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His Grace is Enough

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 • September 18, 2024 • g1301

Pastor Todd Lauderdale teaches a message through 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 titled “His Grace is Enough.”

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Pastor Todd Lauderdale

September 18, 2024

Sermon Scripture Reference

There’s an old biblical scholar by the name of A.W. Tozer who once said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” Let me say that again so we understand what’s being communicated, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” Now, I don’t know that it is always the case that God will wound a man before He blesses a man, but I do know this that in the life of every believer, not just every man of God but every believer, there will be times of great blessing, there will also be times of great wounding, and we’ve all attested to that in our own lives, in our own experience, that there are times that we feel blessed, there are times that we feel maybe even sometimes abandoned. Now, when we’re experiencing the blessing of God, we never question that, we’re grateful for it. We rejoice in it. It’s great to feel the blessing of God in our life, but when we are being wounded, we question God a lot. We begin to wonder, “Why?” because so often is the case is that we don’t see any purpose for it. It doesn’t make any sense to us at all.

Now, the Apostle Paul was a man who had experienced great blessing in his life, but he had also experienced great sorrow. He was a man who God used in mighty, mighty ways, but he also suffered in great ways at the same time. In fact, from day one in the Apostle Paul’s life, he was even told by God how much he would begin to suffer. When he got saved, and the story is recorded in Acts 9, where he, on the way to a city called Damascus to actually persecute Christians because at the time he was the enemy of all those that were followers of Christ, he wanted to persecute them, Jesus had an encounter with Paul on that road to Damascus where he was knocked to the ground and Jesus began to speak to him, reveal Himself to Paul, and on that day Paul got saved. But we don’t even get out of that chapter before God says, “I need to begin to reveal to this man how much he must suffer for My name sake.”

Let me ask you. If on the day that you got saved that was part of the story that you were given, how many of us would’ve stuck it out? I mean, the day that you gave your life to Christ, maybe you were told, “Hey, congratulations, your sins are forgiven. Your name is written in the Book of Life. When your life is over here on earth, you are going to be taken to heaven where you will be with your Lord and Savior Jesus for all of eternity. But for now, your life is going to suffer.” Many of us would’ve been looking for the exit door. We wouldn’t have wanted that.

You know, Paul began to realize that to live your life for Christ is going to involve suffering, and he was okay with that because many times when he was suffering he saw God’s purpose in it. In Philippians 1, he was sitting in a prison cell as he was writing that book, and he was elaborating on the fact that he was a prisoner of Christ, but understanding that it was actually for the benefit of the church because people were being inspired, because Paul was in prison, to live their life more devoted to Christ, to share the gospel more, and so he could accept the fact that he was a prisoner because he saw the positive result that it was causing.

In the passage that we are going to read right now, Paul was suffering but did not see any purpose for that suffering and we find him questioning God. I want you to follow along with me beginning in verse 7, where Paul speaking says this, “And lest I should be exalted above 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. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for 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. 10 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 am sure that for most of us here this is a familiar passage. This is a better known passage of Scripture in the New Testament because it relates to our lives as well. We can identify in our own lives with a man who is going through a rough time who is experiencing what we call a “thorn” in his side or a “thorn in the flesh.” But I don’t know if you’ve ever considered the time in which Paul is actually writing about this because it is right on the heels of what he first began to share in 2 Corinthians 12. We won’t take the time to go back and read that whole passage, you can do so on your own time, but let me tell you this, as he has just shared with us a low point in his life between verses 7 and 10, one of the highest points of Paul’s life is shared from verses 1-6. He tells of having a vision that God had given him. Now, he’s speaking in the third person as he is sharing this story, but by the time we get to verse 7, we realize that Paul was actually referring to himself, though he told the story in the third person.

What he speaks of is a vision that he had received. Now, he did not know if it actually was taking place in reality or it was only a vision in his mind. He couldn’t distinguish between the two. But one thing that he did know was that he was taken from earth and he was shown heaven. When he was there in paradise, it says that he heard things that would be unlawful for him to even speak about. Paul saw heaven. He saw heaven before he actually went to heaven or died in order to go to heaven.

It’s gotta be one of the most amazing things that any human being has ever experienced, what Paul experienced in that vision, if in fact it was a vision because, like I said, he doesn’t really know if he was in the body or out of the body when it was actually taking place. All he knows is he saw things that he had never seen before, he heard things that he had never heard before, and so great were those things that he says it would be unlawful for him to even speak of them, meaning that it was probably so fantastic that there are no earthly words that would adequately describe what he experienced in that vision that God had given him. That was probably a highlight in his life.

But after that vision came the affliction. It’s interesting. Because he had tasted paradise, he had to taste the “thorn.” Because he had been exalted in such a way to have that experience, it was also necessary in the mind of God that he was going to have to be afflicted as well. Now, Paul does not give us a whole lot of details about this “thorn,” he just makes a reference to it as a “thorn.”

I want you to know that the word in my translation, as well as most biblical translations calling it a “thorn,” is probably not an adequate translation of that particular word because when we read the word “thorn,” chances are you’re thinking about a thorn on a rosebush. They’re not very big, they are very sharp, and all of us have been pricked by a thorn on a thornbush I am sure; and it does hurt, and it penetrates the skin, but it is easily removed, and it heals fairly quickly, and to be honest, it’s not that big of a deal. But that is not the word that we ought to be thinking of. The word that is used by Paul in the Greek language was less of a reference to a thorn like I’m describing and more like a stake, a long sharp stake that doesn’t simply prick the skin, it tears the flesh and it goes deep. Not only that, but we need to consider how long Paul has probably had to endure whatever this thorn or stake in his flesh had been going on.

I want you to notice in verse 2 of the chapter. It’s prior to the passage that I read, but in reference to the vision that Paul had, he tells us actually how long ago that vision was given to him, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago,” so at the time that he is writing 2 Corinthians, he is making reference to this vision that he had had. Literally, fourteen years had passed since he had that vision. And, remember, the reason that he was given the “thorn in the flesh” was as a response to the greatness of the vision. Now, we’re not told specifically when that “thorn” was given, but it could be up to fourteen years ago that it was given, and he has had for years to endure whatever this “thorn” happened to be.

Now, who gave him this “thorn”? I want you to notice in verse 7, again, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.” Two things are said there, “ . . . a thorn was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.”

You know, anytime that we’re going through a very difficult time, we may wonder, Is this from God or is this an attack of the devil? Do you ever find yourself in that dilemma of wondering, Am I really being attacked by Satan? Is this the source of what is happening to me or is this something that God is allowing? Now, most often, if we are being blessed, we attribute that to God; if we’re being afflicted, we attribute that to spiritual warfare or an attack of our adversary. So, God’s the One who blesses; Satan is the one who attacks. We might automatically assume that this “thorn in the flesh” was an attack of Satan, but I want to argue differently. I believe that it was actually from God.

Now, why would I say that? I say that because of the results that came from this “thorn” in Paul’s life. We’ll get to that in a little while, but what came about in Paul’s life because of the “thorn” are the things that God wants to accomplish in his life, not what Satan wants to accomplish. Satan is the one who wants to steal, kill, and destroy. God is the One who wants to build up the believer. So, a “thorn” was given, and I believe that it was God who was giving the “thorn,” but Satan was the agent through which God brought it about.

I think it’s one thing that we need to understand is that Satan cannot do anything that God does not allow. It is God who is all-powerful. Satan is extremely limited in what he can do, and he cannot do anything without the permission of God. We see that back in the book of Job, Job 1, when Satan comes before the Lord, and that conversation takes place where Satan is wanting to afflict Job, but because God has protected Job, he has not been able to afflict him at all, and he argues, “You take that protection away, allow me to afflict his life, and I guarantee You, he’s going to turn his back on You.” God actually gives Satan permission, and that’s how the book of Job begins to unfold. Even that worked towards the purpose of God as we reach the last pages of the book of Job and we see God’s hand in it all. We also, in the gospels, see Satan filling Judas, provoking him to betray Jesus, but that too played into the hands of God because it accomplished what God intended—that Jesus would die for the sins of the world and then rise again from the dead. You see, there are things that Satan does, but whatever he does must pass through the permission of God first.

I want you to understand that what is happening to Paul here is happening because God intended it. Satan, or Satan’s demon because it makes reference to the “messenger of Satan.” “Messenger” comes from a Greek word ággelos, where we get our word angel. There are good angels, which are the angelic beings in the Kingdom of Heaven, and then there are the bad angels, which are the demons. We won’t get into that. But Paul was afflicted. Satan was doing the afflicting, but it was through the hands of God that it was actually taking place.

Again, we need to ask ourselves, what does this “thorn” actually refer to? Because Paul doesn’t elaborate, we’re kind of left to guess, and to be honest with you, there have been a lot of guesses. There are a lot of books written on the book of 2 Corinthians, and a lot of theologians have speculated. I came across just this week about a dozen different ideas as to what this “thorn” was actually referring to. Now, many of those ideas I pretty much dismissed because they were just man’s opinions. Why do I say that? Because I don’t see any scriptural basis for those things. That was just pure speculation.

There are four ideas that I do think have some scriptural backing, four possibilities of what this “thorn” in Paul’s flesh might have been, and I want to share those with you. The first one is that it may have been some sort of a physical affliction—some sort of an illness, a disease, a sickness that Paul actually had. He actually makes reference in the book of Galatians 4 to a physical infirmity that he had. He calls it a “trial” in his flesh. Now, he doesn’t elaborate on what it actually was, but he had some sort of a physical affliction. Many have suggested that he had some sort of an eye disease because there are a few statements in Paul’s writings that seem to indicate that he had a problem with his eyes.

Now, whether that was it or some other affliction, we do know that he struggled with his health. He had health issues. Now, that was a problem for him because he was always wanting to do the ministry. He was always wanting to be out there serving the Lord, spreading the gospel, making disciples, establishing churches; and if he was constantly afflicted with some illness or some limitation in his body, he was seeing that possibly as a “thorn” in his life that was preventing him from doing what he felt God was calling him to do. He was praying that God would take it away, “God, if You would just remove this, maybe I could serve You a whole lot more than I actually am doing.” That is one idea that many have had is that it was some sort of an illness.

Maybe you can relate to that because probably a good number of us in here that we have our own ailments, we have are own illnesses, we have our own battle that we’re facing. We may think to ourselves, God, I see no purpose in this. All I see is limitation. All I see is this taking me away from what I could possibly do for You. So, Paul wrestled with that I’m sure.

One of the other possibilities though is that he was facing difficult circumstances in his life. If you’ve read much of what Paul wrote, you know that his life was hard. I’m not talking right now about persecution, we will get to that in a minute, what I’m talking about are things that were happening in his life that just made life hard.

Can you relate to that? I’m sure a lot of us can because a lot of us it seems like our life is just one series of difficulties after another, and once you figure one out, it seems like two more are knocking at the door, and you’re just going from one difficulty to another difficulty to another.

In fact, right here in the book of 2 Corinthians, you could turn back there if you want to, but I’m just going to read a couple verses for you out of chapter 11, beginning with verse 25. Paul shares with us some of the circumstances that he had found himself in. He says, “ . . . three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep.” I’m going to pause right there and just focus on that for a minute. Three times he has been shipwrecked? How many times do you have to go through a shipwreck before you decide that you’re not going to get on another boat is what I was thinking. But what I really wrestled with was the next statement when he said that he spent, “ . . . a night and a day . . . in the deep.”

There are not a lot of things that scare me. I actually love the ocean, and it doesn’t bother me at all to go out into the ocean. Some of us here probably wouldn’t do that because there are things that can eat you that live there. But I love the beach, I love the ocean, and I don’t mind swimming out deep in the ocean. What freaks me out a little bit is if the sun goes down and it is now dark. You know how dark that water is, and Paul spent an entire night floating out there in the ocean because he had suffered a shipwreck. I don’t know about you, but I would need counseling after that because that just might scare me to death—I wouldn’t have to be eaten.

But Paul experienced that, and then he goes on and says, “ . . . in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles,” by the way, the word “peril” simply means a danger. Every one of these things that he is mentioning is a dangerous situation that he found himself in. “ . . . in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness,” and then he finishes it off, the first part of verse 28, “besides the other things,” if that list was not long enough, he just tacks on, “There was a bunch of other stuff, too.”

Now, imagine. Here he is, a man who was trying to serve the Lord. He’s trying to be used of God to bring the gospel, to make disciples, to establish churches, but one thing after another keeps happening to him. It seems like maybe every other day a new affliction is taking place in his life, a new situation that he’s got to figure his way out of, a new disaster was in his face. It might’ve been that he was saying, “God, how many more of these things that I have to endure? You know, this is really getting in the way of me being more effective, reaching more people, having a greater influence. But if You keep allowing these “thorns” to afflict me, these situations to slow me down, to keep me from going, to meeting new people, I don’t see any purpose for that.”

A third possibility was opposition from outside. When I say, “outside” I mean from outside of Paul’s life there were those that were anti-Christian attacking Paul and his message, so Paul faced a lot of persecution. In fact, when he got saved he was himself a persecutor. He was the one that was the Christian hater, the one that was trying to get Christians thrown in prison or beaten or maybe even killed. We know that he gave consent to Stephen, the first Christian martyr, he gave consent to his death.

Paul was on his way to persecute more Christians when he got saved himself. When he got saved, he continued that journey to Damascus and spent a little time there, but now not persecuting Christians, he was now preaching Christ. You know, he created his own haters. People began hating him because he was now proclaiming Christ, so much so that a plot was revealed there in Damascus that there were a group of men that were planning on putting him to death, and he had to have help escaping out of Damascus, hiding in a basket in order to not be put to death. That wasn’t the only occasion.

When Paul was in the city of Lystra later on a group of men that had heard enough tried to stone him to death, and actually literally left him for dead thinking that he had already died. He had not and was able to recover from that. But he had death threats, he had situations where people tried to literally kill him. He was in prison at least three times—three times that we know of—but there is a verse in which he alludes to the possibility that there might’ve been several more times that he was in prison.

Then Paul talks about receiving the 39 lashes from the whip of the Romans five times. This was probably very similar to the whipping that Jesus received before Jesus was crucified. Paul endured that five different times. He also mentions that he was at one time beaten with rods, and there’s more. I could elaborate more, but that should suffice at this time.

I think about a verse that he spoke at the end of the book of Galatians when he said, “From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” So, we know that persecution was a big part of Paul experience. He was a very vocal Christian and had a lot of people around him that were very anti-Christian, and because of that he suffered.

It’s interesting that in the book of Acts Paul was on a missionary journey, I believe it was the second missionary journey, traveling around sharing Christ when he reached the city of Corinth, the very place where 2 Corinthians was written for. When he got there, God spoke to his heart and told him, “Don’t be afraid here. I’m not going to let them hurt you.” You know, Paul ended up spending a year-and-a-half to two years there in Corinth. I can’t help but wonder if it was because he just needed a break from all of the persecution. “God, I claim that promise. You said I’m not going to be hurt here. I’m going to stay here for a while.” I mean, wouldn’t you feel that way? If you felt like you were always being picked on for your Christian faith, you were always receiving hostile comments or hostile treatment because you are a follower of Christ, it would feel pretty good to get to a place where you knew that you weren’t going to be facing that for a while, and that’s what was going to take place for him in Corinth, so he ended up staying there for an extended period of time.

It might’ve been a disease, a physical affliction. It might’ve been just circumstances of life that were always going wrong for him. It might’ve been that he was being persecuted. There’s one other I want to share with you, and that is, not opposition from without but opposition from within, meaning that he even faced opposition from within the church.

There’s one place that we ought to be safe as believers and it’s among believers, right? I mean, when we come to church, no matter what we have faced on the jobsite or in the classroom or maybe sometimes even in our own homes, no matter how turbulent it might be out there, it should at least be at peace when we come here—a place where we can feel encouraged, where we can be loved, where we can feel accepted and supported and built-up and rejuvenated and know that we are among God’s people, that we are with the family of God. That’s what the church ought to be, and Paul knew that. Paul knew that the church should be the greatest place of love and encouragement for a follower of Jesus so that even if life was tough on the outside, we know that we have a place on the inside where the believers are that is going to be good and peaceful and supportive.

Paul though was facing opposition from some of the churches, and Corinth was one of them. Corinth actually was a church that Paul planted. When he was on that second missionary journey, and when he did stay there for that extended period of time, he was preaching the gospel, working as a tentmaker to support himself but taking advantage of every opportunity that he had to share Christ with people, and people were getting saved, so he established a church there and began developing those believers so that at the end of that year-and-a-half, two years that he was there, there was a church that existed in Corinth that he had grown to love these people and that they had grown to love him because of all that he had done for them. But then Paul went on his way, and it would be a period of time before Paul would ever see them again.

It was during that time that some false teachers began to infiltrate the Corinthian church. They wanted to draw the attention of the people away to themselves rather than to this apostle that they had so much respect for. If they wanted to get the people to follow after themselves, they had to discredit Paul, and that’s what they began to do. They began to tear him apart in his absence, criticize him, say things about him to make the people question whether Paul was actually a good guy or not.

In fact, one of the things that Paul mentions that they said about him is 2 Corinthians 10:10. He said this about those false teachers. They’re making comments like this, “For his letters . . . are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” That was a very wordy way of basically saying that Paul was ugly and boring, “I don’t know why you guys follow that guy. He’s ugly and he’s boring to listen to.”

John MacArthur made some comments about this. Of course he was joking around a little bit, but he said this, “You know what? If you’re boring but you’re attractive, people will listen to you for a while simply because it’s easy to look at you. But if you’re ugly and interesting, they will also listen to you because though you’re not much to look at, at least you have something to say. But if you are ugly and boring, there isn’t anybody that is going to listen to you. God help you.” Now, he was just kidding, but the reality was that probably was one of the lighter statements that were made about Paul—criticizing him for how he looked or how he spoke.

There were a lot more things that were said about him that got many in the Corinthian church to turn against Paul so that Paul began to hear reports that many of those that he knew well, that he loved, now did not think much of him and were turning away from the things that he had taught them.

I will tell you that of these four different possibilities, and I don’t know for sure, but the one that I lean towards is this final one, maybe his “thorn in the flesh.” Why do I say that? Because I think it is the most painful thing that a person can face. Physical afflictions are hard, going through difficult circumstances are hard, even being persecuted by people that don’t like you, that’s hard; but when the opposition is coming from those that you love and that you thought loved you, that in my mind surpasses all of the others. I can endure persecution if I know that I have people in my life that love and support me. I can endure physical affliction if I know that I have people in my life that love and support me. I can endure whatever the world wants to throw at me as long as I have a support system, the people of God, that love and support me. But if I feel that they have now turned against me, there is very few things in this world that can wound a person more deeply than that, and some of you know what I’m talking about because you have experienced that and maybe you’re going through it right now. But at the end of the day, I can’t really say that is exactly what it is. All I know is that whatever it was, it was afflicting Paul, it cut him deep, and it was not a “thorn,” it was a stake, and it wasn’t for a little while, it was going on for a long period of time.

Why would God let that happen to His servant? Why would Paul have to endure that? I want to give you four things that Paul brings up here that I believe are the purpose, the purposes that Paul would begin to see. The first is, why would God allow Paul to be afflicted, and you can apply this to yourself as well because we need to ask the question, why would we be afflicted? The first is to humble us. Paul needed to be humbled. He actually makes that statement twice in verse 7. He begins the verse, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations,” and then finishes the same verse, “ . . . lest I be exalted above measure.” Why was he given the “thorn”? “ . . . lest”—he—“be exalted above measure.”

Why would he be exalted above measure? Because God had revealed to Paul things that He had revealed to nobody else because God had gifted Paul in ways that He had not gifted anybody else. Paul was being used of God in ways that nobody else was being used at that time. In fact, even to this day, there are many that believe that Paul was maybe the greatest Christian who has ever lived because of the amount of people that he was able to preach the gospel to, because of the amount of places that he was able to go and plant churches, because of the amount of the New Testament that he was able to write. The very pages, many of them, in the New Testament that we read were penned by the Apostle Paul. He was used in a great way, and when you are given such great gifts and great opportunities and experiences, it is very easy—our flesh loves it—to be puffed up, to think much of ourselves, and because God had done all of that for Paul, He also needed to make sure that Paul stayed humble. Why do we go through what we go through? Why do we suffer like we suffer? One of the reasons is to keep us humble.

The second reason, what we see in Paul’s life, is to cause us and Paul to seek after God. In verse 8, it says, “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” Now, the text tells us that Paul prayed three times. G. Campbell Morgan, who was a great Bible teacher and theologian, made the comment that this likely was not that Paul prayed only three times but that it was a Hebrew way of saying that he prayed all of the time for this very thing, that it was a continuous prayer in Paul’s heart, “Lord, please take it away. Lord, please take it away. Lord, please take it away.”

I bet there’s something in your life, maybe even right now, that that has been your continuous prayer, not just three times, but over and over and over again, “Lord, when are You going to set me free? Lord, when are You going to deliver me? Lord, when are You going to take this away?” He prayed a lot, but that caused him to seek after God, and it’s one of the very things that God wants to cultivate in your life and in my life is that we would seek Him. You know what? We pray more when we are afflicted than in any other time. In fact, for some of us we don’t pray until we are afflicted because when we’re not being afflicted we think everything’s alright, there’s no need to pray. One of the reasons why we are afflicted at times is because God wants us to seek His face.

The third thing that we learn is that it teaches us dependence upon the Lord. We need to know that we’re dependent upon the Lord, and one of the things that keeps us dependent upon the Lord is realizing our own weakness. Look at what it says in verse 9. “And He”—that is, God—“said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for 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.” You see, when we’re being blessed and everything is good in our life, we can begin to feel very self-sufficient. We can feel like, “You know what? I got my act together. Everything’s flowing the way that it needs to flow.” We can feel very satisfied in ourself and self-sufficient about things, “Don’t worry, Lord, I got it.”

You can enjoy those good times, but never for a moment think that you got it because every moment, whether it’s a good moment or a bad moment, we are completely dependent upon the Lord. Paul, you look at his life and it seemed like he was a very strong man in a lot of ways, and he needed to realize that even he was not as strong as he thought. He began through his “thorn” to see his own weakness, and the weakness was going to make him more dependent upon the Lord.

The fourth thing, and maybe the cherry on top or the capstone to all of them, is that God wanted to show Paul the greatness of His grace so that Paul would realize that God’s grace is enough. If you don’t hear anything else that has been said tonight, that’s the one thing that we all need to take home because I don’t know what you’re going through, and chances are what you’re going through is different than what I’m going through. Some of us are going through a lot, some of us are going through a little; for some of us it’s very severe, and for some of us it’s not as severe as it used to be. Whatever it is that we are facing, His grace sustains us, His grace strengthens us, His grace is sufficient.

Oftentimes we think about God’s grace as the grace that saves, and it absolutely does, but God’s grace does not stop after you are saved. In every area of our life we are dependent upon the grace of God, and that was something that even the Apostle Paul, who was a preacher of the grace of God, needed to understand. “Paul, I am not going to take it away because My grace in your life is enough. My grace saved you. My grace will sustain you. My grace will be your strength, and My grace will one day bring you home. Paul, My grace is sufficient.”

Believer, I want you to know tonight, God’s grace in your life is sufficient no matter what you face until the day He takes you home. No matter how wounded you feel or what future wounds you might have to experience, God’s grace will give you the strength.

When Paul realized that, he responded in verse 10, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.” I want you to notice first of all that he says now he’s going to take pleasure in it. Now, that’s a tough word to swallow when you’re really going through it, but then look at the whole list of what he mentions. He literally mentions every area that I just talked to you about that Paul was experiencing in life. Again, he says, “ . . . infirmities,—that’s his sicknesses—“ . . . reproaches,”—ways that people opposed him—“in needs,”—times that things were going wrong in his life—“in persecutions,”—again, his enemies—“in distresses,”—all—“for Christ’s sake.” He had come to the place to live out that last statement in verse 10, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Several years ago, right here in our valley, I attended an outdoor event that I actually stumbled upon. I didn’t even know that it was happening, but it was taking place in Temecula. I heard a bunch of music, so I followed the sound and I got there. There were some Christian bands playing, but then the band ended and a man got up to speak or I should say a man was carried up to the stage to speak. His name was Nick Vujicic, and some of you know who that is. For the sake of those of you who do not, I want to tell you a little of his story because he got up and he shared what Christ had done in his life.

Nick was born in Australia to Christian parents. Nick was born without arms or legs, and so in his early life he had to try and figure out with his parents’ help how to just do basic things when you don’t have hands, you don’t have feet, you don’t even have arms or legs to assist you. When he got school age, he began to be around other kids that had full bodies and were able to run, play, and do all kinds of fun things that kids do, but he did not have the capability of doing that. By the time that he was 8 years old, he was pleading with God that God would fix him, would give him arms and legs. God never did. When he was 10 years old he was in such despair looking at his future thinking, I’m never going to be able to get a job. I’m never going to be able to get married. I’m never going to be able to have kids. I’m never going to be able to do anything that is going to be of any value to anybody. As a 10-year-old boy, he began to consider suicide because he didn’t see any purpose at all, and he literally was angry at God.

There came a point in his life when Christ opened his heart, and he was saved. God has used that man all over the world not only to preach the gospel but to bring hope to broken people who see no purpose for all of the wounds that they have experienced in their life.

I want to finish with this. Maybe you are a wounded person here and you haven’t been able to make any sense at all about the things that you have gone through or are currently going through. Now, I would encourage you to pray and ask God that He would work in your life, work in your situation. There is nothing at all wrong with praying, asking God, and asking Him over and over and over again. But understand the final answer might be, “My grace is sufficient for you because My strength is going to be made perfect in your weakness, so I’m going to leave that thorn. It’s going to be a part of your story, and it is going to hurt, but it’s going to work a greater thing than you can even imagine.”

I will finish with two things that Paul said, one was found earlier here in 2 Corinthians, the other is found in the book of Romans. In reflecting upon all of the crummy stuff that we all have to go through in his life, he said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” In 2 Corinthians 4:17 he goes on and says, “For our light affliction,”—notice he even calls it now a ‘light affliction’—“which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Two things that he mentions—it’s only for a time, and compared to where we’re going it is actually a light affliction because of the greatness of what God has in store for His people. Amen?

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About Pastor Todd Lauderdale

I was born and raised in Southern California and gave my life to Christ when I was 16 years old after seeing the radical change in a high school friend who had become a Christian only a few months before. My life was transformed, and I have never looked back! I have been a Pastor since 1988, initially serving in middle school and high school ministries. For the last 20 years, my passion has been young adult ministry. Young adulthood is the time of life when people are making life-long decisions, like what they will do for a living, who they will marry, and the kind of person they will be. It is so important that Christ is the foundation on which they stand as they make these major decisions in life. I’m just grateful to God that He has allowed me to teach His Word to these young people!

Sermon Summary

Pastor Todd Lauderdale teaches a message through 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 titled “His Grace is Enough.”

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Pastor Todd Lauderdale

September 18, 2024