I invite you to turn in the scriptures this morning to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11, 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 this morning. As we're departing from our series for a moment from the Sermon on the Mount and spending some time in this wonderful section of 1st Corinthians this morning, I'll be reading at verse 11 verse 16 through 12 10 let's give our attention to the word of the lord found on page 1152 if you're looking 1152 i repeat let no one think of me foolish but even if you do accept me as a fool so that i too may boast a little what i'm saying with this boastful confidence i say not as the lord would but as a fool since many boast according to the flesh i too will boast for you gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves for you bear it if someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or strikes you in the face to my shame i must say we were too weak for that but whatever anyone else dares to boast of i'm speaking as a fool i also dare to boast of that are they hebrews so am i are they israelites so am i are they offspring of abraham so am i are they servants of christ i'm a better one i'm talking like a madman with far greater labors far more imprisonments with countless beatings and often near death five times i received at the hand of the jews the 40 lashes lest one three times i was beaten with rods once i was stoned three times i was shipwrecked a night in a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from all other things, There is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I'm not weak? Who is made to fall and I'm not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He who is blessed forever knows that I'm not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Aratas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window and a wall and escaped his hands. 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. 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. 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. But I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 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. 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, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 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 for when i'm weak then i am strong may the lord bless the hearing of his word well i don't know anyone in this life who wants to volunteer their weaknesses to people maybe there's some that's not generally what we do is it look at what's valued in our culture the strong the attractive the rich the successful and that's how we evaluate people that's how we look at the value of people that's how we think of people we're always trying to show ourselves as strong whatever faults we have we do the best we can to cover them so that people don't see the true reality of what's going on on the inside the most difficult thing though for people on the outside for people in the world for people who don't understand christianity is the perception of coming into and maybe this is a challenge for us we have to think about a lot more the perception that all these people in the church are perfect i've had people say that to me you guys are too perfect oh you don't really know us but that's all right that's all right we carry a gospel that says god has to help the most needy of people in this life he didn't come for the righteous. He came for sinners. But we're all trying to show the opposite. And that's why I think perspective is needed on the sovereignty of God in life at times and appointed sufferings. Perspective is needed on the sovereignty of God. This is essentially what Paul is dealing with in this larger section his purpose is particularly to help explain something that he knew was greatly confusing for people it's greatly confusing what I'm about to dive into with you I know that I know it up front because it's not the kind of thing we ever choose for ourselves it's the kind of thing that you're trained in the midst of it to to better understand but it's this word that prepares us for what is about to unfold here and what happens in life how do we understand human suffering that's a complex subject for people not talking about in terms of persecution not talking about persecution this morning that's not what paul's talking about really this morning i mean he mentioned some of that in chapter 11 but in terms of physical and spiritual afflictions that deeply affect God's people. It's confusing. Some of those are affecting you right now. Well, it's as if we have a disability sermon today. Who wants to come to hear a disability sermon? That's what this is. It's a sermon on disability. Maybe I should have titled it that. A disability sermon so that help would be given to believers to understand that it was precisely in this disability that he describes and the humiliation that came from it that something profound was going on. Something wonderful was happening. But we'll never think about that. And we'll never think like that until the Lord helps us. And this should be immensely helpful for us Without understanding this, we can be confused about God's goodness and the Christian life. We can be confused, as Jesus talked about in the parable of the sower, that many people, I think it was the landing on the rocky soil, when the hardships of life come. They never understood this about Christianity. So they're out. We see in Paul here him explaining a certain paradox about Christian ministry through his lens of his life, his plea that he gives through it, and then his perspective to help us through it, because this is not just unique to him, even though he becomes a sort of super example in it, the apostles did for us. It helps us to understand, I think, as we begin today, a little bit of the context of 2 Corinthians. Paul was under, in this book, heavy assault, heavy attack from what he labels as the super apostles. The super apostles. The super pastors. He had already mentioned them in chapter 11 that, surprisingly, Satan has ministers in the church. It's a sobering truth that we cannot be ignorant about. Satan raises up ministers and has them in the church. This is what Paul talked about. Some will rise up among you, Acts 20. Satan has men who disguise themselves as angels of light, but they come as ministers of righteousness. They and their followers were attracted to all the wrong things. The outward stuff. He had already said, I'm not inferior to these guys. That's what everyone was saying about him. I'm not inferior because you think my speech is weak. He said that in the first epistle to the Corinthians letter. Even though I'm untrained in speech, they were calling into question his legitimacy as an apostle based on gifting. And outward demonstrations of attractiveness. They were doing the things that had the biggest and the best draw in ministry. To which you stop and you say, you know, this is eerily the same thing happening today. They wowed people in worship. It was a production. They wowed people, but it wasn't the kind of production it is today. they wowed people in speech cicero had all kinds of guidance on how to speak and then when you wanted to make a point you all listening you know stomp at the right time paul was worried about manipulation and they all looked at paul and they said what a joke he was constantly under assault and it's it's with this background that he's explaining to the christian church particularly in corinth what they just couldn't seem to appreciate namely your whole ministry is surrounded paul by nothing but hardship it. You have affliction. You have weakness. You've got conflict. How can that be if you're true? And guess what, Paul? People don't speak well of you. People don't like you. Alexander the coppersmith is always slamming you out there they're spewing all kinds of things about you you've offended everyone with clout i don't think that's true but you see what they're doing to him they said we hear your message but the opposition surrounding your ministry it's a question mark paul are you really sent are you really an apostle we don't think so now you understand perception is important here perceptions perceptions what we all live to try to create in our in our lives uh it's really important if your perception about something makes you question i think this is this is a crucial integral point to what paul's doing here if your perception about something makes you question its authenticity or its genuineness if that's lingering in the back of your minds you'll never be able to get on board with it this was the problem in corinth i think it was one of the heart of the attacks here i think this is why people stand in the background in the church in conservative churches who have strong conviction on worship who have strong conviction on truth who have strong conviction about something being formal we're not in a day of that of course we have strong convictions on truth and belief and what is right and what's the wrong way there's a much more attractive way to all that that seems powerless that stuff many can't get past that they can't get past that because they sit in judgment on it and so they're always eyebrow raised looking for something what paul is doing is he's working hard here to change their entire attitude to ministry you'll notice it in verse one he says of chapter 12 i must i must go on boasting though there is nothing to be gained by it so some translations say right at the beginning it's not profitable for me to boast which is the heart of what he's saying And then he goes on in the beginning section here where he says of chapter 12, I knew a man in Christ 14 years ago. I want to tell you about this guy. I knew a man in Christ 14 years ago. In the body, I have no idea. Out of the body, I have no idea. God knows. He was caught up into the third heaven. That's throne room talk. He went into paradise. And he saw things that are inexpressible with words. I knew this guy, a new man, caught up into heaven. Saw heaven. Saw paradise. I don't know, did he die for a minute? I don't know if he was in the body, out of the body, I don't know. Now, what would we do with that today? We'd write a book about it. We have. Some of you have read it. the story of someone who dies and goes up on into heaven. You think if I did that, I might want to tell you about it today? If I was in Charleston last week, hey, you're not going to believe what happened last week. I was out by Fort Sumner and I was caught up into the third heaven. You think I'd want to tell you about that today? Every false teacher would. Why? Because it would gain the interest of the people. It would be attractive. It's experiential. It's sensational stuff. It's amazing stuff. It would legitimize everything, wouldn't it? If we had that kind of glory to our ministry, that kind of clout to our ministry, that kind of testimony to our ministry, if you could just prove this thing, it would finally be real to us. Why doesn't he give us something of more power? Why doesn't He give us dreams and visions? A lot of people claim it. We've had a lot of people in the history of the church believe this. Paul's saying, you know what? You know who that person was? It was me. That happened to me. I went up into heaven as an apostle. I don't know how it happened, but it happened. I could boast about that. But you know what? I'm not going to be a fool. Notice he says that. I'm going to refrain. End of verse 5. I refrain lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be. In other words, listen, if I start running around telling you about all my dreams and all my visions, By the way, this is TBN. You know what's going to happen? You're going to start exalting me. You might even start sending me your money. How much man following do we have today? How much do we look at things outwardly in the church and say it's there, it's there? Paul says you are all wrong. what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to god and here we're off so verse seven to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me a mess and a messenger notice this a messenger of satan to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited this is the great apostle paul you know paul turns the tables on himself if you will and he's explaining to them what they see as weakness and and what is the question mark of authenticity and what is real and what is true that actually his weakness was an indication of God's presence and God's work in his life. I was given everything. I had a direct encounter, he might have said, with Christ on the road to Damascus. And at some point in my ministry, I was lifted up to the third heaven and I was given all these special revelations and guess what? So that I didn't start becoming cocky. Thorn in the flesh was given to me. Literally a stake in my flesh. Whatever it was, behind it, he says, was direct demonic activity of Satan. And it constantly harassed me. A history of speculation is so fascinating on this. Here's an early description of Paul. He was bald-headed, bow-legged short man with a big nose and an unbroken eyebrow that lay across his forehead like a dead caterpillar. I think that's probably wrong. But to them, everything about him was wrong. You have everything mentioned in the thorn of the flesh. Headache, an earache, some perverse sexual sin, some have said. Some believed it was eye problems. He mentions eye. Others believed it was persecution he was constantly facing. Some say the Jews. Some say his speech. Chapter 11 seems to be the whole thing, right? When he goes through all this list of things that he faced as an apostle, he could have probably chosen any of those. But he says something specific. Something specific was given to me that rendered my body helpless. That doesn't make any sense. There's a reason he's not specific. When you get too specific as pastors, we lose what is, I think, supposed to be taken and applied. The context. Your whole ministry, Paul, is shrouded with a question mark of legitimacy because you say things at times, you might say some things that are hard to understand. Didn't Peter say that about Paul? Can you imagine that in our culture? I don't want to go to a church where some things are hard to understand. I don't want to be challenged like that. I can go and be entertained. You have a lack of good speech and a lack of glory. Now, this is not all saying that pastors have to have all this weakness in the ways that we think. Or if they have to be bald in one eyebrow. They don't have to be ugly. What is the point he's making? Paul's saying, this has made ministry hard for me. what I didn't expect. Because everyone looks at me as weak. It's our problem. The more you're given light, the more at some point in life you will be assaulted by Satan. And it may be permitted for good reason. This thorn in the flesh represents every kind of backward thing that happens to us that makes no sense. this thorn in the flesh comes when it says that day and not talking about persecution you're sick or you have this and it seems to have taken your power and now you stand back with the pain of perception is god angry at me see how important it is we look at people with whatever weakness that has come upon them is something less and something wrong this is just built into us it's what the whole book of job exposed when he lost everything in a day his money his children his livelihood his health satan definitely harassed him and everyone had their interpretation of job's plight job it's your fault you're suffering this way the righteous don't suffer like this you need to repent you've got something going on you need to repent then God will make your troubles go away you see we're always trying to show ourselves as together we're working hard to create the utopia we've got life mapped out and have you ever noticed how nothing ever seems to go according to plan some new pain some new conflict some new difficulty that's not to deny let me hear and say this carefully that is not to deny that god in the big picture of our lives can't we all testify in the big picture of our lives that the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places that he's given us a good go of life in the big picture it's pretty remarkable how we live and what we have living where we do but it's these momentary thorns that then define all of life for us it's because that's all we think about paul wants us to think about this he begins to explain the inward struggle that he's facing he says i began to pray i began to plead i pleaded with the lord about this i i went and i got on my knees and i begged him i asked him and prayed and i prayed and i prayed that it should leave me it's a the language here is a deep cry a plea this is this is what we do when something happens and somebody's going through a difficulty, all of a sudden we're praying and we fill our prayer chains with these and everyone is praying. And what are we predominantly praying? Take it away. Nothing wrong with that prayer. But this is what we do. Every ache, every pain. I believe when Paul said, Three times I prayed. He's being very deliberate. Who prayed three times in the heart of his afflictions? It was Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, if possible, let, now think of the difference here. Let this cup pass. let it leave me. But not my will, but your will be done. It was Christ in the heart of his afflictions who bore God's forsakenness. In his soul, in the greatest distress of life, wrath of God being poured out on him in body and in soul for your sins. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Paul goes to prayer. I pleaded with the Lord to take it away. It's the harder prayer to say, not my will, but your will be done, isn't it? You're not paying for your sins. See, when we're only praying, take it away, we've not submitted to the reality that this thorn ultimately is not Satan's. It's God's. And then we begin to think about the purpose in it. God hadn't forsaken him. You never will pray, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me in the way that Jesus was forsaken? And an answer is given here. He answers him. Just like the psalm said. Psalm 40. Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in human weakness. what an answer the promise of the covenant of grace is i will never leave you nor i will forsake you ever and i will give you grace that's a promise grace and help in time of need but you need to understand grace is not always taking it away grace is the unmerited favor of god to uphold you in his strength through it for what end that's the question so that i think this is the climax here so that people see what is genuine from the false stuff of the super apostles and the people caught up in that of God's power resting on someone upholding them through it C.S. Lewis God whispers to us in our pleasures he speaks to us in our conscience but shouts to us in our pain it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world you see the thorn was a gift to let people see true strength to pull away the superficiality of what we're showing us strength the church was looking at paul and saying opposition conflict weakness means absence of christ and paul just heard the lord say the opposite thing And all of that is appointed so that true strength may be seen. Human strength and divine grace are incompatible. Human strength and divine grace are incompatible. Human weakness provides the soil for grace to shine in somebody's life. As I trust Him and I keep praying to Him. And I rest in His promises. Chris Austin once said, How great is the advantage of affliction, for now we are in the enjoyment of peace and have become lax. And now the church has become filled with countless evils. But when we were persecuted, we were more sober-minded and more earnest and more ready for church attendance and hearing. Oh well. isn't that the truth so paul says in verse 10 to close this today we have a great therefore therefore i will boast in myself in the visions of heaven and false humility no i will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of christ may rest upon me he's thinking of power from on high that rests on a jar of clay he mentions that in second corinthians i think for the jar of clay earthly tent he's thinking of the spirit resting on israel and the tent in the wilderness as they they traveled and so he says this he says i I have, will boast in that weakness that Christ's power may rest upon me. The power may be of God and not of us, he says. Remember what he said elsewhere. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look to the things not that are seen, but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are. eternal whatever it is whatever sickness people coming after me whatever great need in this life whatever persecution whatever sudden distress i'll boast in christ's power he'll be magnified in my body i think that's freeing as difficult as it is but real power rests on you. God gave you an opportunity in this thing to trust Him, to pray Him, to pray to Him, and to be a blessing to somebody else who needs to see His power. They had to understand this about ministry. It's hard to live until you grasp it. You're no longer your own. You were bought with a price. the god of all grace has called us to his eternal glory in christ jesus and he says after you've suffered just a little while he shall perfect establish and strengthen and settle you in christ jesus i hope that gave you perspective today in whatever he has for you let's pray gracious heavenly father thank you for your word to us thank you for your encouragements to us we all know lord that without your divine intervention what we would show to the world would not be true but your spirit is working in the life of your people conform us more than to the image of your son and help us to understand lord that when we are weak in our human strength it's then we are strong because christ's power is seen resting upon us we thank you for your care in our lives and we thank you for legitimizing what is truly true in jesus name amen