Speaker 1: Well, we're gonna get to the message in just a moment,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to make sure you knew about Elevation Nights.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be amazing eight cities October twenty sixth through
Speaker 1: November fourth. You got to go to Elevation Nights dot
Speaker 1: com to see if we're coming to a city near you.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be me, Elevation Worship, a few friends, and you.
Speaker 1: I want to see you there. I want to see
Speaker 1: you and everybody that you know there. Go to Elevation
Speaker 1: Nights dot com. I can't wait to see you soon.
Speaker 1: Here's the message. I want to go back to corinth
Speaker 1: this week. We were last week talking about a troubled
Speaker 1: mind and an open door, that greatest opposition comes in
Speaker 1: the moments of greatest opportunity. I believe God gave somebody
Speaker 1: discernment last week about a door that you're standing in
Speaker 1: front of and the devil that you're fighting to get
Speaker 1: through it. Well, this week, I want a journey further
Speaker 1: into the book of Second Corinthian tewod Corinthians, Chapter twelve,
Speaker 1: and I'm real excited. I'm gripping onto the pulpit just
Speaker 1: trying to calm down Oh man, this is so good.
Speaker 1: This is so good. I already heard it. Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: preached it to me, and I promise you it's good. Now.
Speaker 1: I might mess it up trying to preach it to you,
Speaker 1: but the way God gave it to me birthday. So
Speaker 1: we're going back to Corinth. This is a very culturally
Speaker 1: compromised church, confused church. But we're going to Corinth one
Speaker 1: more time. And Apostle Paul is getting personal with these believers.
Speaker 1: And I believe he has a personal word to speak
Speaker 1: to us today. Not Paul, but God. Second Corinthians twelve,
Speaker 1: verse six. Paul says, even if I should choose to boast,
Speaker 1: I would not be a fool, because I'd be speaking
Speaker 1: the truth. It's quite confident this apostle. He's like, I
Speaker 1: could back it up. If I told you everything that
Speaker 1: God had did for me, it wouldn't be boasting, It'd
Speaker 1: just be facts. Wow. But I refrain, he said, so
Speaker 1: that no one will think more of me than is
Speaker 1: warranted by what I do or say, or because of
Speaker 1: these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me
Speaker 1: from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh,
Speaker 1: a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times. I
Speaker 1: pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me,
Speaker 1: but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you,
Speaker 1: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I
Speaker 1: will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so
Speaker 1: that Christ's power may rest on me. And that is why,
Speaker 1: for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses and insults, in hardships,
Speaker 1: in persecutions, in difficulties, For when I am weak than
Speaker 1: I am strong. Now I want to preach about verse seven. Therefore,
Speaker 1: in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was
Speaker 1: given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan
Speaker 1: to torment me. We're going to call this message the
Speaker 1: mentor you didn't ask for, the mentor you didn't ask for,
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, and minister your word in Jesus' name. Amen,
Speaker 1: be seated. Be seated, the mentor you didn't ask for.
Speaker 1: Had a argument with some family members recently, not necessarily.
Speaker 1: Argument wasn't contentious, It just was I probably stated in
Speaker 1: my position too strongly now that I look back on it.
Speaker 1: We were talking about people who had influenced our life
Speaker 1: for Christ and somebody said the word mentor. I don't
Speaker 1: even know if that's a buzzword anymore. It was a
Speaker 1: big buzzword when I was starting Elevation Church. Mentor, who's
Speaker 1: your mentor? You need a mentor in the ministry, And
Speaker 1: it's still obviously a corporate America term. Culturally, I don't
Speaker 1: know so much anymore. It's been replaced by influencers. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if we talk in the language of mentor.
Speaker 1: But I made a statement to my family who attend
Speaker 1: our Greenville campus, Holly's sister and usband, a dad, and mom,
Speaker 1: and I said I don't believe in mentors anymore. And
Speaker 1: everybody said, now, that's extreme, and it probably was. Looking back,
Speaker 1: it probably was extreme, But you have to understand, I've
Speaker 1: just had some weird experiences with weird people, so I'm
Speaker 1: probably coming from that standpoint of the idea of a mentor.
Speaker 1: You know, if it was Paul, I could get it.
Speaker 1: Because Paul was a master builder. He called himself that.
Speaker 1: Now do you see why God had to give him
Speaker 1: a thorn to keep him humble? He called himself a
Speaker 1: master builder. But everybody is not, mister Miyagi, and in
Speaker 1: certain moments, of my life I've been I guess a
Speaker 1: little bit resistance to people who have a lot of
Speaker 1: expertise without much experience seems to be the day where
Speaker 1: living in there is no shortage of unsolicited opinions. And
Speaker 1: even one time when the church was first getting going,
Speaker 1: we need a building to meet and I went to
Speaker 1: meet with a guy and I can remember the room.
Speaker 1: I don't remember his name. I remember the room, and
Speaker 1: I remember something so weird that happened. And this is
Speaker 1: probably why I don't really like the term mentor that much.
Speaker 1: Because I was talking about, you know, we need some resources,
Speaker 1: and can we use your building to meet on when
Speaker 1: you're not using it and things like that, and the
Speaker 1: guy took it a little too far. He said, son,
Speaker 1: you're here asking me for a building and a little
Speaker 1: bit of money for your budget, but seems like to me,
Speaker 1: what you really need is a daddy. And then he goes,
Speaker 1: Larry Bryan is my witness. He goes, I'll be your daddy.
Speaker 1: Understand that the idea of a mentor, you know, is
Speaker 1: just a little complicated for me, not just because of
Speaker 1: that one experience, but I think early in my life
Speaker 1: I did want somebody I wanted God to give me
Speaker 1: somebody who kind of like you can do on I
Speaker 1: see this video game that Graham plays called two K,
Speaker 1: and he builds a player is called my player, and
Speaker 1: he goes in and he gives the player everything, not
Speaker 1: only cosmetically, but the skills and abilities. And I kind
Speaker 1: of always wanted God to give me someone who would
Speaker 1: give me the right amount of lateral movement and the
Speaker 1: right tattoos on my left arm, and the right hide,
Speaker 1: and the right speed and the right dunking. You know,
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted I kind of wanted ministry to
Speaker 1: be like my player on two K, where somebody could
Speaker 1: supercharge me with the answers and stuff. And one time, Holly, y'all,
Speaker 1: Holly has this ability to say stuff in a sentence
Speaker 1: that will stick with you. So I was complaining that
Speaker 1: I didn't really have like I had great dad, great mom.
Speaker 1: I had great people in my life who helped me
Speaker 1: long a way I can stand up here for a
Speaker 1: year and list them. But I was looking for that
Speaker 1: one person who would put their arm around me and say, now,
Speaker 1: this is how you do it in regards to preaching
Speaker 1: and leadership, and this is when you should build the building,
Speaker 1: and this is when you should launch this part of
Speaker 1: the ministry. And this is how you. Iire the right
Speaker 1: staff and basically somebody to shepherd me through a mistake
Speaker 1: free ministry and life and marriage, a one stop shop.
Speaker 1: And Holly said to me, you know, in the middle
Speaker 1: of my discouragement, this is what she said to comfort me.
Speaker 1: You know, God is never going to give you what
Speaker 1: you're asking for. He's going to give you a lot
Speaker 1: of people to guide you, but He is not going
Speaker 1: to let your guides become your God. She said that
Speaker 1: that sweet little HOLLI ferdict, thank you for your service,
Speaker 1: hour's outreach. She talked to the Man of God that
Speaker 1: way in my face, God is never gonna give you
Speaker 1: book club Holly Bird, lover Holly French for I love.
Speaker 1: And Holly said that to me, can you believe it?
Speaker 1: She was right. God wasn't going to give me what
Speaker 1: I was asking for. One reason is that God cannot
Speaker 1: give you a mentor for where you are that will
Speaker 1: limit you from where He is ultimately leading you to be.
Speaker 1: If God would have sent me in that season of
Speaker 1: my life, one person that I would pattern my life
Speaker 1: after totally, she said something important. He's going to give
Speaker 1: you a lot of guides, but he wants to be
Speaker 1: your God, and he gave you a unique gift, and
Speaker 1: only he knows. She didn't say all this. I'm preaching
Speaker 1: off of what she said to me fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: God is not going to give you a my player
Speaker 1: career mode for your ministry. God is not going to
Speaker 1: give you one person to model after, because if you
Speaker 1: modeled after them completely and entirely, you would be them.
Speaker 1: And He already has them, so he could kill you.
Speaker 1: If God gave you one person, the person that you
Speaker 1: compare yourself to, and think of all I got just
Speaker 1: be like them, and if I could have what they
Speaker 1: have and do what they do, if God gave you them,
Speaker 1: it would make you unnecessary. She was trying to get
Speaker 1: me to see that in life, I will have many guides,
Speaker 1: but only one God, only one God who knows me.
Speaker 1: And what I love about God the more I experience
Speaker 1: his will and his plan for my little life is
Speaker 1: that He's the only one who can match the courses
Speaker 1: to the calling. When you go to college, If you
Speaker 1: go to college, if you stay in college, you'll have
Speaker 1: to declare a major eventually, say is that you take
Speaker 1: you can take any classes you want to. You can
Speaker 1: show up when you want to. Nobody's gonna make you
Speaker 1: do anything. You can have a point seven GPA Eric
Speaker 1: Phillips if you want to. You can party and flunk
Speaker 1: out and come to North Greenville and follow me there
Speaker 1: and ask me to help you get your life together
Speaker 1: if you want to, Eric Phillips. But you can't declare
Speaker 1: a major and then pick the I think a lot
Speaker 1: of us wow want to pick an outcome that we
Speaker 1: want in our lives, but then we want to customize
Speaker 1: the courses because we live in that age where we
Speaker 1: think like we think that that mentorship is like a menu,
Speaker 1: Like you're a cheesecake factory where the menu is thicker
Speaker 1: than the Bible. The menu. If you've been a cheesecake factory,
Speaker 1: the menu is thicker than the Septuagint. And that's kind
Speaker 1: of how we want to do. That's kind of how
Speaker 1: the Corinthian Church wanted to do with Paul. I'm so
Speaker 1: furious at this church because they had the best pastor,
Speaker 1: the master pastor, Paul. How can they be fighting with
Speaker 1: each other and divided within each other when Paul is
Speaker 1: their pastor? How can they have such a master mentor
Speaker 1: like Paul and be so petty. How can they have
Speaker 1: a master mentor like Paul and be so immiture? And
Speaker 1: now he's writing them a letter, not as an advisor,
Speaker 1: not as a critic, as a father, to say to you,
Speaker 1: I see some things in your life. This is one
Speaker 1: reason I don't like the concept of a mentor either,
Speaker 1: because usually if we ask somebody to be our mentor,
Speaker 1: we mean, will you be my mentor until I don't
Speaker 1: agree with you anymore, then I'll get another one. Lord,
Speaker 1: you told me this message was going to be hard
Speaker 1: to preach, but you didn't tell me it was going
Speaker 1: to be this hard to preach to them. Now help
Speaker 1: me out. No, we do this all the time. It's like, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: here's how I typically do it in my life. It's
Speaker 1: like I want to select certain things that I want
Speaker 1: God to bring into my life to teach me lessons.
Speaker 1: But not only do I want to select the lesson,
Speaker 1: I want to select the outcome of the lesson. And
Speaker 1: Paul Paul is having none of it. He's saying, you
Speaker 1: cannot customize Christ. You can't customize Christ. What Paul went
Speaker 1: through to be who he was, it cost him greatly.
Speaker 1: In chapter eleven of Second Corinthians, he mentions a shipwreck,
Speaker 1: he mentions a stony, he mentions many storms, He mentions betrayals,
Speaker 1: he mentions opponents. All of that. In Second Corinthians, Chapter eleven,
Speaker 1: Paul who paid the price to be an apostle of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. He mentions all the things that made him
Speaker 1: such a master pastor. Now he's writing to a church
Speaker 1: that is in rebellion, and he's reminding them of his resume.
Speaker 1: He says, I could brag even more, but I'm not
Speaker 1: going to. I just want you to judge me based
Speaker 1: on my results and see if I'm somebody worth listening to.
Speaker 1: But before you judge me based on my results, let
Speaker 1: me remind you a little bit more of what qualifies
Speaker 1: me to be in this position. We live in a
Speaker 1: day with a lot of advice and not much authority.
Speaker 1: Everybody has an advice column, but very few people have
Speaker 1: true authority. Paul is not writing advice in the scripture.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we read the Bible like its quotes on pinterests.
Speaker 1: My grace is sufficient for you. Well, that's true. But
Speaker 1: before Paul said that sentence in that quote, he puts
Speaker 1: it in a context that's a little more interesting. That's
Speaker 1: what I want to speak to you a little bit
Speaker 1: about today. Is that context. Paul mentions that he had
Speaker 1: a revelation of God. He actually talks about himself in
Speaker 1: the third person. At one point, he says, I know
Speaker 1: a man who was caught up to the third heaven.
Speaker 1: But he's talking about himself. This is Paul. And no
Speaker 1: wonder Paul needed something to keep him grounded because there
Speaker 1: was so much glory on his life. No wonder Paul
Speaker 1: needed something in his flesh because he had so much
Speaker 1: revelation in his spirit. But I'm getting ahead of myself,
Speaker 1: aren't I? Because Paul said I saw amazing things, and
Speaker 1: I could tell you even more about it, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to. I don't want to boast about it. Instead,
Speaker 1: he opens a window and he shows to the wound
Speaker 1: that he calls a thorn, and the weakness that most
Speaker 1: people would hide. I think we need more mentors like Paul,
Speaker 1: more people who will show us not only the great power,
Speaker 1: but the problems that they have to overcome to operate
Speaker 1: in that power. I don't ever want my kids to
Speaker 1: see me not struggle. You say, well, don't you want
Speaker 1: to set a good example. I want to set an
Speaker 1: example of overcoming struggle, not avoiding it, not avoiding it.
Speaker 1: Paul is like that, and we need this message now
Speaker 1: more than ever. I really think there's a timely word
Speaker 1: from God because now everybody wants to share their opinion,
Speaker 1: whether or not it's even solicited. We live in a
Speaker 1: day of twelve year old life coaches. I used to
Speaker 1: read the guy's books early on until I realized he
Speaker 1: had started six churches and all of them imploded. He
Speaker 1: was a church planting consultant. Oh but you don't have
Speaker 1: to pay for a consultant these days. Just go to
Speaker 1: the comment section of any Facebook post and you will
Speaker 1: find consultants in the comments. Speaking of Holly, about a
Speaker 1: year ago, she showed me a comment. I asked her
Speaker 1: to send it to me, because this is just unbelievable, y'all,
Speaker 1: what people will offer in the way of expert opinion
Speaker 1: that you did not solicit. I mean, she put a
Speaker 1: picture of me and her on Instagram and somebody said,
Speaker 1: y'all are so cute and awe and hearts and pendus
Speaker 1: with hearts and all of the things that we put
Speaker 1: to feign emotion and somebody said, Hi, Holly, not sure
Speaker 1: if you noticed, but just wanted to say, your skin
Speaker 1: looks so great. It's glowing and super clear. Thought you
Speaker 1: should know. Ha, do share if you've recently changed something
Speaker 1: in your skincare red heart. Three comments later, you're ready
Speaker 1: for this. I feel like you look way better without eyeliner.
Speaker 1: All the makeup for so many years is making your
Speaker 1: skin saggy. I might give y'all her user name so
Speaker 1: y'all can look her up and talk to her after core.
Speaker 1: How many y'all would enjoy that? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Y'all aren't safe. Y'all learn not mature enough to handle it.
Speaker 1: And I got permission to share this, HOLI, so I
Speaker 1: can share it. The lady said botox can help with
Speaker 1: the wrinkles. To listen to this, you're still beautiful. Thanks.
Speaker 1: I wish I could show y'all her profile picture because
Speaker 1: she's got crazy eyes. Her eyes are crazy, this woman,
Speaker 1: and she misspelled your and she misspelled she's a makeup consultant, y'all.
Speaker 1: She's an amateur Mary kay in the comments section, but
Speaker 1: she needs a spelling teacher for the fifth grade words. Sorry,
Speaker 1: sanctify me. Lord, you're still beautiful. I just don't watch this.
Speaker 1: I just don't think you need so much makeup is
Speaker 1: ruining your skin. And in the words of my kids,
Speaker 1: who asked, who asked? Who asked? The unsolicited opinions of
Speaker 1: people about how you should raise your kids, About how
Speaker 1: you should relate to your husband, About what age you
Speaker 1: should be married by if you're married, About what age
Speaker 1: y'all really should start thinking about having kids. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're not getting any younger. Paul is not a consultant
Speaker 1: in the comments to the Church of Court that's trolling
Speaker 1: them with some little slivers of truth that are quoted
Speaker 1: out of context and telling them great advice and plan
Speaker 1: that he asks for their life independent of God's will.
Speaker 1: He's an apostle by the will of God speaking to
Speaker 1: people that he has a relationship with. This is not
Speaker 1: some generic advice from an inspirational speaker who wants to
Speaker 1: sell you something for two hundred and ninety nine dollars
Speaker 1: and ninety nine cents on an infomercial or an e course.
Speaker 1: This is not an influencer on Instagram that needs you
Speaker 1: to follow them in order for them to get a
Speaker 1: swipe up. Commission from a store. This is Paul, and
Speaker 1: he does something dangerous because they respect him, but they're
Speaker 1: starting to question him because there are super apostles that
Speaker 1: have infiltrated the church and they started to inundate God's
Speaker 1: people with opinions. You know, you really don't have to
Speaker 1: follow Christ like that. You should mix a little Judaism
Speaker 1: and a little bit of Christianity. And so now there's
Speaker 1: so many mixed opinions. Paul has to set the record
Speaker 1: straight and say I could lay down my authority if
Speaker 1: I need to. I don't want to do it like that.
Speaker 1: I would rather speak to you out of the love
Speaker 1: for my heart. But in order that you just don't
Speaker 1: think that I'm putting my authority on you to tell
Speaker 1: you what I want you to do. I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about my adversity that really touched me.
Speaker 1: Because it's difficult to find somebody who will break it
Speaker 1: down for you to the level that Paul does. It's
Speaker 1: difficult to It's not difficult to find somebody who'll complain
Speaker 1: to you. It's not difficult to find somebody who will
Speaker 1: tell you what they would do. It's not difficult at
Speaker 1: all to find a parent whose kids are out of
Speaker 1: the house. Their kids are lawyers and doctors now. And
Speaker 1: what you should do and your kid is seven, that's
Speaker 1: very easy. That's very easy to do. But Paul, in
Speaker 1: the middle of his struggle to walk in the authority
Speaker 1: of an apostle and what God has called him to do,
Speaker 1: he shows appropriate vulnerability. I could go on and on
Speaker 1: about going to the Third Heaven. I could go on
Speaker 1: and on about what I endured. I'm choosing not to
Speaker 1: do that. Instead, I want to tell you about my thorn.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about my thorn. Somebody says,
Speaker 1: show me the thorn, show me the thorn. The thorns. Ah,
Speaker 1: it's a metaphor, y'all. It's a metaphor. It's even like
Speaker 1: a cliche. This is the verse we get it for.
Speaker 1: It's like a thorn in my side, right, It's a metaphor.
Speaker 1: Most of the things that we really deal with, when
Speaker 1: we sing about them in church, we have to put
Speaker 1: them in a metaphor form, because if we really mentioned
Speaker 1: what we really struggle with, it will scare people and
Speaker 1: they would judge us. At least we think they would
Speaker 1: probably surprised. You. The person with their hands lifted higher
Speaker 1: than you this morning. They probably got more thorns than you,
Speaker 1: but that's not the point of this message. Paul said,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about my thorn. Now. Since
Speaker 1: I've studied this text all week, I've learned a lot
Speaker 1: about different interpretations of what Paul's thorn was. Historically, some
Speaker 1: people say that poor Paul had epileptic seizures. Nothing funny
Speaker 1: about that. But the reason that they trace it is
Speaker 1: because when he was blinded and knocked off of his
Speaker 1: horse on the road to Damascus where he was going
Speaker 1: to persecute Christians, that he never quite recovered, and that
Speaker 1: was his thorn. Other people would say that there was
Speaker 1: something wrong with Paul's eyesight. When he wrote to the
Speaker 1: church at Galatia, he talked about how large his letters
Speaker 1: were because he wrote with his own pen, and he
Speaker 1: even mentioned that the Galatians would be willing to give
Speaker 1: their own eyes to him if necessary. Some scholars say
Speaker 1: that it was from the blinding on the road to
Speaker 1: Damascus that his eyesight never fully recover. Other people don't
Speaker 1: associate it with blindness or seizures at all, or a
Speaker 1: medical condition. Luther and Calvin, they identified it with a
Speaker 1: spiritual temptation that Paul faced. And there is a little
Speaker 1: bit of support for this scripturally because in Tewod Corinthians
Speaker 1: eleven he mentions that I inwardly burn, I inwardly burn,
Speaker 1: not just persecution. Some people think that Paul Storn was
Speaker 1: the opponents who were saying about Paul. He's not real
Speaker 1: and he's not valid, and you can't believe him, and
Speaker 1: you know his letters are good, but he doesn't speak
Speaker 1: so well. It was those opponents that were coming against him.
Speaker 1: And so Paul does what we do when you have
Speaker 1: something in your life that you can't mention, he gives
Speaker 1: it a metaphor. The metaphor, and no matter how many
Speaker 1: different scholars and how many different theologians trace the Greek
Speaker 1: and the precedence and all of the different things that
Speaker 1: it could be, it seems to be a lot of
Speaker 1: confusion about what was Paul's thorn. But this is the
Speaker 1: thing I was excited to tell you. I studied all
Speaker 1: week and I found out y'all what Paul Scorn was.
Speaker 1: And from this pulpit I am going to announce to
Speaker 1: you today. You don't look like you believe me for
Speaker 1: the first time. Come on, there have been thousands of
Speaker 1: years of preachers. But today I am going to definitively
Speaker 1: tell you what was Paul's thorn in Tewo Corinthians, chapter twelve. Now,
Speaker 1: before we get there, let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the metaphor. First of all, a thorn is a small thing.
Speaker 1: We sing about a God who can do big things.
Speaker 1: But when Paul went to talk about what God had
Speaker 1: taught him that meant the most to him in his life,
Speaker 1: he did not talk about a big thing, talked about
Speaker 1: a small thing. He said three times. The King James
Speaker 1: says thrice, thrice. I just want to put that in there. Thrice.
Speaker 1: I ask God to take it away three times. Now,
Speaker 1: this does not mean three times Paul prayed, take it away,
Speaker 1: take it away, Take it away, Okay, God, I guess
Speaker 1: I gotta live with it, Which brings me to an
Speaker 1: important point. If you've got a thorn in your life
Speaker 1: that you're dealing with it, nobody knows about it, and
Speaker 1: you need God to take it away, ask him, ask him.
Speaker 1: Don't say God's no for him. I was taught this
Speaker 1: in negotiating. I was taught this in dating. Don't say
Speaker 1: somebody's no for them. Well, they wouldn't want to go
Speaker 1: out to eat with me. Well, you know what, You're
Speaker 1: not out to eat with them now, And if you
Speaker 1: ask them and they say no, you still won't be
Speaker 1: out to eat with them. So it would be the
Speaker 1: same result if you risk the rejection and put yourself
Speaker 1: out there and get some practice, and then you can
Speaker 1: analyze the process by which you might have failed at
Speaker 1: the endeavor of getting a date, apply it to your
Speaker 1: next opportunity, and maybe one day you'll name your kid
Speaker 1: Stephen after you get married. Because I told you, don't
Speaker 1: ever let somebody else. Don't let anybody else say God's
Speaker 1: no for him? Ask God? Did you ask him? You
Speaker 1: upraight about it? You did because I thought you just
Speaker 1: were like worrying about it. Did you ask him to
Speaker 1: do it? And I don't mean, you know, throw it
Speaker 1: on top like a sprinkle after you tried everything else?
Speaker 1: He falla, he won't and you I don't want to No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like Napaul doesn't throw on words. He said,
Speaker 1: I pleaded with God. I don't think it even means
Speaker 1: he asked God three times. I think it means He
Speaker 1: launched three separate campaigns to try to get God to
Speaker 1: change a situation, and after every campaign to get God
Speaker 1: to change it failed, then he accepted it. But at
Speaker 1: least ask, at least ask if you need God to
Speaker 1: heal somebody? I know, of course, Well, if it's God's will,
Speaker 1: he'll heal them. Okay, great, ask him, ask him. Well,
Speaker 1: I know God probably won't do that for me because
Speaker 1: I'm probably not gonna ask him. He's a big boy.
Speaker 1: Let him say his own. No, he doesn't need you
Speaker 1: to protect him, like God doesn't need you to be
Speaker 1: his assistant. Ah, you can ask him that right now.
Speaker 1: He's very busy to care about your little problem. Ask
Speaker 1: him for yourself. Maybe he likes you more than you
Speaker 1: think he does. Maybe he'll say yes and surprise you.
Speaker 1: I ask God. Sometimes I'm like, I'm like, okay, I
Speaker 1: don't have much time to study today, but God, would
Speaker 1: you give me my message quick? And sometimes he doesn't,
Speaker 1: but sometimes he does. So now I ask him every time,
Speaker 1: and if he says no, and I have to study
Speaker 1: all week, I was gonna have to study all week anyway.
Speaker 1: It never hurts to ask, but ask him, ask him,
Speaker 1: ask him. I used to review Collie. You can't pray
Speaker 1: for a good parking space. She said, why not. That's
Speaker 1: a good question. Ask him? Ask him. I got some
Speaker 1: things I'm asking God for that are so stupid. I
Speaker 1: would never tell you about him. You would laugh me
Speaker 1: out of the room. But I'm not asking you, am I.
Speaker 1: That's why I didn't ask you. I don't ask people
Speaker 1: who don't have the authority to give me what I'm
Speaker 1: asking for. So some stuff I gotta ask God. I
Speaker 1: gotta ask God. I need to see your supervisor, somebody
Speaker 1: with the authority to get it. Thought, I'll need advice.
Speaker 1: How need authority? How need somebody who's got the keys
Speaker 1: to walk me through this door. You're asking people questions
Speaker 1: who don't even have the keys. My family has launched
Speaker 1: three separate campaigns against me to get a dog, and
Speaker 1: I can mark each phase of the campaign is really grim.
Speaker 1: But he's enlisted everybody in the family. The only one
Speaker 1: who's standing with me in solidarity is Elijah, my firstborn son,
Speaker 1: bless of my flesh and bone of my bones. We
Speaker 1: don't want a dog. So the first phase he wrote
Speaker 1: a song, Daddy can a dog? Daddy can I get?
Speaker 1: He took the piano lessons that I paid for and
Speaker 1: perverted it against me to ask me for a pet
Speaker 1: that I parenthally have already prohibited. Then he started Phase
Speaker 1: two that went on for months. Phase two signs all
Speaker 1: over the house and text messages with pictures of rescue
Speaker 1: dogs all day law the saddest Sarah McLaughlin eyed dogs
Speaker 1: you've ever seen in your life, just flooding my text message.
Speaker 1: And this is what Paul meant in the text where
Speaker 1: he said a messenger of Satan. No no, no, that's
Speaker 1: not in the Greek. But and the third phase they're
Speaker 1: currently doing because he finally realized, Mom, you're the only one.
Speaker 1: And now all of Hell and and all of Holly
Speaker 1: and everybody in my house except Elijah, my true son
Speaker 1: in the faith, my Timothy is against me. Not just three,
Speaker 1: not just three prayers that they said three seasons, three seasons,
Speaker 1: and when you see God about something for a whole season.
Speaker 1: Whatever Paul's thorn was, And I'm gonna tell you what
Speaker 1: it was in a minute, I have not forgotten to
Speaker 1: tell you what it was. I'm gonna tell you what
Speaker 1: it was because all the commentators have something different to say.
Speaker 1: But I found out what it was. I found out
Speaker 1: what it was. I studied all weekend. I found out
Speaker 1: what it was. I asked God to show me quick.
Speaker 1: He didn't show me quick. So I kept studying it
Speaker 1: and I found out what it was. But before we
Speaker 1: get to what it was, let's talk about what it represents.
Speaker 1: You think maybe Paul didn't mention it by name because
Speaker 1: he did not want to limit the application to the
Speaker 1: people that he was sharing it with. A metaphor gives
Speaker 1: you more room than an issue does. So fas exactly
Speaker 1: what he struggle with, you go, I don't struggle with that.
Speaker 1: I'm better than Paul. Or if it was something that
Speaker 1: is less than what you strugle with, you go, huh, Well,
Speaker 1: if he calls that a struggle, there's no hope for me.
Speaker 1: I used talk to guy and he'd be like, I've
Speaker 1: been really struggling lately. I've had to cut my prayer
Speaker 1: time to two hours a day. And the way that
Speaker 1: would make you feel. He was a pastor, and he
Speaker 1: would say that to the church and the guy sitting
Speaker 1: out there that has to do a real job and
Speaker 1: can't just sit around reading about Bartholomew and Thomas and
Speaker 1: Alpheus and all these Bible names all week. It's sitting
Speaker 1: there feeling like crap comparing himself. Oh that's your thorn.
Speaker 1: I was gonna show you mine, but I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: this thorn right back here where it was. Oh God,
Speaker 1: that's why the power of a metaphor. I don't mean
Speaker 1: to make this English class, but I keep coming back
Speaker 1: to the power of a metaphor. We've got one new
Speaker 1: song we've been singing in the church when are recorded
Speaker 1: on October sixth, where it has all these everythings you're like,
Speaker 1: I can plug a song in a serment. I've been
Speaker 1: doing this a long time. I've been this time and
Speaker 1: I like the song because it gives you examples. It says,
Speaker 1: I'm calling on the God of Jacob, I'm calling on
Speaker 1: the God of Moses. I'm calling on the God of David.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite one because it says I'm calling on
Speaker 1: the God of David, who made a shepherd boy courageous.
Speaker 1: But this is my favorite line. I may not face Goliath,
Speaker 1: but I've got my own giants now. The reason it
Speaker 1: says it like that because I wrote that with a
Speaker 1: few friends. And the reason we chose to say it
Speaker 1: like that is because if it addressed the specific issue,
Speaker 1: that would be too awkward. And limited. So we just
Speaker 1: say I may not face Goliath. That's the name of
Speaker 1: a particular enemy that David faced. But I've got my
Speaker 1: own giants. So when you sing that line, no matter
Speaker 1: how dirty, dark, stinky, rotten, filthy, corrupted, perverted or subversive
Speaker 1: your giant is, you can sing it with a big
Speaker 1: old smile on your face, because all the way it
Speaker 1: be too awkward. Right, I'm calling on the God of
Speaker 1: David who made a shepherd boy courageous. You know, I
Speaker 1: may not face go LII can't be too specific here,
Speaker 1: Yeah a metaphor, I mean, no face go Lie'm a
Speaker 1: functional alcoholic. You're gonna get gona do they gonna do that?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do that. It doesn't even rhyme. Let's at
Speaker 1: least get it to rhyme. I mean I can't dying, right,
Speaker 1: you like that one? You can't say you mean now
Speaker 1: says go liar? My kid's expulsive liar. Right, you can't
Speaker 1: sing about them while they're sitting next to you. So
Speaker 1: funny thing is funny thing is The funny thing is
Speaker 1: funny thing is two people sitting next to each other
Speaker 1: singing about the other one that they came to church
Speaker 1: with and the other one didn't know. You're my liar.
Speaker 1: You're the one look straight ahead right now, right now,
Speaker 1: right now, right now, looks straight ahead, right now. You
Speaker 1: didn't even know you're the one I'm singing about. You're
Speaker 1: the one I'm crying about. And I can't tell you
Speaker 1: you're my thorn. Oh that's mean, poster Steven. But it
Speaker 1: begs the question, doesn't it. Why? Why would a god
Speaker 1: who has enough power to take down a giant with
Speaker 1: a rock leave something as small as a thorn? Wow?
Speaker 1: Why would a god who said you could have mustard
Speaker 1: seed faith and move something as big as a mountain?
Speaker 1: Why would that God leave something as small as a
Speaker 1: thorn in the life of someone as important this Paul?
Speaker 1: And it begs a better question? Why would God allow
Speaker 1: you season after season to sing about goliaths, to sing
Speaker 1: about mountains, to pray about them, to ask about them,
Speaker 1: to strategize and maybe it'll be different this time? And
Speaker 1: Paul said, I asked three times, three times now. I
Speaker 1: launched three separate campaigns that I waged with heaven to
Speaker 1: see if God would take this away so I could
Speaker 1: be more effective for him. This was something that I
Speaker 1: wanted and it was something that I thought God would want.
Speaker 1: And we don't get to know. Was it physical or
Speaker 1: we don't get to know was it mental or did
Speaker 1: the Great Apostles struggle with depression? See, we probably couldn't
Speaker 1: handle that. Then we would listen to him if he
Speaker 1: said rejoicing the Lord always, because we'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're a hypocrite, Paul, you're canceled. You can't struggle with
Speaker 1: that and preach to me, because we like, we like
Speaker 1: to cut people out when they don't live up to
Speaker 1: our exact standards. But all have sin and fall in
Speaker 1: short of a glory of God. Oh oh, Paul, go oh, pau,
Speaker 1: go oh oh. Thorns all up in the seat next
Speaker 1: to you. Don't get too close to her. You might
Speaker 1: get stuck. She's got thorns. And I want to say
Speaker 1: something else before I tell you what pulse thorne was,
Speaker 1: because you're not gonna believe it when you see it.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to make sure that you
Speaker 1: understand that life will give you an ample supply of thorns.
Speaker 1: You don't have to ask for one. Okay, Lord, all right, Lord.
Speaker 1: I hear the preacher today. He's saying, we got to
Speaker 1: suffer from persecution, bringing on luid. I'm ready, gun. I
Speaker 1: was in a fair service one time and somebody start
Speaker 1: praying God, I just pray for a trial by fire.
Speaker 1: I backed up so quick. Hold up, y'all, I got
Speaker 1: a phone call. I didn't come back. Don't. I don't
Speaker 1: even want to be in the prayer circle with somebody
Speaker 1: dumb enough to pray that. And oh God, when I'm
Speaker 1: with somebody and they start praying for patience, it's all
Speaker 1: in the text. It's all in the text. He said
Speaker 1: in verse seven. I was given a thorn. I didn't
Speaker 1: ask for it. Because I'm preaching the people that are
Speaker 1: fighting something you didn't ask for. I'm preaching to people
Speaker 1: who are fighting something that you didn't ask for. And
Speaker 1: all these categories Paul lists will make a good starting
Speaker 1: place for us to evaluate our life and see what
Speaker 1: is that thing where we need God. He mentions hardships,
Speaker 1: He mentions insults, He mentions persecutions, he mentions difficulties. He
Speaker 1: mentions all of these things weaknesses. He mentions them categorically
Speaker 1: and metaphorically. But this is not a shopping list. Life
Speaker 1: will give you enough of those you don't have to
Speaker 1: go looking for them. Insults. Life will give you plenty
Speaker 1: of those. You don't have to infer them when they're
Speaker 1: not there. Do you see how she looked at me? No,
Speaker 1: I don't even think she was looking at you. Yes
Speaker 1: she did, she was looking at me. Did you hear
Speaker 1: how they said that? They said that about me? They
Speaker 1: were talking about me. Insults. Life will give you enough.
Speaker 1: You'll get insulted for real. Somebody will be on your
Speaker 1: comments looking for you to have a boat talk so
Speaker 1: Mary Kay consultant Ninja in the comments, trying to take
Speaker 1: you down. You won't have to go looking for a hardship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll give you enough. And that's why for me, this
Speaker 1: is just me in my house. Social media is really dangerous.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's bad because right now while I'm preaching,
Speaker 1: they're posting on an account about my sermon on the thing.
Speaker 1: But for me, because life gives me enough thorns, I
Speaker 1: have enough insecurity. I deal with enough in my head.
Speaker 1: I mean, I got enough movies to make me miserable
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. Regrets things I replay, self doubt,
Speaker 1: even self loathing. Well hold on, no, Pastor Stephen, you
Speaker 1: are a preacher. You should have worked through these issues.
Speaker 1: Paul had a thorn. You have a thorn if you
Speaker 1: keep looking at me this fake I'm gonna interview your
Speaker 1: family members and I'm gonna find out your thorn, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put you on blast in the pulpit next week.
Speaker 1: But what got me about it was that social media
Speaker 1: can be like a thorn store. Where As if you
Speaker 1: don't have enough already to feel worried about or to
Speaker 1: compare yourself, if it's not hard enough to be a
Speaker 1: teenager with the fear of missing out, you can go
Speaker 1: and find proof that you're missing out of all the
Speaker 1: people that didn't invite you, and watch the things that
Speaker 1: they're doing. It can be like a for me. For me,
Speaker 1: I don't go on Facebook because it gonna make me
Speaker 1: too angry. And I may not face Goliath, but I
Speaker 1: already got a really bad temper. I may not face
Speaker 1: goal liar, but I have anger is shoes right, So
Speaker 1: I don't need all that. I don't need more thorns.
Speaker 1: I don't need to borrow your thorns. I don't need
Speaker 1: to be swimming in the sewage of other people's anger
Speaker 1: when I've already got enough anger of my own. I'm
Speaker 1: not looking for me. Instagram is like it's like thornhub.
Speaker 1: It's like it's just like it's this. Oh God, he's
Speaker 1: preaching a real sermon today. He's saying real things today.
Speaker 1: To me, this is like a I'm not looking for insults, hardships, persecutions, weaknesses.
Speaker 1: I've already got enough of those. I need a word
Speaker 1: from God. I need an encouraging voice. I needed that
Speaker 1: I can aspire to. That looks like crisis. Ah. He said,
Speaker 1: A thorn was given to me. And he says a
Speaker 1: strange phrase. He says it was a messenger of Satan.
Speaker 1: The word in Greek for messenger is angelos. What does
Speaker 1: that sound like? Angelos? Angelos, angelos angel the same word
Speaker 1: that is used for messenger. Y'all don't believe me. Put
Speaker 1: my Bible verse back up. He said, because of these
Speaker 1: surpassingly great revelations, therefore, in order to keep you from
Speaker 1: a coming sid, I was giving a thorn, a messenger
Speaker 1: of Satan. Angelos, same word as angel, the same word
Speaker 1: as angel, an angel, a messenger. It's the same word.
Speaker 1: There's no difference in the word an angel of Satan
Speaker 1: to tormin me an angel of Satan. I don't want
Speaker 1: that kind. I don't. I never prayed for Satan to
Speaker 1: give me anything in my life. And Paul didn't like
Speaker 1: it either, and he said, the first time he got
Speaker 1: that thing, hit with that thing, he said, return to cinder,
Speaker 1: and he did it three times. And sometimes that works
Speaker 1: and God helps you through it and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not going to struggle with that anymore.
Speaker 1: And that's awesome, and you can testify and help others.
Speaker 1: But in this case, Paul said, in this case, he said,
Speaker 1: I had to see that it was given to me,
Speaker 1: even though the enemy delivered it. He said, it came
Speaker 1: from an angel, an angel of Satan gave me a
Speaker 1: gift from God. And that's why I think this week,
Speaker 1: when it comes to the thorns in your life, even
Speaker 1: if it's a person that gets on your nerves, raise
Speaker 1: your hand. If there's one in your life, so so
Speaker 1: so this week, tell them you're such an angel. Now, Now,
Speaker 1: if they go to church here, don't say that, because
Speaker 1: they'll they'll know the Greek. But if they don't go
Speaker 1: to church here, they won't have a clue what you're
Speaker 1: talking about. Say, man, you're just like an angel's mean
Speaker 1: and what the angel brother is a thorn? And I
Speaker 1: started to get confused because he said, it is angel.
Speaker 1: You're you're teenagers. Did you know your teenagers parents are angels? Uh? Teenagers?
Speaker 1: Did you know your parents are angels? I can't wait
Speaker 1: all week, people walking around their house feeling like, what's up? Angel?
Speaker 1: Angel and angel? Everybody, all the angels saluting each other.
Speaker 1: That God is using to keep us dependent on him.
Speaker 1: You gave me a gift of realizing how much I
Speaker 1: need God. Oh yeah, oh yeah, You're gonna see angels
Speaker 1: everywhere this way. But the verse back off. He said,
Speaker 1: it's a messenger from Satan. He said, but I don't
Speaker 1: like to I don't. I don't have to like the
Speaker 1: delivery service to open the package. So it was an angel,
Speaker 1: a messenger of Satan, in order to keep me from
Speaker 1: getting so conceited. God knows what you're prone to. God
Speaker 1: knew that Paul was prone to pride. So what God does,
Speaker 1: He matches your thorn, your course to your calling. The
Speaker 1: reason I can't pick my own mentor in life is
Speaker 1: I don't know what I need because I don't even
Speaker 1: know who I really am yet, and I certainly don't
Speaker 1: know who I'm gonna be when God gets done with me.
Speaker 1: So God is so good that he knows how to
Speaker 1: man your thorn. Your thorn from his throne. He said
Speaker 1: it was sent a messenger. Yeah, Satan, to torment me,
Speaker 1: torment me. You've been tormented by it. You've been tormented
Speaker 1: by it. It torments you when there's a weakness and
Speaker 1: you can't get stronger in it. It is to torments
Speaker 1: you that I should be further along, and I did
Speaker 1: it again. It torments you that other people can do
Speaker 1: that easily, but it's not easy for me. It torments you. Torment, torment, torment, torment, tormentor, mentor, mentor, mentormentor, mentor,
Speaker 1: mentor men poor mentor mentor mentor. Paul Storn was his mentor.
Speaker 1: I told you i'd tell you what Paul Storn was,
Speaker 1: and I did. It was his mentor. It was the
Speaker 1: thing God gave him to teach him grace. So I
Speaker 1: actually don't have to interview anybody to find out what
Speaker 1: your thorn is. I already know it's your mentor. It's
Speaker 1: the mentor you didn't ask for. It's the thing that
Speaker 1: showed up in your life. Because see, you've been trained
Speaker 1: in a lot of things. Some of you have a
Speaker 1: master's degree. Some of you know how to run a business.
Speaker 1: Some of you know how to make straight a's, some
Speaker 1: of you know how to impress others. Some of you
Speaker 1: know how to dress. Some of you know how to
Speaker 1: talk real good and you can flatter people and say
Speaker 1: things to get out of the situation. But there are
Speaker 1: some things that can only be learned in Thorn University.
Speaker 1: There are some things that God can only teach you,
Speaker 1: not through advice, but through adversity. Paul was not a rookie,
Speaker 1: and Paul was not a nude, and Paul Paul was
Speaker 1: not an unsolicited dear abby advice columnist. Paul was an
Speaker 1: apostle of Jesus Christ, and he didn't even want to be.
Speaker 1: Paul never even applied to be an apostle. He was
Speaker 1: just riding on his donkey through Damascus and God Pop
Speaker 1: knocked him off his donkey and said, new Boss, I
Speaker 1: am Jesus whom you are persecuting, and had delete him
Speaker 1: by the hand. You got a new mentor now, Paul.
Speaker 1: This is difficult because Paul studied under watch this Gameleo
Speaker 1: Gamalio was a father of the Sanhedrin, not just a member.
Speaker 1: Gamaliol was the grandson of Hillel. The Gamaleo was so powerful,
Speaker 1: they said the glory of the Torah died when Gamalio died,
Speaker 1: but he was steeped only in Judaism. When Gamalio mentored Paul,
Speaker 1: he could teach him so much. He could teach him
Speaker 1: about the law, He could teach him about the oral tradition,
Speaker 1: and Paul sat at his feet. He defends himself in
Speaker 1: Acts twenty two, verse three. He said, I grew up
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, and I sat at the feet of Gamalio.
Speaker 1: He was my mentor. But one day, as I was
Speaker 1: going to persecute the church and wipe out those who
Speaker 1: were members of the way, help me, Holy Spirit, I
Speaker 1: got knocked down by something bigger than me. I got
Speaker 1: blinded by a light I didn't even ask for. And
Speaker 1: Gomalio could teach me about grammar, but he couldn't teach
Speaker 1: me about grace. It took a thorn to show me
Speaker 1: that I didn't ask for it. And God, if you
Speaker 1: want to take it is still on the table. You
Speaker 1: can have it back anytime. But the torment stops here.
Speaker 1: I will not be tormented by this thorn one more day.
Speaker 1: If you are not going to take this thorn away,
Speaker 1: then God, you will need to give me the grace.
Speaker 1: So when Paul preaches. When Paul preaches and he talks
Speaker 1: about the thorn, I want you to realize that that
Speaker 1: is the thing that God wouldn't take away. But he
Speaker 1: says in verse seven something very interesting. He says, Therefore,
Speaker 1: in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was
Speaker 1: given a thorn. And I just read that a bunch
Speaker 1: and I eventually began to see. Therefore, Therefore, therefore, in
Speaker 1: order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given
Speaker 1: a thorn. It came through an instrument of Satan. But
Speaker 1: God used it as a vessel of grace. Isn't that
Speaker 1: what he did with Paul. Paul who was a tool
Speaker 1: who was used by the enemy to torment the church,
Speaker 1: and when God transformed him, he became a vessel for
Speaker 1: the gospel. And if God can do that through Paul,
Speaker 1: now he said, I'm gonna do it for Paul, and
Speaker 1: if you can receive it, He's gonna do it for you. Therefore,
Speaker 1: I was given a thorn. God didn't take it away.
Speaker 1: He showed me what it was. Therefore, so ask God
Speaker 1: for this. Ask God for therefore. I'm celebrating today because
Speaker 1: God gave me a Therefore, I'm not celebrating that the
Speaker 1: thorn is gone. I'm celebrating that God gave me a
Speaker 1: there form. I'm gonna find another church that preached us
Speaker 1: in this is too good. Somebody celebrate the therefore therefore
Speaker 1: so so, he said, Therefore, all the more gladly, for
Speaker 1: Christ's sake, I will boast in the things that make
Speaker 1: me appear broken. Therefore I will glory not in the thorn,
Speaker 1: but in the grace that God released for it. Don't
Speaker 1: glory in the thorn. Don't walk around just worshiping your weakness.
Speaker 1: But he said, I'm elebrating because I've got a grace
Speaker 1: for it. I've walked with hundreds of people through seasons
Speaker 1: of unimaginable struggle, and what they all seem to have
Speaker 1: in common when you talk to them, if they go
Speaker 1: on living, is that God gave them a grace that
Speaker 1: was proportional to the problem. And if they live through it,
Speaker 1: they live long enough to talk about not just what
Speaker 1: I went through, but what God taught me. And they
Speaker 1: stopped talking about the thorns so much, it's like, even
Speaker 1: if it was a really big thing, they start in
Speaker 1: comparison to the glory of the grace that God gives them.
Speaker 1: They start making it look like a small thing. So
Speaker 1: I wonder who you are today, and I wonder what's
Speaker 1: your thorn. But I don't really need to know, because
Speaker 1: God already showed me that thorn is the mentor you
Speaker 1: didn't ask for. Is the thing that's gonna teach you.
Speaker 1: One old preacher said, the thorn is what takes you
Speaker 1: to the throne. Because Paul said, I know me, and
Speaker 1: God knows me, and I would have gotten out ahead
Speaker 1: of myself if God didn't give me this. So take
Speaker 1: your thorn to the throne and ask God. I didn't
Speaker 1: ask you for this thorn, but I'm asking you now.
Speaker 1: I need a grace for this season. I need a
Speaker 1: grace for this insult. God, you told me to turn
Speaker 1: the other cheek. I'm out of cheek. So only God,
Speaker 1: so many, so many, some grace. Three seasons I've petitioned you.
Speaker 1: Still no dog. So if you won't give me a breakthrough,
Speaker 1: give me a therefor reveal something here in my life
Speaker 1: that I couldn't see anywhere else. I'm not telling you
Speaker 1: to thank God for your thorn. I'm not there yet.
Speaker 1: Some people can do that. I'm not that good of
Speaker 1: a Christian. I'm not, Paul, and most of y'all aren't either.
Speaker 1: So if we can't thank Him for the thorn, which
Speaker 1: is understandable, let's thank him for the Therefore, Therefore I
Speaker 1: will boast all the more gladly about what God gave
Speaker 1: me through it. It's a pivotal moment when you don't
Speaker 1: allow the enemy to torment you anymore, and he don't
Speaker 1: want you to see this because he wants to keep
Speaker 1: you weak where you won't worship. Paul said. Therefore, I
Speaker 1: boast all the more. I glory in what the thorn
Speaker 1: brought me to long glory in the thorn. I don't
Speaker 1: like the thorn. I tried to send it back. I
Speaker 1: didn't order the thorn. But regardless of how it came,
Speaker 1: right now I need grace everybody under the sound of
Speaker 1: my voice. This is not your chance to slip out
Speaker 1: of the room. Early, stand up, and in this moment,
Speaker 1: I wonder would you receive what you really need from God?
Speaker 1: And I wonder can you be humble enough to lift
Speaker 1: your hands like you need it, and not clench your
Speaker 1: fists like you got this, because that's the posture of
Speaker 1: power right there. That's it. And Lord, we thank you
Speaker 1: further therefore, and we thank you for the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 1: our divine mentor, and we thank you that you're teaching
Speaker 1: us about your grace in this season. There is a
Speaker 1: supernatural grace that comes upon you in seasons like this.
Speaker 1: There is a supernatural grace that comes upon the saints.
Speaker 1: There is a grace for your thorn. And one day,
Speaker 1: if we cannot be so proud and arrogant to deny it,
Speaker 1: if we cannot be so bitter about the fact that
Speaker 1: it happened, one day, maybe we'll get to talk about
Speaker 1: what God taught us like Paul did. And maybe one
Speaker 1: day we can say, when I'm weak, then I'm strong.
Speaker 1: Maybe we can let God in. Maybe he's bigger than
Speaker 1: our thorn. Maybe his grace is sufficient for you too.
Speaker 1: The Spirit of the Living God fall fresh, anoint us
Speaker 1: with oil for the thorns in our flesh and the
Speaker 1: pressure that we face, and the temptation that we're under,
Speaker 1: and the weakness that we know all too well. We
Speaker 1: need your oil. I lift up every thorn to you today.
Speaker 1: We ask you to take it away, and we probably
Speaker 1: keep asking, but while we're working through it, we thank
Speaker 1: you for the Therefore, it's there for a reason. We'll
Speaker 1: see what it is in time and time and time
Speaker 1: in time. I want to tell you one more thing
Speaker 1: while you pray. While you pray, Satan was the messenger,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't the master. While you pray, consider that,
Speaker 1: consider this that in God's hands, Paul, who tortured and
Speaker 1: tormented the church, became a mentor for the gospel. That's
Speaker 1: what's going to happen in your life. The sufferings of
Speaker 1: this present time are not worth comparing with the glory
Speaker 1: that will be revealed in you. And so God, I
Speaker 1: thank you for a release of your glory. I thank
Speaker 1: you for these things that drew us closer to you. God.
Speaker 1: We wouldn't have prayed. We would have been proud. We
Speaker 1: would have thought it was our strength, our might, our armor,
Speaker 1: our sling, our sword. It wasn't. In this moment of weakness,
Speaker 1: we declare we are strong, we are blessed, we are filled,
Speaker 1: We are overcomers, we are conquerors, we are more than conquerors.
Speaker 1: Let the weak say, I am strong. Let the Corse say,
Speaker 1: I am rich. We're thank you for in Jesus' name,
Speaker 1: we offer you this praise, and the whole church said amen. Well,
Speaker 1: if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of
Speaker 1: things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review this podcast. You can also help us reach
Speaker 1: others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give
Speaker 1: and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.