SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, uh everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: My name's, or this afternoon, rather, my name's Mark, and it's good to have you with us.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to know something.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to know that there is one thing this afternoon that I cannot promise you.
SPEAKER_00: There's one thing this morning that this side, or this afternoon, that this side of heaven I cannot promise you.
SPEAKER_00: One thing that I cannot guarantee that you will receive before you reach glory.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is highly unlikely that you will get it this side of your death.
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that I cannot promise you today is this: escape from weakness.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot promise you that you will escape the weaknesses that you feel.
SPEAKER_00: Weakness from your own personal limitations, weaknesses imposed by the actions of others, weakness caused by tragedy or ill health.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot promise that you will be delivered from those things this side of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mishear me.
SPEAKER_00: There will come a day when those things will pass.
SPEAKER_00: Those things, your escape from them is kept in heaven for you.
SPEAKER_00: They are waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And in a sense, it is only a matter of time.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, right here, I cannot promise you escape from weakness in this life.
SPEAKER_00: But here is what I can promise you.
SPEAKER_00: Here is what I can assure you of this side of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That there is power available to you in your weakness.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot promise you escape, but I can promise you power.
SPEAKER_00: This is the paradox of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: That in our weaknesses, Christ's power is perfected in us.
SPEAKER_00: The promise that I can make to you today is that dependence increasing weakness is how God shows his Christ-exalting spirit-wrought power in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in the world is geared towards helping you escape your weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: People want to escape their limitations.
SPEAKER_00: You feel physically weak, you get stronger.
SPEAKER_00: Intellectually weak, you get educated.
SPEAKER_00: You feel a weakness in terms of your identity, in terms of your sense of self, well, you reinvent, you redefine.
SPEAKER_00: But the way of the kingdom of Jesus is not to escape weakness, but to embrace it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul shows us here that when you escape, or sorry, when you embrace weakness, what he calls boasting in it, that is precisely when the power of Christ takes up residence in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Takes up residence is literally what he means at the end of verse 9 when he says, it rests upon me.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's power comes to live in you when you embrace weakness.
SPEAKER_00: The Corinthians, like our world, had rejected weakness, and so they had rejected Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He indulges their foolish obsession with spiritual experiences and comes to them with the most remarkable incident.
SPEAKER_00: The spiritual experience that Paul has, Paul had those fourteen years ago, eclipses that of the so-called superapostles.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's experience, as recounted in the first four verses, was that he was caught up into the third heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That is, the very presence of God, into the throne room of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: And there he saw and heard things that he cannot put into words.
SPEAKER_00: His spiritual experience so blows theirs out of the water.
SPEAKER_00: But the twist in the tale is this that he doesn't stop at verse 4 like the super apostles, but let me tell you what happened to me the other night.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you about how spiritual I am and the experiences that God has given me.
SPEAKER_00: No, the twist in the tale is that Paul says in verse 1, those things don't define me.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they're of little value, there is little to be gained by it.
SPEAKER_00: So much does he believe this that he's almost embarrassed to tell them.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he talks about himself in the third person.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, I know him, I know a man.
SPEAKER_00: It's a way of kind of detaching himself from the, let me tell you what happened to me.
SPEAKER_00: He's quite coy to even bring this up.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even imagine, he waited 14 years.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if a spiritual experience had happened to you, you'd be telling it with it straight away.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never believe what just happened.
SPEAKER_00: Paul hasn't spoken about this, as far as we know, for 14 years.
SPEAKER_00: But we know that it's him because of verse 7, where he says, So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, to keep me.
SPEAKER_00: He was the one who was given these revelations.
SPEAKER_00: But he goes on to say that he is also the one who received a thorn in his flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So why does he tell the Corinthians about this vision?
SPEAKER_00: Only so that he can go on to boast in his weakness.
SPEAKER_00: This is the pattern of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we look to meet with God in those mountaintop moments, in those mountaintop experiences.
SPEAKER_00: But where God really teaches us is in the valley.
SPEAKER_00: He is present and unutterably beautiful in those mountaintops.
SPEAKER_00: I do not disparage them.
SPEAKER_00: I can look back to those moments where I have felt with great sweetness the joy and presence of God, as I'm sure many of you can.
SPEAKER_00: But it is in the valley that He walks with us, sustains us, comforts, and teaches us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where this hits home for us.
SPEAKER_00: I've spoken to a number of you over these last weeks who have described this season as one of spiritual dryness, of speaking, or feeling distant from God.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the valley, you're in the place of weakness, and Christ stands ready to meet you with his power.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Peter and Duncan need to know as well.
SPEAKER_00: They have begun today, formally, their ministry as elders in God's church, and there will be moments when they stand upon the mountain and survey with cloudless clarity the beauty of God's purposes in their life.
SPEAKER_00: But most of their life, as with most of ours, and most of our ministries, will be conducted in the valleys of uncertainty, mockery, tragedy, pain, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy.
SPEAKER_00: What they and we need to know is that God does not wait for us to climb again to the summit of some spiritual peak.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus descends to walk with us in the valleys of our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Let us look at what this text would teach us by asking three questions of it.
SPEAKER_00: First, what are the weaknesses that Paul is talking about here?
SPEAKER_00: What are the weaknesses?
SPEAKER_00: Paul summarizes them as weaknesses in verse 9, but he uh goes on to expound and expand on what they are in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: He says, look at verse 10, for the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
SPEAKER_00: For when I am weak, I am strong.
SPEAKER_00: What are the things that make him and us feel weak?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they are first, they're insults, facing mockery and ridicule for being a Christian, being thought of as weird or foolish by family members, colleagues, and classmates.
SPEAKER_00: They are hardships.
SPEAKER_00: Things not going how you would have planned them.
SPEAKER_00: That sudden disappointment where you've had to re-evaluate and reassess.
SPEAKER_00: It's the dry seasons.
SPEAKER_00: It's feeling stressed or under pressure, like your back's up against the wall.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the hardships that make you feel weak.
SPEAKER_00: And there are persecutions.
SPEAKER_00: I guess those are hardships made physical.
SPEAKER_00: Those injustices or abuses for being a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You think of our brothers and sisters in places like Darfur or Odessa in India.
SPEAKER_00: Or it is calamities.
SPEAKER_00: Those sudden crises, those unforeseen circumstances of life, the sudden illness, the sudden grief that leave you feeling utterly helpless.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the weaknesses that Paul is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: What these weaknesses are not are bad choices or sinful behaviors.
SPEAKER_00: Someone here might have a weakness for lust, for example.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not saying, well, I'll boast in my weakness for lust, because that's when the power of Christ will be made most manifest in my life.
SPEAKER_00: No, these weaknesses are times and situations when the world might otherwise demand that you be strong.
SPEAKER_00: Because how does the world want you to react in the face of insults?
SPEAKER_00: They say, Well, give it back to them.
SPEAKER_00: Respond.
SPEAKER_00: God knows that I have much to learn in that regard.
SPEAKER_00: The world would say, Well, in your hardships, what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: You come up with a better plan.
SPEAKER_00: Pull yourself up out of this mire.
SPEAKER_00: Solve your own problem.
SPEAKER_00: If persecuted, take revenge.
SPEAKER_00: In crisis, the world would require you to use all of the resources at your disposal to minimize the impact of what has befallen you.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that we either do not have those means to be strong, or in those situations, because we are Christians, love constrains us not to repay evil for evil, and so we look and feel weak.
SPEAKER_00: So what are these weaknesses that Paul is talking about?
SPEAKER_00: They are situations and circumstances that are beyond our control, or which in love, love dictates that we show mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Second question: Where do those weaknesses come from?
SPEAKER_00: Where do those weaknesses come from?
SPEAKER_00: What is their source?
SPEAKER_00: Do the things that make us feel weak come from God or do they come from Satan?
SPEAKER_00: Let us take Paul's thorn as an example.
SPEAKER_00: We know that it's a weakness because of Jesus' response.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 9, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: So we know that it's in that category of weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: It was given to make Paul feel weak.
SPEAKER_00: Why was it given?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because of the revelations, because of the surpassing visions that he'd received.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we know from verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
SPEAKER_00: He describes this thorn as a messenger from Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Now we aren't sure precisely what the thorn is.
SPEAKER_00: There are some theories.
SPEAKER_00: The idea being that, you know, he's like peering at the he can't quite see.
SPEAKER_00: I can't see any of you right now.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're there.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was that.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it was the relentless opposition that he faced.
SPEAKER_00: He's already spoken about this just in the verses above that we looked at last week about shipwrecks and stonings, about how he received the five times the 40 lashes minus one.
SPEAKER_00: That is, that he was whipped 39 times.
SPEAKER_00: The idea being, or the thought being, that if you were whipped 40 times, that you would die.
SPEAKER_00: And so they took one off, and he received it five times.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe it was something physical in his own body, or maybe it was the relentless opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, it's seen as a messenger of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: It's worth bearing in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Some weaknesses are sent by Satan because Satan wants to harass and harangue you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you a little bit about how the enemy works.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian, if you're trusting in the Lord Jesus, the enemy cannot steal your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But he can render you ineffective.
SPEAKER_00: He cannot steal you out of the hand of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He cannot take your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But he can so harass and distract that he makes you utterly ineffective as a Christian, utterly ineffective in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: But Satan isn't the only one at work here, is he?
SPEAKER_00: You see, the answer to the question of does this thorn come from Satan or from God is yes.
SPEAKER_00: This thorn, these weaknesses are sanctioned by heaven.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know?
SPEAKER_00: There are two reasons from the text that we know that God stands behind this thorn.
SPEAKER_00: First one, the thorn was given to Paul to humble him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what verse 7 says, to prevent him from becoming conceited.
SPEAKER_00: He is puffed up with pride.
SPEAKER_00: Now we know that that cannot be Satan's purposes because Satan's purpose would be to arouse pride, to provoke and to stoke pride and conceit.
SPEAKER_00: Because Satan loves pride.
SPEAKER_00: It was pride that he aroused in Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_00: Satan hates humility.
SPEAKER_00: No, God, you see, knew that these revelations made Paul vulnerable to pride.
SPEAKER_00: And so this thorn was a mercy, a mercy from God.
SPEAKER_00: The second reason why we know from this text that it is heaven-sanctioned is because Paul asks Jesus to remove it.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't ask Satan.
SPEAKER_00: That would be weird.
SPEAKER_00: He prays to Jesus and asks for it to be removed.
SPEAKER_00: The answer that comes back is no.
SPEAKER_00: But it is not because Jesus is content to let Satan destroy Paul, but because Jesus is using this to sanctify and to save him.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of things to note that are very important and you really should listen.
SPEAKER_00: Think of that weakness.
SPEAKER_00: When I talk about the weakness that you have, that thorn as you perceive it, what's the thing that comes to your mind?
SPEAKER_00: Then let me ask.
SPEAKER_00: Paul begged.
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked him to take it away from you?
SPEAKER_00: But if he says no, like he said no to Paul, are you able to accept that answer and to embrace that weakness and say with Paul that I will boast in it because Christ's power will be perfected in it?
SPEAKER_00: Are you able to say with Job, nevertheless, blessed be the name of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: The perception of our weaknesses and the feeling that the Lord will not remove them from us can lead us in one of two directions.
SPEAKER_00: He can either lead you to resentment and bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: Resentment that God has, maybe you think not heard your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Or why would he answer no?
SPEAKER_00: And it embitters you.
SPEAKER_00: Of saying to God, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why you've done this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why the answer is no right now.
SPEAKER_00: But the thing that I'm going to pray is I'm going to pray that you would give me the eyes to perceive the reasons why you would rest this thing upon me, in me, why you wouldn't take it away?
SPEAKER_00: At least let me see why.
SPEAKER_00: At least let me see some purpose in it.
SPEAKER_00: That in seeing that, it might be easier to bear.
SPEAKER_00: And that leads us to my third question.
SPEAKER_00: What is the purpose in these weaknesses?
SPEAKER_00: Satan's purpose is to.
SPEAKER_00: Harass you, but God, God does not delight in your pen.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again and listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: God does not delight in your pen.
SPEAKER_00: Satan does.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's good and right for you to pray for relief.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for relief.
SPEAKER_00: That is what Paul did until he received his answer from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Like some of you, many of you, I'm sure, I know what it is to ask God to take something away from me, to relieve me of it, to change me in some way.
SPEAKER_00: Those are good and right prayers to pray.
SPEAKER_00: But I also know what it's like to discern that heavenly no.
SPEAKER_00: And to have to learn to be content with that, and to strain to see God's goodness in the midst of it.
SPEAKER_00: You see, while Satan wants to harass and constrain you, God has purposes to humble and to sanctify you.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that this sounds strange.
SPEAKER_00: I know that this doesn't sound good.
SPEAKER_00: Because everything in our world wants to push self-exalt exaltation and self-promotion.
SPEAKER_00: It sees humility as weakness, but humility is what God prizes.
SPEAKER_00: Because humility is the place of greatest reliance upon him, and therefore the place of greatest power in your life from him.
SPEAKER_00: God prizes your humility and your dependence on him, because that is the place of growth in Christ's likeness.
SPEAKER_00: He prizes your humility and growth in Christ more than your comfort.
SPEAKER_00: I know that is hard to hear.
SPEAKER_00: But have you settled that in your mind?
SPEAKER_00: Can you settle that in your heart and make your peace with it?
SPEAKER_00: You see, God values your humility and Christlieness more than your freedom from pain.
SPEAKER_00: Because the more we are aware of our total reliance upon him, the more he is able to flood us with his power and grace and use us in his service.
SPEAKER_00: This is what is meant when Jesus says to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: You see, in your weaknesses, Jesus doesn't come and ration you some relief or drip feed some grace.
SPEAKER_00: No, he perfects his power in your weakness.
SPEAKER_00: That is why he encourages you to embrace those things that make you feel weak and so depend more fully upon him.
SPEAKER_00: God's design for your life is to showcase the power of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that might be through miraculous deliverance, and we give thanks to God for them.
SPEAKER_00: It is right to pray for them and expect them.
SPEAKER_00: But often, what He gives us is the power to endure.
SPEAKER_00: The power to put one foot in front of the other, spiritually speaking, and to continue trusting.
SPEAKER_00: Even though our faith feels faltering and weak, that we continue to persevere spiritually speaking.
SPEAKER_00: His power enables you to persevere as a Christian through the valley of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: As the eyes of the world watch on and they think, why won't she give up?
SPEAKER_00: Why won't he, with Job, as he was encouraged, curse God and die?
SPEAKER_00: Why do they keep on persevering as wave upon wave of uncertainty and anxiety and suffering and grief and pain break over their back?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't they give up?
SPEAKER_00: Because the power of Christ resides in them.
SPEAKER_00: And so they walk on.
SPEAKER_00: And so you walk on through that valley until you scale finally to that eternal mountaintop.
SPEAKER_00: And see with unending clarity the beauty and joy and goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And you look back down the valley of your life and you see, look how far I have come, and look how far Jesus has carried me.
SPEAKER_00: That is what commends Jesus to a watching world.
SPEAKER_00: That you endure with his grace and walk with humble confidence.
SPEAKER_00: You learn in some way to kiss the wave that dashes you against the rock of ages.
SPEAKER_00: Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Do not slip into despair that God has forgotten or abandoned you in your difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: See the valley of this season.
SPEAKER_00: See the valley of your life as the place where the power of Jesus comes cascading down from that eternal mountaintop to so infuse and saturate your existence to sustain you as you fight for joy, as you continue to trust.
SPEAKER_00: Let us point one another to that and journey together to that heavenly mountaintop.
SPEAKER_00: What we need in our life this side of heaven is not quick relief from the griefs and trials that we face.
SPEAKER_00: What we need is a deeper and more enduring confidence and trust that God both loves us and is good.
SPEAKER_00: It is this eternal perspective that motivated Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is this eternal perspective that took Jesus to the cross in all of its weakness.
SPEAKER_00: That the power of God might be fully seen.
SPEAKER_00: That is where the power of God is put on display.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul told the Corinthians in his first letter, in the first chapter, in verse 18, that the power of God is laid bare in the weakness of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understood this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understood this, and so in his high priestly prayer in John 17, how does that prayer begin?
SPEAKER_00: It says, Father, the hour has come.
SPEAKER_00: Glorify your son with the glory that he had with you before the world began.
SPEAKER_00: What's the hour that Jesus is anticipating?
SPEAKER_00: It's the hour of his death, but it is also the hour of the glorification of his son.
SPEAKER_00: You want to see the glory of God?
SPEAKER_00: You want to see the power of God?
SPEAKER_00: You want to see the wisdom and goodness of God?
SPEAKER_00: You look to the cross of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You see the Son of God with outstretched arms embracing weakness.
SPEAKER_00: You see power not to escape, but power to embrace that cruel cross and so defeat Satan who would harass.
SPEAKER_00: Sin that would corrupt, and death that would seek to subsume.
SPEAKER_00: Power to embrace that weakness that means salvation for all who would trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looked beyond the weakness of the cross, beyond its shame, and now enjoys the power of resurrection life.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the pattern of life that He calls you to.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering now, glory later.
SPEAKER_00: Valley now, mountaintop later.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I pray that throughout your life you will continue to have those moments of sweet clarity where that communion with God is filled with joy, where you understand His in some small way, in some small measure, His love for you and His purposes in your life.
SPEAKER_00: But do not do not mistakenly think that that is all there is in your Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: God is with you in the valley of your weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: That is where His power flows down like mighty rivers.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot promise you escape from weakness.
SPEAKER_00: But I can promise you, through dependence on Christ, the power to endure, the power to endure now and one day resurrection power in the world to come as we stand together on that eternal mountaintop and see the goodness and glory of the God who loved us and who has walked with us all these years long.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be silent for a few moments.
SPEAKER_00: It is good for you to pray now.
SPEAKER_00: Your own prayers.
SPEAKER_00: There might be particular weaknesses, insults, hardships, feeling like your back is up against the wall.
SPEAKER_00: That you simply haven't come to Jesus and said, Would you take, would you remove this?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's a prayer to pray now.
SPEAKER_00: But also perhaps it is an opportunity to pray also.
SPEAKER_00: That if the answer that comes from heaven is no, that you will be given the eyes of faith to see his greater purposes in your life and in the life of those around you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep silence for a few moments and then I'm going to lead us in a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Heavenly Father, for all my brothers and sisters here now.
SPEAKER_00: You are aware of their weakness, feel harassed and harangued by those insults, hardships, calamities, persecutions.
SPEAKER_00: Those thorns that seem to reside so deeply in our flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We wonder will they ever be removed?
SPEAKER_00: Pray for relief.
SPEAKER_00: For change, for growth.
SPEAKER_00: Most of all, I pray for deepened trust.
SPEAKER_00: May these weaknesses drive us like nails deeper into the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, Holy Spirit, to endure, to persevere in faith, enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those whose trust feels particularly feeble.
SPEAKER_00: I ask that you would strengthen them, that you would uphold and guide them, that they would glimpse more of who you are, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And what you are doing in and through them.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.