Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message.
Speaker: If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now, take your copy of God's timeless Word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
Speaker: Welcome to Growing in Grace. You know, each time that we prepare a podcast, we always pray and we ask the Lord to speak to people through the podcast. And if you're going through a difficult time right now,
Speaker: I pray that this one from 2 Corinthians 12, verses 1 through 10, would really minister grace to you. You know, if one were to fly over the continental United States, then it would be obvious that the terrain is not all the same.
Speaker: You would see mountains. There would also be vast plains and fields that would be visible from a certain altitude. ah You might even catch a glimpse, depending on where you took off from. ah You might see the Atlantic, or you might see the Pacific. But there are thousands of lakes and smaller bodies of water that would be so different in terms of physical appearance, right?
Speaker: They're not the same. And depending on the time of the year, you could most likely see some families on one of our nation's beaches, while in the northern areas, perhaps snow-capped mountains might even have a few skiers on there.
Speaker: But anyway, just like that, I think that life experiences, they're not the same, are they? They're too varied, ah just like the landscape is so varied.
Speaker: Some are having a great day today, while others, perhaps you, are in a battle for survival. Some may ponder the question why these hard circumstances are happening to them.
Speaker: The possible answers to that question are also very diverse. 2 Corinthians 12, verses 1 through 10, inspired me to make a list of possible reasons why someone may have the pain in life that they're currently experiencing.
Speaker: Let's look for some patterns that match the biblical record described not only in this passage, but also in other passages. I'll try to make a few cross-references as we go through the message. Let's ah listen to God's Word from 2 Corinthians 12, verses 1-10.
Speaker: I must go on boasting, though there's 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.
Speaker: 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.
Speaker: God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man, i will boast.
Speaker: But on my own behalf, I will not boast except of my weaknesses. Though if I should boast, I would not be a fool.
Speaker: 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.
Speaker: So to keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
Speaker: 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'm content with weaknesses
Speaker: insults hardships persecutions and calamities For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Oh, how I pray that God would give us insight into his word.
Speaker: Let's look at some of these patterns that we see across this ah the landscape of this verse. The first possible reason why someone might suffer pain is maybe God's trying to get their attention and trying to give them some prevention of pride.
Speaker: You know, the apostle Paul mentions this in verse 1, verse 5, 6, and 7. and he says, you know, I must go on boasting, though there's nothing to be gained by it.
Speaker: so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. And he goes on and on. But you see, sometimes I think that the Lord has to keep us humble, especially the more he does in our lives and through our lives, the more we may need something that reminds us that only he is God and we, we're just human.
Speaker: And so maybe It's some kind of prevention of pride. It could secondly be something else that is mentioned in verse one. Paul goes on to say, after addressing the prevention of pride, the facilitation of growth.
Speaker: He says, i will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. You know, maybe there's something that you need to learn. Something's missing in your spiritual maturity and growth and development.
Speaker: And God knows the only way that that lesson is gonna come across where you can understand it is if he permits some kind of hardship to enter into your life.
Speaker: I say this because of what James wrote in James 1, verses two through four, where he said, "'Count it all joy, my brothers, "'when you meet trials of various kinds.'" For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
Speaker: And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So when I am lacking in something, how is God going to take that that that lesson I need and get it into my life?
Speaker: All I'm trying to prepare us for is sometimes it's going to come through those various trials. He says there's all kinds of different kinds of trials, but nevertheless, it could be a hardship of one kind or another.
Speaker: So it could be God's trying to help you grow, help you mature, become a little bit more like Jesus Christ. It could be a third thing that he mentions in verses two and three and four of our text where the apostle Paul acknowledges something.
Speaker: He admits it. He says, I do not know. God knows. He says it a second time in verse three. I do not know.
Speaker: God knows. And even in verse four, and he heard things that cannot be told, that cannot be told. Why is that? I wonder if the reason that is so is because over in Deuteronomy chapter 29 and verse 29, it says that the sacred things belong to the Lord our God.
Speaker: So there are some things that he says, these things belong to me. But he goes on to say in that same verse in Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 29, but the things revealed belong to us.
Speaker: and to our children for forever. So he does give us understanding on some things, but there are many things I'm trying to prepare you for.
Speaker: Trying to prepare you for some time when no pastor, no mature Christian, no one in your life is going to be able to explain it in such a way that you could understand it Why?
Speaker: because there's simply a limitation of understanding for those of us who are on this planet. This is a fallen world. It's a broken planet with broken people.
Speaker: And sometimes God does things and he does not owe us an explanation. Although I believe in eternity, if we ask him, he will give it. But even if he gave an explanation right now, there are simply some things that we could not grasp it.
Speaker: His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Let's move to a fourth possibility. Maybe the hardship that's in your life relates to the anticipation of heaven.
Speaker: Are you really looking forward to going to heaven? Or do you dread it? Do you say, no, I don't want to go. i like where I am. I like this world. Well, Paul says he was caught up to the third heaven in verse two.
Speaker: Caught up into paradise, he says in verse three. And so I'm thinking, wow, what is it that he's saying here? Well, he also says he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
Speaker: So what he's trying to say is there are some things about heaven that we're not gonna know until we get there. It's just simply not permitted for us to be able to talk about.
Speaker: But they these are things that no one has seen. i love what 1 Corinthians 2 and verse nine says, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of men imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.
Speaker: There's simply some things That God says, no, I want you to long for the day when you will be in heaven and all of your questions will be answered.
Speaker: You will not have anything that you do not know at that point. But right now, God wants us to long to be in his presence, to say there's bound to be something better than what I'm going through.
Speaker: There's bound to be something better than all of these ah difficulties and challenges that I face. Of course, I think verse 7 reminds us of a fifth thing.
Speaker: It is a possibility that our pain may be related not to our God, but to our enemy. It could be there is confrontation with the enemy.
Speaker: The Apostle Paul writes in verse 7, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me.
Speaker: to keep me from becoming conceited. There's that whole idea of prevention of pride again, to keep me from being conceited. But did you notice the source of the pain?
Speaker: This thorn, he calls it. I don't think it was a literal thorn, a physical thorn, but it was something that caused him pain. And he says, the source of this pain is Satan himself.
Speaker: He harasses me through this. Has there ever been something in your life and you were just thinking, boy, this really does cause me such a problem? Do you remember in the first chapter of Job?
Speaker: In Job chapter one, you know, Job goes through a very difficult time, lots of losses, even loses his health, loses his kids, loses a livestock, loses a lot of different things, even some real estate and houses and so forth.
Speaker: But what was going on there? Well, you see what was happening in Job chapter one, verse eight, Job didn't know it. But up in heaven, God was actually saying to the enemy, to Satan, he was saying, have you considered my servant Job?
Speaker: There is none like him who serves me with righteousness and he's blameless. But then what does the enemy say in response? says,
Speaker: Satan says in response to God, yeah, but the reason he serves you is because you have such a great hedge of protection around him, i can't get to him.
Speaker: If you were just to lift one section of that security and let me just hit him, let me just attack him one time, I guarantee you, he would curse you to your face.
Speaker: So God says, Okay, let's see. And so he allows the enemy one area that he could come in and attack Job just to find out.
Speaker: But you know what? Job was such an incredible example of someone who is pounded by the enemy, and yet he keeps his faith in God.
Speaker: At one point he says, you know what? Though he tries me, I shall come forth as gold. I think that's such an incredible statement for someone who's going through a trial to say to God, you know what? I don't know what this is all about, but all I know is when I come through this fire, I'm going to come out stronger.
Speaker: I'm going to come out purer. I'm going to have a better quality about me than I went into this trial. But it was a confrontation with the enemy. But you know what it also did in Paul's life?
Speaker: If you were to go on and read verse 8, you would see that it also created this motivation toward prayer. There was an incentive there that caused him to pray.
Speaker: How is your prayer life? Do you talk to God when times are good? Or if God were to allow things to suddenly turn south and things were going roughly in your life, let's say there was some negative circumstance that was permitted, would you pray more when that happened than if times were good, sunshine, i mean, all clear skies, lots of success, lots of breakthroughs?
Speaker: There's something about it Paul said three times, not just once, not just twice. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this thorn that it should leave me. And God didn't take it away, did he?
Speaker: You know, it's interesting. But you know what? I think that God wants us to talk to him, to talk to him about these different challenges that come in our life.
Speaker: Like, for example, In 2 Corinthians 10, verses 4 and 5, he says, that? then r to be talking to god about it for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of forresses for we are destroying speculations in every lofty thing raisedd up against the knowledge of god we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of christ how would paul know that
Speaker: He would only know that if he had spent time praying. I believe that prayer is like God's secret weapon. it's It's definitely available to us. It's not secret in terms of no one knows about it.
Speaker: It's just a secret in terms of how few of us that know Christ and are walking with him, how few of us will actually utilize that weapon and really pray about those challenges that come in our life.
Speaker: But I think that they're permitted sometimes because I think that they make us thirsty for God. They drive us into his presence. And so let the pain drive you toward prayer.
Speaker: Don't just sit there and and carry the pain and suppress the pain and agonize under the pain without talking to God about that pain. Let's move to something else. There's a seventh possibility.
Speaker: There is the possibility that it could all be about saturation with power. In verse 5, but also verses 9 and 10, the Apostle Paul begins to make a statement that's really, i don't know, it's like backwards of the way we would think.
Speaker: He says, i will not boast except of my weaknesses. Verse nine, he says, for my power is made perfect in weakness. When I'm weak, then I'm strong, is how he ends this section in verse 10.
Speaker: And so what if... God says, I'm going to allow them to go through more hardship because that's going to drive them toward me in prayer. But when they start talking to me in prayer, I'm just going to start saturating their lives with spiritual power.
Speaker: And so then it's like, well, it's not exactly physical power. It might not be your financial power, your relational power, your emotional power. Maybe all of those things are at a very low ebb. Maybe they're they're just depleted.
Speaker: They might be completely depleted. And so God says, I'm waiting. I'm waiting until you come to me and you say to me, please, Lord,
Speaker: refill me. Please, Lord, refuel me. Please, Lord, energize me for what I'm going through in my life because I have so many responsibilities that I still need to do. And so God, please, would you give me your strength and your power That's why I think that in the Philippians chapter four, verses six and seven, where he's talking about prayer, one of the things he says is that God can give us peace that surpasses all comprehension.
Speaker: And I think the only way that happens is when he gives us his power. And it's like, well, you're not getting your peace based on your circumstances because your circumstances are really bad.
Speaker: but there's something really sweet, there's something really good, and there's something incredibly powerful about you giving thanks and being peaceful, being even, let's say it, joyful in the midst of your hardship.
Speaker: That's why Philippians is an amazing letter when you hear the Apostle Paul talking about joy, because he was sitting in a prison cell. He wasn't in a prison cell because he had done things wrong.
Speaker: He was in a prison cell because he had done things right. He was trying to o obey God. He was trying to share the gospel with other people, and that's why he was thrown into prison.
Speaker: And so isn't that amazing that even with all of those kind of things happening in his life, he still had the power that would say, my joy doesn't come from my strength.
Speaker: My joy comes from my God, from my Lord, from the Holy Spirit. And so no wonder the Spirit saturates a life. No wonder God compares it to being Filled, being filled with God's spirit.
Speaker: I believe that God can cause your spiritual power to overflow regardless of your emotional or your physical resources. You can still say, you know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Speaker: Well, let's move an eighth thing. How about we look at the satisfaction in hardship? You know, we're talking about being content here with satisfaction.
Speaker: Listen to what he says. It's it's striking in verse nine. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly, of my weaknesses That's not normally our posture.
Speaker: Normally we would say, I'm going to boast about my strengths, all I can do, all my accomplishments, all of my achievements. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all about that. But for somebody to say, I can be satisfied in hardship, I can be satisfied in weakness, satisfied weakness.
Speaker: That's rare indeed. That right there is like a treasure, a hidden one. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses. He goes on in verse 10 to say, for the sake of Christ, then i am content with, listen to this lineup, weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
Speaker: Man, for anybody to be content in that lineup, that's saying something. That's somebody who is receiving their satisfaction apart from circumstances.
Speaker: Let's move then from satisfaction and hardship to the aggravation by humans, because let's be honest, not everybody in this world is gonna be a warm fuzzy for you. Everybody in this world is not gonna say nice things about you.
Speaker: And they weren't saying nice things about the Apostle Paul back then. As a matter of fact, that's why he includes them in his list. Let me put a couple of more words in that lineup For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults. Uh-oh, right there.
Speaker: That ought to ring a bell. Insults. You ever had anybody insult you? Hardships. Persecutions. There's another one. That's the second bell ringer.
Speaker: Persecutions. That was not mentioned in my list while ago. And calamities. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. So let's think about insults and persecutions.
Speaker: Is that the way you see it? Do you see it that when people insult you, when people persecute you, that you can still say, you know what? I'm content.
Speaker: I'm content because I'm content in Christ. I'm not gonna draw my contentment from the way other people treat me. I'm not gonna get my my joy in life from the attitudes of those that are in my life.
Speaker: Because sometimes people, they don't bring you up They bring you down. And so if you're gonna let your joy be tied to other people, then you know what? your Your joy and your contentment and your peace and your satisfaction, all of those kind of things, they're gonna just be in store for a rollercoaster ride because you're gonna be up some days when people are patting you on the back, giving you a fist bump and complimenting you, but you're gonna be down other days
Speaker: when they're insulting you and persecuting you and disagreeing with you quite strongly. So the aggravation by humans, that may be causing you an ulcer.
Speaker: That may be causing you sleepless nights. But what you need to do is to say, you know what? I'm not going to let my life be driven away.
Speaker: by what other people think about me, about my faith, about my lifestyle, about my my values. I'm going to live my life for Christ, and I'm going to let the chips fall where they may, but I am going to be driven by the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker: By the joy of the Lord, i have salvation in Christ. What more do I need? I have a promise of a heaven, a home in heaven.
Speaker: What more do I need? So that's that's the way to make it through that. But here's another last thing. Let's say it's the 10th and the final thing.
Speaker: He also puts in there this idea of hardships and calamities and weaknesses. I think that a 10th possible reason why you have pain, why your difficulty is in your life, is because we messed this planet up.
Speaker: This is not the way God wanted life to go for humans. You know, when he made Adam and Eve, he didn't intend for them to ever get sick and die. He placed the tree of life in the in the Garden of Eden, and they could have lived forever.
Speaker: And it was pleasant, and it was beautiful, and there were no storms, and there were no tornadoes, and there were no hurricanes, and all of those kind of things. There were no cancers. But you know what caused all of that?
Speaker: when we rebelled as the human race, we rebelled against God. And every generation has continued to resist, rebel, to be defiant, and so forth. And so what's happened is,
Speaker: it's corrupted creation so that it's no longer what God intended for it to be. i want to close out our time by reading a ah section from Romans chapter 8 about how all of creation is longing for this better day that will come whenever the Lord comes back And when he ah it says, I'm going to restore this planet and I'm going to restore the human race to what I originally intended for it to be. But now it can only happen in Christ.
Speaker: So don't miss it. Here it says, Romans chapter 8, verses 18 through 25. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing.
Speaker: with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Speaker: For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Speaker: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Speaker: For in this hope, we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope, For what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Speaker: That's what I'm talking about right there. That's the whole thing. God has so much hope of a better world. So why do we demand answers and complain about a broken world that we broke?
Speaker: not It wasn't him. We broke it. And then we complain about how we broke it. Wouldn't it be better to turn to Christ and to find the hope that is waiting on us of a restored planet, a restored body, ah some place where you're not gonna have all of these kind of hardships? Let's go to the Father in prayer. Oh Lord, thank you that your word clarifies things for us.
Speaker: Our emotions, sometimes we get confused. We blame you. We don't understand what it's really all about. But you're the one. You're the one who told us the truth all along.
Speaker: So help us to run to you for redemption, for restoration, for renewal. Please strengthen us once again, not in our circumstances necessarily, but in Christ, in your spirit.
Speaker: Renew, my friends, and help them, regardless of the pain, to say, I'm content even when I'm weak. For your grace is sufficient for me.
Speaker: In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you so much for listening today. God bless you. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.
