Message - Perfect Weakness - Christoph Koenig - Elder

2 Corithians 12

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Well, good morning. Some of you may be wondering what happened to the drummer during the worship songs. That happened. That little spring attaches to the bass pedal and it brings the bass mallet back. And during the second song, that thing popped right off and broke. So you had a lot of cymbals and rim shots, but not. First service I sweat because I was playing all the music quickly, and second service I was sweating because I was trying to figure out how to continue to be musical without that part of the drum set. So anyway, here we are. Drumming is a sweaty endeavor, and when you wear a suit with it, it's a sweatier endeavor. So I'll be wiping perspiration throughout. We are in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 10 this morning. As you turn there, I want to ask you a question. How do you define weakness? Maybe as you evaluate that in yourself, or perhaps, as I've done, judge some others for their weaknesses. How do you do that? Whether it's uh in your physical life, is it weakness uh that affects your health, your uh ability to press on or persevere? Uh you just look at stature, and I I am evidence that tall does not mean strong. Uh what about your spiritual life? What does weakness look like in your spiritual life? Could it be temptation, uh, perhaps your knowledge or lack thereof in Scripture or just your consistency in your walk? Uh, what about in our mental and emotional, the mental and emotional facets of our lives? What does weakness look like? Maybe you would say depression, anxiety, fear, or even just thinking less of your own intellect than you ought. The entirety of that preceding list can make us feel tired, weak, insignificant, and less than. And in those thoughts, we can feel further and further from what we want and hope to be. In fact, we might go so far as to say in those moments of weakness, we even indulge the thought that Christ is far from us. And then continue that erroneous line of thinking that if we can just overcome those weaknesses in our lives, in our own strength, if we can just overcome that, then we might experience the closeness in Christ that we so desire. So let's look at what the apostle Paul has to say in response to that type of thinking in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning verse 1. I must go on boasting, although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. And this is Paul speaking of himself, and he crafts these words specifically because this first century church in the city of Corinth had started to indulge false teachers or claims of apostleship where the signs and the wonders were the most impressive part of the ministry rather than the relationship with Jesus. And so Paul is writing this second letter that we have recorded in the canon of Scripture, although there were likely several other letters that were sent to that church in Corinth. And it's interesting, I like to look at new Christian t-shirts or t-shirts that express form of your faith. And I recently saw one that said, Dear church, stop Paul. He's addressing uh these narratives that exist in this first century church and saying, you are propping up folks that are boasting in themselves or in their ability to perform wondrous signs or they're well spoken, and that has become more important to you than your relationship with Jesus Christ. And he says, So if I need to go on boasting, because if that's what you respond to, the people that boast, then I will do that. I'm gonna go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I don't know, but God knows, was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself except about my weakness. What we know is that Paul, this man that Paul knows, is Paul. He says, if I'm gonna boast about something, I might boast about that. But instead, I will boast about my I will not boast about myself except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool because I would speak the truth, but I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from being conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness, therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I think of this as a hard truth. I think of this as we mature in our relationship with the Lord, in our walk with the Lord. We're told in Scripture that at some point in our spiritual life we have to transition from being fed milk to meat. And this is one of those meat dishes. Sometimes it's hard to embrace this truth. Paul's definition of weakness stands in stark contrast to the world's critique. The world says we should covertly hide our weaknesses or at least refuse to advertise our shortcomings. Don't advertise your weakness, tuck it away, put on a front that those weaknesses do not exist. Culture will tell us that obtaining power is the solution to escaping weakness and introduces the opportunity to finally experience leisure and comfort. I don't know about you, but but but I strive for comfort some days in my life. Right, and the world says if you if you obtain enough power, right, as opposed to the weakness that Paul is speaking, if you attain enough physical power, then you can finally experience leisure and comfort. The word of God, as penned by Paul in this letter to the church in this first century church in Corinth, claims exactly the opposite. That is, real power from the Lord enables us not to escape weakness, but to endure it. But if we stop there, I don't feel very encouraged. I can endure weakness. But to what end? If the claim stops there, then there's not a proper understanding of this truth, then the church would be replete with folks striving for worldly power to escape hardships. But Paul's claim is not just that the Lord's power helps us endure weakness, but those moments of complete physical, spiritual, and emotional weakness can bring us to a meeting with Christ so that we may boast about him alone. So let's look at the setting of the original audience here at the first century church of Corinth. And we don't need to access ancient historical narratives, although we could, and we don't need to exhaust volumes of research on this endeavor. We can just go to Paul's writing. We can go to the book of Romans, chapter 1. Turn there if you want. I'll read it to you. Romans 1 and verses 21 to 32. For it was in this very city of Corinth that Paul penned these words to the church in Rome. Paul looked around and he says this in Romans chapter 1, verses 21 to 32, as he observes the city of Corinth. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being, and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Verse 28, furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not be done. They have become filled. Listen to this description that Paul gives of these people. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. Paul looked at this city and gave that description of folks that should know better. And in the midst of that corrupt and defiled culture, Paul says, We should plant a church right here, in the middle of this depravity. God's ways are certainly not our ways. If we look back to 2 Corinthians in chapter 12, verse 9, Paul says, after pleading with the Lord three times to belay that thing which tormented him, Paul hears from Jesus himself. Maybe you have a red letter Bible. These are red letters in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. In verse 9, Jesus says to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you. For my power, my power, is made perfect in your weakness. Grace. All the good stuff that God gives us that we have not, can not, and will not ever earn. And so Paul, Paul responding to that truth that Jesus said, My grace is sufficient, my power is made perfect in your weakness, Paul says this. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. Paul essentially says this look here. If the author and perfecter of our faith, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the deity that was before was was, will reveal his perfect power through my weakness, then I gotta tell somebody. Paul goes on to list some of his experiences that we would honestly seek to avoid as the catalyst to the revelation of Christ's perfect power in verse 10. So verse 9, my grace is sufficient for you, Paul, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul says, therefore I will boast all the more gladly about those weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. And verse 10, that is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses. I delight in insults, I delight in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. I strive for comfort. I don't look for these other things. When Paul says insults, these are clever words to make that some might make to cause your faith and lifestyle to seem inconsistent, incomplete, or foolish. And maybe you've heard that about your faith when you express your faith to friends or family or co-workers or classmates, right? Someone might go and they offer some type of insult. Hardship. Paul says he delights in hardship. Those times when we feel trapped in a situation. A difficulty that seems to only grow stronger as each day passes. And we may even feel like there's just no escape from this hardship. Paul says he delights in persecution, unfair treatment, and abuse because of faith and commitments. Paul says he delights in difficulties when we're weighed down by circumstances, that there may be nothing bigger in our life than the trouble that's right in front of us. And Paul states he therefore delights in those experiences. Delights. The original language for that word is eudokio. It means to literally take pleasure in. But why? Because of what Christ expresses to him. And Paul's understanding, because for when I am weak, then I am strong. It's countercultural and seemingly oxymoronic to take pleasure in weakness, insult, hardship, persecution, and difficulties. But if we do, God glorifies those moments, returns them to us so that we might boast in his perfect power. Honey and I, and and the rest of the Kennedy families, Lankford's Kennedys, it's everybody. Josh stayed and held it down here, right? But the rest of us traveled to New York. Uh and for Honey and myself, our original intention was to just have a few days on the road in the back for our niece's wedding. And unfortunately, uh prior to our departure, um, we got word that we needed to also attend a funeral. So our trip was bookended by a funeral first and then a wedding at the end of the week. And I want to talk about that a little bit. But as we understand God's process here in revealing his perfect power, God takes broken things at our request. That is prayer. It's an important caveat. God will take the broken thing when you ask him to. Right? Jesus, scripture tells us that Christ's care for us is such that we can cast all of our concerns at his feet. So God takes broken things at our request, that is prayer, glorifies them, that is, makes them new, and returns them to us so that we might boast on his perfect power, that is, you gotta tell somebody. So the the purpose for us leaving earlier to travel to upstate New York was to attend uh the memorial service of a very dear uh friend who was part of a very special family. This young man, Luke Stout, uh, was a precious friend to my son when we lived there. They continued that friendship even after we moved here. Uh they were involved in the same ministry just in different states. Zeke attended the SALT Ministry at City Light Church in Lincoln, and Luke was part of the City Light or the SALT Ministry at Ohio State. Even met at a uh conference earlier this year when those ministry groups came together. And Luke spent a great deal of time at my house in upstate New York, maybe for a certain period of time, more time at my place than his own. Family, a beautiful family, uh full-time ministry, siblings that are dedicated uh to service to the Lord and in their walk and maturity in their faith. Luke Stout was a beautiful believer whose charisma and love drew people in. He had a special place in the heart of my family. And I discovered last week that he had that same relationship with so many people. And yet Luke, at 23 years old, was overwhelmed by torments from the oppressor who aims to rob, kill, and destroy. He was crushed under the weight of these thoughts that he wasn't good enough to serve his Lord, that there was something wrong with him, that perhaps he was even lost, and and and not eligible for the service to the Lord that he so desperately wanted in his heart. And his family rallied around him and he moved in with his older brother, and they were managing parts of his life as he was desperately seeking uh counsel and support. And it ultimately ended a few weeks ago with Luke choosing to take his own life. Luke was mourned by what I can estimate as thousands, while his family one by one not only honored his memory and celebrated his faith, but they boasted on the Lord in this moment of great weakness in their hearts. Now this this guy Luke was precious to my son. They had such a special relationship. Just this past week, my son is a police officer still riding with field training officers for the next couple of months, but he's a police officer in the city of Lincoln. Just this past week, Zeke's second shift after returning from New York was called to the top of a parking structure. And as an officer in training was tasked with talking a young man off the ledge. There have been several occurrences in the city of Lincoln where people are going to the top of parking structures and leaping to their own demise. And there was a college sophomore on the edge of this parking structure. And the Lord saw fit for my son, the rookie officer, to engage in conversation with this college sophomore. And using his own experience and losing his dear friend and the experience of the family's loss, he encouraged that young man to step towards safety. Upon solid ground, Zeke then prayed with him and offered a card detailing that very same Salt College ministry in Lincoln as an invitation to experience the love of Christ and begin the search for his true purpose. This is what God does. When we offer Jesus the hurt, the damage, the weakness, the impossible, the weight of the circumstance, he takes it, glorifies it, returns it. To us so that we might boast on him alone. Now, Luke did not pass so that Zeke could have this conversation a week later. But in Luke's passing, God took the brokenness and glorified it and said, You can honor me still. I can use this tragedy in the midst of your weakness to reveal my perfect power. So often in Scripture we see that same process lived out: a meeting with the Holy One at the deepest and darkest moments of life. In the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego met the pre-incarnate Christ in a fire meant to end their life as persecution for their faith. And when King Nebuchadnezzar called them out of the fire, right? He says, Wait, I thought we threw in four, or I thought we threw in three. I see a fourth man in the fire, and he looks like the Son of Man. He calls Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of that fire, and he and his advisors note that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair on their head singed, their robes are not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. It was in the midst of what should have been this great moment of weakness and suffering that Christ showed up and engaged and revealed his perfect power. Also in the book of Daniel, a few chapters later, the morning after being thrown into the lion's den by jealous and corrupt politicians, Daniel tells King Darius that an angel came and shut the mouths of the lion so that he would be unharmed. Lifted from the den without a scratch, King Darius punishes the corrupt politicians that threw Daniel in. And then the pagan king, think about this, a pagan king, after Daniel comes out of the lion's den unharmed, he says this in Daniel chapter 6, beginning in verse 25. Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all of the earth, may you prosper greatly. I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and revere the God of Daniel. For he is the living God, and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves. He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. A pagan king praised the God most high to all of the earth because Daniel was in a moment of incredible weakness. And it was there that God revealed perfect power. Following a day of anxiety-riddled planning, and thereby finding himself completely alone and in great fear of what the following day would bring, Jacob wrestled with the pre-incarnate Christ all night long, and then finally, upon confessing his own sin nature, was broken and blessed by Christ and exclaimed, I have seen the face of God. After a 40-year personal campaign to escape his calling, Moses met the preincarnate Christ in a burning bush. After 40 years of hiding, regret, disillusionment, Moses experiences a close encounter with God, and despite Moses' own advertised weaknesses and doubts, he goes on to free his people from the most formidable leader of that day. In the New Testament, Jesus did not heal Jairus' daughter, but timed his arrival to follow her last breath. And in the middle of that family's greatest torment, he raised her to life. He glorified the moment, returned the daughter to her family so that his perfect power would be revealed. Upon the Sea of Galilee, Jesus did not prevent an overwhelming storm from reaching the disciples on their boat. In fact, Jesus at this moment chose to sleep. He sleeps through the storm so that the disciples, so that in the disciples' great moment of despair he could reveal that even the wind and the waves would obey his command. This moment of terror unto death, unto the fear of death was glorified, returned to those men of small faith, so that his power would be recognized in their weakness, not despite it. On and on it goes, example after example, for us in God's love letter to us. And yet so often we need to be reminded of this truth. We can cast our weaknesses, our fears, our anxieties, our hurts, habits, hangups, and even the despair unto death at the feet of Jesus and expect that he will glorify, return it to us, so that we might boast about his perfect power. The church at Corinth was impressed with Paul's letters. But we read that they were quite unimpressed with his physical presence. In chapter 10, verses 7 through 11. Paul says, You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters, for some have actually said his letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he's unimpressive. And his speaking amounts to nothing. Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. That's Paul saying, Look, you scared of the truth in my letters, and you're unimpressed by my stature. Paul was likely a short man. We know he had a physical disability. He was tormented by it and begged for relief. And so perhaps a diminutive person with a physical disability, and when he shows up, people are like, Man, those letters are strong, but you're not much to look at. And what Paul writes in this letter here is look, the strength of my letter is going to be the strength of my character when I show up. You better get it right. Such people should realize that we are in our letters when we are absent. We will be in our actions when we are present. And then speaking to the Corinthians' propensity to evaluate the measure of a man based on his cultural credentials. Paul says this in chapter 11, verses 6, starting in verse 16. And what he's doing here in verse 11, remember, in chapter 12, he's boasting on the Lord. He precedes that in 11 by saying, Look, you guys favor those that boast in themselves. You're kind of caught up in a guy that will tell you all the great things that he's done. And so if that's what you need, let me tell you the great things that I've done, but but don't get it twisted. I'm going to boast first in my weakness. And so he says this in chapter 11, verse 16, I repeat, let no one take me for a fool, but if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting, I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. He's telling them you're being foolish in receiving these boastings from your culture. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise. All right, Paul taking a little dig there. In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face to my shame, I admit that we were too weak for that. Whatever anyone else dares to boast about, I am speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm out of my mind to talk like this. I am more. I have worked much harder, been imprisoned more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have gone without food. I've been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face the daily pressure of my concern for all the churches who is weak and I do not feel weak. Who is led into sin and I do not inwardly burn. But if I must boast, I will boast on the things that show my weakness. He said, If anybody has a reason to boast of the things that are intriguing you, it's me. Look at the list. I've made it through all that. And you might consider me strong because of my ability to persevere through that. And let me tell you, if I'm gonna boast about anything, I'm gonna boast about my weakness. Why? Scripture tells us, and look, I know we're at time, and I'll tell you what I told the first service. I'm just gonna keep right on going. If you need to go, go. But I'm telling you, the Lord wants you to hear this this morning. Scripture tells us that Jesus Himself, when he walked this earth, experienced all of the same weaknesses, fears, anxieties, and despair unto death that we might ever know. Perhaps best illustrated in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night of his arrest. Remember his prayer to God, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, yours be done. In his human frame, Jesus despaired unto death and gave that weakness over to God the Father, who in turn received it, glorified it, returned it to Christ through a messenger angel sent to encourage and embolden so that the power of the Lord would be made perfect through the darkest hour of Jesus' life. Paul talks about the weapons of the evil one, the one that was sent to torment him. The weapons of the evil one are pride and despair. The evil one uses pride to redirect the glory that is due to the king of the universe back on ourselves for any good done by or through us. He uses despair to redirect purpose from God to hopelessness in our own ability to persevere. Despair tells us that we cannot go on. That one more attack will likely be our undoing. Maybe you felt that way before or you feel that way even now. One more thing will undo me. But if we embrace the truth of our weakness and expect God to use it to reveal his perfect power, we will be enabled by God's all-sufficient grace to persevere. And what I've come to realize is that God uses those moments to speak to others that are witness to your perseverance. It's just so difficult in those moments to lean into that type of thinking. But the more you do it, the stronger your faith becomes in this glorified counter-cultural process. Just as scripture tells us, many times the catalyst for exponential growth in our faith is simply obedience. Are you desperate to grow in your faith and relationship with the Lord? Obey. Do it, and you will see it. It's repeated throughout Scripture, Genesis to Revelation. Your obedience can be credited as righteousness and build your faith. Last week I was able to spend uh, and this will be my last story. So for those of you thinking, how long are we hanging on? But it's a little bit of a long story, so there you are. Last week I was able to spend just about two hours with my former boss, uh his name's John Isaacs in upstate New York. We met for lunch at the same little deli that was just a couple blocks away from our office, where unfortunately I found out six years after my departure there's no longer a sandwich named after me, but there used to be. Our professional relationship ended when John's supervisor forced John to lay me off in November of 2019. His early, and I remember that morning so vividly, his early morning phone call prior to me leaving my house for the day, the foreknowledge that the Holy Spirit impressed upon me as I walked inside the house, and I and I told my wife that I would be terminated from my position that very morning. Now, John hadn't said that to me yet, but I knew what was going on. I remember the tears streaming down John's face as he broke the news to me that I had only been anticipating for a few minutes. The hopelessness that seeped into that day like a slow flow of lava that consumed everything in its path, I remember. And then I remembered the plan. Much like the preceding life events on my spiritual resume, I endeavored to solve this problem alone. I immediately phoned the athletic commission of which I was a part as a high school sports official and requested to officiate every basketball game, regardless of level of play or distance to travel. I updated my professional resume and quickly secured interviews with multiple entities throughout the area. I picked up every side hustle I could. I framed, I did trim carpentry, painting, bathroom remodels, and tree work. For months I strategized, interviewed, worked side hustles, and secretly went without meals to ensure my family had enough. Then the great COVID shutdown of New York State halted all new opportunities, drastically reduced the side hustle work in which I was engaged while simultaneously canceling all of the sports officiating work that I had scheduled through the remainder of the winter and all of the spring of 2020. I was so ashamed of our financial position that once a week I would wait until 15 minutes prior to the local gas station closing to pull up with three five-gallon diesel containers and pump 15 gallons of diesel to pour into our 200-gallon fuel oil tank and hope that that would last the week. I would even wait until after midnight to then pour that diesel into the fuel oil tank to ensure that no one in our community would see the shame of my desperate position. I was in the middle of a great weakness, an incredible difficulty, in an overwhelming and very secret despair. And when two weeks to flatten the curve turned into an end indefinite shutdown that would prevent me from securing any new work or new position, I finally gave up, told God I was despairing unto death, that in all of my personal strength I had failed to provide adequately for my family, and now he needed to take over. And in doing so, he brought us to you, right here to Nebraska. You see, my spiritual resume is one of repeating that same process of fooling myself, that my own physical efforts, while simultaneously hiding the reality of the situation from my wife, was in some way honorable. When in actuality, those moments revealed that I am more confident in me than I am in God, and I'm willing to lie to my spouse to cover my weaknesses. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7, oh, what a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? But thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. So back to lunch with John. That's where this whole story began. Last week at lunch, at that deli, sitting in his pickup truck having lunch together, John turned to me and thanked me for shepherding his heart. While I lived, worked, and while he observed how the rest of my life events went. He thanked me for shepherding his heart. I stand before you honestly saying that I never endeavored to do such a thing for John Isaac's. But in my despair, I finally gave up, gave it to the Lord. God received that weakness, that despair, he glorified it, returned it to me so that I could stand before you and boast in his perfect power. Although I did not set out to shepherd the heart of my supervisor, God used this imperfect, ignorantly self-sufficient, slow learner to minister to his child, John. So then, if this work is among us, that the purpose of evil is to use pride and despair to pull our focus from the king of the universe back towards ourselves, then this is also at work among us God's purpose to glorify himself through the humility of his children. God regards humility greater than he regards your comfort. God regards our humility greater than he regards our escape from pain. God's penultimate purpose remains to glorify Jesus. And what might seem like the most ridiculous part to play in that purpose to glorify Christ is that we do so best when we celebrate that God's perfect power is revealed to us and all those around us when we submit and embrace our low estate, our weakness. For when we are righteous in the recognition of that weakness, it is then that we are made strong in the perfect strength of the Lord. And so I want to encourage you with this, just as we close. Don't strive for comfort. Your culture tells you to strive for comfort. Don't do that. For what Paul tells us and tells this church in the city of Corinth is that the recognition of the perfect power of Jesus Christ occurs when we recognize and embrace that moment of weakness. And it goes so far as to say not only in the recognition of that weakness and that despair and that hardship that we turn all of that over to God, that he can make it new, return it to us so that we might glorify him. Not only is it a recognition that in that moment of weakness Christ's power is made perfect, but Paul ends that statement with, I too am made strong. You're struggling with the hurt and the habit? Is there something overwhelming? It seems like nothing else can be seen but the challenge of life that's right in front of you. Don't do what I do and try to figure it out, and then finally give up. Give up early. God, I'm weak. This is yours. Glorify it, make it to, return it to me, and I'm gonna tell somebody about it. I pray you do that. There is a growth in the relationship with the Lord when we embrace the truth that he's given to us in his word. Don't see comfort. It's a weird message to tell you to suffer well. But that's scripture. That's God's word, his heart. He wants to give us the revelation of his perfect power if we just give him all that garbage. I can't do it, God. And when he when he does the thing that he says he'll do, you better tell somebody about it. Let's pray. God, we're grateful for our time together. Thank you for the hearts of these people to indulge me longer than they expected this morning. Lord, thank you for your word. And the hard truths that you can help us understand. Thank you for those that walked before us in this faith so that we could learn from their example. I pray that we too will walk this out in our lives. Not trying to solve or avoid difficulties and hardships, but to recognize that that's part of the walk. And to honor you and to boast on you when you take the impossible, you make it new, you glorify it, return it. Lord help us to boast in you so that others might know. I pray in Jesus' name. Before Josh closes us, I just want to mention some of you know our sister Tylen serves in the worship team, sings with us. Uh just is walking through a terribly, terribly difficult time. Her fiance, Fabian, uh, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly just last week. And uh, of course, she's heartbroken. She's walking through these things that we just discussed, these hardships, these difficulties, these things that seem impossible and overwhelming. And so I just I want to ask you to continue to lift her up in prayer, uh, but also as the body of Christ, the hands and feet, uh, she has been requested by Fabian's family to to help with his final expenses. And so she's she's got this new and unexpected uh responsibility of several thousand dollars. And so I just want to put that out there to the body of Christ. We have a sister who is in need, we have the benevolence box in the back. And if the Lord lays it on your heart to give towards that uh and to support Thailand in that way, certainly do that. But please build her up in your prayers and ask the Holy Spirit to give her that peace that passes understanding because peace doesn't make sense, right? But the Holy Spirit can give that. She's in the midst of what we just discussed. And I'm sure many of you are in the midst of some of those things we discussed too. But let's build each other up. Let's not hide those weaknesses, but celebrate God's providence and his perfect power. And we have the opportunity to encourage Thailand that way now. So, questions about that? Please see me. Thank you, Josh.

SPEAKER_01 45:29

Speaking of prayer as we close this morning, I invite you to stand. We're gonna sing one last chorus before we get out of here. Um, but uh Tom will be up here. Uh, and if you need prayer this morning, I know he'd love to pray with you and pray over you whatever you need, but uh he'll be up here as we close this morning. So let's sing this chorus together.