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All right, let's take our Bibles and go to Second Corinthians, chapter 12. We're actually going to finish out the book of Second Corinthians today. Chapter 13. Paul gives some farewell comments. But it's chapter 12 I want to focus on this morning. And it has to do with this phrase that I mentioned last week, and I told you last week we would be looking at this phrase today. And it has to do with Paul's use of the phrase a thorn in the flesh. He says how a thorn in the flesh was given to him, and it's on the heels of this marvelous vision and revelation that Paul had of heaven itself. Now, we're not sure, because Paul is not sure himself whether or not the vision and revelation of heaven was something that he saw or something that he actually experienced. He talks in Acts, chapter 14 about this event that happened to him when he was visiting the town of Lystra. It was there that the people of Lystra turned on him and stoned him and beat him and left him for dead. And scholars believe that it is possible that either he was just rendered so unconscious that he appeared dead or that he actually did die. Because when Paul writes about it in Second Corinthians 12, he speaks about whether he was in the body or out of the body. He doesn't really know, but he had this vision of heaven. And so it was either a vision or an actual visitation. Either way, Acts 14 tells us that the disciples, the followers of Christ, gathered around Paul when he was there beaten in Lystra. And the inference is they prayed for him and God raised him up. Now he either God raised him up from this semi deathlike state, or God raised him up from death altogether. And Paul writes then in Second Corinthians, chapter 12, about this experience he had in heaven. And remember, he only wrote about it because he was trying to answer the objections of the people of Corinth who questioned whether he was really qualified as an apostle. He says, well, then let me tell you one thing. He said, it happened 14 years ago. I don't like speaking about it. In fact, he recalls the whole event in the third person where he says, I know this man who was caught up into heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I'm not really sure. He says, there was wonderful things that I cannot talk about that I saw and heard. And so that's one thing that he points to. But as I mentioned last week, the greater evidence in Paul's heart as to his Christian character is not the visions and revelations that he's had. But it is the trials that he's gone through and how he has persevered in the difficult days. And so he moves here in 2 Corinthians 12 from talking about visions and revelations to talking about what he refers to as a thorn in the flesh. A thorn in the flesh. Because Paul is going to show us here how it's easy for someone who's had this revelation of heaven to start to become proud about that. And you can let pride go to your head and get all puffed up. And he says, so in order to keep me humble, God gave me a thorn in the flesh. So here in Second Corinthians, chapter 12. I'm going to read about this now, Starting at verse 7, 2 Corinthians 12. 7 Paul says, 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 measurements. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 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. 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. Father, thank you for your word today. We pray that you would bless it to us, that you would use it to strengthen those who are feeling pretty weak today. The things that Paul has gone through. May it be an encouragement to those who are hearing this Bible study today. Lord, thank you that you hold us in your righteous right hand and Lord, that you will never leave us nor forsake us. You kept Paul even through it all. You kept him and he had his struggles, Lord. And there are people who will hear this Bible study today and later. They have their struggles. Right now they're going through things, Lord, would you show yourself strong to them too? And may this time in your words strengthen their hearts. We commit this to you in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Two questions. Number one, what is this thorn in the flesh that Paul is writing about here and what can we learn from it? So first, what exactly is this thorn in the flesh Paul is referring to? The answer is, nobody really knows. That is the truth. Nobody really knows. He doesn't come right out and say, now we can guess what he might be referring to. There are some educated guesses. There is some circumstantial evidence that some believe Paul is referring to an eye condition or eye disease that he struggled with and that he referred to this constant harassment of this physical ailment as a thorn in the flesh. The evidence for this is in his letter to the church in Galatia in Galatians chapter four, Paul says to them, it was because of an illness that I first preached the Gospel to you. Which is true. Paul had every intent of moving on to Macedonia, and yet he was prevented from moving on because of an illness. So he stayed in Galatia, and that's how the Galatians heard the Gospel. And illness kept him there. So he writes that. And then two verses later he says to the. He says this to them, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. So there in Galatians 4, he talks about I had an illness. Two verses later he says, and I know if you could have, you would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me, indicating that he had some kind of an eye condition, an eye ailment. And he ends the whole letter to the galatians in chapter 6, verse 11, saying this, see what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand. Which indicates again that his vision was impaired or he had some kind of eye disease. So he's writing with large letters, you put all that together. And Galatians chapter 4 indicates that Paul had some kind of an eye ailment, a condition, a disease that affected his vision. Interestingly, there was a medical article published by PubMed, which is the website, the online publishing website of the nih, the National Institute of Health. And in this interesting article, you can, you can Google it and look it on up online. There is a speculation made in the medical community that when you take the evidence of things that Paul wrote about, they speculate that Paul's eye condition was migraine with aura. So we don't really know. There are some who believe that it wasn't necessarily a physical condition, that it was perhaps external opposition, which we know Paul faced regularly, places he went, he was opposed on numerous occasions, beaten and left for dead on numerous occasions. And some say that because Paul refers to this thorn in the flesh as a messenger from Satan, that he might be referring to a person or a group of people who, who were opposing him. And so the answer is, it could be a physical condition, it could be external opposition. We honestly don't know. But frankly, I'm glad that we don't know. And the reason I say that is because I believe that God wants what Paul went through to teach and encourage us. And I think that we might dismiss it if we can't relate to whatever Paul's particular ailment was. So if he had come right out and said, not that he would have had this language in that day, well, I've been experiencing migraine with aura, you know, and so my vision, then we'd be reading that and go, well, I don't have migraine with aura, so I'll move on. That doesn't really apply to me. I like that it's vague because it reminds us that a thorn in the flesh can represent any kind of painful trial, physical or emotional or spiritual or otherwise. And so I think it's important that we don't worry about what the thorn in the flesh was as much as how Paul dealt with it and what God said to him in the process. Now, thorn in the flesh is a phrase that has become somewhat common as an expression that people use even today to describe anything or anyone that is a burden or a painful trial in your life. Now, again, sometimes we describe anything, sometimes we describe anyone. Don't look down the row. Look right here. Right here, Right here. Yeah. I'm sitting right next to my pain in the flesh. You know, my thorn in the flesh, my thorn in the flesh. And sometimes, you know, we. We say that about difficult people, like they're. They're a thorn in my flesh. Right. But most of the time it refers to some difficulty, some trial, some painful situation that we might be going through. And as I said last week, Paul wants his thorn in the flesh to speak more loudly about his Christian character than any visions or revelations. It's the trials and tribulations we face, church and how we respond to them that will really define whether we are a Christ follower or not. Anybody can be a Christ follower, be really devoted to him when everything is going well in your life. But the question is, will you still love him and look like Jesus when everything is terrible? Now, to understand a little bit about the degree of his suffering here, let's define the word thorn. It's important to know the word that Paul uses here in the original Greek language, so that we can appreciate the severity of whatever it is he's going through. Whenever you hear the word thorn, I don't know about you, but I commonly think of like a rose bush or if you've ever picked blackberries, you know, you got to be careful. There's Some thorns on that vine. But that's not the kind of word that Paul uses in the Greek language. The word that Paul uses here for thorn is skolops. And skolops can translate a stake, like a tent peg, or worse, like a stake used to impale a person. That's the kind of thorn he's talking about. This is no light hearted matter. This is a weighty matter that he is going through. This is no small thing he's facing. This is a major trial, that this is like a tent stake. This is like a stake that impales people. So notice here in verse seven when he says, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. Now I'm reading from New King James. If you have an esv, it says to harass me. If you have an niv, it says to torment me. So whatever word you want to use, buffet, harass, torment. This is serious business. And he calls it a messenger of Satan. So the source seems to be from Satan. Yet at the same time, Paul appeals to God to take it away. And God says that he's not going to. God says his grace is sufficient, meaning God is capable of taking it away. So is it a messenger from Satan? Yes. Is God capable of taking it away? Yes. But he doesn't. True. So then the question becomes theological here. If this is a messenger of Satan, but God in his sovereignty is allowing this painful trial, is the thorn in his flesh from Satan or from God? The answer is yes. And this gets us into a theological twist, doesn't it? But it's very similar to what Job went through when Job was going through his time of suffering and everything had been taken away from him except his wife, which is very interesting because his wife, she was not. She didn't have the gift of encouragement. Let's just say that, you know, his wife was like, why don't you just curse God and die? Job lost everything except her. And you know, Satan was behind everything that he lost. So, you know, Satan's like, I'm gonna keep her around. I don't know, they would have made 60 or 70 years. But, you know, but he lost everything and his life was just a complete wreck and his physical health a complete wreck. And he was grieving and he was mourning. And what he didn't know is what we know, because we have the 30,000 view of the book of Job, that Satan asked God for permission to torment and detest Job. And God, knowing Job was a righteous man, knew that he would withstand this torment. And that Listen. Listen to me. Thousands of years later, it would be a benefit to all of us who can read the story of Job and see a man who persevered in the midst of horrible pain and suffering. And God got the final word and. And Jacob, rather Job, came out on the other side through it all so that we might be encouraged to persevere through our trials and our difficulties. But Satan asked God permission, and God granted that permission. Was Job's affliction from Satan or from God? The answer is yes, because what Satan asked, God allowed. And sometimes we will not know the difference in our own lives when we are going through things. And we will think, is this Satan? Do we pray against him? Is this God? Because he has allowed it. Not that God causes the suffering, but he can certainly use it to accomplish his purposes. So in that sense, is he behind this? So Paul uses the language here in 2nd Corinthians 12 that indicates his own theological consternation about this. This is a messenger from Satan. But I pleaded with God, and God has allowed this in my life. So I stopped pleading and I started to celebrate what God has allowed in my life. That is a bold and courageous prayer, and that's the kind of man that Paul is and how he endured this and persevered through this. So as we look at this together, I. My prayer is, I want to have a godly response to pain or trials or suffering in my life, like a Job or like a Paul. And so when we look at this passage together, I'm going to examine it with you, and I'm going to use the word thorn and as an acronym to help answer that question. How can we have a godly response to our suffering like a Job or a Paul? And so, for those of you taking notes, here's the first word with T. A thorn in the flesh keeps me teachable. The thorn in the flesh will keep me teachable. Every trial is a teachable moment. Every difficulty we go through has a lesson to be learned. And it's our mission to figure out what God is trying to teach us. And I personally believe that God is not obligated to remove the trial until we have learned what he's trying to teach us. Now, I will be honest with you, because I'm just unspiritual enough to admit this, that there have been times I've said to God, I don't want to learn anything. I just want out of this misery, like, Lord, whatever lesson you're trying to teach, I don't want to learn it. I just want out of this. But God, in his love for us, wants us to learn things that often we cannot learn or do not learn because things are going too well. And that it often takes a crisis or a difficulty or a hardship of some kind for him to show us the deeper things we need to learn. And they're often about myself. And like an onion, God will peel it one layer at a time. And have you ever. Have you ever thought to yourself, just when you thought, okay, I've learned a lot. You know, how much more is there to learn? Then you gotta learn something else. Like, we're never done. I don't care how long you've been a Christian, we're never done learning and being stretched and being molded and shaped into the image of Jesus. And so we have to stay malleable. We have to stay, you know, soft before the Lord so that he can continue to shape us and to mold us. And often he will use those difficulties that come along to teach us. They are teachable moments. And so the way I look at it is the quicker I can learn what God's trying to teach me, then the better it will be for me. Paul would Write in Romans 5:3 to 5. He says, not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. We glory in tribulations, really knowing. He says that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope. And then listen, this is Romans 5:5. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. You know what that says to me? What it says to me is, not every hard lesson is corrective. Some of the hard lessons are instructive. And some of that instruction is to teach us how much God loves us. I don't think you and I can really appreciate the depth and breadth of God's love until we're deep in a dark place. And when God sees us and ministers to us in that trial, we get a better understanding and a deeper understanding of his love for us. That's the way Paul ends that part there in Romans 5:5. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It was given to us. It's as if in the trial we see God's love better than we can see in the good times. Number two. The H stands for humble. A thorn in the flesh will keep me humble. This is the very reason Paul says he was given this thorn in the Flesh to begin with, it's to keep him humble about the visions and revelations that he had had of heaven. That's the way he begins this passage. Look again. In verse 7 he says, 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. He repeats it. Lest I be exalted above, measure, measure. Lest I be exalted above measure is another way of saying so that I don't become proud. Look, Paul experienced the high of seeing heaven and he experienced the low of some tormenting thing. And the reality is, friends, that the Christian life will be a series of highs and lows. The highs God gives us is to keep us hopeful, and the lows that God allows us is to keep us humble. The highs that God gives us is to keep us hopeful. And the lows that he allows are to keep us humble. Jesus said in Matthew 23:12, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. So that tells me that I can humble myself or God will do it for me. It is better for us to stay in a posture of humility because it hurts a lot more when God has to humble us. John Calvin said that pride is the pregnant mother of all sins. You can trace most sins back to some root of pride. And that's Satan's master plan, because he's an expert at pride. That's how he fell. That's why he rebelled against God. Because pride filled his heart. He exalted himself. He wanted to be God. And God cast him out of heaven. And now guess what he uses? He pulls out of his toolbox a variety of things, but one of his favorite tools is pride. If he can get you to be arrogant, proud, haughty, think more of yourself than you should, then he has captured your heart. And pride leads to other kinds of sins. And we have a choice. We can either follow the example of Satan or we can follow the example of our Lord Jesus, who, who though he is God, thought it not self robbery with God and he humbled himself. He became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And so Jesus is the one who said, all you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. So Jesus is the example of humility. Satan is the example of pride. Who do we want to be more like? Well, trials have a natural way of humbling us. Number three, the thorn in the flesh also will keep me oriented toward heaven in prayer. Have you ever been too busy to pray and then some crisis comes along and suddenly you have an awesome prayer life? It's true. Why is that? Because before the crisis, we were more focused on the cares of this world and the pursuits of this life. But a thorn in the flesh tends to orient us to heaven. And we get more serious. We get on our knees and we start praying more. Now, the word orient is from the Latin word oriens, orientis, which means of the east or of the rising. See, the sun rises in the east, so orientis meant of the rising sun. It's the reason why Asia is referred to as the Orient, because it is in the direction of the rising sun. It's in the east. But to be oriented means we become focused. We. We have direction. We, we. We know where we're going. If you're disoriented, you don't know what's up and what's down, you're. You're confused. And trials have a way of taking confusion away. It orients us, it focuses us, it gives us direction, and our focus becomes heaven. And so we get on our knees and we pray, and we seek the Lord and we ask God to help us in whatever we're going through. Paul did this. He said in verse eight, he said, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times. He's praying, he's pleading with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. You remember, Paul would also write in Philippians 4, 6, 7, he said, be anxious for nothing, but in all things through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God, and the peace that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. You know, he didn't say there in Philippians 4, you know, through be anxious for nothing and prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your request known to God, and then God's going to answer you. God doesn't always answer, or sometimes his answer is not what we want. But we have to, in those moments, keep praying until we have his peace. And sometimes that's all we need. And you have to keep praying and praying and praying and praying until you get God's peace. You know, I've often asked myself, why did he stop praying after three times? Three times. Three times. Because God answered him. And when God answered him, he got his peace. Even though the answer God gave him was not the answer that he Wanted? What did he want? He wanted this. Whatever the thorn in the flesh was, he wanted it to go away. And God said no. And God gave him the answer. It's in verse nine. God says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. I'm not saying, by the way, that God can't answer your prayers exactly the way you have requested. I'm just saying in this situation, and this is a good example for us, when God doesn't always answer the way that we want, what does he give as an answer? He says, my grace is sufficient and my strength is perfected in your weakness. Therefore, Paul says, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. See, God's answer was, my grace is enough and my strength will be magnified in your weakness. And Paul says, then I'll gladly boast about my infirmities, so. So that more of you Jesus can rest on me. And it's number four. The R is we become more reliant on God's grace and strength, less self reliant and more God reliant. And this is what he wants. He wants us to know that his grace is sufficient and that his strength is powerful and we can rely on him. David would write in Psalm 40, verses 1 and 2, he said, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me, and he heard my cry. He also brought me up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and he set my feet upon a rock and established my steps. I don't know what pit David was referring to. I think it could have been literal, but I think it sounds figurative here, because he's crying out to God. He's. He's in some kind of a dark place. He feels like he's paralyzed, his feet are stuck in the mud. And he says, but God heard my prayer and he set my feet upon a rock and he established my steps like when I cried out to God. In my despair and desperation, God met me in a powerful personal way that I wouldn't trade for anything. That infirmity, that difficulty, that trial brought me to a place of greater reliance on the grace of God and the strength of God. And I won't trade that for anything. Which brings us to the last one. Number five. A thorn in the flesh will keep me near to Jesus for sure. It'll keep me near to Jesus. And I just marvel at Paul's words here when he says in verse nine, I will gladly boast in my. Infirmities how many can say that? That's tough. And verse 10, he says, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Let me tell you something. It takes a deep and profound walk with Jesus to be able to say you take pleasure in things that have caused you pain and suffering. But that's what Paul says. And why does he say it? He says it because Paul knows those things kept him close to Jesus and there wasn't anything better than that. And so if that's what it takes for me to have this deep, abiding, close fellowship with Jesus, then I welcome those things that make me weak. Because in my weakness, I find my strength in him. Now I. I marvel at not only what Paul said, but other people who have testified of their weakness and their difficulty being something that they cherish as a gift. This is a profound way of walking with Jesus. But I. I'm reminded of Joni Eareckson Tada. If you know her testimony, she is someone who has been confined to a wheelchair for more than 50 years after a diving accident when she was 17 years old, not too far from here in the Chesapeake Bay. Joni Eareckson Tada was there with a bunch of friends. She dove off of a short platform into the shallow end of the Chesapeake Bay, broke her neck, became a quadriplegic. She's been in that wheelchair for 50 years. But that woman loves Jesus dearly. And she travels the country encouraging others with disabilities and those in painful situations of life to remind them of the goodness and grace of God. Even in 2010, she also went through stage three breast cancer, had a mastectomy, had chemotherapy. And yet she wrote a book recently. If you're going through some difficulties, I encourage you to pick it up. Her book is called the God I Love. And in that book called the God I Love, she wrote a sentence that is so profound. Listen to what she wrote. She said, sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves. What is that all about? Well, what she meant was God hates it when we suffer. He takes no delight as our Father in our suffering, but what he loves is us to be close to Him. And sometimes he allows the suffering things that he hates to accomplish what he loves that we might be close to Him. And she, in her book, calls her suffering a gift. A gift. I'm also reminded of Fanny Crosby. Many of you might know the name. Fanny Crosby wrote more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs. She died in 1915. Fanny Crosby was blind since she was six weeks of age, and she saw her blindness as a gift from God. Listen to what she said. Quote. Oh, what a happy soul I am. Although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be. How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't. To weep and sigh because I am blind. I cannot and I won't. It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life. And I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow, I would not accept it. If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind. For when I die, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior. End quote. Wow. Yes. Praise God for someone like her. Is there a thorn in your flesh today, something that is difficult and crushing in your own life? I want to be able to pause and to pray. God knows. God sees it. God has allowed it. And he's going to work out his purposes, to teach us, to humble us, to orient us toward heaven in prayer, to make us more reliant on his grace and strength and to keep us near to him. But it's still hard. Some of you have been going through a season that's real difficult. Or maybe you will go through a season and God's preparing you even now. I don't know. But I do know we have a father in heaven who loves us. He's still on the throne. He cares about you. So let me pray for you. Father. You've overheard. This is your word. What you did in Paul's life to show him your grace and strength in the midst of his suffering is a powerful testimony to us people like Joni Eareckson, Tada and Fanny Crosby and many others who have persevered so well through difficulties. I pray, Lord, for those who are going through an especially difficult trial right now, there's a thorn in the flesh that they are persevering through. I pray for your mercy and your grace and for your strength and for your compassion and for your love to be poured out upon them, Lord, as they might plead for it to be taken away. In some cases, Lord, you will and you have, and you shall. And in other cases, you will say to them, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Lord, pour out your grace and your strength to those who need you. And we thank you that you're our Father, who loves us and will uphold us. With your righteous right hand and one day we will step into your presence and see you face to face and hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Until that day, Lord, would you help us to be strong and to persevere and to give you glory through it. And we ask this in Jesus matchless name. And everybody said amen and amen.