The Thorn in the flesh
2 Cor. 12:1-10
Introduction-
Prayer-
Father, in the powerful name of Jesus, we come this morning and wanting you Lord to do something fresh and new! It is our prayer each time we gather in your name, to see you do something while we are together.
As we look at the thorn in the flesh of the Apostle Paul, may we deal with the thorns that gather in our lives that we would know what to do with them and deal with them and be able to live our lives in spite of the thorns in our life. In Jesus Name Amen.
Thorns are mentioned in the Bible over 50 times. The most famous reference is the crown of thorns put on Jesus our saviors head as he went to the cross for us. Pain, suffering, and torment Jesus went through.
Weeds, thorns, thistles as a curse of the ground for man and his sin to work and till.
The thorn of the text this morning is Apostle Paul looking at things in his life that gave him some challenges.
Anybody on their last nerve about something they been going through and felt like heaven has not answered your prayers. The message is for you today.
Text- 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 (Don’t read yet)
Allow me first set this text up-
Apostle Paul after his conversion on the road to Damascus was a new creation- his priorities totally changes and he went from a religious man to a man that was on mission for Jesus.
To have an encounter with Jesus, where Jesus himself made himself known and said why do you persecute me Saul?
To have a relationship with the savior so intense and personal that he is willing to suffer and die for the cause of Christ. Many say it but few live it!
To fight the false prophets and false teachings head on knowing that the persecution he is getting is coming from the pits of hell to stop what God has started.
You would think that a man or women of God doing the things that Paul was doing would never have been given a thorn to deal with but would be protected and shielded from things like that in his life.
When you see a man or women of God doing great things for the Lord, I want you to understand that they have a testimony for God because things are not always good and life is not as easy as it looks.
At Some point, they have paid a price to be God’s servant and messenger.
All that gliders is not gold!
Let’s read the text and then let the text speak to us this morning.
2 Corinthians 12:1-10 Read
Don’t read through this too fast- Paul is talking in the third person here-
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up in the third heaven. (He was talking about himself)
14 years earlier he had an experience that changed his life forever.
Jesus, John, and apostle Paul were allowed to see and experience heaven and come back.
According to scripture-
1st heaven- Atmosphere and Clouds.
2nd heaven- Stars and Planets, outer space
3rd heaven- Throne room of God where God dwells. Paradise.
He says;
I don’t know if it is a vision.
I don’t know if I had an out of body experience.
All I know is that I was in paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that I am not permitted to tell anyone.
He says…I would be a fool to boast about my accomplishments compared to being shown the things that God has shown me.
I have been shown the paradise of heaven and I cannot even tell people what I have seen.
Remember this is the guy that in Philippians 3:5
“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for the righteousness based on the law faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ- yes, to know the power of the resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him unto death, and so somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
He has had an experience like no other… These are his words not mine
“Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God allowed Satan to bring torment in Paul’s life-
Paul says- There is this thorn in my life and I have asked God to take it and He has not taken it and said my grace is sufficient for you!
What is Paul’s Thorn?
Commentaries have all kinds of things that could have been his thorn- His bad eye sight!, The false prophets that tormented him everywhere he went- undoing what he was trying to do. Stomach problems, anxiety issues because so many things had happened to him from people and because of people.
We are not told what his thorn is- because I believe we all have to deal with the thorns that are given and allowed by God in our lives.
Emotional, spiritual, physical, financial, relational- What’s your thorn and why is there?
What can be your thorn?
A thorn is anything that nags, irritates, frustrates your life and is ongoing.
Those things that you have diligently been asking God to take from you and He has chosen not to.
What can we do about them?
Make sure that you have been praying for these things.
Spiritual laziness has caused some to not receive what the Lord is wanting for us.
If we have done all that we know to do, maybe our attitude has to change on the situation.
Why would God allow it? Whatever it is! Why has He allowed it into your life?
If you believe that nothing catches God by surprise, then at times He must allow these thorns and trials in our life for a reason.
We do not believe in luck, chance or fate, then as Christians we have to believe that God can take something bad and make something good out of it.
If the devil is messing with you, then God has allowed it for a purpose and it is our responsibility to find out what that purpose is.
Don’t believe me-
The story of Job- “The man that God himself said was blameless and upright, a man that feared God and shunned evil.”
God says to Satan “Have you considered my servant Job?
God allowed Satan to come against a man of God.
God Himself suggested Job to Satan.
Your thinking, God don’t do me any favors. Why would He do that??
Because God had something to show him, He has someone to minister too through you, He will get glory through you.
God has something to teach us!
One commentary says that the devil is allowed to deliver the dirty work.
That his dirty hands are used to do these things so that God can be glorified through the trial.
Maybe we are asking the wrong questions- instead of asking why me! Why now! Maybe we ought to be asking why not me? Why not now? What do you want to show me in this Lord?
In order that Paul was not conceited and talking and boasting about himself, he was given a thorn, a frustration that he could not get rid of in order that he would be more dependent on God and get his focus off himself and more on what God was doing.
Anybody know what I am talking about?
Our lives all about ourselves- God and the principals of God way down the list of priorities.
Every time we have a boo boo in life we think God ought to come and fix it, get rid of it!
You have been praying, God said I have heard you prayers- we want yes! Like the only answer God is allowed to give us is yes! He is still God if He says No, He is still God when He says Wait…
God loves us so much, He is not a God that only says Yes!
(9) He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’
What is Grace? - God’s riches at Christ expense-
Grace is “God giving you what you cannot give yourself”
We are talking about thorns that you have been praying about and God has not released an answer yet, or God has said wait, or God has emphatically said no!
I am not talking about the thorns that are self inflected- He says there are consequences for poor decisions.
He will help you through them but will not always take them away.
Any amount of grace given to us by God is more than we deserve, but because of how great God is, He says that He will give us sufficient amount of His grace!
God loves to use broken people! He does not love that we are broken, but broken people are more open to the moving of God in their lives.
Those that have opened up their hearts and allowed God to work in a bad situation either through them or for them.
Broken hearted with contrite hearts not concrete hearts.
Becky with everything she is going through has come up with a new phrase in our house. I have stolen it also and she stole it from John Gray from Lakewood Church. The phrase “Get a fresh praise on!” We don’t want to bring God an old stale dried up praise but one that is fresh from the heart and spoken with complete love and adoration.
I want to give God a fresh praise today don’t you?
Here is what I want you to think about when you are approaching God about a thorn in your life.
Have you been praying about it? Have you turned it over to Him?
If you have been praying- Does God want to do something in your life or through your life using that thorn?
Have you done inventory and made sure there is no conceitedness that God has to deal with?
As we close, I want us to read the last words Paul says after he realizes that God grace is really sufficient for him.
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, than I am strong.”
Paul’s prayer was answered, our prayers get answered… My grace is sufficient for you.
Even when we do not get the answers we want… my power is made perfect in weakness
In our weaknesses, may God’s power shine through us.
Listen, Paul could have been bitter. Maybe for a long time he was. He realized that whatever he was going through, he wanted God’s power to rest on him.
Paul says that in insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties… the power of God working in his weakness will be manifested in his life.
God answers prayer-
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so the Son may bring glory to the Father.”
“Is any of you sick? You should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
We should be praying and believing God to answer prayer- pray without ceasing.
Reality is that God does not always answer prayer with a yes, even if the prayer is offered up in faith.
God is sovereign- he does what He think is best and what pleases Him.
God is not the servant, we are the servant of God
We must embrace God’s grace and sufficiency
God cannot promise us no thorns in our lives- He promises that his grace will be sufficient.
Prayer- That God would help us with our thorn.
Maybe we are trying to get rid of something that God is trying to work in us.
