Introduction:
Are you comfortable living in the skin that you are in? I ask you that question because, just recently, I found myself asking that exact same question. My situation was I found myself sitting in this vast waiting room with a bunch of other people waiting to see my oncologist for the very first time, not knowing what in the world she was going to tell me. At that point, I would have loved to have traded my skin for my younger brother's skin because he had blood work he just completed for a life insurance policy the week before, and his blood work was perfect. Mine was a mess. I know that I cannot change skin with anybody, but God taught me something that day when I ask myself that question that I want to share with you.
God took me to 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, and he asked me this question. "Do you think the Apostle Paul was initially comfortable in his skin with a thorn in the flesh irritating his skin? If you fell in a thorn bush and you came up with thorns in your skin, would you leave them there because you are comfortable in your sin?" My answer was no; I would do what I need to do to get those thorns out. And I know Paul tried what he could to do to remove his thorn; he prayed to God three times to remove the thorn. In my case, I would get a pair of tweezers and start plucking them out. If I am unable to get a couple out, I would go to my trusty doctor and hope he could pull them out. And then God came back and asked me this question: "if you cannot get them out and the trusty doctor cannot get them out, would you still be comfortable in your skin? And that is the place that God taught me my lesson.
Let's stand and read the Scripture, and then I will tell you what I have learned.
Scripture
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Point #1
THERE ARE GOING TO TIMES IN MY LIFE THAT THE ONLY WAY THAT I AM GOING TO BE COMFORTABLE IN MY SKIN IS IF MY SOUL IS SATISFIED IN ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
Let's face it; we all are going to have times that we are not going to be comfortable in our skin. I am sure that Mary Rose was not comfortable in her skin when she fell down the steps of the beauty parlor. I am sure that Anne was not comfortable in her skin when she laid on the floor at MD Anderson after just running full speed into the wall. And I am sure each one of us can think of a time when we were not comfortable in our skin. And in our Scripture, the Apostle Paul at this very moment is not comfortable in his skin. I can tell you that because the Scripture did not say he offered up a prayer to God. It says that Paul pleaded with God. He bore his soul to God. In other words, he got down to business with God, He put everything out there to God not once, not twice, but three times because he wanted that thorn gone.
Let me tell you that there will be times that you plead with God, and His answer is going to be "no." But that doesn't doom you to be uncomfortable in your skin because if your soul can be satisfied in God, you can be comfortable in your skin. God answered Paul and says that "my grace is sufficient for you," and that is all it took for his soul to be satisfied, and he became comfortable in his skin.
Point #2
IF I AM GOING TO BE COMFORTABLE IN MY SKIN, I CANNOT COMPARE MY SKIN TO YOUR SKIN AND DESIRE YOUR SKIN; INSTEAD, I NEED TO COMPARE MY LIFE TO THE WORD OF GOD AND DESIRE IT.
I read those verses over several times, and that is something that stuck out at me. Not once did I read the Apostle Paul says why cannot I be in the skin of John, the beloved Apostle of Jesus or anybody else. Paul never once tried to put himself in somebody else's skin. Never thought to himself, how much better things would be for me if I were in someone else's skin.
And there I want in that huge waiting room at MD Anderson Hospital thinking that very moment I wish I could be in my little brother's skin because his blood work came back great. And mine was a mess.
Some of you ladies might have a time, or two watched an actress on television and thought to yourself I wish that I looked like her.
Some of you guys might have seen the athletic ability of some athletes and desired to be in their skin.
The other day as at sat by Anne in the hospital, I did an experiment on myself, I pulled the skin under my arm to see what it would do, and to my surprise, it just sat there, it did not go back in place. I had to push it back in place. And I found myself wishing I had my skin at age 20 now that I am 67 years.
Listen, all that comparison is useless because their skin and my skin are one day all going to the same place: the grave
Ecclesiastes 12:7 (NIV)
7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
So comparing my skin to your skin does no good because they both are going to end up in the same place. What matters is how I compare myself to the Word of God. Do I line up with what God says to me? But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
Paul compared himself to the Word of God and lined up with it. Do you compare yourself to God's Word and line up with it? Paul's desire was not to be in the skin of someone else but to line up with the Word of God in his skin.
Point #3
I CAN BE COMFORTABLE IN MY SKIN NO MATTER WHAT IS HAPPENING TO IT IF I AM LINING UP WITH THE WORD OF GOD; FIGHT GOD ON ANYTHING THAT HE IS TELLING ME OR DOING IN MY LIFE, AND I WILL NOT BE COMFORTABLE IN MY SKIN.
PAUL LINED UP WITH WHAT GOD HAD TOLD HIM, AND HE WAS COMFORTABLE IN HIS SKIN. I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I LOOKED IN THE SCRIPTURES FROM WHEN PAUL FIRST MENTIONS A THORN IN THE FLESH UNTIL HIS DEATH, AND HE NEVER MENTIONS IT AGAIN.
Now take Jonah, and we remember the story, he tried to flee from what God wanted to do in His life. Do you think that he was comfortable in his skin in the belly of a great fish? Listen to what he says in Chapter 2 verse 5
5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
Jonah was fighting God, and you will not be happy in your sin.
CONCLUSION:
Some of you here today may be fighting God, and the consequence is that you are not going to be happy in your skin. God may have asked you to do something, and you told Him no. God may be calling you to salvation, and you are fighting it because you think it will limit your freedom. You, my friend, are unhappy in your skin. Are you lining up with God, or are you fighting God?
Let us pray!
