All right, let's get our Bibles out, and let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Let's go ahead and pray as we jump in, and then we'll be looking at a passage of scripture I hope will really encourage you tonight. Okay, let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for the scriptures we're about to look at. I pray, dear God, would you please open our eyes. Would you please help us to understand your word, Holy Spirit? I know you are the comforter, and so I just pray that you would comfort us. Tonight comfort every heart that needs it. I pray dear dear God Holy Spirit that you would Convict every heart that needs conviction and I pray that you would change Change us for your honor and glory, please dear God Give me exactly the words to say and just empower me for this time and we pray all this in Jesus name Amen. You know, as Americans, we are not always very fond of discomfort. I think that would be a fair statement to say. We like to be comfortable, and if we see something that looks like it's going to be uncomfortable, or if we think we're going to see something that's going to make us uncomfortable, usually we reject the idea that something that looks or could be uncomfortable for us, we usually reject the idea that it could be good for us, and we like to let people know. you know, if something does not make us feel comfortable. For example, this is, I'm just going to read to you here at the beginning, these are comment cards that were placed at the Bridger Wilderness Area, which is kind of in Wyoming, I think kind of like in the Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park area, but this is kind of going more into, you know, in Wyoming. Bridger Wilderness Area, these were comment cards that were turned in, listen, you would think that these were turned in You know, like within the last five years, but these were turned in in the year 1996. And listen to people, these people, what they say, and you tell me, us Americans, if we like to be comfortable, okay? Here's what the comment card said. One said, the trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands. Okay, here's another one. Please, said this, trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill. How many of you like to hike? How many of you out here enjoy hiking? I do a lot. OK, so you're going to really like these. OK, here we go. Another one said, too many bugs, leeches, spiders, and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness to rid the areas of these pests. You know, because you just kind of walk out there and just kind of spray it. All right, here's another one. It says, please pave the trails so they can be snow plowed during the winter. Another one said, chairlifts need to be in some places that we can get to the wonderful views without having to hike to them. Another one said, the coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying animals. I just want to thank you. I'd love to try. You know, anyone else hunters out there? Like, oh, we'd love to. We're working on it, you know? OK, here's another one. I'm going to read this comment card, OK? So just hang on to it. This is what the comment card said, OK? Ready? A small deer came into my camp and stole my jar of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed? I don't even know. Another one said, OK, get ready for this. OK, you hikers. How many of you have hiked out west? Anyone been out west? OK, get ready for this. Reflectors need to be placed on trees every 50 feet so people can hike at night with flashlights. OK, so that sounds like a cool idea. If you actually knew the bridge or wilderness area, you would know that at night, there's stuff that walks around at night that is able to kill and eat you in one night. Yeah, you don't want to be hiking around that area at night. And that's why they don't put reflectors on trees, because of the people who would actually try. Another person said escalators would help on the steep uphill sections. OK, here's one. How many of you are overthinkers? Anyone here overthinkers? You're not afraid to admit it. Okay, overthinkers. Okay, so don't overthink this one, okay? So just, I'm warning you ahead of time, grab ahold of yourself if you need to for this one, okay? Here's what the comment card said. It said, the places where trails do not exist are not well marked. Don't turn that over too many times. Think about it for a little bit, and then delete it, OK? Otherwise, it'll blow what brain cells might be left, OK? Another person said, there's too many rocks on the mountain. Like, I don't know what you're supposed to do. People like saying, man, the ocean's too wet, you know, or something like that. And last comment card was, a McDonald's would be nice at the trailhead. So I think it'd be fair. And again, this is not talking about, this isn't like, you know, five years ago. This is 1996. uh when these comment cards were put in you know it's i think it'd be easy to say americans as americans we like comfort and we like ease we don't like our lives to be made uncomfortable we love mountaintop experiences where life finances money ministry family relationships and just everything is perfect but you know God doesn't always like us to dwell there He doesn't allow us always to dwell there in these spots where life is always just going perfectly. And so sometimes what He'll allow is God will allow things into our lives that will shake us up from where we have become comfortable. You know here in the book of 2nd Corinthians one of the things that's been happening is Paul there have been well I should say this there have been some false teachers that have been coming into the church at Corinth and they were one of the things they were saying was you know Paul had been through originally and they were saying oh look trust me Paul he's not a real apostle because if he was a real apostle he would have had visions and he would have had revelations and we've had visions of revelations but that Paul you know he hasn't had visions of revelations he's not a real apostle like we are you know We are the real apostles. You don't want to listen to that Paul. And so one of the things Paul does in chapters 10, 11, and 12 is he defends his apostleship and one of the things he does is he says people just so that you know actually I have had visions and revelations. In fact in verse number 1 look at it 2 Corinthians 12 verse 1. Paul says, it's expedient for me doubtless. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. In other words, Paul is saying this. He's saying it is not a good thing. It's not expedient. It's not good for me to brag. And I'm not trying to brag, Paul says. But he says, I'll come to visions and revelations of the Lord. So he says, I'm going to tell you. You want to know if I'm an apostle? He said, just so that you know, yes. I have had visions and revelations. And he says in verse number two, he says, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago. All right, so most Bible scholars say, when Paul says in verse two, I knew a guy about 14 years ago, and he had an experience. Most Bible scholars are pretty agreed that Paul is referring to himself here, okay? You ever seen someone maybe on Facebook that they put a, their post said something like, I'm looking for ways to get rid of a neighbor's annoying cat, asking for a friend. You ever seen someone who puts something like that? Then they say, you know, asking for a friend, and you're sitting there, you're like, yeah, yeah, we all know, you're the one, you ain't no friend there, you're asking for yourself, you want to know. That's kind of like what Paul is doing here, he's saying, I knew a man in Christ. He's trying to be modest. He's trying to be humble here. So he says, I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago. And he says, whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. In other words, he says, this vision was so vivid, he says, I don't know. I may have had a vision while I was sleeping or something like that, or I may have actually been transported to this actual place I'm about to tell you. He says, such in one, talking about himself, he says, I was caught up to the third Hey, have you ever read that and just thought now hang on does heaven have levels or something like that? Like if I'm really if I'm like really saved am I gonna make it to the third level of heaven? What's the what? Why does it say third heaven? Okay, I'm back in ancient times They would sometimes refer to just the people just to be concise the people would sometimes refer to the sky as the first heaven they would refer to outer space as the second heaven and they would refer to Paradise the dwelling place of God as the third heaven That's just how people describe the sky outer space and where God dwells and so when he says the third heaven He's not saying heaven as levels. He's just saying look. I just want you to know Look, I was caught up. I was not caught up into the sky not into outer space, but I saw the dwelling place of God And it says in verse number three, he says, and I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell God knoweth how he was caught up into paradise. It says, technically it says he didn't see things, but he does say, I heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Did he see things? Possibly. He doesn't say he did. One thing he does say is he heard things and the things he heard, he says this, I'm not allowed to repeat. By the way, I'm gonna save you all $12, okay? Ready for this? I'm gonna save you $12, unless maybe you've already wasted it. Listen. If you ever see a book at a Christian bookstore or in Walmart or something like that where it's a story about someone who says, I died, I went to heaven, let me tell you all about it. Trust me, it's a rig, he's just trying to steal your $12, okay? Because listen, someone who actually went to heaven by the name of the Apostle Paul and recorded for us in inspired scripture said, I actually experienced paradise and I was not allowed to talk about what I saw. what I experienced so be careful when someone says oh I died I went to heaven let me tell you all about it okay so so he says I heard words it's unlawful for a man to utter but he says of such in one will I glory yet of myself I'll not glory but in mine infirmities and in verse number six he says for though I would desire to glory in other words Paul says you know I would love to brag about all the incredible things that I heard, maybe even the things that I saw. He says, I should not be a fool, for I'll say the truth, but now I forbear. In other words, he says, I'm going to stop my story right there. I'm going to forbear. I'm going to stop telling you the story. He says, why? lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be or that he heareth of me. So Paul says, look, I've told you enough. I'm not going to tell you anymore. He says, because I don't want you to think. He says, I don't want you to think of me above that which you seeth me to be. In other words, he says, I don't want you to think that I'm some super Christian. Now, if I was going to make a list of people who I would call super Christians, I would put Paul near the top of the list. Right? I mean, it's the Apostle Paul. I mean, the incredible things he did, the things he saw, the things he accomplished. I mean, he was used by God to write scripture. He's doing miracles. He's raising people from the dead. dead, he's preaching and totally not scared. Some people, I mean, he's experiencing persecution. God is preserving his life. The guy is going nuts, planting churches and doing incredible things. I put him at the top of the list of all the super Christians that have ever lived. And you know what Paul says? I'm gonna stop telling you about my vision because I don't want you to think I'm a super Christian, because I'm not. And you know, it is helpful to know, you know, as I studied the life of Paul, especially in this passage, This passage helps me understand. Paul had struggles too. And he had things that hurt and things that were difficult. And one of the things he said that God allowed into his life was something, look at verse number seven. Verse number seven, he says, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. So he says, I didn't just have one vision. I didn't just have one revelation. He says, I had an abundance of them. In other words, there came a point in Paul's life where he stopped counting how many visions and revelations he had had. I mean, that's incredible. But he says, so that I, verse number seven, lest I should be exalted above measure. In other words, Paul says, lest I should brag. Did you know that at this point, with all these visions and revelations he was having, Paul was getting tempted to brag and boast. He said, oh no, not Paul, he's a super Christian. Oh no, no, no, he's got flesh like you and me. And he was tempted to brag about all the things that had happened to him. I mean, he had so many incredible things happen. He had been in ministry. He had seen so many people saved and churches started. Hey, maybe you are getting to see some great things happen in your life. Maybe there's some, I don't know, we call them exaltations. Maybe there's some great accomplishments happening in your life. Maybe you're in charge of a Sunday school class and you're just seeing some incredible growth. and there's just people growing. Maybe you're getting to lead people to the Lord. Maybe God's allowed you to come into some wealth. Maybe God has giving you the promotion at work that you have been hoping for for maybe a couple years. Maybe your children are doing great things for the Lord and you're so proud of them. Maybe your children have some really neat talents that you love watching them just develop them for the Lord. Maybe you personally, you're acing some academic achievements and that is going so well. Maybe you're getting to see some answers to prayer. So less, God says, when accomplishments come our way, God says less, we should vocally or silently brag God allows something into our lives called a thorn in the flesh. Verse 7 Paul says lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. So let's start here by asking ourselves this question. What exactly is this thorn in the flesh? What do we know about it? We don't have a whole lot in the scriptures about it. What do we know about Paul's thorn in the flesh? Number one we know this is that this thorn in the flesh was something that was given to him by God. Look back at verse 7, it says, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh. In other words, Paul says, I didn't ask for this. I wasn't the one who requested this. I didn't ask for it. God gave it to me. Folks, when God gives you something, it is for your good and for his glory. He always gives, as the Bible says, He always gives good things. So when God allows something into your life, it's because you and I need it. So we at least know that. What else do we know about the thorn in the flesh? Well, we know this, is that it had to have been something that constantly annoyed Him, distracted Him, or bothered Him. Well, in what way? Well, the word thorn here is actually, the Greek word is only used here in this passage of Scripture. And it's a word that you would use for a thorn or sometimes even a splinter would be the way that the Greek culture would use that word back then. So it's not something big, it's something small. It would be something that would be very small. So some of you said you enjoy hiking. If you're out doing some kind of a hike, if you break your leg, That's a big deal. You break your leg, it's going to be hard to get back to wherever you started from, to get back to your car, to get back to where help is, to get back into an area where there's reception so you can make a call. You break your leg, that's going to be hard, and it's going to stop you from going any further. Isn't it amazing, though, that you could get just a pebble in your shoe? Or a thorn. in your shoe, in that hiking boot, and if it works its way down in there, all of a sudden it gets annoying, it changes the way that you walk. It changes it so badly that eventually, even the tiniest little thing, like a little pebble or like a thorn, if it gets inside your hiking boot, eventually you'll say, alright, everybody stop, and you're gonna unlace that whole hiking boot that took you all of like three to five minutes to lace up before you even started the day. And you're gonna take the time to unlace it and dump out that pebble or dump out that thorn and then lace the whole boot all the way back up. Why? Because it's so annoying. Isn't it amazing how something so small can be so distracting. In the grand scheme of life, like in the grand scheme of a hike, you know, a pebble is not as big of a deal as a broken leg. But isn't it amazing that that pebble bothers us and it annoys us? That thorn just pokes at us and frustrates us and annoys us? So in other words, here's what was happening. Paul wanted to serve God. Just like I bet you most everyone in this room, Paul wanted to serve God. And there was something that was annoying him that was keeping him from serving God in the way he wanted to. There are ministries you like to do, people you like to witness to, you know, classes you like to teach and people you love to share the gospel with, Bible studies you like to be a part of. There was an annoyance that kept Paul from being able to serve God the way he wanted to. And what was it? Well, notice this thorn, this distraction. Notice where it was. And this is gonna help us understand this thorn in the flesh. He says this thorn was located, it says, in the flesh. Okay, so what does that mean? Okay, so that tells us a couple of things. This annoyance, this distraction that kept him from being able to serve God the way he wanted to, this annoyance, it was in his flesh, which means it could have been something that irritated his physical body all the time in fact in Galatians chapter 4 he actually talks about when he ministered at the churches in Galatia he says you know how through the infirmity of the flesh I preach the gospel unto you at the first and so in essence he says you know that when I first preach the gospel I was very sick and so some people think that he might have actually been that he may have been extremely ill that he had some kind of a disease that stayed with him And you know, people make guesses. Some people guess that he had an issue with his eyes. Some people think that Paul had malaria. Some people think he had migraines. Some people think that Paul struggled with epilepsy. Some think he had a speech impediment. But whatever it was, we aren't really totally sure of what it may have been. But apparently he had some kind of a physical problem. But the problem was that physical problem was magnified so loudly It distracted Paul from serving God. Hey, ever had something wrong with your physical body that just hindered you from being able to serve God the way you know you'd like to do? Isn't that annoying? Isn't that frustrating? That something's going on. Oh, it's not like you broke both your legs and your back and your neck. But goodnight, it's enough to make you hurt, enough so that you just can't do, you just can't serve the Lord like you used to. Maybe you used to be that person that, you were the one who was here early at church, maybe you took care of maybe cleaning at some part of church, maybe you were taught a class, maybe you did a bunch of kids' ministry, and it's not that you wanted to quit and back out, but just something happened to your physical body that it just became too much. Isn't that frustrating? You ever thought, boy, Lord, if you would just give me the right kind of health, I would do a whole lot more for you. You ever thought that? I wonder if Paul did. He says this thorn was in his flesh. Now, let's pause because a lot of times we stop right there and say, oh, well, yeah, thorn in the flesh. That means he probably had some kind of a physical ailment with his physical body. Folks, realize this. When it says the thorn was in his flesh, It might be referring to his physical flesh, but do you realize it could be referring to his spiritual flesh? You ever thought about that? What is spiritual flesh? Especially as it's referred to in the New Testament, spiritual flesh just simply refers to the remnants of your old unsaved self that still craves sin. We talk about maybe like Galatians 5, how it talks about how if you walk in the spirit you shall not fulfill the lusts of your flesh. Galatians 5.17 talks about how the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And the two are contrary, the one to the other, so that they keep you from doing what you ought to do. And so you and I, until the day that we stand before God, we are bound to this spiritual flesh. It's that part of us that still craves wrong things. Do you know that this annoyance that Paul had, it may have been something that was in his spiritual flesh, like this. It may have been an incessant temptation to sin. Did you know Paul struggled with sin? You say, no I didn't. Okay, go home, read Romans 7. Then you'll come back and say, oh yeah, I guess he did. Romans chapter 7, you know what it says he did? One of his big sin struggles was? Coveting. He was covetous. You say, Matt, Matt, Not the Apostle Paul! Yes, he was. He struggled with coveting. You know, I wonder if you realize something is that Paul, before he got saved, he was a Pharisee, which meant this. For a Jew, he had a very good amount of wealth. But when he chose to serve God, a lot of that wealth went by the wayside. He's having to work a second job as a tent maker now. Do you think, and he says he coveted, he probably, he would see wealthy people go by, and the fact that he was covetous probably means he would sometimes covet those people as they went by, thinking, wow, really, Lord? Here I am serving you, and I don't even have cash to finish this journey. I'm gonna have to ask one of the believers for some cash, and here's these people who are successful. He struggled with sin, and even there's another passage that seems to allude to the fact that he may have struggled with lust as well. This is Paul, and do you know what? If I was Paul, it would be really easy to think, you know, Lord, If you would take away this desire that I have for these two sins, if you take that away, Lord, I could serve you so much better. You ever thought that way? Lord, if you would just take away my propensity towards this sin or this sin, Lord, I'd have a much better marriage. Lord, I'd be a much better parent. Lord, I'd be a much better grandparent. Lord, I would be a much better servant here at church if I just wouldn't struggle with these two sins. Maybe it was incessant temptation. You know, it could have also been persecution. You know, this thorn, this annoyance in his spiritual flesh. It may have been someone who constantly persecuted him and was constantly trying to drag him down and constantly trying to pull him down and discourage him. I mean, we read about how Paul, how he was beaten with rods, how he was stoned with stones, how he was whipped with whips, he was shipwrecked. I mean, he went through all kinds of persecutions. Maybe he was becoming discouraged to the point, listen, this thorn in his flesh could have even referred, you know, spiritual flesh, it could have referred to Depression You say brother Matt the Apostle Paul would never have gotten depressed. Okay, please read your Bible a little bit more Do you know there's a point where he said I think it was in Corinthians where he said we got to a point our ministry team got to a point where it says we despaired of life Look, if some other Christian comes up to you and says, boy, I'm just despairing of life right now. I hope you don't say to him, you're not depressed. I hope you don't say that. Don't do that. That's someone that needs some serious encouragement. Do you know Paul may have been struggling with depression and it may have stuck with him a long time. You know, I wonder if Paul would have thought, Lord, you know this depression I have that just comes on me at certain times, this is really annoying. This just gets me down and it just pulls me apart and imagine how much more I could serve you God if this wasn't here but so so this thorn was obviously it says it was in his flesh but notice also what the verse says in verse number seven then he says he describes his thorn in the flesh as look at verse seven he describes it as the messenger of satan So the messenger of Satan is basically it's a rephrasing of the thorn in the flesh and he says so this is so the thorn in the flesh he says it's a messenger of Satan which is which throws in something else of what this thorn in the flesh could be. The word messenger, as you track it throughout the Bible, it's a word that's angelos. It's often translated as angel. It's also often translated as a messenger. If you were here, I think it was in Sunday school, we talked about the church at Ephesus, and it talks about to the angel, the church of Ephesus, which was referring to the pastor. So this word messenger, as you track it through the New Testament, it always refers to a person. You know, the thorn in the flesh could have been a person. You say, really? A person annoyed him? Oh, sure. This could have been the Judaizers, false teachers who fought against him tooth and nail. This could be referring to maybe Hymenaeus and Philetus. It could be referring to Alexander the coppersmith in 2 Timothy chapter number four. In 2 Timothy four, as Paul writes to Timothy, he just talks, he mentions, Alexander the coppersmith who did me much harm. You know, I read a verse like that and I think, Paul, you want to take like three and a half more verses and just kind of tell us what Alexander did? What was so bad about Mr. Alex? You know, what did he do? But he doesn't. He doesn't tell us a thing. You know, probably Timothy knew exactly what Paul was talking about. Probably Alexander the coppersmith had done things while they were on a ministry team together, and so maybe it was a person. Hey, listen, I'll tell you something else it might have been. The fact that he says it's an angolos, folks, it is very possible that the thorn in the flesh that was kept after him and annoying him could very much have been demonic oppression. I didn't say demonic possession. I said demonic oppression. You say, oh, well, that doesn't really happen with believers. Okay, you need to get with one of your missionaries and go somewhere overseas and you'll believe it. Because if you get with one of your missionaries that you support and go to some of these places where the word of God is not prominent, where some places where the word of God hasn't even been translated into their language, there is demonic oppression everywhere. And one of the greatest ways, listen, if you ever see your missionary ask for prayer because there is demonic activity or oppression, take them seriously and pray. Because it gets bad in some places in a way we don't see here in the United States. Maybe it was demonic oppression. Here's something, we don't know what the thorn in the flesh was. We got a big list now. It could have been a physical ailment. It could have been an incessant temptation. It could have been persecution. It could have been depression. It could have been a person. It could have been a demon. I mean, it could have been a whole bunch of different things. But whatever it was, notice verse seven, he says, this messenger of Satan was sent to buffet me. You know what the word buffet means? It means to pummel something, to beat it. You know, nowadays there's a popular, technically it's a sport, but there's a sport that, you know, A sport that's been very popular for a long time is classic boxing. But I'll tell you what, nowadays there's a different kind of sport called MMA that's out there, where they're not in a ring, they're almost more in a cage, and these two guys go at it. But it's not like regular boxing, where in regular boxing, you knock a guy down, he goes down, he's got a certain amount of seconds to stand back up and decide if he wants to keep on this fight. He's got a moment to recover. But in this mixed martial arts kind of fighting that they do now in these cages, when they go at it, there's no mercy. About the only thing they're not allowed to do is a groin shot. But beyond that, I mean, you'll see kicks flying, you'll see punches coming, you'll see all kinds of things. Grappling on the ground, wrestling on the ground, they do all kinds of things. One of the things that'll happen often If you watch this, you got these two fighters, and you have a, not that I watch it a lot, but I've, you know, you flip through channels, it's sometimes on TV. And you have these two fighters, and there's a referee in the ring. Sometimes what'll happen is one of those fighters is able to get a knockout swing. He gets the swing in, maybe it's his fist, and sometimes it's his foot or his elbow, and he gets that swing in, and that hit comes, and you can see it on the camera that all of a sudden, the guy he hits just kind of flops and falls back and falls to the ground. In normal boxing, you leave the guy alone and see if he gets back up. But in this kind of a sport, what happens is two things happen really fast. As soon as this guy goes down, two things happen. One, the fighter who just knocked him down will jump on top of him and begin to pummel him as fast as he can. Another thing will happen at the exact same time is the referee is going to come diving. Sometimes they will actually dive in between the two of them and put their chest, basically covering up and protecting the head of the guy who just got knocked out, and push the other fighter back, basically saying, you won, stop, you won, stop. And then the other fighter, he gets up and he jumps up and down. Listen, trust me, they're getting paid a lot of money. Okay, so if you're like, oh, that just sounds awful. They're getting paid for it. They know what they're getting into. But so here we go, folks. You say, why would you tell us that? Real simple. The word buffet means to jump on top of and pummel with all your might. He says this thorn in the flesh, this thing that kept me from serving God the way I wanted to, he says it is all over me and it is pummeling me with no mercy. He says, and it was given to me again, he says, lest I should be exalted above measure so that I should not become proud. So what does he do? Paul does something very wise. He goes to prayer. And in verse number eight, what does the Bible say? Verse 8, it says, for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. So three times, probably not like three days, but probably for three seasons. Paul took a season of time and prayed to God and said, Lord, please, this thing away you know Lord if you would take away this physical ailment I could serve you better Lord if you would take away this desire for sin that I have Lord I would serve you better Lord if you would take away this person Lord if you would give me if you would not let me ever get oppressed by a demon Lord if you would just if you would keep me from this awful depression I keep getting into Lord I could serve you so much better he prayed about this and I'll tell you one thing I don't think his praying was sinful I don't And can we be encouraged with this? Because you may have had a similar thing where you have seasons of prayer where you say, Lord, this is more than I can take. This thorn, this annoyance you've allowed in my flesh, this is more than I can handle. And take courage from this, is that his prayer request was heard and it was answered. Sometimes we get this idea that God don't listen. Yes, he does. He listens and he answers. Now the answers we're about to see, the answer was a no. God answered his request to take away the thorn. God answered it with a no. Okay, now, by the way, be encouraged. You know, God even tells Paul no when he prays sometimes. I don't know, sometimes it feels like it's just me that God says no to. But even sometimes with the Apostle Paul, God told him no sometimes. And so again, he says, I don't want you to think I'm some super Christian. God tells me no as well sometimes. And so what happens here is God says, okay, here's what's gonna happen. You know, Paul says, I can't survive with this thorn. So God says, here's, and Paul, let me say this, Paul wanted his circumstances changed. But you know what God said? God said, I'd rather, instead of changing your circumstances, God said, I'd rather change you. I don't know about you, but I would much rather have God change circumstances than change me. Because changing me sounds like a lot of work, and it sounds like stress. But if God could just magically change the circumstances, that sounds a whole lot better. But God doesn't always do that. In fact, usually he'd rather change you and me. What he does is God takes the situation with this thorn and he does not take away the thorn, but rather he enters two ingredients. that will help Paul not survive the thorn but thrive with a thorn. Ready for this? So tonight my message is entitled thriving with a thorn and believe it or not you have just listened to an obnoxiously long introduction to an extremely short sermon. How do you thrive with a thorn? Real simple. Number one, realize God's resources. Do you know that God has resources? He says, Paul, you're going to need these. you're no different from paul you're going to need the exact same resources if you want to instead of trying to survive the christian life of the thorn if you want to thrive while having a thorn what are the resources verse 9 god said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee So he says, the first thing you're going to need is my grace. What is God's grace? His grace is, for one thing, it's God's divine favor that saves us from our sins. That's a wonderful thing. It's that salvation is by grace. It is not by our works. It is not by what we can earn. Salvation is not by what we can do. You will never gain eternal life by doing a bunch of good things. Never gain eternal life by accomplishing certain tasks. No, eternal life is a gift from God. It's a gift of grace. But God's grace is not just an undeserved favor that saves us from sin, but God's grace, listen, it is also a force that sustains us throughout our lives. And he says, my grace is sufficient. That means it is adequate. And he says, it is adequate, notice, for thee, for you. In other words, God has, can we put it this way, He has tailor-made grace for you and your specific situation because your thorn is not the same as the next person's. it looks a little bit different and God says I know the difference and he says I have grace for your specific thorn that is that is pulling you down that is dragging you down that is distracting you from being able to serve God that is discouraging you in your heart God says I have grace for you but you know sometimes good intention we get so excited about the grace we miss the fact that God says there's another ingredient I want to give you here's the other resource he says my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness so he says not only can you have my grace he says you can also have my strength He says, you know what you need to thrive in your Christian life in spite of the fact that you have a thorn, be it a physical problem, be it a spiritual problem, be it a person, be it demonic oppression, whatever it might be. He says, if you're going to thrive, not merely survive, but thrive in your Christian life with this thorn, he says, you're gonna need, listen, not your supercharged strength. You're not gonna need your strength plus a little bit of God's strength. No, God says you need my strength. He says you're going to need my power. And if you try to go at this thorn with your power, well clearly it's not been working. That's why we come to God in prayer, is because we have hopefully finally figured out, as he says in verse number nine, my strength is made perfect in weakness. So he says, my strength can become perfect. The word perfect, it's a Greek word that means to complete, or to finish something. And so he says, my grace, my strength can complete the goal, can complete the mission of riding you above this thorn, helping you thrive with this thorn, when you finally accept Accept that you are weak. Okay, you might say, sure, I think I'm weak. I recognize that. Okay, listen, when we say the word weak, usually what we mean, like if we said, brother so and so, he couldn't make it to the service tonight because, well, he's just real weak right now. Where's that? Well, he's at home, but he's just real weak. He's not able to come to a service Okay, if we said brother so-and-so is really weak right now. What do we mean? We mean he's got a little bit of strength if you left him at home to come here to the service that probably means you know, he has enough strength to at least probably maybe get up and go to the bathroom and Probably enough strength to at least go get himself a drink of water if he needs that. But beyond that, he may not have a whole lot of strength. But he's got at least a little bit. I mean, if you can get up and go to the bathroom, you at least have some amount of strength. Do you know that the word weak here, the word weakness, the Greek word there, you ready for this? It's actually the word for strength, but it has an A in front of it. Greek technically it's an alpha. So just kind of think of the word strength with an A in front of it. Now when I was in elementary school we had to learn these, we had to have this class called vocab class. We had to learn about prefixes and suffixes. How many of you remember that? Prefixes, suffixes, wasn't that scarring? And so you had to learn that. Well, guess what? If you learned about prefixes and suffixes, and you asked yourself then, when is this ever gonna be worth anything in my life? Today's the day you made it, okay? So why is this important? Because for this word for weakness, it's the word strength, and the prefix, here we go, the prefix is this alpha, it's this A. And what does it do? That letter A, we could say this, it negates the word after it. So it'd be kind of like, it's like it turns the word into the opposite. It'd almost be like, take this, okay? Have you ever heard of a theist? T-H-E-I-S-T. Do you know what a theist is? What's a theist? A theist is someone who believes in God. that there's a God out there. How many of you believe in God? Anyone believe that there's a God out there? Raise your hand quick, yeah, good, good for you. Okay, so that would make you a theist. You say, Matt, I am a born-again believer, I'm a Christian. Yes, I get it, but you are also a theist, okay? That simply means you believe in God. Hey, what if you put an A in front of the word theist? What word do you have? Atheist, what does an atheist believe? They don't believe in God. You know, and so what does that A do? It basically turns that word into the opposite of what it is. Okay, so here's what we have. We have the word strength with an A in front of it, and here's what God is saying. He says, you wanna know when my grace and strength are gonna kick in? When you finally accept that you have no strength. So long as you think that you have a little bit of strength and all you need is Jesus to just kind of provide a little bit of a kick that you need to kind of boost you the rest of the way through. So long as you think that way, God says, no grace and no strength. You've got to accept that you have no strength. So you want to thrive with a thorn, you've got to realize God's resources, and two, you've got to accept your own inadequacy, that God's strength will only come upon you when you finally accept the fact that you have no strength. Listen, our culture, our world that's around us, our world loves to tell us what? Oh, you're strong. You're a strong person. I remember one time, I was riding in a car, my mom was driving, I'm up here, teenagers in the back, three teenagers in the back, coming back from a teen event. One of the teenagers telling my mom about her mom, and her mom was going through a bunch of awful things, hard things, rough things, and teenager tells my mom about how, yeah, it's been really hard, and of course, teenager's mom is, you know, she's a Christian, and so teenager tells my mom, oh, she's going through, my mom's going through all these hard things, It's okay, you know, she's a strong woman. My mom immediately said, no, she's not. She has learned to trust God. I tell you, especially, it's the women often that are the most lied to by our culture that say, you're a woman, you're a strong woman. You be a strong woman because you are a strong woman. Hey, guess what? None of us is strong. Listen, you wanna get out of survival mode with a thorn and actually thrive with a thorn? It's gonna have to start when you finally kick all that, those false ideas to the side and accept the fact that you have no strength. Because God says, when you will finally accept your weakness, he says, then my strength can perfect you. My strength can complete itself when you finally accept that you have no strength. That's why at the end of verse 9 he says, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities. By the way, the word infirmities, same Greek word for weakness. It's a word that means I have no strength. Why does he say he gets excited about the fact that he has no strength? Why? So that the power of Christ may rest upon me. God's power doesn't just happen to every Christian. It happens to those who accept they have no strength. So when are you going to get over the fact that you don't have a bunch of strength and a bunch of power. Do you ever get tired of these thorns of the flesh? Don't you want God's strength? Don't you want His strength? Don't you want His power? As you try to serve the Lord in order to thrive in the midst of a physical ailment? Don't you want His power as you seek to thrive in the midst of satanic attack? Don't you want God's power to thrive when people are verbally assaulting you? Don't you want God's power to thrive as you have this bout with depression? Don't you want God's power to help you thrive as you're being persecuted and pressured by family members to do wrong things? Don't you want to thrive when you're in the face of severe temptation? Don't you want to thrive instead of just kind of suffer and survive through it? God says, then you've got to accept that you're weak, and not just weak the way we define it, but the way God defines it. We've got to accept, I have no strength, and God has a whole lot of it. And you know what? When we finally accept that, and then we start asking God for his strength, you know what he'll do? He gives it. Can I tell you something about God's grace? God's grace is given. any time we ask for it. Hebrews 4.16 says, let us therefore come to the throne of what? Grace. Why? To obtain mercy and find what? grace to help in our time of need. How often is the throne of grace open? It is open 24-7. It's open as often as you want to ask for it. He says you can have grace. You can have my strength as often as you will ask for it. So what's your response going to be? Now you could, for the thorns that God's allowed into your life, you could become bitter. and blame God for robbing you of freedom and pleasure. You could give up and fail to get any blessing out of the experience. Or you could be like a lot of people who grit their teeth and they determine, bless God, I am going to endure to the end. Those are the cranky Christians. Those are the cranky Christians that are usually in most churches. And they're the ones who are like, hey, look. I'm going to endure to the end, even if it hurts." And he's just like, wow, that's an awful way to walk the Christian walk. Why is it awful? Because they're doing it in their own strength. And it's going to stink and it's going to be awful for as long as the self-dependence continues. Kind of sounds like the pride thing we talked about last night. We're often too arrogant to admit we need God. And he says, hey, you just accept the fact that you have no strength. Ask me for my power. And here's what he says. I'll give you grace. I'll give you strength. So the right response is. accept or admit your absence of any strength to deal with the thorn and ask God for the grace and the power to overcome. In verse 10 Paul says, therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities. You know and in verse number nine he talks about most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities. In other words you know a lot of Christians will say well you know what When God delivers me from the thorn in the flesh, boy, I'm just gonna, I promise you, I'm gonna shout and I'm gonna give God the glory. You know, that's real easy to say. That's real easy. Real easy for everyone to say, when God delivers me, then I'll praise Him. It's another thing to say, I'll praise Him now while I still have a thorn. Because knowing His grace and knowing His strength, I can ride above this, I can thrive, even with the thorn that God has allowed into my life. So he says, verse 10, therefore I take pleasure. It doesn't mean he found them to be fun, it means to be content. He says, I learned to be content in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 1 Corinthians 1 27 Paul says 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 the things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. Let me close by giving you this brief story and we'll be done. When I was in elementary school, I had to do a, we were living in Western PA and so we had to do, it was called My State Notebook. I don't know if you ever had to do something like that. You had to look up stuff about your state and you had to find out all these kinds of things. You might cut some pictures out of magazines, almost like making a scrapbook. You had to put records down in there. I didn't even realize that Pennsylvania had a state song. Did you know that? Pennsylvania has a state song. It looked really dumb, but I wrote it down. It looked like a really dumb song, but I wrote it down. We had a state song. We have a state tree. We had a state bird, and a bunch of state things, a state flag, all those kinds of things. I'm sure Ohio does as well. Do you know one of the things they also had? We had a state flower, and a state flower And so, you know, this was a common thing. Most of our states in the United States have some kind of a state, you know, state bird, state, you know, flower, state flag, all those kinds of things. Do you know, and so let's jump the ocean, and let's go over to Scotland. Did you know that over in Scotland, they have, it wouldn't be state, it would be national, but did you know that they have a national flower for Scotland? A lot of countries have a national flower. You know what Scotland's national flower is? Ready for this? Does anyone know? I heard it, yep. The Thistle! Now, if you were here two nights ago, you know I'm not a big flower guy. I'm not big on flowers, but nothing else I know. I think that's a dumb choice for a flower. Like, you know, what in the world is that? Why would you pick a thistle? All right, let me give you a brief story. Some of this is history, and some of it is legend. They kind of got mixed together, so just kind of take it with a grain of salt. Some history and some legend kind of got mixed together. But this is the story. Why does Scotland have a thistle? for their state flower. Here it is. According to the story, the nation of Scotland was being invaded. If I'm not mistaken it was by the English. I think it was by the English. And they were coming. They were going to make an invasion at night. So of course remember this is back a long time ago. Walmart shedding light on the clouds, okay? And so when it's dark, it's dark, okay? And so it's real dark, and so they're planning this invasion, and the Scots, of course, they're in bed, and so the English said, hey, listen, for this invasion, here's how the story went. According to the story, the officer said, take your shoes off, boys. We don't want the Scots to know we're coming. So the boats land on the shore and the English get out with their shoes off and begin to quickly make their way up the hillside to begin their invasion of Scotland. And as they moved up the hillside, according to the story, the English came into contact with Scotland's national flower. Because apparently it was all over that hillside. And they started stepping on it. And then, of course, you get noises. Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! And so all of a sudden, there's all these noises. And according to the story, they made enough noise, the Scots woke up, and of course, two arms! And they grabbed their weapons, and they come meet the English in the middle of the night, drive them back into their ships and back into the sea. That's at least the way the story goes. So whatever way you want to look at it, it's fine. But here's the point I'm trying to give you. You know, if that really is how the story went down, isn't it amazing? God has, there was a reason why God allowed thorns to be all over Scotland's coast. You know, you never think about it. You might think, wow, what an awful kind of lawn to have. What's that grass, you know? Why do we have to have thorns? You know, here's just a little thing. There's always a reason for the thorn. God allowed thorns even on that hillside to protect them from an invasion one night. You know, God has a reason for the thorns he allows in your life too. For one thing, like Paul, it might be to keep you from bragging or becoming arrogant or proud. But you know what it might also be? It might also just simply be God's allowing a thorn into your life to get you to realize you have got to cut out the self-dependence. And we have got to become a God-dependent people. or else we may not make it through these thorns that God has given us. We need God's strength, we need his power. Listen, if you've been self-dependent for a long time, hey, tonight's a good night to ask God's forgiveness and to ask him to give you strength and grace for the days ahead with that thorn. So let's bow our heads, let's close our eyes. And folks, I hope that you will, just simply tonight, as I said, you'll just simply ask God for the strength, the power that you need to not just survive, but to thrive with a thorn. Quick question here tonight. Is there anyone sitting in this room and you would say, hey Matt, now hang on, When you talked about grace, you said there's, you know, grace that saves us and gives us eternal life. Maybe, is there anyone here, and you would say, Matt, if I was to die tonight, I just simply am not sure that my sins are forgiven. I am not sure that I'm on my way to heaven, and I'm concerned about that tonight. If that's you, Would you raise your hand? No one's looking around but me. Is there anyone like that here tonight? You would say, Matt, if I was to die tonight, I'm not sure my sins are forgiven, I'm not sure I'm on my way to heaven, and I'm concerned about that tonight. If that's you, would you raise your hand? Anyone like that? Anyone like that? Okay, then let's go to prayer, people. If you need to come on down to the front, then you come on. If you want to pray right there in your seat, you go ahead, but please, as the music plays, please obey the Lord. Obey the Lord. Do you need to get right with Him about, about all the self-dependence? Okay. And do that, and ask God for His grace. Ask God for His strength. Go to prayer right now. Ask Him for it. He won't always take the thorn away. What He'll do is He'll give grace and strength to help you rise above it, so long as you're willing to accept that you have no strength. I'm going to go quiet. You talk with the Lord, okay? you