Elevation with Steven Furtick - The Mentor You Didn't Ask For

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

Some lessons are only learned in the face of adversity. In “The Mentor You Didn’t Ask For,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church reveals that even during the painful seasons of life, God has a plan for you.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Well, we're going to get to the message in just a moment, but I wanted to make sure you knew about elevation nights. It's going to be amazing. Eight cities, October 26th through November 4th. You've got to go to elevation nights.com to see if we're coming to a city near you. It's going to be me, elevation worship, a few friends, and you.

I want to see you there. I want to see you and everybody that you know there. Go to elevation nights. I can't wait to see you soon. Here's the message. I want to go back to Corinth this week. We were last week talking about a troubled mind and an open door. That greatest opposition comes in the moments of greatest opportunity.

I believe God gave somebody discernment last week about a door that you're standing in front of and the devil that you're fighting to get through it. Well, this week I want to journey further into the book of 2 Corinthians. Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And I'm real excited. I'm gripping onto the pulpit, just trying to calm down. Oh, man, this is so good. This is so good. I already heard it. Holy Spirit preached it to me, and I promise you, it's good. Now, I might mess it up trying to preach it to you, but the way God gave it to me, breathtaking. So we're going back to Corinth. This is a very culturally compromised church, confused church. But we're going to Corinth one more time.

Apostle Paul is getting personal with these believers. And I believe he has a personal word to speak to us today, not Paul but God. Second Corinthians 12 verse 6. Paul says, even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool. because I'd be speaking the truth. He's quite confident this apostle. He's like, I can back it up. If I told you everything that God had did for me,

it wouldn't be boasting, it'd just be facts. Wow. But I refrain, he said, so that no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. Or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me,

from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. And that is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses and insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now I want to preach about verse 7. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh.

a messenger of Satan to torment me. We're going to call this message, the mentor you didn't ask for. The mentor you didn't ask for. Holy Spirit and minister your word in Jesus' name, amen. The mentor you didn't ask for. Had a little argument with some family members recently. Not necessarily argument.

It wasn't contentious. It just was. I probably stayed in my position too strongly now that I look back on it. We were talking about people who had influenced our life for Christ, and somebody said the word mentor. I don't even know if that's a buzzword anymore. It was a big buzzword when I was starting Elevation Church. Mentor. Who's your mentor?

You need a mentor in the ministry. And it's still obviously a corporate America term. Culturally, I don't know so much anymore. It's been replaced by influencers. and I don't know if we talk in the language of mentor, but I made a statement to my family who attend our Greenville campus, Holly's sister and husband and dad and mom, and I said, I don't believe in mentors anymore. And everybody said, now that's extreme.

And it probably was. Looking back, it probably was extreme. But you have to understand, I've just had some weird experiences with weird people. So I'm probably coming from that standpoint of the idea of a mentor. If it was Paul, I could get it because Paul was a master builder. He called himself that. Now do you see why God had to give him a thorn to keep him humble? He called himself a master builder.

But everybody is not Mr. Miyagi. And in certain moments of my life, I've been, I guess, a little bit resistance to people who have a lot of expertise without much experience. Seems to be the day we're living in. There is no shortage of unsolicited opinions. And even one time, when the church was first getting going, we needed a building to meet. And I went to meet with a guy. And I can remember the room. I don't remember his name.

I remember the room. and I remember something so weird that happened. And this is probably why I don't really like the term mentor that much. Because I was talking about, you know, we need some resources and can we use your building to meet when you're not using it and things like that. And the guy took it a little too far. He said, son, you're here asking me for a building and a little bit of money for your budget. But it seems like to me what you really need is a daddy. And then he goes, Larry Bride is my witness.

He goes, I'll be your daddy. So you will understand that the idea of a mentor is just a little complicated for me. Not just because of that one experience, but I think early in my life I did want somebody. I wanted God to give me somebody who kind of like you can do on, I see this video game that Grandplay is called 2K, and he builds a player. It's called My Player. and he goes in and he gives the player everything, not only cosmetically, but the skills and abilities. And I kind of always wanted God to give me someone who would give me the right amount of lateral movement and the right tattoos on my left arm and the right hide and the right speed and the right dunking.

I kind of wanted ministry to be like my player on 2K where somebody could supercharge me with the answers and stuff. And one time Holly, y'all, Holly has this ability to say stuff in a sentence that will stick with you. So I was complaining that I didn't really have, like I had great dad, great mom, I had great people in my life who helped me long. I can stand up here for a year and list them. But I was looking for that one person who would put their arm around me and say, now this is how you do it in regards to preaching and leadership. And this is when you should build the building. And this is when you should launch this part of the ministry. and this is how you hire the right staff, and basically somebody to shepherd me through a mistake-free ministry and life and marriage.

A one-stop shop. And Holly said to me, you know, in the middle of my discouragement, this is what she said to comfort me. You know God is never going to give you what you're asking for. He's going to give you a lot of people to guide you, but he is not going to let your guides become. your God. She said that. That sweet little Holly Ferdick, thank you for your service hours outreach. She talked to the man of God that way. In my face, God is never going to give you Book Club Holly, Bird lover Holly, French fry loving Holly, said that to me. Can you believe it? She was right. God wasn't going to give me what I was asking for. One reason is that God

cannot give you a mentor for where you are that will limit you from where he is ultimately leading you to be. If God would have sent me in that season of my life one person that I would pattern my life after totally, she said something important, he's going to give you a lot of guides, but he wants to be your God. And he gave you a unique gift. And only he knows. She didn't say all this.

I'm preaching off of what she said to me. Fifteen years ago, God is not going to give you a my player career mode for your ministry. God is not going to give you one person to model after because if you modeled after them completely and entirely you would be them and he already has them so he could kill you. If God gave you one person, the person that you compare yourself to and think of, oh, I can just be like them and if I can have what they have and do what they do. If God gave you them, it would make you unnecessary. She was trying to get me to see that in life I will have many guides, but only one God.

Only one God who knows me. And what I love about God, the more I experience his will and his plan for my little life, is that he's the only one who can match the courses to the calling. When you go to college, if you go to college, if you stay in college, you'll have to declare a major eventually. And the classes that you take, you can take any classes you want to, you can show up when you want to, nobody's going to make you do anything. You can have a 0.7 GPA, Eric Phillips, if you want to. You could party and flunk out and come to North Greenville and follow me there and ask me to help you get your life together if you want to, Eric Phillips.

But you can't declare a major and then pick the, I think a lot of us want to pick an outcome that we want in our lives. But then We want to customize the courses because we live in that age. We think that mentorship is like a menu. Like you're at Cheesecake Factory, where the menu is thicker than the Bible. Have you been to Cheesecake Factory? The menu is thicker than the Septuagint. And that's kind of how we want to do.

That's kind of how the Corinthian Church wanted to do with Paul. I'm so furious at this church because they had the best pastor, the master pastor, Paul. How can they be fighting with each other and divided within each other when Paul is their pastor? How can they have such a master mentor like Paul and be so petty? How can they have a master mentor like Paul and be so petty? He's so immature. Now he's writing them a letter, not as an advisor, not as a critic, as a father. To say to you, I see some things in your life.

This is one reason I don't like the concept of a mentor either, because usually if we ask somebody to be our mentor, we mean, will you be my mentor until I don't agree with you anymore, then I'll get another one. Lord, you told me this message was going to be hard to preach, but you didn't tell me it was going to be this hard to preach to them. Now help me out. No, we do this all the time. It's like, okay, okay, okay.

Here's how I typically do it in my life. It's like, I want to select certain things that I want God to bring into my life to teach me lessons, but not only do I want to select the lesson, I want to select the outcome of the lesson. Paul is having none of it. He's saying, you cannot customize Christ. You can't customize Christ. What Paul went through to be who he was, it cost him greatly.

In Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, he mentions a shipwreck, he mentions a stoning, he mentions many storms, he mentions betrayals, he mentions opponents, all of that in 2 Corinthians Chapter 11. Paul, who paid the price to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, he mentions all the things that made him such a master, pastor. Now he's writing to a church that is in rebellion, and he's reminding them of his resume. He says, I could brag even more, but I'm not going to. I just want you to judge me based on my results and see if I'm somebody worth listening to. But before you judge me, based on my results, let me remind you a little bit more of what qualifies me to be in this position.

We live in a day with a lot of advice and not much authority. Everybody has an advice column, but very few people have true authority. Paul is not writing advice in the scripture. Sometimes we read the Bible like it's quotes on Pinterest. My grace is sufficient for you. Well, that's true. But before Paul said that sentence in that quote, he puts it in a context that's a little more interesting.

That's what I want to speak to you a little bit about today. Is that context? Paul mentions that he had a revelation of God. He actually talks about himself in the third person. At one point, he says, I know a man who was caught up to the third heaven, but he's talking about himself. This is Paul. And no wonder Paul needed something to keep him grounded because there was so much glory

on his life. No wonder Paul needed something in his flesh because he had so much revelation in his spirit. But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? Because Paul said, I saw amazing things, and I could tell you even more about it, but I'm not going to. I don't want to boast about it. Instead, he opens a window and he shows things. the wound that he calls a thorn and the weakness that most people would hide.

I think we need more mentors like Paul. More people who will show us not only the great power, but the problems that they have to overcome to operate in that power. I don't ever want my kids to see me not struggle. You say, well, don't you want to set a good example? I want to set an example of overcoming struggle, not avoiding it. avoiding it. Paul is like that.

And we need this message now more than ever. I really think this is a timely word from God because now everybody wants to share their opinion whether or not it's even solicited. We live in a day of 12-year-old life coaches. I used to read a guy's books early on until I realized he had started six churches and all of them imploded. He was a church planting consultant. Oh, but you don't have to pay for a

consultant these days. Just go to the comment section of any Facebook post, and you will find consultants in the comments. Speaking of Holly, about a year ago, she showed me a comment. I asked her to send it to me because this is just unbelievable, y'all, what people will offer in the way of expert opinion that you did not solicit. I mean, she put a picture of me and her on Instagram, and somebody said, y'all are so cute and awe and heart. and pandas with hearts and all of the things that we put to faint emotion. And somebody said, hi, Holly, not sure if you noticed, but just wanted to say your skin looks so great.

It's glowing and super clear. Thought you should know. Ha, do share if you've recently changed something in your skin care, Red Heart. Three comments later, you're ready for this? I feel like you look way better without eyeliner. The all the makeup for so many years is making your skin saggy. I might give y'all her username so you can look her up and talk to her after church. How many y'all would enjoy that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Y'all aren't saved. Y'all are not mature enough to handle it. And I got permission to share this. Holly said I can share it. The lady said, Botox can help with the wrinkles. Listen to this, you're still beautiful. Thanks.

I wish I could show you her profile picture, because she's got crazy eyes. Her eyes are crazy, this woman, and she misspelled your, and she misspelled. She's a makeup consultant, y'all. She's an amateur Mary Kaye in the comments section, but she needs a spelling teacher for the fifth grade words. Sorry. Sanctify me, Lord. You're still beautiful.

I just don't watch this. I just don't think you need so much makeup. It's ruining your skin." And in the words of my kids, who asked? The unsolicited opinions of people about how you should raise your kids, about how you should relate to your husband, about what age you should be married by. If you're married about what age, y'all really should start thinking about having kids. I mean, you're not getting any younger.

Paul is not a consultant in the comments to the church at Corinth that's trolling them with some little slivers of truth that are quoted out of context and telling them the great advice and plan that he asks for their life independent of God's will. He's an apostle by the will of God, speaking to people that he has a relationship with. This is not some generic advice from an inspirational speaker who wants to sell you something for $299 and 99 cents on an infomercial or an e-course. This is not an influencer on Instagram that needs you to follow them in order for them to get a swipe up commission from a store.

This is Paul. And he does something dangerous because they respect him, but they're starting to question him, because there are super apostles that have infiltrated the church, and they've started to inundate God's people with opinions. You know, you really don't have to follow Christ like that. You should mix a little Judaism and a little bit of Christianity. Now, there's so many mixed opinions, Paul has to set the record straight and say, I could lay down my authority if I needed to.

I don't want to do it like that. I would rather speak to you out of the love for my heart. But in order that you just don't think that I'm putting my authority on you to tell you what I want you to do, I want to talk to you about my adversity. That really touched me because it's difficult to find somebody who will break it down for you to the level that Paul does. It's difficult to find somebody who will complain to you. It's not difficult to find somebody who will tell you what they would do. It's not difficult at all to find a parent whose kids are out of the house. Their kids are lawyers and doctors now,

and what you should do in your kid is seven. That's very easy. That's very easy to do. But Paul, in the middle of his struggle, to walk in the authority of an apostle and what God has called him to do, he shows appropriate vulnerability. I could go on and on about going to the Third Heaven. I could go on and on about what I endured. I'm choosing not to do that. Instead, I want to tell you about my thorn. I want to tell you about my thorn.

say, show me the thorn. Show me the thorn. It's a metaphor, y'all. It's a metaphor. It's even like a cliche. This is the verse we get it for. It's like a thorn in my side, right? It's a metaphor. Most of the things that we really deal with, when we sing about them in church, we have to put them in a metaphor form, because if we really mentioned what we really struggle with, it was scare people and they would judge us. At least we think they would. Probably surprised you the person with their hands lifted higher than you this morning. They probably got more thorns than you.

But that's not the point of this message. Paul said, I want to tell you about my thorn. Now, since I've studied this text all week, I've learned a lot about different interpretations of what Paul's thorn was historically. Some people say that poor Paul had epileptic seizures. Nothing funny about that, but the reason that they trace it is because when he was blinded and knocked off of his horse on the road to Damascus where he was going to persecute Christians, that he never quite recovered.

And that was his thorn. people would say that there was something wrong with Paul's eyesight. He wrote to the church at Galatia, he talked about how large his letters were because he wrote with his own pen. He even mentions that the Galatians would be willing to give their own eyes to him, if necessary. Some scholars say that it was from the blinding on the road to Damascus that his eyesight never fully recovered. Other people don't associate it with blindness or seizures at all, or a medical condition.

Luther and Calvin, they identified it with a spiritual temptation that Paul faced. There is a little bit of support for this scripturally, because in 2 Corinthians 11, he mentions that I inwardly burn. I inwardly burn, not just persecution. Some people think that Paul's thorn was the opponents who were saying about Paul, he's not real and he's not valid, and you can't believe him. His letters are good, but he doesn't speak so well. It was those opponents that were coming against him.

And so Paul does what we do when you have something in your life that you can't mention. He gives it a metaphor. It's a metaphor. And no matter how many different scholars and how many different theologians trace the Greek and the precedents and all of the different things that it could be, it seems to be a lot of confusion about what was Paul's thorn. But this is the thing I was excited to tell you. I studied all week and I found out, y'all, what Paul Storn was.

And from this pulpit, I am going to announce to you today, you don't look like you believe me, for the first time. Come on, there have been thousands of years of preachers, but today I am going to definitively tell you what was Paul Storn in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Now, before we get there, let's talk a little bit about the metaphor. First of all, a thorn is a small thing. We sing about a God who can do big things. But when Paul went to talk about what God had taught him that meant the most to him in his life,

he did not talk about a big thing. He talked about a small thing. He said three times, the King James says, thrice. Thrice, I just want to put that in there. Thrice I asked God to take it away. Three times. Now this does not mean three times Paul pray. Take it away, take it away, take it away.

Okay, God, I guess I got to live with it. Which brings me to an important point. If you've got a thorn in your life that you're dealing with that nobody knows about and you need God to take it away, ask him. Ask him. Don't say God's no for him. I was taught this in negotiating. I was taught this in dating. Don't say somebody's no for them.

Well, they wouldn't want to go out to eat with me. Well, you know what? You're not out to eat with them now. And if you ask them and they say, no, you still won't be out to eat with them. So it would be the same result if you risk the rejection and put yourself out there and get some practice. And then you can analyze the process by which you might have failed at the endeavor of getting a date. Apply it to your next opportunity. And maybe one day you'll name your kid Stephen after you get married because I told you don't ever let somebody else.

Don't let anybody else say God's know for him. Ask God. Did you ask him? Yeah, I prayed about it. You did? Because I thought you just were like worrying about it. Did you ask him to do it? And I don't mean, you know, throw it on top like a sprinkle after you tried everything

else. God, I know you probably won't. You know, you can't. And you don't pray. No, no, no, I'm saying like, Paul doesn't throw on words. He said, I pleaded with God. I don't think it even means he asked God three times. I think it means he launched three separate campaigns to try to get God to change his

situation. And after every campaign to get God to change it, failed, then he accepted it. But at least ask. At least ask. If you need God to heal somebody, I know, of course, well, if it's God's will, he'll heal them. Okay, great. Ask him. Ask him.

Well, I know God probably won't do that for me because I'm probably not going to ask him. He's a big boy. Let him say his own no. He doesn't need you to protect him. God doesn't need you to be his assistant. Oh, you can't ask him that right now. He's very busy to care about your little problem. Ask him for yourself.

Maybe he likes you more than you think he does. Maybe he'll say yes and surprise you. I ask God sometimes, I'm like, okay, I don't have much time to study today, but God, would you give me my message quick? And sometimes he doesn't, but sometimes he does. So now I ask him every time. And if he says no and I have to study all week, I was going to have to study all week anyway. It never hurts to ask.

Quit ask him. Ask him. Ask him. I used to review Collie. You can't pray for a good parking space. She said, why not? That's a good question. Ask him.

Ask him. I got some things I'm asking God for that are so stupid I would never tell you about them. You would laugh me out of the room. But I'm not asking you, am I? That's why I didn't ask you. I don't ask people who don't have the authority to give me what I'm asking for. So some stuff I got to ask God. I got to ask God. I need to see your supervisor. Somebody with the authority to get it done. I'll need advice.

I need authority. I need somebody who's got the keys to walk me through this door. You're asking people questions who don't even have the keys. My family has launched three separate campaigns against me to get a dog. And I can mark each phase of the campaign is really Graham, but he's enlisted everybody in the family. The only one who's standing with me in solidarity is Elijah, my firstborn son, flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones. We don't want a dog.

So the first phase, he wrote a song, Daddy, can I get a dog? Uh-uh. He took the piano lessons that I paid for and perverted it against me. to ask me for a pet that I parentally have already prohibited. Then he started phase two. That went on for months. Phase two. Signs all over the house and text messages with pictures of rescue dogs all day long.

The saddest Sarah McLaughlin-eyed dogs you've ever seen in your life, just flooding my text message. And this is what Paul meant in the text where he said, a messenger of Satan. No, no, no, that's not in the Greek. And the third phase they're currently doing because he finally realized, Mom, you're the only one. And now all of hell and all of Holly and everybody in my house, except Elijah, my true son, in the faith, my Timothy, is against me. Not just three prayers that they say, three seasons. Three seasons. And when you see God about something for a whole season, whatever Paul's thorn was, and I'm going to tell you what it was in a minute.

I have not forgotten to tell you what it was. I'm going to tell you what it was. Because all the commentators have something different to say, but I found out what it was. I found out what it was. I studied all weekend. I found out what it was. I asked God to show me quick. He didn't show me quick, so I kept studying. And I found out what it was. But before we get to what it was, let's talk about what it represents. You think maybe Paul didn't mention it by name because he did not want to limit the application to the people that he was sharing it with? A metaphor gives you more room than an issue does.

So Paul said exactly what he struggled with. You go, well, I don't struggle with that. I'm better than Paul. Or if it was something that is less than what you struggle with, you go, Huh. Well, if he calls that a struggle, there's no hope for me. I used to talk to God, and he'd be like, I've been really struggling lately. I've had to cut my prayer time to two hours a day. And the way that would make you feel, he was a pastor, and he would say that to the church.

And the guy sitting out there that has to do a real job and can't just sit around reading about Bartholomew and Thomas and Alpheus and all these Bible names all week. It's sitting there feeling like crap, comparing himself. Oh, that's your thorn? I was going to show you mine, but I'm going to put this door right back here where it was. Oh, God. That's why the power of a metaphor. I don't mean to make this English class, but I keep coming back to the power of a metaphor. We've got one new song we've been singing in the church.

We're going to record it on October 6, where it has all these everything. You're like how I can plug a song in a sermon. I've been doing this a long time. And I like the song because it gives you examples. It says, I'm calling on the God of Jacob. I'm calling on the God of Moses. I'm calling on the God of David. That's my favorite one, because it says, I'm calling on the God of David, who made a shepherd

boy courageous. But this is my favorite line. I may not face Goliath, but I've got my own giants. The reason it says it like that, because I wrote that with a few friends, and the reason we chose to say it like that, is because if it addressed the specific issue, that would be too awkward and limited. So we just say, I may not face Goliath. That's the name of a particular enemy that David faced.

But I've got my own giants. So when you sing that line, no matter how dirty, dark, stinky, rotten, filthy, corrupted, perverted, perverted or subversive, your giant is, you can sing it with a big old smile on your face. Because other way it'd be too awkward, right? I'm calling on the God of David who made a shepherd boy courageous. You know, I may not face Goliath. Can't be too specific here. You got a metaphor.

I'm in my face go lie, but I'm a functional alcoholic. You're going to do that, you're going to do that. It doesn't even rhyme. Let's at least get it to rhyme. I'm in my face go life. I can't stick to a diet. Right? Y'all like that one?

You can't say, I mean, I face go liar, my kid's a compulsive liar. You can't sing about them while they're sitting next to you. So, funny thing is, funny thing is, funny thing is, two people sitting next to each other singing about the other one that they came to church with, and the other one didn't know you're my Goliath. You're the one. Look straight ahead right now, right now, right now, right now, right now. Look straight ahead right now.

You didn't even know you're the one I'm sorry. singing about. You're the one I'm crying about. And I can't tell you, you're my thorn. Oh, that's mean, Pastor Stephen. But it begs a question, doesn't it? Why would a God, who has enough power to take down a giant with a rock leave something as small as a thorn? Why would a God who said you can have mustard seed faith and move something as big as a mountain, why would that God leave something as small as a thorn in the life of someone as important as Paul? And it begs a better question, why would God allow you season after season to sing about Goliath, to sing about mountains, to pray about them, to ask about them, to ask about.

them to strategize and maybe it'll be different this time and Paul said I asked three times, three times now. I launched three separate campaigns that I waged with heaven to see if God would take this away so I could be more effective for him. This was something that I wanted and it was something that I thought God would want. We don't get to know was it physical or we don't Didn't get to know, was it mental? Or did the great apostle struggle with depression? See, we probably couldn't handle that. Then we wouldn't listen to him if he said, rejoice in the Lord always, because we'd be like, oh, you're a hypocrite. Paul, you're canceled. You can't struggle with that and preach to me because we like to cut people out when they don't live up to our exact standards.

But all have sin and falling short of the glory of God. All. All. Paul, y'all, all. Paul, you all. Thorns, all up in the seat next to you. Don't get too close to her. You might get stuck. She's got thorns. And I want to say something else before I tell you what Paul's thorn was, because you're not going to believe it when you see it.

I want to make sure that you understand that life will give you an ample supply of thorns. You don't have to ask for one. Okay, Lord. All right, Lord, I hear the preacher today. He's saying we've got to suffer. persecution bringing on, Lord. I'm ready, God. I was in a prayer service one time, and somebody started praying.

God, I just pray for a trial by fire. I backed up so quick. Hold up, y'all. I got a phone call. I didn't come back. I don't even want to be in the prayer circle with somebody dumb enough to pray that. And, oh, God, when I'm with somebody and they start praying for patience, it's all in the text. It's all in the text.

He said in verse 7, I was given a thorn. I didn't ask for it. Because I'm preaching to people that are fighting something you didn't ask for. I'm preaching to people who are fighting something that you didn't ask for. And all these categories, Paul lists, will make a good starting place for us to evaluate our life and see what is that thing where we need God. He mentions hardships, he mentions insults. He mentions persecutions, he mentions difficulties, he mentions all of these things, weaknesses. He mentions them categorically and metaphorically.

But this is not a shopping list. Life will give you enough of those. You don't have to go looking for them. Insults. Life will give you plenty of those. You don't have to infer them when they're not there. Did you see how she looked at me? No.

I don't even think she was looking at you. Yes, she did. She was looking at me. Did you hear how they said that? They said that about me. They were talking about me. Insults. Life will give you enough.

You'll get insulted for real. Somebody will be on your comments looking for you to have a Botox, a Mary Kay consultant, a ninja in the comments trying to take you down. You won't have to go looking for a hardship. Yeah, it'll give you enough. And that's why, for me, this. This is just me in my house. Social media is really dangerous. I'm not saying it's bad because right now while I'm preaching, they're posting on an account about my sermon on the thing. But for me, because life gives me enough thorns, I have enough insecurity. I deal with enough in my head. I mean, I got enough movies to make me miserable the rest of my life. Regrets, things I replay, self-doubt, even self-loathing. Well, hold on now, Pastor Stephen. You are a preacher.

You should have worked through these issues. Paul had a thorn. You have a thorn. If you keep looking at me this fake, I'm going to interview your family members, and I'm going out your thorn, and I'm going to put you on blast in the pulpit next week. But what got me about it was that social media can be like a thorn store, where as if you don't have enough already to feel worried about or to compare yourself. If it's not hard enough to be a teenager with the fear of missing out, you can go and find

proof that you're missing out of all the people that didn't invite you and watch the things that they're doing. It can be like a... For me, I don't go on Facebook because it would make me too angry. And I may not face Goliath, but I already got a really bad temper. I may not face Goliath, but I have anger. So I don't need all that. I don't need more thorns.

I don't need to borrow your thorns. I don't need to be swimming in the sewage of other people's anger when I've already got enough anger of my own. I'm not looking for me. Instagram is like Thornhub. It's just like, oh God, he's preaching a real sermon today. He's saying real things today. To me, this is like a, I'm not looking for insults, hardships, persecutions, weaknesses.

I've already got enough of those. I need a word from God. I need an encouraging voice. I need an image that I can aspire to that looks like Christ. He said a thorn was given to me. And he says a strange phrase. He says, it was a messenger of Satan. The word in Greek for messenger is angeles.

What does that sound like? Anglos. Anglos. Angel. The same word that is used for messenger. Y'all don't believe me. Put my Bible verse back up. He said, because of these surpassingly great revelations, therefore, in order to keep you from what coming to see, I was given a thorn, a messenger of Satan. Angolos. Same word as angel. The same word. The same word is angel. An angel, a messenger. It's the same word. There's no difference in the word. An angel of Satan. An angel of Satan? I don't want that kind. I never prayed for Satan to give me anything in my life. And Paul didn't like it either. And he said, the first time he got that thing hit with that thing, he said, return to sender. And he did it three times. And sometimes that works. And God helps you through it. You're like, oh, I'm not going to struggle with that anymore. That's awesome. And you can testify and help others.

But in this case, Paul said, in this case, he said, I had to see that it was given to me, even though the enemy delivered it. He said, it came from an angel. An angel of Satan gave me a gift from God. And that's why I think this week when it comes to the thorns in your life, Even if it's a person that gets on your nerves, raise your hand if there's one in your life. So this week tell them, you're such an angel. Now, if they go to church here, don't say that because they'll know the Greek.

But if they don't go to church here, they won't have a clue what you're talking about. Say, man, you're just like an angel. And what the angel brought me is a thorn. And I started to get confused because he said, it was an angel. Your teenagers, did you know your teenagers' parents are angels? Teenagers, did you know your parents are angels? I can't wait all week. People walking around their house feeling like, what's up?

Angel, angel, everybody, all the angels saluting each other that God is using to keep us dependent on him. You gave me a gift of realizing how much I need God. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you're going to see angels everywhere this one. Put the verse back off. He said, it's a messenger from Satan. He said, but I don't like to, I don't have to like the delivery service to open the package. So it was an angel, a messenger of Satan, in order to keep me from getting so conceited.

God knows what you're prone to. God knew that Paul was prone to pride. So what God does, he matches your thorn. your course to your calling. The reason I can't pick my own mentor in life is I don't know what I need, because I don't even know who I really am yet. And I certainly don't know who I'm going to be when God gets done with me. So God is so good that he knows how to match your thorn from his throne.

He said it was sent, a messenger of Satan. to torment me. Torment me. You've been tormented by it. You've been tormented by it. It torments you. When there's a weakness and you can't get stronger in it, it torments you. That I should be farther along and I did it again. It torments you. That other people can do that easily, but it's not easy for me. It torments you. Torment, torment, torment, torment, mentor. Mentor, mentor, mentor. Mentor, mentor, mentor, mentor, mentor. Mentor mentor. Paul Storn was his mentor.

I told you, I'd tell you what Paul Storn was, and I did. It was his mentor. It was the thing God gave him to teach him grace. So I actually don't have to interview anybody to find out what your thorn is. I already know. It's your mentor. It's the mentor you didn't ask for. It's the thing that showed up in your life.

Because see, you've been trained in a lot of things. Some of you have a master's degree. Some of you know how to run a business. Some of you know how to make straight A's. Some of you know how to impress others. Some of you know how to dress. Some of you know how to talk real good and you can flatter people and say things to get out of the situation.

But there are some things that can only be learned in Thorn University. There are some things that God can only teach you not through advice, but through adversity. Paul was not a rookie. And Paul was not a new. Paul was not an unsolicited, Dear Abbey Advice columnist. Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, and he didn't even want to be. Paul never even applied to be an apostle. He was just riding on his donkey through Damascus.

And God, bop, knocked him off his donkey and said, New boss, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuted. And he had to lead him by the hand. You've got a new mentor now, Paul. This is difficult because Paul studied under. Watch this. Gamalio. Gamalio was a father of the Sanhedron, not just a member.

Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel. The Gamalio was so powerful. They said the glory of the Torah died when Gamalio died, but he was steeped only in Judaism. When Gamalio mentored Paul, he could teach him so much. He could teach him about the law. He could teach him about the oral truth. And Paul sat at his feet. He defends himself in Acts 22, verse 3. He said, I grew up in Jerusalem and I sat at the feet of Gamalio. He was my mentor. But one day, as I was going to persecute the church and wipe out those who were members of the way, help me, Holy Spirit. I got knocked down by something bigger than me. I got blinded by a light I didn't even ask for. And Gamalio could teach me about grammar, but he couldn't teach me about grace. It took a thornment. It took a thornment. It took a thorn.

to show me that. I didn't ask for it. And God, if you want to take it, it's still on the table. You can have it back any time. But the torment stops here. I will not be tormented by this thorn. One more day. If you're not going to take this thorn away, then God, you will need to give me the grace. So when Paul preaches, when Paul preaches, and he talks about the thorn, I want you to realize that that is the thing that God wouldn't take away. But he says in verse 7 something very interesting, he says, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn. And I just read that a bunch, and I eventually began to see, therefore, therefore. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn. It came through an instrument of Satan, but God used it as a vessel of grace.

Isn't that what he did with Paul? Paul, who was a tool who was used by the enemy to torment the church? And when God transformed him, he became a vessel for the gospel. And if God can do that through Paul, now he said I'm going to do it for Paul. And if you can receive it, he's going to do it for you. Therefore, I was given a thorn. God didn't take it away. He showed me what it was therefore.

So ask God for this. Ask God for a therefore. I'm celebrating today because God gave me a therefore. I'm not celebrating that the thorn is gone. I'm celebrating that God gave me a therefore. I'm going to find another church to preach this in. This is too good. Somebody celebrate the therefore.

Therefore. So he said, therefore, all the more gladly, for Christ's sake, I will boast in the things that make me appear broken. Therefore I will glory, not in the thorn, but in the grace that God released for it. Don't glory in the thorn. Don't walk around just worshiping your weakness. But he said, I'm celebrating because I've got a grace for it. I've walked with hundreds of people through seasons of unimaginable struggle.

And what they all seem to have in common when you talk to them if they go on living is that God gave them a grace that was proportional. to the problem. And if, if they live through it, they live long enough to talk about, not just what I went through, but what God taught me. And they stopped talking about the thorns so much. It's like, even if it was a really big thing, they start, in comparison to the glory of the grace that God gives them, they start making it look like a small thing. So I wonder, who you are today, and I wonder what's your thorn, but I don't really need to know because God already showed me. That thorn is the mentor you didn't ask for. It's the thing that's

going to teach you. One old preacher said, the thorn is what takes you to the throne, because Paul said, I know me and God knows me. And I would have I got not ahead of myself if God didn't give me this. So take your thorn to the throne and ask God. I didn't ask you for this thorn, but I'm asking you now. I need a grace for this season. I need a grace for this insult. God, you told me to turn the other cheek.

I'm out of cheeks. I only got so many. So I need some grace. Three seasons I've petitioned you. Still no dog. So if you won't give me a breakthrough, give me a therefore. Reveal something here in my life that I couldn't see anywhere else. I'm not telling you to thank God for your thorn.

I'm not there yet. Some people can do that. I'm not that good of a Christian. I'm not Paul. And most of y'all aren't either. So if we can't thank him for the thorn, which is understandable. Let's thank him for the therefore. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about what you can't.

God gave me through it. It's a pivotal moment when you don't allow the enemy to torment you anymore with it. He don't want you to see this because he wants to keep you weak where you won't worship. Paul said, therefore, I boast all the more. I glory in what the thorn brought me to. Long glory in the thorn. I don't like the thorn. I tried to send it back.

I didn't order the thorn. But regardless of how it came, right now I need grace. Everybody under the sound of my voice, this is not your chance to slip out of the room early. Stand up. And in this moment, I wonder, would you receive what you really need from God? And I wonder, can you be humble enough to lift your hands like you need it and not clench your fists like you got this? Because that's the posture. That's it.

And Lord, we thank you for the therefore. And we thank you for the Holy Spirit, our divine mentor. And we thank you that you're teaching us about your grace in this season. There is a supernatural grace that comes upon you in seasons like this. There is a supernatural grace that comes upon the saints. There is a grace for your thorn. And one day, if we can not be so proud and arrogant to deny it, if we can not be so bitter about the fact that it happened, one day maybe we will be so proud and arrogant to deny it, if we can not be so bitter

about the fact that it happened, one day maybe we'll get to talk about what God taught us like Paul did. And maybe one day we can say when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Maybe we can let God in. Maybe he's bigger than our thorn. Maybe his grace is sufficient for you to. The Spirit of the living God anoint us with oil for the thorns in our flesh and the pressure that we face and the temptation that we're under and the weakness that we know all too well we need your oil I lift up every every thorn to you today we ask you to take it away and we'll probably keep asking but while we're working through it we thank you for the therefore It's there for a reason.

We'll see what it is. In time, in time, in time. In time. I want to tell you one more thing while you pray. Satan was the messenger, but he wasn't the master. While you pray, consider that. Consider this. That in God's hands, Paul, who tortured and tormented the church, became a man.

mentor for the gospel. That's what's going to happen in your life. The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in you. And so, God, I thank you for a release of your glory. I thank you for these things that drew us closer to you, God. We wouldn't have prayed. We would have been proud. We would have thought it was our strength, our might, our armor, our sling, our sword. It was. In this moment of weakness, we declare we are strong, we are blessed, we are filled, we are overcomers, we are conquerors, we are more than conquer us. Let the weak say, I am strong, let the poor say I am rich.

We thank you for it. In Jesus' name, we offer you this praise, and the whole church said, Amen. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at elevationchurch.org slash give. And thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast. This is an IHeart podcast.

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