Scripture referenced 12 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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2 Corinthians 12:1 Paul's stated intent to boast in visions and revelations of the Lord
1 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. For I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
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Keep this verse
2 Corinthians 12:2
Paul knowing a man caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago
2 I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I don’t know, or whether out of the body, I don’t know; God knows), such a one caught up into the third heaven.
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2 Corinthians 12:3-4
the man caught up into paradise hearing things that cannot be told and may not be uttered
3 I know such a man (whether in the body, or outside of the body, I don’t know; God knows),
4 how he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
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2 Corinthians 12:5
Paul boasting on behalf of that man but not on his own behalf except in weaknesses
5 On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.
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2 Corinthians 12:6
Paul saying he would not be a fool to boast but refrains so no one thinks more of him than they see or hear
6 For if I would desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, so that no man may think more of me than that which he sees in me, or hears from me.
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2 Corinthians 12:7
the thorn given in the flesh to keep Paul from becoming conceited because of surpassing revelations
7 By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.
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2 Corinthians 12:8
Paul pleading three times with the Lord that the thorn would leave him
8 Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
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2 Corinthians 12:9
God telling Paul his grace is sufficient and his power is made perfect in weakness
9 He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.
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2 Corinthians 12:10
Paul being content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for Christ's sake
10 Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.
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2 Corinthians 12:11
Paul saying he has been a fool and ought to have been commended by the Corinthians
11 I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.
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2 Corinthians 12:12
signs of a true apostle performed among them with utmost patience, signs, wonders and mighty works
12 Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty works.
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2 Corinthians 12:13
Paul asking in what way they were less favored except that he did not burden them, asking them to forgive him that wrong
13 For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Mark picked up the 2 Corinthians series with chapter 12, the Sunday after Christmas. The passage centers on Paul's account of being caught up to the third heaven, and the thorn in the flesh that came with it. The thread running through the whole sermon is the single line God spoke back to Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you."
What was said
Paul opens by claiming what he calls foolish boasting, and Pastor Mark was clear that the sarcasm is intentional. Paul says there is nothing to be gained by what he is about to share, and then shares it anyway. The point is that God has preserved it for a reason, and the sarcasm is Paul's way of playing along with the game the false teachers in Corinth had started.
The vision itself is described carefully. Paul says a man he knows was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years before he wrote this letter. Pastor Mark pointed out that "was caught up" is a divine passive throughout the passage. God is the one doing the catching. Paul uses the third person, a rhetorical device called illeism, to describe himself at arm's length, the same way someone in a counseling office says "I have this friend."
Paul refuses to say anything about the content of what he heard in that place. He gives his reason plainly: so that no one would think more of him than what they could see or hear from him directly. Pastor Mark noted that this is the only place in all of Paul's writing where he mentions this experience at all. He is not interested in being judged by a private mystical encounter with God. He wants to be judged by how he loves, and by the validity of the message of the cross.
Then comes the thorn. A thorn was given, again in the divine passive. God is the giver. Pastor Mark observed that from the grammar it appears the thorn came at the same time as the great revelation, and that he recognized something similar in his own life when he and Tanya committed to mission work. Paul pleaded three times for it to leave. God said no. What God said instead was, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
That answer reframes everything that follows. Paul says he will boast gladly in his weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on him. Pastor Mark connected this to the word "rest" from the previous week's Christmas text, where God's favor rests on those with whom He is pleased. The power of God is available to the humble. Paul knows that the moment he starts declaring anything from his own self there is no power there at all.
Pastor Mark closed by reading at length from Spurgeon on the sufficiency of grace. Spurgeon's point, which fitted the passage exactly, is that past troubles always look smaller once they are behind us, and future ones feel manageable in the abstract. The hard thing is trusting that grace is sufficient for the present trouble, right now, in this moment. Spurgeon called that true faith.
The sermon ended personally. Pastor Mark talked openly about his own thorn, a severe stage fright that resurfaced during the Christmas Eve service three days earlier. He said he took his eyes off Jesus and sank like Peter. The stage fright, the thorn, the weakness, are the very place where grace shows up. That is what Paul was saying, and it is what Spurgeon was saying, and it is what was being said that Sunday morning.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Paul refused to talk about the content of his vision in the third heaven so that, as he put it, 'no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.' What do you think it looks like practically when someone lets their private spiritual experiences become the main thing people know them for, and what does Paul's restraint say to us about that?
- The pastor shared that when he took his eyes off Jesus during the Christmas Eve offering talk, he sank 'like Peter.' Can you think of a time when something like that happened to you, where fear or self-consciousness pulled your attention away from what God was doing in a moment?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 7,586 words
0:00
Speaker 1Cold. Alright. I'll listen to the deck outside pop all evening last evening. I was trying to figure out what that was and it was just the deck. Getting used to the cold, I guess and I texted a picture of a, you know, screenshot of the temperature here this morning to my folks at home.
0:16
It's a 103 degrees warmer where they are right now. Yeah. And one of our parishioners texted me a picture that she was stand up paddle boarding on the ocean in Florida. I know she said it was 103 degrees warmer where she was but welcome. Glad you're you're all here.
0:34
Everybody survived Christmas. It looks like it. That's good. Would you want to stand up and sing? We're going sing a few more Christmas songs.
0:43
I'm going invite Bob Wells and Scott Humphrey up to sing around this omni microphone and just join in. This is probably the last time we sing a whole set of Christmas songs for a while but enjoy it. It's all about Christmas and Easter, right? Let's sing another one. Angels from the Realms of Glory is hymn two fifty nine.
3:16
If you need the melody on this one, it's surprising. Actually, Judy probably needs to. Okay. There's the sunglasses. There you go.
4:55
Thank you, fellas. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements this morning. I actually not many. Because Christmas is so full of events.
5:08
We've been announcing, announcing, announcing lately. We didn't do children's church today or next week. So, if you normally come to the nine because of children's church, you can come sleep a little late, come to the eleven next week because there's no children's church at the nine. It will resume on January 10. Tonight, it's a strange, strange phenomena.
5:25
There's no Monday night tomorrow. That make sense? We're not doing Monday nights at first B down the hall tomorrow night. We're not gonna gather tomorrow the twenty eighth but we'll resume that on January 4 and we'll be saving you a spot then. So, meal music and a message but not this Monday.
5:41
It's a Monday week and that's it. So, check your bulletin. There is a lot of other stuff going on. The normal stuff that goes on but if you would check your bulletin for that and I won't waste your time with announcements. Would you stand up and greet one another?
5:55
Help somebody today. Find somebody. Pull em in close. Let's worship and adore him. Hymn number two forty seven.
6:52
Infant holy infant. That's that was an abrupt song. Doing it twice but I don't think I could do two more key chains. Infant holy, infant lowly. See, even if I could get the frontline team to come forward and Armen Kadal and Doyle Vaughn and Florine Eon and I think I'm going play bass with them for the operatory today.
8:35
But would you join me in praying? God, this last time this year that we get a chance to give back here corporately in this place, lord. Would you just bless the gift and the giver? Would you extend that which we put before you right now, Lord, to the ends of the earth? Would you change lives?
8:59
Would you do what you do? What only you can do, Lord? As a church, would you allow us to be responsible with these gifts given that we would lord always be concentrating our message here on the cross of Christ. Perfect life lived. Lord, would you multiply.
9:23
Do what you do. Lord, as we lay before you, that which you've given, acknowledge you, and show our trust, lord. In Jesus name, amen. And Noah's going to say a little something about
9:41
Speaker 2Folks, the I selected this hymn because when I was in high school, we went to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and this song was sang, and, and, of course, it has been all over the world since then. It started with a poem in 1922, And the mother of the mother of the George Beverly Shea was kind of a rowdy little guy. And so his his mother got a tune. And so it's it's amazing because George started singing this song, and it's been sang sung all over the world with Billy Graham. So Jesus applause I'd rather be faithful to his because I'd rather have Jesus than world wide fame.
13:24
Amen.
15:13
Speaker 1Amen. That's fun. That's an international group right there and I was looking around this morning actually. Where is everybody from this morning? Romania?
15:22
Would you yell out if you think it's unusual? So, USA, we got that one. Anybody else? Germany. Romania, Germany.
15:30
South Africa. Anymore? South Africa. Africa more. They're a bunch of y'all.
15:35
Yes. I knew that. It's some Sundays. We have 10 or 12 countries represented. Summertime especially but I just was checking today.
15:41
So, good. Welcome. Glad that you're here. The body of Christ, universal. It's great.
15:45
The capital C Church. So, it's my turn now and I'm back to second Corinthians. Now, I know that Christmas has just passed and I could do something about the wise men showing up just after Christmas and I thought about that and I also thought about ending the year with something a topical sermon maybe about worship and I think that one's in the oven and it's cooking but it's not quite done and before it got done, I didn't want y'all to hear it. So, that probably will be in a couple of weeks. I think that I have one more one or two more from second Corinthians but we're in second Corinthians 12 right now and if you'll think back to a few weeks ago, ten and eleven, I did two chapters on the same Sunday.
16:28
Paul defending his ministry and he was upset and he was pretty, actually, he's angry and you could hear it. His tone was pretty sharp and harsh and then, I defended or talked about my trip in Nepal and my tone was actually pretty sharp and harsh. After that one, because of what I saw there, if you didn't hear it, you're probably blessed but if you didn't hear it, it's on the internet. You want to hear it? But second Corinthians 12, he continues his self proclaim what he calls foolish boasting.
16:56
He's been drawn into it. He says, he would rather have not talked about it but he's been drawn into it by what they're discussing amongst themselves and what they're what the reports he's getting back from Titus. So, Paul continues his self proclaimed foolish boasting but it is as instruction and godliness. So, what he did and what he is doing is joining them in their own game. He calls it himself foolish boasting.
17:20
Now, in the middle of the text, he will kind of back away from that a little bit and let him let us know it's not all foolishness but there's some sarcasm in here. There's no doubt that there's some sarcasm in here. I tried to put that into the text. I actually downloaded a sarcasm font with the italics that lean the wrong way so that you can tell, but I didn't universally apply it. So but it starts off that way.
17:44
I'm most comfortable just progressing through the text as you all know. I like that because it takes the agenda out of my hand as much as I can. I want to say exactly what Paul was saying. Hopefully, in the same vein that he was saying it and then we'll try to apply it to our lives today. So, we'll start with something sarcastic.
18:03
There it is. That font is, well, I must go on boasting. Though there's nothing to be gained by it. He says it like, oh, there's nothing to be gained by it but he wrote it. It's in God's word.
18:18
God has protected it all these years. It's there for us to see. There's something to be gained by it. He's being sarcastic when he's saying, there's nothing to be gained by I will go on now. Now, he just said this like two verses ago, he said that he would go on boasting.
18:31
He had a different subject in mind but he says, I'm going to go on now in my boasting to visions and revelations of the Lord. Visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man, Paul says, I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Fourteen years ago. So, Paul wrote this and about as best we can tell, '56, maybe '57, '55, fifty six, fifty seven AD, somewhere in there.
19:00
So that puts it this event fourteen years ago, the way they accounted time, either somewhere between '42 and '44. If you want to go deeper and study and figure out where he was during that time, it's kind of hard to pinpoint. Probably Antioch on the first missionary journey possibly but probably in Antioch serving with Barnabas. Maybe just before that time, it's hard to say specifically and Paul does not say specifically. He says, I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.
19:33
The was caught up. I'm going to point out several times when I see it. The was caught up is passive, right? It doesn't say Paul or somebody caught themselves up. It says, he was caught up.
19:43
It's a divine passive. Almost everybody agrees on that. A divine passive is that God is the agent. He's the mover. He's the one who's doing the catching up.
19:54
He's catching this person up where? Into the third heaven. It seems really scholarly and academic right here at the very beginning. Sorry. But that's just the way it is.
20:03
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up by God into the third heaven. Now, he could have said there, the seventh heaven, he could've said the tenth heaven, the hundredth heaven but he said the third heaven. Either way, he equates it in the next verse to be in paradise. It's heaven. It's in the place where God is and the third heaven and Jewish writings of this time was a superlative for saying the highest, okay?
20:31
Glory to God in the highest. We heard last week. The highest. So, the third heaven and I will go call back to a few months back. I said, heresy thrives on incomplete understanding and felt need, right?
20:45
Heresy thrives on incomplete understanding but felt need and so, there are church, there are hesitate to say churches. There are groups that divide heaven into three parts. There's this heaven, that heaven, and that heaven and this is the highest one. You can't attain this unless you're one of us. You might attain the, you know what I'm saying?
21:04
They divide it up. That's not biblical. Paul does say the third heaven but it's a superlative to say, this is where God is. He quotes it like I said in the next verse to paradise. I want you to see this though.
21:18
He was caught up to the third heaven. Now, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. He admits that he doesn't understand this. He doesn't understand it completely but he does understand and believe that God knows and he came out of this experience. He had a greater trust in God and his omniscience, his knowing.
21:39
Are you with me? Lot of dead stares but you're with me. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. I'm admitting that but God knows. I trust that and I know that this man was caught up in the paradise Whether it was in the body or out of body, I don't know but God knows.
22:01
He says that. Now, I see a man and this man right here. Do you all know what what he's doing here? It's kind of a rhetorical device. Do you know what ileism is?
22:13
You know what ileism is? I've I've I've found out this morning actually. Wikipedia is an amazing thing. Iliism, I I knew what it was but I didn't know what it was called. Does this help?
22:27
Bob Dole used to always refer to himself. Bob Dole doesn't do this and that. Bob Dole would never do that. Do you remember that? It's an iliasm.
22:33
It's when you call yourself by your own name or you speak of yourself in the third person. Paul is saying, this man, that man rather than me. It's definitely Paul. There's no doubt about whether it's Paul. Almost nobody thinks it's somebody else.
22:46
Paul is using it as a rhetorical device to start off. He says, I know a man, this guy. So, you ever hear anybody else use that? I don't know. Some of y'all are getting the Bob Dell reference in this service.
22:57
The first service, I had to use wrestlers. You know, wrestlers that speak about themselves in the first service. I mean, in the third person. So, I know a man in Christ and I use this example too. So, somebody comes into my office counseling office and they come in, they go, so, I've got this friend.
23:14
And he's got a problem with this is what is going on here. Paul's referring to himself for a reason in the third person. I know that this man was caught up in the paradise whether in the body or not. I don't know. God knows.
23:26
So, that's an ileism. God knows. He comes out of it with a greater trust that God does know what's going on. He's sure of that. He's now repeated it twice, right?
23:37
And he has repeated twice that he doesn't know whether it was in the body or out of the body. It was a divine revelation or vision. He doesn't know exactly what to say it was though. He just knows that God knows and he heard things. This guy that I'm talking about, he heard things.
23:55
There were things that cannot be told Which man may not utter, must not utter, should not utter. These things that cannot be told. Was it God that he saw in this paradise, in this heaven? That's what his reference was to but he says, he heard things that cannot be told. This reminds me of another place in scripture where it says, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with utterances and groanings that cannot be understood.
24:20
He also says, he heard things that cannot be told which man may not utter. Now, he holds this thing very very it looms large in his mind. I should in his life. This experience of this revelation that happened fourteen years ago that the the verb tense on this is a progressive thing that happened fourteen years ago but it continues to affect him up until this future moment and he expects that it will into eternity future. He heard things that cannot be told which man may not utter.
24:50
On behalf of this man, I will boast. Now, it's still him, you know. On behalf of this man, I will boast. Now, look at these things again that I've pointed out already. A man in Christ and this man and he, that's all the ileism.
25:04
This man, again, but look at the divine passage, was caught up to the third heaven, was caught up in the paradise. It's God who brought him into this place and it's something that's been affecting him for fourteen years. But he on my own behalf, I will not boast, he says. I I will boast on this of this man. I will boast of this man.
25:25
On behalf of this man, I will boast. It's somebody who is changed by this experience but on my own behalf, I'm not going to elevate self. It is about God, the prime mover, the one who brought that man to that place, it's about God. It's about his divine revelation. On behalf of this man, I'll boast but on behalf of I will on my own behalf, I will not except of my weaknesses.
25:48
Now, this is the theme he's picking back up on from chapter 11. He talked about all of his issues. You know, being beaten, being in the ocean, being shipwrecked, all of that sort of stuff. Snake bit, all of those things. Those are those are weaknesses, human speaking, especially the super apostles who were, you know, either, probably, health and wealth gospel guys.
26:09
Some of them are legalistic health and wealth gospel guys. If you do this, then God will do that. That's not guaranteed. Paul knows it's not guaranteed. So, he's boasting in his weaknesses.
26:20
Are you with me still? Okay. Alright. Though if I should wish to boast and if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool for I'd be speaking the truth. So, he's saying, fourteen years ago, something happened to me.
26:35
And if I were to tell you about it, it would be true because I'd tell you as close as I can to what happened. But I refrain from it. He refrains from telling his divine revelation from God. In the third heaven, he refrains from it. Why would he do that?
26:51
Think about it for a minute. Well, he says it right here. The next thing he says, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. Paul does not tell anything about the content of that third heaven revelation. I like that.
27:08
There are a lot of people who claim to have heard directly from God. A revelation. I have a vision for X, Y, Z. Whatever it is and God told me this exactly and you need to help me do this. There are lot of people who do that on a regular basis and I mean, I feel like on Sunday morning, I like going in order but I I I feel like God gives the words that flows through some Sundays.
27:33
I feel it more than others. But he refrains from talking about that ecstatic or mysterious or mystical experience. He refrains from it. He didn't tell anything about the content of that revelation and I love that he says, this is why. So that no one may think more of me, he called himself the chief of sinners.
27:56
So, no so no one would think more of me than what he sees in me or hears from me. Ain't that cool? So that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. He does not want to elevate self. It's there's no pride there whatsoever.
28:14
You don't have to judge me, Paul says, by what I say about my private mystical experience with God. All the gurus, all of the guys who claim to have had intimate knowledge of God and he told me this and said that and in his time, they were doing exactly the same thing. Paul is not saying that. He's been drawn into their foolishness or normally, nowhere else in the Bible. As a matter of fact, does he mention this experience?
28:37
Just to the second Corinthians, he talks about it. You don't have to judge me by what I say about my private, mystical experiences with God. He was drawn in one other time about his speaking in tongues. Yeah, speaking tongues more than any of y'all. In first Corinthians.
28:52
Judge me though, Paul says, by how I love. Judge me by the validity of my message, the message of the cross, the gospel. That's what I carry. That's what I carry into the synagogue when I get to a place. That's what I carry outside the synagogue when they kick me out.
29:06
That's what I carry everywhere that I go. Judge me by how I love, judge me by the validity of my message, by the way I live my life, all that I do and all that I say. That's what he's saying. So that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. Do you all agree with me?
29:22
Alright. Good. Because I don't know what I'd do if y'all said no. Actually, that was, that would, that would bring a real issue to the floor. So, to keep me from being coming conceded so to keep me, this is where it turns.
29:42
When I said it was an ileus, I'm so far he's been referring to himself in third person but this is where he makes the turn. He says, so to keep me from becoming conceded because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. A thorn was given. Again, divine passive. God is the mover.
29:59
He is the one who gave him. This thorn and it seems to be from the grammar, everything surrounding it. It seems like he's saying that God gave him the thorn at the place where he gave him that great revelation fourteen years earlier. It came with it. The good came with the bad.
30:17
I didn't go into it any great detail but until we went to the mission field, I had not had a real, real bad, real, real bad experience probably at all in my life. Not to that magnitude anyway but when we committed to making a step of faith into following after Jesus and doing what I've really felt like he was showing us to do. I I was given a a severe affliction and it was at the same time and I think it was for the same reason, quite honestly. I think it was exactly the same reason. So, to keep me from becoming conceded because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, Paul saw God and he saw him clearly, not just, now, his conversion experience, I want to mention this.
31:00
His conversion experience on the Damascus Road, he told that story over and over. We see it a couple, three times in Acts. We hear about it. He used what he saw here on Earth. He used it and he used it to good effect.
31:13
It made it made a difference in people's lives. He was saying, I had an encounter with Jesus that made a difference in my life. But this mystical experience, he has not. Used. A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me.
31:29
That messenger I mentioned last week, the angel of God, messenger is that same word, Angolas right there. An angel of Satan, a little satanic angel was given me to to harass me. It was to harass me, to persecute me, to to pursue me but it was given by God. The devil is God's devil. We do not have a religion that has good and evil in equal measure, yin and yang.
31:57
Good wins. God is good. There's no there's nothing that matches God. We have a good and loving God and we have Satan too but God can even use everything that Satan uses for evil. God can turn to good.
32:13
So, he's saying, the thorn was given me in the flesh. The messenger for Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. He says it again, was given by God to me in the flesh, messenger of Satan to harass me, keep me from becoming conceded, to keep me from becoming, to keep me from becoming. He says it twice. He's doing a lot of duplication in this.
32:33
It's important. The thorn in the flesh. Now, before I go on, there's been a lot of speculation as to what Paul's thorn in the flesh was and one of the popular things that was some sort of sin. There was some sort of sin in Paul's life that pursued after him and this was a popular notion for a long time but it's kind of fallen out of popularity right now because God does give the power to get over sin. Now, there's a humility that comes with recognizing that your powerlessness over it and that God's grace is what gets you through but there's also a lot, there are a lot a lot of people that think that it was a physical ailment of some type.
33:16
A lot of people point to his eyesight because he says, see what large letters I write in my own hand. I can barely see the page. Have to write this big to be able to see it and I think that he probably he did have bad eyesight, I think. He mentions that a couple of times. It could have been a physical thing.
33:32
Think about he's been beaten over and over and over again. Cauliflower ears, broken jaws, all of the things that you get from a life of being beat up and stoned. Yeah, pain. Can you imagine? After all he's been through?
33:48
So, it's a thorn in the flesh. Don't really know. He was beaten up early. He was beaten up late. You could take it however it was.
33:56
However it goes but he recognizes it was given by God to keep him from becoming conceded because of those surpassing greatness of revelation. Three times, I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. Now, he recognizes it's from God but he also wants it gone. Just wants it gone. I don't want to have to deal with this anymore.
34:16
I'd I'd fall short and I recognize that I'll fall short and I don't want to fall short. Some people think that Paul's thorn in the flesh was his public speaking. He mentions that multiple times in this letter that he's not a good public speaker. All they say my letters are really powerful but they say he's worthless in person. His speech accounts for nothing.
34:39
I can I can understand that? I know that because I have to stand up here every Sunday. I mentioned this in the first service too. For me, stage fright. I have stage fright worse than anybody else that I know.
34:52
It is horrible. And I don't want to make you self conscious by telling you that but I have horrible, horrible stage fright. It doesn't usually hit me here. We'll get to why in a minute. But it's terrible.
35:04
I passed out in front of an English class. Passed out. Sometimes, my, I can feel my heart in my throat and I can everything will turn kind of black and I know it's going to happen again. When I saw Doyle reach for the music stand a little while ago, I thought, that's what I feel like right there. I know how it is.
35:23
He's got a great voice. He loves to sing and when you get up here in front of people, it goes, oh my goodness. Stage fright is one of mine and I have pled with the Lord that it would leave me. Trust me. Actually, the most recent time that this happened was on Christmas Eve during the first service.
35:40
How many y'all were here for the first 04:30 service? Okay. When we got to the offering time, first of all, I'll say this too. I don't like the I don't like manipulation. I don't ever wanna feel like I'm doing anything up here to manipulate you to do anything.
35:56
I I feel like God has the power to change lives. I want for you to be a certain way and then what you do follows that, that's your own business. I I don't care what you do, honestly. I don't care what you do. I want for you to trust the Lord and he'll change you and you'll do whatever he wants you to do.
36:12
So, it's more about being than doing. So, when I get up, I'm a little bit self conscious anytime that we're dealing with money, dealing with an offering because I know that America public is skeptical and I'm skeptical too, you know? And so, when it comes to money, I have a little bit of an issue. So, I'm very conscious of lord, you do with it what you will do with it. So, during the week this week, when we're getting ready for this Christmas Eve service, I thought, I've got something to say during the offer and that's uncomfortable.
36:41
And it was the passage, you know, that wise men given their gifts and then, Jesus saying, whatever you've done to the least of these, that was the and it made perfect sense in my mind and when I got up here to deliver it in that first service, I started going and I saw a guy that I know and I know well and I know he has the same issue with money stuff than I do and he got up and he left right after I started talking about the offering and I thought, oh, that's honestly what I thought. I have crossed the line and then the stage fright hit and I haven't had it in a while, you know. It hasn't bothered me in a while but I took my eyes off Jesus and sunk like Peter. I just went, I read, I read what was on the screen. I was back there with the bass, put my head back down, and I didn't say half of what I wanted to say.
37:30
I didn't I didn't say anything that I prepared to say. Just read the scripture. That's good enough. I backed up. I hope Carl would bail me out.
37:36
He didn't. I didn't. I didn't say that this offering is for the local benevolence fund. That makes sense. That makes sense.
37:48
Well, I chose it out of the scripture. Whatever you do for the least of these, this is for the local benevolence so that we can say yes when people come in. Oh, that was great. I didn't say it. Anyway, it works well for this sermon.
38:00
Three times I plead with the Lord about this that it should leave me. I have prayed and prayed and prayed about this. Before I got here, after y'all called me and before I got here, I prayed and prayed and prayed. Lord, please. I know I love people but my goodness, getting up in front of em every Sunday is going be hard.
38:15
My grace is sufficient. That's where it goes. Right here but he said to me, I pray to the Lord, to Christ Jesus himself. I pleaded with him that it should leave me but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in your weakness.
38:36
Amen. Have ever more comforting words been spoken? And therefore, Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses. Now, I've been drawn into it too. So, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
38:52
Now, last week, I talked about how this little squiggly mark, the sigma at the end of a line. Glory to God in the highest and on peace, goodwill to man on earth. Peace, goodwill toward man. That's a universal call right there but if it has that little stigma, it is glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those upon whom God's peace, rest, or God's favor, rest, or God's power, rest. Therefore, Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of God may rest upon me.
39:31
He knows that if he gets into the self and he starts declaring anything in the self, there's no power in the self. None. The power of God's available to the humble. He resists the proud. For the sake of Christ, that's not just a just a a cuss for Christ's sake.
39:52
Usually, when we hear that. No, Paul means it. For Christ's sake, literally, for the sake of the cause of Christ, for the message of the cross, for the gospel then, I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities, getting up on stage, whatever it is. I'm content with it for the sake of Christ and I'll do it. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong.
40:14
It's in my weakness that he's shown to be strong because his grace is sufficient. So, Paul's utter dependence upon God rest here. Now, is it in that miraculous heavenly vision? Maybe. We don't know what he said because he won't discuss the content.
40:29
You know why he won't discuss the content? Because it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. He does not want for people to glorify him for what God told him outside of their presence. Make that sort of stuff up.
40:39
People do it all the time. Paul, Paul's utter dependence upon God rest here in his thorn, in his flesh that was given by God. Paul's ability to resist pride rest here because there's some things he just can't get over. There's some things that Christ has to just say, trust me. My grace is sufficient for you.
41:00
Upon this God given thorn in the flesh, Paul's ability to resist pride, rest. So, he goes on verses 11 through 13. Well, I should have put this one in sarcasm font too by the way. I've been a fool. Here I go again.
41:15
You forced me into it, people but I ought to have been commended by you. You know why I ought to have been commended by you? Because when the super apostle started talking about their heavenly visions and their lovely revelations before the Lord. When they started talking about that stuff, you should have said, but Paul says it's about Christ. Paul says it's about the gospel.
41:35
We accepted the gospel. I agree with Paul. It's about the gospel. It's about the power of God in lives to change people, to change behavior by changing who you are, being before doing. I've been a fool.
41:48
You forced me into it, people. For I ought to have been commended by you. You really should have commended the message of the cross to these super apostles and not been bamboozled by them and put them up on a platform metaphorically speaking. For I was not at all inferior to these super apostles. I'm not inferior to them even though I am nothing.
42:10
He's saying those folks are nothing too. The only one that deserves any credit above anybody else is Jesus. He's the only one. All praise, all glory, all dominion, all power to him. For I was not at all inferior to these super apostles even though I'm nothing.
42:27
The signs of a true apostle and he goes to talking about the ones who are truly sent by Jesus, the ones who are truly sent out by the gospel. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you. With utmost patience. Now, instantaneous miracles do not require utmost patience, do they? If you just this I'm I'm digressing a bit to the last couple of chapters.
42:53
If you go into a place and you say, Jesus is going to heal you right now. That requires no patience whatsoever. Now, he says that signs and wonders and mighty works did accompany his ministry but I think his point on the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience. He's saying, when I came in, I got to know you. You got to know me.
43:20
I loved you because Christ loved me. I loved you. You recognize something in me that you didn't have And I talked you through it. And you came to see it too, and then it helped you, and then it started growing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience.
43:39
It does require patience. Trust me. Tanya and I served at a school for the deaf for seven years. The Simon wonders, mighty works. A lot of those kids are now teachers in that school.
43:55
For what were you less favored than the rest? I don't speak a word of sign language by the way. Not, I mean, amen. That's about it. I learned that in the blessing.
44:04
Before the, before we eat, because it's another weakness. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches? Oh, sarcasm font. Except that I myself did not burden you. I didn't take any money from you.
44:19
I didn't ask you for anything. Forgive me this wrong. Forgive me for not taking any of your money. He's funny. I like Paul.
44:29
Meditate on this for just a minute. I've got a long quote from Spurgeon to end on but I meditate on this for just a minute. Jesus Christ is saying this directly to you. Hey, Bob Dole. No, sorry.
44:45
Hey, state your name here and I mean it. Like, right now, look up there, meditate on this for just a minute, and then I'll go on to this long quote. We'll be finished. Hey, Ray. My grace is sufficient for you.
45:04
Think about that. Whatever ails you, Scott Humphrey. Hey, Scott Humphrey, Jesus says, my grace is sufficient for you. Bob Lails, I'm picking on y'all. Terry.
45:18
Blake. Hey, my grace is sufficient for you. Whatever ails you, whatever it is, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Think about that for just a minute.
45:37
And then I'm gonna read a long quote. I wanna start a little earlier than the quote on the screen up here. So the nearness of an object increases its apparent bulk or size. Okay. You got that?
45:52
The nearness of an object. How close you are to an object increases its size. Just looking at it from right here, it's bigger than it is if it's far away that way or that way. Right? The nearness of an object increases its apparent bulk and so the affliction under which we are presently laboring seems greater than any that we have known before.
46:18
You agree with that? Yeah. Past trials appear when we have passed over them to have been small things compared with present troubles. I've got some pretty big past ones that I think about that were hard for me to get over but right now, they don't seem nearly as bad as they did when I was going through em because God's grace is sufficient. You can look at that in the past and see it.
46:41
You can actually look towards heaven and see it too. Spurgeon goes on to say that. Past trials appear when we have passed them to have been small things compared with present troubles and therefore, the difficulty is to see the sufficiency of grace for present and pressing right now type afflictions. It is easy to believe in grace for the past and for the future but to rest in it for the immediate necessity, that is true faith. Believer, it is now that grace is sufficient.
47:17
Even at this very moment, it is enough for you. Do not say this as a new trouble or if you do say it, remember that the grace of God is always new. When are his mercies new every morning? What does AA say? Day by day, we get through, right?
47:35
Remember, the grace of God is always new. Do not complain that some strange thing has happened to you or if you do remember that blessings are provided in the grace of God to meet your strange difficulties. We all have a particular set of circumstances going on and God's grace is good for that particular set of circumstances. Tremble not because the thorn in the flesh is so mysterious. Paul didn't mention what it is.
48:06
Do you know what yours are? By the way, I've admitted a couple of mine. Do you know what your thorn in the flesh is that you feel like you've been given? Some of em God takes away. Some of em he doesn't.
48:16
Some of em just stick with us. His grace is sufficient to get us over sin but there are some things that he just allows us to live with. Some of us past tense stuff. Can you imagine being Paul and having killed Christians? Can you imagine Paul's nightmares waking up knowing that he stopped?
48:34
The spread of the gospel for some time before he ever was converted on that road to Damascus. He had to live with that. I've talked to a guy who was a Palestinian fighter that had killed Christians and Jews. And now, he's translating the New Testament. And he said it's.
48:54
Pray for Abraham. His nightmares are killing him. Anyway, tremble not because the thorn in the flesh is so mysterious. For grace is mysterious too and so mystery shall be met by mystery. At this moment and at all moments which shall ever occur between now and glory, the grace of God will be sufficient for you.
49:16
This sufficiency is declared without any limiting words and therefore, I understand this passage to mean that the grace of our Lord Jesus is sufficient to uphold you, sufficient to strengthen you, sufficient to comfort you, sufficient to make your trouble useful to you. Paul was saying that, right? God gave me this thorn to keep me from becoming conceited. Sufficient to make you your trouble useful to you, sufficient to enable you to triumph over it. Sufficient to bring you out of it.
49:49
Sufficient to bring you out of 10,000 like it. Sufficient to bring you home to heaven. Whatever would be good for you. And that's what Paul recognized from God is that the thorn in his flesh that he couldn't shake was good for him. Whatever would be good for you, Christ's grace is sufficient to bestow.
50:09
Whatever would harm you, his grace is sufficient to avert. Whatever you desire, his grace is sufficient to give you if it is good for you. Whatever you would avoid, his grace can shield you from it. So, his wisdom shall dictate. If it it if whatever you would avoid, his grace can shield you from it.
50:30
If so, his wisdom shall dictate. Oh child of God, I wish it were possible to put into words this all. Sufficiency but it is not. Let me retract my speech, he says. I love it when he does this.
50:49
You ever read much Spurgeon? He says something and then he'll back up and go, woah, wait a second. No, I don't want that. He says, let me retract my speech. I'm glad that it cannot be put into words.
51:00
For if so, it would be finite but since we never can express it, glory be to God. It is inexhaustible and our demands upon it can never be too great. Here, let me press upon you the pleasing duty of taking home the promise personally. At this moment, for no believer here need be under any fear, sits for him also at this very instant. The grace of the Lord Jesus is sufficient.
51:25
Praise God. That's good. Lord, you can have this. So I started last service by saying that Paul that Carl not Paul, Carl. And after coming through Christmas season, we're spent.
51:41
We're just flat spent, honestly. And so Carl has been saying, I just feel weaker now than I have all year. Probably since last Christmas. But knowing that and knowing this, you you can still go get up here and have a smile and mean it. You know, it's not not something.
51:59
This is not y'all's problem. This is just what God's grace has given us to get through. You know, we love it. We're enjoying it but at the same time, it's like, wow. How does he do this every week where we get to something where I have to know about his grace and I have the stage fright issue again three days ago.
52:16
Because he knows what he's doing. So, would y'all stand with me? I'm going ask Bob and and Scott. This might seem like an unusual closing song but we're going talk about wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus because it is wonderful and it's a fun one to sing too but wonderful grace of Jesus. It's hymn number three thirty eight.
52:36
If you want to find your parts, I'm going to stand over behind Judy so I can sing mine. Y'all can sing right there if you want to. Amen. That's fun. That's so.
56:07
Close phone. Yeah. That last couple notes is kind of high. But God's grace is sufficient. So, would you meditate on this as you go this week that God's grace is sufficient for you.
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Individually, personally, just like it was for Paul and if we live in that, we live in knowing that Amen. We'll be like Paul. Our pride will not have a chance. In Jesus name, go in grace. Amen.
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