“THORNS AND GRACE”
Maybe some of you have guessed this by now but Paul is one of my heroes. Perhaps no other passage by his hand more underscores why that is, all that he went through! It seems otherworldly or superhuman but it's neither. Paul was just a man, but he was a man on fire for Jesus. He went from a man who saw Christians as dangerous, as many do today, to a man who'd talk to anyone at any time in any place about Jesus, and then demonstrated Jesus' love by offering to teach and disciple them.
Two things rang through for me in the words dictated here today. One is the truth of those closing remarks. Once again, Paul risks transparency with those he seeks to mentor and encourage. He speaks of a personal weakness. How many of us are inclined to do that? Actually, I'm always amazed how often we see people do just that in our Alpha small groups. Join us in praying it will be so...
Paul mentions a thorn in his flesh. We can presume this was something physical. In light of all he'd been through perhaps he had an old injury that had not healed. Maybe it was something he'd struggled with since he was small. Whatever it was, it was not going away even though Paul, one of the original and mighty prayer warriors, had prayed repeatedly, on multiple occasions, for it to be healed.
Maybe you're experienced this yourself. It's one of the great affronts to faith. When prayers aren't healed as prayed, we may find our thoughts being bombarded with thoughts of doubts and fear.
As Paul notes, the enemy gets in there: “I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me.” (2 Corinthians 12:7) So this physical thing, the enemy had turned it into an emotional, spiritual thing. Satan loves to convince us that the thorns of life reveal that either God doesn't really love us or that the world is inherently unjust, making God a tyrant and untrustworthy.
But look how God counterattacks those thorny arrows of the enemy. He speaks truth into the situation through the Word of Life himself: “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness!” (2 Corinthians 12:9) AndWHAMO! Paul's whole perspective shifts. He can actually take pleasure in his weaknesses, hardships and all the rest. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
(2 Corinthians 12:10)
I've experienced the truth of this countless times here on Sunday morning. I'm prone to insomnia and have often wondered how I would get through the morning, much less preach a conherent shall we hope engaging message? I don't know how many times when I'm convinced, I have a weak or dull message that it is those Sundays that I get the most enthusiastic response.
“My grace is all you need, (Don). My power works best in weakness!” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Another one of my heroes is Barbara Crow. I remember how hard it was when her husband, Dallas, died. They had been married together for a life time, raised kids, loved their grandkids. Barbara shed many tears but she was not shaken. She leaned into Jesus and his word. She shared honestly of her struggles in her small group. I don't know all the details but I was blessed to observe the difference as God brought her renewal. She became a prayer warrior, an Alpha partner, a lover of God's people!
Going through a tough time? Feeling insignificant or insufficient in some way? Jesus, like Paul is whispering: “Who is weak without my feeling that weakness?” (2 Corinthians 11:29) He is with
you, eager to make your weakness, a place by which you can connect with others, be blessed, be more!
-2-
That's the first thing. God wants less self-reliances and more God reliance. He wants to teach me what it means to truly trust him and follow where he leads. “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness!” (2 Corinthians 12:9) It’s true: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
(2 Corinthians 12:10)
The second thing that grabbed me in Paul's words today was his extraordinary personal story, of his apparent near-death experience, though as others point out that label is a bit of misnomer as in most cases Paul had actually died, only to return. Three things he shares our consistent with the many modern experiences of after death experiences - one, he has an out of body experience, two, he's caught up or taken up to heaven, suggestive that there was a journey of sorts, and three, the experience was so overwhelming that he has a hard time to express it in words. Sounds like.........
Captain Dale Black has logged 17,000 hours flying around the globe as a commercial airline pilot. One fateful day, he took off with two friends in a twin-engine Piper Navajo into a clear LA sky.
“The last thing I remembered was the sight of Chuck's hands on the controls, violently wrench-ing the flight controls left and back. Suddenly I found myself suspended in midair, hovering over the wreckage of my body. My gray pants and shirt were torn to shreds and soaked in blood. I sped thru what appeared to be a narrow pathway, an illuminated passage with darkness all about.
I was fast approaching a magnificent city, golden and gleaming among a myriad of resplendent colors. I knew instantly that this place was entirely and utterly holy. Don't ask me how, I just knew. A strong sense of belonging filled my heart. I never wanted to leave. I was meant for this place.”
(from John Burke's book, Imagine Heaven p 101)
The experience was life-changing. After Captain Black's injuries healed, he began volunteering to pilot flights to fifty countries building orphanages, medical clinics and churches in order to share God's love with people in need. He frequently tells that the crash changed his outlook and his life.
I love that long before modern medical research, Paul shared his own experience. And what little he shared, perfectly coincides with reports today. His words reflect what so many say, that the experience is, in a word, indescribable! “I heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words!” (2 Corinthians 12:4) It’s like the ultimate teaser! It reminds us that this is not really our home. We belong elsewhere. We belong with the One who offers us grace, an invitation to be a part of his kingdom, in this life and the next. His grace is all we need because our worth is not based on what we can do or what we know, but on who we know. It's the power that gives us strength, is our strength, when we come to the end of ourselves. We are a people with a future but we are also a people in the now, living under the influence of God's grace, manifested from the cross, turning the tables on the enemy, and making of our weaknesses and hardships the means by which we become more than we were ever before – a people empowered by grace, loved to love, who belong to a better place!
We are a people of hope – living like there's no tomorrow, like the tomorrow Kingdom come!
“(God's) grace is all you need. (His) power works best in weakness!” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Amen?! Let's pray.....