Weakness Makes you Strong | Dr. Ed Young

[Music] i want you to repeat after me eight words when i am weak then i am strong does that make any sense at all it's a paradox weakness strength when we're weak then we're strong doesn't that sound like nonsense silly statement you can't explain it when i'm weak then i'm strong that's the one thing i want you to take home with you following this experience of worship in worship we have music we have prayer we have offering we have praise we have conversations all before and after and sometimes daring but i want you to take home just one thing absorb it understand it and apply it and your whole life will be radically different when i am weak then i am strong it took the apostle paul a long long time to understand that to get that and to put it into his life but once he did just exactly what we were saying about victory the same will be with you and with me if we can just comprehend when i'm weak then i am strong paul established the church at corinth can you imagine trying to establish a church in a place like that they never heard about jesus christ they were not seeped in judaism but paul went there as an apostle to the gentiles and he established a powerful witness for christ the church at corinth and as he put that church together he had great pride in what they had become but years went by and he heard rumors and got letters to the effect that some as he called them super apostles had showed up in the church at corinth and these super apostles were presenting a jesus that was contrary to the jesus that paul had met and knew and taught and therefore there was division in the church and you can read in first corinthians interesting story of how evidently they had written letters to paul and said we've got a problem in the church what do you do about incest that's a pretty big problem what do you do about getting drunk at the lord's supper table now there's a problem well what do you do about christians suing each other and exploiting so all these questions were asked in first corinthians and paul answered them but in second corinthians they call that the severe gospel because now paul is speaking out against these so-called super apostles who showed up in the church with all their credentials and all of their background saying they are way above paul they were saying well paul established this church let me tell you what a church ought to be and they gave their credentials and they talked about visions they had they talked about how god means for everybody to be healthy and everybody to be wealthy and everybody to be wise and boy that's an appealing word isn't it boy you know if i'm sick and i have enough faith boom bam i mean that's a strong thing and so you see division in the church and paul writes a letter to them he first of all sets out his credentials i want you to see it here in 2nd corinthians chapter number 11. these super apostles said well we're just jews like you've never seen before and paul said beginning with verse 22 talking about the super apostles he said are they hebrews no so am i are they israelites paul said so am i are they the seed of abraham so am i are they ministers of christ he said i speak as a fool i am more now paul if you read the 10th chapter 11th chapter he is struggling arguably paul is one of the most brilliant men who's ever lived on the planet you can argue that from a secular perspective one of the most brilliant individuals whoever and he is so gifted with the pen but you read these chapters you can see he's struggling for words i mean he is grappling he he's saying i don't want to boast if you boast and put yourself up big you're a fool and he said i don't want to do that but i've got to establish some credentials to show my credibility to present the truth of god in christ to the church in current and he said man as far as my background as a jew it is above any background you could name all the way back to abraham perhaps he was a member of the sanhedrin a pharisee he said i've got all those bases covered like nobody could equate anything else better than what i have he's boasting and then he gives his story his biography and this is not how you and i would present our dossier if we want a job you know i've read a lot of people who tell about their background applying for jobs and i've never read any dossier someone says about this is what happened to me and this is what i happened and why i got fired you don't hear that do you but paul goes and writes his background no question he's a thorough going completely jew but then he looked and this is all listed here in the latter part eleventh chapter and i'll just hit it he said from the jews i've been whipped five times 40 stripes mount a son he said i was beaten and he said once i was stoned that was in lystra where he's left to be dead he said three times i was shipwrecked a day in the night i was in the sea think about that in journeys often in perils and waters and perils of robbers in perils of my own countrymen in perils of the gentiles and perils of the city in perils of the wilderness and perils of the sea in perils of false brethren in weariness and toil and sleeplessness often in hunger and thirst and fastings often in cold and nakedness besides the other things that come to me my daily concern for the church i'm telling you he was writing this to show his credential of the church in corinth it's not what i'd have put down i wouldn't extol all the suffering and privations and tough times he's had but he did and then he presents the last one and it really is strange to me the latter part of chapter 11 paul says in damascus he's talking about all these hard times in damascus the governor artist the king was guarding the city of the master scenes when a garrison designed to arrest me but i was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped their hands he said i was a fugitive they shut down the whole city of damascus and he said they let me down i was let down so here we have it paul is trying to ascertain his true apostleship and authority and current without being boastful and then paul runs us through three things and this is so powerful for us to understand when i'm weak then i'm strong he tells us first of all his heaven experience heaven experience and then he tells us his thorn experience how about that then he tells us his grace experience and from those three experiences of paul if we extrapolate from that led by the holy spirit it'll help us understand that thing that we've all recited twice already in this time of worship weakness is a prelude to strength look at it here he tells us his heaven experience it it is really something chapter 12 it is doubtless and not profitable of me to boast i will come to visions and revelation of the lord and then he tells the story of visiting heaven in the third person isn't that interesting he doesn't say i'm the one but he talks in the third person and he talks as if he uses the phrase a man in christ stewart has written a biography of paul he called it a man in christ all through the letters of paul you see that's who he was a man in christ a man in christ and he tells it as if he's looking at another person so we know he's talking about himself trying to be somewhat modest talking about a man in christ he said this is the experience a man in christ had he said i know a man in christ verse 2 who 14 years ago was in the body i do not know whether out of the body i do not know god knows such a one i was caught up in the third heaven a man in christ paul 14 years ago now understand this paul had never referred to this experience before this moment 14 years had gone by since he was caught up into heaven and we're going to see the word there is paradise paradise is a persian word it's a picture of a walled in garden where a persian king would take somebody who was special invite them to come into the garden with him oh to go in the garden with the king of persia the beautiful magnet that was a special honor that someone would be given and so we see the picture paul says i was taken up into the third heaven what is the third heaven we have the atmosphere we have the ionosphere the stratosphere the third heaven is in another dimension outside of anything we know in the creative order of the universe it is with god paul went into the presence of god i was taken up i was caught up i like the phrase we just read in the latter part of the 11th chapter he says i was let down a fugitive of the wall and now he says but i was caught up when did this happen 14 years ago already damascus road experienced he saw the resurrected lord already the vision came for him to go to macedonia and preach the gentiles already an angel had spoken to him when there was a storm in the sea and said don't worry you're going to make it out he'd had all these experiences but this one big experience he'd never written about he'd never talked about in the very presence of the living god third heaven paradise what a moment when did he have this experience 14 years ago that would be about 42 a.d that would be after he had been disgraced he'd had the massive road experience he'd preached they'd paid no attention to him in damascus they've been suspicious of him in jerusalem he went out of the desert for three years i think in the desert paul was putting together old testament prophecy that he knew so completely with what would happen in jesus christ showing how jesus fulfilled all that prophecy and then he goes back and he's teaching truth in damascus that's when they said we can't handle him he goes to synagogues those scholars said he's too strong for us and they put a contract out on him you know what that is kill him take him out that's when he was let down over the wall that was when he went home to mother to his hometown in tarsus and that was when he had this experience that he never told anything about when he was taken up in the very heavens with the lord god almighty let down the wall nothing then he was caught up a little moment god caught him up and he was there in tarsus probably 12 years plus a nobody we didn't know what was going on but this gives us a hint but he had that encounter with the living god now he goes on to comment on that magnificently he says in verse 5 of such a one i will not boast he said i'm not boasting this by the way he doesn't tell us much about that encounter he says and heard expression words which is not lawful for man to utter of such a one i will boast yet not of myself i will not boast except in my infirmities he's already listed the hardships for though i might desire to boast i will not be a fool but i will speak the truth this is the verse listen but i refrain lest anyone should thank me above what he sees me to be or hears from me this is where a lot of people get messed up paul said man i had this supernatural experience but i can't tell you about it it is too sacred there is the shyness of holiness the shyness of holiness it was so sacred it was so intimate it was so filled with shekinah with the presence of god he said i can't speak about it it's beyond anything i can express he talks about words like inexpressible he said i want you to judge my leadership on the basis of my life and the basis upon what i teach see these super apostles were coming in there well i've been with god i've had these visions i know all about it and i'm right there with the lord and when i teach and when i speak i'm far superior to the apostle paul paul says no no no we have these holy experiences don't get me wrong god speaks god leads god directs through the scripture and through an event oh yeah that's real i'm not throwing that out the window by any stretch of the imagination but we don't use that to lord it over people to out pious people paul says i don't do that he said you judge me by my character by my words my character and my words ought to give an indication as whether or not i've been with god and i walk with the lord see it very very important so we see paul's heavenly experience and then we see paul's foreign experience of all things here he's been to heaven and following his experience to heaven what happens verse 7 it said lest i should be adulted exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations he just met god a thorn in the flesh was given to me a messenger of satan to buffet me lest i be exalted above measure whoa and with heaven comes back bang a thorn in the flesh what was that thorn you ought to read the commentaries the ideas that people have what was the thorn somebody said well he couldn't see well he had an eye problem he's going blind they refer to a passage which he said i'm writing in big print others think he had malaria which would come and go with fevers chronic headaches some people said he was epileptic some people said it was a besetting sin that he had that kept coming back in his life and they referred to romans 7. and we don't know what that thorn was when a thorn comes in your life and my life it always carries with two messages one is the message from god which we'll see what that was for paul and the other is the message from evil it's the message from the devil what would the devil say when a thorn in the flesh comes in your life or in my life he would say grin and bear it oh you're just screaming back he'd say get mad at god he was just with god now he's man get mad at god the devil would say do that or just forget about it it's no big deal forget it forget it forget it how does god want us to respond we learn exactly how god responded to the thorn of paul god tells paul lest you be exalted above measure in other words paul you've had these wonderful experiences you've been in the presence of the living god in the third heaven unless that boasts you up too much you get too big for yourself and too prideful i've sent this storm i've sent this thorn to keep you grounded pride is a big thing folks i love the story about them here's a monk who's very pious praying 24 7 fasting working godly man and satan is looking at all his little imps all these little devils trying to tempt this godly man all kind of central things and they're unsuccessful this mump is this monk is prayerful and godly and every and they keep trying to tempt him fine and finally satan shows up and tell all his little devil step aside let me show you how to handle him and he whispers in the ear of this very pious man a monk your brother has just been made bishop of alexandria my brother they picked him over me my brother lifted to this lofty position of christian authority and the devil backs up and tells us all of his boys he said that's the way you handle somebody like that pride pride god sent that thorn in the flesh of paul to keep him from being too pumped up with all of his talent and ability and being taken right into the throne room of god and then look what paul did he pleaded three times with the lord it might depart from me when a thorn comes it's not we say well i'm masochistic i'm just going to get it going brown more purple oh no he prayed he said lord i think i'd be a better apostle i think i'd be able to do things more more efficiently if i didn't have this thorn he pleaded with god three times to take the thorn away that's what we're to do somebody said well god didn't answer his prayer yes he did he said no jesus played three times in the garden lord this cup this embarrassment this is there any other way god said god didn't answer jesus pray yes he did he said no and then god tells paul as he would tell all of us when these thorns show up he says jesus said to me by the way just a little parenthetical thing here paul prayed directly to jesus that's very unusual you see that when the apostles were looking for someone to take judas's place they prayed exactly directly to jesus acts 1 and then in acts 7 you see when when stephen was being stoned to death the heavens opened he prayed directly to jesus i don't know of any other illustration don't hold me to that there may be others but here is a rare moment in which he prayed directly to jesus the lord and jesus gave him a very clear answer he said paul my grace is sufficient for you grace god's riches at christ's expense that's the old acrostic grace is is the power of jesus christ here paul is saying god is saying to paul you've got this thorn this thorn is there to keep you from being a big shot and acting like you're somebody because you have all this ability and all this giftedness and he said my grace is sufficient for you even with this thorn and then he says my strength is made powerful in you let me read it exactly to see what jesus says my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness you know what this story is a shorthand for the cross look at the weakness of the cross what did the weakness of the cross lead to your salvation and my salvation but it led to the resurrection of jesus christ weakness strength without the cross there's no resurrection without the cross there's no salvation without the resurrection there's no eternal life for you and for me weakness strength amazing then he says therefore most gladly i would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of christ may rest in me what does that mean the power of christ that's the resurrection power rest in me is a tabernacle phrase it means to pitch your tent with me it means to get in the tent with christ and christ gets in your life in your tent it means to dwell in christ so look what's happened here we understand a little bit my brothers and my sisters what we said at first which sounded like a a mystery to us when i'm weak then i'm strong when the thorn comes his grace is sufficient when i'm let down i'll be caught up with god and then we see the grace operating in this life on and on and paul just winds up this by saying therefore i take pleasure listen to this this is all of his thorns in infirmities in reproaches in needs in persecution in distress for christ's sake and then there's our little phrase all we have to take home with us when i'm weak then i'm strong [Music] you

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Id: DKsxq8GAYbI

Length: 26min 8sec (1568 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 06 2021