Three Weaknesses That Perfect God's Strength

We'll be just reading four short verses in this passage, but

we'll jump around to different or other passages for our Scripture

tonight. But I want to cause title this message tonight. Strength

in weakness. Strength in weakness. Let's go ahead and dig

into our reading here. In verse number seven of chapter 12

in 2 Corinthians it says, and lest I should be exalted above measure,

through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me

a thorn in the flesh. This is Paul speaking, the messenger of Satan

to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing

I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And

he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength

is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore will I rather

glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon

me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in

necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. Pray. Lord, just want to

thank you again for allowing me the chance to preach in my home

church tonight, Lord. Help me not take it lightly, Lord. Lord,

I just pray that you would hide me behind your cross, Lord,

that it would be your words, not mine, Lord, that speak through

this message. Lord, I pray you'd speak to heart. Speak to my

heart as well, Lord, in just saying I pray. Amen. Years ago, I

used to work in concrete construction. If you've ever done

concrete construction, it's some hard work. But to kind of paraphrase

how a week would go, Monday through Friday is basically a normal

week. And sometimes you'd work on Saturdays. And now Saturdays were

kind of a different, little bit more laid back of a workday.

So Saturdays we would most of the time be more just cleanup. We'd

go to our different job sites, we'd pick up our forms, or we'd wreck

a house or we'd wreck a driveway. And by wreck, I don't mean

tearing the concrete up, I mean wrecking our forms that we've

used to pour that concrete. So after the concrete's flashed, we

usually go in on a Saturday morning real fast and we pull all

these forms out and we call it a day. And hopefully usually you're

done around noonish, so you have kind of rest your afternoon,

and then of course you're off on Sundays. So I remember one Saturday

going in, I went in at about 7 o'clock. It was a beautiful day.

It was a beautiful morning. It was during The I believe this was

before COVID but I think it was the summer before COVID And I

remember going in that day and I was like, it's a good day. We just

got two driveways to wreck. And they're really small driveways.

They're right down the street from each other. We'll get it done.

We'll be out of there before even it's breakfast time. That's

what I was feeling like, right? So we go in, we wreck the

forms, we'd head back to the shop, we load everything up, drop

the trailers, and I get a phone call from my mother. And it

was not a bad phone call, it was actually good news. And she calls

me and she says, hey, breakfast is being served at the

property. Now, if you don't know what the property is, that is

the day Reid compound out in Boyd or. That's where all my grandparents

live. That's where my aunt and uncles live. And they were out there

cooking breakfast and they invited our family over to join them

for it. So of course I was like, I'm there. And I took a 15

minute drive and cut it down to about two and a half minutes.

It was really impressive, right? But anyway, so I get there,

we ate breakfast. We were having a good fellowship together.

It was probably around 11 o'clock in the morning and I was

feeling good. I was like, this is a great day. It's a beautiful

day. I'm probably going to go fishing later. It's a good day. And

I remember sitting there talking on the back porch with my

family, and all of a sudden something hit my ear and it was like

kind of right here in my earlobe. And I kind of did this,

kind of swiping it away because I thought it was a fly or

maybe even a spider or something. Just didn't know what

it was. But instead of it going off of me, it actually dove

into my ear canal and actually went all the way to my eardrum. And

it turns out it was actually a moth that had flown into my ear.

And of course, this is like sci fi horror in real life. It was

insane, right? Insane moment, right? And it really felt like there

was an alien in my head. It was a very uncomfortable experience.

And I remember feeling and hearing the. In my ear. Yes. It was

a very uncomfortable situation. And I remember kind of

panicking and I almost couldn't do anything. I couldn't

move. It was just kind of scaring me. It was freaking me out

a little bit. And I remember we went to a CVS clinic all Right.

They have those at a couple of CVS's. And we were just hoping like,

hey, can you just try to fish this bug out of my ear? We had managed

to drown it with rubbing alcohol. We put in my ear. And we

were like, can you just fish something out? Well, the lady kind

of did some things and she didn't really help. And she just

kind of sent us on our way. Kind of treated me like I was crazy.

And of course, that did not make me feel good. And of course

we go home and I'm still in this weird state of, this has ruined

my day. And I'm just very unhappy about the situation. And

I remember just telling my mother, just saying, hey, just take

me to the ER or something after surgery to get this bug out

of me. Do it kind of thing. It's freaking me out. I don't like

this. So I remember we went to an urgent care because I think my

mom called him actually and said, hey, we have this situation.

Can y'all do anything about this? And like, yeah, we can go ahead

and send them in. Like, come in. See them, they come in, they

flushed my ear and out and a couple of times, and out came this

moth. And it's hilarious how a bug this big caused so much chaos

for about a six hour experience. And it kind of ruined

my day. I was like, I didn't end up going. I think I did end up

going fishing that night. But it ruined my whole day. And I was

not happy. And I just remember thinking, so helpless. By the way,

I named the moth Earl, by the way, because it has the name. Ear

is in the name. Just want to let you know. Anyways, so that was

just a little tidbit from me. Anyways. I just remember feeling

so helpless. I could not. This small little thing was just preventing

me from enjoying my Saturday, my day off. I've been working all

week. I want to enjoy myself a little bit. And I remember feeling

so helpless until I went to that urgent care and someone finally

gave me some help. Now that may be a kind of a silly story, kind

of a long, drawn out, kind of crazy story, right? But I say all

of that to say, have you ever been in a situation in your life

where your strength has been completely taken from you and now

you feel like the weakest person alive? Maybe spiritually,

emotionally, physically even. Have you ever been to that place?

A famous line that's always used especially when playing sports.

I heard it constantly. A chain is only as strong as its weakest

link, right? So I have a question. For you tonight. How weak

are you tonight? I'd like to go over the three weaknesses that

perfect God's strength in our lives. Number one, I would like us

to see weakness in ability. Look back in verse number seven of

chapter 12 of Second Corinthians, verse number seven,

it says, this is Paul speaking, right? Lest I should be

exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations, there

was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to

buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. So Paul's

thorn in the flesh. There's been lots of conversations about,

you know, what that could be. A lot of people believe that it may

have been his eyesight, that he may have not fully regained his

eyesight from the road to Damascus when Jesus appeared before

him on that road. And some people believe that maybe he had

malaria from his travels around the world and being a missionary.

And some people even think that he may have had some sort of

speech impediment or he had. He had struggled getting words out

at times. And so because it's interesting, you don't see a whole

lot of sermons about Paul in the Scripture, but you see a lot

of his writings. It's pretty interesting if you have that sort

of connection. But the Bible doesn't necessarily say exactly what

Paul's issue was. But Paul describes it here as the messenger

of Satan to buffet me. Now, this is something that cannot be

taken lightly, a message from Satan. This kind of reminds me a

little bit of the story of Job. Remember what happened with

Job? Job was an upright man. And God said to Satan, look at this

servant of mine, Job, Satan, I will allow you to do whatever you

want to him. You just can't kill him. And Satan takes everything

away from him. And still through it all, Job did not curse

God. He didn't sin. He just gave glory and honor to God the whole

time. Right. But so we see a little bit of maybe, maybe Paul is

calling back to that story a little bit with that message of Satan

a little bit. But also, I want you to leave that word buffet there.

Now, when you Google this word, often it comes up as buffet.

It's kind of funny, but that's actually not what this is talking

about. It's not talking about the food line here. It's talking

about a buffet is to strike. This is kind of the short version,

to strike suddenly or to hinder suddenly. So this is probably

something physically that has come into Paul's life and all of

a sudden has. It will pop up all of a Sudden and prevent him from

doing a certain. For God or make it even harder to do. Right?

And so obviously there's probably this frustration with Paul,

this confusion, right? This was used as a hindrance to his ministry.

It may have had his. It may have affected his ability to perform

certain tasks. Right, Turn with me real fast to Luke chapter

Luke 13 · chapter mention

13. Luke chapter 13. This also calls to another story in the bible,

Luke 13 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 13. And we'll read in verse number 10, and I'll

Luke 13 · chapter mention

go ahead and read it for the sake of time. It says, and he, this

is Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18

years and was bowed together and could. And could in no wise lift

herself. Lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her

to him and said to her, woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight

and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with

the indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day,

and said unto the people, there are six days in which men ought

to work in them, therefore come and be healed, and not on the

Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him and said, thou hypocrite,

doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass

from the stall and lead him away to watering? And ought not this

woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound lo,

these 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? So

to kind of paraphrase this story, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue

one day, and there is this woman that says she has been bowed

roughly for about 18 years. Now, a lot of people will say it's

bowed or bowed. It kind of depends on who you ask. But this

kind of describes that she's in a state of this constantly. She's

not able to lift herself up. And she has lived life like that

for 18 years. And when Jesus looks on her, he has pity on her,

he has compassion on her. And he says, you know what? I'm going

to heal you. You don't have to dwell within this infirmity anymore.

I'm going to go ahead and heal you. So Jesus calls her over to him

and he lays hands on her and he heals her. And she's able to lift

herself up, and she's able probably to walk like a normal. Like

a normal human being, right How God designed it, right? And of

course, the rulers of the synagogue they kind of get upset

that Jesus did this on the Sabbath, and Jesus kind of rebukes

them and kind of puts them in their place. I kind of like that

story, but no doubt that Paul was probably calling back to this

instance and thinking about this. And we'll go into this in our

next point. He's probably thinking about that God can take

me out, God can take this away from me, but he hasn't. It's preventing

me from doing my task that I'm supposed to do for Him. Now let's

think about our thorn for a minute. What is our thorn in the

flesh? Oftentimes it could be something actually physical. Some

of us may struggle with our eyesight. Some of us may struggle

walking. Some of us may struggle with speaking. Right. Some

of us may have a lot of sickness, may have a lot of pain.

And we have these thorns in the flesh. And sometimes they can

kind of cause us to get in a bad mood sometimes and kind of caused

us to be in an unrighteous state of mind. Right. And so. But

I would like to draw attention to the thorn in your flesh that is

the sin in your life. Each one of us has a thorn in our flesh tonight.

What is that sin that is preventing you from doing the will

of God? Oftentimes I have to even check my own self and say, what

sin is preventing me from performing the task that God has

me to do? Is there a hindrance in your life that makes it hard to

do the right things? Is there something that's blocking. We'll

go in that inside of something that's blocking a relationship with

Jesus Christ in your life? Why would God do this? Why would God

allow Paul to go through this? Well, and why would God allow us

to have some of the sin in our lives? Why can't God just take it

all away? Well, for one, he wants us to humble ourselves and

know that we are a fallen people. And he wants us to come back

to Him. And secondly, he may want us to teach something or he

wants to teach us something. And that may be more on the physical

aspects of things instead of the sin aspect. But these are certain

things that God wants to teach us. I remember my going back to kind

of concrete construction. I remember my first day of going into

work, working concrete. I remember waking up early that day.

I can't remember what time it was. It was before the sun was up,

and I remember getting ready and it was pouring rain outside.

Now, if you know anything about construction, especially in

concrete, you cannot do much when it is pouring rain. Outside

when it is raining cats and dogs, you cannot do much concrete

work, right? And so, but so I was like, I don't know if they're

going to be working today. I haven't really had any contact information.

These guys. I just kind of was offered this job third party. And

so I was like, well, I'll just go and just see what happens, right?

I remember on my way there, I nearly got into a car accident because

a car pulled out in front of me and slammed on their brakes at

the stop sign that was right there in front of me. And I had to

ditch my truck for a minute to make sure I did not hit them because

roads are slick. So when I slam on my brakes, out of reaction,

I slide, right? Thankfully, the Lord protected me. But I started

asking God, you know, lord, are you trying to prevent me from

getting there? For some reason, I remember I making it and

it was kind of awkward. There was no one there. I remember sitting

in the truck for a few hours and no one showed up. I'm like, am

I in the right spot? Where am I? And eventually a truck started

to pull up and they had been waiting for the rain to kind of go

away, and the rain went away. And I remember I got to work that

day and I had done some hard work in the past. I remember doing

yard work growing up doing yard work, helping build fences,

things of that nature. And all of a sudden, this is some backbreaking

work this day. I did not realize how much work I was getting

myself into. I remember digging beams for a house. I remember

pouring a job that was a for a house. I remember doing that. And

I remember doing so many different jobs and just one day,

and I remember going home that night going, I don't know about this.

This is some hard work, right? But I stuck with it, right? And I'm

not necessarily trying to point attention to myself, but I

remember sticking with it because guess what? Concrete taught

me hard work. And it taught me to push through when things get hard

and tough, when you're tired. It taught me lots of those things.

But see, that's the same thing in our lives. When there's something

in your life that may be hard, it may not necessarily be sin. It

could be sin at times, but sometimes we have to push through

that and use God and call upon God and say, God, I need this thorn

in my flesh. I need your help, and I need your help to push through

it. So, number one, weakness in ability. Number two, I'd like

to draw attention to weakness in relation now we see here in verse

number eight of chapter 12 in 2 Corinthians, it said, for this

thing, I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from

me. Now, this word besought means that Paul was begging God to

take this away. This wasn't just some short little, hey, God,

can you just kind of take this away from me? No, no, no. Paul was

on his knees and he was begging, God, God, please take this

from me. It is a hindrance. I cannot do the things that you want

me to do because this thorn in my flesh is preventing me from doing

what you want me to do. It's hard, God. I don't have to go through

this. I don't want to go through this. And you see here that

he doesn't just ask God once, right? He asks him not twice, but

he asks him three times, which that means the first time, God said

no. The second time, God said no. And we're gonna see here the

third time God also says no. But obviously he goes and asks God

three times because he was not happy with the answer that God gave

him the first two times. He may have been a little frustrated

with the Lord. We don't know. I think that I would probably be

frustrated in this situation. I mean, I'm human. I would probably

react in a certain way out of anger or frustration, maybe even

blame on God. And yet we see that Paul is just begging God to

take this away. But God said no. He said no twice, and Paul went

back to him a third time. And God says this in verse number nine.

And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. My grace.

Now, growing up, I learned that mercy is getting something or

is not getting something that you deserve. Grace, on the other

hand, is getting something that you don't deserve. God's grace.

And it says right here, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

We see the reason that God has had this thorn in his flesh. Just

because he's like, Paul, Paul, I don't want you to get too puffed

up a little bit, Paul. I need to be able to kind of rein you in

a little bit and keep you somewhat weak so that I can be powerful

and people through you can see me in your life, right? I need you

to be that witness for me in your life. And that requires you

to be weak first. Paul undoubtedly became frustrated with

the Lord about his answer. Let's turn over real fast to Matthew

in chapter 26. Matthew, chapter 26, Matthew, chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention Matthew 26 · chapter mention

And we'll begin reading verse number 36. I would like to call attention

to this Paris or this passage of Scripture here. It says here in

verse number 36, then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called

Gethsemane, and saith unto his disciples, sit ye here while I go

and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of

Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith

he unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.

Tarry ye here and watch with me. And he went a little further

and fell on his face and prayed, saying, o my Father, oh,

my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless,

not as I will, but as thou wilt. We know this story very, very

clear. We know what this is. Jesus is about to go to the cross.

And guess what? It's going to be a painful experience. Jesus knows

that coming in. Now, there's a lot of speculation about what cup

is Jesus asking to be passed from him. Is he asking for the cross,

or is he asking for something else that's weighing him down? What

is it that he's asking for? But there's something right here

that Jesus is going through right now, and he's saying, God,

if it be your will, let this cup pass for me. This is a similar

prayer to what Paul was praying to for, about his thorn in

the flesh, saying, God, take this from me. Take it away. I don't

have to go through this. You know, there's things in our lives

that are going to make us uncomfortable. Financial debt, loss

of loved ones, sickness, hurting, maybe even relational issues

in marriage with your kids, with your other family members, whatever

it is. You are going to go through some hard things in life.

And we can sit here and ask God constantly, God, don't let me

go through that. Take that away from me. I don't want to have

to go through that. But guess what? Sometimes God says, no, I need

to take. I need you to go through that. Because when you are

weak, that's when you're strong. I remember that when Covid

hit, it was such a crazy time. I was in college and I had come home

briefly for a few days for a funeral. And it was a weird feeling.

Me and my wife were dating at the college at the time, and I remember

saying bye to her, and it was just kind of a short, hey, I'll see

you in a few days. You know, like, I'll let you know when I land.

It was a very quick passing conversation. And I was on my way

to the airport. I went Home surprised. The family went to the

funeral. And literally the day after the funeral, Covid happened.

And the world shut down. And it was kind of. Everything was in

a scramble mode. Half of my stuff, my truck was all the way back

in California, and my girlfriend is now headed back to

Canada because she's from Canada. And it was like this whole

just mix of emotions in my life of just, whoa, this is hitting.

This is really weird that it's about to happen. This is strange.

I've never gone through something like this before. And I

remember me and my wife had already, or at the time, we had been

talking a little bit about, you know, marriage, and we had been

thinking about that, and obviously that was. That was something

that was on the table. But I remember we went eight months without

seeing each other. And that was hard. That was hard to go through

being separated for someone that you love. And I know God's grace

was honest during that time because, you know, we often thought,

are we going to make it through this? Are we ever going to

even be able to get married? Like, we can't even cross the borders

to see each other. And eventually, after eight months, the

borders kind of half opened between Canada and the United States.

So we had to prove that we had been dating for over a year and had

actually just submit evidence of us to having a relationship before

so I could come and visit her. And thankfully, God allowed us to

do that. And I got during that time, that's when I asked her father

if I could have her hand in marriage. And of course, he gave

me his blessing during that time. And of course, and then we

went another eight months without seeing each other. But it

was hard at the time. I wish that we didn't have to go through

that. I wish that there was some things that I wish we did differently.

I wish that some things went a little differently. This was something

that was unplanned. And I know many of you were affected by it as

well, but it was hard at the time. It was difficult. And I remember

praying to God, God, take this away. God, take this away. God, take

this away. God, like, let things go back to normal. And God

just said, no, not yet. I need you to go through this right now

because this is what's going to strengthen your relationship with

your wife and with me. And it was a time where I got kind of a

little bit closer with God and spent some focus on him during that

time. And I can see now in hindsight, that it was good for us.

But one, we saw that weakness in ability and two, we saw weakness

in relation, and now we see weakness in trials. Now look at verse

going back to second Corinthians in chapter 12. Let me

turn back over there. I've lost my place as well. 2nd Corinthians,

chapter 12. If you're curious where 2 Corinthians is, it's after

1st Corinthians. Anyways, in verse number. Let's look in verse

number nine, the second half of that verse. We'll read the whole

verse for context. It says, and he said unto me, my grace is

sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that

the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure

in infirmities. That seems backwards. Pleasure and infirmities,

pleasure and reproaches, pleasure and necessities, pleasure

and persecutions, pleasures and distress. That doesn't seem right.

There's something not connecting the dots here. I don't

know. Why is it pleasure? Well, it says right here, for Christ's

sake, Paul took pleasure in his trials. He accepted. He came

to the point in his life where he accepted the conditions that God

had placed him in. With open arms, he embraced the hardships.

Just turning the page over to chapter seven, verse number four.

You don't have to turn there. I'll go and read. It says, great

is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my glorying

of you. I am filled with comfort. I am exceeding joyful in

all tribulation. Exceeding joyful in all tribulation. The world

will look at that and say, that's backwards way of thinking.

You've got to get your life right. There's something wrong with

you. You've got it all backwards. But right here in verse

number 10, it says, for Christ's sake, Paul is willing to

go through all this for Christ's sake. And it's, what do

we do in our trials? How do we respond when we go through those

thorns in our lives? How do we respond when we go through the trials

in our lives when the hardships come? What do we say? We

say, God, I don't want to do this. This isn't fair to me. That's

a lot of our mindsets. Oftentimes we sulk, complain, blame,

and we quit on God. If you look in James, chapter number one,

James, chapter number one. You don't have to turn there. I'll read

for the sake of time. James, chapter one, it says, verse number

two, my brethren, this is right after the church has just been

separated the church in Jerusalem has just been separated

throughout all the world because of persecution. It says,

my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.

Count it all joy knowing this, at the trying of your faith worketh

patience. That doesn't make sense. What do you mean that count

it joy when we fall into diverse temptations. That's the trials,

that's the test. That's the hard things in our lives. What do

you mean? What do you mean, count it joy? What do you mean, be

happy about it? It doesn't seem right, but this is what Paul.

Look at Paul's example right here. He just embraces it because

he says, it's all for God. It's all for Christ. I'm embracing

it. I take pleasure in my infirmities, in the reproaches, in

the necessities, in the persecutions, in the distresses,

for Christ's sake. Now, these are just words, but Paul was shipwrecked,

he was stoned, he was persecuted, he was nearly killed.

He eventually was killed. Paul went through so much. And he says,

hey, it's all good. I'm happy about it. That's backwards. We don't

think that way. We think, oh, God, you're evil. You're mean to

me. I don't want anything to do with you now because now you're

putting me in a hard place. But God just saying. Whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa. Hold it right there. I need you to be weak for

a second. Because right here in verse number 10, right after Paul

writes, for Christ's sake, he says, for when I am weak, then I

am strong. And God says in verse number nine, it says, for my

strength is made perfect in weakness. Let me ask you, how weak

are you tonight? How weak are you? Are you too strong for God tonight?

I'm not talking about being a strong soul winner. I'm not talking

about standing up for God. I'm talking about your relationship with

God. How strong are you? How. How much pride do you have in your

life? We must embrace the trials with open arms because God

wants us to rely on him when he takes us through it. Last May,

I had just quit my job at Southlake, and I had started working

here. I started cleaning the church. I knew that this is what

God had for me. I was thankful for my job at South Lake. It was

a good job. I learned lots of things there. And it was definitely

God provided that job for me. It allowed me and my wife to have

the finances to get married and things of that nature. But I

just felt like God wasn't fully blessing me there anymore,

and I feel like that I had to move on. And God kind of laid on

my heart to just come to the church and start cleaning. I knew

there was a need there, and so I asked around about it. And Pastor

talked to me about it, and he offered me the position. And literally

the week of my first week, my wife and I found out that she was

pregnant. And then. So I remember going that whole week thinking,

this is right before Mother's Day. I remember going that whole

week thinking, wow, I'm about to be a dad. Like, life's changing.

Obviously, God wanted me to put me in this position because he

wanted me here. So when we have our first child, this is where

he wants me. And we went and took blood tests, and it was confirmed

that my wife was pregnant at the time. And then two days later,

she was no longer pregnant. And then you kind of start asking

God questions like, why did you. Why? I just did what you told

me to do. I gave up a good job. I gave up comforts. Why? Why

do you put my wife through so much hardship and sorrow? She hasn't

done anything wrong. I remember asking those questions in

my mind. And of course, it was not a very easy time. We kept it

quiet at the time. We didn't want to draw too much attention to

it. And one of our friends ended up also getting pregnant at

around the same time. And. And obviously that was hard for us to

see that as well. But you know what? After the time, we started

to heal a little bit about it. We now have a beautiful baby boy.

He's in the nursery right now. And I'm very thankful for him. But

during that time, I see now what God was doing in my life. God

grew my relationship during that time with him. Him. Because

I was weak emotionally, spiritually, mentally. My wife and

I's relationship was strengthened during that time. It

wasn't easy, but we got through it. And guess what? It's

amazing how you get so weak and then all of a sudden, wow, some

of these other things that were the big things don't seem so

big anymore. I see what God's doing now. God was preparing. God

was working in my life. We go through hardships. It becomes very

easy to appoint, to point the finger back at God and say, it's

not fair. But guess what? If you look in the Bible, it's full

of situations that are unfair. You look back in Genesis, Abel was

killed by his own brother. That wasn't fair. Abraham told to

leave his family and go into another land he had never been before.

That wasn't fair. Jacob stealing his brother's birthright,

that wasn't fair. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers.

Moses and the children of Israel wandered the wilderness for

40 years. David was hunted by his own king and driven out of his

homeland. Daniel taken into captivity as his life was just beginning

to start. Hosea was told to marry an unfaithful wife. Mary had

to give birth as a virgin. Apostles and early Christians had

to suffer persecutions in the most brutal way. Paul shipwrecked,

stoned, hated, persecuted for serving Christ. But guess what? It

also wasn't fair that Jesus died on the cross for our sins because

that's God's grace in our life. Jesus on that cross took your

sins and my sins, and he says, I'm going to take your place on that

cross. You deserve, this is what you deserve, this is what would

be fair, is for you to die and go to hell because you are a sinner.

And, and you have sinned against me. And so. But guess what?

It's not fair. So I'm going to take your place. Maybe we have to

shift our perspectives around a little bit, look at things in a

different light. What, what is unfair in your life may be the perfect

will of God. There are some things that happen, there are some

things that are hard, there are some trials that we go through,

and it may seem unfair, it may seem hard, it may seem difficult,

it may seem cruel. But guess what? God's working. And as long

as you stay faithful to him, all things work together for him.

When we are weak in ability, we are then strong in ability. When

we are weak in relation, we are then strong in relation. When

we are weak in trials, we are strong in trials. All through the

help of Jesus Christ. The problem is we have too many strong

Christians that do not allow God to do something great in their

lives. Be thankful for the hardships, be thankful for those

trials, because that means God is not done with you. He's working

something out. He wants to take you through something. God doesn't

want you to react to those things in a bitter way, in an angry

way, but this is what he wants you to do. If you turn to Psalm chapter

number 51, Psalm chapter number 51, and look in verse number

17, it says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken

and contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise. This is David,

a plea for forgiveness. David hadn't obviously is a man after God's

own heart. That's how the Bible describes him. But he sins

with Bathsheba and now he's having this plea of forgiveness.

And he says, God, I can't sacrifice the way you want me to

sacrifice. Because what you truly want is you want me to be a

broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart humbled before you.

Let me ask you one more time. How weak are you? How unfair is your

life? And where is your joy? Grounded? As the musicians prepared

for invitation. Life is full of trials. Life is full of hardships.

Been saying the whole service. Life is full of disappointments.

That just means God's not done with you yet. God wants you to humble

yourself before him, to come to an altar and to cry out to him

saying, God, I am nothing without you. I am weak and I need

your strength. I'm done being prideful. I'm done. I'm done with

putting up the face. I'm done with putting up the walls. I'm done

with the strength of my life. I'm ready to be weak again. God help

me to rely on you and my strength. Some of you tonight may

have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior. I pray that

tonight would be the night that you do so. Put away the pride

that's in your heart. Come to Jesus and say, lord, I am a sinner

and I need help. I need you. I need you to save me from an eternal

place called Hell. You took that place on the cross for me. Maybe

you're going through something in your life. Maybe you're frustrated

about it. Maybe you're angry, maybe you're sorrowful, depressed

even. But just remember this. My grace is sufficient for thee,

for my strength is made perfect and weakness. Let's pray.

Lord, I just want to thank you again for this message, God, as I

know you have used this message in my own life, Lord, and

you've spoken to my heart this Lord. Lord, I pray that tonight that

souls would be touched tonight, Lord, and that people would

come back to you, relationships would be restored.

Lord, help me to always remember that the trials, the hardships,

the pain, Lord. As long as I keep you first in my life, Lord,

that those things will all work out, Lord. Because when I am

weak, God, you are strong. We thank you, Lord. And please be with

this time of invitation just now I pray. Amen.