All Sufficient Grace, 2 Corinthians 12:9 - Pastor Chuck Smith - Topical Bible Study

This morning we would like to draw your attention to the ninth verse of Second Corinthians chapter 12 where the Lord is answering Paul's prayer. Paul has what he calls a thorn in the flesh that he described as a minister of Satan who was slapping. He told him that three times he asked the Lord to remove this thorn in the flesh and after the third time he said that the Lord told me my

grace

is

sufficient

for you because my strength is made perfect in weakness so Paul responded with great pleasure, Therefore, I prefer to glory in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

Life is full of sadness, pain, tragedy, disappointment, grief, and God does not promise the believer that we will soon have some kind of divine immunity against these things. or later in each life tears will fall, we are living in a world that is cursed by sin and one of the curses of sin is death and if you have not yet tasted the bitter tears of pain for the death of a loved one in time , Will we not or will we not be able to escape from it as a Christian? I face problems difficulties disappointments sadness pain but the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is that for the child of God all these experiences pass through God's filter, they do not happen to me but what God allows to happen and if he allows that they happen is only because he is working a good purpose in my life through them he is working his eternal purposes through these things so that I can be sure that all things are working for good in my life because I love God and he has called me according to his purpose is the lie of satan that says because you are a Christian now you will have prosperity you will never be sick you will not suffer pain that is a lie that Satan often promotes because it is a lie that has destroyed many people because they have come to believe that lie and that is why they are not ready for pain they are not ready for suffering they are not ready for death and if pain or suffering or death hits them and there is no deliverance then they so often become bitter or angry at God who believe that God has failed them because they are not prospering as they were promised they would prosper. going through difficult times even though they were promised that they would not be disturbed like the person who has never been disturbed because they are expecting disturbances then God brings disturbances into our lives if we are expecting them they do not disturb us we know that God has a plan God as purpose God He is working his plan in my life now when we face these difficult places in life if we are wise the first thing we will do is pray for them as the lyrics of that song say what a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and pains to endure what a privilege bring everything to God in prayer, but prayer does not always ensure that the problem will disappear immediately, that we will be able to escape pain or sadness.

While Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed for that bitter cup to pass away. from him the cup of his suffering and his death and although he prayed three times that if it were possible that cup would pass but it was not possible and that is why he drank the cup according to the will of the Father and it has become a classic. example of those who suffer according to the will of God Peter said and if any of you suffer according to the will of God, let him entrust his soul to Him as to a faithful creator when we are going through difficult experiences when we are going through our sadness, our sorrows, our pain, we just need to commit our lives and say Lord, you are faithful, as the psalmist said, you are a faithful Lord and you have a purpose, you have a plan, so Lord, be satisfied.

In the person you want him to be in the book of Daniel we have the case of the three Hebrew children who refused to bow before Nebuchadnezzar zidle and that is why they were threatened with death in the burning fiery furnace and responded to the threat of the king neither. We are not even careful how we respond to him on this matter because the Lord we serve can deliver us from his burning fiery furnace and even if he does not deliver us yet we will not bow down now perhaps they were waiting for some miracle while the fire was heating up and they were tied because of the ropes perhaps they were hoping for some kind of divine intervention that they would not have to enter the furnace but they were thrown into that furnace of burning fire but they discovered that the only thing that the fire consumed were the ropes that tied them and that is why they were walking in the middle of that fiery furnace burning while Nebuchadnezzar looked in and in his vision he said trouble there, he frowned, he wrinkled his brow, he said, Didn't we cast three and them?

He said yes and said how come I see four walking and the fourth looks like the son of God from whom they were not liberated but they were liberated in God does not always deliver us from the difficulties of the sadness of pain but he delivers us many times in this he is there with us to help us overcome it Daniel was not freed from the lions' den although the King looked for some way out by which he could free Daniel, he was not found and that is why he was thrown into the lions' den but the Lord was with him in it and saw through it God will not always deliver you from the trial of the problem but he will deliver you in the trial and in the problem Paul was writing about the painful experience he was going through called it is a thorn in the flesh, but with this term , our English translation, I think sometimes we have a misconception, we think that a thorn is maybe something on a pyracantha bush or a rose bush, it's an irritant, we don't like it, but you know.

I can stand it, but the word that Paul used in Greek that translates thorn is in Greek a tent peg. I have a tent stake in my flesh which is very different from a thorn. A minister of Satan said slapping me and so he cried out to the Lord three times so that he could be delivered from this tree in his flesh and after the third time God answered his prayer probably not how Paul wanted him to answer the Lord did not deliver him from the thorn in the flesh but the Lord gave him those words that would help and encourage him to endure that thorn in the flesh because the Lord said to Paul my

grace

is

sufficient

for you my strength will be made perfect in your weakness many times God does not respond our prayer just as we have asked it so many times the answer comes my grace is sufficient for you my strength will be made perfect in your weakness it is so important that we all come to know and experience this sufficient grace because it will carry us through the darkest nights with a smile he will sustain us when all else fails he is the grace that turns your cross into a crown Paul called him a whipping minister of Satan and recognized that God has all power over the powers of darkness and he knew that God could deliver him easily. separated him from this buffeting minister of Satan, but he also realized that God had a purpose for this thorn in his flesh: that God might reveal to Paul the exceeding riches and glory of God's grace because Paul said of the abundance of revelations. that were given to me, God revealed Himself to Paul in wonderful ways, in fact, the Lord even took Paul to heaven for a short visit, allowing him to hear the sounds of heaven, this experience was so glorious that Paul declared that he could not describe it. . in human language that would be a crime because man has not invented words that could come close to describing the excellence of the glory he experienced while there in heaven and because of the abundance of these revelations it would be very easy for Paul. to just be exalted like oh poor things if only you had what I had, you know, and so keep it humble so that you don't be exalted above the greatest because of this abundant revelation that was given to you, he said, it was also given to me this thorn in the flesh this Minister of State and slapping me so that I would not be exalted above the greatest, there came a day when Paul really began to rejoice and thank God for that thorn in the flesh and he wrote because I believe that the present sufferings are not worthy of being compared with the glory that will be revealed changed his attitude completely he no longer saw it as a curse but now saw it as a blessing and even boasts about it he said with great pleasure I will glory in my weaknesses so that the power of God rest upon me he looked beyond the weakness and beyond the pain to the glorious fruit that God was bringing into his life and forced him to realize to stay close to God so that he could experience the strength of God in Psalm 119 David he said before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept your word he saw that affliction served its purpose he had gone astray he was going astray and affliction was used by God to bring him back on the path before they were affliction I went astray but now I have kept your word led him to obedience to the Word of God again in Psalm 119 he said it is good for me to have been afflicted so that I can learn by statutes he recognized that God was working good purposes in afflictions and then finally he said be oh Lord that your judgments are just and that you and your faithfulness have afflicted me God I recognize that you did the right thing it was in your faithfulness that you afflicted me affliction is often the time of our greatest spiritual growth it is in the storm that the roots are seen forced to deepen an affliction often develops a deep relationship with God that seems incapable of developing apart from the affliction apathy is a deadly spiritual virus that reaches us so easily and spreads so quickly throughout our entire system we like to be comfortable We don't like to be taken out of our comfort zone.

It bothers us that there seems to be a kind of nesting instinct in all of us and we like to just make our little nest and be comfortable in it. Moses wrote a song for the children of Israel and told them. He ordered that they learn it and teach it to their children throughout each generation. This would become a popular song and a clever tune so one of those catchy little tunes that you find from whistling unconsciously and then you start thinking about the words to that tune, you think, oh that's silly, why am I whistling ?

That doesn't make sense and it was one of those things that was designed for them in the future, that as they would whistle this song or sing this song all of a sudden, the truth would hit them like things would be fulfilled when you went into captivity, he said, so this song will remind you why you went into captivity why God first suffocated you and and therefore was going to be destructive in this song when he wrote about Jacob, he said that God found him in a desert land and in the barren desert and howling and guided him and instructed him and kept him as the apple of his eye. and as an eagle stirs the upper nest and hovers over its young, spreads its wings, takes them and carries them on its wings, so only the Lord guided him and there was no strange God with him now, as Moses is teaching you, he is using here this. analogy of the eagle building its nest on top of a cliff, it is for safety reasons that the eagle builds its nest there on the side of the cliff to protect the eggs and as the hen or mother eagle hatches the eggs, the little one The eaglets go out, they are comfortable in the nest when she comes out and brings them their food, but over time, when they start to develop feathers, there comes a time when the little eaglets need to leave the nest, they need to learn to fly, but Fly does not It is natural, it takes some time to get used to flying, so the mother Eagle stirs up the nest, throws the little eaglet out of the nest and it flaps its wings, but begins to somersault and fall towards the rocks while fluttering. about the little eaglet that falls and the poor little eaglet probably wonders what happened to my mother.

I didn't do anything that bad. Surely they will crash me against those rocks, but then she swoops under, catches it and carries it with her wings back to the nest to wait for tomorrow where there will be the second flying lesson but little by little the eaglet realizes like a child develops that sense of balance and walks the eaglet realizes and begins to realize that I can control myself a little and begins to fly but it is the whole process that has to learn to fly but disturbances are needed the agitation of the nest and many times God moves our nest is to help us learn to grow to develop now Moses after talking about Jacob and God takes care of Jacob, talks about Gesu run and Jezza and said that he became fat and continued to gain weight, he covered himself with fat and in his prosperity he abandoned to God who made it and lightly estimated the rock of his salvation, he became pathetic so he provoked God to jealousy with the strange gods and provoked him to anger with the abominations because they began to sacrifice to demons not to God to gods that they knew, not new gods whom your fathers did not fear and of the rock that gave birth to you, God told you, you are not aware, you have forgotten the God who formed you and when the Lord saw it, he hated them, the nest was never disturbed, it was never disturbed, they were prosperous became fat but were weak and forgot God you have heard the saying no pain no gain our coaches used to always tell us that when we limped to the meeting Paul learned that through the thorn in the flesh they praise God in verse 10 he said Therefore, I take pleasure in my weaknesses in thereproaches in need in persecutions in stresses for the sake of Christ now Paul may be talking about his thorn in the flesh, it may be that it wasn't just one thing as we often hear trouble in the eyes or whatever it could be that it was accumulation of all these things that was physical weakness and reproaches and being in need and being persecuted or in trouble for the sake of Christ, it could be that it was the worshipful accumulation of all these things that he called his sting. in the flesh, but he was pleased with it now, no longer asking the Lord to take it away from him, but having received grace sufficient for him.

I recognize that when I am weak then I am strong, we rarely stumble in our places of recognized weakness, there are areas in our lives where we know we are weak, we know we have a problem in that area, so whenever Satan begins to attack us in that area we immediately called on the Lord because we know we are weak, we said Lauren, I am not able, I cannot handle this, Lord, help me, you will have to help me now, Lord, and we trust in the Lord. and of course if you trust in the Lord he will not let you fall, it is usually in our places of strength where we fall because as we see this situation unfold we know that is my strong point and okay Lord bring it and watch me handle this. one that you know and because I'm relying on my own strength, that's the place where I often fall.

Paul said that I take pleasure in my weaknesses because when I am weak then I am strong and declared that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness there. It is where God has the opportunity to truly reveal Himself to us in a special way. That is where God reveals His sufficient grace from Him when I am pushed beyond the limits beyond my capabilities and I know my weaknesses and I cry out to the Lord. There I discover His strength, His deliverance, and Ours, and those become some of the greatest moments of my life because they are moments of tremendous spiritual growth in the discovery that His grace is sufficient for me for anything I may face and I'm glad Paul put into all these things weakness persecution reproach heartbreak it's all there no matter what you're facing God's grace is enough today you may be in distress you may be in pain you may be sad it may seem like there is no way and you are almost ready to give up it seems like you have prayed and God has not answered the problem is still looming in front of you maybe God is speaking to your heart today and saying don't worry my grace is enough for you for this situation and my strength is will perfect in your weakness, so we pray father, we thank you for your suit, all sufficient grace, Lord sufficient for our needs, sufficient to sustain us through the dark hours and now, Lord, may we be sustained by your grace as we face the uncertainties of the future knowing Lord that there will be no abyss that you will not be able to carry us through safely there will be no valley alone from which you will not bring us out no raging river as high as that you can guide us safely and so Lord we put our trust in You and in that sufficient grace, recognizing our weakness, Lord, we can discover your strength in the name of Jesus.

Amen, we will stand firm, may the Lord be with you and may this be a week of discovery you are discovering the all-sufficient grace of God for any problem you may face may you discover his presence his love and his purpose for your life as God takes us through the valleys we should not fear any evil because he is there