you know so often we get discouraged and and down about the negative fixtures in our life i think every person here today you probably have something that's going on in your life that you would consider negative that it's a very discouraging to you that it's something that uh... uh... maybe we focus on a little more than what we should to we should be however we fail to recognize the great blessing and opportunity, those things actually present before us. To give an example, for instance, I found this little thing written by an author. He said, consider this. Most of the Psalms that we read were born actually during the difficult days that David lived through. Most of the epistles that Paul wrote were written from prison cells. Most of the greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers of all times had to pass through the fire. John Bunyan was a Baptist preacher who spent many years in prison for his testimony of the gospel of Christ. But during those years in prison, he wrote Pilgrim's Progress while he sat in that jail cell, which has become the second greatest all-time bestseller next to the Bible itself. Florence Nightingale, who was too ill to move from her bed, actually did it while laying there, reorganized the hospitals of the nation of England. Semi-paralyzed and under the constant menace of physical difficulty as a result of a stroke, Louis Pasteur was tireless in his attack on disease. Of course, he came up with the pasteurization process. During the greater part of his life, American historian Francis Parkman suffered so acutely that he could not work for more than five minutes at a time. His eyesight was so wretched that he could scrawl only a few gigantic words on a manuscript, yet he contrived to write 20 magnificent volumes of history. The author concludes with this thought, sometimes it seems that when God is about to make a preeminent use of a person, God allows a thorn for them to go through the fire of life. In our passage here today, Paul received a thorn that bothered him in his life. But through it, God made him more useful for his glory and for his honor. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 1, we'll pick it up, and it says, And it is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth, such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure, Through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasures and infirmities, and reproaches, and necessities, and persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong." Today, I'd like to consider the thought of the value of a thorn, the value of a thorn. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you for this passage here before us today. And I do pray that each one of us would find strength because no doubt each one of us has at least one thorn in our life. that is a burden on us and bothers us. And I do pray that we could see just the great purpose behind them so that you may be honored through our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, for God to use somebody to accomplish something for Him, that person needs to be able to have a level of what I would call personal humility. There's a great need for that personal humility to exist in the life of a person, and this is greatly significant. When you look at the Scriptures, as we'll see in a moment, humility simply is the state of mind in which we have a modest opinion of who we are in our position. It doesn't mean we sit there and say we're the worst person in the world and kind of attack ourselves that way, but we have a modest opinion of who we are. We recognize that, of course, we're nothing, but through Christ we have something special. You know, God told David years ago that his lineage would always sit upon the throne of Israel. Of course, it would be through his lineage that the Messiah would come through. And it was a tremendous honor for David. He recognized that to be part of something that special was very unique. And this was David's response. 2 Samuel 7, 18, then went King David in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house? Or in other words, his family that thou has brought me hitherto. See, David at this point had had really achieved quite a bit. He had survived quite a bit, but he was achieving a lot and he was even going to go higher. But when God told him and said, look, David, your your children are going to sit upon the throne of Israel here. They're always going to rule. And then one day through your lineage, the Messiah, in so many words, is going to come. And David wasn't like, God finally figured it out, right? You know he didn't have that attitude or you know he he didn't. He didn't think he was the world. The greatest gift to the world. There are the greatest gift to Israel. You know it been very easy for David to get lifted up in pride, wouldn't it? Because he could have thought of himself as being somebody because of this great honor and this great privilege that God laid upon him. But that wasn't David's heart. David had a heart for God. He had. He had a humble heart. Despite his position, if you would, and he said, Oh, who am I? Who am I? Oh, Lord. That this blessing would come upon my house. And can I say that is one of the reasons God used David so mightily. Was because he could remain humble. Despite what God would give him. And before God can use somebody, if God's going to use a person, humility must be something that is quite present in the life of an individual. Because God cannot and will not work through a very proud or a very haughty person at all. He will not work through them. He will not use them. The Bible says very negative things about having a prideful spirit. Proverbs 18.12 says before destruction the heart of man is haughty or proud and before honor is humility, great humility. You know, before somebody collapses, before somebody destroys something in their life, they get very proud. They get very haughty. They think of themselves as being somebody. And that's very easy. If you strive to do righteousness and live for God, and maybe you are doing those things, it's very easy to get proud about it. And to think of ourselves as being somebody and and think of ourselves as being again God's gift to our family or God's gift to the church or God. You know some sometimes people get that attitude. You know church couldn't get along without me. You'd be surprised what the church could get along without. If God's behind it, you know. Or are your family? I mean, I'm just saying God. God does not use a haughty person. He will humble that person. before he'll begin to use them. Proverbs 22, verse 4 says, "...by humility and fear of the Lord are riches honored in life." By humility. Now that doesn't mean you're going to be filthy rich, but I'm just going to say your life will be rich. "...when humility and the fear of the Lord," in other words, a respect of God, "...is prevalent within our hearts. When a person is proud, he or she will exalt themselves as to be somebody more than they are." And what they're doing is stealing God's glory. as if whatever they're able to do is accomplished in their own power. See, we have nothing unless it comes from God. It doesn't matter what we may have as far as our intellect goes, as far as our talents go, as far as what's in our pockets, so to say. Every ounce of that comes from God. God endures people with certain talents, certain abilities, certain smarts, certain athletic qualities, certain musical qualities, all these different things. And he spreads them out differently over different people. Why? Because if somebody was the complete package, could you imagine how proud they'd get? Can you imagine how lifted up in pride? Some people have more than others, but that's God who determines that. But it's still God who does it. and to steal glory from God, God will not allow. Isaiah 42 verse 8 says, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. God will not allow his glory to go to somebody else, because God alone should get glory. He even mentions in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 29, we'll look at this a little bit more later in context, but that no flesh should glory in his presence. When people glorify themselves, they do not help people. Because when we glorify ourselves, we exalt ourselves over people, and that actually hurts others. That hurts others. That actually doesn't help anybody at all. When God is glorified, guess what? People are drawn to them, and then people can get the help that they need. People can get the help that they need, and there's a lot of help within God. Lots of help within God. God's there to meet needs. I talked about that at the campus here this Thursday night. How God's a need meter. And when people begin to see how great He is, they'll be drawn to Him. And God can start meeting the needs within their own heart. When we're exalted, when we exalt ourselves, can we meet the needs of other people? No. I don't have the ability to do that. I don't have the strength to do that. But God does. But God does. Only God can meet the inner needs of people, heal broken hearts, and comfort their distraught souls. Only God can manufacture things in their hearts to help them overcome the difficulties they're dealing with, or at least give them direction, or give them wisdom on the next steps in life. Only God can do that. We can't do that. We're finite. God is infinite. When God is glorified, people see His greatness, and that draws them to His abundant love. When people exalt themselves, they will oppress or suppress other people. That's true all over the world. Some of those dictators, you know what? They think pretty highly of themselves all over the world. Within our society, there are people that think that they're above the law and can get away with things. Well, guess what? Some of them are getting caught these days, aren't they? Glory of self. That's not going to help anybody. But if you are like me, we have a little problem getting humble, don't we? Or staying that way. Don't we? I do, and I'm sure you do too. Because our sinful hearts are prone to pride. It's amazing how much or how little we will try to find some way in which we can exalt ourselves just naturally. There's a story told about a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who pulled into a service station to get gas. He went inside to pay, and when he came out, he noticed that his wife was talking to the service station attendant. She had dated the attendant before she had met her husband. Well, the CEO got back into his car, and the two drove in silence. He was feeling pretty good about himself when he finally spoke up. He said, I bet you I know what you were thinking. I bet you were thinking you're glad you married me, a Fortune 500 CEO, and not him, a service station attendant. She replied back, no, I was thinking about if I had married him, he'd be a Fortune 500 CEO, and you'd be the service station attendant. Nice little reversal there. Sometimes wives have that ability. I don't know. Oh, we get prideful, don't we, sometimes. It can happen over the littlest things. It's just kind of our nature, isn't it? I'm on the same boat as you are. Sometimes we have a problem just getting humble and staying humble. And God knows that. So what does God do? Well, he allows sometimes Satan to give us a thorn or two or more, depending on who we are. But the thorn is never meant to hinder. but prepare us to be able to be more usable for God by maintaining a level of humility that we need to go higher for Him. And today let's consider the value of a thorn. First off, we see the interesting opportunity. Now in our text, the Apostle Paul describes an interesting opportunity given to him. It was a chance to see heaven. A chance to see heaven. Look at verses 1 through 4. It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago. Whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such a one caught up to the third heaven. That's the heaven. That's where God lives. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter." Now Paul had an opportunity to get a glimpse of glory. He saw things that no man living had ever seen. And they were things he couldn't even begin to explain. It's like, how do you explain certain things in heaven? Well, the Bible says, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things God hath prepared that love him. And I believe part of that is the things of heaven. There's some things that are in heaven that we've never seen before that are just incredible. And Paul saw them and he's like, I can't even begin to explain what they are. They're so glorious. But this was a very interesting and unique opportunity that God allowed Paul to experience for some particular reason in his life. Now we may not get a glimpse of heaven like Paul did in this life, but God does desire to use us or give us interesting opportunities in which he will reveal a glimpse of his glory as well. There are opportunities that God will give us in which we will get to see some special things or special movements of God. Opportunities that that are very unique. You know, I've had the privilege of being in certain places and just see God do some real special things over the course of time, and particularly in some of the things that we've done in outreaches overseas. And watch God open up doors and watch God answer prayers. I remember during our Asian Games campaign, you know, one of the biggest things we saw was that it was almost every day that that God was answering prayers, prayers that we couldn't do for ourselves, opportunities we couldn't manufacture. And as I've seen those things in the past, I mean, just these opportunities to just to see God do something with our lives to make it fruitful. John 15, eight, Jesus said, Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples. You know, God is interested in bearing fruit in the lives of every one of his children. God wants to bear fruit. Fruit is just simply simply the gospel being spread to that person's life. to impact the lives of others, not to mention the inner fruit of developing that person into the likeness of Jesus Christ. And God wants us to bear much fruit because it brings Him glory. And in order for us to bear fruit, it's got to come through Him. And He's got to exercise His power through us. And God is interested in using every life to the fullest. He can propagate His glory. And that gives you special opportunities to see God do some very special things. Open up doors that you and I can't open up ourselves. Needed finances and open doors and all that kind of stuff It's it's a miracle sometimes, you know, I I keep thinking about this building at times I think of how much of a miracle it is and and and I know some of the deep nitty-gritty details of how difficult it was for us to get a Building here in this city, which is locked down for the most part with the laws You'd have to have oodles of money to to to go buy a piece of property and even just convert it over to a church church building, much less be able to even buy one, but God provided and made a way. It was a miracle in many ways. And God's done some of those things and will do some of those things for us because He desires to use us to propagate His glory, which means the declaration of the gospel to this region and to the regions beyond. And He wants to use every life to the fullest that He can to propagate that glory. He did that with the Apostle Paul, and again, He wants to do that with us. He wants to make us fruitful people. Hold your place here, but go over to the Psalms. Psalm 92 talks about this fruit bearing that God wants to develop in our lives. Psalm 92. In verse 12, we'll just read a couple of verses here. It says here, the righteous, or the saved if you will, shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar. In Lebanon, a cedar is a strong, large tree that were very prominent in the country of Lebanon, which is north of the nation of Israel. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." In other words, they'll be fruitful. Their lives will reflect something where God is working in a very special way, and it's evident. They're producing fruit. There's good things coming out of their lives. People are being impacted by their lives. And you know what? Every life has that potential here today. Everybody who knows Christ as Savior, if you've been saved, God can make you a flourishing branch. a flourishing oak tree or a cedar tree, if you will, in his courts, in his house. Believe it or not, God wants to give each person here some interesting opportunities to serve Him and to see Him work. And I believe most people would be quite surprised at just what God desires and could do through them. I think most of us would be shocked at the great level in which God wants to use us that maybe we're not doing or not achieving because maybe the thorn has tripped us up instead of used it to bring us to the point where God can use us. You know Moses, was like that. You know, we maybe know the history of Moses as being the man who stole boldly before Pharaoh and said, let my people go and all that. But when God called him to do that job, Moses wanted nothing to do with it. He stuttered while he talked. He was fearful. He was a man that I guess he thought at this point in his life was not capable of accomplishing what God had called him to do. In fact, he says in Exodus 3.11, Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And Moses tried to get out of the job several times. He tried to get out of it. He said, I don't want anything to do with it. God, send somebody else. There's somebody more qualified. God said, no, you're the most qualified. And eventually he went along with it. And I think he was a bit shocked at what God actually could do through him. I think all of us would be shocked what God could actually do through us if we gave Him the opportunity. And God gave Moses opportunities to impact eternal history As few have ever done as a result. You know, God has something for you and I. To do. That will enable a special glimpse of his glory into our lives. And that's what Paul experienced in 2nd Corinthians 12, at least what he explains to us. So I had a special opportunity. To see something special of God. But it led to, secondly, what I call the irritating ordeal. The irritating ordeal. With such a special opportunity experienced by Paul, it would have been very easy for Paul to brag about it, if you will. In fact, you look at this passage, it appears that he hadn't told anybody about it. Fourteen years had passed. And he doesn't even use the first person. He said, I know this man. You ever tell a story like that? You don't want people to know it's actually you? She said, I know this friend, or something like that. That's kind of what it was here. That was kind of what it was. I know this circumstance where this guy went up to the third heaven, and he kind of slips it in that it was me. But he does it very sheepishly, probably because of what he goes on to explain. But it had been very easy for Paul to say, hey, I got to go to heaven. Have you? You know, I ran around Hallelujah Street, the streets of gold. What have you done these days? I mean, it would have been very easy for Paul to have been like very braggart about it. It would have been very easy for him to pride himself thinking that God let me see heaven when he hasn't let anybody else do it. And Paul could have been like, you know, I must be something. I must be something pretty big. But that again is the tendency of the human heart. It will find a way to exalt itself in anything over, even over the minutest and pettiest things. The human heart will just say, oh yeah, I gotta exalt myself. For Paul's sake, God allowed Satan then to give Paul this thorn in the flesh. Look at verse 7. It says, unless I should be exalted above measure, unless I get proud, through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, unless I should be exalted above measure. He comes out very clearly and says God didn't want me getting proud about this, so instead he allowed Satan to give me this thorn. And evidently this thorn was painful. It was an irritating ordeal, if you will. So much so that Paul spent three seasons, I believe, of prayer in which he sought God to remove it. You see that in verse 8. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, or three times, that it might depart from me. I don't think it was just one prayer, two prayer, three prayer that was it. I think he maybe spent time praying and fasting. Maybe he spent a season at a time where he asked God, God, can you remove this? You know, I could do so much more for you if this thorn was gone and it would be a lot easier, life would be a little bit more comfortable. I mean, I'm sure he had a lot of different arguments that he presented before God about this thorn. Three times he asked about God removing it, but God said no each time. Now, on the surface, we might think, well, God's just being a meanie here. What's God doing? Doesn't God care about the way I feel? Doesn't God care about my existence? It's at those times we begin to question the goodness and the validity of God, don't we? When God says no like that. No, God wasn't being a meaning because he he knew the long term effects of what would take place if Paul was not humbled by that thorn. If Paul had gotten proud over that special experience, Paul's ministry would have been rendered useless. In fact, it could have just completely fallen out and bombed out. Why? Because the power of 1618 says pride goeth before destruction and a hearty spirit before a fall. Right? Before pride is what pulls a person down. Pride is what destroys people. Pride is what leads people to make decisions that are just foolish. That will lead to their destruction, their downfall, their their their humbling. And God didn't want that for Paul. God did not want Paul to. to fall out. Paul was being used and God wanted that to continue to be the place. And if Paul began to get proud, guess what? The power of God would have been cut off. And Paul would have been heading for a heartache. My mom used to put it this way. He would have been cruising for a bruising. Right? He would have. You ever gotten proud about something and got humbled? I mean, you said something, you did something. I remember back in college, there was a guy I went to college with, but he had been from a rival school. It's kind of a long history. and he said you know hey you wanna play a one-on-one game and I said yeah I'm just thinking to myself I'm gonna beat him and all this stuff in a one-on-one basketball game I was I was just kind of pumping myself up in pride he beat me he beat me and uh... and I remember going into the lunchroom after that and and he and a few people from his school saw me and they were rubbing it in and I was just like well yeah I deserve that one didn't I You know, pride always happens before fall. And it is a very destructive thing. It will always happen because God will always tarnish pride. He will always tarnish it. I mean, if we start lifting ourselves up, we better be. We better start trying to humble ourselves because God will make sure that we get humbled. Because pride doesn't help us. Pride destroys us. It was what destroyed Satan and all those that followed him in his rebellion. God didn't want Paul to go that direction. Because nobody is too big to fall. Nobody is too big to fall. Again, nobody is so important to a church or to God's cause that God will give a pass on pride at all. And that's a very sobering thing to think about. So instead of that happening, God allowed the thorn. So what was Paul's thorn? Now, there's a lot of speculation about what actually that could be. Some considered possibly it being an eye problem based on some other verses. I mentioned in Galatians 4.15, he's talking to the churches of Galatia, said, And why he used that phrase makes people wonder, you know, did Paul have an eye problem? that was a result of something, whether it's something that developed as he aged or something from some of the experiences he had. And then if you read in Acts chapter 23 where Paul is brought before a council, he says some words in a rebuke towards somebody, and he didn't know it was the high priest, which seemed to indicate that he had a hard time seeing. I know I wear contact lenses, If I took them out, I could not see Aaron's face at all. Man, that'd be a good thing. No, I'm just kidding. Sorry, I had to say it. Oh, yeah, I know, I'm going to get one. But in all seriousness, I mean, I know how the reality of that is. Some of you wore glasses too, and if you had them off, it'd be like, oh, I couldn't get around. And that could have very easily been the Apostle Paul, couldn't it? Whatever it might have been, it appears to be something bodily that was afflicting him, whether his eyes or something else. And in Paul's mind, at least as he had prayed, he probably felt that its removal would enable him to serve better. I mean, that's naturally what we think. Boy, if it was his eyes, boy, if I could see better, you know what? I could see those persecutors coming a little bit sooner than I could run a little faster, right? He would have had, or whatever it might be. He wouldn't have maybe been as dependent upon maybe other people that maybe he had to be as he traveled. Who knows? But whatever the case was, he probably saw God thinking in the sense, you know what, it would be so much better that if I didn't have this issue that I could serve you better. I know a preacher According to him. He says that he says his mind doesn't Work that fast. This is the way he kind of put it and he said I prayed that God would would help my brain speed up and He prayed for a few months and he said God said no I made you just the way you are you're fine, and he just kind of let it go but sometimes we think that you know if I if I am had certain features or if certain parts of my body were better off or were healed or whatever the case might be, we could do service for God better. But God sometimes sees things differently and usually does see things differently. Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Again, we are finite. God is infinite. He knows what works best. And sometimes it's best with the thorn. And maybe today you have a thorn in your life. Now, a thorn can come in a number of different ways. In some cases, it's through physical ailments, maybe physical ailments that you were born with. are maybe attained as a result of something happening in your life, whether it's an injury or a sickness. And you say, boy, I could serve God a lot better if I didn't have this and maybe God would heal this and so forth. But it's something that does hamper you as you go about your life. Maybe today the thorn is another person. Maybe your thorn right now is another person with the things that they're saying and doing to you or against you. And it's that person who makes life miserable, right? Maybe it's a group of people. Maybe whoever but this person is making your life miserable. You know Paul had people like that in his during his days 2nd Timothy 4 14 talks about Alexander the coppersmith that did me much evil that did me much evil here here this person had this this vendetta against the Apostle Paul and He was a thorn if you would and maybe today you have somebody that is a thorn in your life God may have placed that person in our lives simply for the purpose of humbling us. The humbling us. Lest we get exalted above measure. You know, the Bible teaches that God will allow enemies to rise up against us at times to straighten us out. So that stinks. Yeah, tell me about it. Proverbs 16 seven when a man's ways please the Lord, he make it even his enemies to be at peace with him. You got an enemy today and guess what? God's maybe using it to straighten you or me out. Maybe that thorn might be a thorn in your life and in my life. The thorn might be through circumstances that crop up in life that are outside of our control. You know, I knew a gentleman, he's with the Lord now, but he had started a boy's home down in Oklahoma. And it was a ministry under a church that they established down there. And as a result, legally speaking, they didn't need to have a license. But the state of Oklahoma tried to force them to take a license, which would dictate some of the things that they would do, which, of course, was not in line with scripture and so forth. He told me personally that he was under litigation for 18 years. Can you imagine that? That pressure? Boy, that'd be fun. 18 years. Because of that Eventually there was a they had one person. They had I guess massive problems. He said that person didn't like us it was the way you put it, but then somebody else moved in and You know they had worked out something where they they could you know they thought was a reasonable a reasonable way of dealing with the problem. Eventually when the new person came in, they suggested and said, yes, we've been saying that for years. And things eventually moved on and so forth. But situations come up that we can't resolve on our own or very quickly that can really be a thorn in our lives, can't they? Maybe there's a situation right now in your life where it's like you can't do anything about it. That might just be a thorn that God has allowed to take place in our lives. It might be past scars. It might be something that has happened in your past that has left an emotional scar in your life or scars. And sometimes those scars can be a thorn. They can be a thorn that is there, emotionally speaking. Whatever it is in your life, The thorn hurts you emotionally. It might hurt you physically. It might hurt you mentally. And we think that we could run our Christian race, as we put it, much better without it, like in Paul's case. But God would disagree. Because the thorn has a purpose. to keep us from exalting ourselves to the point we would be rendered useless if not damaging to the cause of Christ. I challenge that. Well, God knows better than we do. God knows better than we do. The damage pride does is incalculable, sometimes to the point God may even use multiple thorns. I mean, pride is very, very damaging, especially spiritual pride. That is horrendously damaging. And God may allow multiple thorns to exist. If you've got multiple things coming at you all at once, it might be God just using those things to keep you humble and keep you close to Himself, as we'll get to here in a moment. Now, the question is, does God ever remove the thorn? I believe He does sometimes, and sometimes He doesn't. I guess it's all according to what God deems necessary to keep us usable. And it's not wise to compare ourselves to somebody else, either say, you know, they have their thorn removed. I still got it. Look, you and I are not God. But God knows what we need. And it's not wise to begin to compare ourselves to other people and thinking, well, they, because guess what? Somebody else will look at you and say the same thing. You know, why do they have this going for them? And, you know, and after a while, you know, it's very easy to do that. But we aren't to compare ourselves to other, because you and I are just as unique as anybody else. And because every person's calling is different, and everybody's personality is different to the point only God knows what the right thorns are to accomplish the outcome He desires in that life, to accomplish the purposes He's called that person to do. Only God knows that. So He knows what thorns to put in there. So that person is humble and can be useful for his glory. So they don't destroy parts of their life, destroy other people with their pride. Because pride will, again, always destroy the things that are good. The thorn, whatever it might be, is actually meant to help us, not harm us. But we focus so much on how much it harms, don't we? And it's very easy to. I'm just as guilty as the next. But if we can see things from a heavenly viewpoint, it might help us recognize what I call thirdly the injecting omnipotence. After he spent time with God and began to see what God was doing, recognized the value of his thorn. Look at verse 8 and 9. As Paul sought the Lord, God told him, and he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, as a result of what God showed me, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong." See, the weakness and the humility produced through this thorn rendered Paul's life that much more usable and enabled God's power to flow much more freely through it. Much more freely. See, God isn't attracted to our strengths at all. God's not attracted to that. He's attracted to our weakness. Because in our weakness, His strength is seen in full view. In full view. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. Verse 27. There's a lot of powerful things mentioned in this first chapter in regards to God's overcoming the power of man, if you would. But look at verse 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are. Why? So that no flesh should glory in His presence. God will not allow the glorying of our flesh in his presence. There was a story back in the Old Testament in the book of Judges about a man named Gideon. During that time period, the Jewish people were under massive oppression by a people group known as the Midianites. The Midianites, according to Judges 6, covered the fields, covered the hills of Israel like grasshoppers. There were so many of them. The Jews were overpowered and outnumbered, and they were in a position of grave weakness. God called a man by the name of Gideon to help overthrow the Midianite army. And he told Gideon to assemble an army. But when the army showed up, even though it was significantly smaller than the Midianite army, God said in Judges 7-2 that that army was going to be too big itself. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel... Why? Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. God didn't want Israel glorying in the fact that they are thinking that it was them that was going to overthrow the Midians. God wanted to make very clear to them that it was Him and Him alone that He was going to do it. And of course, if you know the story, God wills it down from, I think it was about 32,000, which would have been still real small against the Midianite armor, down to 300. 300! But they still won. as a result of the power of God working through the weakness, if you would, of that army. See, God is interested in working through our weaknesses. And He will work through our weaknesses because His grace can overcome any type of deficiency, as we might put it, that we have in our life. We'd be very surprised how much God can use our deficiencies to bring Him glory. You know, I have a video from an older missionary I know, and I showed it to the group over in Mongolia, and God has used that man in very mighty ways. He put together a video during the time period where the hurricanes had hit down there on the Gulf Coast. The whole idea was to pray for people down there, and it was about 40 minutes long, and we watched that. And the man had been sick for several weeks, hadn't hardly eaten anything, and he was struggling a little bit to speak. But I tell you something, his message was powerful. It really was. Why God used his weakness to show his power through. God will do that. God will do it tremendously because He will not allow flesh to glory in His presence. And that thorn we think is so much of a hindrance in our lives is quite possibly the very avenue in which God desires to work through us. Adonai of Jetson, of course, went to Burma years ago as a missionary. He endured untold hardships trying to reach the lost in Burma. He spent seven years in the country with no converts. During that time, he was also thrown into the Aviva prison for 17 months and was subjected to very cruel treatment. As a result, for the rest of his life, he carried the ugly marks made by the chains and iron shackles which they cruelly bound him with. As a result, or undaunted upon his release, he asked for permission to enter another province where he might resume preaching the gospel. The godless ruler indignantly denied his request, saying, my people are not fools enough to listen to anything a missionary might say, but I fear they might be impressed by your scars and turn to your religion." Powerful. God would use weakness. to flow through His glory. And may God today help us see the value of the thorn that we might be carrying, or thorns, whatever it might be, because God may be just using that to keep us at a level of humility where we need Him and His power to show through us that much more.