Listen here.
0:42 Daily Devotional: Why are there so many stories in the Bible? (1 Corinthians 10:6-12)
4:55 Skipping Leg Day by Jo De Blois
9:55 How to learn from your past
New Book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His.
Visit our redesigned website at thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.
Listen here
0:25 Check your privilege (1 Corinthians 10:1-6)
5:56 Using our past stories to change our future stories.
13:25 From Gay to Gospel
New Book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His.
Visit thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.
INTRODUCTION
First Byron has multiple ministries and multiple members engaged in ministry. Sometimes ministry workers get discouraged and think about giving up. “Why am I doing this?” we ask. “I get very little return, receive very little thanks, and see very little fruit.” If we’re not tempted to give up, we’re tempted to withdraw, to retreat, to reduce our efforts. “Why am I doing this ministry?” we ask. “Ministry is all give, give, give. I don’t get much back. Why should I do this ministry?”
Or maybe you are sensing God’s call to a ministry in the congregation or elsewhere. VBS? Sunday School? Small group leader? Perhaps someone has approached you and asked you to get involved in a ministry like this. It seems like a lot of time and effort and you too are asking yourself, “Why should I do this ministry?”
BACKGROUND
The Apostle Paul had many reasons to be discouraged about ministry to the Corinthian church. He had labored faithfully among them but they were turning away from Paul and to false teachers who undermined and demeaned Paul. He had many reasons to ask, “Why should I do this ministry?” Paul’s view of ministry reminds us of why we should do ministry to others and why Jesus did ministry to us.
What should I expect in ministry?
1. WE SPEND BIG (11-15)
You did not spend anything on me
“I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong! (11-13).
Paul hated commending himself but forced himself to do it, not for his own benefit, but for the Corinthians. He reminded them of all the proofs of his apostleship that were demonstrated among them as all the other churches. The only difference between the Corinthians and all the other New Testament churches, said Paul, was that he never took a penny from them. “Forgive me for not taking any money from you!” Paul exclaims with holy sarcasm. I did all I did for you and took nothing in return from you.
I spent everything on you
Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls… (14-15).
The Corinthians spent nothing on Paul, but he spent everything on them. He was self-funding his third missionary trip to them and asking not, “What can I get from the Corinthians?” but “How can I give to the Corinthians?” He wasn’t wanting to benefit from their money but to benefit their souls. And he wasn’t complaining about this, because it’s normal for parents to provide for their children rather than vice versa. He viewed them with fatherly love, the love that spends not only money for the children but spends himself for the children. He was willing not only to give all that he had but all that he was for them. He would drain all his reserves for them.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Thank your spenders. Is there someone who served you or ministered to you in the past? have you thanked them? Pastors, parents, grandparents, Sunday school teachers, GEMS or Cadets leaders? We spent nothing on them, but they spent themselves for us. Have we expressed our appreciation?
Spend everything in ministry. Don’t be a small spender; be a big spender. The more we spend in ministry or service, the more God will give us to spend. When we are motivated by the good of others, the profit of others, rather than our own gain, ministry and service will be a lot easier. We’ll also see a lot more return on investment.
BIG SPENDERS
ARE BIG SAVERS
How do I become a big spender? Become a big lover?
2. WE LOVE BIG (15-18)
I love you more
“If I love you more….But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps? (15-18).
Here Paul may be saying either, “I love you more than the super-apostles,” or “I love you more than I ever have before.” Both were true. Both were proven by his actions. Not only had he never asked any money of them directly, he had never taken any advantage of them through his messengers and helpers. They followed Paul’s example too in asking nothing and taking nothing from the Corinthians. Whatever the Corinthians said about Paul’s deceit, he appeals to his actions to prove his love was entirely uninterested in getting but only in giving.
You love me less
If I love you more, am I to be loved less? (15).
This wasn’t a question seeking new information, but a rhetorical question that implied the answer “Yes.” As the NKJV puts it, “Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.” The comparison may either be “You love me less than the super-apostles” or “You love me less than you did before.” You can feel the agony of this question, can’t you? Paul was loving them more and more, at the same time as he was experiencing less and less love in return.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Prepare for less love. How many parents, pastors, elders, ministry workers, teachers, etc., have experienced this? Our love is returned with hate. Our good words are met with evil words. Our good deeds are misrepresented and twisted. The worst motives are attributed to our best service.
Ask for more love. Instead of returning evil for evil, we are to return love for hate, and good for evil. We go to the Lord and say, “He/she/they hate me more than ever before. Help me to love more than ever before.”
MORE HATE
= MORE LOVE
If that’s our motive to spend, what’s our aim in spending?
3. WE BUILD BIG (19-21)
I’m not building myself up
Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? (19)
Paul’s been forced into defending himself, but his aim in this is not so much to rebuild his reputation (although that’s involved). It’s like the best pharmacy which receives an unfair Google review that could damage its’ customers’ confidence and make them get their meds elsewhere. Its manager goes online to write a rebuttal of the review by setting the record straight. It’s not primarily about defending the pharmacy’s reputation (though that’s involved). It’s more about defending the customers’ interests and health.
I’m building you up
It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved (19).
Paul appealed to God’s knowledge of his heart motive being not to build his reputation but to build up the Corinthians. And they were in dire need of rebuilding. From all that Paul had heard about the impact of the false teachers, the Corinthians’ spirituality had been demolished.
For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. 21 I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced (20-21).
At that moment, their imminent reunion with Paul did not look like being a happy occasion. If he came and found them broken down and dilapidated, Paul would be deeply humbled and immensely sad. That’s why he wrote this letter, so that they would clear the rubble by repentance and rebuild by faith and godliness.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Selfish ministry is self-ministry. If we do what we do for our own reputation alone, for fame, respect, praise of others, we are not serving others or the Lord, but ourselves. And the end of that will be destruction of the church and of ourselves as the super-apostles proved.
Add a brick. We may not build a cathedral, but we can add another brick to another life. We can be scaffolding for a time. We can carry drinks. We can encourage the other builders. We’re not called to build a monument, but to build moment by moment.
BUILD OTHERS
OR DESTROY SELF
SUMMARY
A NEW CHAPTER
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. When have you been tempted to give up ministry or to avoid it? Why?
2. What ministry is God calling you to continue or to begin?
3. Who have been the spenders, lovers, and builders in your life? Have you thanked them?
4. Who can you invest in, love, or build up?
5. How did this message increase your love for Jesus?
6. Who can you disciple with this message?
INTRODUCTION
Our culture’s fatherhood crisis can be seen in both stories and statistics.
Nadia’s Story
In Islam there are 99 names for Allah. Not one of them is “Father.” I am from a family of six children. My father never showed us love. Whenever I heard of people speak about the love and support of their fathers, I had no idea what they meant. My father was an angry man. He abused us, especially my mother, emotionally and physically. She was beaten several times to within an inch of her life. Yet she put up with this in order to protect us children. I also remember the day when my father tried to kill my brother, forcing him to run away barefooted into the street.
When I was old enough, l left Iran so that I could be free of my father and have a better life. I ended up in the UK. I always had a negative view of men. I questioned why God had given men such power. I tried to be strong, yet I was depressed and tired of life (I Couldn’t Call God Father, by Nadia).
Vince’s Story
“As a man who has been fatherless almost all my life, I have found that defining masculinity is deceptively difficult. I didn’t have someone around to demonstrate true and healthy manhood. My father’s absence has been a source of grief and regret, but this sense of longing has driven me to God for answers, fulfillment, and sonship. He is my one faithful Father, my heavenly one” (Nine Attributes of a Real Man, Vince Miller)
Statistics
How do we fix the Fatherhood crisis that is damaging so many individuals and our whole culture? The answer is God’s Fatherhood. It helps us see where we’ve gone wrong, how to get it right, and how to heal those traumatized by their dads or the lack of them. Even if we’v e had the best Fathers, we can still get to know our heavenly Father better and enjoy a deeper more satisfying relationship with him.
BACKGROUND
We were made to know God as our Father. Our ultimate purpose is to be the loved and loving children of God. That’s how Adam and Eve were made. That’s what we’ve lost by sin and what Christianity restores. But how? How do we get to the Father? How do we know the Father? How can we become his sons and daughters? How can we enjoy a relationship with him. These were some of the Father problems and questions that Jesus’s disciples had as well. In John 14:5-10 Jesus solves and answers them.
What is our Father problem?
1. WE HAVE A FATHER PROBLEM
Some of the disciples had father problems. Perhaps they’d had bad experiences at the hands of their earthly fathers. Whatever the cause, when Jesus spoke about them going to live in the Father’s home (John 14:2-4), Thomas had questions (5). When Jesus answered by presenting himself as the only way they could come to the Father (6) and know the Father (7), Philip voiced serious reservations about this. He knew Jesus and wanted to be with him, but he wasn’t sure who the Father was or whether he wanted to be with him. He turned to Jesus and said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (8). Philip seemed to fear that the Father was not like Jesus. Like many, Philip was attracted to the Son of God but not to his Father God. Like many, he feared that God the Father was a brooding, threatening, ominous figure who hid behind Jesus.
Jesus assured Phillip that rather than hiding the Father, he revealed the Father. He wasn’t a cover for the Father but pulled back the covers on the Father. “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (9-10). What’s the Father like? He’s just like Jesus. Jesus makes him known (John 1:18; Col. 1:15; Heb 1:3).
So many spiritual problems stem from a distorted view of God as our Heavenly Father, most of which result from painful experiences of distorted earthly fatherhood. There are two main distortions of earthly fatherhood that damage us.
The Abusive Father
The Absent Father
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Lament: If you are a victim of abuse or abandonment, you are not to blame. It’s not your fault. You should be outraged and angry over the abuse and absence you’ve suffered. We grieve and weep with you. We come alongside you with sympathy. You’ve been traumatized and your view of yourself, your world, and your God have been damaged.
Repent: If you’ve sinned as a Dad, repent, ask for forgiveness from your children, and start over. It does not matter how old you are or how long ago it happened. Repentance is not just saying sorry, it’s producing fruits of repentance. It’s doing the opposite of what you’ve done. Provide care and love where there was abuse and violence. Provide presence where there was absence. Provide not only dollars but affection, appreciation, and encouragement. Your children are crying out to you “Show us the Father.”
Replace: There are single mothers in our church and in our community. We do not shame them or shun them. We want to step in to help them, to provide Fatherly care, examples, and mentoring. The answer to the Fatherhood problem is not to abandon the whole idea as some women are doing but to step into the gap as replacement dads. Single moms, do not give up in despair. You are doing the very best you can. Children raised without dads can turn out fine. God overrules and you can point your children to a Father in heaven who will never forsake them.
Our Fatherhood crisis is a spiritual crisis with a spiritual solution
What is the spiritual solution?
2. JESUS HAS A FATHER SOLUTION
It’s definitely easier to understand God’s Fatherhood if we’ve had good earthly fathers. So what do we do when we’ve had wrong and damaging views and experiences of fatherhood? Do we give up on that as just too painful to even think about? That’s not what Jesus did with his disciples, and it should not be what we do either. No matter how bad our experience of earthly fatherhood was (is), the remedy is not less fatherhood but more of God’s Fatherhood. That’s what we want to provide in this sermon series, “Show us the Father.”
We all need more knowledge of God the Father and more experience of God’s Fatherhood. There are two ways to this: (1) Passages and verses which reveal God’s Fatherhood directly, and (2) passages and verses which reveal God’s Fatherhood indirectly, through Jesus. So we’ll be seeing that God’s Fatherhood means:
That’s a Father solution that could solve our Fatherhood crisis!
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
If you had a good earthly father, thank God that he showed you the Father.
“I have only ever had a good father. Timothy Beaty is gentle, wise, affectionate, and regularly expresses pride for his children. We laugh at the same lines in Seinfeld; he taught me how to identify bird calls. To this day, I hold to the irrational belief that there is no better man than him walking the face of the earth. Because I have a good biological father, it has been easy to believe that I have a good heavenly Father. Earthly things, though imperfect, reveal the deeper truth about heavenly things. The typology has worked out for me. I do not take this for granted” (Katelyn Beaty).
If you had a bad earthly father, let Jesus show you his and your Heavenly Father. Nadia came to believe in Jesus but faced an immediate problem:
“After believing there was a great challenge awaiting me. I had to accept God as my Father. In my mind, “Father” was not a word of honor toward the God I had come to know. “Mother” would have felt like a much better word. But God wanted to reveal himself to me. And he did so with complete patience and gentleness.
As I studied the Bible, I saw the grace and love of the Father. As I prayed, I felt the attention of the Father. As I worshiped, I felt the embrace of the Father. He healed my past, my present, and my future. He has transformed me. He even enabled me to truly forgive my earthly father. I used to hate the word “Father,” but today I worship God the Father with great love and passion. I worship Jesus Christ as Lord, the One who has saved my soul. And I love to walk in the Spirit, who is always with me.
Today I have the privilege of being part of Elam Ministries’s women’s team, and I’ve had the chance to teach numerous women just like me. I never knew my story would affect so many other lives. I’ve had the chance to tell hundreds of Iranian women what the Father has done in my life. I speak of the Father’s authority, the Father’s attention, the Father’s generosity, the Father’s faithfulness, and the Father’s love.
Recently, after sharing my story at a conference for women from Iran, a lady named Haleh approached me in tears. Her father was just like mine. Unsurprisingly, Haleh couldn’t see God as Father. But after much conversation and prayer, she was finally able to call on God as her Father. It was so moving to see. The following day Haleh sang a new song to God about his Fatherhood, and like a little girl she danced before her Daddy.”
Like Father, like Son; like Son, like Father.
SUMMARY
A NEW CHAPTER
Prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
INTRODUCTION
Almost everything that we buy today comes with warnings on it, whether it is something electronic or mechanical or even a child’s toy. But there’s one thing in this world, probably about the most dangerous thing in the world, that does not carry any warnings. The dollar.
Money can be a good friend. It gives comforts and opportunities to us and our families. It supports churches and charities as they minister to the spiritually and financially poor. Money can be such a good friend, it’s no wonder we desire its company in our lives. But as Paul teaches in 1 Timothy 6:8-10, the love of money is our worst enemy. How do we make money our friend not our foe?
BACKGROUND
Here’s a synthesis of Shorter Catechism 80-81, and Larger Catechism 147-148 as they summarize and simplify the Bible’s teaching about this commandment:
The tenth commandment requires:
The tenth commandment forbids
Why so short compared to the catechisms’ answers on all the other commandments. Because the tenth commandment addresses what’s at the root of all other sins. This is why the Heidelberg Catechism says that this commandment requires “that not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any of God’s commandments should ever arise in our heart. Rather, with all our heart we should always hate all sin and delight in all righteousness.” As Kevin DeYoung writes, “The command not to covet is actually the practical summation and heart-level culmination of the other nine commandments.”
This commandment is not just about the love of money but about all excessive and disproportionate desires for any kind of gain: a better house, car, wife, family, body, face, popularity, grades, etc. But for the purposes of this sermon we are going to focus on the love of money because it’s the most common expression of covetousness. All that we say, though, can be applied to all other excessive and disproportionate desires. We can desire the right things at the wrong times, for the wrong reasons, and to the wrong degree.
Why is the love of money so dangerous?
1. MONEY-LOVE IS THE ROOT OF MULTIPLE EVILS
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils (10).
It does not say that money is the root of multiple evils; it is the love of money that’s the root of multiple evils. Just having money is not evil. Even having lots of money is not evil. Later in this chapter Paul guides the rich in how they are to manage and view their money and he doesn’t tell them to give it all away (1 Tim. 6:17-19). You can be extremely wealthy and not sin regarding money. You can be very poor and sin much more regarding money than a rich person. A poor person may have far greater love of money than a rich person.
It is not just being rich that Paul says is evil, and neither is it even the desire to have money that is evil. If that was so, then who could live in this world? Who could function? Because there is a natural desire, a God-given desire to earn money, to fund provisions for ourselves, our families, and the Church of Christ. So again, it is not just the desire for money that is evil. You can desire money without sinning. It is a certain kind of desire, a certain kind of longing, and a certain kind of love for money that Paul says is the root of all kinds of evil.
It is a loving of money above everything else. It is a loving of money that puts money number one in our priorities. It is a loving of money that will make us pursue it at all costs. It is a kind of loving of money that will make us try to get it by fair means or foul, by good means or bad. It is a love of money that dominates and overwhelms. It is that kind of love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. If Paul had his way, money would come with government health warnings.
“I am a great temptress.” “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation” (9). Some temptations come so obviously; but financial ones come so stealthily, so beautifully dressed, so innocently, so excusably. If only we could see behind them: I am a temptress, I am a seductress.
“I trap.” “Those who desire to be rich fall into…a snare” (9). If we knew that we were about to walk through a forest in which hunters had set traps and snares everywhere, how carefully, how slowly, how gently, how gingerly we would go. Paul warns that the love of money puts traps everywhere; traps that can grab us, damage us, and injure us. Yet how thoughtlessly and carelessly we walk!
“I fool.” He says it leads “into many senseless and harmful desires” (9). “Foolish” here means irrational and illogical. He is saying, “If only people could see how irrational and illogical this love for money is. It looks reasonable, it looks logical, it looks normal. But, no! It’s irrational; it’s illogical if only you could see what it is doing to you.
“I injure.” Paul does not only speak of foolish lusts but also “harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (9). He says, “You think that this money is raising you up, promoting you, and making you big and high. No! If only you can see it’s drowning you, it’s taking you down, it’s suffocating you, it’s sucking the oxygen out of your life and you are slowly dying.”
“I can make you an unbeliever.” Paul mourns that “through this craving some have wandered away from the faith” (10). Paul doesn’t say, “They decided to leave the faith.” No, they “wandered.” They began slowly moving away from the faith. It wasn’t anything dramatic or obvious. It was slow, almost casual, but inch by inch, turn by turn, they left the faith. When the love of money takes over, it takes our faith away. The dollar has turned more people into unbelievers than any false religion.
“I impale.” Due to the love of money some have ” pierced themselves with many pangs” (10). It’s a picture of someone crucifying themselves. Every ill-gotten dollar, though it was thought to bring comfort, pleasure, and happiness, is actually turned into a sharp and painful knife. Talk about self-harm!
Remember, we are using the excessive love of money as an example of any excessive desires. It could be the desire for popularity, marriage, sex, popularity, position, etc.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Listen to the dollar. Imagine if the dollar said all these things before we wanted it, before we got it, and as we thought about how we’re going to use it. It would cry out, “I tempt, I trap, I fool, I injure, I drown, I create unbelievers, and I impale.” That would make a difference in our desire for it, what we do when we are given it by God, and how we use it (Luke 12:15; Eph. 5:3-5; Col. 3:6, Rom. 1:28-31; James 4:2-3; Ps. 73:2-3).
Look at “Where are they now?” pictures. Look up the pictures of those who were rich and famous 10 or 20 years ago. If that’s what the love of money does to our bodies, what does it do to our souls? If we could see our hearts, we would see multiple spears, arrows, and knives sticking out of them. The love of money gives us some things, but takes away everything worth having.
IF WE SOW MONEY-LOVE,
WE’RE SOWING SELF-HATE
These are dangerous weeds. Any weedkiller?
2. GOD-LOVE IS THE WEEDKILLER OF ALL EVIL
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content (6-8).
Paul not only issues warnings about the weed of money-love, but also provides us with two weedkillers, one that is more passive (contentment) and the other more active (godliness). When you put them together you get a blessed formula: godliness + contentment = great wealth
The passive weedkiller: contentment (6-8)
There is nothing wrong with praying for an outward sufficiency (Prov. 30:8). But, Paul is especially advocating an inner sufficiency, an inner contentment, regardless of our finances. Paul is combating materialistic preachers who taught “gain is godliness” (5).
Paul says, “NO! You’ve got this upside down and back to front. Godliness equals gain.” Contentment can be fertilized with thankfulness for what God has given you and for what he’s given to others. But the best fertilizer for contentment is meditation on our departure from this world. “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” I think it was John Piper who said, “There are no U-Haul trailers behind hearses.” We come in to this world empty and we leave this world empty. Label everything and everyone “Nothing in, Nothing out.” When John D Rockefeller died, his aide was asked how much he left behind. “He left it all behind.” How much will you leave behind? “Everything!”
An active weedkiller: godliness (11-12)
Passive contentment kills the leaves and the stems of covetousness, but it’s vigorous godliness that reaches the roots. “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life.” What active and aggressive imperatives. We flee by pursuing, fighting, and grabbing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. These aren’t just practices, they are a person. They are a description not just of moral virtue but of Jesus Christ (Ps. 63:5; John 6:35).
Only another love can get to the deepest roots of the love of money, and that’s love for Christ. Christ-love uproots money-love. That’s why Jude tells believers living in the midst of apostasy, “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). Love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit for a triple treatment of money love.
Each of the commandments reveal and reflect God’s character. The tenth one reveals God as the one who is perfectly satisfied and content in himself and calls us to find our satisfaction and contentment in him.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Contentment is the key to godliness. The tenth is the last commandment but is at the root of all the others. Contentment is therefore they key to pleasure. Being content with God, with God’s worship, with God’s leaders, with God’s timetable, with God’s love, with God’s friendship, with God’s provision, with God’s Truth. The more contentment we practice, the more obedience we practice, the more pleasure we’ll experience. Christ is all.
MORE CHRIST = MORE CONTENTMENT
MORE CONTENTMENT = MORE CHRIST
SUMMARY
A NEW CHAPTER
My hopes for this series on the ten pleasures were:
INTRODUCTION
I recently received an email from a friend who’s come through a lot of suffering. “I feel that much has been taken from me in terms of confidence and self reliance and my struggle is how much do I strive to regain confidence or position and how much do I just let it all go. This is a struggle I was not prepared for and has taken me by surprise.”
It’s a question all Christian sufferers ask: How much do I ask for full restoration and how much do I accept the loss? Should I pray for the grace of full healing or pray for the grace of ongoing weakness? Or to put it in the language of 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, How should we respond to our thorns?
BACKGROUND
In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul was losing his ministry influence over the Corinthians because false teachers were boasting about how much better they were than Paul. “We are the greatest!” they boasted. Paul’s response is “I am the weakest” (2 Corinthians 11:16-31). Although he had plenty of accomplishments and experiences to boast about (12:1-6), he much preferred to boast about his weaknesses. He did this partly to stop people thinking more highly of him than they ought (12:6), but also because of how much more spiritual benefit there was for him and others if he boasted about his weakness rather than his strength.
What’s a bad boast?
1. THORNS PAIN US
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited” (7).
Thorns are varied
In Paul’s case, the thorn was “in the flesh.” It appears to have been some physical or bodily problem. From other asides in his writings, some have speculated that it was an eye problem (Gal. 4:13-15; 6:11), or a speech impediment (2 Cor. 10:10). However, we don’t know for sure the exact part of the body that was affected. We only know that it was some kind of physical suffering. But there are many other kinds of thorn that bring pain into our lives:
Thorns are the same
Although there were many varieties of thorns in the Middle East, they were all the same in that they all pierced the skin, causing great pain, bleeding, scabs, scars, etc. They were often extremely difficult to remove completely causing long-term infection and irritation.
They are also the same in that Satan loves them and uses them to harass us. Wherever he sees a thorn, he comes to hit us on that very spot, again and again, to maximize our distress. God uses the thorns but Satan abuses them. God uses these thorns for good, but the devil uses them for evil.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Sin brought thorns. God sent thorns into the world as a punishment for sin (Gen. 3:18), but also to keep us from sin. Without the thorns that curse work, we would make work even more of an idol than we do. Similarly the thorns God sends into our personal world also keep us from sin and close to God.
Satan aggravates thorns. However much good God has designed thorns for, the devil sees them as a great opportunity for evil. God hates to give us thorns, but the devil loves to shove them in deeper.
GOD HATES TO PAIN US
THE DEVIL LOVES TO PAIN US
How does God use thorns for our good?
2. THORNS PROTECT US
We’re humbled before God
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations (7).
Great blessings often come with great pain to keep us from great pride. The humblest person in the world is always in danger of pride. Pride is more dangerous than pain. Pain can keep us from pride.
We’re drawn to God
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me (8).
There’s no bitterness, self pity, anger or rebellion here. He sees God as the organizer and manager of all things and knows that he alone could extract this thorn. He therefore runs to God rather than from God or at God.
We depend on God
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (9).
God didn’t say “Yes.” But he also didn’t just say “No.” He said, “No, but, I’ve got something better for you than thorn removal. I’ve got a grace infusion for you. This is the high-point of the letter. Paul was brought to the throne of grace to the God of all grace and received a boatload of grace, a word which means the steadfast sovereign love of a superior. God could have said “Yes” in love. But he chose to say “No” with equal love.
We glorify God
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me (9).
The weaker we are the more obvious is God’s strength in sustaining and delivering us. In this way, the thorn becomes a servant not a tyrant. Without thorns we wouldn’t become a rose. Thorns not only protect from danger but result in beauty. Paul speaks a lot about his weakness because it makes people see Christ’s strength more. Christ pitches his tent where he sees weakness.
We submit to God
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities (10).
Paul prayed three times. Not just once, but also not obsessively, demandingly, and impatiently. he came to a point where he had to say, “That’s my last prayer for this.” After that, he experienced a contentment, an acceptance, a surrender, because it was better for him and for Christ’s kingdom.
We get strength from God
For when I am weak, then I am strong (10).
Strong Paul never knew God’s strength; weak Paul did. We must experience weakness, to experience God’s power.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Christ pioneered this path. Jesus travelled this road constantly as the thorns multiplied and pressed deeper into his body, mind, and soul. No one suffered more thorns in more places for more time than Christ did. No one experienced more divine strength in more human weakness (2 Cor. 13:4).
Christ invites us to this path. The path to glory for God lies along a path of admitted weakness. People are won to the faith not when we project strength and confidence, but when we admit weakness and failure.
I will not boast of anything—
no gifts, no power, no wisdom,
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
his death and resurrection.
Stuart Townend, “How deep the Father’s Love for us”
THE WORST SUFFERING
IS THE BEST EVANGELISM
SUMMARY
A NEW CHAPTER
Prayer: Almighty God show me my weakness so that I can find and boast in your strength.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What is your thorn? What other thorns do you see in people’s lives?
2. In what ways has Satan aggravated your thorns?
3. How often should we pray for the removal of thorns?
4. How have you benefitted from your thorns? How have they protected you?
5. What would you say to a boasting Christian? A thorn-pierced Christian?
6. How could you use your thorn to witness to the lost?