Transcript for:
2 Corinthians 12:1,10 -All Sufficient Grace- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-06-15

You please open your Bibles to second Corinthians chapter 12 verses one through 10. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Second Corinthians chapter 12 beginning with verse one. Is it not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory? I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. How that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth. But now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Father, thank you for your holy word. Lord, this is so packed. There's so much here. And, Lord, we pray that we could glean, that we could learn, that we could feast upon your word, that you would be our teacher. Give us ears to hear and hearts that would apply these truths, Lord. Set us free from a relationship like a roller coaster, just up and down based upon based upon our efforts, based upon our striving, our trying in the arm of the flesh, but let us flow in the power of the Holy Spirit, yielded to you, resting in your sovereignty over our lives, resting in your greatness and your great grace that's poured out upon us. Lord, we pray that evermore that we would enter into all that you have for us as Christians. We'd never reach a place of stagnation, Lord, but continually growing, growing in the grace and knowledge of you. So bless now we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? You remember in the book of Judges that, the children of Israel, they, 430 in the time of the Judges, just before, God was gonna raise up Samuel, in first Samuel. And, in the in the book of Judges, there would be these leaders that would, help the children of Israel to to, defeat their enemies. And as long as the children of Israel, followed the Lord and did that which was right in the mind of the Lord, they were blessed. God will bless them and give them, victory over their enemies surrounding them. There came a time in chapter 13 where the children of Israel under bondage to the Philistines in the area of Gaza, interestingly, that area. The Philistines were not indigenous to the area. These are the ancient Phoenicians and they came by way of ship, but they began to to, have you know, live along the area of the of the Gaza Strip there, along the the waters of the Mediterranean. And, and they they, became antagonistic toward the children of Israel and time, David. David was able to subdue them and they had rest from the Philistines for a time and certainly during the time of Solomon. But in this particular time in chapter 13, angel of the Lord came to a guy named Manoah and his wife, particularly to his wife, twice in a row to his wife. And then she brought, out in the field, she brought her husband to this man. So this angel came, an angel of the Lord, and, let Manoah's wife know that, you're gonna conceive and have a child. So many times when the Lord wants to do something great in your life or in the life of the nation of Israel, he'll cause, an emptiness. He'll cause denial. And so in this case, we remember that Abraham and Sarah, he's called Abraham then changed to Abraham, father of many, but they can't have any kids. And, so go into my handmaiden, Hagar, let's help God out, you know, because, we can't rely upon the Lord and his sufficiency. And so it's, you know, it's been a long time. And, you you know, Sarah can't get pregnant. So go into my handmaiden Hagar and that brings forth an Ishmael, and all that Ishmael might live before you. And the Lord says, no, Ishmael's not gonna live before me. Thirteen year silence, then the Lord, sends some angels into camp, and the Lord himself with two angels, and lets, Abraham and Sarah know this time next year, Sarah's gonna conceive and bring forth a son. You're gonna call him Isaac. Your tent's gonna be filled with laughter. And Sarah begins to laugh, Abraham believes, and, and so that promise that God gave them when twenty five years earlier, that in your seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed, God made sure that everyone would know that it's a miracle, that this is a miracle, son, if you will. And, and so Isaac, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Jew Jewish nation. And the whole purpose of that is that they'd be a light unto the gentiles and that God would bring forth the Messiah, The seed of, the woman, the virgin born son of God, that he would be a savior to the whole world. Not just Israel, but to the whole world. And so God prepared Sarah and Abraham through denial. Maybe the Lord's been denying you something for a long time, and he's setting the stage to do something even greater than you can even imagine. And that's what was happening with, Manoah and his wife. Just as later with Samuel, You remember Samuel with, his mother, Hannah. She, she was married to a guy named Elkanah, and and Elkanah's one wife could have some babies, but Hannah could not have a baby. She was denied a child. And, the Lord caused that that that pain to to increase to a greater and greater measure, to the point she went into the into the, sanctuary, and she began to cry out to God, and her lips are moving. And she Eli, the priest, sees her, and supposed she's drunk. She's not drunk. She's praying. She's in great pain because she can't have a child. And and God brought her to that place where she would dedicate that child unto the Lord, and so she did. She dedicated little Samuel unto the Lord. She weaned him, about four years old. She gave him a very special coat, and she put him with Eli. And he became like a Nazarite separated under the Lord, and he became the first of the prophets and the last of the judges. And, and then later, in the New Testament, we remember Elizabeth and John the you know, Zechariah. And Elizabeth couldn't have a child. Her cousin Mary was was, pregnant, gonna have a child. But the angel Lord came to, Elizabeth and, and to Zechariah and said that she was gonna conceive and have a child. And not to name him John, Zechariah was mute because he really didn't believe. But, you know, the the miracle of John the Baptist being separated, you know, under the Lord. So in this case here, we've got Sam, Samson. And Samson is gonna come forth, and the angel told, Manoah's wife, doesn't list her name there, but Manoah and his wife, And, let him let him know that this child's gonna be special. This child's gonna be powerful. And, don't let him have any wine. And you, as a as a mother, don't be drinking any any fruit of the vine right now, you know. And stay away from carcasses, stay away from dead animals and dead people, things that would defile you. And, and don't cut his hair. Never let the razor, you know, come to his come to his skull, you know, to to cut his hair. Let his hair grow long, that he'd be, separated from others to take in this this Nazarite vow. And so you remember how powerful Samson was as he began to grow and, just prolific, incredible strength that this man, you know, could demonstrate. He could rip huge doors off of a city, carry them on his back up a hill, you know. He could take 300 foxes. I don't know how he did this, but he was not only strong, but he was very, very agile. Who could catch 300 foxes? Who could do that? And then take their tails and put a torch and tie their tails together with a torch, and then put them into the field of the Philistines to destroy all their corn. Who could do that? You know, I'm I'm like I'm like, how does this guy do this? You know? And, and then he get in a fight with the Philistines and there's a jawbone of a donkey there, and he kills a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. He loses a riddle, as he as he saw a woman of Timna that he wanted, and, his parents said, no, she's a foreigner and all that. But it says that, you know, his parents didn't know that, the Lord had done this for a reason, so that he could kill some more of the Philistines, basically. And so he a lion jumps out at him and he kills the lion, and then he goes on into this place, Timna, where where his bride to be is, and they get all the everything ready with the with the bachelor party and all that. And so he gives him a riddle that you you guys can give me 30, you know, garments, if you can if if you don't get this riddle, then you gotta give me 30, things of, you know, nice clothes. And, but if you get the riddle, I'll get you 30. And so, he was walking along, the vineyard area where this lion that he'd killed, and he noticed that there was a beehive, that was developing inside the carcass of the of the lion. So he brought forth a riddle to these guys. Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And, then they came to his wife to be, and and they threatened her to kill her and her whole family, burned her house down if she didn't get the riddle out of him. And finally, he he let her know on the last day the riddle, and, they came and told the riddle, and then he stormed away. And, the father of this bride to be gave gave his wife to be to the best man. And Samson went out there and killed 30 guys, took their clothes, brought it back to these guys to fulfill it, and, you know, so prolific things that he would do. When he's with Delilah, you know, he, he met his match. And they wanted to know the secret of his strength. And, alright, well, take my hair and, getting close there, and, braid it into seven different braids. You know, take ropes. Take take take vines that have never been dried and bind me with these vines. Bind me with these ropes. Braid my head like a Rastafarian, you know, take my my long hair and braid it into seven braids, and I'll be as weak as any other man. And and, none of that really worked. And, he wasn't letting her know the secret of his strength until at a certain point, he let her know that if you shave my head, I'll be as weak as any other man. And the tragedy of Samson, a guy that God wanted to use so mightily in such a great way, he ruled as a judge for for, twenty years. And then after Delilah, revealed his secret and she got money from the Philistines, the Philistines came in there and and, jumped upon him and grabbed him and all, and, backed poked out his eyes, made him blind. And then they bound him, and then they brought him, to, Dagon, the Temple Of Dagon, and they they had him just be like an ox treading out grain. And so we see that sin, it blinds. Sin binds and sin grinds. He's just grinding life out. Life's become a grind. But the grace of God that came to Jonah, and the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, Samson's hair began to grow back. And Samson had a young little boy there, and they make sport of Samson. And they took Samson, and he is by the two big pillars of this temple on Dagon. And he asked the Lord for the strength to avenge his eyes. And he was able to subdue. He's able to pull down the big pillars and to kill more people in his death than he did of the twenty years that he was a judge over over the, of the Philistines. And a very, exciting story, but also very tragic story if you start out well, but you don't finish so well. And your your desire of your heart's that we'd avenge my eyes, but no admission of of where you went wrong with the Lord. You didn't appreciate your walk in relationship with the Lord. And, and we're drawn to this story because particularly because of power. If you visit Niagara Falls and you hear the sound of that water coming over the over the cliff down below, and that sound and the mist and everything that just the the forces of nature, the sound of lightning, the sound of thunder just just grips us, and hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes and and volcanoes. I've never been around any of this. I've never seen any of it happen, but I've been around thunder and lightning and, oh, man, check that out, you know? And, kinda leaves you with a sense of terror, a sense of terror and awe and realizing our weakness and our impotence in the face of these forces of nature. We're fascinated with power. We're fascinated with the power of the atomic bomb of of, you know, dividing the atoms and bringing forth this power, splitting an atom and the nuclear capabilities thereof. Man loves power. He craves to achieve an edge, to acquire the secrets of of a sustained dominating power. The war with Israel presently with Iran. Iran cannot match the Israelis from a technological standpoint. Israel has a huge advantage, with their intel, be able to subdue and wipe out 30 of the big leaders, the biggest leaders of, of Iran. Able to hit all their sites with, you know, precision with the technology that that, is available with artificial intelligence and all. And they're able to hit a way higher percentage of targets with the help of AI. And so they have the advantage of the technology, as Adolf Hitler wanted the advantage of technology. And they would go even into the realm of the occult to try and develop, weaponry and things to get an edge. And so, fascination with power. And, you might ask, what was the secret of the apostle Paul's strength? What was his where did his strength come from? A guy that could go and plant churches everywhere. If You ever tried to plant a church, you need some strength. You need some power. And, and then turning the world upside down, not just one or two churches, but just as a missionary going from place to place to place. How did he accomplish so much? The planting of the numerous churches, the writing of much of the New Testament, being in prison and all, but able to use that time, wisely, demonstrating the strength of God and being used to raise the dead. Eutychus is there, Paul Long preaching. He's up in the in the mezzanine, and there's candle lights, and that candle, all that that that smoke goes up there in Eutychus. Paul long preaching to the morning, he falls out of the upper rafters and dies. And Paul goes over there and raises him, you know, from the dead. The sick are healed by the apostle Paul. Some of them just from his handkerchiefs, his sweat cloths from his work, they would be healed from that. He's able to subdue, bar Jesus, Elymas. He's able to call down a mist to cause Bar Jesus, Elymas the sorcerer to be blind. Countless changed lives because of the influence of his ministry. So what is the secret of his success, his greatness, his strength? Number one, an awareness of the greatness of God. Paul was aware of the greatness of God. We can be fixated and paralyzed with fear when we see, how big our enemy is. When we see the challenge in front of us. And we can be we can be paralyzed. We can be paralyzed by propaganda. We can hear them, them as in the Rabshakeh that would shout at Hezekiah and say, all the other nations around are subdued. What makes you guys think that you guys can fight with us? We're so great. And all the Assyrians. And, and so the propaganda, the Joseph Goebbels and those that make people, believe a lie and then bring them into bondage and that fear. And we're living in a time where we cannot allow fear. Fear is our enemy. We cannot allow fear to paralyze us and we cannot give in to the deception that's taking place. So we remember a few years ago where the big c was that of cancer, was minimized for the little c, COVID. And the whole world was fixated. The whole world was filled with fear that this COVID virus was gonna kill everybody. And and, they've succeeded in killing millions and millions with the jab, but they they we told ourselves, we analyzed and looked down and said there's a ninety nine point nine percent, percentage of recovery from this flu or this COVID or whatever it is. Jerry almost died, but he made it. And, Deb was gonna take him to the hospital, and he said no. And and, he he he fought through it, and others, you know, got it and came through. But the biggest thing we were dealing with was fear. We were so afraid. We were told that we had to shut the churches down. We were told that we couldn't sing. We couldn't have communion. That you're gonna lose your job if you don't get the job, if you don't this, that, or the other. It was all fear. It was all propaganda. And it's all proven to be so, even presently, years later. But you don't hear much about it, do you? But, we, had to deal with that fear, just as people that have cancer have to deal with the fear. And how do we gain the strength? How do we get through these things that, we don't have the power to alleviate, the power to fix? And, and so one of the things is the greatness of God. If we lose sight of the greatness of God, then the Lord's gonna come back to us and say, is there anything too hard for me? Anything hard for God? And as long as we're focused upon him and his greatness and not succumb to how large that giant is, all nine feet six of him and a warrior from his youth, you know, the Lord will send you out as a David with a slingshot and you'll be slaying Philistines. You'll be Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, defying King Nebuchadnezzar, going into the fiery furnace. The seven guys that throw you in there die from the heat of the flame, but you have faith. You're not filled with fear. You'd rather die than deny your Lord. And Nebbe says, didn't we throw three in there? And yet there's four, and he says, the son of man. Jesus is there with us in those fiery trials. And we learn this from Veggie Tales and these shows that we watch. We we know this to be true. You know? It's it's just a child's lesson. It's a child lesson, but yet we magnify these little things in our life and we make them bigger than God, bigger than his ability to deal with it. You know? And where's faith come in? The apostle Paul is gonna be given a messenger of Satan that's gonna buffet him. He's gonna be physiologically in a tremendous amount of pain, the description's out of a tent stake, and Satan beaten on him and all. He's gonna pray three times that the Lord will remove this tent stake and God's gonna say, no. Every single time he prays, I'm gonna give you this, Paul, as a gift. One of the ways Paul gets through it is never losing sight of the greatness of God. He's a big God. Sometimes you might say to your sister, how big's your God? Right? Say to your brother, your mom, how big's your God? We all need to be reminded, how big's your God? How big is he? If you if you see this problem, it's a huge problem. There's no way out. Factor God into the equation. It's not that big a problem now. It's just a small problem with the help of God, with his all sufficient grace in our lives. We're gonna get through this. God's gonna make it work. So is it not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory? I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. So Paul would reluctantly boast. The false prophets that were there were boasting and showing their credentials and seducing the Corinthian church that Paul planted for eighteen months there in Corinth. And, and so Paul is like, you know what? I'm I'm going to I'm gonna show you, the things I've gone through, the difficult suffering that I've gone through, that you'd see the genuineness of my faith, the genuineness of my calling, in that I'm not a hireling, that I'm truly a shepherd, and God had sent me there to to minister unto you. Now that I'm not there, these false prophets are coming in and they're just praying upon you. They're making merchandise of you and such. But, let's start with visions, you know. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. And so in in Acts chapter nine verse 12, there was a guy named Ananias that was in Damascus. The apostle Paul just got saved, and the Lord allowed him to be blind. And he's there at the house of one Judah, and, go to the street which is called Straight Ananias. There's one named Saul of Tarsus, and he prayeth. Behold, he prayeth. And, the Lord gave Ananias this vision. And so, go there and pray for him. You know, pray for him that he'd receive his sight. And Ananias went, hey, he's a hit, man. That guy's that guy's rad. He's he's he's nobody to mess with. And, the Lord said to him, Ananias, he's a chosen vessel unto me. Show him what things he must suffer for my namesake. Do you want that for your calling? Do you want your calling to be, show him what things he must suffer for my namesake? When have you seen Jesus sold or Christianity sold as a life of suffering? Your calling as a life of suffering. It's always the other guy to suffer, but not us. Tell me one guy in the New Testament that served the Lord that got out without suffering. You can't. All of the disciples were martyred, violent martyrdom, except for John the beloved on the island of Patmos. You're invincible until the Lord wants to take you home. If he wants to take you home through martyrdom, then you got a crown of life waiting for you. You got a crown of glory. You got a crown of rejoicing. You've you've got a incorruptible crown that fades not away. You're gonna hear him say, well done, thou good and faithful servants. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you ruler over much. Enter into the joy of the Lord. That's what's awaiting you. And the Lord bases it upon what? Faithfulness. You just be faithful to what God has called you to do. Don't worry about anybody else. And you focus upon the greatness of God. And Ananias, he, he had this vision of Paul in Acts chapter nine verse 12. In Acts chapter 18 verse 10, Paul got a vision of Jesus as Jesus came to him there and said, Paul, fear not. Don't fear. I got many people in this city, you know, and you don't hold back. You continue to preach. You continue to let it out, man, because I'm with you. And, no man is gonna set on thee to hurt thee because I'm with you, Paul. So the Lord Jesus himself encouraged Paul to not refrain, to not hold back in fear of of being beaten again. In Acts chapter 16 verse nine, the Apostle Paul and Luke were gonna head over to the Asia Minor. The Lord hindered them from going that way, And instead, they got a vision, Paul got a vision that a man in, Philippi, in in Macedonia, was saying, come over this way, come over this way. And so they Luke being with Paul, they moved their missionary effort to the area of Philippi. In Acts chapter 22 verse 17, the Lord, told Paul he's in Jerusalem and he wanted to reach the Jews. And the Lord said, the Jews, your own countrymen aren't gonna listen to you. I'm gonna send you, pretty far away from here under the Gentiles. You're gonna go all the way to Rome, Paul. And then in Acts twenty seven twenty three, on the way to Rome, the Lord gave him a vision that Paul, I'm gonna give you these 276 souls that are on this ship. Paul was praying for the souls of these mariners, these these sailors that were on the ship that was taking Paul to Rome as he appealed to Caesar. And he let the guys know that, hey, this ship's gonna suffer. It's gonna crash. Everything's gonna be lost except these 276 souls. But you gotta stay in the boat. You gotta stay in Christ, and he'll get you to the shore. And that's the first instance of surfing. Some on boards and they went to shore there. 276 souls. Then after visions, how about revelations, plural? Not the book of Revelation, but revelations. And so John recorded the apocalypse, the revelation of Jesus Christ. So Paul reluctantly describes, verse two, I knew a man. So he's speaking in a third person. He doesn't want to say, hey, remember when I was stoned at Lystra? I got caught up to the third heaven. He's gonna speak in the third person. I know of a man, whether in the body or out of the body, caught up to the third heaven. About fourteen years ago, and so I believe this is on his first missionary trip, he was stoned at Lystra. And the guys are standing around him in a circle. They think he's dead. They're gonna drag him out of the city. And I love this. He he gets back up. Acts four Acts 14. He gets back up. He's gotta be bloodied and beaten. Right? He's gotta look horrific. And he goes back in to Lyster, Iconium, Derby, and Antioch. He goes right back in there and preaches the gospel after being stoned and left for dead. You can't stop this guy. What are you gonna do with a guy like that? You know? And then he lets people know the reality of the calling upon their life that we, through much tribulation, not the tribulation, but we, through much tribulation, the tribulation Jesus spoke of, pressure. We, through much pressure, enter into the kingdom of God. Are you succumbing to the pressure? Are you feeling more and more pressure in this world in which we're living? As evil is escalating, the inequity is abounding, the love of many growing cold, you ain't seen nothing yet. Ain't seen nothing yet. It's gonna get worse. Whether in the body, I cannot tell. Or whether out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth. And so a mystery there, such a one caught up. There's your there's your rapture right there. Such a one caught up just as in first Thessalonians four, 16 through 18. Caught up. Harpazo in the Greek. So this man was caught up to the third heaven. So the first heaven is where the birds fly. The second heaven is space. The third heaven is God's throne. Caught up to God's throne is what he's talking about here. So he's raptured to the third heaven to God's throne. He says, verse three, and I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body. I've never had an out of body experience. Maybe maybe you have. I have not. I cannot tell. Paul didn't, you know, know. God knoweth. Is there proof in the old testament of similar experiences? Can we validate this experience with other instances in scripture? If you have a unique experience with the Lord that we can't validate with the scripture, then we have to say, well, we're gonna throw that out. We we we see nowhere where there of a holy laughter or rolling on the floor and saying you're drunk in the spirit. We see no instance of that in the scripture. We see no instance in the scripture of a drunk tank where you're so drunk, so filled with the spirit that you're these men are not drunk as you suppose. So they take that and they twist it and they start acting all weird on television. And the guy's too he's too drunk in the spirit, so you gotta put him in the drunk tank till he sobers up. That's just flat out idiocy. It's just absolute idiocy, and it makes us all look like fools if you believe that sort of stuff. But we can validate, we can substantiate that of having visions and revelation. In Ezekiel chapter three verse 14, Ezekiel was lifted up by the spirit. And that's the phrase used in all these. Chapter eight verse three, he was lifted up by the spirit. So kinda like we're gonna see with John in the book of Revelation, kinda taking on the spiritual realm and you're able to see like in a time machine, you're able to see the future. You're able to see things that haven't happened yet with linear time. And then, 11 verse one and verse 24, 37 verse one, he was carried me up in the spirit and he saw the valley of dry bones. Why is that significant? Because God promised that the nation of Israel would be reborn in one day. In Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven on 05/14/1948, Israel was reborn as a nation. And we're watching Israel as a reborn nation, fighting for its very survival presently. And we'll continue to fight for their very survival. Two thirds of them are going to be destroyed by the antichrist during the seventy seven of Daniel, the tribulation period that's coming. But a one third remnant is gonna be preserved and they're gonna say, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And, the Lord Jesus is gonna come and and rescue them. But Ezekiel's taken up and he sees that in the future. Now earlier, like in the eighteenth century, seventeenth century, since after about 300, the church the majority of the church, even as today, the majority of the church never saw this prophecy as a reality that Israel would be back on the land after two thousand years of of being kicked out in seventy AD when, general Titus with the Romans destroyed the temple. And the Diaspora, the Jews went all over the world, but they maintained their identity. They didn't have an official country. Right? And so, many churches, many still today, think with a replacement theology or a predator's theology that the church has replaced Israel. Not so. If Martin Luther was so great with the book of Romans, the just shall live by faith, then what did he do with Romans nine, ten, and 11, where Paul puts in the middle there how this affects the nation of Israel? In chapter nine, he waxes eloquent of Israel's past election. Chapter 10, their present rejection, blindness in part has happened in Israel. In chapter 11, till the fullness of the gentiles become in with the restoration of Israel. And so we see the miracle, the prophecy, the more sure word of prophecy pointing to, the nation of Israel. Chapter 43 verse five, during the millennial reign of Jesus, the glory of the Lord, the Shekinah glory of the Lord fills the temple, the fourth temple. The nation of Israel is looking to build a temple, a third temple period. Jesus validates this in Daniel, from Daniel in Matthew, twenty four fifteen. The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. When you see the antichrist go into that temple and declare himself to be God, demand to be worshiped as God, then flee. Nation of Israel flee. Get out of there. And that's when they do flee. But Jesus substantiates. He validates the prophecy in Daniel that, the man of sin, at the midpoint of the tribulation period would turn against the nation of Israel. In Revelation chapter one verse 10, John is caught up in the spirit and the Lord shows him things to come. The revelation, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ. Verse four, how that he was caught up. There we go again, harpazo. And you may not believe in a pre tribulation rapture. That's fine. You're you're cool. Great. But it's very ignorant of you to say rapture is not in the bible. Don't go there to prove your point. In the Greek, it's harpazo. In the Latin, it's rapturus. Here we have caught up. We can we can with the English language, we can we can call it, you know, enraptured or raptured. Well, what are we talking about? Caught up. That's what we're talking about. So if somebody wants to argue about rapture, I'll I'll just say with them, well, how about caught up? How about harpazo? Is harpazo okay? Because the truth is conveyed there. Philip was harpazo ed. He was caught up, as he was there with the Ethiopian eunuch, he was caught up very quickly and founded as Zodos to the third heaven. So raptured up to the third heaven, and, so no. He says, caught up in the paradise, he says, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. So the third heaven described as paradise. Jesus told the thief on the cross, this day you'll be with me in paradise. To be absent of the body is to be present with the Lord in second Corinthians five. So as soon as my dad gives up the ghost, he's gonna be absent from that body anymore, that tent, that tabernacle's unable to house the true him. So three score and ten and ten more by reason of strength. He's gone eight years past the man of strength. He's 88. That tent, that temporary abode is insufficient to to tabernacle him, to be there to let him be inside that body. So the lord has a new body. I go to prepare a place for you. In my father's house are many mansions and many dwelling places. So my dad's gonna have that new body, to be asked for the body to be present with the lord, caught up into paradise. And I heard unspeakable words, which is is not lawful for a man to utter. So, you know, we say, I can only imagine. And we sing it, I can only imagine. You know? Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered in the hearts of men the things which god has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. So we, the life of the spirit, are entering into things that the natural man can't enter into. The natural man understands not the things of God, neither can he know them because they're only spiritually discerned. But as far as heaven goes, I don't know a whole lot about heaven. The bible doesn't have a whole lot to say about it. But this guy that Paul's talking about was caught up there. And think how intoxicating, think of how prideful, think of how inflated your mind, your ego would be if you were there in heaven and saw these things. And what words would be adequate to describe what you saw and heard, what was taking place there? That's what Paul's describing. This word paradise is a Persian word, and it's a word of walled gardens of Eden, the Garden of Eden. Indescribable, if you will. And then verse five, of such a one will I glory, yet not of myself or excuse me. Of such a one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. So Paul's saying, you know, I didn't capitalize on this and call the television cameras there to come down and let me explain. I would or write a book about caught up to the third heaven. I didn't use it as a promo to pump my name everywhere. We see Christian celebrities today, they don't miss a beat. They're constantly it's it's gone from Jesus to a Christian celebrity. People are following men. Why would you wanna have somebody to live the Christian life for you? I don't want nobody living my Christian life for me. I I don't I want I want to enter into all that God has for me. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna worship some man or glorify some man or get all enamored about this man or this woman and, like, oh, I'm just gonna sit here in the pew for the my rest of my life and let them live the Christian life. He's my hero. You know? Go get them. Go get them. You know? No. I'm a say, coach, let me in the game. Coach, let me in. I'm I'm tired of warming the bench, man. I don't I don't care how many yards they gain or whatever. I I want I want to get in there. I want to mix it up. I want to watch you, you know, do the impossible. You're a great God. Be very careful of trying to live your Christian life through these Christian celebrities. There's one mediator between god and man, the man Christ Jesus. God wants to use your life. God wants to fill and use your life. He wants to blow your mind with the things he wants to do in and through you. And be very careful also with raising men up higher than they should go they should be because, you know, that's what happened to Moses. Moses almost worshiped as a god. So god had to show everybody he's just a man, didn't he? God had to show him, I don't want you guys worshiping Moses. So the talk of the town, the talk afterwards, hey, did you hear? Moses smoked the rock a second time. Moses isn't going with us into the promised land. Moses is up on Mount Nebo looking over, but he can't go no further. Boy, that's a good message the Lord's sending with the denial of Moses. Well, why? Because he ruined the type. The Messiah is gonna be smitten once. Moses was supposed to speak to the rock, and that rock that followed them was Christ. He ruined the typology there. He was also a little angry. Shall we not you know, he's gonna smite us a second time, you know. But I'm not sad for Moses. He's there on the Mount Of Transfiguration, isn't he? The Lord the Lord rescued him from those people, is the way I look at it. So you don't need no more promos or cameras or press releases and pump this guy's name, you know. Billy Graham in the '40 in the late forty forty nine, he had a a bible study in Hollywood, the Hollywood Club and all, And he started to do some tent meetings and stuff. And William Randolph Hearst took Billy and pumped him. William Randolph Hearst was the largest newspaper conglomerate in the world at the time. And they took Billy and they pumped him. If you get on the radio, Christian radio, and you're pumped all over the place so look at it this way, it's a it's a matter of numbers. Let's say for me, every 100 people that hear me, 99 can't stand me. And there's just one person that might say, alright, I can I can listen to him for a little while? But you put that 10,000, 100,000, now I got a little bit of a following based upon numbers. Right? So you take Billy and you put him out there all over the place. Now he's now he's friendly and he's famous with the pope. He's famous with the presidents, all the leaders of the world. And that makes me a little little scared because Jesus said, woe unto you when all men speak well of you. It's healthy to have some enemies. It's healthy to be hated, by some people. The same kind of people that hated Jesus, that hated John the Baptist, that hated the apostle Paul. Be very careful when all men speak well of you. Paul said, all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And I'm sure Billy and his family suffered persecution, but, the the main component is the enormous popularity. That popularity that drove it. The apostle Paul, he may have been popular, but it was that guy that turned the world upside down, those Christians, they're here now too. It was more of a, the enemies were after him. He says, for though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool for I will say the truth. But now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he see it me to be, or that he heareth of me. So no exalting of Paul, no hero worship. A man with like passions as ye, he said to those of in in Acts chapter 13 when they were gonna worship Paul and Barnabas as Mercury and Jupiter. No. We're men of like passions as ye. Don't be worshiping us. We're just men. And that's, again, another another reason why you focus on Jesus and don't worship men, because men have feet of clay. And I've seen it over and over and over again, when you begin to put too much emphasis upon a man when he falls or you hear about what he's really like, it kinda it kinda crash a little bit. You have a you're disillusioned, you know? So keep your eyes on Jesus. There's no perfect church, no perfect Christian, no perfect leaders. It's all about this in here which we're learning. God's all sufficient grace. It's all his sufficient grace. Paul said in chapter three of second Corinthians, who is sufficient for these things? Who's sufficient enough? Who's strong enough to fight against Samson? To fight against Satan? Samson wasn't even strong enough to fight against Satan. Physically maybe strong, but spiritually, can you fight against demons? Can you fight against principalities and powers in and of your own strength? No. You need the help you need the help of the Lord. So who is sufficient for these things? Paul answered his own question, our sufficiency is of Christ. We're grossly inadequate. I feel grossly inadequate as a pastor. I know myself to be grossly inadequate as a father, as a husband. Grossly inadequate. If it wasn't for the Lord, if it wasn't for him undergirding and strengthening me and helping me, there's just no way I could have lasted this long. I would have crashed and burned a long time ago. It's only by God's grace. It's only by his grace that's poured out day by day by day by day. I drive away from here on Saturdays. I feel so inadequate. It's like, oh, man. You know, nobody's gonna show up again. Oh, man. You know? And then, you know, you guys show up. And then I drive home from here and I'm like, you know, Lord, I don't know if anybody else got blessed, Lord, but I got blessed. You know, you spoke to me. And then you guys come back again and, alright. Well, maybe maybe there's something happening here. But, it's by God's grace, his unmerited favor. So notice the true response of an encounter with God is always humility. The false prophets like to talk about how tight they are with God and this and that. And I had lunch with Chuck Smith and I had written this and that. You know, I I know Billy Graham. I he he wrote his name in my bible, you know, and, oh, Greg and Jack and, oh, I'm of Jack and I'm of Paul. I'm of Cephas, you know. And, oh, wow. Well, I'm really impressed. And then I tell my friends, I say, well, I flew in the jet with pastor Chuck. I'm jet man. You what? Yeah. I got to fly in the jet with him, man. None of them have ever been able to come back and say, I did too. None of them. It's like, who are you? Who are you? The true response is humility. All through the bible, when you see somebody that actually has an encounter with God, their face is on the ground. And they're giving the Lord 20 push ups. They're they're humbled. They're not all puffed up and look at me like the false prophets. They're not marketing people trying to get money out of people because of their revelation or their whatever. They're undone. Isaiah said, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips in Isaiah six. As he saw the Lord Jesus high and fill train filling the temple, the result was down. Amen. Right? Down. Humility. Job says in forty two five, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. So you hear of God, and you're thinking of the greatness of God, and now he's given you a vision or revelation. Or an angel appears to you like with Manoah, you know. Now, oh, man, I've heard of you with the ear, but now might I see thee. You know, the Lord Jesus in the camp of Abraham and Sarah. They're in the camp. Letting them know what what is. But now my eye sees thee. Wherefore, what's the response? I abhor myself. I'm filthy and repent in dust and ashes. There's Job's response to the Lord revealing himself to him. Daniel, in chapter 10 verse seven, I, Daniel, alone saw the vision of the men that were with me. They saw not the vision, but a great quaking, the Quakers, fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore, I was left alone and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me. For my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Just the the revelation that God was given to Daniel just brought him to the place where where he saw his own corruption, his, you know, made from the ground, made from the dust. In Isaiah's woe is me, the apostle Peter, he's fishing and he catches no fish. And the Lord Jesus says, hey, can I can I can I sit in your boat there and you push it out from the shore a little bit here at the Sea Of Galilee? And I wanna speak to the people a little while. So he speaks to the people, never a man spake like this. The common people heard him gladly. And then he comes back to the shore and he says to Peter and the boys they have a fishing business, Peter and Andrew, and James and John, the sons of thunder. There's two boats there. Hey, push out to the to the deep water and cast your net again. And a huge drought of fish came into those nets. And Peter was so blown away because he said, we fished all night, we caught no fish, but at your word, Lord, at your word, we'll obey you. That's faith. And there were so many fish that Peter said, away from me from a sinful man. It just blew his mind. Depart from me from a sinful man, oh Lord. In Revelation one seventeen, when John the beloved, when he saw the Lord Jesus in chapter one, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And this is true when when John later is gonna fall at the feet of two angels that appear to him. And he begins to worship them, and they say, no. Worship God. There's a distinction there. You don't worship angels. You don't worship Christian leaders. You only worship God. He's the only one worthy of worship. I don't know how the pope gets away with it, you know. I don't I don't know how these people do it or or Mariology, you know, Mary worshiping a Marians. I don't I don't know how they how how people could go that way. It's it's mind boggling to me. There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, the God man. Job was crying out in chapter nine, oh, if I had a daysman, if I had a mediator, if I had someone to stand between me and God. Well that person is Jesus. He's the one. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life. We come to the father through the son. We can boldly come before his throne of grace now because of the cross. The temple, the veil of the temple was rent into after our sins are forgiven and paid for. So we have access. We have access to the very throne of God through prayer. So God revealed himself to Paul, and from that moment forward, everything paled in comparison. His awareness of the greatness of God carried him through everything. Nothing is too hard for God. All that was in the world, the luster of the world, the devil could take whatever and the Apostle Paul was fine with it because the Lord's my portion forever. I've got God. He's my portion. Paul didn't care. Paul knew if God could change him a blasphemer, that God could save anyone. And to me, whom less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I might preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul knew he didn't deserve to be a preacher. He was once a blasphemer forcing people to blaspheme. He too was blaspheming. He described himself as the chiefest of sinners, persecuting the church, wasting the church. That's why he heard Jesus say, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Can you continue to kick against the goats? Paul's saying, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? In Romans chapter seven, and it's a person, the person Jesus Christ that delivers us from this body of death. So what is the secret of his success, his greatness, his strength? Number one, an awareness of the greatness of God. Secondly, an acceptance of the gifts of God. Are you ready to receive the gifts of God in your life? Salome, the mother of James and John, she, came to Jesus and a very good negotiating Jewish mother. She wanted to make sure that her boys that one would sit on the right hand of Jesus and the other on the left when he comes into his kingdom. And Jesus phrases it this way. The boys are there too and they're always fighting over who's gonna be the greatest, these disciples. Who's gonna be the greatest? I'm gonna outdo you. Are you able to drink of the cup that I'm gonna drink? Now do you think they were clueless when they said, oh, sure. Sure. We can drink that. We can drink that cup. They didn't have a clue what he spoke of. Going to the cross and the suffering and the wrath of his father being poured out upon him. You know? Can you drink that cup? Are you gonna be able to drink that cup? Do you want it all? Do you do you really want what you're asking for? Think of the prayers that you've prayed, the things that you've wanted, and the Lord's told you no. And later, you're able to look back and say, oh, Lord. Righteous and true are your ways, oh, lord. You know? Thank you, lord. I had no idea. Verse seven, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, So lest I get so intoxicated and so self important, so egotistical and prideful. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. So the apostle Paul, like a kite that's gonna soar, that reaches great heights, needs a tail, a weighted tail. And that weighted tail keeps you usable, keeps you so you remember your humanity, you remember your weakness, you remember your brokenness. You never forget those that season, forty years, Moses, in the deserts of Midian, watching the sheep of Jethro, your father-in-law. All the greatness of Egypt, he was inadequate to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. It was when he's broken. And Stephen tells us that Moses was once an eloquent man. But by the time the Lord meets up with him in the burning bush, he's saying, I have a speech impediment. I can't even speak, in Exodus four. The Lord Lord had to give him a a lesson on physiology. Who put that tongue in your mouth? Who gave you the vocal cords? You aren't gonna speak. You're gonna speak what I tell you to speak. Jeremiah's like, I'm too young. I'm just a I'm just a young guy. I can't do it. No. You will speak. I'm gonna refrain. I'll never speak in your name again later when the Lord put him in a dungeon, put him in a pit, a slimy pit. I'll never speak in your name again. Look where it gets me. And it says his word was in him like a fire within his bones and he could not refrain. Woe is me if I don't preach the gospel, Paul said. Just try to refrain. Given to me. And so this picture is that of the devil with a clenched fist just pummeling the apostle Paul, crippling the apostle Paul. For this thing I besought the lord thrice that it might depart from me. Do you want the gifts of god? This is a gift, Paul. I'm giving you a gift. If you're Job, you're saying, lord, why don't you go brag on somebody else? You start out by saying, I'm a perfect man, upright in all my ways, a man that fears God and accuses evil. Go brag on someone else. Gonna take away everything? Take away my my my health, everything, my wealth, my family? God graciously allowed Paul to keep it. Even though Paul prayed three times for God to take it away, He received more than he bargained for. Paradise was fine, but keep the thorn. I'll take the blessings, Lord. You do the bleeding. I'll take heaven, Lord. You go through hell. I'll take the crown, Lord, without the cross. That's what the devil tempted Jesus with. I'll give you the crown without the cross. Bow down and worship me, and I'll give you all these kingdoms of the world. And Satan still is coming to you and I saying, I'll give you the crown without the cross. Compromise. Compromise. Just give in. Don't be so radical. Don't stay with the word of God. Mix in some Freud and Roy. Mix in some self help and feel good messages. Keep the people in denial. Keep the people with a false sense of security. Hide them from reality. Don't teach prophecy. For many, that's doom and gloom. It's not the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. It's doom and gloom. It means that I might lose my house. I might lose my job. I don't want this thorn in the flesh. I don't want this messenger of Satan. God, you're not as great as I thought you were. You're not as big as I thought you were. Which father? What kind of a father would do this to his kids? You have the audacity to say you love me and you allow my children, my child to die? My husband to leave us? My dad to be an embarrassment, a drunk my whole life? God, you say you love me but you allowed me to be raped. You allowed me to be molested. You allowed people to abuse me. Why didn't you protect me? Now the rest of my life, I have to live with this thorn. I have to live with this this emotional abuse and hurt in my heart and mind that gnaws at me. You could have done better, God. You could have done much better. You carry the cross. We'll go on the Christian cruise. You ever been on a Christian cruise? I've been on two of them and I loved them. There's so much food. Your your belly gets so pumped. I mean, they're even putting it in yet night on the midnight buffet. There's so many desserts and ice sculptures and all that, you know, and, whew, lobsters. Cathy was there eating lobster after lobster until she couldn't eat anymore. Pastor Chuck and Kaye there, Greg Laurie and these guys are all there watching Kathy eat those lobsters. The next day, pastor Greg says, I sat with a lobster woman last night. You know? Because when you're poor and the lobster's free and everybody's gone because the ship is in the open sea and they're all getting sick the majority of people are sick, not Kathy. Kathy is right there because Greg, Greg Manderson, Jeanette's, pastor Chuck's son-in-law, and Greg Laurie and them, they're just so enamored with this woman who's poor, who's like, I got all love's reckoning. And they just keep ordering them. They keep having the the guys keep bringing them. She come to the room and I'm just laying there on bed trying not to throw up. And she, she she comes back to the room. Oh, that was paradise. Oh, that was so good. Oh, you know? And even pastor Chuck, who didn't wanna leave his beloved wife, Kaye, at the table, even he's taken the basket of bread and and it has a napkin in it, you know, and he's grab and he's thrown up in the basket. But he didn't leave. Right? There was there was vomit all over the ship. And they're they're cleaning it up the next day with carpet cleaning machines. It's crazy. But hey, a blessing, a huge blessing for those that could could handle it. But a Christian cruise, great bible teaching. Go to the Inside Passage to Alaska and you see the, you know, the Mendenhall Glacier and and going to Sitkin, these little cities and stuff. And it's fascinating. It looks just like Washington, so I didn't need to go again. I love it here. It does. It looks just like Washington. I mean, the beauty here, same there. It didn't it didn't hit me. Went to Mexico once, on those and there's one still on my bucket list. They got one that goes to Hawaii. That goes to well, alright. Let's go to Hawaii and take the cruise to Hawaii. I think you fly there and then you go to various islands on the cruise ship. But and then there's another one. We went to, Israel and then we did the extended stay to, Turkey. And when we went, it was first time pastor Chuck, I went on land and stayed in hotels there, during Ramadan, and it was a little difficult. So the next tour, they began to have the cruise ship stay there. So you go in to to see the seven churches, and then each night you go back out to the cruise ship where you kinda control the environment a little bit better. So, Christian cruising, man. Just cruising in the apostle Paul, the cruise he went on, it crashed. Right? But 276 souls were saved. So give us the prosperity without the pain, the crown without the cross. Give us all free cell phones and food stamps and houses and cars with no payments and no sweating. Reverse the curse. Give me a universal basic income. That's what I want. I just wanna I want my time. I wanna be able to game all night long or fish or whatever my interest is. I'm tired of working. And, so give us the beautiful rose with no thorns, Lord. This tent stake, it speaks of pain, speaks of repeatedly punched by Satan. To remain useful to remain useful is the key. Paul had to accept this gift from God. He had to surrender in brokenness and pain. Jesus prayed three times, just as Paul prayed three times, that the Lord will remove this this tent stake. Now, in the Greek, no do you know what no means in the Greek? Sometimes people say, no. It didn't mean no. It means maybe. It means I think so. No means no in the Greek. Every time. It doesn't mean I'll think about it. Negotiate some more. Get down on the ground and have a temper tantrum and maybe I'll reconsider. No means no. God, I'm out of here. If if you don't change these circumstances, you don't remove this tense sake, this messenger of Satan that's buffeting me, I'm out of here. I'm out of here. Do you know how important I am, Lord? Do you know who I am? I've been caught up to the third heaven, man. I've seen where you hang out. Some people think like that. God's just wringing his hands like, oh gosh, he's gonna leave me. He's gonna quit. He's gonna quit. Who will I get to replace him? Well, God can use a donkey instead of you. He can use Balaam's donkey to communicate if he needs to. He said the rocks would cry out if these people refrained. It's just a blessing and a privilege that he'd use you in any way, shape, or form. So don't think you're so special that you're gonna start dictating terms to God. Accept the gift from God. Surrender in that brokenness and pain. Jesus prayed three times, father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me. And here's the part, nevertheless, not as I will, but thy will be done. What's that mean? Father knows best. On this Father's Day, father knows best. There are no accidents in his kingdom. The thorn that you're bearing, the emotional problems, the the difficulty you have with depression emotionally, the physical pain you have in your back, or your hips, or or your eyesight, whatever that is. It's no accident. God is allowing these things in your life. It makes you more dependent upon him, more reliant upon him. His grace is sufficient because his strength is perfected in weakness. It's not an accident. You remember you remember Jacob, God wrestled with them. They had an MMA bow, and Jacob tapped out. Hosea tells us, you know, they're wrestling all night long. And Jacob's heel catcher. Jacob's a conniver. But he met his match as the Lord was there wrestling with him all night. And the Lord crippled Jacob. The Lord dislodged his hip, the sinew of his hip. So how did Israel God changed his name, changed him from the inside. As he surrendered to God, there's a transformation and change that took place within. Your name's Israel. You're a prince of God. You're governed by God now. And he walked away limping, didn't he? Walked away limping from there. And later, when he's 130 years old, and he's down in Egypt, the pharaoh asked him, you know, how old are you? He said, 130 have been my pilgrimage. Few and evil have been my days. He had a lot of trouble. A lot of difficulty. He had a son that was killed, then he found out his son's alive, Joseph. What is the secret of his success? His greatness, his strength, and awareness of the greatness of God. Secondly, an acceptance of the gift of God. And thirdly, an appropriation of the grace of God. You can know theoretically about the grace of God, but not appropriate it, not apply it to your life. You can fight and fight and fight with God about the thorn, about what's happened. And be very, very careful. Be very, very careful if you ever win that argument with God. Be very careful. The children of Israel were sick and tired of Jesus. They were sick and tired of the manna coming down from heaven that they were eating. They began to murmur and complain. Manna again. Manicotti. Macaroni. You know, tired of this. Angel's food. The coriander. The corn of heaven. Angel's food cake. We're tired of it. We want meat. We're carnivores. Amen. So the Lord starts to send quail. And they're coming in belt high. If you swing a golf club, they're coming in right on the ground there. But these guys are hitting homers. Homers of quail. They had quail till it's coming out their nose, out their ears. The problem is, they could not enjoy it. What's it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Or what would a man give in exchange for his life? God said that he put leanness in their heart. They got all the meat they wanted. They finally got that house. They finally got that car. They finally got what they was an absolute that God has to give them, but they couldn't enjoy it. There was leanness in their heart. Now, they're singing the rest of their days like Mick Jagger. You know? They just no satisfaction. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So Paul discovered a very important truth, God's grace is sufficient. But a truth must be appropriated. A truth that cannot be left in seminary. See, a lot of us operate theoretical. We hear little cliches. Hey, where God guides, he provides. Well, until you're bankrupt. What do you do then? Hey, if you teach the word, they'll come until they don't. So what happens then? What happens to all the cliches and things that work in a different epoch, a different period of time, or a different geographical area, demographic? What happens when it doesn't work? When the pragmatism doesn't work? When there's apostasy that's raging and people are rebellious against the truth and leaving churches for false churches, pseudo churches, feel good churches, Freud and Freud churches. Because people don't want the pain. They don't want the suffering. They want someone to figure out how to make the pain go away, instead of embracing the pain as a gift from God. How god might use your life to comfort someone that's been raped. How god might use your life to comfort someone that's lost a son or a daughter. He's not always gonna send an angel to comfort people. He said he'd send the comforter, the Holy Spirit, but he said that the comfort, the consolation that you receive that you might con console others also. Your life isn't theoretical. You're living it. You don't need to live it through a hero that that the pampered chef that's never faced a trial like you faced, insulated from reality. And the very first time they have any kind of trial that you have, you see them breaking down. You thought they were such giants of the faith until they have a back injury that makes it so they can't sleep. Now they're telling the doctor, I just wanna go home to be with Jesus. I can't handle this pain anymore. Well, you've had that pain for twenty years and it won't go away. How did we think that somehow the pinnacle of Christianity is a life of no pain, no problems. Where do you get that from the scriptures, you know? I I could give you promises for your promise jar that many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all. But we don't want those in our promise to get that out of my promise jar. That's not the Christianity I signed up for. Does no good to be theoretical in the seminary. That's why when you meet a a pastor, a teacher, someone that teaches the bible, what I'm looking for is, has he lived it? What's he gone through? Has he lived it? Or is it just theoretical? Money solves a lot of problems. Does he know what it is to be poor? Does he know what it is to have a prodigal son or a daughter? And most of them do. And some of the pastors with the greatest depth in teaching the bible are guys that have been prepared ahead of time who've gone through ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years of heartache. David went through ten years of being chased by King Saul. Years of preparation. Getting them ready. Being broken. AW Tozer says, before God can use a man greatly, he must hurt him deeply. Some of these hurts are so deep. Prodigal daughter, a prodigal son, the emotional pain. I asked Cathy, I says, you know, Kath, what if you were to define your thorn in the flesh, what would it be? And she says, well, Jessica, it's so painful to have a a child raised in a Christian home that walks away from the Lord. She says physically, it'd be my back. She can't even take a shower. She can't stand up without being overwhelmed with pain. Mentally, spiritually, you fill in the blanks. But know this, the God you're serving is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and rejected of men. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. He was in the world, the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. The people are shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, save now. And four days later, they're shouting, crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be upon us and upon our children. You're gonna have to appropriate this grace. But a truth must be appropriate, a truth that must be lived. Jesus answered Paul's prayer as I said, no, no, no. In the Greek, no means no. If Paul just had more faith, if he'd just pray more, if he could just name it and claim it, if he could blab it and grab it, You're just not praying right. My dad, as he's sitting there in the hospital, he told me a few days ago when he was coherent, he's getting a lot of very bad Christian programming on television there. And one of the things he said they kept saying was, you send in a thousand dollars and you'll get a thousand back. You'll get thousands, plural back. Send in your now maybe you can only send in $360 but you'll get that $3. 60 back. You'll get it you'll get it 10 times over. And they just kept doing that. And he's like, how do they get away with that? You know? The the irony is people send money in. Poor people send money into these guys and they just keep going for it. Blab it and grab it, man. If you're poor, you know, you just give more. Just just give a thousand bucks and you won't be poor anymore. Pray facing toward Costa Mecca. You'll get rich. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength's perfected in weakness, his unmerited favor, getting something I do not deserve. Well, good. I don't want it. We don't understand how very much we need God's grace to keep us usable and get us through everything in life. His grace is sufficient. Grace is God's provision for our every need when we need it. God's riches available at Christ's expense. So that's an acronym, g r a c e. God's riches at Christ's expense. So Jesus purchased us for a higher purpose than just our selfish happiness. Imagine that. Your best life now. My strength, he says, is made perfect in weakness As we recognize our weakness, our infirmity, we can then experience his sufficient grace to get us through. And we cannot appropriate his strength when we're trying to do it ourselves in our own strength. That's pride. Except the Lord builds the house. They that labor, labor in vain that build it. God's gonna do it. The secret's humility. Being clothed with humility for God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. So Paul says, most gladly. So Paul's gonna receive this gift, this messenger of Satan. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So you can build a church and you can market the church and you can have a social club driven by money, but it has no power. And you know it doesn't have the power to transform and change lives. And you hire counselors, psychological counselors to help people chase their tail the rest of their life. Never coming to a death to self. Never coming entering into the life of the spirit. You charge them $75 an hour. You're a Christian counselor. They need someone to talk to. And we have the Holy Spirit, the comforter that wants to comfort us, that wants us to accept that depression. That that that why art thou cast down all my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? As David's crying out in Psalm 42. David wrestled with depression. Depression is real. Not everybody has it, but some carry more than others. Charles Spurgeon wrestled with depression. Where art thou cast stone, oh my soul? Where art thou disquieted within me? And then he answers this question, hope thou in God. This causes you to have a greater hope, a greater dependency, a greater all sufficiency relying upon the grace of God. You may have real low, low, lows, but real high, high, highs. Manic. Not always gonna stay on the mountain top. Gonna go down in the valley. Down in the valley, what happens in the valley? You get to know Jesus because that's where he's at. He's a man of sorrows. Paul said in Philippians three ten, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. I want that power. How do I get that power? In the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. When we're dead, we experience the power of the resurrection. The all sufficient grace of God. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Jesus said, without me you can do nothing. How are you gonna be a father? How are you gonna be a mother? How are you gonna raise kids without the help of the Holy Spirit? And it never ends, does it? No matter how old they get, we worry about them. Keeping our jobs, paying our bills, then we get hit with all the physical infirmities and all the junk. It's only as we rely upon the Lord. That word rest means to the tabernacle, to dwell. He would appropriate the grace of God in his life through the fellowship of sufferings. Verse 10, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities. It's a masochist. Who would take pleasure in infirmities? In reproaches. Yeah. When people hate me and reproach my name, yeah. I take pleasure in it, man. In necessities. Yeah. When I when I can't pay my bills, when I when I can't eat, I I Yeah. Man, I I I take pleasure in it. In persecutions, Yeah. When they're whooping on me, I take pleasure in it. In distress for Christ's sake, for when I'm weak, then I'm strong. So the secret of Paul's strength wasn't having long hair. The secret is in his relationship with Jesus. And the secret of your strength is your relationship with Jesus. There's nothing that we face as paramount, as great, as big as it might be, that our God is greater. He's greater. And his grace is sufficient. His strength's perfected in weakness. And as we die to self, as we take our cross up daily and follow him, he gives us the strength to continue. He gives us the strength to not only continue, but to thrive. The life of the spirit, to to worship God in spirit and in truth. To let the things of the world fade away. To let go of what he wants to take, let him take it. Enjoy the seasons. Enjoy what he brings. But that gnawing pain, it's there to stay in many cases until we see Jesus face to face. Then he's gonna wipe away every tear. Then he's gonna comfort us and say, well done thou good and faithful servants. You know? So Paul said, I glory in them because I know that I'm gonna see God move in a great way. Do you wanna see God move in a great way? And that's what he's saying is, hey, when they start whooping on me, I'm gonna see God move in a great way. It sets the stage for God to move and work. When they're hurting me and putting me in prison, hey, God set the stage for me to share the gospel with some people in prison. All that the enemy means for evil, God's gonna turn around for good, Joseph says to his brothers. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to save many people this day. That's the life of the believer relying upon the Lord, relying upon their heavenly father. The secret of Paul's strength was not having long hair. Samson was mistaken. The secret is communion. That's the secret of your strength. Communion. Fellowship with God. Abiding in him. Getting to know him. Samson was given a very special relationship with God, that of a Nazarite, which speaks of separation under God. He messed with the wine. He messed with the carcass, the dead animal. And then he messed with his hair. Don't touch my hair. That's what president Trump said to the secret. Don't touch the hair. Don't touch the hair. Delilah asked, what's the secret of your strength, Sammy? Hey, Sammy baby. What's the secret to your strength? Lie here in my lap. Lie here in my lap, Sammy. Then then the tears start. Seven days of tear seven days of breaking him down emotionally. I'd rather be in hell to have to listen to that anymore. No. Just kidding. What's the secret of your strength? Bind me with green cords. Bind me with ropes that have never been used. Divide my hair into seven braids, and I'll be as weak as any other man. Getting close. Getting close, Sammy. Think about it for a minute. Now the inclination is when I mess with the wine, I didn't lose my strength. I'm partying. I'm with harlots. I'm hanging out in Timnath. Right? I'm just as strong as anybody. I violated that relationship with god. But, hey, I didn't lose my strength. I I can look at as much porn as I want. I don't lose my strength. Now you're messing with the defiled animal. You're making riddles. You're making jokes about the strength out of the eater, the meat out of the eater, and the sweetness out of the strong. The lion. You weren't supposed to mess with that lion. You weren't supposed to trivialize your relationship with God and take it so lightly that it become a joke, a riddle. Oh, but I still got my strength. Now you've gone too far. Now you've cut God out of the equation. Cutting the hair, you've cut God out. And the tragedy is you still don't know that the Holy Spirit has departed. You think you're as strong as every other time. You you've lost sight of the greatness of God. You've lost sight of relying upon the the grace of God in your life, the the tremendous gift that he's given you, and that he's chosen you. He's one to use you and fill you. But lest you be intoxicated with such great importance, like Samson here, Samson needed a a weight. Samson needed a thorn. He needed something to keep him appreciative of what a wretched man he is and how great God is. But he didn't. From from the very beginning, he's been special. He didn't learn those lessons of Moses or of David and others. He's crippled in a in a wrong way with pride and self sufficiency. Samson, the Philistines are upon you. And he thought he was as strong as at other times, but he knew not that the Holy Spirit departed. David cried out when he sinned with Bathsheba, when he murdered her husband, Uriah. When he tried to cover his sin and he's miserable for a solid year in Psalm thirty two thirty eight and fifty one, you hear hear the cry of his heart. And all he wants is for the Lord in Psalm 51, restore to me the joy of my salvation. Let me have that joy of my salvation back. Because when I cut you off, God, I lost it all. I thought I was gaining the world. I thought I could mix you with the world and and have it all. But I was reduced to a crust of bread by a hoarish woman. I cheated on my wife. I cheated on God. I was unfaithful to my kids, unfaithful to those that believed and trusted me. Start out real well, got the long hair. People are coming to Christ. It's the Jesus movement. Everybody's just going crazy. So many people saved. And then Lonnie cuts his hair. He gets AIDS. He dies of AIDS. So mightily used of God, but venturing so far away from the parameters that God defined for that relationship. To continue to be powerful. Reliance upon God. Don't be defiled. The spirit of the Lord departed. He cut me off from God the father. Samson became as weak as any other man, and he didn't even know it. The secret of Paul's strength, Paul was aware of the greatness of God and his need of fellowship with him. Are you aware of the greatness of God today? Are you aware of your need of fellowship with him? You say, but Rick, I can't. It's too painful. I keep I keep asking God to remove this thing. Remove it. And the Lord says, no. He keeps telling me no. And I can't move forward in my walk and relationship with him till he removes it. Be careful. Be careful that God would give you your way. Your father knows best. He says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. God's grace is sufficient. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Father knows best. Let go and let God supply you with his all sufficient grace. I believe that's why we chase our tail. I believe that's why we succumb to psychology and the gurus, the philosophers of today is because we won't let go. It's like we have leverage against God. It's like, how did you allow this? How how come this keeps happening? How come how come and we just won't stop talking about it, reliving it over and over and over? But if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things are become new. Doesn't mean that that pain is gonna go away. Doesn't mean you don't think about that pain. It's just there's a greater thought in your mind, the greatness of God. You lose sight of the greatness of God when you fall into that pity party. Hope thou in God, David said in Psalm 42. Hope thou get your eyes back on him. I find myself evaluating, as I said, I find myself evaluating Christians, especially Christian leaders, not by what they've accomplished or what they have. Some of my friends will say, yeah, I looked up this guy's name and I I went online to see what he's worth. He's worth $52,000,000. That doesn't impress me. I wanna know what he's like when he has to go through something that you've gone through, the loss of a child. What's he like then? What's he like when his back doesn't work anymore and he's in constant pain? What's he like with a prodigal? What's he like if his wife leaves him? That kind of stuff happens to us all the time. It's common place. But somehow, the Christian leaders today, they're like Samson. They're heroes. And we're supposed to believe that all of our lives are gonna be like that? If we just pray right, read right, do this right, that right I mean, give me a break. So the way I evaluate them is, alright, you're a wealthy dude. You're successful. Now you've lost all your money. Why are you suicidal? We've learned how to navigate with no money. Those that are poor are rich in faith. Why are you thinking about cashing in your life insurance policy? That's ridiculous. You're supposed to be a spiritual giant. Obviously, you didn't grow spiritually enough to rely upon God's grace through these things. Now eventually, they do. They readjust. But they sure melt down at the first sign of anything that you and I had to had to deal with on a regular basis. And in many cases, their kids and others are crippled because they gave them everything. They didn't let them go through the school of hard knocks. Now they're a huge mess because this this idea, this truth of a messenger of Satan above them, they don't want that. Money makes it go away. So you're in a good place in your walking relationship with the Lord. There's nothing too hard for God. Your God's a big God. And his grace is sufficient. All sufficient grace, no matter what you're gonna face, no matter what you've gone through, Jesus will get you through it. And he will take away the gnawing. He will take away the pain. He will take away the suffering when you see him face to face. And until then, we can glory in these infirmities because we rely upon the Lord more. And he reveals more and more of himself and more and more of his power when we're weak. I wanna see the power. I wanna see the book of Acts lived out. God doing great things where great grace is upon us. Because we got nobody else we can rely upon. You don't have a celebrity pastor. We can't drive this thing with money. The only one we can depend upon is Jesus and his all sufficient grace. He's a big God. Father, we thank you. That at times, you back us into a corner. And Lord, we learn these hard lessons, Lord, with no way out. The children of Israel at the Red Sea, there's no way out for them. They have to rely upon you, Lord, and you part the sea. We see time and time again, Lord, where Jehoshaphat, his backs to the wall and he doesn't know what to do. He doesn't have the power. He doesn't have the might. He doesn't know what to do, but his eyes are on you, Lord. We too, Lord. Help us to live the Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit. In your all sufficient grace. And, Lord, we pray that for those of us that are on the brink, we think that we can't take anymore. We pray, Lord, that we'd recognize the lies of the wicked one. We can take a lot more, a whole lot more, as we rely upon your grace, your all sufficient grace. Reveal yourself to us, Lord. Help us to get to know you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.