Show Notes
II Corinthians 12:1-10
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] And ask God to bless the reading and preaching of his word.
[00:00:05] Our heavenly Father, what joy there is in knowing you and your salvation to have our sins lifted from us, to have them no longer counted against us, to receive the righteousness of Christ. These things are great things.
[00:00:21] Lord, we pray to you with full confidence that your word is sure, that we can depend on it in everything, for everything that we need in this life and in every moment.
[00:00:35] Lord, we ask that you would help us to not cling to our sins, but cling to you.
[00:00:42] Lord, we ask that you would help us to hear your word this morning and be encouraged not in our own strength, but in yours. In fact, Lord, teach us to despair of our own strength, even the strongest parts of us, Lord, and let us despair of them and not look to them in any way for comfort, for healing, for salvation, but to you and to you alone, we pray this in Jesus name, our only savior. Amen.
[00:01:13] If you would remain standing and turn your attention to two corinthians, chapter twelve, we'll spend a few moments now hearing God's word from this portion of the scriptures. Two Corinthians, chapter twelve, verses one through ten.
[00:02:00] Let's hear God's word.
[00:02:03] I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
[00:02:12] I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows, and I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows, and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
[00:02:39] On behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth.
[00:02:52] But I refrain from it, so that no. 1 may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.
[00:03:00] So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
[00:03:15] Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.
[00:03:25] My power is made perfect in weakness.
[00:03:30] Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities.
[00:03:47] For when I am weak, then I am strong.
[00:03:52] Amen.
[00:03:53] You may be seated.
[00:04:17] Well here. In our passage this morning, Paul continues to speak to us in subtle and perhaps a little bit confusing ways, especially if the passage is new to us or if we've not been tracking up to this point. But his main point is very clear.
[00:04:40] In fact, the further we get to the end of this section, the clearer his point becomes. And he ends with these words. When I am weak, then I am strong.
[00:04:51] That's something of a paradox that's explained in these verses. But it's pretty clear, isn't it? Exactly what he means. We'll take some time to flesh out and make sure we understand.
[00:05:04] But what he says is memorable. It's to the point, when I am weak, then I am strong.
[00:05:18] We can understand what Paul means by this, by thinking carefully about the verses that come before this. And ultimately, the hope will be that as we conclude, we will be comfortable with, and maybe even more than comfortable, be excited about proclaiming these same words. When I am weak, then I am strong. Not just understanding what that means, but embracing it as a core part of who we are and how we live our lives.
[00:05:51] In following the Lord.
[00:05:54] To get to that point and to understand it, we want to spend some time thinking about what Paul is saying and how he's talking.
[00:06:03] We remember, or perhaps you might remember from the passages that came before. Paul is speaking in an odd way. Odd's not the exact word I want to use, but we'll go with it for now. He's speaking in a way in in which he's sort of taking on a character.
[00:06:21] He's taking on a character, this boastful character.
[00:06:27] He's taking on the Persona and the actions of those that are accusing him of certain things. These so called super apostles who are actually boasting in their abilities, in their strengths, in their spirituality, in their own wisdom and in a number of other things.
[00:06:47] Well, Paul, what he's trying to do is he's trying to undermine that boasting in a couple ways.
[00:06:55] One of the ways he's doing it is he's saying, I have these qualifications that you claim I don't have.
[00:07:04] But then the second thing he's doing it is he's saying, they don't matter, though, and they're not important.
[00:07:12] And in many ways, you see him being so careful to distance himself from that Persona. So it's really clear to us what he's doing.
[00:07:23] So, for example, notice some of the ways he distances himself, one way is he uses the third person. In verse two, he says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. He's talking about himself.
[00:07:42] A similar distancing happens when he says in verse five, on behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast except of my weaknesses.
[00:07:56] Well, this would sound like maybe he's talking about two people, right?
[00:08:01] Except a couple things that indicate this man is Paul, right. And he's speaking in this way to sort of separate himself from this act of boasting, this Persona that he's taking on to make clear the foolishness of it.
[00:08:20] One way is that it would be impossible or. Sorry, let me start again. One way is how he talks about the thorn in the flesh becoming in verse seven, or coming to him in verse seven. He says, so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations a thorn was given. Who? Me?
[00:08:44] He received a thorn in the flesh because of the surpassing revelations he received.
[00:08:50] Well, who? Which ones did he receive? Well? The only ones that have been talked about and the ones that have been described in the previous verses of the man.
[00:09:01] So Paul is talking about himself.
[00:09:05] Well, what is it that he says?
[00:09:10] What are the ways in which he could boast and play the same game that other people are playing? A foolish game, a wicked game, even, but he refuses not to.
[00:09:24] Well, he's talked about other things already. And now he comes to this particular type of boast, one that people still make today, a boasting about visions and revelations of the Lord. Experiences, spiritual experiences of the Lord, amazing things.
[00:09:45] He gives us a sense of particularly what he has in mind. He describes it in verse 214 years ago. This man, Paul I was caught up to the third heaven.
[00:10:00] These 14 years came before Paul's missionary journey. His first missionary journey, second Corinthians, was probably written in 55 or 56 ad.
[00:10:12] Paul was confronted on the road to Damascus and called by Christ in 33 or 34.
[00:10:20] So that puts this experience pretty much right before he goes on this first missionary journey.
[00:10:29] To remind you a little bit about Paul's early biography, which he gives to us in Galatians one and other places. We have it in acts as well. Paul's confronted on the road to Damascus. He's probably mid thirties, early forties, something like that. If he was born in five bc, he's confronted on the road to Damascus. He's had many people in his world died around this age. He's had a full life in some ways. And from that perspective, a life of education, a life likely of wealth, and a life of pursuing christians, especially in his adult years, taking the learning that he received as a pharisee to drag those who were following the Lord Jesus and pull them out of their homes and persecute them, bringing them to Jerusalem and other places, like we see with Stephen in acts chapter six.
[00:11:28] But then, on his way to Damascus to do this very thing, he receives a vision. The Lord Jesus appears to Paul and says, why are you persecuting me? And he blinds him and he calls him and he converts him, and he commissions him to, instead of be a persecutor, to be a preacher.
[00:11:51] This man who was formerly against the Lord and against his people is now for the Lord and for his people.
[00:12:00] And several interesting things happen. First of all, Paul stays there. He continues on the road. He's blind for a little while. He stays there in Damascus. And acts chapter nine says he immediately starts preaching in the synagogues. Can you imagine that? He's going on the way to Damascus to persecute. This event happens on the road on the way there, and immediately he walks into the synagogue and he starts preaching the way.
[00:12:31] That would be quite an exciting sermon to be there for. You would come with this set of expectations about what Paul is going to say, and it is exactly the opposite. And he does this and he does this in quite an amazing way.
[00:12:52] It doesn't go well, though.
[00:12:55] Possibly on this, during this time, and possibly on a return trip to Damascus later, he ends up having to flee, as he described earlier in two corinthians, threw a basket over the wall.
[00:13:10] So Paul formally would come into a place like this, have a lot of power and control and strength.
[00:13:17] But this time he goes into a place like this.
[00:13:21] He does the thing that he knows he's going to get persecuted for. He gets persecuted for it, and he ends up having to flee. This is the beginning of Paul's ministry of the gospel, a beginning that's marked by persecution, a beginning that's marked by suffering, blindness, weakness and these kinds of things.
[00:13:44] Then he goes to Arabia, he comes back to Damascus. He stays there for about three years, and only then does he go to Jerusalem and meet with Peter and James for the first time.
[00:13:58] He ministers the gospel for a period of several years. And then this event happens here that we read about in two corinthians.
[00:14:07] Well, what is it that happens?
[00:14:10] Well, he has another spiritual experience that is quite extraordinary.
[00:14:17] He describes it this way. He says he was caught up to the third heaven.
[00:14:23] Now, he's not sure whether this was an out of body experience or in body experience.
[00:14:30] He doesn't know, and it doesn't seem to matter too much. But it's interesting that he says it twice. And he also adds this phrase, God knows.
[00:14:40] He finds strength and security and weight in knowing that even though he isn't able to fully interpret the experience, God does.
[00:14:52] God knows what's going on, and that's what ultimately matters.
[00:14:58] A lot of people today want spiritual experiences. They hunger for dramatic things like this, for visions, for revelations, for out of body experiences, and they hunger for them in a way that really puts the experience above God himself.
[00:15:18] They want that experience in such a way that they think that that experience is what's going to make them spiritual, that that experience is what is going to ground them and give them the insight that they need. And then, of course, it's not just having that experience, but then being able to interpret it, process it, explain it, share it.
[00:15:40] But that's not really the pattern that we see with Paul.
[00:15:44] First of all, he doesn't seem to have been expecting it, just like the one on the road to Damascus. Second of all, he's not fully able to interpret it. God knows, he says. God knows, he says.
[00:15:59] Third, this is the only time we hear about it in the scriptures.
[00:16:04] Paul is not constantly, and the other writers of, well, Luke, I guess I'm thinking about, in particular, writing about the acts of the apostles doesn't describe it, doesn't explain it. Paul's not going from town to town to town talking about this amazing time that he got caught up to the third heaven. It's remarkable, isn't it? And it's so different from the way so many other people, so many other people talk about dramatic spiritual experiences. This is not the bedrock of his platform. This is not the thing that he's leading with or evangelizing on. In fact, he says very little about it, except for here in this place where he feels the need to say, I have the things that you're saying, and they don't matter as much as you think they matter.
[00:17:05] And the proof of that, Paul's not just sort of a humble bragging here, and we know that from his actions, because he's not always talking about this. This is the one and only time we hear about this. Among the other things that I mentioned, the experience is veiled in a way. It's veiled to us, it's veiled to other people. It's veiled to Paul himself.
[00:17:33] What else can we say about this experience?
[00:17:37] Well, he says he was caught up to the third heaven and this and he says, as I mentioned before, that he's not sure whether it was in the body or out of the body.
[00:17:51] This is important. I want to take a moment and just sidebar for a moment and remember the importance of this doctrine, that we our bodies are an important part of who we are and ultimately are included in the resurrection itself and will be glorified. And yet, at the same time, we are not so tied to our bodies that we cease to exist without them, or that death is an annihilation of being somehow at our deaths, before the resurrection of the just and the unjust. Our souls, the scriptures teach us, will be made perfect in holiness and pass into glory while our bodies rest in Christ until the resurrection.
[00:18:44] There is a way, there are ways in which we can be a present with the Lord.
[00:18:50] Our souls can be present with the Lord even though our bodies are not physically present with the Lord.
[00:18:57] How do we know this from scripture?
[00:19:01] Well, one place is from Hebrews 1223.
[00:19:05] There it talks about heaven, Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, which exists right now.
[00:19:11] In fact, when the author of Hebrews is talking about this place, he's talking to christians like us who have not died. And he says that spiritually we have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, particularly when we worship the Lord.
[00:19:32] Well, what does he say about this place? In Hebrews 1223, we read that this is a place where angels dwell, as well as the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
[00:19:45] The spirits of the righteous made perfect. Christians who have died, but who have been perfected now in the Lord, their souls are with him.
[00:19:57] In two corinthians five eight, Paul says, we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
[00:20:05] We'd rather be away from the body and what? At home with the Lord. Paul understands that it's possible to die, and this is what happens to believers, to be separated from our bodies for a time and yet not be in some sort of vague, ambiguous, non existing or, I don't know, you can make up all kinds of stuff state.
[00:20:30] But where are we? What are we? We are us. We are ourselves, and we are at home with the Lord. What a wonderful way to describe heaven home.
[00:20:46] In Philippians 123, Paul says, my desire is to depart. And he's speaking about from his body and death. And he says, and be with Christ.
[00:20:57] Christ is, of course, with us all the time in his omnipresence. He is with us through his spirit as well. But Paul wants to see Jesus.
[00:21:09] He wants to be with Jesus.
[00:21:14] That's his desire.
[00:21:17] Is it your desire?
[00:21:20] Is it your desire to go home?
[00:21:23] Is it your desire to be with the Lord?
[00:21:27] Is it your desire, even if it should mean that you die and are separated from your body for a time?
[00:21:35] Well, from these verses, we know that there exists a place that we could call heaven that is called heaven, a place that Paul identifies here as paradise.
[00:21:49] Paradise is frequently a word that is used to describe the garden of Eden in all of its beauty and wonder, and in particular, as a place where man dwells with God.
[00:22:05] This place, this paradise place, this place called heaven, a place where Jesus is in his humanity, where the angels are, a place where people who have died, christians, believers who have died and have been made perfect and now dwell, a place that Paul describes as home.
[00:22:29] That's the place, this third heaven that Paul enters into.
[00:22:35] We know that this is the place that he describes, because third heaven is a phrase that's used in scriptures to describe what I've just been describing heaven, as we sometimes call it. It's called the third heaven because there are these two other realms as you go up. And we still have phrases like this in English that we use sometimes.
[00:23:00] But the first heaven is the sky. We could say, where birds fly and clouds float.
[00:23:11] The second heaven is space, where planets and stars and sunstorms and things like that happen.
[00:23:22] The third heaven is a realm that is above both of these two spaces. And it is this spiritual, right now, invisible realm where the Lord is said to dwell.
[00:23:43] When we read about this place, we read about it in a number of places.
[00:23:50] I'm sorry, not Paul.
[00:23:53] Solomon talks about it when he says in his prayer. He says, the Lord dwells even not in temples, the temple that he just built, but even in the third heaven, above the heavens, the Lord is said to dwell above the skies. Above a space is where the Lord is.
[00:24:18] And so this is where Paul goes.
[00:24:21] What happens when he's there?
[00:24:24] Verse four tells us Paul goes to heaven, and he hears things that cannot be told.
[00:24:34] He adds to that which man may not utter.
[00:24:40] Paul enters this place, kind of like John does in revelation, and he hears things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
[00:24:50] There's two ways we might understand this. We see both in revelation, similar with the apostle John.
[00:24:57] One is inability.
[00:25:01] You might imagine that if you went to heaven and got to see things there and then had an opportunity to describe what you saw, there might be some measure of difficulty in describing to other people this realm.
[00:25:19] John. And we see something of that in John. So, for example, in revelation 112, he describes the Lord's face, and he says his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
[00:25:36] What does that look like?
[00:25:39] What does a face look like that's shining like the sun in full strength?
[00:25:48] That's hard to imagine.
[00:25:51] You get a sense of it right, but it's hard to say exactly what that looks like. And I think that's John's challenge in a way.
[00:26:02] And he gives it to us in these words that are inspired by scripture. We have other phrases like this. His voice was like the roar of many waters, or describing even the angels, an angel, like a lion, like an ox.
[00:26:20] We read in revelation ten four when he, that is a mighty angel, called out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. When he called out the seven thunders, sounded.
[00:26:38] There's a certain difficulty, right, in describing what you see and what you hear. He describes it in one way like a lion roaring, and another way like seven thunders.
[00:26:50] But there's a second way, I think, which is perhaps the more likely of the two options that Paul has in mind when he says he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. And it's not just inability, it's command.
[00:27:06] He is commanded, perhaps, from not saying some of the things he saw. And that actually happens to John at this moment in revelation 210 that I just read, to read it again, he says, when he, that is this mighty angel called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring, when he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And then John says, I was about to write, he's going to write down what he heard. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.
[00:27:46] So John, right, has been told to write down and share the things that he has seen and heard. That's why we have the book of revelation, because God gave it to us for this reason. But Paul tells us in the context of that book that there were certain things he heard and saw, and in this case, heard, that he was told not to talk about.
[00:28:12] Paul may have had a similar experience here in verse four. He heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
[00:28:26] This is amazing.
[00:28:29] This is an amazing experience.
[00:28:34] It seems to be barely contained in the way Paul expresses it in verse seven when he says the greatness of the revelations.
[00:28:44] Right. But what does Paul do?
[00:28:48] Does he write a book about it?
[00:28:51] Does he start up a business around it?
[00:28:55] No, he barely mentions it over the course of his ministry.
[00:29:01] Only here in this context where he feels like he has to mention it. And even then, he still does not utter the things which he may not utter and cannot utter.
[00:29:12] And he distances himself from the experience in some ways. I know a man.
[00:29:19] I will boast of this man, but not of myself.
[00:29:26] Why?
[00:29:28] Why would Paul act this way? Well, he tells us why.
[00:29:34] One reason is because of the Lord's providence. It's not just an internal decision. God did something else in his life to form Paul in a certain way.
[00:29:48] And what is it that God did?
[00:29:51] He gave him. Paul says the Lord gave to him a thorn.
[00:29:57] He doesn't say exactly what this thorn is. He leaves it vague and I think, unsurprisingly, on purpose. But he describes this thorn, and he describes it as a thorn given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me. The reason to keep me from becoming conceited as a result of this experience that God gave him. Paul didn't manufacture it. Paul didn't ask for it. God gave him this experience, and God gave him a thorn in the flesh because of the experience that God gave him, a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being conceited. I think in some ways, it's very much like the beginning of his ministry. In this whole basket incident, Paul has this amazing experience on the road to Damascus. Super humbling, maybe embarrassing as well, but powerful. He sees the Lord. He's commissioned by the Lord. He's commanded by the Lord to go and do great things, and then he gets put in a basket and has to run out of town.
[00:31:17] That's the beginning of Paul's ministry. Humility, suffering, insults, persecution, hardships.
[00:31:28] And similarly, a few years later, he has this great vision.
[00:31:34] It's speculation, but I think it's probably on the right track to say that the Lord may have given him this as an encouragement to encourage Paul because of all of the things that he would suffer and the difficulties that he would have to encourage him in the Lord and to encourage him in these things. Nevertheless, however, the Lord desired to use this moment in the life of Paul. He then follows. It is proceeded by this thorn in the flesh, another kind of basket moment, except instead of the one time thing, this one's ongoing, and the Lord will not take it away.
[00:32:17] Paul, we see, is not just on a new mission from pharisee and persecutor to preacher. He didn't just gain a new insight, switched course, and then all of the fierceness and boldness that is his personality then goes out and does that thing.
[00:32:36] He doesn't just switch tracks.
[00:32:41] Paul switches modes.
[00:32:45] He goes about living and operating and working and thinking in a whole new way.
[00:32:53] He doesn't just have a new objective. Persecute the christians, make them christians. It's more than that. There's a fundamental change, not just in his calling and in his mission, but in the way that he is going to go about doing that work.
[00:33:09] And it's not going to be through strength, and it's not going to be through power. It's not going to be through force and coercion. It's going to be through suffering.
[00:33:18] It's going to be through weakness. It's going to be through difficulty.
[00:33:23] There is going to be this thorn among many thorns, and it's a thorn that the Lord gave to him, a thorn that the Lord will not take away. Paul wanted it gone.
[00:33:34] He pleaded with the Lord three times that it should leave me. Very similar to the way that the Lord Jesus himself prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, that he would not have to endure the suffering that he would endure on the cross.
[00:33:51] This thorn, as all thorns are, would take away a measure of his joy.
[00:33:58] It would be distracting, irritating, debilitating in some way.
[00:34:05] But Paul would press on.
[00:34:10] He asks the Lord that the Lord would take it from him. But what is the Lord's response?
[00:34:15] It's not. Know exactly what is the Lord's response?
[00:34:22] Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.
[00:34:32] My power is made perfect in weakness.
[00:34:37] It's better than a no.
[00:34:40] He doesn't just, the Lord doesn't just leave Paul without the thing that he thinks he needs. He doesn't just leave Paul and say, nope, which would be totally in his prerogative to do, by the way, he's the Lord. He can just say, no, that's fine.
[00:34:59] But he does do something. I think that's better. In a way, he redirects Paul away from the thing that he's asking for, the removal of something.
[00:35:12] He redirects Paul to the thing that he really needs.
[00:35:17] What Paul really needs is not the removal of the thorn, but the grace of God.
[00:35:25] He needs to understand that no matter what happens to him, my grace, Jesus's grace, is sufficient for him, and not only is it sufficient for him, but it's the mode by which his work will be accomplished. As he says, the Lord says, my power is made perfect in, we could say, your weakness, and not just Paul's weakness, but the weakness of the whole church. And the weakness of me and the weakness of you.
[00:36:02] The Lord's power is made perfect in weakness. His grace is sufficient for us.
[00:36:11] Some people, some Christians even do not embrace this as they should.
[00:36:18] They are too much, seeking complete victory and power and strength and glory in this life, in the earthly things of this world. And that's not God's plan.
[00:36:34] Spiritual experiences, even amazing ones, great ones, moments of awesome revelation, are still coupled by God himself with pain and sorrow.
[00:36:53] God intentionally causes pain and sorrow using a messenger of Satan. Always good to remember, Satan's under God's control.
[00:37:05] God uses a messenger of Satan to bring about pain and sorrow in Paul's life on purpose, not to hurt him ultimately, but to humble him, to heal him and to strengthen him with the balm of God's grace.
[00:37:28] Not having thornness.
[00:37:32] God wants to draw Paul and you more and more into himself and his life.
[00:37:41] In his perfect timing, he does these things.
[00:37:48] It's Mother's Day, so I'll tell a mom story.
[00:37:52] When my mom, one time when I was a kid, my mom was working in the garden, and we had lots and lots of roses, and she got a rose thorn in her arm. It stayed there for years. She could not healed over. I don't know what happened, but it got stuck in there and it stayed. And she dug at it and tried to get out and it just stayed. And it didn't really cause any more pain, but it was always irritating. It was always kind of red. It always just bothered her and that sort of thing. That was that. It just went on. Life went on. And then all of a sudden, one day it popped out. She wasn't trying anything. She wasn't scraping at it. She wasn't doing anything. It just in the Lord's perfect timing, it came out.
[00:38:36] I think about that when I think about this passage.
[00:38:40] It's tempting to think that we need to secure our happiness and secure our lives in being pain free, in not having thorns in our arms or in our lives or in our souls or in our circumstances.
[00:38:55] But God's timing is perfect.
[00:38:59] He'll remove the thorns. He will, but it'll happen on his schedule.
[00:39:06] And in the meantime, he uses them to work in us.
[00:39:12] We don't need to be utterly frustrated and mad and discontent and angry when things aren't going the way we want them to.
[00:39:22] Think about our savior.
[00:39:24] Think about the things that he endured, the crown of thorns that was placed on his head, the nails that were placed in his hands and his feet, all the things that he endured so that he might obtain an inheritance. That is not of this world, but one that is imperishable and kept in heaven.
[00:39:51] To give to you these thorns. The Lord used the cross the Lord used in the life of his son so that we could have the strength of his grace and so that all the world would see that the power of God is so powerful, he can manifest it in weakness.
[00:40:16] He can put to shame the foolish things of this world. He can manifest and accomplish his things through the power of the death of his son.
[00:40:28] When we learn to see Jesus like this, when we learn to see the work of God in the gospel like this, when we learn to see that God's power is made perfect in our weakness, then we start doing more and more of what Paul does.
[00:40:49] We read at the end of verse nine. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses.
[00:40:59] Why? So that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
[00:41:05] What a wonderful way of talking about God's grace in our lives. The power of the Messiah, the resurrected Messiah, the ascended Messiah, the coming again Messiah, the power of Christ resting upon you.
[00:41:26] Who wouldn't want that?
[00:41:29] Of course I'll boast in my weaknesses. If that's what I get.
[00:41:34] For when I am weak, then I am strong. Why not? Because my weakness all of a sudden turns into strength, but because in my weakness, God's power is made perfect for the sake of Christ. Them. I am content with weaknesses, with insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. Bring it on. Paul says I'll be a happy guy.
[00:42:03] I'll be okay, or at least I'll be content.
[00:42:08] How can Paul be content? Do you want to be content with your weaknesses?
[00:42:16] Do you want to be content with insults?
[00:42:21] Can you be content with hardships, persecutions and calamities?
[00:42:28] You can and you will.
[00:42:32] As you learn more and more to think about the sufficiency of God's grace and the way that he's working and how he's working in this life.
[00:42:42] And that grace will provide you with everything you need, both for this life and the life to come. He'll provide you with food. He'll provide you with clothing. He'll provide you with protection, the forgiveness of sins, the healing of old wounds, the removal of guilt and of shame.
[00:43:02] God's grace through the work of his son does all of these things.
[00:43:07] Learn about it, enjoy it, let it rest upon you. And then when you see your weaknesses in yourself and in this life, just give them up to the Lord, knowing that he's working in and through them, strengthening you and making himself and his gospel known, learn more and more about how the power of God's saving grace is made known in weakness. And you will be content, and you will be strong, strong under trials like Paul was, and strong in sharing the gospel of God's sufficient grace with others, as he does here. So with us.
[00:43:56] Let's pray.
[00:43:59] Our heavenly Father, we ask you now for your strength through Christ and by your spirit, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Because of his will and his plan, let us learn to be content with weaknesses, with insults, with hardships, persecutions and calamities. Oh, Lord, we get so stirred up when we receive difficulties in our lives, when people say awful and terrible things, when they do bad things to us. We get so angry, so upset when we experience calamities and trials, when things come into our lives that feel meaningless, unfair, unjust, and sometimes they are, we often get far too stirred up when we should be content.
[00:44:57] Content because of who you are, because of. Content because of what you do.
[00:45:04] Content because of the surpassing grace that comes to us in Jesus Christ.
[00:45:12] Lord, let us know Jesus more and more and ground ourselves not in our own strength or in our control or in our abilities in this world, but in him.
[00:45:25] Lord, as we look to not just to our weaknesses, but to the strongest things in our lives, as we consider our education, perhaps, or our wealth or our network of connections, or as we consider our spiritual experiences or even our knowledge of the scriptures, all of which may be good things and used for your glory.
[00:45:49] Let us not put our hope and our faith in them over and against our hope and faith in Christ through the scriptures and through your work in this world. Let us learn to see him and to trust him and to know him, so that at those times when our powers and our wealth and our abilities, physical, intellectual, social, whatever, when those things are stripped away from us, Lord, that we would not be left clinging to empty winds, but we would be left on a solid rock, that we would find ourselves protected in the palm of your hand and in the powerful arms of your love.
[00:46:44] Lord, help us with Paul and through the words of your apostle Paul, to see Jesus Christ and the perfecting grace that is at work in us and in the world, even through our weaknesses, Lord, in all these things, give us contentment, give us peace, and may the power of Christ rest upon us now and forever. May he come again quickly. Amen.
