Christ’s Sufficiency for our Insufficiency Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Christ’s Sufficiency for our Insufficiency Part 1. He will be reading out of 2nd Corinthians 12:1-10.

And so God will allow enemies in your life and he is testing your faith to see if you will obey him So you don’t get to say I only want to pick and obey certain Bible verses I only want to obey certain commands, but God puts people in your life sometimes so that you can Obey all of his command Hello, this is pastor Mike Sanders, so I want to welcome you to hope worth having we’re gonna be in 2nd Corinthians Chapter 12 today verses 1 through 10 and we’re gonna be talking about Christ’s efficiency for our Insufficiency the Apostle Paul reminds us but our sufficiency is not in our flesh or our own strength But it’s in the strength of Christ and so that’s where our focus is today So I hope you’ll grab your Bible and that you will get a pen and a paper and start taking notes as we begin this study You Have your Bible this morning I want you to join me in 2nd Corinthians and we’re starting a new chapter in our study through the book of 2nd Corinthians and We are in chapter 12 this morning 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 and we’ll be covering verses 1 through 10 in 1873 Horacio Spafford Lost everything that he owned in what was the great Chicago fire as a result of his calamity He’d arranged for his wife and his children to set sail on a ship To France with intentions that he would follow them as soon as possible Before this ship could make it to France.

It was rammed into by an English sailing vessel and The boat sank to the bottom of the ocean within two hours killing 226 people Mrs. Spafford lived but her four children were unfortunately lost. After arriving in France with great distress, Mrs.

Spafford sent a telegram to her husband, which said these two words, saved alone. Upon hearing of the tragic news, Horacio Spafford quickly made arrangements to see his wife in France. On the way to France, December 1873, the ship captain carefully pointed out to him the very spot where the tragedy had occurred, where his four daughters had passed away as a result of the ship sinking.

It was here in the dark of the night with his heart full of grief and pain, but yet surging with faith and hope that Mr. Spafford wrote the words to one of the most famous hymns ever recorded. entitled it is well with my soul in those words he writes when peace like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll whatever my lot thou has taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul is with that same note that the Apostle writes in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 to each one of us if you have been studying along with us you know that he has spent chapter 11 defending his ministry defending his credibility and wanting to advance the gospel of Christ not wanting the church at Corinth to be misled by teachers who would want you to work your way to heaven and not receive the full salvation that is found in the grace of God but when the Apostle defends himself he does not brag about his heritage nor does he brag about his great scholarly wisdom or even his education if you’ll go back and later in your own personal time you’ll remember that he takes time to walk us through all the sufferings all the sorrows all the struggles that he dealt with as an Apostle which legitimize not only his faith but his ministry and that there would be no one willing to go through so much as the Apostle has gone through for the sake of the gospel unless they were true and authentic so he picks up in chapter 12 and he literally turns the table tables on those critics of his,

those who would try to discredit his ministry. We pick up in verse 1, he says, it is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who, 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows.

Such a one was caught up into the third heaven, and I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. How he was caught up into paradise, and heard inexpressible words which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Of such a one I will boast, yet of myself I will not boast except in my infirmities. For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool. For I will speak the truth, but I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me.

And lest I should be exalted above the measure by the abundance of the revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. Lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

I have become a fool in boasting, and you have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. Now, in this text, the apostle teaches us really important truths, and the most important thing that we need to walk away with today is that Christ’s grace is sufficient for each and every one of us, even in the midst of our insufficiencies.

That we find ourselves in those moments of vulnerabilities and weaknesses and struggles in our life, but we can be assured that we have the promise of God’s grace. It is not just a saving grace, but it is a sustaining grace.

It is a strengthening grace. It is a grace that God imparts to his people in the most difficult times of their life. life. So as we look at this great sufficiency of our Savior that is available to each and every one of us through the grace of God, I want you to note first of all that there is a purpose for every thorn in the flesh in your life.

As we look at the text we see that the Apostle is describing and a unique experience in which he is from the third person literally describing how he was taken up into the third heaven. Now it’s not that there are three heavens that we would reside in as believers but the point is that we have the first heaven to which we can all see with our own eyes and then there is the second heaven which is where the planets are and many of the galaxies and stars but there is the third heaven where the saints of Christ reside where those who love God when they leave this world they are promoted to that third heaven where Jesus said that I have prepared a place for you so that where I am there you may be also we can take great comfort that every loved one that we have that has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is now living in that third heaven how beautiful and how marvelous it is because all that we deal with on this earth they don’t have to deal with a man they live in a utopia they live in a perfect place where the peace of Christ and the joy of Christ is not only just there every once in a while but it is there constantly and it is a place where there is no sin there is no sorrow there’s no one sad up in heaven there’s no one disappointed there’s no one that feels like they’re let down and man I wish heaven was better the truth is it’s way beyond more than they could ever imagine the Apostle says that he was taken to this third heaven and when he was taken to this third heaven that he saw things and he heard things that could not be expressed on this earth that could not be communicated on this earth what all that the Apostle saw we certainly do not know because he did not decide to sign with a publishing company and to write a book he did not strive to try to profit from the moment and the experience that he had that was unique to his life but what he does want us to know that God had brought about a thorn in the flesh in his life you will note in verse 7 he says lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me after experiencing such an amazing moment in his life to be elevated to the third heaven to see and to hear things that cannot be uttered even on this earth,

it would be obvious that the apostle could begin to think of himself a little bit high, maybe a little bit more than what he should have been, that God had given him this unique privilege and this unique experience, and he might begin to pat himself on the back and think that he is more than what he is.

And so the Bible tells us that God had a purpose, which reminds each and every one of us that there is a purpose for every thorn in the flesh in our life. Now, the Bible tells us that this thorn in the flesh, the apostle says in verse 7 again, that it was a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted.

The word buffet has the idea of someone hitting you with their fist, and it’s constant. It’s in the continuous action, and so it’s the idea that it’s just something that kept on. happening in his life it was something that he kept experiencing in his life it was little relief from this buffeting in his life some have contemplated many scholars have contemplated what exactly is this thorn in the flesh and what is this messenger of Satan there are many things that you and I could consider first of all some believe that it was a physical ailment the Apostle dealt with many physical problems in his life the Galatians literally told the Apostle as he wrote to them in the letter he said I know that you would pluck your own eyes out for me what he meant was that because he was dealing with eyesight problems and perhaps he was dealing with something that was causing tremendous pain in his life every day maybe he as a result of the eyesight he had migraines and he had these tremendous headaches that were constantly upon him that the Galatians were willing to say look we would give you our own eyes we love you so much and we wish you could be relieved from this others believed that it was possibly these false teachers that continued to follow the Apostle they just kind of tracked wherever he went he would go to a major metropolitan area he would plant a church he would get them organized he would get them focused he would then go on to the next big city as soon as he left here came a group of false teachers just like at the city of Corinth and they would come in and they would begin to mislead the church because the believers were new because they were gullible naive and not very founded in their faith they would swallow up the false teaching and this became a frustration in the Apostle it was a heavy burden in his life you remember back in chapter 11 that he said in verse 30 that he had the concern he had the concerns and he had the burden for all the churches in verse 28.

And so the Apostle had this heavy burden upon him, and maybe this was the thorn in the flesh, whether it was something physical, whether it was something spiritual, whether it was somebody who was personally giving him fits and causing him problems, we do not know, but we do know that God had a purpose and a plan in the thorn in the flesh.

And I want you to note what these purposes are. First, to prevent pride in his life. Look at verse seven, lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me.

So the Apostle understood that because of all these things that had happened in his life and all that he had experienced, that he was given this thorn in the flesh to keep him humble, to prevent pride from taking over his life.

Now I want to say this before we dive a little bit deeper, and that is this, that we may not always understand the purpose of every suffering and every tragedy and every trial that we endure in life.

We may not fully grasp all the thorns and the flesh that God has allowed to be in our life that continually buffet us, that continually to cause us pain, that continually cause us to hurt, but listen to me friends, God always has a purpose.

In the purposes of life, we have to remember several things, that first, that the secret things belong to the Lord. We can’t always explain what or why that God has allowed something or even caused something to be true in our life.

And so we have to say, Lord, we trust you, the secret things belong to you, the scriptures teach us that, and so we know that in your infinite wisdom, in your amazing grace, and that you are for me, that somehow you have a purpose for this, and I’m going to fully trust you.

We don’t get there in a day, we don’t get there in a moment, but through time as our faith becomes established, we begin to accept by faith that God has a purpose. Now also understand that sometimes we can see the purposes of God beforehand.

We can see what God is up to, because we know the scriptures, we know what the Bible teaches, and we can see what God is doing. When we see things that are happening in our nation, in our country, we say, what’s happened to a country where right has become wrong and wrong has become right?

What has happened to a country that slaughters millions of babies every year? What happened to this country? And we say, well, we know that God says he will judge sin. He will deal with it. So we see that purpose beforehand, but there are other purposes that we don’t see until after.

Through hindsight, we look. back and we look at our life and we see that we walk through this valley or we walk through this time of loneliness or this suffering or this difficult person in our life and we see that God had a purpose.

The Bible tells us to love our enemies but did you know you can’t love your enemies unless you have enemies and so God will allow enemies in your life and he is testing your faith to see if you will obey him.

See you don’t get to say I only want to pick and obey certain Bible verses. I only want to obey certain commands but God puts people in your life sometimes so that you can obey all of his commands and you look back in your life and you say man I can see the Lord at work.

But hear this there are some purposes we won’t know till we get to heaven. There are things that happen in our life and things that we see experience in other people’s lives that we say, how could this happen?

Why should this happen? They seem to be so strong. They seem to be so dedicated to the Lord. Listen to me, friends. Suffering is not just for those who have departed from the Lord, but the Bible teaches us that it reigns on the righteous and the unrighteous.

And you remember that Job, that in one moment, in one day, that he lost his health, he lost his wealth, and he lost all of his children, that in one moment, it was all taken away from him. And here’s what his friends concluded.

You must have done something wrong. You remember when the disciples in John, in the Gospel of John, Chapter 9, that they came upon a man who was born with an infirmity, he was born with a handicap, and they said to Jesus, the disciples, who sinned?

Was it his parents or him? And Jesus said neither, but that God might be glorified. And there are times that God allows suffering in our lives, not because we have done anything wrong, or even that we have done anything right, but simply for the purpose that is beyond our understanding, but that it might bring glory to God Almighty.

And so as we try to understand these purposes, keep that in mind that we don’t always have the answers, and neither do your friends have the answer, but we are just here trying to learn what God has for us.

For the Apostle, he had the privilege of understanding the purpose of the thorn in the flesh in the moment that he was dealing with it, and that was to prevent pride in his life. You remember in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 9, Verse 1, that the Apostle said, am I not an Apostle?

Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not you my work in the Lord? Here’s the point, is that the Apostle, again, is speaking these terms, these questions, not that they don’t know the answer, but they do know the answer.

And he is just making the point, listen, I have seen Jesus, that qualifies me to be an apostle. One of the qualifications to be an apostle is to have seen Jesus Christ. And we know that in the book of Galatians that Jesus appeared to the apostle for three years in the desert and there equipped and trained him to serve as an apostle to the early church.

But here, Paul wants us to know that it is not his desire to become arrogant. And God wants to make sure that he stays humble. And so he wants him to continue to depend upon the Lord, which takes us to the second purpose, is that the second reason that the apostle was given this thorn in the floor.

flesh was to create dependence upon the Lord. It is so that the apostle would learn to look to him. Look at what we see in verse 8. Concerning this thing, I pleaded the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

Can we all be honest this morning that when things are wonderful in our life, when everything is running smooth and it just seems like it’s going well that we just seem to pray less. We seem to seek God less.

We seem to become more independent rather than dependent upon the Lord. And the Bible teaches us that when the apostle was dealing with this thorn in the flesh, he was seeking God. And the Bible says three times that he sought God about this matter.

And so it is. That a part of what God is doing in your life and what he is doing in my life is that he wants us to stay close to him. And every once in a while we just kind of start drifting and we start just kind of getting very confident in our own abilities and our own skill sets.

And we begin to think, man, look I can do this and I can do that and I really don’t need the Lord. Now we don’t come out and say that, but we feel that. We behave like that. And you know what the Lord does?

He kind of just reels us in and he allows things in our lives so that we’ll trust him. So we’ll look to him for the answer so that we will seek him for what we need. Many of you are familiar with the wonderful verse in Proverbs chapter three verse five and six.

If you’re not, you need to be familiar with it and you need to memorize it in your heart where the Bible teaches us that we are to trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not to our own understanding, but to acknowledge him in all of our ways.

And he will what church? He will direct our paths. many times the Hebrew word has the idea of straightening out our past and we sometimes make a mess of our life and we find everything being all messed up and God has to come in and bring order in the chaos.

He has to straighten up the mess that we have created and if you’re here today and you find yourself where you’re in great need of God straightening out your life be assured of this that as you turn to God and trust in Him and lean not on your own understanding and acknowledge Him in all your ways He’ll straighten out the mess that you have made.

Now as you know there’s an old philosophy out there you made your bed you lie in it I’m glad God doesn’t believe in it amen. I believe that the Lord looks at us and said man you have made a mess of your life but because I love you and because of my grace and my mercy I’m going to reach out to you when you come to me with a heart of faith and a heart of trust and you believe in me.

and you turn from the world, and you turn from all the sin and the selfishness of this world, and you rely on me, I will make your paths straight. Isn’t it good to know that church? Because we’ve all messed up things, right?

You may not have messed up your life, but you messed up the moment. Or you messed up this or that, and you made a bad decision and a bad choice, and whatever it might be, but hear me. Not that there aren’t consequences to our choices and decisions, but there is a God in heaven that we can come to and say, Lord, forgive me, I made a mess, I messed up, I got off track, I got distracted, and I’m asking you to straighten up my mess.

And here’s the beautiful thing is that you have a promise, that if you will trust Him, and you’ll acknowledge Him, and quit trying to figure it out on yourself by leaning on your own understanding, He will straighten out your paths.

Now the second thing that I want us to learn this morning is that the grace that was sufficient for the apostle is enough for you. Now we come down to verse nine, and as through the apostle has beseeched the Lord three times about this matter, and he said, Lord, take me out of the mess.

Lord, get this person out of my life. Lord, I don’t wanna experience this pain anymore. Jesus’ response is simply this, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. If you like to underscore your Bible, or maybe you like to highlight, if you like to study your Bible, you need to have a Bible that you can study.

You maybe have a Bible that you read from, and maybe a Bible that you study from, and you say, wow, that’s a lot, but it’s worth it. But underscore my grace, my strength. That’s what you need to get out of that verse.

My grace. my strength. Grace is God’s goodness to us, though we are undeserving. Nobody deserves the grace of God. Nobody is worthy of the grace of God. Nobody merits the grace of God. Nobody can come to God and say, I am good enough and perfect enough and I’ve accomplished enough that I should receive your grace.

We know that to be true when it comes to our salvation, but do we know that when it comes to our maturity and our spiritual formation, do we understand that? That we are not only saved by grace, for by grace are you saved through faith, that of not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should what church? You can’t brag before God that you are saved. You can’t say, look to me God, what I have done, you should let me into your kingdom.

No friends, it’s not what I’ve done, it’s what Christ has done. That’s why we glory in the cross. Your salvation is not only by grace, but did you know that your living faithful for God is by grace? Too many Christians are still trying to earn points with God, and they’re still trying to impress God, and they’re still trying to say, Lord, I am worthy of your grace.

No, friends. I not only need saving grace, but I need sustaining grace, and this sustaining grace that I need as I deal with the problems of life, as I deal with the struggles of life, is a grace that is imparted unto me, not because I am something special or that somehow I’m better than others, but rather it is a grace that is bestowed upon me as I seek it from God.

A .W. Tozer said this, grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. Underscore the undeserving. Any grace that is shown to you, not only in your faith of saving you, but also in sustaining you and helping you to be faithful to God and being able to live for God and being able to endure through the problems of life, is truly undeserving and is a blessing from heaven,

and we should acknowledge that and give him praise every day of our life. Now, would you note in this, he says in verse 9, my grace is sufficient. He doesn’t say that my grace was sufficient or my grace will be sufficient or it might be sufficient, but rather it is sufficient, and that is reminding us that it is the present sufficiency of God.

Here’s how the grace of God works in your life. You don’t get the grace of God when you don’t need it, you only get it in the moment that you need it. People say how? How did you make it through that trial?

How did you make it through that loss? How did you deal with that grief in the moment that you’re there is when the present sufficiency of God’s grace is poured out. There is a purpose for every thorn in the flesh in your life.

Now that’s something to really think about because a lot of us are dealing with some overwhelming, and yet God has a plan and that is something that we need to come to grips because it helps us to be able to navigate through these challenges.

So I hope that you are looking to the scriptures and you see how the apostle kept that purpose and mind of what God was doing in his heart. How God was changing him that was making him more like Christ.

I want to thank you for being with us today and I want to encourage you to check out our website, HopeWorthHaving .com and there you’ll find a lot of resources available. You can take advantage of these resources and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.