So let's get into today. We are back in Two Corinthians
for the final time, well for the final time for a while anyway.
We last term we went through the book of Two Corinthians and I
was meant to close out the series just before Christmas,
but I was ill so we didn't manage on manage to do it.
So I'm putting it in today before we start a brand new
series next week in the book of Malachi.
So if you've got a Bible, it's going to come up there.
But it's great always to read along as well.
You've got a Bible. I'm going to be in the first few
lines of Two Corinthians chapter 12.
So here we go. It says I must go on boasting.
This is Paul talking, although there is nothing to be to be
gained. I will go on to visions and
revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14
years ago was caught up in the 3rd heaven.
Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know.
God knows and I know that this man, whether in the body or
apart from the body, I do not know, but God knows, was caught
up into paradise and heard inexpressible things, things
that no one is permitted to tell.
I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about
myself except about my weakness. Let's pause there and pray, Lord
Jesus. We thank you, Lord God, that you
are so good to us, Lord Jesus. And I pray that as we open up
your word and we talk about it, Lord Jesus, and we hear your
word, Lord Jesus. I pray, Lord God, that you
would, you would sit, you would change us, Lord Jesus, as we
hear your words spoken. Lord God, you would, you would
challenge us, Lord God, you would speak to us, Lord God,
even you would act in supernatural ways.
As we pray later on, Lord God, we ask you, you, we invite you
into this time. Amen.
And may I add, we also pray, Lord Jesus, that you would
supernaturally fill this hall with heat because it is cold.
I'm sorry, I'm going to, well, I'd like to preach in AI don't
like to preach with jumper on. So here we go.
I'm going to move. I'm going to move around.
You're all sitting there.
So yeah. Anyway, so let's go back to
this. So my question for you, if you
can remember what we just read in the text is what do you boast
about? Now?
You're all lovely Christian people, so you're probably
saying I don't boast about anything.
Well, what do you like people to know about you?
You know, when you first meet people, what are you itching for
them to know about you? What you can do, what what
you're, what you're able to do, where you've been, what you've
seen. Maybe, maybe still you're too
good to want to to push yourself onto people like that.
OK, so let's rephrase it this way.
What do other people you know about boast about?
What do other people boast about?
Go on, let's have some ideas. What do other people?
What have you heard? Obviously none of you do.
But what have you heard that people boast about?
Pardon. Cars.
Yeah. Cars, possessions, your home.
How much material things you've got.
We like in this world, we love to boast about what we've got.
You know how much, how much things cost.
You know, just just to boast about how much money we've got.
You know, I bought this. I bought this item of clothing.
I bought this car. Guess how much it cost me?
No, it cost me more than that. I can afford much more than
that. I mean, on the flip side, many
of us will do the reverse, won't we?
You know, I bought that thing off Timo that cost next to
nothing. I'm never going to use it.
But guess how little it cost me? I mean, we do that all the time.
What other things do we boast about?
Education. Education.
Yes. Do you know how intelligent I
am? You know, we boast about we no,
we don't say it like that, but we, we talk about the grades
that we got, the university we get, we went to, we maybe say,
well, do you know what job I do? I could explain it to you, but
you wouldn't understand. So we, we boast about all these
sorts of things. Well, come on, give me another
thing that we boast about the golf handicap.
Golf handicap. Oh yes, boast about.
Does anyone anyone boast about that golf handicap in here?
Anyone got. But we boast about our physical
abilities, don't we? You know, I am.
I can lift so much at the gym. How much do you press or lift?
I don't go to the gym. But you know how?
You know how? How?
You know? We we talk about how amazing we
were. You know, if you could only see
me in my prime, how amazing I was it.
Yeah. Well, yeah.
You know, if I wasn't, if I didn't have Emmy, you know what
do you know what, how you, you'd be blown away if I joined the,
the football team, you would just be all bowled away.
How amazing I truly AM. And we do it all the time, don't
we? We do, we do things, we, we
even, we boast when, when we get older and we, we have kids, we
kind of tend to stop boasting about ourselves.
But we boast about our kids, don't we?
In a way of boasting about ourselves, You know, have you
seen how good they are at sports?
Obviously they got that from somewhere, you know.
Have you seen how smart they are?
How how obedient they are? Have you seen?
We boast about them, don't we? Even as Christians we boast.
We can be tempted to boast about how good we've been, the good
works that we've done, the people that we help, the time
that we spent in Scripture. Do you know I've got 150 days
streak on the Bible app? You know, it's just we boast
about stupid things, don't we? I mean, we boast about really
stupid things, don't we? We boast about, you know how
little we've eaten. Do you know how little I've
eaten? Do you know how long I've fasted
for? We boast about maybe, probably
the ladies don't so much, but the men, well, you know, I have
are boasting about how much we've eaten.
You know, I, I remember, you know, we, I Remember Me and my,
me and my friends. We, we worked, we worked in
between A levels and uni. We, we had half a year where we
worked and then we went travelling and we were in
Australia and we were in a, in a, a travel thingy, whatever it
is, a youth hostel and we didn't have an awful lot of money.
And so we made complete use of at the time, this was quite a
while ago. They had, there was Pizza Hut
and Pizza Hut had, it was $3, three Australian dollars for an
all you could eat buffet. Now we took them to town for
that. We, we, we literally ate so much
we did not need to eat for two more days.
If we, we may we, we, we, yeah, we.
And we boast about stupid things like that.
We boast about how bad our upbringing was.
We boast about how good our upbringing was.
We boast about all kinds of things.
And then do you know what? It's actually not bad to
recognise, to be aware of what's good in your life.
It's not bad to acknowledge if you're good at something.
But what boasting is at its core, it's to make you look
better than you are by making others feel worse.
It's pushing others down to lift yourself up.
In the apostle Paul, he could have boasted about an awful lot
of stuff. He was a pretty impressive
character. But to the Philippians, he says
this. And now this might sound a bit
weird to some of you. So first of all, so we are going
to unpack it, but this really was boasting.
He says if someone else thinks he has something, he has reason
to put confidence in the flesh to boast.
I have more now you see what I mean by boasting a circumcised
on the 8th day, a people, the 8th day of the people of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to
the law, Pharisee as zeal, A persecute to the church.
As for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
What we're saying is I was from the best family, I had the best
education. I was top of my class and
actually I was selected to study under the most influential
teacher of my day, he says. He goes on in Two Corinthians
and he says I knew a man, he's talking about himself.
I knew a man who 14 years ago was caught up to the 3rd heaven,
3rd heaven. If you remember 1st heaven in
the ancient world, they thought of heaven as the, the, the, the
sky around us, the air we breathe.
So that's 1st heaven. 2nd heaven is where the sun, moon, stars,
clouds are. And the 3rd heaven was God's
throne room. So he says I know about, I was
caught up to the, to the 3rd heaven to God's throne room.
Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I don't know.
God knows and I know, I know, I know that this man, whether in
the body or apart from the body, I do not know.
But God knows was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible
things that no one is permitted to tell.
So Paul could boast about his intelligence.
He could boast about his family. He could boast about the exams
and the people who had chose to be around him.
He could also boast about what he'd seen.
I mean, people believe that, that that he's maybe talking
about a time when it looked like he had been killed.
He might have actually been killed and then he ascended to
heaven and then was brought back to life.
It says that he was prayed. It's looked like he was dead.
He was prayed for and then he came back to life again.
So he can boast not only in the things that he's done and his
intelligence, but he can also boast the fact that he's seen
heaven. He's been there.
I mean, you may have heard of people who have, who've been to
heaven and come back. I mean, one of the first things
they do, they write a book about it, don't they?
They write a book about it. I mean, I was, I was thinking
about if this was me, the sort of book deals I might come up
with, the sort of book titles I might like to, to title this.
And I was coming up with some ideas that, you know, maybe if
you've got some others you can tell me.
But I was thinking, you know, the heaven and back again, An
apostle's tale. I thought of that whilst I was
reading The Hobbit, actually. How to Win Friends and influent
angels. The Apostle Paul and the secret
to the universe. The Apostles Guide to the
heavens. If you've got anything else,
please let me know. See, Paul could have boasted
about many, many, many things. He could have told people, you
should listen to me. You ought to listen to me.
Because do you not know who I am, how amazing I am, what I
have seen he say. I'm a person of influence.
I'm a person of power. But instead he says, no, I'm not
boasting what I've seen. I'm not boasting about my own
abilities. In fact, he says, I will not
boast about myself except about my weakness.
See the world, the people around you, us, if we're honest, we
want power, we want influence so we don't have to be weak, so we
can escape weakness, so we can that we can be self reliant.
But Paul says, what does Paul say?
He should boast in? He boasts in weakness.
Let's have that again, Paul said, boasting weakness.
Paul boast in weakness. It seems like completely upside
down. Why would you boast in your
weakness? Now whilst having many
strengths, Paul did have weaknesses, mainly brought on
for the fact that he chose to follow Jesus.
Weaknesses. The weaknesses because he was,
he was mocked, he was ridiculed. He was on the path to be one of
the most influential people in all of Judah.
And then he follows Jesus and he is mocked, he is ridiculed.
He goes through times of hardship where not because he
chooses to, just because there isn't any.
He go. He goes for lack of food.
He says to the Philippians, he's persecuted because of his
beliefs. He goes through shipwrecks,
things which the Super apostles, if you can remember, mentioned
in this letter, would have said. That means that God is not on
your side having all these bad things happen to you,
struggling, suffering, having thing.
People say things like that having the weather against you
would mean that God is not on your side.
But Paul goes on to describe his weakness and boast in it.
He boasts in it actually, as well as these these hardships
that happen. It says that in the previous
chapter he says five times. I was flogged.
He had that. He he had the he was lashed.
He was tied down and lashed several times, which once alone
would have left the skin raw and scarred.
He would have gone through shock from loss of blood and the pain.
He would have experienced excessive dehydration but having
it done five times, the mass scarring would have produced
restricted movement in his back. It would have created nerve
damage and constant pain. It would have left his body so
traumatised that he probably would have suffered from from
weakness, fatigue, from infection because of it.
So why does he say I boast in these things?
Why does he say I boast? Because I am weak.
Like I said at the beginning, boasting, natural boasting, is
about pushing others down, to make us bigger, to make us look
more impressive than we are. And the reality is when we boast
about how amazing we are to the outside world, we're saying our
God isn't that impressive. God is still impressive, but
we're saying he's not. But when we boasts in our
weakness, and let's be fair, we're all weak, whether we admit
it or not, we're displaying that God is big, God is strong.
You see, the Apostle Paul, he planted numerous churches, he
wrote letters which saw massive impact in the gospel that still
has effect today. But he said, not I, Christ in
me. Do you think of Gideon?
Think of Gideon. Gideon is is charged by God to
raise up an army to fight against the the the invading
Midianite army. And he raised up this army,
which is tiny. But God looks at the army and
says you need to shrink that down.
You need to get rid of a load of people.
Why? Because I don't want you to
deceive yourself in thinking, in believing that when the
Midianites are defeated, it was because you're great.
I want you to completely wholeheartedly know that the
reason why the Midianites are going to be defeated isn't
because of you. It's because I'm great.
It's because God is great. You see, when we boast in our
weaknesses, when the world sees a rat, you know, we might we
want to be we're tempted so often that we want to be a
polished, pretty, got everything together church.
So the world will look at us and think, wow, how amazing are
they? I want to follow their gods,
which the reality is when we're real, when we should tell the
world that we're flawed and we're just as messed up as they
are, they go, oh, and God is still working through you.
I mean, I know you pretty well. He must be impressive.
God must be impressive. You see, the amazing thing is
none of us should desire, should want to suffer, None of us
should welcome suffering. But God uses suffering in a way
that only he can. He says here that he had a he
had a messenger thorn in the flesh from Satan.
But he goes on to say thank you. He goes on to say that the thorn
in the flesh was a messenger from Satan that God used for his
glory to stop Paul from becoming conceited, becoming prideful.
You see, we worship for gods who can do what only God can do,
that when evil comes, he can turn it for good, he can turn it
for good. Satan, thorns, weakness,
persecution, it does not come from God.
God allows it, but it comes from the enemy.
But God can take that, can take what the enemy wanted for evil
and turn it and use it for good. Because when we are made aware
of our weakness, when we are made aware of our sufferings,
we're made aware of the fact that we need gods.
I mean, how true is this of all of us that when things are going
great, when we don't need to worry about money, when everyone
seems to be happy, we ignore God, we don't think too whatever
about him, but as soon as thing goes wrong, we're like God, I
need you. I realise I'm not in control of
my life. I realise that I don't have it
all together. God, I need you see, see,
suffering shows us that we're not self-sufficient, that we're
not ultimately in control, that we need God's.
But that does not mean that we welcome it.
It doesn't mean that we, we, we thank God for our suffering.
Actually, what does Paul do? Actually, it says it says that.
What does Paul do? It says 3 * 3 * I pleaded with
the Lord to take, to take this suffering, to take this thorn
away from me. Since he pleaded, he's not just
walking on the road going. This is really annoying, this
pain. God, if you wouldn't mind, you
take it from me. No, no, he's, he's down on his
knees. He's begging God.
God, I need this to change. God, I need you to work in my
life. God, I need you to provide.
Look, God, I need you to take this pain from me.
Look, God, I need you to take this from me.
Whatever it was, we don't know, but God, take it away from me.
You see, when someone is suffering, whether it's you or
someone else, if you remember back to what Jeff brought a few
weeks before Christmas, we do not believe in karma.
We do not believe in karma, that if someone is suffering, if
you're suffering, it's because you've angered gods.
Now karma teaches you do good, God does good to you, you do
bad, God does bad to you. No, the gospel teaches you do
good, you do bad, but God always does good.
God always does good to us. So therefore, what do we do when
we're suffering? What do we do when we see
someone who's suffering? A friend, a brother, a sister, a
stranger on the street? We follow Paul's example and we
pray for that thorn to be taken. We pray that God would heal.
We pray that God would sort out whatever situation that is.
And we pray over and over and over and over again, you know,
and sometimes we've seen it here many times.
God says yes, and that situation has changed.
That person is healed. Sometimes he says just wait a
bit and sometimes he says exactly what he says to Paul
here. He says I've got something
better for you. He says my grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
God, please, please heal me. God, take away this storm from
me, Paul, I've got something better for you.
I'm not going to heal you, but I'm going to use your suffering
to display my power in a way that is going to magnify how
great I am. But I'm not going to leave you
in that. I'm going to give you the grace
to continue every single day. See, when we meet people, when
we ourselves are suffering, we pray for God to heal, we pray
for God to act, but we also need to pray for the grace to
continue, for the grace to move on.
You see, there are many of you suffering here.
And I want to pray for you before we go today and pray and
believe that God will and does heal.
But God is looking for a people who don't say, I will worship
you once I've been made better. I'll serve when I'm not feeling
so tired. I'll come early and help set up
or do the tea and coffee or help with the kids.
When everything, when you've acted in my life and made
everything good for me, God, then I'll help.
No, no, God's looking for a people who say whether you heal
me or not, whether you make things in my life better or not
by the grace of God or I'm going to give my all for your Kingdom.
And in that way he gets the glory either way, because you
get healed, he gets the glory, Your situation changes, the
impossible happens, God gets the glory.
It doesn't. But you serve.
You participate in building his Kingdom.
The world looks at you and says, wow, you must serve an amazing
God because you're willing to serve him even through the pain,
even through the suffering. What do you do when Satan throws
some thorns at you? How do you respond?
Do you mope? Do you get angry?
Do you hate the world? Do you wish to die?
I've done all of them, so I'm not preaching down to anyone.
Do you get bitter or do you ask for His grace to continue?
See. In weakness.
In weakness, in suffering, we have a privilege to serve God.
You see, we as we suffer, we have a privilege to serve God
like we'll never have again. One day, maybe today, maybe
later on, maybe at the end of time, but one day all sickness,
all suffering will cease and you will worship God forever and
ever. But it's only now that you get
the privilege of being able to worship gods through the muck.
You get to be a witness to others, to see you worshipping
God despite illness, chronic illness, despite situations that
are rubbish in our lives. You see, Satan sends sickness,
he sends thorns, he sends things against us so that we might
become bitter, so that we may not, so we may give up.
So we so we use it as an excuse not to serve, not to work in his
Kingdom. But when we worship God through
that, when we choose to build his Kingdom despite it, we are
heaping burning coals, the Bible says upon our enemies heads.
We are frustrating Him because we are using the very thing he
has sent against us to make us stumble.
We're using that to greater glorify God.
See, it's all because of grace. It's all because of grace.
He heals. He changes your situation.
It's grace. It's not because you were good
and don't believe the lie. OK, we all tell ourselves this.
You have a good week. God's happy with me.
You have a bad week. God's angry with me.
No, no, God heals. God gives you a good week.
God makes amazing things happen in your life today.
Praise God. It's because of His grace.
Rubbish happens, sickness continues.
You praise God because of his grace.
It's all because of his grace. Just want to end by reading the
last few lines of the book of Two Corinthians.
It says finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice.
How do we rejoice by grace? I'm going to read this again
because you need warming up. OK, Finally, brothers and
sisters, rejoice. How do we rejoice by grace?
Strive for full, full restoration.
How do we strive by grace? Encourage one another.
How do we encourage one another? The answer is always by grace.
By the way. Be 1 Be one of mind.
Live in peace. How do we live in peace?
Yes. And the God and the God of love
and peace be with you. How is he with us?
By grace to greet one another with a holy kiss.
Love one another. All God's people here send their
greetings. May the grace, may the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with you. By grace.
We're going to pray now. We're going to pray.
When I say we're going to pray, I mean we're going to pray.
You know, there's nothing more special about my prayers than
your prayers, OK? We all have a we all have a line
to Gods, OK? So if you are ill, if you have a
sickness, if you have something in your life that you need
moving, if you've got a thorn in your flesh, I'd love you to
raise your hand. And the people around you are
going to pray. And we're going to pray for God
to take that away. And we're going to pray.
And this isn't a lack of faith. We're going to pray in faith
that he takes it away. But we're also going to pray
that it if it goes or it doesn't go, that we would have the grace
to continue to glorify God no matter what happens.
So who needs something changing in their life?
Put your hands up, right? For those of you who don't have
your hands up, move forward and gather round.
Just sit next to these people who've got their hands up.
You don't need to ask them what what they want changing.
And we're going to pray that God will move in their lives, that
God has healed them.