure of their faith, but determines the effectiveness of their ministry and witness.

 Here it is in the life of a modern saint who refused to be limited by her limitation, as recalled in a sermon by Mark Trotter: Lizzie Johnson made thousands of bookmarks. At thirteen Lizzie injured her back in an accident, and she was to spend the rest of her life, twenty-seven more years, flat on her back. Her only view of the world was from a mirror mounted above her head.

But she still wanted to do a great thing with her life, so when she heard in those days that you could free an African slave for $40, she made a quilt and tried to sell it for $40. Nobody would buy it. So she turned to making bookmarks, and she raised $1,000 a year for each of the twenty-seven years remaining in her life. She gave every penny of that to projects in this world that go to building up rather than tearing down.

What about the quilt? One day a bishop from India was traveling through Illinois and she gave it to him. He took that quilt with him on his speaking tour around the country, and he told the story of Lizzie Johnson. Then he asked people if they would place an offering for missions in the quilt. He raised $100,000 for missions. You talk about how God creates miracles through modest efforts! One day after Lizzie Johnson had died, her sister, Alice Johnson, heard that a man named Takuo Matsumoto was coming to Champaign, Illinois, to speak. He was one of the most prominent Japanese Christians after the Second World War. He had been principal of the Methodist Girls’ School in Hiroshima during the bombing. In John Hersey’s book about tragedy, he is mentioned prominently as one of the heroes of those days.

Alice Johnson remembered that her sister had given money to support the education of a young boy in Japan named Takuo Matsumoto, and she wondered if this was the same person. She resolved to go to Champaign to hear him speak, but she got sick that day and had to stay home. That night someone told Mr. Matsumoto about her, and he said, “You mean that she is Lizzie Johnson’s sister? All that I am I owe to Lizzie Johnson.” That night he went to see Alice Johnson, and he went from there to the cemetery to put flowers on the grave of a woman who could not leave her bed, who was weak and helpless, but who stitched up her love in bookmarks and quilts and said, “Thank you, God,” by loving others. Limitations do not have to limit; if we don’t let them.