Limitless
Abridge Worship Provided By: Rev. Jacob Shaw (Please note that this is not a verbatim account of our Sunday morning worship, but rather a condensed version for those at home to study and enjoy, Blessing)
Opening Prayer:
Lord, help us to see ourselves as you see us. Help us to see ourselves for how your created us. Help us to welcome the truth of our being; both the image from which we were created, but also the fallen and corrupted nature of our hearts. Help us to understand that You know us, see us, judge us, are gracious and merciful to us, and ultimately love us.
Amen.
Scripture Readings: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 and Mark 6:1-13
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Mark 6:1-13
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Reflection:
When I was studying for my Master of Divinity, I was shopping at a bookstore, (as my wife and I often did, and still often do), when I came across a Christian Devotional. It was called Limitless: Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life.
Here is the cover page of the book:
Of course, the first thing you notice about Nick is that he is blonde. Sorry bad joke, of course, Nick stands out because he has no arms and no legs.
After his obvious physical characteristics, the second thing that caught my eye was the cleverness of the title. Limitless sounds and looks a lot like Limbless. I decided to pick up the book, and it was a light but fascinating read, as Nick provides devotionals which are intertwined into his life story, about his faith in tension with his physical condition. He tells about how at one point in his life he even threw himself into a pool, I believe it was, to try to kill himself as a boy, but God had other plans for his life.
I will not tell the entire story of Nick Vujicic’s life. But, I can say I’m grateful that he has a life story to tell and that Nick heard God speaking to him in his lowest of lows.
When Nick realized that, with God, his life did not need to be defined by his limitation, and even more so because of his limitation, God could show the world through Nick’s story how to be limitless.
Nick, a man born with no limbs, became so depressed that he threw himself into a pool as a child, but in the moment his heart was softened towards himself, and he grew a trust in God, a trust that told him God would use Nick’s life for the glory of the Kingdom. Now that Nick is grown up, he is married, he is a father, has an extraordinary ministry, which had spoken to millions of people about hope, faith, and trust in God. Quite the life for a man born without limbs. Thanks be to God.
Here is the thing, do you remember last week, how the love of money wasn’t really about money specifically, it was about realizing that our love for God and His way, needs to outweigh our passion for our own self-indulgence. Money is an easy-to-understand example of what can pull our love away from God and neighbour, but many things can become idolatrous indulgences, not just money.
Bodily health is also an easy-to-understand example of a human weakness or limitation. If we can understand God empowering the life of someone with physical limitation, we get a better idea of God empowering us as people with a fallen spiritual, mental, emotional, or moral limitation.
Jesus sent out his disciples with nothing but their sandals and a walking staff because it taught them, and displayed to others around them that the life of faith is about a radical trust in God’s capacity to provide you with what you need and to use your life for the glory of God, including your limitations. And remember they were going out to heal the sick, and cast out demons, work that most of us would prefer to have a hazmat suit and an army with us to perform.
Now remember what you need is not the same as what you may want. And God using your life for his glory doesn’t mean all of us in faith will have the notoriety of ministry that Nick Vujicic has. God’s glory in your life will more likely be in a humble and charitable form, more like the sandals and staff journey on the disciples. If you want Christ to lift you in to fame and luxury, you have the wrong idea what Christ is looking for in your life.
So why is there so much emphasis put on this radical trust in God. A faith that God will use us for his glory, in tension with making sure we are not giving into material and prideful temptation.
One of the main reasons, I believe this to be that case is because the degrading of the human spirit seems to be fueled by two main evil forces. The first being pride. Oh pride, that selfish-love, vain, wanting entitlement. A world the promote these things with acts and product of indulgence, greed, lust, self-affirmation, and more continually fuels the human heart into thinking it is the center of the universe and the authority of its own existence, rather than God being the central authority.
So humbling one’s self, by practicing a radical trust and reliance on God pushes away all those material and pride-fueled things that tells us that we need to be fed by anything other than the Word, and Living Waters. In a way it breaks the chains, on all that enslaves us through desire, want, and entitlement.
But the second evil force that seems to degrade the human spirit is Doubt. We doubt if we are worthy, we doubt our capacity to do good, we doubt that we can change, we doubt we will be enough, we doubt that God loves us. We even doubt God’s authority and power to change our hearts. Doubt makes us look upon the God that creates and makes us feel demonized-doubt and shame to the point where we dislike our selves, we no longer love ourselves.
Over time doubt makes us so fearful, so nihilistic that we do not see ourselves as someone God would use for glory. And if we have an ailment, a disability, a struggle, it just add to our doubt and fear.
So when we see someone like Nick, or the Disciples, and so forth, humbled by circumstance and faith, but glorified by God’s will, grace, and power, it reminds us, that no matter what Pride and Doubt whisper into our ear, we know that God is greater than all things that are set against us.
And with that knowledge we can start to lego of our pride, we don’t need it. We can let go of our doubt, we don’t need it. We can even admit we struggle with these things, we can admit to our sins, failing, mental, physical and emotional struggles, because we know that even in our suffering, and trials, if we trust in God, and we learn to love ourselves in the way that God sees us, when God will use our whole story, our whole definition for His glory.
With God, my friends, you are limitless.
Let us pray…
Lord Jesus, Your wealth is a wealth only know to you, it is a wealth of the power behind all existence. So you know the true wealth is not something that is made of silver and gold, but it is the Good Nature of the Spirit. Amen.
Homework:
Look at your life, ask yourself, what luxuries do I have that I could abandon in order to sacrifice my love of comfort and money to better serve God’s kingdom and his creation? Try giving up the luxury and then taking that money and giving it to a charitable program or a person in need.
If you need help on this reflective journey email: minister@mountainviewunited.ca
Closing Prayer: Let us go with the blessing of God, our guide and guardian. Let us go with the assurance of Christ, who shows us the way. Let us go with the power of the Spirit, who anoints our way. Let us go with only sandals and walking staff, ever leaning on the authority and love of God. Go now in Peace.
Amen.
Meme of the Week:
Thank you for joining us this week. If you have any thoughts, feelings, or prayers, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. Please be respectful of others’ posts and make room for all those joining us.
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