When Weakness is to Your Advantage | Rev. Paul Lawler

What if the very weakness you've been asking God to remove is the place where He wants to reveal His greatest strength? Sometimes God doesn't take away the thorn, but He always provides the grace to endure it. Discover why His power is most clearly displayed in lives that have learned to depend completely on Him.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Join us as we dive into this week's sermon that challenges our hearts and minds to grow closer to Christ. We pray that your heart is inspired and transformed by God's Word.

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All right, I'm just going to invite you this morning to open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We're wrapping up our series here in these

Gospel Foundation and Weakness

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weeks. We will launch a new series in August on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7, just so you have heads up. We'll pause and do a brief stewardship series in the fall, pick back up with the new series that we'll be moving into. That's just to help you calibrate. But I want to invite you to hear God's word. First, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 12, 1 through 10. Hear the word of God. Paul says this I must go on boasting, though there is nothing 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 may which man may not utter. On behalf of this 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, 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 weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I'm well aware we have already spent time in prayer, but this text there is much to teach us here. And I am depending on the Lord in a very unique way, and so I would ask, would you bow your heads a moment?

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Let's let's go and have a conversation with God once again. Lord, I re I remember playing sports years ago and hearing one of my teammates say to the coach, Don't worry, coach, I've got this. And Lord, I want to contrast that with a request. When I stand before your bride and I teach your word, I don't quote, got this. Lord, you've got this. And it is in my weakness that I pray you would demonstrate your truth, your love, and your glory. In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen. So, church family, there are certain questions that our culture asks almost by default on a regular basis. And those questions or statements go like this How strong are you? How successful are you? How influential are you? How many followers do you have on your social media accounts? How much have you or can you accomplish? Now we all recognize the why behind that. We admire strength, we celebrate achievement, we reward self-confidence. But in the kingdom of God, loved ones, here's what I hope you catch this morning. Oftentimes, in the operation of the kingdom, things work in an opposite direction. In God's economy, weakness is not always a liability. In fact, sometimes it's to your advantage. You're going to see that in the text this morning. The apostle Paul, we all know, had every reason to boast in the context of who he was and what God is doing through him. He could boast about his spiritual experiences if he chose to. He could boast about the miraculous encounters he had had with the Lord. He could boast about his theological brilliance. He could boast about his missionary accomplishments. But that's not what we see in 1 Corinthians, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 12. Paul tells us about an experience that he had kept private. Get this, church. He had kept private for 14 years. Think about that. Instead of glorifying himself, and I'm special because God's speaking to me in this way, he doesn't write about this, he doesn't talk about it for well over a decade. And he gives a message this morning that's absolutely startling when you'll think if you'll take the opportunity to think about it deeply. He says in verse 10, as a follower of Jesus, when I am weak, I am strong. Huh. And if you think about it, that that statement makes absolutely no sense in the natural, unless, unless Jesus really is alive, unless Jesus really is active in the life of a believer, unless Jesus really is available. So today, what we're going to do for a few minutes is we're going to discover why your greatest weakness may actually be the place where God's greatest power is displayed. And what we want to do as we journey along in this passage is look at five distinct areas that the Apostle Paul points out. One of them, the first one's just inferred profoundly. Here it is. The first area that we want to explore together is this extraordinary experiences are not your foundation of faith. Extraordinary experiences are not the foundation of your faith in Jesus. Now, let me clean that up because I need to tell you what I'm not saying in light of what we are saying. I'm not saying that spiritual experiences with the Lord as you're growing in Christ don't matter. That's not my point. Loved ones, excuse me. Throughout my own journey in following Jesus, I've experienced physical healing at one time. I've had had times that I've shared with you from the pulpit of visitations of the Holy Spirit where the presence of God is so real, so, shall we say, so saturating the moment that it's intellectually implausible that something supernatural is not happening. I've had those experiences, but what I'm saying to you is that this is not the foundation of a believer's life. The gospel is the foundation of your life. The fact that Jesus Christ went to a cross and bore your sins and rose from the dead and has in Christ, if you're in Christ, you've been forgiven and reconciled to a holy and loving God. That is your foundation. That is what you stand on. That's why the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6, when he's describing spiritual armor, describes your foundation as the gospel of God's, the gospel that brings peace. Because before the gospel, you were not at peace with God, you were at enmity with God. The scripture says you were under God's judgment, you were under God's wrath, but because of the gospel, because of what God has done in Christ, you're forgiven, you're not under judgment, you're not under condemnation. That is your foundation, church family. And so I'm not saying that experiences don't matter, but I'm just saying, excuse me, that they're not the foundation. So what Paul does here, pay attention, pardon me. He begins by reluctantly speaking about a vision that he's had. And so he chronicles that in the second verse. You've got your Bible open. Look there with me. He says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Now, some of us know what the third heaven is. I can catch. Chuck it. Okay. Some of us know what the third heaven is. And so, but can you? I'm just teasing. All right, some of us already know what the third heaven is, and we're aware, some of us are aware, some of us may not know that. So let me explain that very quickly. The third heaven, first of all, the first heaven in biblical times was just referred to as the atmosphere around us. Second heaven is the heavens above, like billions of stars, billions of galaxies. The third heaven was euphemistic language for heaven itself, where God is enthroned, where the angelic cherubim seraphim surround the throne of God. So Paul says, I'm called up to the third heaven. I've been called up to where God himself dwells. And he says, whether in the body or out of the body, I really don't know. But we know from the passage that the Apostle Paul sees things, he hears things, he chronicles, he's aware in his mind, he's chronicled things in his mind that he is not allowed to write about, that he has had deep revelations that are undergirding many of the things that he writes in the New Testament. So I want you to just for a moment, do your best, try to imagine that experience. Most of us, out of that experience, would have responded in this way. We have would probably attempt to write a bestseller titled My Trip to Heaven. But that's not what the Apostle Paul does.

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He waits 14 years before even mentioning it. Now here's a question. Why?

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Because spiritual experiences are wonderful servants, but they're terrible masters. To keep because what we're what we're doing here, what Paul's inferring is he's keeping the gospel of Christ as his foundation. This is why when I'm in other nations, and God will do a miracle occasionally, and he does miracles occasionally here, that that this is what people in Asia say to me. They say, Pastor Paul, when God does a healing here, we preach the gospel. We point people to their foundation. When God heals somebody in North America, you write books. You platform it. And so what we see here is Paul is not platforming miracle movements of God. He is pointing out that our foundation is Jesus Christ, that our foundation rests upon Christ and his gospel. Our foundation does not rest upon visions and feelings. Now, don't misunderstand me. The Bible teaches Acts chapter 2, old men will dream, dream, young men will see visions, or vice versa. But regardless, it's there. And we're aware that these things are biblical and we're not tossing the baby out with the bathwater. We're just simply pointing out what the foundation is. Now, there's probably not a person in this room at some time in your life, you've climbed a mountain. You, I mean, literally, you've climbed a mountain. Some of you, you climbed a hill and called it a mountain, but you've you've done it, okay? Now, when you get to the top of a mountain, you do normal things. You do normal things at the top of the mountain, like you take pictures. You ooh and you ah, and you talk about how beautiful things are, and you might even behold a sunset. That's all normal. But what happens is you eventually come down from the mountain. And so what that illustrates is nobody lives in the mountaintops forever. So, what that tells us, if we could use that illustration in the natural for the spiritual, the Christian life is not always on the mountain. It's sustained by daily faithfulness. You know, let me illustrate it this way. When I pastored our church plant, our first church plant for 16 years, and I have shared with you before from this pulpit that I witness what I call many moves of the Holy Spirit. I've never pastored a sustained revival, but I have pastored moments where the Holy Spirit, to use King James language, came in a way where one would say, verily, verily, he is thicketh, meaning he's thick in the room. Everybody knows that God has shown up in a very unique way. Babies quit crying. You can hear a pin drop. It's just a holy moment in the presence of God. And what, however, when that began to happen, what began to happen as a side effect is that I witnessed people in Huntsville, Alabama who had been rooted in their churches begin to church hop. And they were churchhopping because they were looking for the next move of the Holy Spirit. Rather than, as the Bible says, being so rooted in biblical community that we're we know one another well enough to practice the one another's of Scripture, love one another, forgive one another, spur one another on to good works. That kind of thing only happened when you're connected with other believers, which is the way the Bible describes normal Christianity. And instead, what people began to do is pick up and chase movements of the Holy Spirit in the city. They were chasing churches, they began to chase conferences. And so what I want to remind you of is that Jesus really invites all of us into what we would call ordinary obedience. Because most of life is ordinary. That's not something I hear people going, amen. All right, but it is. Most of life, most of doing life is just ordinary. And what Paul reminds us of this morning is that spiritual experiences are remarkable gifts. I'm making much of that. I believe in all the gifts of the Spirit. They operate in my life. I want to make much of that. I believe in the gift of prophecy. Okay, 1 Corinthians 14 outlines how the prophecy is supposed to be utilized. But he's reminding us that spiritual gifts, they're that. Spiritual gifts and spiritual experiences are indeed gifts, but they're not necessarily signs of spiritual maturity because our confidence rests upon Jesus, his gospel, not every experience. Experiences can come along and encourage us. But note that Paul waited 14 years to share this one. Extraordinary experiences are not the foundation of our faith. The gospel of Jesus is. Can you say amen? All right, let's keep trucking. Here we go. Secondly, God sometimes allows thorns to protect us. God sometimes allows thorns in your life to protect you. Now notice verse 7 what Paul says. So to keep me from becoming conceited, a thorn was given me in the flesh. Now you need to, we you and I, we all need to notice some things here. First of all, notice that the thorn had two sources. Notice, Paul says, it was a messenger from Satan. But notice also it was given to him. Note that. So what we learn from this is Satan intended destruction, but God intended sanctification. Satan intends to destroy, God intends to develop. The enemy wanted to discourage, God wanted to cultivate humility. And so here's what's important for us all to understand the devil and God are not cooperating. That's not what's happening here. Rather, God sovereignly overruled the intentions of Satan by his own ultimate purposes, which are holy and good. And the scripture in this passage never tells us what the thorn was. In fact, there have been a lot of people throughout Christian history who have written volumes and speculated on what the thorn was that the Apostle Paul had in his life. But the Bible does not answer that question. Some people have speculated that it was physical pain. Other people have speculated that it was Paul's eye disease, which he does reference in other passages in Scripture. Some people believe that it was the relentless persecution that Paul faced. Some people believed it was Paul's emotional suffering. As you remember, in 2 Corinthians 1, Paul describes that he's going through depression and he asks for the church to pray for him. Perhaps it was spiritual opposition, maybe it was a chronic illness, but we really don't know. Now here's a question. Do you know why God leaves Paul's foreign unnamed in Scripture? Why would God do that? Well, I would submit to you, God intentionally leaves it unnamed so that every believer can identify with Paul. That's why. If God had said, excuse me, if Paul had said, I'm going to be a little lighthearted here, you just give me a break to be be foolish for a moment. If Paul had identified his thorn as an ingrown toenail, we would read this passage and go, well, I'm not dealing with that. And so God leaves it undefined. And I want to submit to you that this is a manifestation of the love of God for you. So that when you are navigating euphemistically, something in your life that's a thorn in your side, it continues to trouble you, that you would understand as you read a passage like this that God has not abandoned you. And so your thorn may not be the same thorn as mine. Your thorn may not be the same thorn as people throughout this room. But every Christian eventually discovers one. When I was a kid, my mom sometimes would tell my brother and I, tomorrow, I'm we're going to go shopping. And my brother and I, you know, we would this was hard because, you know, we would rather than going out with mom and her friends, and she's looking at dresses all day long, you know, we would rather be building forts or playing baseball with friends. But my mom, uh, Missy will tell you was very strict. And so when you go out, when we would go out, this was like purgatory for my brother and I, you would you would go out and we were not allowed to run around. My aunt and her kids, their kids would run around, play in the clothes. We were not allowed to do that. We were to stand by mom and mind. And if you did not mind, the wrath of mom would be unleashed. And but I to be kind, and I wouldn't change a thing. What to be kind, my mom also, if you behaved, would reward you at the end of the day. And my brother and I could choose a reward ice cream cone, this, that, other. And we had kind of an odd reward that my brother and I chose over and over. We wanted to go to a store, it doesn't exist anymore, but there was a store that used to be in operation called World Bazaar. I'm told that there was one on Poplar at one time. And the reason my brother and I love to go to World Bazaar is because there was stuff there from all over the world. A lot of it was really affordable, and it was cool. It was just lots of stuff that was cool. And we would buy things there and hang them in our bedroom or play with them. But we had one thing we bought over and over. Here it is: a canned oyster. One can oyster each for like $2.50. But the reason we like to buy these oysters is when you open the can and you pop the oyster oyster open, help my speech therapy here, there's a pearl inside the oyster. And when you're a 10-year-old boy, that's just cool. Outside on the can, you could read how the how the pearl was formed. And when you read on the outside of the can, the way the pearls formed is this little grain of sand would get embedded in the oyster and it would irritate the oyster. And as the oyster is irritated, it responds by putting layer after layer after layer, deposit, deposit, deposit of this material that the oyster is reacting to as it's irritated, but it forms something beautiful. It forms a pearl.

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And so what we learn is without irritation, no pearl. Without weakness, many of God's deepest works never happened.

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The thorn wasn't punishment, the thorn was protection. Sometimes God protects us from pride more than He protects us from pain. Now, loved ones, I want to keep it real. This is Difficult theology. But I also want to affirm this is glorious theology in the sense of our call to live the gift of living a God-centered life. Joni Erickson Tata, I'm going to quote her. I'm going to come back and talk about her when we finish in a couple of hours. And she says, she says this: she says, sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves. So God sometimes allows a thorn, but it's to protect us. Thirdly, prayer does not always remove the thorn. So look with me, what Paul writes, verse 8. He says, Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. Now think about this. The Apostle Paul, who is a godly man, remember what the Bible says about prayer from a godly person? The effective and fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman availeth much, meaning God's listening. The eyes of the Lord look to and fro across the earth that he may strongly support a heart that's completely his. God's not reluctant in answering prayer, but we're getting a deeper understanding of how God works in unusual circumstances. Because we know Paul prayed. He didn't pray casually, not once. He prayed repeatedly. He prayed fervently.

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He prayed earnestly, yet God says, No. And so I want to ask you a personal question. Have you ever prayed that kind of prayer? Lord, heal this. God change this circumstance. God lift this burden. Lord remove this. Lord, fix this situation. I certainly have.

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And there are times where God sometimes does. He does. And glory to his name. And there's sometimes he doesn't. And glory to his name. Sometimes his answer is yes, sometimes his answer is no, sometimes it's weight. But what I do know about the character and nature of God is that his wisdom is perfect. Now I I want to remind you that this whole deal of following Jesus ultimately, as you've come to know him, is to be conformed to his image. I remind you of that from time to time. That's what God's doing in our the classroom of our circumstances is he's working redemptively to conform you to the image of Jesus. And the thing that we're talking about in Paul's life, loved ones, it also happened in the life of Jesus, where he said, Lord, let this cup pass from me. And the cup remained, yet redemption came. But be mindful, if it happens in the life of Paul, and it happens and it's been modeled in the life of Jesus, let us not think that we're above experiencing thorns in our own lives that God is using to protect us, and God's also utilizing to keep us dependent in a way that we're drawing from the source of Jesus Himself. Again, I'm going to go back to childhood. I don't know if this is childhood day or something. But when I was in high school, I worked a job where a couple of nights a week, I didn't get in till after midnight. And I had a coach that required the team to run at 5.30 in the morning. Well, after a few weeks of that, I'm getting in after midnight a couple of nights a week, and I'm getting up at 5.30 in the morning and running a few miles. I'm like, hey, man, I'm not, this, this is not, I don't like this. That's the best way to put it, I don't like it. And I went to my parents, it's like, hey, I want to quit. I don't know which one I want to quit, but I got to quit something.

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They wouldn't let me. They would not let me quit.

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Children often ask parents to remove every difficulty in their life. A loving father does not remove every challenge over a son or a daughter. Sometimes a loving father knows that the struggle that you're going through is actually producing maturity. No parent celebrates a child's pain, but wise parents do understand that growth often happens through resistance. And God's wisdom infinitely exceeds ours, and he understands how resistance is redemptive in our lives. And Paul discovered that unanswered prayer is not evidence of God's absence. Sometimes it's evidence of God's deeper purpose. Listen to what he says in verse 7, because Paul's operating with understanding around this. He says, So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. And conceit and pride would have destroyed him, and it would have hurt us because we would not have the New Testament. So prayer does not always remove the thorn. Fourth, God's grace is greater than our weakness. Look with me, verse 12, because here we're about to see one of the greatest problems, excuse me, promises in all of Scripture. Chapter 12, verse 9. Hear this. Jesus says to Paul, think about this. He directly speaks to him. He didn't say, My explanation is sufficient. He didn't say, my timetable is sufficient. He didn't say, my miracle is sufficient. No, he said very specifically, my grace. And I remind you, loved one, that when we read the word grace in Scripture, it is not merely talking about forgiveness. Grace is God's sustaining presence. Grace is God's sustaining power. Grace is divine strength. As I've said to you many times, as I quote a mentor of mine, that grace is all of God for all my need. All of God for all my need. And if you have your Bible open, I encourage you to get a pen out and underline the verb. My grace is sufficient. Underline the word is, meaning present tense. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, today. Moment by moment, fresh every single morning. Some of you remember Corey Tin Boon, the late Corey Tin Boon. And I remember the simple story she shared years ago about God's grace. And that is, she was getting ready to board a train with her father, and she asked her dad, Dad, where's the ticket to the train? And the father just looked at Corey and said, Corey, I'll give you the ticket right when it's time to board. That's how grace works. Grace shows up in the moment. God rarely gives tomorrow's grace today. God gives today's grace for today, and tomorrow's grace tomorrow. And many of us would get freed up with a lot less anxiety and a lot less worrying if we would let tomorrow's burdens be met with tomorrow's grace, because God's grace always arrives on time. Never late, never insufficient. So God's grace is greater than our weakness. That's what the Apostle Paul is writing about. That's what he's tasted, and he knows it's true. That's why he's exhorting and encouraging Corinthians, and that's why God put it in his word to encourage us as believers. And then finally, weakness becomes the stage upon which Christ displays his power. Now, one of the great landmarks in Memphis, Tennessee, is the Orpheum Theater. Many of you, most of you, maybe all of you, if you've been there, I think it's one of the great jewels of Memphis. But if you're on the board of the Orpheum, I'm going to kind of mess around a little bit, and I just ask for grace in this. If you want to come to me after the service, write me a nasty email. I'm going to love you regardless. But here it goes, all right? Everything's not perfect at the Orpheum Theater. In fact, Missy and I uh went to a production there not long ago, and I went to the restrooms, time to wash my hands, and you know what? The water pressure was not quite where I think it needs to be. In fact, I I went over to the cooler and I got a bottled water. And I'm I'm not sure the temperature on the cooler is adjusted exactly where it needs to be.

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The water was, well, a little tepid. Warm. Okay. But you know something?

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When I got in the theater and the production began on the stage, I forgot all about the water pressure and I forgot all about the bottle of water being a little warm. I was just enamored with the power and the majesty of the production and the glory of the voices that were just utilizing their gifts and talents to pull off this grand production. And so when I use the phrase weakness becomes the stage, oh, the building of the Orpheum, even though as beautiful as it is, might have a few weaknesses, just like you. But the stage is the place where Christ demonstrates his glory in your life, where these other matters are minimized. This is why Paul says in verse 9, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses. How counterintuitive is that? But notice what he says is happening on the stage, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me, so that the major production of what God is doing in the weaknesses of the thorn in my life may be magnified. Now, here's a logical question for us: who boasts in weaknesses? Only someone who has discovered where the real strength comes from. And that's why Paul lists his weaknesses in verse 10. Weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. Why does he do this? Because every one of them became another opportunity for Christ to take the center stage and for the power of Christ to rest upon his life. I got a text yesterday, it was either Friday or yesterday, from one of the leaders in Christchurch. And our conversation in the text stream took on a progression that led us to this question. This brother in Christ, whom I love deeply, asked me, Paul, who are the mentors in your life? I thought, well, that's that's a caring question. And I responded, most of my direct mentors, I didn't word it that way, have died. They've gone on to be with the Lord, but there's one that's still alive. And you've met him. His name's Al Henson.

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Al told me 15 years ago, when he was encouraging me, not simply as a pastor, he's encouraging me in my walk with Jesus Christ. And he said this one of the greatest things you can pray is this say to God, God, I cannot. I can't. I cannot live what you're calling me to in my own power.

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I can't live at the standard you've described in your word, in my own strength. I've got weaknesses, and I can't do it. And he simply encouraged me to pray this prayer, Lord. I cannot. God, I cannot, but I'm trusting that you can. I cannot, but you can. Most of you in this room know of Joni Erickson Tada, and you know of her weakness. In a diving accident late in her teens, she broke her neck, and for the last 40 plus years, she's lived her life in a wheelchair. She's not able to move her legs, I think partial movement in her arms. And yet, the glory of Christ has been manifested through her life through this gargantuan thorn. I want to read to you something that she wrote. Follow along. Here at our ministry, we refuse to present a picture of a gentle Jesus, meek and mild, a portrait that tugs at your sentiments or pulls at your heartstrings. That's because we deal with so many people who suffer. And when you're hurting hard, you need you're neither helped nor inspired by a surpy picture of the Lord. Like those sugary, sentimental images many of us grew up with. You know what I mean? Jesus with his hair parted down the middle, surrounded by cherubic children and bluebirds. Come on, admit it. When your heart is being wrung out like a sponge, when you feel like Morton's salt is being poured into your wounded soul, you don't want a thin, pale, emotional Jesus who relates only to lambs and birds and babies. You want a warrior Jesus. You want a battlefield Jesus. You want his rigorous and robust gospel to command your sensibilities to stand to attention. To be honest, many of the sentimental hymns and gospel songs of our heritage don't do much to hone that image. One of the favorite words of hymn writers in days gone by was sweet. It's a term that doesn't have the edge on it that it once did. When you're in a dark place, when lions surround you, when you need strong help to rescue from you from impossibility, you don't want sweet. You don't want faded pastels and honeyed softness. You want mighty. You want the strong arm of an unshakable grip of God who will not let you go no matter what. And what Tada is reminding us of is that when you're saying I'm weak, but God is strong, you're not talking about just anybody. You're talking about Jesus, warrior, mighty God, God who created innumerable stars, God who created galaxies, God who created galaxies that are light years apart, each containing billions of stars, He is mighty God that you're relying upon in your weakness as you navigate your thorn.

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So as we close, for real this time, I was man, I was playing, but I'm real. I'm real. Let me share with you just a few practical applications. First of all, I want to encourage you, stop hiding your weakness.

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Stop hiding your weakness. God already knows. One of the things I love about Gen Z and millennials, and I'm not pointing at you guys, just happen to be, you just happen to be at my right hand. But one of the things I love about them is how they treasure authenticity, being real. I like them.

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But I want to remind you that God honors authenticity, He honors you being real.

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And don't hide your weaknesses with God. You're safe. He already knows. He knows, and if you pretend, it only isolates you that much more. Don't pretend with God, don't pretend with others. Authenticity invites the grace of God because authenticity reflects humbleness. God opposes the proud. Finish the verse, but he gives grace to the humble. Authenticity attracts the grace of God. Secondly, stop comparing your life to everybody else's life. Be mindful that every TikTok reel, every Instagram post, every my story, every Facebook post is hiding the enormous hidden thorns in everybody's life. So stop comparing your life with the best version that you're seeing people post left and right. God knows how to customize his work into your life in the way that it's appropriate and customized for your circumstance and situation. Thirdly, pray boldly, but trust God's answer. And remember, Jesus taught us to pray and he prayed. Paul also taught us to pray. We should pray as we're being conformed to the image of Jesus. But trust God's wisdom more than your preferences in terms of how God may respond to you. Pray boldly, but trust God to answer. Fourth, measure success differently, because the world asks, how impressive are you? Whereas Jesus simply asks, how dependent are you? Jesus is the source. He's your source. Depend upon him. And remember, fifthly, remember where your strength comes from. Dependence is not weakness. It's a symptom that you're weak, but it's not weakness. In other words, when you depend upon the Lord, you're living, John 15, that perpetuates a greater fruitfulness for the glory of God. A Christian really is a person who cannot live without depending on Jesus. All of you know I love missionary biography. And I read a lot of missionary biography because I see so many missionaries that's spread out around the world, and they're alone. They've left everything and they're depending upon God. And in that dependence, you hear these anecdotes of God showing up in incredible ways. It's very encouraging. But one of the most moving stories is one of the most simple that I've ever heard. And it's the story of Hudson Taylor in China before the Communist Revolution. At the end of his ministry, after hundreds of thousands of people had come to know Jesus Christ, he's walking across a field with a colleague. And the colleague says to Hudson, You must be a remarkably strong man to accomplish everything you've accomplished. And then Hudson, just like that, said back to him quietly, God simply look for someone who was weak enough to use.

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In our weakness, he's made strong.

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And be mindful that Jesus entered our world out of weakness. He was rejected, he was mocked, he was beaten, he was crucified. And the cross looked like weakness. It looked like defeat, but it became the greatest victory in history. No hyperbole there. The empty tomb forever declares that God's power overcomes that which is disguised as weakness. So perhaps your thorn remains. Perhaps your unanswered prayer still hurts. Perhaps your weakness embarrasses you. But loved ones, if there's anything you hear your pastor say today that is rooted in Scripture, it's this do not assume that God has abandoned you. He may be doing his deepest work precisely where you feel weakest. The thorn may remain, but so does his grace. The weakness may continue, but so does his power. The struggle may persist, but Christ has promised, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness, so that you and I can join the Apostle Paul in saying what he said in verse 10. For the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weakness, insults, hardship, persecution, and calamities, for when I am weak, I'm strong because of him. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Love ones, I want to invite you to stand to your feet. Would you do that, Jesus? As people stand in the physical today, I pray more importantly that we would stand in the spirit, that we would stand out of your living word, not to despise the thorn, but in weakness to know the joy and the peace of your strength in Jesus Christ. So I pray you would manifest understanding, manifest this truth, manifest this as a reality in our walk with you, we pray. Now help us to adore you in song and to magnify and to set our affections upon you, Lord, as we sing this to you as an expression of worship. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ. To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at ChristchurchMemphis.org. We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.