INTRODUCTION
• Last week we talked about how Paul was sent into nations. How much he traveled and how he trusted God in traveling. The hardships he faced and the miracles that followed him wherever he went.
• Today I want to discuss the issue that causes so many to struggle - suffering.
• Why is there suffering in the world and what does God do about it?
• How does it impact Christians and what do we do with it?
• The reason I want to go here is Paul suffered, huge.
• II Corinthians 11 and II Corinthians 12
I. PAINFUL AND PERMANENT
• Last week we talked about Paul’s traveling struggles.
• The truth is Paul’s were life struggles.
II Corinthians 11:23-29, “I more so…beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”
• Wow that is a highlight list isn’t it?
• Whipped, stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, floating in the sea (sharks wanted to eat him!)
• This was all spoken beforehand by God when He first put His hand on Paul.
Acts 9:15-16, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear my name before the gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
• Paul understood the terms he served under.
• God Himself would lead him into situations of suffering, like one sent to a Roman arena to be devoured by lions.
• He said God did this to reveal His power in and through Paul.
II Corinthians 1:9-10, “Indeed, we had the sentence of death (some of you feel like this!) Within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.”
• But there is still more, more suffering for Paul.
• He was ill, long-term ill. It was painful and permanent.
II Corinthians 12:7-9 NLT, “...I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
• How can you deal with suffering?
• And believe in a God that allows pain and suffering in good people’s lives.
• Read II Corinthians 12:7-9 in NASB, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
• Hold it we need to read that closely…
• “I was given” = didômi = an opportunity, a gift is how it is usually used. Jesus was God’s gift.
• This was a good thing the word Paul chose
• God giving a good gift…and Paul says “in order” or “for this reason” there is a purpose
• I was given a gift. Really what? A thorn! Really that did what? Torment
• A thorn – a pointed stake, a sharp splinter
• That tormented me. Literally - “that struck me,” hit me with your fist.
• So a messenger of Satan. What? We don’t know what Paul meant here, but obviously Satan had attacked Paul.
• What is clear Paul had a sickness, an illness that wouldn’t leave.
• We don’t know what it was: epilepsy, blindness, we don’t know.
• But we know it was difficult to bear.
• It was permanent and painful.
II. SO WHAT DO YOU DO?
• You do what Paul did…ask God to take it away!
• This guy was almost single handedly responsible for the spread of the story of Jesus to the known world.
• He wrote one half the New Testament and so do what he did.
• Three times he asked God to remove it from him.
• It appears there were three seasons of time that this thing threw him down and buried him.
• So he had to wait and believe.
• Don’t tell me this was about him not having enough faith. If it was, he would have told us. He told us everything else.
• Or about not being able to speak about illness. Paul clearly did.
• He was a man of faith.
• “He said to me…”at least God spoke. So often He doesn’t speak while we wait, but He spoke to Paul.
• Not the first time or the second time, but the third time.
• “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”
• Reverse a couple of words here, “My power is sufficient for you for my grace is perfected in weakness.”
• The answer is no. It will remain, but I will give you the power to press on.
• I will put power in you that you have never known, but the pain will remain. The trial will continue. The difficulty is here.
• Not for a season - permanently.
• And by the way Paul, “I love you” and I am going to use you and people will name their kids after you!
• But the answer is no, with a promise - my grace.
III. IS THERE A THE SILVER LINING?
• For Paul it is found in next verse.
II Corinthians 12:10, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
• Paul learned that there is something worse than sickness, and that is sin; and the worst sin of all is pride.
• No! Paul says I will own it and boast of it!
• Not hide with it.
• “I will boast so the power of God rests on me.”
• Embracing your inability allows you to experience Christ’s ability.
• Don’t hide and don’t pretend. Deal with it. Paul saw it as a gift.
CLOSE
• Vss. 10 - “...I delight in my weaknesses...” NIV
• When I am weak then I am strong, but that isn’t what I have been told.
• In order to…I was given a thorn.
• There is a reason while you wait.
• But you may need to receive it as a gift. That is an option, not always but sometimes.
• Jesus’ cry His last night. Take this cup away. No! Aren’t you glad God said no? Ask Him about you!
II Corinthians 4:7-12, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.”
