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Yeah. Two Corinthians, chapter twelve. And this can be found on page 1167 of the church Bible. Two Corinthians, chapter twelve. Beginning at verse one.

I, Paul, must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows.

And I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows, and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth.

But I refrain from it, so that no. 1 may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. This is the word of the Lord.

Kevin, thank you very much. It's 38 days till Christmas. It's time to get writing your Christmas newsletter. Can I give you the top ten rules for writing those Christmas newsletters? First, keep it short.

Second, don't brag. Third, use a readable font. Fourth, don't brag. Five, keep it light. Try to avoid illness, infection and injury.

6th, don't brag. 7th, keep it free of jargon related to specific careers. 8th, don't brag. Number nine, don't use your letter as a catalogue for home based businesses, even if clean, easy has changed your life. And number ten, you're keeping up.

Well done. You have been warned, because in our reading today, we're talking about boasting, bragging about weaknesses. It seems very strange. Let's ask for the Lord's help as we come to his word. Father, thank you so much for your all sufficient word.

Pray, Lord, that we would come alive to it. And by your holy spirit, you would teach us what it means to boast of our weaknesses, that your power may be seen. Please speak to us, we pray. Amen. I think we're in a rather mixed up world with all sorts of contradictory messages.

On the one hand, it's be yourself and celebrate your uniqueness and show your authenticity. But on the other hand, you really have got to have it together and you've got to measure up and you've got to be sorted. Social media just pours petrol on that confusion and this idea of presenting the perfect profile of great excitement every day. You overlay that within the west, there's this expectation that everything will be fine, that you're basically going to be healthy, wealthy and happy by right is your right to be those things. And the world is not sure what to do with this idea of weakness.

And if you look in schools and organisations, you used to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of something. Now it tends to be the strengths and development areas. Can't even name it, saying, you're weak in this area. No, there's room for improvement. Name it.

What do we do with weakness? It's disguised in that. And this thinking has percolated into the church and into christian thinking a lot. And there's not much room really for weakness. 20 years ago, I was talking to one bishop and he said, I have yet to see the parish profile.

So when a church vicar moves on, the parish profile is drawn up. The parish profile that says, wanted a broken man who knows his need of God. What he sees is a great list of things this vicar must be able to do. Digger diggity diggity diggity diggity diggity. And this bishop said to me, I've never seen that profile that said, wanted a broken man who knows his need of God.

I think we are getting better a little bit in this, but there's still a long way to go. And sometimes things get disguised or softened or questioned with spiritual language. So things like, God accepts us as we are and doesn't expect us to be perfect. This thing that's happening isn't God's will for you, and you just need to believe more or claim the healing or claim the deliverance or have more faith or something. So when Paul says in verse eight of our reading, three times, I pleaded with the Lord about this thorn in his flesh that would leave me.

He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect. In weakness. We go. Wrong answer.

We don't want that as an answer. We want freedom, release, healing made better, make the situation go away. It's not the answer we want.

Well, as we come to this passage, just to give a bit of background to where it is, because often we just sort of helicopter into one bit and say, oh, I like that verse, and we'll talk about that. But actually, of course, this comes within the context of a letter, and this is Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. And the corinthian church was a tricky church to pastor. And in his first letter, they wrote to him about all sorts of things. And he writes back, and he's kind, but he's firm.

And some didn't like what he had to say, so they pushed back, they bucked his authority, and so he's forced to defend his leadership in two corinthians. And in this part, from the last four chapters, chapters ten to 13, he appeals to this kind of rebellious minority. These people. They were very enamoured with eloquent speakers and these so called super apostles. If you look back at eleven, chapter eleven, verse five, he said, indeed, I consider that I'm not in the least inferior to these super apostles, these people that seem to be so super spiritual.

The Corinthians were really caught up with this idea of sort of being on a higher spiritual level than everybody else and attaining spiritual maturity, and yet at the same time missing the mark massively. We talked about these super apostles and who love eloquent speakers. So he does kind of this sarcastic boasting, really, when they sort of said, if you look back at 23, sorry, eleven, verse 23, what about these people? Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one.

I'm talking like a madman. He's just kind of shouting off, really. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes, less one. And he goes through. He's beaten with rods, and he was adrift at sea and on frequent journeys and dangers and all these things, as if to say, look, I've been through a whole load of stuff.

I didn't just breeze in on the wind, but with his tongue still firmly in his cheek, we pick up chapter twelve, verse one. I must go on boasting, though there's nothing to be gained by it. I'll kind of play your game, but it's a bit pointless. And then, in order to track the attention away from himself, but while talking about himself, he talks about in the third person, in verse two, I know a man in Christ. That's him, who 14 years ago, was caught up in the third heaven.

That just means probably an understanding where you'd say, the sky, where the birds go, that's the first heaven. And then you got space, that's the second heaven. And then what we understand as heaven is the third heaven. So he's saying he's had this vision of God and says, whether I was in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows.

In other words, I'm not like these teachers who would. Who would go on and on about all the wonderful spiritual things they've seen. He says, I don't even know. And whether this man was caught up into paradise, I don't know. God knows.

And I heard things that can't be told on behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own half, I will not boast except of my weaknesses. And then he says he's had this wonderful angelic visions of these things, and it comes down to earth with a bump in verse seven when he says so to keep me from becoming too elated. I think it says in that version, I've got conceited because of the surpassing greatness of these revelations. In other words, look, these are amazing things. God kept me humble, effectively, says, by giving me a thorn in the flesh.

Now, what is Paul's thorn in the flesh? We are not the first people to ask that question. There's been a lot of ink and spilled over this and speculation. And there's four things, particularly people have talked about, whether that's an inner psychological struggle, perhaps with temptation, whether it's outer opposition and persecution, perhaps from these opponents, whether it's some physical affliction or perhaps a demonic harassment. Mine's far greater than mine have to and froed.

And the answer is, normally, we don't really know, but it's probably the third one. It's probably some sort of physical affliction. And there's things we can read in his letters, whether his eyesight wasn't good, all these sorts of things. Probably some literal something wrong in his flesh. So we see there, Paul pleads three times, verse eight.

I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. And this is what Paul has been banging on about since his first letter. Because in one Corinthians, the first Corinthians, chapter one, verse 27, God chose what's foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what's weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what's low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing those that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. The Corinthians were proud people. And he said, actually, it's not about that. It's about God.

He's been trying to teach them that all the way along. And now he brings it home again by saying, actually, God's grace is shown in weakness. And nine times throughout the corinthian correspondence, he talks about strength and weakness or power and weakness. And this first part of chapter nine is part of God's upside downness of the kingdom. So Jesus said, if you really want to find your life, you got to lose it.

The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. And if you remember that parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, those who want to exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. It fits within the pattern of God's kingdom. So where his critics and opponents would boast in knowledge and power, second part of verse nine, Paul says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon or live within me. Paul boasts, in weaknesses, so Jesus' power will be seen clearly in him.

And where his opponents were wowed by the super spirituality of heavenly visions, Paul brings them and him down to earth by highlighting his weaknesses. And so he can say in verse ten, for the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, he is strong. And if you think of it like a seesaw, when Paul is weak, then God is shown in his strength. And actually, if God just chose a bunch of competent, capable with it people, then actually God isn't that strong because we can kind of look after ourselves.

Paul says that the weaker I get, the more God is shown in his greatness and his goodness.

So how about you and me? Do we believe this? Because we read all this stuff and we think, yes, that's great for you, Paul, but do we really believe this? I have two questions for us, particularly, what weaknesses do we have and do we admit them? And how do we deal with thorns that come our way?

So the first question there, what weaknesses do we have? The pressure to appear together in church is very real and present. We want to look okay. And I think we need to wrestle a bit of the churches. How can we make this a place where it's okay not to be okay.

If I go up the princess royal and I wander around, I think, gosh, this is full of sick people here. What are they doing? When I go to hospital, I expect to find poorly people to some degree. When we come to church, we expect to find people that know our own weaknesses, failings and our spiritual needs. Is this a place where it's okay not to be okay?

And part of the answer is honesty with each other. And for that to happen, it's not going to happen in this sort of setting. It's going to happen in a smaller group, in a connect group, in a prayer triplet, with someone that you trust, that you can open up with to pray for one another. I think that's part of the practical answer. I think part of the wider answer is a fuller, or if you might call it, a functional understanding of God's grace.

Now, what do I mean by that? Grace is often a word that's bounded around God's undeserved favour. We didn't deserve it, but God gives it. And in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter two, he says, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of works.

So that no. 1 may boast, you see, we often forget and we can easily get puffed up with pride. And so when it says to stop me being too elated or stop me being conceited, it says in verse, verse seven, actually, we all need to be aware of our pride, and especially spiritual pride. And one writer says that spiritual pride is one of the worst forms of pride that pride can take. It indicates that we've lost sight of the cross and our dependence on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It basically says, we can do it and we're fine. We don't need God. The point is, we do need him for everything.

The gospel is good news and not just good news. At the beginning, three images. Grace. This undeserved favour is like the water that goes into a sponge. It gets soaked up in the sponge.

The gospel is saturated with grace. You ring it out and grace comes out all over the place. It's one image also. If you buy a stick of rock, wherever you snap that stick of rock, it says Brighton. Or can we get some?

You know, wherever you would snap it, it would say, wherever it's from. Gospel rock has grace running all the way through it, not just on the end, but all the way through. Second image and the third image. Often we think that you come to Jesus. And it's sort of the abc of the faith, the beginning of the faith.

You come to Jesus and you're saved by grace. No, grace is the a to z all the way through the a to z of faith. We're saved by God's grace and sustained by his grace, kept going by his grace, even when things are incredibly, incredibly hard. And sometimes, like Paul, we need a thorn in the flesh to keep us humble, keep us dependent. One writer in the 18th century said, a Christian never falls asleep in the fire or the water, but grows drowsy in the sunshine.

And we saw some fire and some water on those videos, didn't we? It's easy to drift off in the sunshine. What have we sung? When the sun's shining down on me? When the world's all as it should be, it's easy to drift off.

Sometimes we need to be kept humble, but other times we have a thorn from outside, so to speak. Which brings our second question. How do we deal with these thorns? If you look in verse ten, for the sake of Christ, I'm content with weaknesses and then arguably four things that come from outside. Insults and hardships and persecutions and calamities.

This stuff that kind of happens to us, how do we deal with these?

Many people in this church right now have plenty of thorns. There's difficult finances, frustrating employment, chronic illness, fragmenting marriages, bitter bereavements, tragic loss, debilitating disease, unexplained infertility, unwanted singleness. The list goes on. Look around here. There are thorns all over the place.

Friends, nobody has it together. And you, like Paul, may have pleaded with the Lord about this, and the answer has been also no. My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. This is where the rubber really hits the road.

Do we really believe that? Because I know when I've got stuff going on, I want God to take it away so I can get on with things, get on with doing stuff properly. But actually, God says, my grace is sufficient for you. Do we really believe it? If we're honest, sometimes we don't.

Sometimes it seemed like God doesn't know he's caught napping, or worse, he doesn't really care. We need to be aware of attributing everything to satanic activity. But we do need to recognise that spiritual opposition is real. And ever since Genesis three in the Garden of Eden, the devil has been tempting people to doubt God's goodness. If you remember back there, did God really say that?

Does God really love you? Look, what's going on in your life. Look what loss you've experienced. God gives and takes away. Does he really love you?

Romans eight. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? I'm convinced that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present to come or powers or height or depth or anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing will separate us from God's love.

So the whole of verse nine, if we read that, it says, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. What is the power of Christ? The power of Christ is the cross, the cross on which Jesus was humbled.

And when I say humbled, I don't mean because he was proud. I mean he was humiliated for us. If we overlay what Christ did with our reading today, Jesus was not given one thorn, but many thorns, a crown of thorns, and not little things like this that I can run my hands on, but actually a full crown of big thorns that gashed into his head. Jesus was harassed by Satan, who thought he won. Three times Jesus pleaded with God in the garden of Gethsemane.

Take this suffering from me. But he stayed for you and for me. He could have slipped away in the night and nobody would have known. But he stayed. Three times he pleaded with the Lord, please let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but your will.

Jesus was weak from a savage beating. He was insulted as somebody spat in his face.

It was a great hardship to carry the beam of his cross up a hill to his death. He was persecuted by the religious people who should have welcomed him. He knew the calamity of sin of the whole world on his shoulders. And in this despised, cursed, bloody and desperate weakness, God's power was made perfect. As death was beaten, Satan was overcome and peace with God was won for eternity.

This is God's sufficient grace for us.

I don't claim to have all the answers, and some things we won't understand until we see God face to face. But as part of God's sustaining grace, we have a gift sitting in this room, a gift of each other. We can pray with one another. We can pray after the service over there. We often say, go and pray with folks over there.

It's a prayer box in the porch. Why not after this service? Just stay and pray with somebody and say I'm having a really hard time. I don't want to go into the details, but can you just pray right here and now?

Today we remember our brothers and sisters across the world who right now are experiencing insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. We've heard from Ron and Janet some of those testimonies from North Korea and from Syria. We've seen the videos. And in a moment, we're going to have our prayer. And Claire Lucas is going to lead us in that.

And to help us focus on that, we produce these little cards with the key verse on there from verse ten. And then a verse I read earlier about remembering those in prison. And it's got on it, taped to that is a piece of barbed wire. It's sharp. It might cut you.

It's a thorn. You're sensible people. Look out for it. We're going to pass it round as we come and sing. Perhaps the band would like to join us.

We're going to sing this next song as they go round. And we're going to take this. And the idea is to take one of these, probably. I'm going to do this at 1115, so probably just one per household. And we're going to take this.

And as we pray, as Claire lead us in prayers, we can look at this. Consider these thorns of metal. In this case, think all of Christ has done. And to remember our brothers and sisters around the world. We remember our weakness, shows God's strength.

His power is made perfect in our weakness. And his grace is sufficient for us all. Let's stand. Sing our next song before we pray to God.