Perfected In Weakness - [2 Corinthians 12]

Well, good morning. It is a blessing to be here. Thank you for inviting me, and it's good to see Steve and Mike again from the old days out at Grace Church. It's been a wonderful weekend up here and teaching at the Extension Center on an introduction to biblical counseling and then being here last night with the men, and just encouraging us again to be good leaders, good decision makers, following the scriptural principles.

And then this morning in Sunday school, thinking about pursuing Christ-like humility. And now this morning, I want to think and draw your attention to the issue of ongoing painful trials. Those things when you get a cold, like I have, I assume that in about a week or 10 days, it'll be gone.

God’s Glory in Deliverance and Ongoing Trials

But what about trials that don't go away after 7 or 10 days? And they continue on, and may continue on your entire earthly life. What about those? I can remember growing up, my parents were believers in Christ.

My dad was an excellent, godly man and leader in our home growing up. And one of the things they used to do is we would have family devotions. And the four of us boys would sit there on the carpet, and my mom and dad would sit on the couch.

And then he would open up the scriptures, and he would read the stories of scripture. And my favorite ones were when God came in in a powerful way and brought deliverance. Those strong, powerful deliverances, whether it was saving Noah and his family through the ark, or the pharaoh and his army are chasing Israel, and the Lord just wipes them out with the water, or the Syrians, 185 ,000, the angel of the Lord, just they're dead.

Those were powerful deliverances. And then even in the New Testament, with just the calming of the sea, or Peter's jail opens up, and Peter walks out. But we would be amiss to think that that's the only way God operates in the scripture.

Watching TV, you think that's the only way he operates with some of the speakers on TV. But God is more powerful and more grand than the man who is just born. He is more powerful than the man who is just born to just receive some glory through deliverance.

He also receives so much glory through giving grace to his children as they endure trials and learn to joyfully depend on him for strength. Some of you sitting here today have experienced some sort of a deliverance by the Lord's grace, whether it's been a health issue, and God has sought to heal you, possibly quickly.

Some of you have been in a financial strait, and God has sought to just provide all of your needs quickly, almost in a deliverance sort of way. Some of you have been praying for someone that you knew that was unsaved, and God graciously saved them quickly.

Those are wonderful times just to be thankful for God and how he operated in a deliverance sort of way. Others of you are sitting here, and you are suffering. It is painful, the trial that you are in, and it's ongoing.

And it may be a financial situation. It may be a health issue. It may be someone you dearly love, a family member who you've been praying for years that the Lord might graciously save them. And he has sought not to do that yet.

These painful trials, what do you do? How do you persevere? And that's the text this morning. I would like you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. A little background here, the church at Corinth.

I can't think of another church that not only drove Paul to his knees, but kept him there. There are visits and letters going back and forth to this church. Now Paul sends Timothy, and Timothy comes back with some bad news.

There are some false apostles, or super apostles, what Paul calls them in chapter 11, verse 5. And they're challenging Paul on his apostleship. You could think of it as they're challenging him to a duel.

They're professing to be the apostles, and they're saying Paul is not. And now the weapon of choice by these false apostles is, let's talk about experiences. Apparently, they brag on all of their experiences, and Paul doesn't brag too much on his experiences.

He just continually boasts about Jesus. And now the duel. They're saying, talk about your experiences. Prove it by your experiences that you're an apostle. John Calvin said, it is though Paul said, I should have preferred to be silent.

I should have preferred to keep the whole matter suppressed within my own mind, but those persons will not allow me to. Reluctantly, here he goes. And I'd like you to follow along with me in the text this morning.

I'm going to give you a little context. We'll read a little bit more of the context, and then I want to center in on verses 7 through 10 this morning. Let's go up to verse 30 of chapter 11. Paul says, if I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. And at Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket, threw a window in the wall, and escaped his hands.

I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.

God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man, I will boast.

But on my own behalf, I will not boast except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

And then the text at hand this morning. So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Bow with me in prayer. Lord, we come before you this morning.

We would ask that Christ would be glorified in all of our worship this morning. And even now, we pray that you would help me in my weakness, that Christ's strength would be made perfect. Help all those who are listening to listen, having ears to hear, that they would truly hear what the Spirit says through your word.

Lord, I pray that we wouldn't just become more knowledgeable this morning, but that we would seek to be doers of the word and not hearers only. I pray by your spirit that we might be changed more into the likeness of Christ by being here this morning.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I would like us to consider, in the face of an ongoing painful trial, that's the context here, five lessons that we can learn through this ongoing painful trial, five lessons to help us be weak and to be kept weak.

That's very key. That we be weak and be kept weak as Christians so that Christ's strength is experienced and displayed. All right? Just think about this. Be weak, be kept weak so that Christ's strength can be experienced and displayed.

These five lessons, I pray, will be an encouragement to you. For those who experience some sort of a deliverance lately by God's grace, you can rejoice in that, but be very sensitive and compassionate to those sitting next to you who may be in this ongoing painful trial.

Be an encouragement to them. The first lesson I'd like us to consider is in verse 7. And it reads this way. So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations that I read earlier, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.

God’s Goodness as Soil for Pride or Humility

The first lesson comes from that phrase by the surpassing greatness of the revelations. The lesson is this. We realize, we must realize, that God's goodness to us is the very soil in our lives that either pride or humility can grow in.

God's goodness to us is the soil that either pride or humility can grow in. Throughout scripture, God would bless his people, whether it's Israel or the church, and inevitably, you would see that God's people say, this is wonderful.

We're eating. We have homes. We have a land. And then what happens? In Deuteronomy chapter 8, they forget God. And their heart becomes proud. The very soil of blessing, of God's goodness in their life, which should germinate and grow humility instead, can be the soil that pride grows in.

And that's what's going on here. Paul has been extremely blessed to be called an apostle. And then God blesses him with taking him in the desert and teaching him. And apparently, that's when 14 years ago, he says, when he has these visions and these revelations, things that he can't even utter.

What an experience. If you're going to duel with false apostles, what an experience. Now, Paul's kept this quiet for 14 years. And in the soil of that goodness, of God's grace in his life, it doesn't say he was proud.

It doesn't say he was going to become proud. It says to keep him from it. We have to realize that, again, humility can grow in the soil of God's blessings in our lives. And pride can, too. I want to go to the second lesson.

We have the soil here of God's goodness. And it's still in the same verse. So to keep me from, to keep me from being too elated. He says it twice. Lest we miss it the first time. To keep me from being too elated.

And then at the very end, to keep me from being too elated. The second lesson is God always has the perfect remedy. Always has the perfect remedy to guard us from our potential uselessness and fruitlessness as a child of God.

He knows what we're about to encounter, what we are about to encompass in our pride, possibly. And he always has the perfect remedy. And it's one of love and care for our lives. Simon Kistemaker says, Paul knows that not Satan, but God is in control here.

If Satan had his wish, he would have preferred the apostle Paul to be proud. Because when you're proud, you become useless and fruitless. If Satan, Satan did not want to have the messenger of his to afflict Paul.

He wanted Paul to become proud and then would be useless. God is in control of this one. And he has the perfect remedy to keep Paul from becoming proud. Psalm 119, the psalmist says in verse 71, it was good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.

Jeremiah says in Lamentations 332, he says, though he causes grief, yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies, for he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

I don't want to go too much in depth here. Many of you already have a good grasp of this. But God's remedy, the fact that God's in control and his remedy flows out of the fact that he is always, always the remote cause of trials that are allowed in our life.

Always, it's always for his holy purposes. Jeremiah says again in Lamentations 3, is it not from the mouth of the most high that woe and wellbeing proceed? God's remedy also employs immediate causes, close at hand causes.

And when God does that, and he's always the remote cause, but when he is using immediate people or circumstances, he will use both righteous and unrighteous agents. He'll use Satan, as he did in Job's life.

Here, he's gonna use a messenger of Satan in Paul's life. Again, it's not the first time God uses unrighteous agents. He did that to Joseph with his brothers. When Joseph said, you meant it for evil, but God has meant this for good.

They were the immediate causes, the brothers. God was the remote cause. Always for his good and holy purposes. God will set aside your temporary happiness for a greater good. He will set aside your temporary happiness for a greater good.

Now, the timing of this remedy, I find interesting. The way the text reads is that 14 years ago, Paul had these wonderful revelations where he was taken up to the heavens. And the timing says, when this was given to me, this thorn, it seems to suggest, even through different commentators, that God nipped this thing in the bud.

That this may have been an affliction in Paul's life that goes back 14 years. Right at the time he was given these revelations to keep him humble. Because he didn't go through Israel as a new apostle.

Remember, the disciples were a bit apprehensive about Paul. He didn't go and start talking about all his revelations and visions and out there in the desert with the Lord. He didn't even talk about this.

This is the first time we have it mentioned. It may be from the text, the past tense, that when this was given to him, whatever this messenger was, dates back many years. God may have nipped this in the bud to keep Paul humble throughout his ministry.

Literally, it says this messenger of Satan struck him with a fist. Buffet, literally, striked him with a fist. One commentator says a thorn or some other object that pierces Paul's flesh and injures him, it appears to mean a very physical pain that Paul was experiencing.

Paul did not choose this. This was not self-inflicted. God sent this into Paul's life to keep him from becoming proud and then useless. Now, what is this thorn? I was looking through some suggestions throughout church history.

I came across 16 suggestions of what this thorn is. It's obvious God doesn't want us to know what the thorn is. Some think, well, based on the context, it might mean this. But some, I'll just read them real fast.

Eye misery, headaches, malaria, the sciatica, the painful condition of the hip or thigh, ear trouble, rheumatism, Malta fever, leprosy, some nervous disorder, epilepsy, speech impediment, personal enemies, a literal punishment by a demon.

Some believe it was a demon possessed teachers there in Corinth. Then some monks thought that Paul had a lust problem. So 16 different suggestions on what it is. I don't think it's important to know what it is as much as this was extremely painful and it was ongoing and he wasn't being delivered from it.

And I think that's where we can receive the application to our lives when we go through these kinds of trials. Reminds me of Richard Baxter, the Puritan pastor who was told at age 31, he only had a few months left to live.

Richard Baxter, a pastor and kinemister in England, he says this about himself at age 21. He said, from 21 on, I seldom had an hour free from pain. His entire life was spent battling sickness. He was harassed by a constant cough, frequent nosebleeds, migraine headaches, digestive ailments, kidney stones, gallstones.

He was a virtual museum of diseases. And that was in the era before painkillers. So at age 31, the doctor said, you're gonna die in a few months, lung problem. So put your house in order. He was single at the time.

He took a lot of paper with him, went out into the farm country and he started to study heaven since he was gonna be there in a few months. And he wrote and he wrote everything the Bible had to say about heaven, 500 pages.

It was published. It's called the Saints Everlasting Rest. When he finished, apparently the air and the Lord working in his own lungs, he didn't die in three months. He lived till he was 76 years old.

And he wrote over 140 books. His conclusion after studying heaven was this. If a Christian's mind is not in heaven, he will be of no earthly good. If a Christian's mind is not in heaven, setting his mind on things above, he will be of no earthly good.

When we think about affliction, Spurgeon says this. If we were placed in a glass case, we would not grow. If we were never injured, there would be no forgiving grace. Without suffering, we would not have patience.

We grow in grace only because we have patience. And he says this, especially when the stormy winds of trials blow. Hold the world loose, but firmly grip the invisible things of God. He says, it's possible that God might use you to scatter his scene with a hand that's never been wounded, but he will not use you to minister to the brokenhearted under trials until they've made you tender and sensitive.

Your present painful experience is a necessary preparation for something that will give you tenfold joy. He says, the rule of the kingdom is this, no battle, no crown, no conflict, no conquest. There are no fair weather soldiers in God's army.

We must go through trials. This whole area of this God's remedy, don't question why, focus on who it is that has designed this and sovereignly chose it in your life at this time. Find comfort in who God is.

Don't try to be answering all of the questions like Job did. So you have the realization about the soil, of goodness or pride can grow in it. You have God's perfect remedy always to prevent us from being useless or fruitless.

Deliverance or Dependence in Answer to Prayer

Brings us to the third lesson, the most common, natural and understandable response to a painful trial is to request deliverance. I mean, when you are in a painful trial, it is the most natural thing to say, Lord, please, if there's any other way, take this from me.

Paul prays this, it's common, it's natural to do. I find it interesting, he's persistent at least three times he pleads. Who else did this? Three times, pled, Lord, Father, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me, Jesus did.

And I find it interesting that Paul didn't go and pray to the Father here, he prayed right to Jesus. He pled with the Lord, the Lord Jesus. Paul was not faulted in this passage for asking for deliverance.

And I don't believe you will be faulted for praying, Lord, if there is a way, if it would please you, take this from me. We naturally think that we will be more useful and fruitful if we didn't have this thorn, but just the opposite is true.

So this request for deliverance is a very natural thing to ask for. I just wanna encourage you with that. So I've been praying the deliverance thing, I've been pled three times, maybe like 3000. Well, that takes us to the fourth lesson.

Often, God's reply to our petitions may be that ongoing dependence, not deliverance, but ongoing dependence is his good, acceptable, and perfect will for your life. And you need to look at verse nine on this.

But he said to me, literally, word order, sufficient, sufficient is my grace for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. God's reason for this reply to Paul, and I would suggest maybe for you in an ongoing trial that you're in, might be that you need to be weak and be kept weak.

Is there a danger of us becoming proud? Absolutely. We have to be weak and be kept weak so that Christ's strength may be experienced and displayed. Jameson Fawcett Brown in their commentary says this, the Lord more needs our weakness than our strength.

Our strength is often his rival. I mean, think about that. In our own strength becomes his rival. Our weakness becomes his servant, drawing on his resources and showing forth his glory. You know, I thought if you wanted to paint someone's portrait if I were gonna paint your portrait on a canvas, what I would not want to do is paint some elaborate background, right?

I don't wanna take, if I want people to see you, your face, the background will be subdued. If you have a real busy background, a person might look past your portrait and look at all the background and go, wow, look at that, look at that scenery.

And the same goes when the Lord is working in our life, who he wants to be seen in our life is not you. It is not me. We're the backdrop. That's what he's saying here. Who the father wants to be seen in each of his children's life is Jesus.

And to do that means be weak and be kept weak. So that Christ's power, his strength is seen. Philip Hughes says this verse right here. This verse nine is the summit of the entire epistle. From this vantage point, through Paul's weakness, Christ's sufficient grace, the entire range of Paul's apostleship is seen in focus.

You can see his calling, his conversion, his weakness, his trials, his labors, his conquests, and his exaltations. All fall into place as the splendor of the sun lights up and transfigures the dark ravines of a great mountain.

So the grace of God transfuses and triumphs over and even through what is least impressive in the apostles' constitution. All is of grace. The glory belongs to the Lord alone and his divine power is supreme.

God's grace is always sufficient for the place you're in. That might be something that you could say around your home. There's always grace for the place. Tomorrow, there's enough trouble for tomorrow, isn't there?

Don't take on tomorrow's trouble. There'll be enough trouble tomorrow. Right, there's trouble today and God's grace is sufficient for the place today. Tomorrow, God will grace you with a sufficient grace for tomorrow.

You don't need new and improved grace. You don't need grace plus. There's not something gonna be advertised that's better than God's grace. It's totally sufficient to help you where you're at. I thought about deliverance and dependence, the difference between a quick deliverance from God and ongoing dependence.

Here are some of the things I was just trying to compare them, putting them side by side. When God delivers, it just brings immediate relief. Christ's power is seen mostly externally. It's often spectacular.

It's easy to sing praises, isn't it? Isn't it easy? Miriam at the, you know, there goes the Egyptians. Well, let's sing a song. That'd be really good right about now. That's pretty easy to do. But what about ongoing pain and suffering?

What about ongoing painful trials and dependence? Then you find Christ-like character that's formed. You rarely see Christ-like character formed in quick deliverances. It's ongoing painful trials that bring the perseverance and patience with people.

The power of Christ is not just seen externally, like in a deliverance, it's seen internally. People are saying, how are you holding up? How can you rejoice in the situation that you're in? It's supernatural to sing songs during a painful ongoing trial, isn't it?

Easy to sing them in a deliverance, hard to sing them when you're in the midst of a very difficult time. And others will see Christ in you. Well, moving on to from the reply. Now, God doesn't speak to us today.

You can almost assume that if you've been asking Lord for deliverance and deliverance and deliverance and it hasn't come, you might need to be thinking what the Lord wants in your life is dependence. And don't be asking everybody, everybody, everybody pray for deliverance at prayer meetings, but asking people, please pray that you would be faithful and depending upon Christ and your weakness that his strength would be made perfect.

Resolute Contentment and Glad Boasting in Weakness

The fifth lesson is our resolve. You find it in verses nine and 10, when Paul says, therefore, I will. Well, you're gonna circle those two words, I will. That's language of resolution. You find it in the Psalms.

Psalmists are, boy, they're being attacked and whoever the Psalmist is that's writing, they're under attack, it's difficult times. And then you find the Psalmist say, but I will give thanks, I will praise, I will take joy, I will exalt to the Lord.

And you're saying, yeah, but they don't feel like it. It's language of resolution. You don't change by feeling like it. You can say, I should, I should praise God. I need to, others say I should. You usually never find change going on until you find language of resolution.

By God's grace, I will. Language of resolution and here you have Paul saying, therefore, based on that, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ, not for my sake, he's not in asceticism, for the sake of Christ then, I am content.

And he gives a whole list of things with weaknesses, with insults and hardships and persecutions and calamities for when I am weak, then I am strong. This is for Christ's sake. Charles Hodges writes, those who think they can change their own hearts and atone for their own sins, subdue the power of evil in their own might, who feel able to sustain themselves under affliction, God leaves to their own resources.

But when they feel and acknowledge their weakness, he communicates to them divine strength. Dr. MacArthur says, it's only when believers are out of answers, confidence and strength, you're just depleted.

With nowhere else to turn but to God, now they are in a position to be most effective. No one in the kingdom of God is too weak to experience God's power, but many are too confident in their own strength.

I remember hearing Johnny Erickson Tada when she said that she had to accept, first she was seeking to cope with her swimming, diving accident and now she's gonna be a quadriplegic. She just had to, she was trying to figure out how to cope with life, even as a Christian.

And then she said, but the Lord didn't want me just to stay coping. You know, we're more than conquerors, not copers. And she said, I needed to then accept this was God's plan and will in my life. I needed to accept it.

And she said, I thought I arrived at that. I thought that was the end. But there was another peak to climb. And she said, I needed to learn to embrace it with joy. That's what Paul's saying here. I will more gladly, you know, his resolve is I will accept this more gladly.

That doesn't mean that you're just saying, oh joy in the actual circumstance, but your joy is in Christ. And what he's accomplishing. I think maybe there are those who are fighting it, mad at God, mad at other people.

Why hasn't he brought deliverance? You may need to ask. Instead, I don't think I've become content with it and gladly embracing it so that when I'm weak and I'm kept weak, Christ's strength can be made perfect.

I wanna offer some applications here in closing. Some things to think through in your own life, how it applies. The first, you say, well, I got all kinds of trouble in my life and it's ongoing. It might mean you're unsaved.

The scriptures say many are the sorrows of the unsaved in Psalm 16, four. The way of the transgressor is hard, Proverbs 13. It might mean that you don't even have a relationship with Jesus Christ through his life, death, burial and resurrection.

You've never trusted in Christ alone for your salvation and repented of your sins. That might mean that. It's a good place to start. Next, you might wanna consider, is this trial, this ongoing trial in my life, maybe not a trial, but discipline.

There may be in your life, and you don't have to go looking around, digging around, what might it be? Very obvious, maybe you're holding on to some sin in your life and it's become a real pet to you. And you're trying to love God on one hand, but kind of hold on to the bail in the other hand.

And it might be that God is bringing chastisement that you might repent of that and come back to Christ totally and fully in your walk. Right? I mean, that's two places to at least start. And for those who say, no, I'm a child of God.

I truly trust in Christ alone. And there's nothing that I know in my mind that the spirit of God is, you know, there's definitely, I can't think of anything. Surely I'm still a sinner and in process of becoming more like Christ, but nothing that I'm really holding on to against God's revealed will.

Then I want you to think through these lessons. God has blessed you. You say, well, not me. Anything above hell is a blessing, right? Anything above hell is a blessing. We've all been blessed. Is there a danger of you becoming proud and forgetting God in the soil of his goodness in your life?

Is there a danger of you becoming proud, self-confident, examine how you might be eclipsing God's glory by your attitude and actions? We can do that. We can eclipse God's glory by our unrighteous actions and attitudes with this trial.

We get upset, angry, we're not thankful. When we're with people, we always talk about our trial rather than take an interest in loving them. Are you withdrawing? Are you withdrawing from God's people?

Trying to pull away from any kind of social activities and around God's people. You're saying, I'm so miserable. I don't wanna be around people who are happy. That's unrighteous response. Another application is evaluate what you're asking other people to pray for.

Is it only, please pray that God will take this away? Or is it, that's fine if you wanna pray that, but also pray for God's grace in my life so that Christ is seen in my weakness. Another application is determine how this ongoing trial can make you more like Jesus.

What does Jesus want to do in this trial in your life to make you more like himself? You say, I don't know, boy, it's pretty painful. You realize that Jesus was called a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

How in the world are we supposed to become like Jesus if we don't want any sorrow or grief in our life? We like Philippians 3 .10, at least the first few parts of it. Oh, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and we'll just leave off the rest.

Because it talks about and the fellowship of his sufferings. Hard to become like Jesus unless you become acquainted with sorrow and grief. Another application is discover what specific promises that you can meditate on at this time to strengthen your hope in Christ.

Get some promises. I'll give you a couple, just some references. Romans 8 .18, now there's one you wanna hold on to like a rope when you feel like you're sinking. Romans 8 .18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that's to be revealed to us.

What you're going through is a speck in light of eternity. It's a vapor and it'll be gone tomorrow. When you're in heaven for 10 ,000 years, you'll look back and say, why was I so caught up with that trial?

Another one is 2 Corinthians 4 .16 -18. Again, that momentary affliction brings an eternal weight of glory when we're looking at things that are unseen rather than things that are seen. Focus on Christ's return.

1 Peter 1 .13, set your hope on his soon return. The Thessalonians eagerly waited it every day. Verse 10 of chapter one of 1 Thessalonians. They turned from idols to serve the true and living God and to eagerly wait for the Lord's return.

But they weren't passive. They were very diligent in their life but they focused on Christ's return. Then ask yourself this, another application. In the midst of your suffering, how can you encourage others?

In the midst of your suffering, how can you encourage others? That's Paul. We say that's Jesus, but that's Paul going through all kinds of suffering in his life. And if it's true that he had this thorn in the flesh, most of his ministry, if possible, he's either in prison.

I mean, there's something going on in his life that is difficult. And what's he doing? Writing letters to churches, encouraging other people, praying, he says, who's weak, then I'm not weak. Focus on Christ and other people.

That's the mindset of humility. I wanna close with just this verse. As we think through, again, these lessons to be learned here, just about the soil of God's goodness, realize pride can grow there. Also, humility can grow there by God's grace.

God has a perfect remedy to prevent you from becoming useless and fruitless. And you can request, Lord, please deliver me. But his reply might be, no deliverance, dependence. And then you have to have a resolve by God's grace that you gladly embrace your weakness so that Christ's strength can be made manifest in your life.

Close your eyes, if you will, with me. And I just wanna read this verse. Think about this as we close. Paul says this earlier in the same letter. We have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

And then he writes to the Ephesians, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, amen.