Healthy Church - Strong Church | Boasting In My Weaknesses (February 9th, 2020) - Mike Armstrong

Hey, well, if you would grab your Bibles now and get them turned to 2nd Corinthians.

2nd Corinthians is where we're gonna be this morning because today we are uh crossing the finish line, if you will, uh, to our Healthy Church, Strong Church uh series.

And this is where we have been looking at uh our our six distinctives.

You see them uh up there, focusing in on uh the main things that that we as a church here are are committed uh to going after.

Okay, all of this, like why are we going over this series now?

Well, all of this uh coincides with our our recent name change, right?

We went from harvest to uh redemption back in uh in November, and so what it's done is it's it's given us uh just an opportunity, I think.

This is so helpful to do this from time to time, to kind of recast or or even re-emphasize the the vision uh and the mission uh that God has given to us here as uh as a local body uh of Christ.

All right, and so we've gone through the six things already.

I'm not adding a seventh here or anything like that.

Really, what we're doing is we are concluding our time here uh in this uh by going through uh 2 Corinthians chapter 12, uh 1 to 10, uh, mostly is where we'll be here, because I believe that this passage serves as such a such a vital blueprint for us.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

It it just shows us the the the the mindset, what our what our approach must be if we if we really want to see God glorified and his power uh poured out in our lives, right, as individuals and and as the church.

Right?

If we if we truly aspire here, okay, to be a healthy church, a strong church, again, which is the series is all about, if we desire that, you know, corporately as redemption, and of course, individually as people and in our families and stuff, uh it really only happens as you and I embrace something that is just so counterintuitive uh to us.

Hey, do you know what that is?

You've probably read the title of all of this, you've probably seen it in your notes.

Uh, it's weakness.

Right?

It's weakness.

I mean, I mean, doesn't that doesn't that sound just so backwards?

What?

Healthy church, strong church?

Now we're talking about weakness.

Okay, but uh, but as we'll see here in in the example of Paul and in his life and and in his ministry, okay, God's power strengthens him, and it strengthens all of us as believers as we recognize and and accept and and even boast, okay, boast in the things that reveal just how weak you and I are apart from Christ.

And again, this is so opposite of how you and I uh naturally kind of function and operate, isn't it?

Right?

Because we we despise weakness.

Okay, we hate it, we we run in the opposite direction of weakness.

No one, no one likes to admit uh their insecurities.

How many people are like super fired up about having a conversation about that with somebody this afternoon?

Right, here's where I'm just super insecure.

Right, no one no one really likes that.

No one no one wants to have a light kind of shone on their frailty and and their and their shortcomings and their neediness.

No, not at all.

And we'd much prefer to feel and and certainly act like we've got it all together.

Right?

We we we want that, we we desire that, we like to show that.

We we like to show uh that we're maybe more mature than than we might otherwise be.

We tend to be people and certainly live in a culture where we we love to highlight our strengths.

Right?

Look at all the things that I've done, look at my abilities and and my accomplishments.

Right?

That's basically what social media exists for.

Right?

We don't like to show our shortcomings.

We don't like to you know to talk about or or reveal the difficult circumstances that we're experiencing.

Okay, but Paul's approach here is we're gonna see this, it's just so different.

Right?

It's different than that.

There's just no disputing the fact that that as Paul freely embraced his various weaknesses, we're gonna get to that, the the different challenges of his life.

What happened was God poured out more grace, right?

God poured out more power and and infused more strength into the mission that God had given to him to plant and establish churches.

Okay, so you you want to be strong?

Okay, as a Christ follower, as an individual, as a church?

Well, are we ready then to embrace and maybe even boast in our weaknesses?

Because that is the very thing that really just gives God the green light to just start pouring out grace, pouring out power, and pouring out uh his strength.

All right, lots that we're gonna say uh here this morning, but why don't we just kind of begin our time here uh with prayer?

Join me as we do that.

God, uh, you are all powerful.

Lord, we have already sung about your grace and your mercy, we've sung about your goodness, Lord.

You have created the universe, Lord.

You have made us, you have drawn us to yourself, you have saved us by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And God, as we think about these things, Lord, we are maybe struck with the reality and the realization that we are pretty broken people.

Or that's an understatement.

We uh are so, so weak.

Some of us are very aware of that, others of us are trying to hide it.

We don't want to be real and honest about that.

But Lord, I pray that as you know we work through this passage here today, that I pray that that we would really turn a corner in our thinking here.

We would turn a corner in our approach and our mentality and the very attitude that we have, that we wouldn't hide all of these things, but that we would actually boast in them because when when we are weak and we understand that, that that puts us in a place of humility where now you in power can move and work to the glory of your great name.

And so, God, help us with this because we're proud.

Lord, we are arrogant and and we're fearful, Lord.

We don't want to face these things, we don't want to think about these things, we'd much rather avoid.

And so, God, though, we we bring ourselves in in our weakness and in our frailty, Lord, before the throne of grace, before our great, strong, awesome, and mighty King.

And we ask for you to move and work and make us a church that, Lord, is not strong the way we would like to define it.

But Lord, that it's strong is the way you and your word defines it.

So, God, it's in these things we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, first thing here this morning, we got two uh two points.

Here it is God strengthens his church as we embrace our weaknesses.

Okay, so I will fight against the pride of just wanting to appear strong all the time.

Right?

Do you have this uh kind of going on in your heart?

Yeah, sure, of course.

I do.

We all do.

Now let's uh let's get a, you know, let's kind of set the stage a little bit here and understand kind of what we're parachuting into here in the book of 2 Corinthians.

It really, as a book, it it centers on uh the relationship between uh suffering, which we all experience, and uh and God's power, right?

And that's in the lives of believers and in the church.

And so in this, Paul shares details from his own life and his own ministries as an example.

We're gonna see some of these things here in uh in a moment, and just what becomes clear as as you read through the book of 2 Corinthians is that at various points in the letter is that Paul was dealing with a bunch of things.

One of the things that he was dealing with was these other teachers, okay, he actually refers to them as false apostles that were that were in the church and influencing the church.

Actually, at a couple of different points, he calls them, like really sarcastically, he calls them super apostles, right?

He's like, okay, these guys are amazing.

These guys, these guys are clearly heroes here, but these are the kind of guys that were coming into the church and and infecting it.

And one of the things that they were doing is they were they were being very critical of Paul.

They're being very critical of his ministry.

Okay, suggesting actually that because he suffered so much, because he suffered so much, he must therefore not be a true apostle of Christ.

Right?

And so the general thrust of their of their argument, it would appear, would be that, you know, well, true apostles, real apostles, would only experience good things from God.

Right?

They would only experience, you know, success and favorable outcomes as they as they ministered and poured their lives out.

They wouldn't they wouldn't show weakness, they wouldn't go through as many brutal things as as Paul went through, and so they were completely trying to hack out the foundation of Paul's ministry and and discredit him.

Okay, and their criticism wasn't just having an effect on some in the church and and and threatening to undo Paul's ministry there.

Okay, but what criticism always does, and you probably know this in your own life, think about the last time you were criticized, right?

And Paul would have felt this certainly, right, is it would have tempted him to defend himself, right?

To to brag on himself and talk about how great he was.

So he's hearing this criticism.

He would have been tempted to be like, no, guys, you're wrong.

He's like, I'm I'm amazing, I'm an incredible apostle, right?

Haven't you heard about all the all the fruitful things that I have been able to accomplish in these churches as I've gone about and planted them?

Look at all the great things that I've been able to do.

Right?

That would have been the temptation for him, as it is again for us when we're criticized.

Okay, but because of where Paul was at in his faith, because of the experience he had had over and over again of so many bad situations where the where the Lord came through and and and because of his his growth and his sanctification and the maturity that he had in Christ, he refuses to be goaded into such arguments.

He's like, I'm not, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna boast in this way.

In chapter 10, in verse 17, you've probably heard it before, but he says, Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

He's like, I don't know, I don't know what's going on here.

Let's let's boast in who he is and what he has done.

But in in chapter 11, and really because this had become such a unique situation, very serious situation, that that because of their criticisms, it was threatening to undo everything that Paul had done there, all the work.

And because really this came down to his opponents preaching another gospel, right?

They were they were they were warping the gospel, they're actually promoting a prosperity gospel, right?

Again, of health and and wealth.

Once you come to Christ, you're gonna get all of those things.

And you should have an absence of suffering, right?

Because that was the message being pumped into this church.

He decides, you know, I'm gonna take another tactic here.

He's like, all right.

He's like, all right, uh, fine, I'll I'll boast a little here.

Only it's not at all the way that his opponents do.

Okay, instead, he he boasts about what his identity is in Christ Jesus.

We just we just sang about that, right?

Who we are in Christ.

I'm a child of God, right?

And so he he boasts in that.

He he boasts in his identity as one of God's chosen.

He you know, and he gives you know a few of the the qualifications that he has as an Israelite and and as an apostle, but even in as he does that, he he's kind of downplaying the whole thing, right?

Being because of his reluctance to talk about himself.

He's like, I'm I'm nothing special.

Even as he's talking, this is in chapter 11, he calls himself a fool.

He's like he's like he says, like, I'm a I'm a madman to even be talking about this.

Like, what are we doing here?

Like, why do I have to talk about this?

Okay, but then he goes on in verse 24 of chapter 11.

We're gonna have this on the screen for you, to to list or and or even boast really of the various sufferings that he has been through for the sake of Christ.

Let's read this uh together.

I'll read it, you just watch and and and follow along.

Five times, he says, I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes, less one.

Okay, so 39 lashes was the most allowable uh in the old testament.

He's like, five times I've gone through this.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was I was stoned, three times I was I was shipwrecked.

Interestingly enough, later he would be shipwrecked again, we find out near the end of Acts.

He says, A night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, the Jews, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, he's not even listing all the details here.

He says, There's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Imagine he struggled with that.

Who is weak and I am not weak?

He's like, I'm extremely weak.

He says, Who is made to fail and I am not indignant?

Okay, so he's he's grieved here and he's so upset that people are being led astray by these by these false apostles.

And then he finishes this section off with this amazing verse.

He says, If I must boast, okay, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

I love that.

He's like, uh, if I've got to give a defense here, okay, I'm gonna point to all the ways that I am, I am frail and and I am feeble.

Okay, keep in mind, these are the very things that the opponents were attacking him with.

And don't you love how Paul's like, hey guys, you don't even know the half of it.

Let me fill in some of the details here.

You think I'm weak, you think I'm kind of lame, I'll show you even more.

Right?

There's so many of us, we don't want to do that.

We want to hide all of that.

Oh, yeah, well, I'll show you and get back at them.

He's not no, no, no.

He's like, I want to show you, it's even worse than you think.

You you you you got my number, you don't even really have the full number.

Right?

This is, I've gone through a lot.

Again, probably not, I'm just kind of going on a limb here, probably not exactly the first instinct that you and I would have.

But you see here as we go through this, this is actually the strongest defense he or any of us could ever give.

Now he's gonna circle back to some of these things that he just said, but with all of that kind of teed up for us, let's now look at uh chapter 12, starting in uh in verse 1 here.

And this is where his boasting, if you will, uh kind of makes this shift from talking about the trials and the sufferings and the hardships that he's gone through to these visions and these revelations that God uh has given him.

Take a look at verse one.

He says, Uh, I must go on boasting.

He says, Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I love that.

He's nothing to be gained by it, I will go on, okay, to visions and revelations of the Lord.

Okay, and then look what he says here.

He says, I know a man in Christ.

Now let's hit the pause button there for a second.

I don't know, maybe when you read that, you're like, who's this other guy, right?

That Paul is talking about.

What's the identity of this man?

Right?

It seems as though he's speaking about somebody else, but but a careful reading of these verses here uh show us that he's actually talking about uh himself uh in the third person.

Because again, he said, I'll go on to talk about my my visions and revelations.

So he's talking about himself in the third person.

I think probably naturally you're thinking, like, why?

Why would Paul do that?

Why would he just talk about himself in the first person?

Well, I think the the most likely reason is that he's just trying to distance himself from trying to make it look as though he's he's just this self-obsessed guy.

Right?

This is Paul's way of taking kind of a humble approach, you know, and talking about what God has done in him without kind of making himself the hero of the story.

Right?

So he's not boasting here in any kind of arrogant or self-aggrandizing way, as again, his his opponents and enemies were, not at all.

So he says, verse 2 again, I know a man in Christ, it's him, right, who 14 years ago was caught up into the into the third heaven.

Okay, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.

God knows.

He says, I know that this man himself was caught up into paradise.

Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.

God knows.

He repeats that.

You know, you may be thinking, like, what's all this like third heaven stuff about?

Like, what's that mean?

Well, it's really just a kind of a common way of understanding uh heaven and kind of how all of that uh worked, right?

Uh this this the third heaven there.

Um, well, let me just start with the first heaven.

The first heaven was considered uh kind of the place where like you the birds fly.

Okay, like the sky that we look up into and insects fly around.

That would be considered kind of the first uh heaven.

And then you've got the second heaven, which would be like space, right?

Sun, moon, and stars.

That's you know, gazing up into the heavens.

You know, we have all you know done that, of course.

And then, of course, he mentions uh the third heaven here.

He mentions that he calls it paradise as well, which is which was commonly thought of as the place where God resided, where God ruled in heaven.

This is commonly what we think about when we think about heaven, going to heaven, where God uh is, his his home, where he resides and rules in power.

All right, and so so Paul he had you know some kind of in or out of body experience.

He's not too sure.

It's got like a vision and a revelation.

That was kind of unclear to him, and so it's unclear uh to us, but but a vision, a revelation where verse 4 says, uh he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

All right, so in this vision, these revelations, God was showing him and and telling him things that were obviously astounding, right?

Amazing things.

Imagine uh being in the position that that Paul was in here, and but apparently these were just really for his benefit.

Like these aren't even things I'm I'm telling people, uh, and part of kind of what my mission is.

He's like, this was this was something for uh for me.

And so he he's just kind of sharing here uh uh just a touch or a snippet of the experience that God had given him.

Okay, this is what God had done.

Now, verse five, on behalf of this man, again, he's still talking about himself, I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast except of my weaknesses.

Okay, so it's kind of like like like Paul from 14 years ago.

Okay, I'll I'll boast about what God revealed for revealed to him.

But about myself now, I'd much prefer to just focus on my weaknesses here and and boast in those.

Now, this might kind of seem like strange wording to you and I as we kind of read through all this, but this is again, this is just Paul distancing himself from really looking a lot like and being like these other apostles that were attacking him and his ministry.

He'd much rather be in his comfort zone of emphasizing again his weaknesses and boasting in those.

Though, okay, he says in verse 6, though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, meaning I wouldn't be a liar, he says, before I would be speaking the truth.

He's like, what I'm saying here, what I'm sharing with you, it's not fabricated, I'm not exaggerating, I'm not making it up.

It's all true.

He says, but I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me and give him glory, or more than he sees in me or hears from me.

Now, I don't know about you, but I I I got read through that and I think about that and and consider the approach that Paul is having here, and it kind of blows my mind.

Right?

I find this mind-boggling to think about where Paul was at here and the desires of his heart and and the perspective that he had uh through all of this.

He just had no desire.

You could tell it's it's it's real, it's honest.

He had no desire to get into this defensive bragging war over accomplishments and and self-adulation with these with these false apostles.

He didn't want to meet them on their level and play their game.

He wasn't interested in defending his own honor as he's being attacked.

He wasn't trying to one up his apostles and make himself look better so that the the Corinthian church would be super impressed with with Paul.

No, he he he cared about one thing.

He cared about God's glory.

That's that's what he wanted.

Right?

He learned through all of his hardships over the years that that we read about, he just shared, he he knew, he realized that embracing just the the painfully obvious reality of his weakness and and his neediness, he's like, that's the best way to give all glory to God.

Right?

That that that's it.

There's no other better way.

The more evident his weaknesses were to himself and to the people that he ministered to.

Even to his enemies, okay, the more it revealed that it was truly Christ who was accomplishing all the things that Paul was a part of in his ministry.

Right?

Paul, at the end of the day, he he you can tell he just sees himself as a vessel of God's power.

He just wants to be like an empty container, just a shell, and and the Lord will fill him up so that he can pour out God's power to the nations.

I love that.

I really do.

I think it's amazing.

Okay?

He's like, why give in to the pride of my heart that just wants me to look strong all the time when the truth is that that I'm just not.

I am not strong.

Christ is, He has come through for me again and again and again.

In every situation that I have faced, Jesus has been my strength.

He's just embraced that that the weaker he looks, the stronger Christ is revealed to be.

And the more glory God gets from it.

Church, let me, I don't know, just kind of be the first to admit here that this is so hard.

Right?

This is so hard to have this approach that Paul has.

I find it, I find it really difficult.

I admit before you today that that appearing weak is not the natural inclination of my heart.

I confess that too much of the time I just want to look strong.

I want to look capable.

I want to impress you, to be honest.

I have to fight that every single day, every every week as I come to church on Sundays as well.

The list goes on.

I I want all of these things.

Do you sense that in yourself too?

Do you notice that in your heart and in your mindset?

Right?

We want to be so strong in ourselves, don't we?

And so much of it, though, have you noticed, it's just it's insecurity.

Have you seen that you've got deep insecurities in your heart that at the end of the day, we often just try to fix them ourselves, or we just try to gloss over them, mask over them?

A couple of examples I could give us here.

You know, some of us, I think, would just be would just be mortified to admit to anyone that that maybe our marriage is weak.

Maybe it's worse than that, maybe it's it's in trouble.

But because of kind of the pride that's there, right?

We we we don't want to we don't want to let anybody in on that.

And we feel like maybe a person will judge me if if I share that.

And so we could we kind of put on this front and and act like we've got it all together in our marriage.

Our marriage is good, it's it's all good, it's it's actually strong when maybe it's not.

Or, you know, I find myself constantly uh grieved by by those of you who are just going through significant health crises.

Right?

I'm always amazed and burdened really by uh how how often I hear about this and the difficulties that that some of you are are going through.

But listen, and and I say all this as gently as I possibly can.

I I really just ask the question how how do you view your illness?

How do you view that?

Do you view that as the opposite of true strength?

Or or or do you uh do you embrace your physical weakness?

Do you embrace this this physical limitation so that Christ can build spiritual strength within you?

Okay, or or perhaps another example here, you've experienced some kind of failure in your life.

Right?

Perhaps it's in your vocation, it's in it's in business, or or maybe you're a student here and and it's just it's not gone well for you, and you've kind of blown out of school, and and and and it's it's a failure that you that you carry with you, and and and it and it hurts, right?

And it's gone to your heart.

And and now, you know, instead of you know admitting this weakness and instead of bringing this to the Lord, instead of you know him strengthening you and him getting glory in all of it, you know, you've kind of just doubled down on it.

You're trying to show that, no, I am strong here, and and and I'm gonna show you.

And at the end of the day, though, again, it's just more pride.

Right?

It's this attempt to appear strong, and we have this desire inside us, don't we?

It runs deep and it just it leaks out.

You can't hide that ultimately.

I mean, we could go on with with examples here, but but are you fighting against this?

Are we fighting against our pride?

I mean, this is a battle, right?

This is a this is a battle for the mind and how how we think.

This is this is a battle for our for our heart and our desires.

This is a battle of the volition, right?

Our our will.

Are we fighting by by praying against this pride?

Are we fighting by confessing the pride and and humbling ourselves and and believing in what's actually true?

That the desire to appear and be strong all the time, again, is is nothing more than an arrogance that runs deep within our flesh.

Again, it's it's pride, right, that actually stun our spiritual growth and and stunts our strength, not just as individuals.

Don't just be focused on yourself here, but this actually affects the growth of the church.

It affects the strength and the health of the church.

As any one of us here are weak in the sense of giving in to pride, it has an effect on the community here.

Don't ever think that there's there's no victims to your sin or to your pride.

Right?

As we grow in in grace, as we grow in humility, the church is built up.

As we give in to pride, it affects the church in a negative way.

We have to understand that and remember that.

And of course, when all of you know the negative side of things happens and we give in to pride, it obviously robs God of the glory that he aims to get uh through the very presence of our weaknesses.

Are you fighting for the same mentality and that whole approach of Paul that he had, that the that the pathway to real strength as God defines it is through an admission of total weakness.

See, so many people talk so freely and openly, and we talk about this in church, right?

I want more God in my life, I want I want more of his power, right?

I want more of his more of his strength, and we want to see that you know in our church in all kinds of different ways.

No, no one argues against that.

No one no one says, Well, you know, I don't really want that.

Of course we want that.

We want to see God do amazing things.

But are we willing to take the necessary and biblical path to get there?

Are we?

That's really what this last thing gets at here.

Second thing, God strengthens his church as we embrace our weaknesses, so I will be content with what humbles me, so that God's power is revealed.

Take a look at verse 7 now with me.

Verse 7 says, So, so to keep me from being becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation.

So God is pouring out in him and showing him all kinds of things.

He says, To keep me from being conceited, okay.

Again, pause right there for a second.

Isn't it amazing?

And I mean this in like a really dark and kind of twisted, shameful way.

Isn't it amazing that when God begins to work in our lives, how how we how we sometimes sometimes have this kind of warped way of twisting it and getting conceited about that?

Have you seen that happen in your life?

Like the Lord starts to work in you, and you're like, wow, it must be because I'm pretty amazing.

Right?

That's the reason.

How how great am I?

And and and Paul could have gone this way.

The Lord is showing him visions that he's not showing anybody else.

Paul could have been like, man, how how how how unique am I?

How incredible am I that I am worthy of these revelations that God is is giving me.

Okay, but he and he knew that that this would have happened to him in his pride.

And so he recognizes now that God did something to ensure that this wouldn't happen, he wouldn't become full of himself.

Right?

Verse 7, he says, he says, a thorn was given to me in the flesh.

Okay, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Now, I think whenever we read that, I'm sure you've read that verse before, we naturally just want to know, like, what was a thorn?

Like, what was that thing?

Okay, well, we're not told, not explicitly, anyways.

I mean, the most common suggestions would be that, you know, it was some kind of spiritual warfare.

Right?

When he says a messenger of Satan, I think that makes some sense.

Right?

It could have referred to some kind of mental or psychological struggle that he had.

Right?

Remember in chapter 11, he already admitted it, his anxiety and his sleeplessness, right?

And maybe it's maybe it's just to do the pressure and and the stress of ministry, or the grief and the sorrow that he went through in that as people abandoned him and things didn't always go the way that he wished that it would.

Okay, or it could just simply refer to the opponents that persecuted him.

That was the thorn and and their spiritual warfare involved in that.

Many have suggested that this was some kind of physical ailment.

That's what thorn in the flesh seems to say.

There are other places in the scriptures as we hear from Paul that seemed to suggest that he he had some kind of eye problem, some kind of some kind of sickness, illness.

Again, we don't know.

But in verse 8, take a look at that, he says, he says, whatever that thorn was, three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

Now I think, pause there for a moment.

I think that is that's such a good thing for us to hear in a passage like this.

Listen, it's not wrong to pray that the Lord would take these things away from us.

Like when we suffer and when we have weaknesses, when when God gives us maybe various thorns, it's not wrong to pray that the Lord would remove it.

Paul does intensely uh three times it says, it's okay to pray that for the removal of our struggles and and and and our circumstances.

We just need to remember and be willing to go past that.

That's not the only thing that we want.

That's not that's not our greatest desire.

We have to remember that that God typically has another purpose and another plan in play.

Always, actually, not typically, always has another purpose and plan in play as we suffer in weakness.

Right?

Because here's what Paul came to understand about his own thorn and how he would proceed through life without it being removed from him.

Take a look at verse 9.

Paul says, But he, that's God, but he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you.

For my power is made perfect in weakness.

And what a verse to highlight in your Bible.

What a verse to remember when we struggle.

My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.

So God was letting him know here that, hey, listen, this thorn it's gonna remain.

Okay, I'm not gonna remove it, not this one.

Okay, but uh but grace would be given to Paul from God.

And that grace, that would be sufficient, right?

That's what you need.

You need my power, you need my strength, you need grace to be able to move forward, even though that thorn, that suffering, the weakness that comes from all that, all of that's gonna remain.

It would be enough for you to carry on and do what I have called you to, Paul.

That's what that's what God is saying to him.

And because ultimately, as Paul grew in humility and and grew in passion for the Lord, ultimately uh what he wanted was he did that's what he wanted.

He wanted God's grace, right?

He wanted God's power in his life.

He he wanted all of that more than he wanted his own plans established, he wanted that more than he wanted, his own comfort or any of those things.

And he said, therefore, in verse 9, he says, Therefore, I will I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Literally, that means dwell in or reside in me.

Okay, for the sake of Christ then, okay, so he's living for Jesus, not himself, right?

For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses.

He's content, content with weaknesses, insults, he says, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Okay, see, Paul under understood there that Christ builds his followers up, he builds his church strong within the environment of weakness and suffering.

Right?

And this is so so key, uh, such a key component for us uh that we that we have to kind of insert into our understanding about all of these things, about how the church becomes strong.

And I say that because I think it can be so easy for us to kind of to get a sense of, even our six distinctives.

Let's get those on the screen again, right?

We get a we get a sense of this, and this is the mission that we've got as a church, and and and this is what we're committed to.

We read all of those, we we hear some sermons on those, and we can think, all right, amazing.

This is this is what we're about, right?

This is what we're uh to go after.

These are the things that that glorify glorify God.

So let's get psyched, church.

Let's pursue these things to his glory and watch as God's church is built up strong.

You know, all of those things, that's that's true, everything I just said, right?

It really is.

But, okay, it's so common for us to have that that biblical understanding of weakness and and suffering missing from the equation of our approach to all of this.

Right?

It just really is.

And if it is missing, when you and I all try to grow as believers and and as we try to do our part to see you know our church grow up healthy and and and strong, and then inevitably come up against various hardships in our own personal lives and and and and as a church, those things that reveal our weakness, it's like we don't have a category for this.

Right?

We haven't made room in our in our understanding, and it throws us for a loop.

And our and our flesh thinks that these things that reveal our weakness, those are things to be run away from.

Right?

These are things to be to be to be rejected or or avoided or even prayed away.

God, remove all of this suffering, remove all of this weakness.

Surely that that that can't be a part of making a church strong, right?

And when God is essentially saying, No, I'm not gonna remove these things.

I I have you in this circumstance, I have you in this trial, I have you enduring this suffering because I love you.

To humble you, to make you dependent on me, so that I can be strong in you, so that I can be strong through you.

God says you don't need the removal of these difficulties and these things that make us uncomfortable and and cause pain and and show weakness.

You don't need the removal of that, not most of all.

What you need is my grace.

My grace is sufficient for you.

My power, my power is made perfect in your very many weaknesses.

God says, be content with this.

He knows it feels terrible in the moment.

Right?

Suffering is by definition awful.

Jesus understands suffering.

Right?

He went to the cross.

But God says to us, listen, what you're going through right now, it is for your good.

Right?

It is for your building up as an individual follower of mine, it is to actually build up the local church that you were a part of as well.

This is this is for my glory, not for yours.

I don't know, I I I just think that these verses are so timely for us as a church.

You know, as we consider that in just a few weeks here, we're gonna be celebrating our five-year anniversary.

And while there is certainly uh a ton to celebrate, and there's a ton to thank God for, and you better believe we're gonna do all of that.

I would can only imagine, in fact, I know that there are many of us here who also are experiencing another reality.

And yeah, there are some things to celebrate, but I'm weary.

Right?

I'm feeling kind of tapped out.

I I'm kind of even discouraged, and maybe you're feeling even a bit disillusioned and jaded about the church.

Maybe your excitement is even waning a little bit.

Maybe you came into our church with some unrealistic expectations.

Maybe you came in and at first glance you're like, man, this is this is it.

Finally, I'm gonna be part of the church where everything just goes well.

Right?

We're just gonna love Jesus and love people.

And you're laughing because you know that it's way more complicated than that.

Right?

And and and it's hard.

And and it's difficult, and it is discouraging, and it can be frustrating.

And maybe for you it's related to just kind of your serving in the church, and you're like, man, I've been going at this for a long time, and it feels kind of thankless.

And I sense that my desire for this is just not quite as fired up as it needs to be.

Perhaps for you, you're weary and tired and just kind of one foot in and one foot out, or your heart's disengaged because relationships here are just harder than you'd hoped they would be.

Okay, some of that discouraging, let me just kind of try to encourage you in that, is it's just kind of like the January-February thing.

Okay, do we realize that like we're what's the day today?

February 9th?

This is like the worst time period in the calendar.

Right?

It's it's the Christmas holiday letdown.

Right?

We we've spent all our money and now we're broke.

Right?

It's it's we just had way too many days of like it's pitch black at 4 p.m.

Right?

We haven't we haven't been outside, I haven't talked to a neighbor in months.

It's just so stinking cold.

Oh, good, and the wind chill makes it even colder.

Right?

And it's just it's hard in January and February, it really is.

And some of it's that.

But as our our weaknesses are revealed, right?

It's our own weaknesses and and it's other people's weaknesses, and it's just kind of overall church weaknesses, and as those are revealed through through our various circumstances that we're in and that we and that we face, listen, let's let's learn to embrace these things.

Right?

Let's embrace them as an opportunity.

Right?

This is an opportunity for for God's strength, for for God's power, for God's grace to just punch through.

Right?

Let's keep our hands to the plow, church.

Right?

Let's continue to press forward in in our own lives and in our own growth.

Let's continue to push forward here as it's been five years and we're and we're tired.

Let's push forward as we just hate life because it's February.

Let's press all press through in all of this and realize that these are unearthing weaknesses that we shouldn't keep trying to push down.

Let's boast in them.

Let's realize that it's even worse than I'm feeling.

It's even worse than people know about.

That sounds so foolish, it sounds so ridiculous.

Again, it's so so counter-cultural, so counterintuitive.

The world's out there saying, be strong, be strong through the gym membership, be strong through having lots of money, be strong through multiple sexual partners, be strong in all these days these ways.

The scriptures just say, no, admit your weakness.

Because real strength is from God.

That's what you need.

Better to admit strength and have uh admit weakness and have God's strength than to rely on our own pathetic measure of strength.

Amen?

I think that's the truth.

Let's take this as an Opportunity, not just today, but through February, through the fifth anniversary, through the spring, throughout this year, to cry out for more grace.

God, when I am weak, you are strong.

Let's boast in him.

Let's pray.

God, you are the only thing, the only person that is worth boasting in, boasting about.

And God, we confess freely and admit today that we don't naturally do this.

God, we tend to hate our weaknesses and we even complain about it.

We whine, we get bitter, we get jaded, we get angry.

We separate ourselves from relationships with other people around here who could encourage us.

Lord, we in doing all of these things as sin and pride starts to grow in our hearts, we end up kind of distancing ourselves from enjoying your presence and your grace.

And so, Lord, I pray that we would confess these things as sin when the sin uh crops up in our lives.

Lord, I pray that we would uh completely 180 our mentality here and have the same one as Paul.

Boast in the in the hardships, boast in even in the illness, boast in the weakness of just difficulty in our career, boast in the challenges that uh that our family is experiencing in any number of ways, or us as individuals, Lord.

Because when we're doing that, at the end of the day, we're just being honest.

We're humbling ourselves.

And in that, we're relying on you for our strength.

And we need that, Lord.

We need you so badly, Lord.

We need you today as a church more than we've ever needed you.

And we will need you going forward more than we even need you now, I'm sure of it.

And so, God, encourage your church today.

As we talk about some things that are very heavy, Lord, we're just trying to set up a healthy and right expectation for us.

And then re- and then really look back to you where our strength and our hope is found.

And so, God, as we sing here now in response to what we have heard, Lord, be glorified.

Pour out your power, we pray, in your church, to the glory of Christ.

Amen.