Ron Dunn Podcast - The Power Of Weakness

Episode Date: April 3, 2019

From the sermon series "In Praise Of Weakness"

I want you to open your Bibles tonight to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And I just want to read the first 10 verses, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Beginning with verse 1, boasting is necessary now we've said along that paul doing some boasting in this letter and he doesn't like to do it and he feels that he's acting like a fool doing it but it's been forced upon him because these super apostles that have come in to try to take Paul's place have bragged about their visions and their revelations and their experiences. And so Paul says, as we saw the other day in chapter 11, he said, I am not inferior to these men, these super apostles.

So therefore, if it's going to take bragging like that to win you over, I guess I'm going to have to do some bragging about, you know. I've had visions too. I just don't like to talk about them. I've had revelations too, but I don't like to talk about them. I've had revelations too, but I don't like to talk about them. I determined when I came among you, he says in the first letter, to know nothing among you save Christ and him crucified. But loasting is necessary, though it is not profitable,

but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, God God knows was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak on behalf of such a man I will boast but on my own behalf behold behalf I will not boast except in regard to my weaknesses. For I do not wish to boast,

for if I do wish to boast, I will not be foolish, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from this so that no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me. And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And he has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now, if I were to ask you tonight, have you had a heavenly experience this week? I think most of us would say, oh yes, yes, yes. That means probably that next week you'll have a thorn experience

it's interesting that you find the third heaven experience and the thorn in the same chapter and here is a man who caught up into that third heaven, and God shows him things so marvelous that it's not even lawful for a man to talk about those things. Oh, isn't that wonderful?

But, you know, sometimes your blessings can endanger your usefulness. Sometimes you can be so blessed of the Lord that, well, you're sort of lifted up. And you begin to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. So he said, lest I should be exalted. And he says it twice. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. There was given to me a reminder of my weakness. And out of all of this, and I think it took Paul 14 years to come to this, when he says concerning this, I implored the Lord three times. The three times is an idiomatic phrase in the Greek that means repeatedly over and over again.

Not necessarily that he prayed just three times, but that he repeatedly prayed for this. And I think it took Paul about 14 years to come to verse 10, where he says, therefore, I am well content with weaknesses. And then he makes that settled conviction, for when I am weak, then I am strong. So I want to talk to you tonight for these few moments about the power of weakness. The power of weakness. First of all, let's establish the principle. And the principle is this, that in your weakness, my strength is made perfect.

The principle is that God uses our weaknesses. God is not using Paul in spite of his weaknesses, but because of them, you see. And that is a principle that I think, I hope that you have noticed as we've gone through what little we could of 2 Corinthians. He keeps talking about his weakness, his weakness. These super apostles are boasting of their strength and their power and of their great personality and their charismatic eloquent speech. And Paul keeps talking about his weakness, his weakness, his weakness. And if you go back to the first letter of 1 Corinthians in chapter 1, verse 26, he says, for consider your calling, brethren,

that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty. He didn't say not any, but he said not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and to despise God has chosen the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are. And here's the reason in verse 29,

so that no man may boast before God. And then in the second chapter, he says in verse 2, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God Paul said I determined to come to you in my weakness and I did not use excellency of speech and I did not try to show myself to be clever and wise why because I wanted your faith to stand

not on the wisdom or cleverness or persuasiveness of man. I'm afraid that so much, so many times our faith is resting upon a personality. You know, we hear someone and they have such an electric and magnetic personality and they preach with such great persuasiveness and such great eloquence and we're mesmerized by them. And the truth of the matter is that sometimes our faith is not resting in the power of God, but it's resting in the persuasiveness and personality of that individual. Paul says this is the principle by which God operates. He does not use our strength. He uses our weakness. This is vividly illustrated in 2 Chronicles chapter 26 concerning Uzziah,

who was a pretty good king for a while. Andinthians chapter 26 verse 15 it says in jerusalem he made engines of war invented by skillful men to be on the towers and on the corners of the per for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones hence his fame spread afar for he was marvelously helped until he was strong. But when he became strong, his heart was proud that he acted, so proud that he acted corruptly. Don't you find that interesting? He was marvelously helped until he became strong. And when he became strong, he was lifted up with pride, so much so that he corrupted himself.

So let's establish the principle. It is this, that God uses the weak things of the world to destroy the strong things of the world. That if we are to boast, it ought not to be boasting in our greatness and in our strength, but boasting in our weakness. That's the principle. All right, let's examine the process

of how God works this out. The process is this. He said, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, lest I should be exalted above measure, lest I should think more highly of myself than I should, so that I would not become unusable through my pride and my accomplishments. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. Now the word thorn there is interesting.

It means a sharp wooden stake. The verb form of that word is to crucify. And it's as though Paul was saying, in a sense sense I was crucified I was nailed to something there was a sharp wooden spike driven into me now he says this was a messenger of Satan

and sometimes we say oh the devil did this well yes and no it was a messenger of Satan but Satan was just the messenger the sender was God for he says there was given to me a thorn in the flesh it was a gift of grace it showed that God had something to do with this God knew that I was in danger because of my blessings and because of all the visions and revelations I had

God knew that I was in danger of disqualifying myself because I would be lifted up with pride and so you know the devil wanted to kind of slow down Paul the devil would say man of slow down Paul. The devil would say, man, I'd like to get hold of Paul and slow him down a little bit. I've got a shark's bite here.

I'd like to drive into the heart of Paul. And God said, sounds like a good idea to me. Because I perceive that Paul is in danger of becoming prideful. And so he allowed the devil to give him a thorn in the flesh. It did not originate with the devil, folks. It originated with God. Now that's what is important for us to understand, that our weaknesses may be brought to us by the devil, but they are sent to us from

God. You see, the devil wouldn't originate anything to keep Paul humble. No, he wouldn't do that. Only God would do that. And Paul says the purpose of this was to keep me humble, to keep me usable. And you know the devil wouldn't originate anything that would accomplish that in the life of Paul. No, this came from God. The sender was God, but the devil was the FedEx, that Senate. It was a messenger of Satan. It was like a thorn in the flesh. Now, preachers and scholars have speculated years and years and years

over what that thorn was. There are three basic answers that people give. People who give such answers. One that the thorn refers to people that Paul had to put up with. That's pretty logical, you know. That argument has a lot going for it, doesn't it, Jamal? These super apostles, these Judaizers,

they're trying to disrupt and discredit the work of Paul maybe that's what he meant by the thorn some think it may refer to certain people some think that it refers to certain problems that he had certain difficulties that he encountered and certainly he speaks a great deal of those difficulties others think well it's some pain some physical ailment that God has given him the fact of the matter is we do not know what it is

I would define a thorn as anything that makes you aware of your weakness anything that makes you conscious of your own inability that's what a thorn is it may be people, it may be some problems it may be some pain that you have but Paul doesn't define it and I'm glad he doesn't. For if he defined it, if he was specific in saying what it was, then we would have a tendency to

limit this passage to that one affliction, you see. But by not describing it, that thorn is sort of like the socks I'm wearing, one size fits all. So that anything in my life, whether it's some physical problem, whether it's some people I have to put up with. One fellow ventured to say it was Paul's wife, but I'm not going to get into that. But whatever it is, whatever it is in your life that causes you to be so aware of your inability, your weakness, so that we do not strut onto the platform and we do not strut into the pulpit confident in our ability. No. God does things. It may take one thing for you.

It may take something else for me. But I guarantee you, if God is going to use you, He's going to make you painfully aware of your inadequacy. And you're never as strong as when you feel so weak. Now, let's explore the possibilities of this. Let's explore the possibilities of this principle.

First of all, it means the door of usefulness is open to all of us. You know, I'm impressed by talent. I guess because I don't have any, but, you know, I'm so impressed. And I listen to these men play that piano. Boy. I start to say I'd give anything to play the piano like that, but that's a lie. What I wish is that God would just put a holy sap on me and I had the ability. I just woke up one morning with that talent, but these men gained it.

These women gained it. Not that way. Hard, hard, hard work. Aren't you glad your mother wouldn't let you play softball and made you study? And so many of us feel, well, if I had that talent, if I had that talent, if I had that ability,

I could do great things for God. But I have no such talent. I have no such gifts. I have no such abilities. I don't have training. Oh, I wish that I had their talent, their ability. I wish so that I could do something for God. Hey, let me tell you something, folks. The only requirement for you to be useful to God is to be weak. That's the only requirement. You don't have to be greatly talented or talented at all. You don't have to have great gifts. You don't have to have imposing abilities.

All you have to do is to be weak. And I think all of us qualify for that, don't you? This principle opens the door of usefulness to everyone. No one is excluded. Paul says God has not called many. As I said, he didn't say he hadn't called any, but he hasn't called many mighty, many noble, many strong. And I noticed when I was a pastor, well, that's who I'd go at, you know,

when they moved into the neighborhood. And I tell you, you'd need a traffic cop to direct traffic on that fellow's sidewalk because all the pastors in town were trying to get him to come into the church, you know, because he had all this ability or all this money or whatever. That's who we go after. I had a pastor tell me, he said, man, we've got 10 millionaires in our church. Yeah, they probably don't give a dime. They've got it.

We want to be strong. And in our approach to the world today, we want to appear strong and glamorous and glitzy. God says, that's not my way. That's not my way. My way is through weakness. Jesus, for instance, He says in chapter 13, verse 4, For indeed He was crucified because of weakness,

yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you. So he says in verse 9, For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak. Secondly, it means that victory in suffering is possible. That victory in my suffering is made possible. Why?

Because my suffering makes me aware of my weakness and sometimes makes me weak. And so I can say with Paul, therefore I boast in my weaknesses, my infirmities. See, that means that your suffering doesn't have to be for naught. But it means that it's possible for you to have victory in the midst of your sufferings because your sufferings enable God to use you in a greater way.

And the third thing, possibility, is that it makes the power of Christ available to all of us. I love this phrase. Paul says in verse 9, Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses. And then here comes the purpose clause. So that, in order that, the power of Christ may dwell in me. And literally he's saying, So that the power of Christ may spread a tent over me. That's the literal wording. There's a power of power spread

upon me. When I am weak, then the power of Christ spreads its tent over me and covers me. That means the power of Christ is available to all of us on the basis not of our strength, but on the basis of our weakness. And if you want to be strong in God, you have to be weak in yourself. Now, I'm not saying God cannot use strength. I'm not saying God cannot use great talent and extraordinary ability. Obviously he does, but you have to die to it before he will. You see. You have to die to it before

he will. Well, let me just say one last word. We've established the principle, examined the process, explored the possibilities. Now we want to enter into the provision. How do we do that? Paul said, concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me,

and he has said to me, the tense of the word, the verbs there mean he has said and that's it. And the Greek word said there is a word that is used of edicts given from emperors and kings and magistrates. Paul repeatedly said, Lord, get this out of me. See, Paul won't talk about his thorn. God won't talk about his grace. And the greatest revelation came to Paul not from a third heaven experience, but from the thorn experience.

And the Lord says, well, Paul says, is that your final answer? And God said, that's my final answer. Shut up. My grace is sufficient for you. Oh, you think that your ministry will be enhanced if somehow the thorn is pulled from your flesh. No. No, it is when you discover the sufficiency of my grace. So how do we enter in to this great provision?

I think Paul tells us in verses 9 and 10, he says, Most gladly therefore I will rather boast. The word literally means give a shout of triumph. I will rather boast

about my weakness. Therefore I am well content. Now the NIV, the nearly infallible version, is wrong here. It says I delight in my weaknesses and that's not right. I think the American translation that I have here is correct.

Therefore I am well content. Paul's not jumping up and down and saying, Oh boy, I've got a thorn in the flesh. Oh boy, I've got a thorn in the flesh. Thank God I'm confined to this wheelchair. Thank God I've got this. No, he's not saying that. He's saying, I'm content with it.

I'm content. Why? Because I know that that makes me strong. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. it is not weakness that makes you strong

it is glorying in those weaknesses that make you strong ah there's the difference we're not to glorify our weaknesses but we glory in them that's the difference weakness alone will not make you usable

it is only when you come with that attitude of most gladly, therefore, will I boast in this thing. There are a lot of weak people who are not being used of God. I talk with people who have great infirmities, disabilities, pain, and I would not pretend to judge them or condemn them. But that's all they talk about.

That's all they want to talk about. They glorify their pain. They glorify their pain. They glorify their sickness. They glorify that. And so they are not usable to God. It is only when we see that these things are a messenger sent from God to make us usable. So therefore, we praise God. We glorify God.

We boast about this. It's our attitude towards the weaknesses that make us strong. So let me ask you tonight anybody here with a weakness anybody here with a weakness physical weakness mental weakness

some handicap some lack Mental weakness? Some handicap? Some lack? Some inferiority? Oh, good. You're just the person God's looking for. And so, Lord, help us not to go out and so Lord help us not to go out

strong in ourselves and glorying in our strength but glorying in our weakness so that when God does things it'll be obvious to everybody that it's just been God so that when God does things, it'll be obvious to everybody that it has been God.

May the Lord bless you. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen Thank you.