• Suffering halts us too often. We hurt so we stop – not just physically, but emotionally and worse yet, spiritually.
• We struggle to see how we can continue to contribute to the work of God any longer. How does the work of God relate to the suffering soul?
• Paul shares his testimony of weakness versus God’s greatness.
1) God is always able to change our course and direction for His good.
A. Saul’s introduction to Jesus. Acts 9
• Acts 7 – we meet Saul at the stoning of Stephen – vs 58 calls him a young man.
• Acts 8:3 -- Saul began ravaging the church
• Acts 9:1-8 -- Jesus confronts a zealous, angry, young man. Quite the encounter. Bright lights,
thunderous voice, and Saul was stricken with blindness. From a leader of men to being led by the hand.
God can always instantaneously take charge of our situations.
• Interesting perspective on Saul’s calling by God – Acts 9:15,16 Jesus tells Ananias to go to Saul and
He reveals to Ananias that there was much suffering for Jesus’ name that Saul would endure.
• And the suffering began within days. The Jews started plotting to do away with Saul because he had
switched sides. From a persecutor of the church to a proclaimer of Jesus.
B. Missionary journeys start – Acts 13
• Saul and Barnabas were in Antioch, working with the church there.
• The Holy Spirit urged the church to set them apart on the work that He had designed for them
• Acts 13:9 – Luke changes his record of names from Saul to Paul, from then on as Paul.
• A lot of turmoil confronts Paul and Barnabas as they begin to spread the gospel, and the unbelief of the
Jewish community is astounding! Very caustic, and threatening. It becomes evident early on that the
message must go to the Gentiles to be received, so Paul does that. He speaks to the Gentiles, they
welcome the message gathering in large crowds to hear it, and the Jews become even more angry and
jealous.
• The Jews aroused all the prominent people of the city of Pisidian Antioch and drove them out.
• A short time later, Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra healing and preaching Jesus, and in Acts14:9 the
Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and swayed the populous to stone Paul, drag him out of the city
and leave him to die on the road.
• “all the things he must suffer for my Name.”
C. One verse pause – the Galatian church is born
• Acts 16:6 -- God orchestrated interruption to Paul’s plans.
• At first it seems that God wanted him to wait until the vision came from God for the call to ultimately
preach in the Macedonian region. Or maybe the Asian people weren’t ready for the gospel yet, or the
persecution would be too severe. (How can you get worse than what it already was?)
• Did we just have a break in the journey? Did Paul take a vacation from preaching? Why did the Holy
Spirit stop Paul from going to Asia Minor at this time?
• Galatians 4:13,14 -- it seems that what Luke refers to as the Holy Spirit preventing, Paul refers to as a
bodily illness, a weakness.
• I don’t necessarily want to focus on Galatia’s reception of Paul and the gospel, but rather on the fact
that even in our weakness God can provide ways for the glorification of himself.
• Here was Paul, preaching and spreading the word of God, and God stopped the plans and said, “here,
preach to them.” Paul was sick, but because he continued to be the ambassador for Jesus, Luke referred
to it as the Holy Spirit prevent.
• It is so important in our times of pain that we understand the ultimate call of God in our lives. Don’t
forget the mission that He gave to us, you signed on when you were baptized into Him. That mission was
to seek and save the Lost. To bear witness of a risen Savior and returning King as Judge. Even when life
becomes shattered in your mind, the mission is still the same. God can use your time of weakness for His
good, and ultimately your good. The Galatian church bears witness to that.
2) Paul wasn’t super-human, or ultra-spiritual.
A. Paul got overwhelmed with his weakness.
• 2Corinthians 1:8,9
• Paul shows us his real humanity here. Giving us insight into the severity of his trials, whether it was
because of the illness referred to in Galatians or because of the persecution Paul and his companions
suffered in Ephesus. Either way there was a compounding of events that were affecting his resolve to
continue on. He had to dig deep into his faith reserves.
• There is such a lesson for me here, when it becomes so easy to lay down and die, faith says “keep on”.
Paul terms it the sentence of death within themselves, that the burden was so extreme to get them to rely
completely on the power of God to deliver.
• Maybe that’s your message today. Maybe God has driven you to the corner, surrounded by your enemies,
just to give you one message – “Trust ME!” maybe this message is the point of your pain.
B. Paul needed reminding that he was simply a representative of Jesus’ power.
• He had had some amazing revelations in his life, some insight into Paradise, hearing things that the
normal man is not privy to.
• 2Cor 12:7 a messenger of Satan to buffet him – to keep him reminded of his place
• Read vss 8-10
• This passage is included to help us understand Jesus’ work in weak men. You’re broken, OK. You hurt,
Ok. Your eyesight is damaged, OK. The list can go on and on. We live in decaying tents, tabernacles, that
ultimately will die. But Jesus’ work is about his power being shown in your brokenness.
• The key to finding the point of my pain, is to allow my weakness to be transformed into a manifestation
of God’s power! When I am weak, I allow Him to be strong. It’s not about me, but HIM. Focus on His work
in you, and your opportunity to participate with Him in that work!
• Many are the stories of how that illness brought Christians into contact with a nurse or a doctor who did
not know the Lord. It was a time of weakness that showed forth the power of God! God can use us still –
it’s a point of perspective! Will I let Jesus be glorified in me no matter what?
3.) A Hope-filled expectation.
• Paul was not ultra-spiritual, he was faithful. He was not super-human, he was hope-filled.
• Life wasn’t contained in his hardships, it was found in Jesus Christ. This was the message he lived and
preached daily.
• There was one reminder he gave to the church in Philippi – one of the cities where he had suffered much
for the name of Christ.
• Philippians 3:20,21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of
His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
• There’s a change coming. A change of glorious proportions. One in which Jesus will exert his power
upon your brokenness and transform it into His perfection! What a day of hope that is.
• So no matter what you are facing today, the message is here for all of us.
• The point to our pain is the exaltation of Jesus! Let Him transform your weakness into a powerful
showing to you and the world that He is the God who delivers!
• Entrust your soul to Him today, and let Him renew you, and fill you with hope and purpose!
What can I do right now for God? I'm broken, remember.
-- pray
-- talk / witness
-- invite
-- be excited about Good News
