The reading this evening is taken from 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and I'll begin reading at verse 22. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 22, and I'll read on into chapter 12 as well. So 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 22. Now Paul is writing about some so-called apostles, super apostles, that have come into the church and spreading false doctrine and causing enormous problems for the ministry. And so writing about those in reference to those and in his defense, ultimately in his defense of the gospel actually, Paul writes, 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 am a better one. I am talking like a madman, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes last one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, in danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever knows that I am not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands. I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will 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 weaknesses. 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 of me, 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 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 am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Well, this evening, I'd like to take as my text this evening the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. You may have predicted this, but very well-known words. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength or my power is made perfect in weakness. You know, as Christians, we know that the Lord is always at work in our hearts and lives. And we know that we believe in the sovereignty of God. We prayed about it this evening. And we know that God works all things together for good. And we know that in all situations that God is working out his purposes, in our lives. And God even takes those difficult things in our lives and he allows us sometimes to face these things in order that we might learn to trust him more and to depend upon him more and to to enjoy him more, actually, and to lean upon his strength alone. And sometimes in order to do that in our lives, God permits us, as Christians, to face the ministry of thorns. It's a strange way of ministering, granted, and yet the ministry of thorns has helped countless believers through the years, surprisingly. And the thorns that we face in our lives as Christians can take different shapes and sizes, and their design, though probably not apparent to us immediately, is effectively to bring us to know and to love the Lord Jesus Christ more and more. And as we know, even if we don't like it at the time and don't feel like that's the case, ultimately is to bring us to know Him and to be like Him and ultimately to look forward to being with Him in glory and to rely fully upon His sufficiency. So to help us understand it, then, This evening, let's look at these words of the Apostle Paul. Let's think this evening, focus our minds upon Paul's thorn in the flesh, so that perhaps out of this we might find more usefulness in our own lives, for maybe for some of the things that we have previously considered, or maybe presently consider, to be hindrances in our lives that we might perhaps see them positively as God's means ultimately of bringing blessing into our lives and in our service for him. So what do we learn this evening from Paul's thorn in the flesh? Three things that I want to bring out of the text and first of all number one we notice that the thorn is a source of pain The thorn is a source of pain. You see, for the Apostle Paul, when Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh, he's not talking about something that is a minor inconvenience. He's not talking about something trivial, but he's talking about something that was potentially a massive blow to his ministry. The New Testament word that's used in the Greek for thorn, it's not the kind of thorn that you and I might think of. It's not the kind of thing that you prick your finger on when you're pruning the roses. He's not talking about that kind of a thorn. He's talking about something altogether much more serious. He's talking about a stake, S-T-A-K-E. He's talking about the kind of thing that years ago, maybe in medieval times, that people were impaled upon. We're talking about a stake, something brutal, something pounded through someone's flesh. So there have been all kinds of speculations about all sorts of ideas about what Paul's thorn in the flesh could have been, basically falling into three categories. It could have been, some would say, that Paul's thorn in the flesh was a kind of a spiritual attack, a fierce temptation, a temptation to sin. All of us have what the letter to the Hebrews calls our besetting sins. There are certain what our forefathers called our darling sins, things that we were prone to, things that we have particular weaknesses with. And some have speculated that maybe this thorn in the flesh was a particular temptation of the apostle. It was a spiritual attack. a temptation that the Apostle Paul was beset by, maybe lust or self-pity or greed or something. Others have said, well, it is, after all, a thorn in the flesh. So surely, does this not mean a physical problem? It is a thorn in the flesh. And Paul does tell us in his letters about certain physical afflictions. For example, you know, if you're familiar with your New Testament, you know that when Paul is writing to the Galatians, he refers to some kind of an eye complaint. Remember he writes to the Galatians and he says, I know that if it were possible you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. So maybe Paul is referring to some kind of an eye complaint that potentially that God in his providence used to divert his missionary journey in some way. Some would say, well, maybe it's actually, it's a problem, but not necessarily or not distinctly physical. Maybe depression, maybe some kind of a psychiatric problem, all sorts of ideas. I'm sure that as many ailments that you can think of have probably been suggested for Paul's thorn in the flesh. One commentator, an old commentator, Sir William Ramsey, suggested that maybe the Apostle Paul had some recurrent form of malaria. Others have suggested, because in fact he ministered in areas where malaria would have been prevalent. Others have suggested, wait for it, hysteria, hypochondria, gallstones, gout, rheumatism, sciatica, gastritis, leprosy, lice, deafness, dental infection, remorse. Remorse? Why remorse? Well, because the Apostle Paul persecuted believers, threw them into prison, pursued them to death. Some would say, is he haunted by some kind of remorse? Well, others have said a third kind of possibility is persecution by various opponents, whether it's within or outside of the church. The fact of the matter is that we're not actually given sufficient information to be specific. I don't think any of us can be absolutely dogmatic about what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. But Paul does define them in terms, in verse 10, he describes, he identifies his thorn in the flesh in terms of in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, and he seems to suggest that these are the forms in which the thorn in the flesh commonly assumes. Now, I have to be honest with you, I personally find myself agreeing with Dr. John McArthur. I'm sure that he is greatly encouraged to know that. Dr. John MacArthur, I think in his commentary, quite rightly points out that messenger, the word messenger, a messenger of Satan, he describes this thorn in the flesh as being sent like a messenger of Satan. Well, what is a messenger of Satan? A messenger in Greek is angelos. It's the same word that we get the word angel from. So what is an angel of Satan? Well, it's a demon, isn't it? That's the most obvious, it seems to me, interpretation. It is a demonic attack. So whatever the thorn was, then whether it was a physical ailment, or whether it was persecution, or whether it was an attack by these super apostles, either way it was used as some form of demonic attack upon him, as a messenger of Satan to attack him. So as I've mentioned, in the church in Corinth, there were these if you like super apostles these are the uh... you know the white suited the benny him uh... these are the kind of uh... kenneth copeland super apostles that came into the into the church and he would seek to bring discredit upon paul's ministry maybe the thorn in the uh... in the flesh was an attack upon his ministry they were in other words they were demeaning the apostle paul and his ministry We're told in the scriptures that he didn't look too much. He didn't actually sound too much. Paul says that when I came to you, I came in weakness and trembling. I did not speak with great fluency of speech. But what the Apostle Paul found so difficult is not... Paul is not concerned to defend himself. Paul is not out to justify or to defend himself, but he is concerned to defend his ministry because he has been entrusted with the Gospel. It is through apostolic ministry that we have the Scriptures, the Word of God. Paul is concerned to defend the Gospel that he has been entrusted with. That's his real concern. Paul is concerned that it might bring an end to his useful ministry for the Lord. Apostolic ministry. And that, for the Apostle Paul, is a thought too painful to bear. And so Paul, when he reasons this, Paul thinks to himself, well, there's surely only one answer. If I pray about this, surely God must remove this. Surely this must be within the will of God to remove this thorn. Altogether, for the sake of His glory and for the sake of the ministry, there must be no halfway measure. It must be a complete removal of the problem. I don't know, maybe it's been your experience as well. Maybe there is that one thing in your life, one thing that brings you down again and again. Is there that one issue, that one person maybe? Is there that one problem, maybe one temptation? that plagues you again and again and again. And you think to yourself, how can I possibly glorify God in this situation? How can this conceivably be within the will of God? God must remove this if I pray about this. And so you pray. You pray about it. If only, if only God removes this, I could be so much more useful in God's service if he dealt with this. I wonder if that's how you responded to the thorn in your flesh. Lord, if only things were different. In fact, you're so convinced that you know what the Lord should do that you've been telling him long enough what he should do. In a sense, isn't that at the heart of what Paul is saying here? Wasn't that the problem? Paul tells us three times, I pray, that God would remove the thorn in my flesh. Now, I don't think that Paul prayed about it once, and then a second time, and then a third time, and then quit praying. I think when he says three times, I ask the Lord, I think he's talking about persistence. He's talking about regular, consistent, persistent prayer. I think that's what he's talking about. I think he's saying that he prayed about it again and again and again. And yet the most amazing thing happens, and that is we're told that he tells us by his own admission that it was only when he stopped praying about it that he heard the Lord speak. And the problem is, you see, is that Paul was so busy telling the Lord to remove the problem that it wasn't until he stopped and he listened to what the Lord was actually saying to him that he understood. Sometimes we're so busy telling the Lord what he should be doing. We're so busy telling God to remove the problems that we don't hear what he really is saying to us in the midst of those problems. You see that in verse nine. When Paul stopped telling God what to do about it, he finally says, and this is what the Lord has been saying to me all along. So we don't know how long Paul had been praying for this thorn to be removed. Maybe close on the 14 years since he'd had a remarkable spiritual experience. Maybe he'd been played with a thorn in the flesh for those 14 years since he'd had a remarkable experience of God. So firstly, anyway, the thorn experience, notice it was a source of pain. And it's very hard at such times to see how God can be glorified through our suffering. But notice a second truth that we learn here is this. We see that secondly, the thorn not only is a source of pain, but secondly, the thorn brings a world of comfort, brings a world of comfort in two senses. In one sense, Paul comes to see that the Lord has a purpose in these painful experiences. Verse seven, Paul writes, lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Sometimes God permits thorns to come into our lives. We regard them as a hindrance We think how can God be glorified in this situation? But then we discover in time that God does have a purpose and God did have a purpose in that all the way along Now one Christian writer an American Gordon McDonald who passed through great suffering. He wrote, some years ago, I read a book of the life that God blesses. And he quotes the methods that God uses to bring blessing into the lives of his people. And he was speaking from personal experience. And one of the tools, he says, that God uses to bring blessing into the lives of his people is what he calls disruptive moments. He says, there are those, and I quote, there are those disruptive, there are those unanticipated events, most of which one would usually have chosen to avoid had it been possible. He goes on to say, we don't like disruptive moments. They are too often associated with pain and inconvenience, failure and humiliation. Not that they have to be, but that seems to be the way of the human condition. So this thorn in the flesh, it comes as a disruptive, maybe a very long moment, but a disruptive moment in Paul's experience. It comes at a time of spiritual blessing, an exalted experience of God some 14 years previously when he was caught up into the third heaven, which I'll say a little bit more about in a moment. Paul seems to go out of his way to avoid boasting. Notice how Paul stops speaking in the first person. He talks about, I know a man. He uses an anonymous third person, but of course it's himself. but he's too humble to speak about himself. I know a man, even though he's defending, ultimately, his apostleship, I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven and heard inexpressible things that is not lawful for a man to utter. What is he talking about? It seems that many years earlier, 14 years previously, the apostle Paul had been caught up into the third heaven. Now, let me explain. The ancients had a kind of a three-tier view, a three-story view of the heavens. So the first heaven was the sky and the atmosphere above and where the birds fly and the trees and the sky and the clouds above. That would be the first heaven. Then above that would be the second heaven, would be the stars, the sun, the moon, the outer galaxies, outer space. But then above that would be the third heaven, which was considered to be the very dwelling place of God, where, you know, scripture says, where the Most High God inhabits. The third heaven, in other words, the very dwelling place of God himself. Paul says that he had an experience 14 years ago when he was caught up into the very heaven of heavens into the dwelling place of God himself Into the place that he describes as paradise In scripture we only read of two men in the Old Testament that were caught up into heaven without seeing death and You know who they are, Enoch and Elijah. But even in a sense, of course, that could not compare with the life to come when we, body and soul, will be caught up into the presence of Christ. But, you know, it's obvious that these Corinthian super-apostles, they had probably, who knows, they probably made much of their out-of-body experiences. You can imagine, can't you? You can imagine them going on a speaking tour of churches. You know, come and hear about my out-of-body experiences. Hear about the dramatic experiences I had oh I should tell you if only you knew what it was like and and how I was caught up into heaven and and Therefore how I must be so much greater than other Christians because I've had this lofty experience You know, I'm not a second-class Christian, but now I'm a first-class Christian because I've been caught up into this additional experience They probably would have written books, you know five minutes in heaven and They were very confident men. But how different is the Apostle Paul, who purposely confesses his ignorance? Verses two to four, I know a man in Christ, 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know, whether out of the body I do not know, God knows. Such a one was caught up to the third heaven, caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words that is not lawful for a man to utter. How proud and how puffed up the apostle Paul could have become, knowing that God had permitted him a genuinely exalted experience in the very presence of the immediate presence of God in glory. And what Paul says is that in order to humble him, God had permitted, God had a purpose. There was a purpose in his experience of the thorn in the flesh. He says that we need to know brokenness in order to be useful, weakness in order to know that our strength is in Christ alone. The language Paul uses is very strong. The word buffet. A messenger of Satan was sent to buffet, or in the ESV, to harass me. To buffet me. It's the same word that's used. Or let me contrast it. Let me put it like this. If you think about the word, to be buffeted, you might think about being jostled. You know, so during rush hour, you get on a tube train, and you kind of get shoved about a bit, and you get jostled on a tube train. That's not what the Apostle Paul is talking about. The word buffet, it's the same, exact same word that's used in Matthew 26 when we read of the Lord Jesus that they beat him with their fists. The same word, same language is used. It is to be beaten, it is to be beaten and beaten until you're black and blue, until you're absolutely beaten down. In fact, the word means to collapse under it. Paul's experience of his thorn in the flesh was of being repeatedly beaten again and again, but in the midst of it he learns that God wonderfully uses broken people. He learns In fact, he learns that he experiences a greater sense of the presence of God in his brokenness than at times when everything is going well, when you're on the mountaintops. He learns the presence of God is greater at those times. In fact, throughout this letter to the, second letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us of some of those experiences he faced. Remember in chapter four, chapter six, chapter 11, chapter four, he writes, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, in jars of clay, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. So we are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. You know, when God calls us, particularly calls us to leadership in some form in his kingdom, and to some usefulness, whether that's in leadership or not, but to some kind of usefulness in his service, invariably he has to teach us to be dependent upon him alone. What was it I once heard Roger Carswell say? I thought it was lovely. He said, Moses lived to be 120. The first 40 years, he learned what it was to be a somebody in Pharaoh's palace. The second 40 years in the wilderness, he learned what it was to be a nobody. And in the third 40 years of his life, he learned what God can do with a nobody. Isn't that right? Jim Packer, let me quote Jim Packer writing. I can't remember where I read it, but I wrote the quote down. Jim Packer wrote, God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence upon Christ for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. The harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away. To live with your thorn uncomplainingly, that is sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help others, even though every day you feel weak, is true sanctification. It is true healing for the spirit. It is a supreme victory of grace. So God has a purpose in your suffering, but also that God makes provision in your suffering as well, in the experience of thorns. My grace is sufficient for you. he doesn't say my grace will be sufficient for you but my grace is sufficient for you in this situation that statement is This promise, the promise of God is such an understatement, almost to become ludicrous, if you think it through. Now, we know the words so well, and maybe don't think too much about them because we do know them so well, but if you think these words through, it's almost ludicrous. God's saying to us, my grace will be sufficient for you. as if God's grace can ever be anything less than sufficient for us in any and every situation. Let me illustrate that. The story is told, I read Spurgeon, you can't preach without quoting Spurgeon, but Spurgeon in a sermon that he preached on this, he said this, He said that he was riding home one evening after a heavy day's work in ministry, feeling very weary and very depressed and discouraged, surprisingly, in ministry. And these words came to mind as he was riding home on horseback. My grace is sufficient for you. And he said that in his mind, immediately he found himself comparing himself to a little fish, in the river Thames, apprehensive lest, drinking so many pints of water in the river each day, that he might drink the river Thames dry. Father Thames says to him, drink away little fish, my stream is sufficient for you. Next, he thinks about a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt. afraid lest its daily nibbling upon the great storehouse of grain in Egypt should exhaust the supplies and cause itself to starve to death. And then he says, Joseph comes along and says to him, cheer up little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for you. And then he says, he thinks about a man climbing some great high mountain, reaching a lofty summit, dreading lest his breathing might exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere. When the creator booms out of heaven and says, breathe away, oh man, and fill your lungs, my atmosphere is sufficient for you. In fact, in a sermon on this text. C.H. Spurgeon explains what an understatement. I think it's a great illustration. He says, what an understatement these words are. My grace is sufficient for you. He said it's like a little boy standing on the seashore, gazing out at the Atlantic Ocean with a little bucket in his hand, maybe a three-year-old with a bucket in his hand, gazing out to the vast depths of the ocean and wondering, is there enough water here to fill my bucket? That's the kind of grace that we're talking about. It's the kind of grace that takes five barley loaves and two small fish and feeds 5,000 and then fills 12 fishing baskets, mind, fishing baskets with leftovers. It's the kind of grace that is vastly more sufficient, the kind of grace that overflows huge basketfuls. God's provision is so great that in our weakness we see the enormity of God's strength made perfect in our weakness. Incidentally, that when Paul says that God's grace is made perfect in our weakness, God's strength is made perfect in our weakness, it's the same word that's used of the Lord Jesus, do you remember? When the Lord Jesus cried out, it is finished. Same language, the great cry of the Lord Jesus. So that despite what we think, God chooses to work, says Paul, not through the proud, not through the confident, not through the self-assured, not through the strong, not through the super-apostles, but through those who know their weakness and their frailty, because God keeps his treasure in earthen vessels. Do you remember when Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter? Timid if he was timid Timothy you remember that Paul writes to Timothy And he says in a great house that there are vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor Have you ever wondered what vessels of dishonor are? Well my grandmother when I used to go and visit my grandmother and she only had an outside toilet and She used to have a chamber pot under the bed. That's what you're talking about chamber pots toilet pots God keeps his treasure in toilet pots. That is the mark of true apostleship in Paul's ministry. As Paul tells us in his own words, I came to you, I did not come to you in great power or great fluency of speech, great rhetoric. Paul says, but I came to you in weakness and much trembling. Do you remember in the Old Testament, King Uzziah is said to have been marvelously helped by the Lord until he became strong. And then you remember he ended his days as a leper. when he became proud. Maybe that's why in Isaiah chapter 6, in that famous passage, when Isaiah sees the Lord Jesus actually, sees the robe, his glory high and lifted up, you remember, And we're told that it was in the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah had an angelic being, a seraphim came and touched his lips with a live coal. How strange, you know, Isaiah had already been an experienced and an accomplished preacher by that time. and a coal has to touch his lips. Why? Because that's where he is most likely to become proud. That's why Peter, in a boat, who thinks he knows so much about fishing, when Jesus really teaches him how to fish, his response is, depart from me, Lord, for I'm a sinful man. God has a purpose in our trials and our sufferings that he might teach us to learn our dependence upon him. God has a purpose in our thorns, in our sufferings, and God makes provision for us in our trials. So the thorn experience, first it was a source of pain, but it comes with a word of comfort, and thirdly, and finally, thirdly, the thorn proves ultimately to be a means of blessing. See, we've seen already that Paul's weakness became his strength. God uses the thorn to keep Paul close to himself. And has that not been our experience too? When all has gone well, have there not been experiences we've had as believers when everything has been well and maybe God has blessed something we've done and we're so apt to become proud and our hearts begin to grow cool? And then we face some kind of trouble, not that we want such things, but we're driven in the midst of our trials, we're then driven to our knees to see our need of God afresh. And once again we find that the Lord meets with us and we are refreshed and renewed by his presence in the midst of our trials. See, God, in his wonderful grace, uses thorns, which Satan would use as a means to buffet him, and yet God uses as a means of blessing. Kind of reminds me, just occurs to me, even as I'm preaching it, just reminds me of those words of the Lord Jesus to Peter. Remember, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you. See, Satan's purpose in our trials is to sift out the wheat. God's purpose is to sift out the chaff. One of the members, one of my dear friends and a member of our church, he, over recent, the last few years, has been through some trials and been through, faced difficulties with cancer. And, you know, he said to me, he said, strange as it may seem, he said he looks back with envy to the nearness of Christ that he experienced during that time. Although it was a horrendous experience, he says that spiritually it proved to be a means of knowing God's nearness in his life. Not that we long, not that we want such things. But you see, God loves you and God watches over you and me. And while Satan tries to beat you black and blue, to buffet you with his fists, God in his grace turns it into a means of blessing. So that when Satan means to beat you down and to harm you, All that it does as a believer is to drive you more closely into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ, to love Him more, to trust Him more, to long to become more and more like Him. and the thorn then becomes a means of blessing. And our weakness becomes the occasion of God's strength, and our sorrow is turned into a deeper and richer joy, contentment perhaps, in the Lord. And you see that in Paul's words. Verse nine, he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Now, Paul is not saying that he takes some weird kind of satisfaction from having to suffer, but rather he is saying that in his weakness, in his weakness, he comes to see God's strength more clearly, more powerfully than ever before, and he realizes that the thorn that he so despised actually proves to be a means of God's blessing in his life. I suppose there are countless examples in scripture that we could quote, but Whenever I read this passage, I can't help but think of Jacob in the Old Testament. Jacob was a right character, wasn't he? I mean, Jacob was a double dealing, he was a twister, cheat. And you remember in Jacob in Genesis 32, Jacob's double dealing past catches up with him in the form of his uncle Laban and twin brother Esau. And God has to get, the problem is you see as a covenant child, God has to get Jacob out of Jacob. And so God arranges a wrestling match at Peniel, a match between God and Jacob. And you remember that Jacob As he wrestles with God, he pleads with him and says, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And God hears that prayer and God blesses him. And do you know how he blesses him? God blesses Jacob by putting his hip out of joint. And he has to walk with a walking stick for the rest of his life to know his dependence upon God. My grace is sufficient for you. Elijah's thorn was at one point was depression. Following the triumph and victory over the prophets of Baal, he runs from Jezebel, you remember? And he throws himself under a juniper tree and he says, Lord, my life is not worth living, just take my life from me. He wants his life to end. And God hears his cry, but God in fact doesn't take his life. In fact, God restores him to useful service once again. And so it is that God uses thorns in our lives as believers. These thorns, we see, we learn these three lessons from the ministry of thorns in our lives. They prove to be a source of pain, but they bring a word of comfort, and ultimately, they are a means of blessing in God's purposes. Let me end with a short poem that I came across in a commentary by Chuck Swindle, actually, on 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians, he gives the illustration of an unknown Confederate soldier who was killed during the American Civil War. And by all accounts, they found a piece of paper that was sewn into his pocket on which he'd written this poem. I asked for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked God for health, that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for riches, that I might be happy. I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness, that I might feel my need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life. But I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I'd hoped for. And almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered, and I am among all men the most richly blessed.