Such a great and powerful song, isn't it? We don't know what that day holds, and as Scripture says, eye has not seen or ear has heard what that's going to look like, but we can't imagine, and I imagine that It's beyond any of our imaginations when we do get to see our Savior face to face. That's a great, great song. It's crazy to think that song is 13 years old now, but it still rings true. Before we begin tonight, I just want to say what a privilege it is to be behind this pulpit tonight. This is always a privilege to get to share with you guys. for multiple reasons, but one of those is because of the great men who have stood behind this pulpit. We've had some of the best preachers and speakers stand behind this pulpit and speak to this great church. At the top of that list is Brother Gerald Davidson and Pastor Kenny Qualls. And I don't say that because he's here, but I mean, it really is a privilege. And the fact that he is here makes that even more scary and even more humbling. That's all I can say. And part of me wishes he was out of town. I will say I am thankful for a pastor who gives an opportunity to preach and then when even he does figure out his schedule that he's supposed to be here, still allows someone like me, a little punk like me, to stand behind his pulpit. And so I'm also thankful to be a part of such a great church. This is such a A wonderful church, a church that is on mission, a church that believes in reaching out to the community and reaching the lost, a church that believes in making disciples and sending disciples all across this nation and all across other nations. It really is an honor to be able to call this this church home and call you guys church family. And so with that, thank you guys, because that you are the body of Christ and there are some amazing people in this room tonight, and it's pretty humbling just to get to open the Word and to speak to you tonight. So before we get into the Word tonight, let me pray, and then we're going to dig into 2 Corinthians 12. Let me pray. Father, Lord, we thank you for this night, and Lord, we thank you for your continual blessings. Lord, on this day, Father's Day, Lord, let us let us not forget, Lord, that you are the ultimate Father. You are the perfection of any imperfections of our earthly fathers. Lord, I know that in this room there are some, Father, that relating to you as Father is hard because they have had hard relations with their earthly father. And so, Father, we thank you that you are better than the best and nothing like the worst Father here on earth. And Father, we thank you that we have the privilege and the honor to be able to call you Father. And Lord, tonight we just ask that you be with us as we open up your word, Lord, that you would speak to us. And Lord, that there would be a word for every person in this room tonight. In your name we pray. Amen. Tonight, if you were if you would be honest, we can probably all say that we have that friend, right, who has made the statement that sometimes it just seems like God seems so distant, right, that that friend. You know, we all do that. I had this friend who says that sometimes God seems distant. But if we were really all honest and we asked people to raise their hands tonight, we won't do that. If you would say that you have ever felt like sometimes God seems distant or that sometimes God seems inattentive or uncooperative. I think that we would all and it might be an encouragement, but we won't do it to say I raise my hand and say sometimes I'll be honest, God seems like he is inattentive to when I ask him for things. And sometimes he seems uncooperative, just downright uncooperative to what I'm asking him to do. And if we're not careful, this will lead to times when we say, God, if you are really there, Would you just do this? I mean, sometimes many times when there is a crisis of faith, it's because of some doubt, because God is not performing to the way that we think that God is. I work with young adults and before that I worked with with high school students. And I can almost say that the largest percentage of the time, that those who walk away from their faith is not because some professor or some friend gave them a bunch of information that just blew the case out for God. And they said, well, there must not be a God. If you track it back, there was a time and there was a place where their crisis of faith was, I really want God to do this. And he didn't perform the way I wanted him to. So therefore, there must not be a God. There was a time when their dreams, their projections for their future did not match where God was heading them. And so therefore, there must not be a God. And if we were all honest, sometimes we would all say, God, why does it seem like you're not there? Have you ever felt that way? I know I have. And why, God, have you not come to my rescue yet? You are the God who rescues us. But why have you not come in and delivered me? And so we've all, that are followers of Christ, have felt times when God seems inattentive or uncooperative. And we'll even say, God, I'm not asking for a lot. We might be in a situation where like, God, I don't really need the the six digit job. Just can I just get a job? And for whatever reason, God just doesn't seem to answer. The way we want him to. And we think it seems reasonable for God to answer our prayer the way that we think, because we have thought completely through it. And sometimes this can go on for even extended amounts of times where it just seems like God continues to be inattentive and uncooperative. And then to make things worse, we look around at the people around us and they're not even good people. And it looks like God is blessing them. They're not even they're not even Christians. And it seems like God gives them everything that they want. And then there's then there's our Christian friends who all they talk about is all the blessings that God gives them. And they'll even make statements like, well, the other day, you know, I was running late and I had to swing by Walmart and I was just praying to God, God, if I can just get that, get a good parking spot, then get in, get out and I'll be, God answered my prayer. And the soccer mom with the Suburban pulled out and I snagged that parking spot, got in when I needed, got out quickly. God answered my prayer. And you're going, you're shaking your head and going, really? I'm praying for God to heal my loved one from cancer. I'm glad that he has enough time to get you a parking spot at Walmart. I mean, if we were really honest, sometimes we look at it this way. And if we're not careful, doubt will begin to slip in. God, if you're there, why won't you do this? God, are you really there at all? Because if you were there, wouldn't you come to my rescue if you loved me? Wouldn't you answer my prayer? But it's important before we move on to make this statement. God's lack of cooperation is not an argument for or against his existence. Yes, it's easy to make the emotional leap, right? Especially when we're dealing with hard personal things, emotional things. But if we're honest, it's not logical. Because if the lack of cooperation doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't mean that nothing, I'm sorry, the lack of cooperation means that something doesn't exist, does it? Because if that was the case, then none of our parents existed because they don't cooperate. Your children, they don't exist because how many times do they cooperate? Your friends, they don't exist. I mean, the government does not exist, does it? Because it never does anything that I want it to do. And so we look at that, but And we logically say, OK, I know that because God doesn't answer my prayers the way I want them to, it doesn't mean they doesn't exist. But when it seems like I'm just knocking on a deaf door and there's no answer and he doesn't ever respond, doubt will slip in. So what do we do when God seems uncooperative? How do we prevent that doubt? That's what I want to look at in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. But there's another reason I want us to look at this. For all you performance driven people in the room like me, if I was if if I'm honest with myself, I am to the core of people pleaser. That's that's me. The worst thing is if I ever think someone is mad at me for something I've done. I mean, it really growing up has really rocked my world sometimes where I am such a people pleaser. And if I look at it this way, sometimes when God seems incooperative or inattentive, that maybe it's a problem with me. If I just had enough faith, that's it. I don't have enough faith. And if we look around, there's whole groups of people that gather together on this concept that if you have just enough faith, then God will cooperate. If you have just enough faith, but if you don't have enough faith, and if God doesn't answer your questions, it's because obviously you don't have enough faith. If we read Scripture, that's pretty absurd, isn't it? But that's been me. I remember growing up, I had a puppy. that we had just gotten. We had it for just a few weeks and it didn't take long and it ran away like most dogs will do if you let them outside. And I looked and looked for days for that dog. I remember being outside one day, I remember this very clearly, looking up to the sky and going, God, I will stop sinning if you just bring back my little puppy. And of course, I was eight years old, so my bargaining with God was pretty low chips. It wasn't like I was doing big things. It was probably like, God, I will clean my room if you just bring back my little puppy. Many times, don't we make that same deal with God? God, if I'll do this, if you'll just heal. Or we say, if I obeyed more than obviously God would answer me or if I sinned less. But hear me, that flies in direct opposition of the gospel. The gospel teaches us there is nothing that you can do to make God love you. There is nothing that you can do to make God love you less. And therefore, there is nothing that you can do to make God love you more. And for me and the rest of the people pleasers and us performance driven people in here and our Christian walk, this to me has been one of the hardest lessons to learn, that there is nothing that I can do. Not even my obedience or my faith makes God love me more. Yes, sin breaks fellowship. Yes, God wants a clean instrument. Yes, God rewards obedience, but for most of the reasons when God seems inattentive, uncooperative, it many times doesn't have anything to do with a lack of obedience or a lack of faith. So for anyone in this room who are doubters or you know someone, I believe in this room there are some influential people and you're going to encounter people who go through a crisis of faith and it's going to cause them to doubt. And I hope that you'll turn to this passage of scripture. And for us people pleaders in this room who every once in a while need to be beat up with the gospel, I hope this passage of scripture speaks to you. We're going to look at a guy who really loved God, who was zealous for God, a guy who accomplished a lot for God. He had a ton of faith, obeyed the Lord even when it hurt. Yet we're going to see that he even felt that God was inattentive and uncooperative. And of course, you know his name. His name is Paul. There is no one and possibly in the New Testament outside of Jesus who is more obedient, right? More sold out, more on fire, and had more faith in the Apostle Paul. When we come to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, in a little bit of context, obviously, this is Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church. In his first letter, he was dealing with some major issues that were going on there, some just crazy things that happened in the Corinthian church. So you see that probably what I think was happening was Paul wanted to write them this letter. But then he found out what was going on. So he had a right to them first Corinthians. Now he's getting the second Corinthians right. OK, now I really want to talk to you about what I want to talk to you in the first place, the good stuff. And he has to he's waiting to really sell what he wants. And while we were while he was writing this letter, there were some people who were questioning Paul's apostleship and his authority. And we're going to jump right into the middle of Paul detailing why he's qualified to be an apostle. And Paul says he's the Hebrew of Hebrews in chapter 11. And he says not only that, he is a great Christian. If we were to read the scripture before where we're going to pick up in verse 7, we would see that he had gone through countless beatings. In fact, five times he was given the 40 lashes minus one. I mean, they believed what was going on is they believed in that time of the day that if you got 40 lashes, it would kill you. So they just beat you 39 times. Kind of crazy to think just one more would kill you. So they did that to him five times. Three times we read that he was beaten with rods. He was stoned. If that wasn't enough, he was shipwrecked three times. And then he goes on to say he was even called up to heaven to see Jesus face to face for a moment. Yet with all of these accomplishments, Paul reveals something even more, I believe, important for us tonight. Paul had a problem. We're not sure what exactly it was. Most think it was a physical condition, but it was a major issue because Paul felt like it was a hindrance. And catch this. He prayed for God to take it away. In fact, he prayed three times and every time God came back with the same answer. No. God's answer was, Paul, I don't care how much faith you have, how obedient you are. How many people come to Christ as a result of your witness? How often you ask, how heavy you bargain, how much you plead? My answer is no. Look at verse seven. He said, At least I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations. A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. At least I'd be exalted above measure. See, Paul reveals that God allowed this problem in his life for a major important reason, to keep him humble. And Paul calls it his thorn in the flesh. Now, we use that terminology loosely today. We'll say things like, well, that lady at work, she's such a thorn in my flesh. Or, you know, that guy across the street, that neighbor, they're just a thorn in our flesh, isn't it? But in the context of what Paul was saying, this thorn in the flesh, that thorn was a sharp stake. or that was used for torturing and impelling people. And Paul is saying that he was giving me this strong thorn. This isn't just like a rosebush thorn that would prick your thumb, but a major obstacle for Paul. He says, he also says in verse seven, that was a messenger of Satan. Now, we don't know if that was figurative or literally, if it was figurative, it would be like saying, well, isn't that person such the devil? There's so such a strong phrase, if it was literal, Paul would be saying this is the devil's way of stopping God's work through and in Paul. That word messenger can become, we can easily translate that to angel, from fallen angel, the demon. So this was, if this is literal, this would be a demonic influence attacking him. But here's the thing, it was allowed by God. And even used by God in Paul's life, just like God used to hard things in the life of Job. I tend to believe this was a very literal that he's saying a literal messenger of Satan was given to me to buffet me. But what was it? We don't know. Scholars, some say it was epilepsy, others say it was recurring malaria, some even more say bad eyesight or chronic migraines or even a speech impediment. And I'm really glad we I'll be honest, I'm glad we don't know. Because I think that helps us all with all of our different weaknesses to be encouraged. And no matter what issue we're facing, we can look to this passage of Scripture and we can see the way God gives us hope, even when He doesn't answer the way we want Him to. Look at verse 8. He says, Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. Here we have arguably the most important person in history at that time alive asking God to do what God was doing others through him. Catch that. Paul was being used greatly by God to remove demons in people's lives, wasn't he? Literally demons. Paul was being used by God to heal people. And what Paul was saying is, God, won't you just do to me what you're using me to do for other people? You can see where Paul was falling on his face. In fact, it says he did this three times. And this isn't like when he did it on Monday morning and God said no. And so he did it again on Tuesday morning and God said no. And so he did it one more time on Wednesday morning and God said no. And so on Thursday he said, OK, I'll stop asking God. When he says three times, it was like three seasons of his life. This has been an ongoing battle for Paul. He's been getting on his knees, pleading, God, take this away. I can't handle this anymore. This is not enough. Can't you take this away? You're doing it to everyone else around me. Why won't you do it in my life, Paul? He's pleading. He's possibly even bargaining with God. And this is so good for me. What's God's answer to Paul? It's no. Look at verse 9. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect and weakness. See, we don't always get the answer we want, but we get what we need. His grace is sufficient. God's saying my grace is here, Paul. It's not necessary to ask me to make it sufficient. It already is. Before you even asked, it was already there. My grace was sufficient. It was always there. Grace was here, sufficient. That sufficient grace is the ability to get up again, to take one more step. It's when tragedy strikes. We don't see it coming. We don't want it to happen when it does, but when it does, His grace is already there, isn't it? It's not even something we have to ask for. His grace is already there because it's sufficient. It was given to us on the cross. It's given to us as followers of Christ. His love, his goodness, his grace. And it's there and it's sufficient for the day in trouble. That's sufficient grace. Back growing up in my home church, we would call this in spite of grace. In spite of the fact that when you wake up tomorrow morning, Brad, your dad is still going to be lying in the coffin. That's in spite of grace. Or in spite of the fact, Brad, that I'm not going to heal your mom from schizophrenia, I'm going to give you grace to walk through it. And everyone in this room has different stories and different things where we can look back and even say, I don't know how I walked through that. But God's grace, wasn't it sufficient? Sufficient. All the grace you need to pass through this. He goes on to say, Paul's response, Therefore, most gladly, I will boast in my infirmities that the tower of Christ may rest up on me. See, here's the thing, we all, we, if we're honest, we want to be the famous guy giving glory to God, right? We look at the Oscars or any award show and they give them the trophy and they all take a little time to do a little platitude. I want to thank God. Or maybe a little more real, we all want to be the guy rounding home, tapping our chest and pointing up to heaven. It doesn't really work that way, does it? Sometimes, yes, there is the Tim Tebows who God blesses and uses their strength to display His glory. But sometimes, most many times, there is the guy struck down with a chronic disease and placed in a wheelchair for life. And all of us as followers look to him and go, grace. Look at the grace that God's given him to walk through that. Look at the grace that God has given that woman to walk through that cancer. See, being a great follower of Christ is not about leveraging your success for the glory of God, but leveraging your failure for the glory of God. God, how in this weakness, in this failure, in this hard time, can the light of your glory be put on display? How in this moment of suffering, that's what it means to be created in the image of God. That everything is used as a stage for the glory of God. See, God gets His glory on the stage of your failures many more times than on the stage of your success. Because in His weakness, He is made strong. There's a pastor, a young pastor, upper 30s by the name of Matt Chandler from Texas, you may have been familiar with his story. About three years ago, God had used Matt Chandler to do some really great things to grow a great church. And I would say that he's one of a handful of young pastors in the United States that young people and older people like look to him and go, yeah, this is one of the leaders we can follow and great respect for this guy. And about three years ago on Thanksgiving morning, you may know the story, he passed out and fell on his head. And so his wife and his family, they rushed him to the hospital and it was actually a good thing that he fell on his head because because of that, they did some CT scans and the CT scan revealed that he had a major brain tumor. In fact, When they met with the neurologist, the neurologist said, we're going to have to do intense, intense radiation therapy. You may not live through this. And in that moment of weakness, Matt Chandler continued to stand up and say, this is for the glory of God. I don't know whether I will die tomorrow, but for the glory of God, I'm going to continue where I've been. And this is weird. When God gives sufficient grace to believers, Lost people look at that and go, I don't understand that. Why don't you curse God and die? Why don't you walk away from your faith? Why don't you stop doing that? This befounds lost people. And in that moment of weakness, and in that moment of distress, God uses it to place His glory on display for people to see. That's exactly what happened to Matt Chandler. The secular news media picked it up. They did articles in major newspapers that were national. It went viral. And God used, I would say, out of all that Matt Chandler's done, he's wrote multiple books. He's preached multiple conferences and messages. He's planted churches and been part of plant churching networks. What God used most in his life has been Him walking through this cancer and for Him to walk through it with God's grace. And I believe that in our moments of our greatest weakness, that's exactly what God wants to do. But here's the thing, we don't get to choose if we're going to be one of those that God uses strength and success, or God's going to use weakness and failure. Let me tell you an honest opinion. When I look at people who have walked through hard things, And they've walked through it with God's grace. And they've allowed that to be a platform for the glory of God. Don't we just stand in awe of those people? I mean, they impress me more than any person who uses their talents even. And this is good. They have success and they give credit to God. But for the people who still give credit to God, even in the hard times, that echoes much louder. for a lost and dying road. I look at people who outlive their children. And I go, how do they do that? That's going to be the hardest thing. I don't even have children, but I can only imagine that that has to be one of the most painful things for any person, any human to go through. How do they do that? Because of God's grace. I don't understand that. And you know why I don't understand that? Because I don't need to. I don't need that grace right now. But if God was to allow me to go through something like that, I believe without a doubt I would experience that sufficient grace. I have faith that God's grace will be sufficient in the day of trouble. We have faith that God's grace is enough. It's enough. It's grace when needed. God will show off His glory on the stage of your weakness if you can learn to accept no. And so Paul says, I boast. I boast in this. Paul, with all of his accomplishments and all of his successes in life, says, I'm going to boast in my faith in his grace instead of the countless people who have come to Christ, the countless churches, the people healed, all the things I've done, I'm going to boast in my weakness. Paul, we are watching him right almost as he's writing his journal and his mind is completely changed in that moment when God told him no. Paul's mind has changed. J. Oswald Sanders says this, the rose philosophy is what can't be cured must be endured. But Paul radiantly testifies what can't be cured can be endured. He says, I enjoy weaknesses, sufferings, privitations and difficulties. So wonderful did he prove God's grace to be that he welcomed fresh occasions of drawing upon his fullness. He said, I gladly glory. I even enjoy my throne. It's a pretty crazy thing to say, isn't it? Especially when God's response is, no, I'm not going to work a miracle in your life like that. But I'm going to do a different type of miracle. I'm going to give you all the grace you need to suffer through this well. So I want to give you four final lessons that we can see from this sufficient grace. Number one, you have permission to ask God to take the thorn away. You have permission to ask God to take the thorn away. It is totally okay. That's one of the, I think I've shared this before, one of the things that God walked me through. When after I got older from losing my father and then losing one of my good friends, I remember I just lost my friend and I just went out. I was 19 and really confused. And I went out to the cemetery where my dad and just so happened my friend were buried in the same cemetery, literally five feet from each other. I could see both of their tombstones. And it was just one of those things. I'm not making it up. It was raining, and I was on my knees, and I was a filthy, muddy mess, and I was crying. And I was asking God why. And I felt so wrong to ask God why. God reminded me of His Son dying on a cross saying, Father, Father, why have you forsaken me? He said, I am a big enough God to handle the why question. And I believe that God is a big enough God for you to say, God, take this thorn away. I can't I can't handle it. It's OK. But the second thing comes right along with that is that God has permission to say no. Because he's God and he has permission to say, no, I'm not going to. Some things may never change. And so, third, God may choose to show his glory off in the stage of your weakness. God may deliver you and you may be able to look back and preach. Look at how God delivered me through this. Or God may choose to just give you grace to show off His glory as you walk through that. And finally, You can't have God's sufficient, just enough grace while resisting His will. You can't have God's sufficient grace when you're resisting it. When God's walking you through hard times and you're trying to pull, you're trying to resist it, You're not experiencing God's sufficient grace. You're in direct opposition of it, striving against it, arguing against it. It leads to bitterness. If you never have the grace to accept it, you will never have peace. And when we walk through these hard times, when we face a thorn in the flesh, we have basically four options. We can get bitter and just get mad at God. We can doubt God. and get bitter because we think that we deserve better. Or we can just give up. God, I just give up. I can't perform enough for You, God. I can't do it. If You're not willing to come to my rescue, then I just give up. We can even endure it. And many will say, well, just endure through it. But all three of those are wrong. All three of those are wrong. The fourth option we have is to grace graciously experience it and walk with grace through it and use it for the glory of God. It's that sustaining grace that says, not my will. but God's will. It's the same thing that Jesus experienced when He said, not my will. Even Jesus was a recipient of the just sufficient grace, the just enough grace. Not the grace to get you through it. Not the grace to get you over it, I mean, but the grace to get you through it. Do you see the difference? We're looking for the grace that says, OK, God, get me out of this. That would be grace. But God often gives us just enough grace to say, I'm going to give you just enough grace to walk through it and we can submit to it. So we see Jesus walking through the cross and accepting the Father's will. We see a sufficient grace to handle that situation. We see it with Paul just enough grace to get him through it. And it really is all the grace we need. So if we come to a place where we want to doubt God because he seems inattentive or uncooperative, he's got to remember his answer of no does not mean his inattentiveness, his uncooperativeness does not mean he's not there. When we encounter friends and loved ones and they walk through hard times and they may be tempted to walk away from God, how do we point them back to the grace that is all sufficient for us people pleasers in the room? When we think that if I would just perform more, then God will answer. My prayer. God will come to my bath. It's like my obedience is some magic rabbit foot that if I rub it enough and I shake it enough, then God will come to my rescue. God's no lucky charm to be toyed with. He's much more. We continually step back and we say, I didn't get what I want, but I got grace. And it's enough. And we fall back to the gospel that says there is nothing that I can do to make God love me more. We look at people. I look at many people in this room right now and think, how? How did they walk through that? I could never, never do that. How did they walk through it? Because God's grace is 100% absolutely sufficient, isn't it? And on that day that you need it. I promise from the faithfulness of God's word. It will be there for you as well. Question is, will you walk with it? Let me pray. Father. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for your honesty and the vulnerability that we even see in your word. Well, we see. But many of us would say is the superstar of the faith and the apostle Paul. Just with gut-wrenching honesty, say God, expose his heart to us and say, I wanted this taken from me. And I didn't get it. Father, I just happen to believe that in a room like this, there are those who are going through right now, something very similar. They're saying, God, take this away from me. God, I do not want to walk through this. Lord, hold back this cup. Lord, would you give them the peace that comes from your sustaining grace, your just enough grace. Lord, there are those in this room like myself, Father Lord, that right now, we're not in the need of sustaining grace. The purpose is, life is not hard. But Lord, will you prepare us on the day when it does come, and it will come, and life is hard, that we will fall unto your just enough, your sustaining grace. For any in the room who doubt you, Lord, would you show them your grace is walking them through. for us people pleasers in the room. Lord, would we stop trying to work something up to make You love us, but for the Lord, out of Your love for us, we would obey You. In Your name we pray. Amen. Would you stand?