Well, if I have any regret, it's that this has to end. Tonya and I have had such a great time. And you have been so gracious in hosting us. We have felt at home and encouraged greatly. such a blessing to be somewhere where you just see Jesus loved and exalted and his people just seeking him and listening to the word. So you have refreshed our spirits It's been a delight to us to be with you and I just wanna say thank you. Thanks for your confidence in me and inviting me and showing up. I'm sorry you don't have anything better to do on a Monday night than come listen to me. By the way, it was not lost on me when they said, hey, we're gonna have church on Sunday and somebody's gonna preach the word. And they were all like, yes, we'll hear a good preacher again. But I'm glad that you'll hear the preaching that you are accustomed to, and that is solid, biblical, Christ-centered preaching. You are blessed indeed. Well, I'd love to share with you tonight from 2 Corinthians chapter 12. This is the climax of the book. I believe that every Every discourse has a peak and frankly this is the point to which Paul is driving his entire argument. He has begun all the way back in chapter one basically saying, how are you listening to these guys? You've departed from what you've been taught. He lays out for them the case for a gospel that includes weakness at the very heart of our gospel is a crucified savior. If you have a problem with weakness, ultimately you're gonna have a problem with Jesus himself because he humbled himself. And for our sakes, he was made weak And Paul is laying this case out. He goes through chapters eight and nine where he changes the subject entirely. He talks about taking up collection for the saints. And then in chapters 10 and 11, he begins to just say, okay, let's compare. I hate that you've drawn me to this, but you wanna compare resumes, let's compare resumes. And he sort of puts them up on the table and compares himself to them. And then he comes to sort of the peroration of his argument, the very pinnacle of it. All right, here's the coup de grace, here's the thing that distinguishes me from these guys. And I want you to read with me beginning with verse one of chapter 12. I must go on boasting. In other words, that's what you want me to do? You want me to compare myself to them? Okay, I'm doing that, I must go on boasting. Though there's nothing to be gained by it, I'll go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man, I will boast. But on my own behalf, I will not boast, except of my weakness. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me. to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then, I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. In her book, Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom tells the story about being, she and her, she was touring the Soviet Union in those days before, when it still was the Soviet Union, and I think she was in a major city there in the Soviet Union, and she was taken to the home of this elderly couple. that was part of the underground church there. And she describes, as she's talking about the persecution that they face, she describes a scene as she was ushered into their little apartment. The old woman was lying on a small sofa propped up by pillows. Her body was bent and twisted almost beyond recognition by the dread disease of multiple sclerosis. Her aged husband spent all his time caring for her since she was unable to move off the sofa. The only part of her body she could control was her right hand. With the index finger of that hand, she had for years glorified God by typing on a vintage typewriter beside her. Her husband would prop her into a sitting position with pillows around her so she wouldn't topple over as she typed. And all day long and into the night, she'd type, translating Christian books into Russian, always using just that one finger. She typed out the pages, portions of the Bible, books of Billy Graham, even of Corrie ten Boom. And her husband said, not only does she translate their books, as he hovered close by during their conversation. But she prays for these people every day while she types. Sometimes it takes a long time for her finger to hit the key or to get the paper in the machine. But all the time she's praying for those whose books she's working on. Corrie Ten Boom describes her own anguish. She says, I looked at her wasted form on the sofa, her head pulled down, her feet curled back under her body. Oh Lord, I thought to myself, why don't you heal her? Her husband, sensing my anguish of soul, gave the answer. God has a purpose in her sickness. Every other Christian in the city is watched by the secret police. But because she's been sick so long no one ever looks in on us. They leave us alone and she's the only person in all the city who can type quietly undetected by the police. One day not long after she went back to her home Corey received a letter from the husband telling her that early in the morning hours The previous week she had left to be with the Lord, but he said she had worked up until midnight that same night typing with one finger through the glory of God. Who would have thought that such a terrible disease would be a gift from God? Has it ever occurred to you that God uses our weaknesses far more than our strengths. I mean, if dependence on Christ is the greatest need of the believer, then anything that forces us to acknowledge and live in that dependence on him is a good thing. This is exactly what Paul is saying. He's saying that every believer ought to glory in our weakness, not our strengths, not our talents, not our gifts, not the stuff by default we think we're good at. Because Christ is not revealed in that stuff. He's revealed in my weakness. I think he gives us, I think you can categorize what Paul is saying into three basic reasons why we ought to glory in our weakness. The very first one, simple enough, I glory in my weakness to distinguish myself from the world. Paul is making this very direct comparison between him and these false teachers. They glory in their strengths. They call attention to them. They want everybody to know that they're better than Paul at speaking. They might be more educated, more accomplished. They're easier to look at. Everything about them is superior on the outside. But Paul says yeah that's the way the world thinks. I mean let's just be honest. So many churches today go with this philosophy. You know man if oh I'm all for don't mistake. I believe in sound systems and lighting and all that. But you know the minute you start thinking that's where the power lies. Oh no. If we only had a fog machine the Holy Spirit would really be active then. That's what we need. And we start thinking how we can program the power of God. Boy, the world loves a show. And there are just way too many Christians and churches out there willing to give the show. But Paul is clearly saying, no, I'm different than that. I'm not going along with the technique of the world. that the very thing that distinguishes me from them is that is not where the power lies. I'm distinguishing myself from the world. But not only that, Paul says we need to glory in our weaknesses to distance ourself from our strengths. It's not just about what we project to others, it's about our own dependence on that. And this is where I think there's such a master stroke in Paul's argument here. Just go back, let me just sort of walk you through chapters 10 and 11, because I want you to see how Paul gets here to this argument. You know, when he gets through with talking about taking up the collection, by the way, some people say he put that discussion about the collection in the middle of the book because if he had waited until the end, they'd be too mad to take up the offering. Because he really, he hits them hard. But here's how he does it. In verse one, Listen to the subtlety with which he says this, I, Paul, myself. That threefold reference, I, Paul, myself, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. We forget sometimes that Jesus gave us the value of meekness. We live in a world and an age where meekness isn't highly prized by Christians. I'm confident Jesus has a problem with that because he is meek and lowly. He's gentle. Meekness is not weakness, it's power under control. And Paul's reminding them that, that this is a very characteristic of Jesus. that he is appealing to them by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. And now look how he says this. Here's the first little drop of sarcasm. I, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I'm away. There's their charge against him. Oh man, you know, he, he can still write a really nice letter, but you know, those letters are bold, but his presence is, is really not much. And so here Paul acknowledges that. He says, I beg of you when I'm present that I might not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count upon showing to some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. The very fact that they're trying to draw him into this comparison, he says they're walking according to the flesh. And on up in verse eight, he's listening to this. I don't want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. Again, hear the sarcasm. Oh, am I scaring you with my bold letters? Is this too much for you? For they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, his speech of no account. Well, let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent We do in present. He's like, hey, I'm the same guy and I'm coming to you. And so he says in chapter 11, okay, I don't want to do this, but you want to compare me with him, let's do it. Let's lay the resumes on the table and let's just compare them with me. He says, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Oh, do bear with me. Because I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ because If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Now look, I consider I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles. He actually coins a word there. I'm not second, I'm not second class to these guys. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, well, I'm not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way, we've made this plain to you in all things. Look on down to verse 12. What I'm doing, I'll continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission, they work on the same terms as we do. He's like, They're trying to convince you that they're on equal footing with me, and they're not. This is not about our speaking ability. This is about the gospel. He said, such men are false apostles. Oh, he's progressed the attack. They're not just super apostles, which was ironic. Now the gloves are off. They're false apostles. And no wonder. He said, such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, that's what Satan does. Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it's really no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Well, their end will correspond to their deeds. Now, I repeat, let me say this again. Let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, okay, accept me as a fool so that I too may boast a little, okay? Let's just go there. If you're forcing me to be an idiot and compare myself to those guys, let's do it. Bear with me as a fool. What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as Jesus would, I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, All right, I'm gonna do it. I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. I must say we were too weak for that. Wow. I mean, Paul's going, oh yeah, I mean, you guys put up with spiritual abuse and ask for more. You're right, I'm too weak to do that. I'm too weak to treat people like that. But you, if someone puts on airs or acts like they're a big shot or strikes you in the face, you put up with it. I admit, I'm too weak for that. I can't do that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, okay, I'm speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. Let's compare. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I am talking like a madman. greater labors, far more imprisonments, countless Five times I received at the hands of the Jews 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys. Danger from rivers, from robbers, from my own people, from Gentiles in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, from false brothers in toil and hardship through many sleepless night. in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from all the other things. There's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. I mean, who is weak and I'm not weak? Who's made to fall and I'm not indignant? Wow. Paul is saying, what has it cost them? What has it cost them? You know why they look so slick? Because their bodies aren't broken. They've not endured the suffering I've had to endure to bring you the gospel. Can you imagine what Paul looked like? I mean I can't even imagine. Stoned at Lystra and left for dead. Can you imagine what a human head looks like after it's been stoned? And the next day he gets up and walks. You might have noticed me limping around. I have ankle problems. And Tony and I recently went to the doctor. And he did an x-ray of my ankle. And he said, oh, I'm sorry. I don't have much good news for you. Well, thank you. That's good. And he said, well, I mean, there's no cartilage in there. It's just bone on bone. And then he said, at some point, you fractured that. And you didn't get that set, and it's a mess, and it's turning the way it's not supposed to turn. That's just my ankle. I want you to think about Paul's whole body broken like that. Bones broken and unset, his back bearing the scars. Those Roman lictors, they knew exactly how to apply enough pressure to just lacerate the back without killing the person they were whipping and you know one time I was in Nigeria and I was being taken through this Muslim city and I was spotted by a bunch of Muslim youth and we were sitting in a traffic jam and man they started coming for me and my driver saw him coming and he knew what they were up to and he we got to get out of here. He literally went over a concrete median and started going the wrong direction in traffic to get me out of there. Now many times I've thought what if they caught me and they'd beaten me. I'd have my sermon illustration for life. People would say hey come tell us about the time you were beaten by the Muslims. Oh you don't want to hear that. You know what. That was Paul on a good day before breakfast. I mean I just can't even imagine this kind of suffering in your life. And can you can you appreciate why he's so blown away that they're enamored with these guys. Like seriously. You think they give a better speech than I do. That's the thing that you're looking at. And here he says OK you want to compare. Let's compare. And he says I can match them point for point and then some. I'm feeling like a fool for even indulging you in this exercise. This is me. The Lord wouldn't the Lord wouldn't talk like this. The Lord wouldn't engage in this kind of comparison. I'm doing this like a madman. But then he says OK there's one more thing. Let's go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. And this is where chapter 12 comes. And we go, ooh. Here's something they can't match him in. Paul goes into this weird third person language. I know a man in Christ 14 years ago, whether in the body, out of the body, I don't know. God knows. And this guy was caught up to the third heaven. Now there's a lot of conjecture about what the third heaven is. I'll tell you, I take the simplest approach. I think it's sort of the reckoning is the sky is the first heaven, the visible heavens is the second heaven, and the abode of God is the third heaven. But whatever it means, he equates it to paradise. He says, this guy was caught up to paradise, the abode of God. And he saw things. Well now look, if somebody you trusted, someone that you trusted their walk with God and they tell you, look, I don't know how to tell you this, but I was caught up to heaven. I saw heaven. Let's imagine you trusted them. What's the question you would ask? What did it look like? I like that, you know, immediately you're going, what was it like? Paul goes, can't talk about it. Not lawful for a man to utter this. What? He goes, that's not what I want to talk to you about. He said, you know, I wouldn't boast of this weak guy you're criticizing, but I'd boast of that guy, that guy that gets caught up to the third heaven. I could brag on that guy. So to make sure that didn't happen, to keep me from being conceited, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh. Something that pierced, something that hurt. Don't know what that thorn in the flesh was. Again, a lot of conjecture. It doesn't matter. If we needed to know, we'd know, wouldn't we? Whatever it was, I know this, he didn't want it. He thought it interfered with his ability to minister and travel and serve the Lord, so much so that he pleaded with the Lord. I don't think it was a selfish prayer at all. I think he was like, Lord, please take this away. It's getting in the way of my ministry. I can serve you so much more effectively if you'll just take this thing away. Because I want to use my life for you. I want to serve you. So this is inconvenient. It's interfering with my service to you. So if you would just get rid of this. And he pleads with the Lord three times. And what does the Lord say? He says, I love the way Paul puts it. I don't know why the ESV doesn't translate it this way. Most translations don't, but it's in Greek, it's a perfect tense. It's not an heiress tense. It's not, it doesn't say, but he said to me, it literally says, he has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. Now what's the difference? A perfect tense, something that happened in the past, but it has a continuing effect. Have you eaten? Well, if you're not hungry, because you've eaten recently enough that you still feel full, you go, yeah, I have eaten. But if it's been a while. And I say, have you eaten? And you're hungry. You go, you know, you're not saying have, I'm not asking have you ever. I'm saying, is there an effect? Do you still feel full? Have you eaten? No, I haven't eaten. I need to eat. And so he's saying, God said, and he continues to say, it's still true. My grace is sufficient for you because my strength is perfected in your weakness. Now when Paul got this, this changed his attitude toward the thorn. When he saw that this was God's design, that God gave him this, that it had a purpose and that purpose was to keep him from depending on himself or glorying or boasting on himself and that's when he said okay most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Now I want you to see the pattern here. God gives this incredible revelation to Paul and this this kind of special Insight, well, it leads to elevation. Hey, look at me. I know stuff other people don't know. I've had experience with God other Christians haven't had. I feel pretty good about myself. So God sends humiliation. And then that is what brings sanctification. It wasn't the third heaven. It was the thorn. It wasn't the thing that he in his flesh would boast about. It was the thing he asked God to take away. God has to interfere with our direction. He has to give us a reminder because he wants to move us from mere relationship to true intimacy. He wants us to trust him so much that we don't question him when the thorn pierces. I'll just tell you sort of a little bit about myself. I'm just so blessed. Grew up in an incredible home. I grew up, I trusted the Lord when I was seven years old. My dad, amazing teacher, taught me the word of God when I was little. When I was eight, for two years, we worked through Strong's Theology. When I was 10, for two years, we worked through Burkoff. I had an incredible education. My freshman year at Michigan State University, I took three Ph.D. seminars. I was in the honors college. All requirements for graduation waived except total number of hours. I could take anything in the university I wanted. And I loaded up with all these, I was an English major, and I loaded up with all this highly advanced stuff. When I was 20, I moved to Lexington and took the job at Ashland Avenue, met Tanya and all that. I transferred to the University of Kentucky. They looked at my transcript and they said, hey, you've not had freshman English yet. I was like, you gotta be kidding. And they said, well, you know, it's a rule. Everybody here has to take it. And I was like, do I look like I need to take that? The faculty senate actually voted to excuse me from all those requirements. But then they said, okay, therefore, you're a junior and you've already fulfilled all your requirements for an English degree, so we'll do the same deal with you, Michigan State did, we'll let you take anything you want. And that's when I said I've always wanted to learn Greek. and I immersed myself in Greek. And I stretched out those last two years of my undergraduate degree to four, and I took four years of Greek, and then I did a master's in Greek. And then I went to seminary. I would go into the office of Dr. Rick Mellick, who was the chairman of the Greek and New Testament Department at Mid-America Seminary in Memphis, and I show him my transcript, and he looked at it, and he looked up at me, he said, you realize you've had more Greek than any professor here? I went, yeah. I don't know. And when we left Lexington, Kentucky and moved down to Memphis area, people said, boy, you're going to find a church. You'll be able to pastor while you're in seminary. And they'll be lucky to have you. And I believed them. And the Lord had different things. He had a different plan. We went down there with two kids and $3,000. And I couldn't find a job. I mean, I couldn't find a job. We had made a commitment, Tanya's gonna stay home with the boys, and I was gonna work and go to school. And she got offered a job like every other day. We go to church, five people to offer a job. And like, well, you know, we made a commitment. She's going to stay home with the boys. But I mean, I couldn't find a job. I was praying, Lord, please let me pastor a church. And you know, there were 400 other guys at that seminary looking for the same church I was looking for. And nobody knew me. Nobody knew me down there. So I changed my prayers. OK, Lord, I don't have to be the lead guy. I'll be an associate pastor. And nobody was calling. And I thought, OK, Lord, if I have to be a youth pastor again, I'll do it. I mean, I'll suffer for Jesus' sake. And nobody was knocking on my door. No one was calling. And that $3,000 was gone. I mean, like in three months, house payment, car payment, all that. And I mean, I was at my wit's end. And finally, I got a call from the Kirby Woods Baptist Church in Memphis, a large church. And they said, will you come be our janitor? And I said, yes, I will. And for a year, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Kentucky with a master's in Greek cleaned the toilets at Kirby Woods Baptist Church and was grateful. And Tanya and the boys came. Boy, I confess to you, she did a lot more of the cleaning than I did because, yeah. She dropped me off at school and she'd go to the, She'd go there and then I'd catch a ride in the afternoon and come and we did it. We took our boys and they were like three and five and Tony gave them little jobs to do and they had to learn how to clean the nursery. And she told them, you're helping your dad go through school. And after doing that for a year, it was like, I wish I could tell you, oh, I was just this joyful Christian enjoying this. It's not true. I was like Lord why do I have to do this. And the Lord was just over and over saying to my heart until you can clean those toilets for the glory of Jesus you're not ready to shepherd my people. And after doing that for a year the church had a blow up and they laid off the entire staff and I was out of the job again. And this time I said I'm not flunking this test again. You know you can't flunk out with the Lord. You just have to keep taking the test over and over and over. And I didn't want to do that. So I just trusted the Lord. And I'm going to tell you what the Lord did. It was just amazing stuff. But the Lord has a way of just making sure that you don't trust in your flesh. I had a great experience at Mid-America Seminary. What I'm about to say is in no way a criticism of them. They were wonderful. But I learned more cleaning Kirby Woods Baptist Church than I did in any seminary classroom at Mid-America. It changed my life. God's promise is not that you won't suffer, that you won't hurt, or that you won't be weak. It's that His grace is sufficient. You know, when I was a little boy, when we came back from Brazil, my dad took a pastor to the church. We lived at a place called Lick Skillet on Watermelon Road by Whippoorwill Creek in Logan County, Kentucky. People think I'm making that up. That is absolutely true. And there was a little one-lane bridge there over the Whippoorwill Creek by our house and it clanked when people, it was wooden and metal and you know when cars would drive over it one at a time you know it would clank. Finally, the Kentucky Department of Transportation, in its wisdom, decided there needed to be a new bridge, a nice two-lane bridge. And they sent trucks and men and materials to build a bridge across the Whippoorwill Creek. Now, how much material did they send? Did they send as much as you would if you were building the Golden Gate Bridge? No. They sent material and manpower that was sufficient to get across the Whippoorwill Creek. God knows how to supply you with grace that is sufficient to whatever you face. When there's a great need, you'll have great grace. You can trust it. A lot of the people at Buck Run work at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, where they make the Camrys. And so I got to go tour it. I don't know if you've ever been in a car plant, but it's fascinating. You go in, you see these big, like, big rolls of steel. And they tell ya, that's gonna come out on the other end of the car. And you just don't know how that's possible. But sure enough, they heat and mold that, and there's a chassis. Then on the chassis comes a motor. wheels and then comes a body and it's like from overhead here comes this like a blue body on this chassis and this motor and then behind it there'll be like a white body. Now that shocked me. I thought what I thought it was like Tuesday was blue car day Wednesday, I thought you do all the same colors like at a time. No, it's not. It's like all these different colors. And as they go down the line, then here comes the blue body on this chassis. And then from overhead, here comes these doors from opposite side. And they go right on. And there are robots that are putting them on and people that are making sure that it's sealed right. And the doors come on, the hood and the trunk come on. And at the end of that line, a car is driven off of it. And I watched that process in absolute amazement that everything got right where it needed to be at exactly the right time. And it occurred to me that if Toyota can do that with a car, my omnipotent heavenly father could do that with my life. He supplies exactly what I need at the precise instant I need it. And it's always the right thing. There's no misfit experience. I want to point out something in the text here. He says that there was given to me this thorn in the flesh. So here's the question, who gave it to him? It was given to me to keep me from being conceited. Who gave it to him? God gave it to him. But look at the text. There's another phrase. There was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan. Do you get that? The very same thing in your life that can be a gift from God to make you dependent on him can be a messenger of Satan to harass you. Don't waste your time trying to figure out where problems come from. Oh, this is an attack of Satan. Well, it may be and it also at the very same time may be a gift of God. It's both. I mean, that's what the text says. Luther said, don't forget the devil is always God's devil. I mean, the devil's on a, he's a dog on a leash. He can only go so far. And so when you look at your weakness and your suffering, it's easy for us to go, Lord, why? Now there are some Christians who mean well, and they'll say, well, you're not supposed to ask the Lord why. That's not true. You're welcome to ask the Lord why. The Bible is full of people who ask God why. But when you ask him why, I'll tell you what I mean when I say Lord tell me why. What I mean is Lord would you explain this so it makes such perfect sense that it takes the sting out of it for me. It takes the pain away. That's what I mean when I say why. That's not what God does when he answers. Think about who all ask God why. Job. He asked God why. Oh, that there were, I remember the King James, a days man between us, an umpire lay his hand on both of us and bring us together. Lord, I need you to explain to me why this has happened. And you're going to study it, Habakkuk. He asked God why. Lord, I don't understand why you're letting these wicked people get stronger and your people getting weaker. And Paul asked God why. Why are you giving me this? It's making me less effective. And all three of them asked God why and they got pretty much the same answer. We sang it yesterday. Here's God's answer. I'm God, you're not. That's God's answer. He may not explain to us a thousand things about why he deals with us the way he does. But when you get that, man, it changes your attitude to the thing. Job said, I repent, therefore, in sackcloth and ashes. And Habakkuk said, ah, the just shall live by faith. I get it. You know, no matter what fails, I'm going to trust you. And Paul said, most gladly, therefore, while rather glory in my infirmities, because our hope is in God. He's God, we're not. And he has a purpose even in your weakness. It's not the thing that the world looks at and applauds and says, wow, that's impressive. We're just so amazed at your strength. They're gonna discount you the way they did Paul. But Paul says that's okay. Because when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. Isn't that the way of Jesus? Isn't that exactly what the Lord of glory did? There's an essay by a doctor named Richard Selzer. He wrote a book called Mortal Lessons about his experiences as a doctor. And he wrote this. I stand by the bed where a young girl lies, Her face post-operative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. And she will be thus from now on. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh. I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve. Her husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself. He and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily. The young woman speaks. Will my mouth always be like this? Yes, I say. It's because the nerve was cut. She nods into silence. But the young man smiles. I like it, he says. It's kind of cute. All at once I know who he is. I understand and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with God. Unmindful of me. He bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers. To show her that their kiss still works. The Lord Jesus twisted himself into the likeness of sinful flesh to accommodate us to come to where we are in our weakness. He was made weak that we might be strong. He was made poor that we might become rich. And when I realized this is the way of the cross I can trust him who was pierced with Roman nails to pierce my flesh with a thorn. Father, I pray that our trust in you will grow so deeply and fervently that we can look at our weaknesses and not despise them, not merely plead with you to take them away, but to realize that you have a purpose and a plan in those, that they cause us to cast ourselves upon you. And I pray that our weaknesses might simply be used by your Holy Spirit to show in us the power of the Christ whom we serve, that the gospel might be the very purpose of our lives, that we'll glory then in weaknesses, and insults, and hardships, and persecutions. Because when we are weak, that's when we're strong. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.