Boasting in Weakness, Part 2

0:58Is it not knowing the answers in the classroom or at your job? Is it dealing with car problems or home maintenance issues? Is it needing to physically defend yourself and not being able to do so? When you think about it, the things that we fear are all tied to our weaknesses. The things that we fear are the things We're embarrassed about the things that we're ashamed of. And I think for every person, it's unnatural for us to embrace our weaknesses. Because what we want to do is we want to hide them.

1:43We want to pretend that we don't have them. We don't want others to know about our weaknesses. And I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that Paul was no different than you and me. I'm guessing that Paul also didn't embrace his weaknesses naturally, but rather that he had to learn to do it. That by the grace of God, he had to learn to see weakness as something that God could use in his life and in the life of others.

2:16And so, friends, in 2 Corinthians 12 today, we're going to learn that God's grace is sufficient because his power is made perfect in weakness. He says here at the outset of the chapter that he doesn't want to do it, but he's going to go on boasting, even though he thinks there's nothing to be gained by it. Now, you may remember back in chapter 11, the false teachers were boasting of their Jewish pedigrees. And so Paul shared his Jewish resume. And at the very least, he matched them on that point, if he didn't exceed them.

2:56And then he demonstrated that if they were servants of Jesus, Christ, he was a better one. The false teachers were no match for the things that he had done. So if you go back to chapter 11, verse 23, he says that he had far greater labors, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and that he was often near death. And so Paul is going to move on now to visions and revelations of the Lord, because these were apparently things that these false teachers were also boasting in. They were boasting in what they had seen and heard in these ecstatic experiences. So Paul claims that he knows a man. Take a look at the text there. He knows a man speaking of himself in the third person who 14 years ago was caught up to what he calls the third heaven.

3:51Now, when somebody speaks of the heavens, they could be referring to the sky above where the birds fly. They could be referring to outer space where the stars and planets are. Or they could be referring to what we call paradise. And that's the word that Paul uses here in the subsequent verses. In this context, that's what he's referring to. He's not saying he went up into the sky. He's not saying he went up in outer space. He's saying that he went to what we would call paradise, the place where Jesus currently dwells. And in paradise, he says that he heard things. Take a look what he says. He heard things that cannot be true. Told, which man may not utter.

4:35So his experience was so special, so intense, so awe-inspiring, and so worship-inspiring that to share any part of it at all would, in some sense, be irreverent. He couldn't possibly do it justice with words. And I think it's important to note that Paul had many visions and many revelations, at least seven of which are recorded in the book of Acts. So you can go back between Acts chapter 9 and Acts chapter 27, and you can see these different instances of all of Paul's visions and revelations.

5:11And I bring that up because if he freely shared those visions with Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, what does it tell us about these particular visions and revelations that he had 14 years ago? That he's unwilling to go into any detail at all about what he saw in paradise. It tells us that Paul saw and heard and experienced some truly awe-inspiring, worship-inspiring things. And if he did tell of those experiences, he'd be telling the truth, as he says in verse 6, but he's not going to do that.

5:49He's not going to boast in what he's seen or heard. Why not? Take a look at the second half of verse 6. He says, but I refrain from So that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. In other words, Paul's not going to waste time and energy arguing about things that can't be objectively proven, visions and revelations. Anybody can say that they've had visions and revelations. They can't be confirmed or denied. So instead, what Paul does is he says, let's go ahead and stick to what can be proven, what can be confirmed or denied. Let's compare apples to apples here. He says, you know what I have said.

6:41You know what I've taught you. He says, you know how I've lived my life. And you know what these false teachers have said and how they've lived among you as well. He says, remember, I preached Christ crucified. I preach salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. But these new teachers who have come in, what were they preaching? They were preaching a return to the law of Moses. They were saying, if you try hard to keep the Mosaic law, then you will be saved.

7:16He says, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. I worked my fingers to the bone to support myself so that I could preach the gospel to you for free. I treated you with love and compassion and respect. But these new teachers came in and they demanded to be honored. They had brought their letters of recommendation. They demanded respect. They demanded compensation. They struck them in the face. So, apples to apples.

7:54Paul says, You tell me, Corinthians, what you've seen and what you've heard. You've heard both of us teach, you've observed both of our lives. Does it really matter if somebody claims divine revelation, if their life is not marked by love and service? I'm reminded of John's words in 1 John chapter 3. Take a look. Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. What really matters in life? Empty words?

8:38Or something more than that? The false teachers were full of words, but they were short on action and truth. Friends, what really matters in our lives is that we love others by serving them in practical ways every day and that we speak the truth to them. All of the theology, all of the visions and revelations, all of the conversations that we have on the internet and on social media, they don't mean anything if we don't serve our neighbors and tell them the truth.

9:15And so, Paul says here, I'm not going to talk anymore about my visions or revelations. Let's keep the discussion on the objective, measurable realities of words and actions. So, what he's going to do is he's going to go back to boasting in his weaknesses again because his weaknesses highlight the grace and the power of God. They don't highlight his own strength or abilities. So, let's pick up in verse 7. 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.

10:09Paul says that he received this thorn in the flesh to keep him from becoming prideful and arrogant, like these false teachers. Now, what does this phrase mean, a thorn in the flesh? Well, this is an idiom. An idiom is a cultural expression that if you were new to the language and you took those words, Literally, it would make no sense at all. So, we say it's raining cats and dogs. That's an example of an idiom. If somebody was new to the language, they'd be like, What are they talking about? A thorn in the flesh is that same kind of a thing. And what it was referring to was anything that caused serious trouble or difficulty or inconvenience, and it was often tied to physical afflictions of some kind.

10:56So, what was Paul's thorn in the flesh? We don't know because he never comes out and says it, not here in 2 Corinthians and not anywhere else in Scripture either. And based on what he wrote to the Corinthians, it could have been a physical deformity of some kind, it could have been some kind of issue that he had with speaking that made public speaking difficult. Because I want you to remember what he said earlier in the book. Take a look at 2 Corinthians 10: His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account.

11:39So, maybe it was one of those things. But my own opinion is it was probably some kind of an affliction that had to do with his eyesight. And I take that from Galatians chapter 4 and Galatians chapter 6. We don't have time to go there right now, but if you want to write those down, you can go back and look them up later. But in the end, there's just no way to be totally. Sure, what Paul's thorn in the flesh really was.

12:05What's relevant is how Paul viewed and dealt with this thorn in the flesh. So, I want you to take note of four particular truths. The first is this: Paul viewed his thorn as an instrument of sanctification. Paul viewed his thorn as an instrument of sanctification. One truth that we try to bring up regularly here at New Life is that God is much more concerned with our holiness than our happiness. God is a good father. And if you think about any good father, a good father is not primarily concerned with his kids liking him and being happy with every decision that he makes.

12:58A good father is concerned with the long-term health and well-being of his kids, which means that sometimes he's going to do things or allow things or say things that they do not like. They're going to disagree sometimes with decisions that he makes. And we learn in scripture that what's in our best interests is our sanctification. It's us becoming holy. People who are more and more like Jesus Christ throughout our lives. Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 4:3. This is what Paul said. For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

13:45This is one of those passages where you don't have to wonder what God's will is for your life. His will is that you become a holier person, for sure. And he didn't mean that these words just apply to the Thessalonians and not him. Paul understood that these words applied to him as well. That was God's will for him. So I don't know if you're going to be called to be an engineer, or a doctor, or a plumber, or a husband, or wife, a mom, a dad, an assistant to a regional manager. I don't know what God will call you to, but I am sure that he will call you to be a holier person because he's already done it. Our thorns, whatever they are, are instruments of sanctification.

14:32Second, Paul lamented his thorn as the work of Satan. Paul lamented his thorn as the work of Satan. In verse 7, he calls his affliction a messenger of Satan to harass me. Paul didn't try to sugarcoat anything in spiritual language here. He didn't pretend that his thorn didn't bother him. It was. A serious affliction that he genuinely believed was satanic in origin. And friends, ultimately, evil can be traced back to the evil one, the fallen angel who first rebelled against God and led many other angels to do the same.

15:21It was Satan who tempted Adam and Eve to rebel against God by disobeying his good command and who led us to disobey God so that we fell under the curse that God placed on us and all of creation. And so our minds and our bodies get sick. They break. They wear out and eventually they die due to the curse that God placed on us because of our sinful rebellion. The rebellion that Satan deceived us into joining along with him.

16:00So when Paul thinks about his thorn in the flesh, he attributes it to Satan because directly or indirectly, that is where it originates. Now, ultimately, Paul understood that God permitted his thorn. As we learned from the book of Job, Satan can't do anything, especially afflicting the saints, without God's permission. And so Paul could say, along with Joseph in Genesis 50, When he talks about his brothers who sold him into slavery, you intended evil, but God intended it for good.

16:43That doesn't mean, though, that we still shouldn't lament our thorns, the afflictions that each of us suffers in this life as a direct result of the fall, the curse, and the work of Satan. Your thorn may be a mental disability or a physical disability. It may be depression or anxiety or a personality disorder of some kind. It may be a weak immune system where you get sick a lot. It might be a frail body that breaks and tires out and injures easily.

17:26It might be a weak conscience that keeps you up at night. It could be any number of things. But, friends, whatever your thorn is, we should view it like Paul does. It is a messenger of Satan to harass us. It is something that should be lamented. But in the end, it is a messenger of Satan that God has allowed for your sanctification. And friends, that thorn has a hard end date. It will end the day you die or the day Jesus returns, whichever comes first.

18:07Praise God. Third, Paul initially rejected his thorn as a hindrance to his ministry. Paul initially rejected his thorn as a hindrance to his ministry. A lot of the philosophers in Paul's days were Stoics. We've talked about that before. And the Stoics believed that the material world was evil. And a lot of them believed that suffering in and of itself was a good thing. But not Paul. Paul saw suffering as inevitable in this world. He saw it as something that God uses for good, but not something that was good in and of itself. So take a look at verse 8. Paul says, three times I've pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. Now, a true Stoic would have never done such a thing. He would have just received it, just accepted it without a word of complaint.

19:15But Paul prays urgently to God and asks the Lord to take it away. And you notice here that just like Jesus, he prays three times. Just like Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, Lord, remove this cup of suffering from me. But not my will, but your will be done. Paul prays three times that God would remove his thorn. And church, I want to point out that Paul was a man of great faith. He prayed and he believed that God loved him and heard him. So that's what he did. Because he knew that God loved him, he prayed earnestly for God to remove his thorn.

20:08But a lot of professing Christians, and maybe this is true of you as well, we see prayer as a last resort. We even say stuff like, there's nothing else to do but pray. There's nothing else to do but pray. That's the first thing that we should be doing in any affliction, any trial, every time we suffer. But this is what Paul did. When he was afflicted with his thorn in the flesh, the first thing he did was pray because he really believed that God heard him. And initially, he believed that it was a hindrance to his ministry.

20:48But fourth and finally, Paul accepted his thorn as a help to his ministry. He accepted his thorn as a help. A help to his ministry. Take a look at verse 9. This is what God says to him: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Did God answer Paul's prayer? Yes. The answer was no. When we talk about God answering prayers, what we mean is that God said yes to something that we asked.

21:42But no is an answer too, isn't it? Every parent knows that no is an answer to. And more specifically, God's answer to Paul was no, because my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. So, church, understand when we pray to the Lord, he answers. There is no such thing as unanswered prayer for the Christian. God answers every prayer. Sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no, but he always answers. He always answers us. And so when we pray, we're either going to get the answer that we hoped for, or We're going to get the answer that we would have chosen for ourselves if we knew everything that God knows and if we were perfectly sanctified. That's the answer that we would have chosen.

22:44So, Paul, this exceptionally holy man filled with great faith, he prays that he would be healthy. And God says no, because his grace is sufficient. His power is made perfect in weakness. Friends, you may not have everything that you need to do your will for your life, but you will always have everything you need to do God's will for your life. His grace is sufficient. We hate our weaknesses. We are embarrassed by them. We're ashamed of them. We seek to cover them up however we can, just like people from every culture ever.

23:32But by God's grace, Paul learned to accept his thorn. He learned to embrace his weakness as a help to his ministry, even though he initially rejected it as a hindrance. So Paul says this: take a look at the end of verse 9: Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest. Upon me, it's not that God couldn't use Paul's natural and spiritual gifts to bless and serve others. He did do that, and he does that in our lives as well.

24:20But when God works through our weaknesses, friends, there's no mistaking that it was God who did it. He gets the glory when he works through our weaknesses. And so Paul boasted not in his strengths, but in his weaknesses. He pointed to Christ rather than himself, which is what every godly leader does. Just think about John the Baptist and his ministry. This guy comes onto the scene and he has thousands of followers. He goes viral before that's a thing.

24:57And Jesus comes on and he begins his ministry, and people run up to him and they say, John, everybody is unfollowing you and following Jesus. And what does John say? He must increase. I must decrease. Peter and John are outside of the temple walking. They see this crippled man, and they look at him and they say, in the name of Jesus Christ, walk. And the people begin celebrating. These two men, and they say, Why are y'all looking at us like we did something? It was through the name of Jesus, the one that you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, he is the one who made this man walk.

25:44He must increase, we must decrease. Paul, Peter, John, every faithful leader wants God to be glorified, wants God's name to be praised, and one way to do that is to boast in our weaknesses. So, Paul concludes: take a look at verse 10: For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul didn't seek any of these things out. He was not a glutton for punishment, as we would say.

26:38But he said, for the sake of Christ, he was content with them. He learned to see all of these things as good gifts. Because you see, weaknesses make us realize that we need God. And weaknesses make us realize that we need each other, that we are not. Infinite and independent, but we are finite and dependent on God and others. And not only do we have to become content with weaknesses and hardships, he says, but look at the rest of this list. We have to become content with insults and persecutions and calamities, the bad things that happen to us in this life.

27:30And friends, our complaints reveal that we are not content with those things, that we don't believe that God is in control, that He is good, that He has brought these things into our lives so that we can be sanctified and so that other people can be saved. Every bad thing that happens to us is an opportunity for God to do something good in and through us. But, church, we've been so thoroughly discipled to complain, to let everyone know about the bad things that are happening to us, to jump on social media and to share with the world how things have gone poorly for us without ever stopping and just saying, wait a minute, God is in control. God is good.

28:28He brought this in. My life. Why did he bring this into my life? So, one of our pastors had his ceiling cave in this past week. No. You are clearly not a homeowner. He had a ceiling cave in, and they have in their house this sign right next to the part of the ceiling that caved in that says, Count it all joy. Never ever put Christian art in your house. Those are the kinds of things that we have been discipled to complain about. And instead, this dear brother, this pastor here at New Life, he texts that picture to us and he says, I have to count it all joy. I have to count it all joy. You see, friends, in God's upside-down kingdom, we can only become strong when we're weak, when we learn to accept and even boast in our thorns and our weaknesses as a help to our ministry, even when initially we always see them as a hindrance.

29:59So, If I may, this morning, I'd like to conclude with a little boasting of my own. My voice stopped working about seven years ago. And if you've been here for a long time, you can probably hear it. I can talk for about five minutes now in a conversation or in a sermon or in a teaching before my throat constricts to about the size of a coffee straw. That's what it feels like. And I've been a public speaker basically my whole life. I've never had that problem before. But about seven years ago, I started having this problem, and it's gotten worse and worse and worse.

30:56And it takes a tremendous amount of concentration just to squeak out the last few words of each sentence when I'm up here. And I know some of you are thinking, I wonder if he's tried those oils. I have not. I have prayed for a very long time. I have read a lot of books and a lot of articles. I've gone to a speech therapist. I've gone to an ENT who stuck a camera up my nose and down my throat and said, There's nothing wrong with your vocal cords.

31:51This really only happens to me when I'm talking about spiritual things. Something is wrong with me. And it may just be a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. And, friends, if that's the case, I will choose to believe that God's grace is sufficient for me and that His power can be made perfect in my weakness. I have lamented this thorn. I've seen it as a hindrance to my ministry because I don't want to be weak for you. I want to come up here and be strong for you, but I'm not.

32:36I am terrified to walk up here every week, not because I'm not confident in what the Lord has given me to say, but because I'm not sure that my voice is going to work. That's a hard thing. And so I share that with you, and we focus on Paul's story of weakness today. And I hope that it reminds you that the world does not know. Need us to hide our weaknesses. It doesn't need us to display our strengths.

33:08What it needs is more people, more believers who are willing to embrace their weaknesses so that we can decrease and Jesus Christ can increase. And so I encourage you: whatever your weaknesses are, whatever your thorns are, let's not hide those things anymore. Let's embrace them, not as hindrances to our ministries, but as helps to our ministries, so that God would be glorified. And if you're here and you're not yet a believer in Jesus, I think one of the biggest lies that you have to overcome is the lie that you've got to be religiously strong in order for God to accept you.

33:58That you can't come to God until you've gotten rid of a lot of bad stuff in your life. That you can't come to God until you've established a track record of doing a lot of good things in your life. But, friends, nothing could be further from the truth. It is so important for you to know that Jesus Himself said that the healthy don't need a doctor, the sick do. That's who he came for. You are weak. You are dead in sin, and there's nothing that you can do about that on your own.

34:36The only way for you to be forgiven, the only way for you to be reconciled to God is by admitting and embracing your weakness, confessing your sin, and receiving the person of Jesus Christ, who lived and died and rose again for you on the third day. You do not need a second chance. You will blow it, just like all of us have. You need the grace of God. And so I urge you to remember that God's grace is sufficient because His power is made perfect in weakness.

35:23Let's pray. Father, it is so hard to admit our weaknesses. To put them on display for others to see. Because in every culture, weakness is despised. Weak people get taken advantage of. And so we don't want to be despised. We don't want to be taken advantage of. And so we hide our weaknesses, even from others, from our brothers and sisters in Christ, in the church. And so, Lord, we pray today that you would help us to do that which is humanly impossible, to embrace our weaknesses so that your strength would be clearly seen, your grace would be clearly seen at work in our lives.

36:59And we pray that our lost family members, friends, co-workers, and classmates that they would see and hear from us that we are not the way we are because we are strong, but because we are weak. And we went to the one who is perfectly strong. We pray this morning that many would come to Jesus in faith and repentance and receive from him what you can only. Only get from him. And that is forgiveness and eternal life.

37:40Thank you, God, for hearing our prayers. In Christ's name, Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.