No Shortage! (The Power Of Therefore)

0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:02.639 Well, we're gonna get to the message in just a moment, 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:05.880 but I wanted to make sure you knew about Elevation Nights. 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:11.280 It's gonna be amazing eight cities October twenty sixth through 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.080 November fourth. You gotta go to Elevation Nights dot com 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.360 to see if we're coming to a city near you. 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:21.320 It's gonna be me Elevation Worship, a few friends and you. 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:22.680 I want to see you there. I want to see 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:24.959 you and everybody that you know there. Go to Elevation 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:27.639 Nights dot com. I can't wait to see you soon. 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:32.600 Here's the message. Right now, all over the world, people 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.600 are joining in with this ministry. We want to welcome 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:40.080 our epam, our extended family all over the world. Right now, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:44.120 we're flaking the doors open, man, the digital doors come 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.880 on in the the church is open. The spirit is here, 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:56.800 So God bless you. Just turn to the person next 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.720 to you and say, if Pastor Stephen knew you would 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.240 be a Sabor Church member, just tell them that, and 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:14.800 I believe that. Woo who Now, some of us are 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:19.520 glad to be here. We have learned that there is 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:28.840 bread in the House of the Lord. I'm gonna do 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:31.640 I'm going to do a no, no, I'm going to 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.240 use the same scripture I used last week. Sit down, 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:39.440 y'all leave, let's study. I came home last week and 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.640 I told Holly, I don't know how good that went. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.839 She said it was amazing, and I was frustrated. I said, 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.240 I don't think I did it the way that I 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.880 was supposed to she and Holly said, maybe you didn't fail. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:57.920 Maybe you just weren't finished turning your Bible to Second Corinthians, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.000 cause you'll believe she back talks me like that. The 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.640 Bible says, submit to your husband. Not supposed to be 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:15.480 quoting scriptures at the man of God. I'm kidding, but 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:22.360 this good Second Corinthians, chapter twelve. And I want to 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.680 talk a little more about your thorn that was the 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:30.840 subject last week. So this might be uncomfortable. You won't 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.800 tell about your thorn for a moment or two, but 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.400 I want to read this context. And I just want 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.120 to remind you that usually when God speaks, he speaks 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.840 in sentences and paragraphs, and you know, like a lot 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:46.799 of times, what we'll take is we'll take a single 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.079 sentence from the Word of God. And that's cool. It's 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.760 better than nothing. But to really get the full impact 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.040 of what God speaks, it's better if you understand the 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.600 context of when he spoke it. And I don't know 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.400 if we sometimes read scripture versus Bible versus like their 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.520 captions on Instagram or something like that, they're not. This 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:08.919 was a letter Paul wrote to a church that he 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:13.600 loved that he was incredibly frustrated with. Oh, you can 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.920 definitely feel that way about one person, one church you 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.680 can really love and be really frustrated with. And I 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:22.239 made the case one time in this Pope that a 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:24.880 lot of people disagree. You can't really be truly good 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.280 and frustrated with somebody that you don't really truly love. 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.520 You'll feel the most intense feelings of I want to 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.120 kill you if you are a parent, the person that 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:41.600 came from your very body. And it goes the other 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.680 way too with kids and parents. But this is the 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.920 lesson that Paul is giving. And if I had outlined 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.200 the message last week the way I should have, where 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.200 you could take notes and all of that, I would 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:57.760 have used three points. A mentor, a metaphor, and a 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:04.040 therefore intour a metaphor, and that therefore and I forgot 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.880 to tell you that last week because I was so 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.600 busy preaching about Paul as a mentor to the church, 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.360 not an advice column. That's not a broke cousin who 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:14.240 tells you where you need to invest your money and 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.120 what kind of digital currency you need to invest in. 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.000 But he's not one of these advice given fools. He's 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:23.560 got real authority. What surprised us about Paul, though, was that, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:28.880 with such great apostolic authority and such intellectual brilliantess, instead 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:35.800 of taking the opportunity to exceed his authority, he opened 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:41.039 himself up with personal vulnerability. And what was amazing about 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.480 it was, and I'm going to read it to you 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.080 in just a moment in case you missed it, his 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:54.159 vulnerability did not compromise his authority. His being real about 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.440 what he struggled with didn't keep him from being powerful 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.240 and being called. And it doesn't for you either. And 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:03.839 you don't have to fake it. You have to go 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.800 through life pretending because the people that you pretend to 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:08.960 be somebody that you're not to in order to get 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:10.280 them to like you, they don't really like you. When 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:11.920 they like you, they like the you that you showed them. 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.240 That you concoct it just to get their approval, So 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.560 it's worthless anyway. And if you got it, you got it. 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.640 And if you know, you know, And if God is 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:21.359 with you, God is with you. And nobody can do 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.400 anything to change it, not even the devil, not even 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:30.279 the devil. Oh, I feel a no weapon formed against 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:37.599 me shall prosper rising up in my spirit. But in 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:43.760 tewod Corinthians twelve, Paul says, in verse six, even if 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.480 I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.320 because I would be speaking the truth. So Paul's the 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.719 opposite of most of us. He has everything to brag about, 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.760 but he doesn't a lot of us have nothing to 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:03.200 boast about, but plenty to about. Y'all ought to say amen, 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.760 let the church say ours. He said, I'm not even 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.039 going to tell you about my trip to heaven. I 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.360 went to the third Heaven. But don't worry about that, 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.800 because what I want to actually tell you about, And 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:20.719 he uses a metaphor. He says, because of these surpassingly 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:26.400 great revelations, Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:31.400 I was given a thorn. That's the metaphor. He says 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:36.200 it was a thorn. Why scholars have centuries trying to 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.080 identify what the thorn was when Paul clearly did not 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.480 want us to know, or he would have spelled it 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.280 out if he would have wanted us to know whether 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.960 it was a physical issue because it could have been that, 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:50.880 or a spiritual issue because it could have been that, 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.000 or an emotional issue. It could have been that, or 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.840 an opponent of the gospel. Because he was an ambassador 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.800 of Christ. See, Paul was responsible for del livering the 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:07.480 theology that we still study today to millennia later. Justification 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.000 by faith is a doctrine that we would not know 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.520 about as we know about it if it had not 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.600 been for Paul. Yet, maybe the greatest gift that Paul 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.520 ever gives to those of us who struggle with stuff, 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.040 those of us who are confused sometimes about the way 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.240 God is working in our life, those of us who 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.320 are not quite sure if we're going to be in 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.200 the VIP section of heaven or whether we're going to 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.640 have to sneak in past the security in the back 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.920 door and hope God doesn't call us out. This is 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.000 what I want you to know about that Paul. He 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:44.320 gives us the gift of showing us that there is 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.880 a thorn. Now, everybody say this, there is a thorn. 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.160 There is a thorn. The people who don't say it, 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.440 they're probably lost in the metaphor. So let me break 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.120 it down. The thorn is that thing that you don't 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.280 talk about on the first night of the group. The 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.480 thorn is the thing that you don't tell somebody in 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.880 the grocery checkout line, and you really shouldn't. I mean, 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:10.040 it's not wise to share everything with everybody. And we 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.440 kind of live in a culture where everybody is boasting 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.840 and posting so much. It's refreshing that Paul has the 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.960 discretion to say, I had this thing, this thorn, it 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.120 came from It came from Satan. Look at this. It 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.120 was a messenger of Satan to torment me. And that's 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.800 why I flipped last week that God showed me. He 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:36.120 showed me torment. And if you flip that, it's mentor right. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:38.720 Just if you say torment and you say it the 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:40.240 other way, you weren't here last week. That's why I 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.560 did last week. Yeah, no' go, i'm'na catch you off. 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:43.720 I'm gonna catch up. I want you to get this, 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.760 He said, the thing that is tormenting you, if you'll 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.000 submit it to my throne, this is what you got 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.880 to learn to do. Take that thorn to the throne. 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.040 Don't take that thorn to people, because people don't have 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:01.000 the power to turn it around. So Paul did something 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.480 so wise. He said, God, would you take this away? 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.440 God said nothing. Paul said, God, I don't know if 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.440 you're busy doing something for Peter over there, but Paul, Paul, 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.080 I need you over here, take this thorn away. What 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:17.160 was it? We found out last week? It was his mentor. 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.280 Because some things you can only learn through what you 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:30.960 are afflicted by. And yet the warning is so clear 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.680 in my spirit that the Lord wants me to tell 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:39.080 you today it's not really about the thorn. It's not 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.880 really about the thorn. That's not the real thing, the 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.040 thing that we bring to God. Fix this, change this, 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.280 or if you're like me and you're control freaking, you 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.079 think everybody else needs to get it, get on the 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:55.880 same page with you. Fix them. Some of y'all's thorn 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.080 weighs one hundred and ninety seven pounds and is sitting 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.120 next to you. God, would you and this, this is 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:03.640 the This is the message that Paul gives us, and 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:05.439 watch this. Get read shall get Ray y'all, Get Rey, y'all, 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.440 get Red. Yeah, get Ray, y'all, Get Rey, shop gear reh, y'all. 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:12.319 If God doesn't remove it, you can expect him to 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:18.240 use it. So whatever you bring before the Lord, I 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.000 don't care if it's an addiction of propensity. And you say, well, God, 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.160 make me not want to do this anymore. I don't 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.840 want to want that anymore. I don't want this desire anymore. 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:28.920 I don't want this darkness anymore. I don't want the 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.200 feeling anymore. Well, sometimes God will take it away. I 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.480 have some things in my life that I prayed about 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.160 and God got me through them. I have other things. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:41.800 These are the thorns that God said, I'm not going 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:46.200 to remove it. So then Paul says, all right, all right, 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.720 all right. If God is not going to take the 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:55.120 thorn away, that is tormenting me. You've been tormented by 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.760 it long enough. You ask God three times. Because amazing 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:07.240 how Paul gives us this contrast action and acceptance. I 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.719 ask God to do it. I believe God could do it, 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.160 because when I first read this, I'm like Paul, you 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.040 needed to just have more faith, you know now unto 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.559 him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.199 Or imagine Paul's like I wrote that verse, dummy, s 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:27.840 Ephesians three twenty. This is tewod Corinthians twelve. Tell them 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:35.720 about the things that God chooses, not to remove the 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:43.880 things God gives you grace for in the place of change. 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:48.959 This won't change, but I've got grace for it. Make 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.560 the confession by faith right now with your mouth. I 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:57.679 got grace for it. I got grace for it. They 0:11:57.720 --> 0:11:59.480 had an ad campaign when I was a little boy 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:04.200 called gotten Milk, and I'm revising it right now to 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:08.920 say God grace. And the Lord told me to tell 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.679 you today. I hear the Lord saying, I hear so clear. 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:13.600 I can't get I can't get it out of my spirit. 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:21.360 There's no shortage, there's no shortage. Put it in the 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.240 chat right now, or say it with your vocal cords, 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.520 if you've got breast, say it. There's no shortage because 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.040 when I asked the Lord to take the thorn away. 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:33.320 And you know, we're living in a time where you 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:38.120 you haven't you haven't heard very much about no shortage. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.840 I mean when it started out, and I know, the 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.200 word global pandemic just makes your mouth dry even to 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:45.800 hear it, because we don't really want to talk about 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:47.680 it erebody anymore. And I try not to talk about 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:49.240 it too much in the pulpit because God knows you 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.400 hear it everywhere else. But I knew it was bad. 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.960 You know, we were scared when when COVID came because 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.560 God didn't take it away. And then they didn't even 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.520 have enough masks for us to wear because there was 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.600 a mask shortage. Then the people who ended up in 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.440 the hospital, there's a ventilator shortage, and then there's a 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.760 staff shortage, and then there's test shortage, so we can't 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.560 even know now. So there was shortage. But then it 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.320 started getting crazy, like the things we were short on 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:21.760 because of the supply chain that seemed to have nothing 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.440 to do with sickness. I went to buy my oldest 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.480 a used car the other day, and the price is 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.040 like sixty percent more right now for a used car, 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.400 because the dude was telling me, oh, well there's a 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.040 chip and chip there's a chip shortage of new cars. 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.680 So the used cars were more expensive because blah blah, 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:40.800 and all I heard is you're ripping me off. This 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.040 is the worst time to black car. I don't even 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.079 want him to drive. I'm scared to death to put 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.400 him on the road. And now it's expensive to two 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.000 because there's a global chip shortage. But I knew it 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.800 was bad. I knew it was bad when Holly came 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:57.120 home from Chick fil A one day. This is when 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:02.040 I knew I'm a suboctane. My god, by have you 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:05.920 forsaken of when Chick fil A had a sauce shortage. 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:12.360 If there is one restaurant God loves, it's the one 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:19.320 that's closed on Sunday when Chick fil A is running 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:26.800 out of Polynesian? Oh God, where is your promise? The pa, 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.960 the glorious, the party, she said, And we love Chick 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:32.480 fil A. So then we say that on the record. 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:34.280 If you want to send me some goods, just want 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.840 to say, sit up, I'll be your shirt, she said. 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.080 Holly said, they they said, welcome to Chick fil A. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:43.360 You know, all happy late they do it Chick fil A. 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:46.880 And then she said, I want to grilled chicken sandwich. 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:52.880 She said. He said, we don't have any chicken. And 0:14:53.320 --> 0:15:00.440 I said, chick fil A didn't have the chicken. I 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.440 think y'all might see where I'm going with this if 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:09.120 you work ahead a little bit, and she ended up 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.600 ordering something she didn't even want. But that's not the point, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.240 because I'm not really talking about Chick fil A or 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:20.160 how they didn't even have wrench dressing or kale for 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.600 a kale salad. Y'all think Holly's first choice was kale? 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.920 That girl, that girl is she She loves waffle fries 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:33.600 more than she loves worship. Thinks she wanted to get 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.640 They didn't even have a kale salad. She just had 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.480 to make the She just had to make it, make 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:47.320 it work. And to me, it's kind of crazy when 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:53.160 Chick fil a doesn't have grilled chicken. But what would 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.520 be crazier than that? If you can imagine a thing 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:59.640 like that, if you can imagine something crazier than that, 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.520 here's what it might be for you to think, as 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:08.720 a Christian that you're going to need grace from your 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:12.320 father in heaven and he's gonna sum for some reason, 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:17.120 there's like a global supply chain issue in heaven where 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.240 there's not enough angels to staff because we can't get 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:24.040 any angels to come in and work. Look, so here's 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.320 one thing. There's no shortage of angels in heaven to 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:32.040 praise God. So the Bible even says this, if you 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:37.280 don't praise him, the rocks will cry out. Jesus said that. 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.360 So for everybody who's like I don't like all of that, 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.600 when he tells us, you know, praise the Lord and 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.040 give God glory, I don't really feel like it. Only 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.560 got three hours of sleep. That's fine, you don't have to. 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.440 There's no shortage of glory to God in heaven. There's 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:57.480 an angel right now saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:02.240 Lord God, Almighty, Holy, Holy. So if you don't want 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.399 to say he's holy, there's an angel saying it. You 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:07.880 can take a break. You can take the day off. 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.680 Goglola always have a break, Doug Lalla, always have a break, 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:20.400 dog l La always haven't work. The first God doesn't 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.920 command you to praise him because he needs it. He's 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:31.000 not an ego maniac. You need it. You need it, 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:39.119 and when you give him glory, it releases grace. Something 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.960 about it. Once you realize that he's able to do 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.520 him measurably more than you ask for. Imagine there is 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:50.160 no shortage in heaven of what you're hurting for. On earth, 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:55.800 there's no shortage. There's no shortage. In fact, I love 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:57.960 people who come to church and they're like pastor. If 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.000 you preach, it's good. If you don't preach, it's good. 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:05.680 I don't really care. I brought my own sauce. I 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:15.719 have my own relationship with God. I want you all 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.160 to start bringing your bibles back to church. I want 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.560 you all to start a leather bound Bible, a big 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.879 fat leather bound Bible, a holy Bible, back to church 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.320 with a pen and a highlighter, so you can go 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:32.840 through that thing. And when I'm not there, because I'm 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:37.119 not going to follow you to work tomorrow, be weird. 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:43.840 They probably wouldn't let me in anyway. Security. But when 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:50.760 you have your own word from God, are you so 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:59.560 focused on your thorn watch this that you are missing? 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:05.840 You're Therefore, Now, I'm gonna make you a little scripture, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:10.960 grilled grilled chicken scripture sandwich real quick. All right, I'm 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:13.800 gonna give you this little scripture sandwich real quick. In 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.520 Second Corinthians twelve, verse seven. I love the Word of God. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.560 I love it more the more I the more I 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:26.080 study it, the more ignorant I realize. I am so 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.840 uh I would have missed something like this. Second Corinthians 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:36.600 twelve seven. He said, I had these great revelations. I 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.040 saw this amazing glory in my life. Paul saying this, 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.560 I was gifted by God in a unique way. I 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:48.440 studied under ga melee. Check my resume. I come from 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:52.879 good stock, a Hebrew of Hebrews, tribe of Benjamin. That's me, 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.800 your apostle to the gentiles, Paul. But because of how 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.840 good God had been to me, what he had shown me, 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:09.280 here comes to teaching. Therefore, in order to keep me 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:16.840 from becoming con seated, in order to keep me grounded 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:23.000 in grace? Are you grounded in grace? Are you grounded 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:28.240 in your giftedness? If you're grounded in your giftedness and 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:34.000 you fail, your faith falls apart. Are you grounded in grace? 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.320 Or are you grounded in your feelings? Are you grounded 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.520 in grace? Are you grounded in the latest blessing God 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:42.600 gave you? Are you grounded in grace? Are you grounded 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:44.160 in your goal? Because you're not going to reach all 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.720 of them, Paul said elsewhere in Philippians I pressed toward 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.160 the mark, toward the goal. Paul's still pressing, and I'm thinking, 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:52.639 I'm going to reach the goal. You're not going to 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:55.640 reach the goal. So he said, to keep me grounded 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:57.880 in grace, God gave me a gift I didn't ask 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:04.520 for and has no gift exchange program. But God delivered 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:06.439 it in an unusual way. And this is what we 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.600 studied last week, the same verse back of everybody say, therefore, 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.280 in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.360 given a thorn in my flesh. And angelos, same word 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:20.480 that we take angel from in Greek, it's angelos. It 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:22.520 could say an angel of Satan. We've never heard of 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:26.600 that before to us. Angels touched by them and Thomas 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:28.840 Kincaid and light and all this. But he said, no, 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:32.120 it came through an angel, and I hated the angel. 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.160 It was a messenger. That's all angel means, messenger, That's 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:38.080 what the word means. It's the same word. He said. 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:43.200 The messenger that God brought it through was my enemy. 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:47.600 So God gave me a gift through my enemy. That's 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.840 the context of this great verse where he said, my 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.720 grace is sufficient for you. There's no shortage of grace? 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:57.280 Can I tell yall something as a pastor who's pastored 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:00.080 through the last two years right now? They might be 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.320 short right now on masks, they might be short right 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.600 now on staff. And I'm sure in your industry you 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:09.919 could tell me a shortage that's affecting you, because I 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.479 know that you have some to in your industry. In 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:17.120 my industry, there's no shortage of thorns right now. Wow, 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:21.040 I think the last twenty months have been some of 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:25.920 the thorniest that I've ever pastored people through. Yep, there 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.680 is no shortage of the things that Paul lists. There's 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:32.959 no shortage. I said that a minute ago, and y'all shouted. 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:36.960 But when I said there's no shortage of thorns, you 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:40.720 didn't shout, And you shouldn't shout about that. After all, 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.320 Paul said, nobody in their right mind asks God for 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:48.680 a thorn. There's no shortage of marriage problems in my 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:53.440 church today. There is no shortage of things that can 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:55.600 make you feel so bad about yourself if you wanted 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.120 to right now. Look, because one of the things that 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:01.399 the last almost those two years now has done to 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:03.720 a lot of people is it put them in isolation 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:06.879 in the season, and then things grew in the dark 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:13.280 that are now coming forth and growing, and they're not good. 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:17.760 There's no shortage of thorns right now. Like in some 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:20.800 ways I want to thank all of you who are 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:27.240 honest enough about your thorns to come to church. In 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:29.320 some ways, I feel like I owe every big sinner 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:32.159 in here a big thank you, because you give me 0:23:32.240 --> 0:23:40.040 job security. As long as you have thorns, I have 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:46.040 a job. Don't ever get your life fully together, because 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:48.760 then you won't need me, and I need to be needed. 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:53.000 I don't preach for the praise of men. Amen. Amen. 0:23:56.720 --> 0:23:59.800 There's no shortage of thorns. There's just those that are 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:06.159 at hiding them than others. All you see is the 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:10.480 lilies in the life of the person next to you. 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:16.920 I am so thankful that Paul taught me the theology 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:23.439 of the thorn, the theology of the thorn, and this 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:26.639 is the theology of the thorn. When I am weak, 0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:33.080 then I am strong. I need that one. I'm thankful 0:24:33.119 --> 0:24:37.480 for everything that Paul taught me, but above all, maybe 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:41.160 the greatest lesson that he taught me was to look 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:48.320 for the Therefore, have you been more thorn conscious than 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:53.360 grace conscious in your life lately, the devil would love 0:24:53.400 --> 0:24:56.080 to do that to you. In fact, here's what I 0:24:56.080 --> 0:24:57.920 think about this passage. Okay, I don't know if you 0:24:58.000 --> 0:24:59.840 care what I think about it, but this is what 0:24:59.880 --> 0:25:02.480 I think about it. I don't think it matters as 0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:06.040 much what Paul's thorn was as it matters how Paul 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:12.520 thought about his thorn. And likewise, I don't believe the 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:16.320 most important thing about your life it's the challenge that 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:19.520 you're facing, or the insecurity that you have, or the 0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:21.879 mistake that you made, or the thing that you do 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:24.720 that nobody knows that you do, or the thoughts that 0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:26.880 you think that people would be shocked. Me and Elijah 0:25:26.920 --> 0:25:29.080 were talking the other day how much would we pay 0:25:29.440 --> 0:25:31.840 to keep all of our thoughts from being broadcast on 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:33.760 a screen in front of the whole world. And we 0:25:33.840 --> 0:25:38.160 both decided everything we have, every dollar I have there 0:25:38.160 --> 0:25:40.400 could not be too great of an amount. So, even 0:25:40.440 --> 0:25:44.359 if it's just in your thought life, those thorns, Paul 0:25:44.440 --> 0:25:47.080 is convincing you today, and you need to lean into 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:50.199 this word because this is bigger than a Sunday lesson, 0:25:51.320 --> 0:25:53.480 This is bigger than a YouTube clip, This is bigger 0:25:53.520 --> 0:25:56.760 than an Instagram post. What God is saying today. He 0:25:56.880 --> 0:26:00.720 is saying, if you keep looking at this thorn. Because 0:26:00.720 --> 0:26:04.440 Paul doesn't talk about the thorn for seven verses. Paul 0:26:04.480 --> 0:26:06.960 doesn't give a whole chapter to the thorn, like we do. 0:26:07.880 --> 0:26:12.919 We get so stuck about what's wrong with us? We 0:26:13.000 --> 0:26:15.960 get so stuck. Is that why he called it a thorn? 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:19.840 This is the thing that you get stuck by and 0:26:20.000 --> 0:26:25.160 stuck with and stuck in. But Paul doesn't talk about 0:26:25.160 --> 0:26:28.680 the thorn. He talks about the Therefore, did you see 0:26:28.720 --> 0:26:31.439 it in the text? Come on, did you see it 0:26:31.520 --> 0:26:35.879 in the text? It's in the text. Class, it's in 0:26:35.960 --> 0:26:38.280 the text. We are not going to recess until y'all 0:26:38.280 --> 0:26:44.280 get this lesson, he said. Therefore, this is the important thing. 0:26:44.720 --> 0:26:51.040 What is your thorn? Therefore, some people never find out. 0:26:51.200 --> 0:26:54.680 They get so stuck in what's wrong with them? What 0:26:54.760 --> 0:26:58.879 they can't do, what others can do that they can't do, 0:26:59.400 --> 0:27:03.160 what other God that they didn't get. But Paul said 0:27:03.200 --> 0:27:06.800 it was in order to keep me from becoming conceited. 0:27:07.040 --> 0:27:10.720 What a thing to admit, Paul said, I would have 0:27:10.760 --> 0:27:12.800 had such a big head, I couldn't have fit through 0:27:12.800 --> 0:27:15.320 the church door if God didn't give me this storm. 0:27:16.440 --> 0:27:22.600 What is it? Therefore? I could preach all day. When 0:27:22.600 --> 0:27:25.080 we title this message on YouTube, we may call it 0:27:25.240 --> 0:27:31.359 the power of Therefore, the power of Therefore when you 0:27:31.560 --> 0:27:34.480 find out not only what has been tormenting you, but 0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:38.440 what is it there? For? Is this here to teach 0:27:38.480 --> 0:27:41.840 me something? And notice people can't tell you this. They 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:43.880 mean well, but they'll say, well, the reason your kid 0:27:43.920 --> 0:27:46.320 is misbehaving is because you should have told them to 0:27:46.400 --> 0:27:48.520 the other school. The other school there. You see, we 0:27:48.600 --> 0:27:51.359 homeschool are kids, brother Steve, and that's why our kids 0:27:51.359 --> 0:27:54.600 don't struggle with any of those kids sometimes are the 0:27:54.640 --> 0:27:59.080 biggest crackheads at age twenty one. Sometimes nothing against homeschooling, 0:27:59.240 --> 0:28:04.000 nothing against not. But Paul did not ask Silas about 0:28:04.000 --> 0:28:07.639 his thorn. And I'm not saying don't get input from people. 0:28:07.640 --> 0:28:10.000 But some things only God can show you what it's 0:28:10.040 --> 0:28:14.800 there for. Only God can show you why he gave 0:28:14.800 --> 0:28:17.840 you that gift. That's why, a beautiful young girl, you 0:28:17.920 --> 0:28:21.359 gotta make sure you go to your fopper to find 0:28:21.359 --> 0:28:24.600 out what your beauty is there for. It is not 0:28:24.760 --> 0:28:27.320 for some boy to put his hands all over something 0:28:27.600 --> 0:28:30.720 that he doesn't own. That's not why God gave you 0:28:30.840 --> 0:28:33.959 that beauty, so you can spread it around until you 0:28:34.040 --> 0:28:40.640 feel empty. No, No, you gotta ask God what is 0:28:40.720 --> 0:28:43.880 my gift there? For I don't just get to do 0:28:43.960 --> 0:28:48.320 whatever I want with my life. It's borrowed. I don't 0:28:48.360 --> 0:28:50.480 just get to do whatever I want with my gift. 0:28:50.800 --> 0:28:54.480 It's borrowed. It's a loan. It belongs to God. I'm 0:28:54.520 --> 0:29:00.640 a servant of him. It's so powerful the power of Therefore, 0:29:00.840 --> 0:29:02.920 put it in the chat, put it in your mouth, 0:29:03.040 --> 0:29:06.880 put it in your spirit. Say therefore, therefore, therefore, and 0:29:06.960 --> 0:29:11.600 some of us we so glorify the thorn. Oh my thorn. Oh, 0:29:11.640 --> 0:29:15.080 I'll tell you right now. Oh man, if you knew 0:29:15.080 --> 0:29:21.840 about my thorn. But Paul said, therefore it was there 0:29:21.880 --> 0:29:24.800 for a reason, and only God can show you what 0:29:24.880 --> 0:29:30.800 that is. Therefore my favorite Therefore in scripture, I looked 0:29:30.800 --> 0:29:33.440 at twenty of them, but I only want to give 0:29:33.440 --> 0:29:37.760 you two. The first one comes from Roman's aid, where 0:29:37.760 --> 0:29:39.760 Paul said, what the lawless powers doing? That was eaking 0:29:39.760 --> 0:29:41.640 by simple nature. God did by sending his own sun 0:29:41.800 --> 0:29:44.160 likeness a simple man to be as an offering. There 0:29:44.280 --> 0:29:51.040 is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in 0:29:51.120 --> 0:29:59.920 Christ Jesus that's my second favorite, therefore my first favorite. 0:30:00.720 --> 0:30:02.400 I don't know if I should break it out right now, 0:30:02.440 --> 0:30:05.560 because I'm just not sure. I'm just not sure. If 0:30:05.600 --> 0:30:09.520 you no, I'm not sure yet. I'm not convinced yet. 0:30:12.360 --> 0:30:16.080 Should I show him Lord? Should I take him to 0:30:16.160 --> 0:30:20.959 my secret stash over here in Lamentations? Now? How are 0:30:20.960 --> 0:30:24.120 you gonna how are you gonna preach about Lamentations? And 0:30:24.160 --> 0:30:27.200 you're talking about therefore, Well, this is the perfect place 0:30:27.240 --> 0:30:30.960 to look at it, because see, Lamentations was a very 0:30:31.000 --> 0:30:35.200 sad book in the Bible. Is sadder than a Nirvana song. 0:30:35.480 --> 0:30:38.480 I mean, this is really sad stuff and it can 0:30:38.520 --> 0:30:41.360 really bring you down. And Jeremiah the prophet was ministering 0:30:41.400 --> 0:30:44.080 in a very hard time. He wasn't seeing much fruit, alterorance. 0:30:44.120 --> 0:30:47.600 I listen to how he starts in Lamentations three nineteen. Actually, 0:30:47.640 --> 0:30:49.360 let's go to verse eighteen. Did I give you eighteen? 0:30:49.360 --> 0:30:51.120 I think I gave you eighteen right before I came out, 0:30:51.160 --> 0:30:54.000 just in case. Yeah, yeah, So I say, my splendor 0:30:54.120 --> 0:30:57.120 is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord. 0:30:57.240 --> 0:31:00.440 What a place to start. I remember my affliction and 0:31:00.480 --> 0:31:03.920 my wandering, the bitterness and the gall so I'm stuck 0:31:03.920 --> 0:31:06.720 in the thorns. I well remember them, and my soul 0:31:07.680 --> 0:31:13.400 is downcast within me. That's a prophet saying that. That's 0:31:13.440 --> 0:31:17.080 a prophet saying that. He said, the memories haunt me. 0:31:19.160 --> 0:31:21.600 The bitterness I taste it right now while I'm talking 0:31:23.320 --> 0:31:25.040 is still on my tongue. You can smell it on 0:31:25.080 --> 0:31:36.480 my breath. I'm still stuck in that. Twenty one says, Uh, 0:31:36.600 --> 0:31:44.640 Yet this I called to mine, and therefore that's my 0:31:44.840 --> 0:31:54.480 favorite word in the Bible today. Therefore I have hope 0:31:54.760 --> 0:31:59.080 it is go on. That's not the good part. This 0:31:59.280 --> 0:32:03.400 is the good part. Because of the Lord's great love, 0:32:04.280 --> 0:32:10.480 we are not consumed. For His compassions never fail. Here's 0:32:10.480 --> 0:32:14.560 the verse. You might know. They are new every morning. 0:32:15.720 --> 0:32:22.280 There's no shortage. There's no shortage. There's no shortage. If 0:32:22.320 --> 0:32:25.520 you screwed up three days ago, there's grace for it 0:32:25.600 --> 0:32:30.000 right now. There's no shortage. They might not have sausage, 0:32:30.080 --> 0:32:34.600 sick filet, but there's no shortage of mercy. In the 0:32:34.720 --> 0:32:42.280 house of God. They are new every morning. So so 0:32:42.280 --> 0:32:44.160 so watch this, watch us, watch this, watch us. We 0:32:44.280 --> 0:32:46.880 passed Stephen. I can't praise God. You don't know what 0:32:46.880 --> 0:32:49.160 what I've been doing. You'll know what I've been struggling with. 0:32:49.400 --> 0:32:54.400 What do you think is mercy? Is there for? Amazing grace? 0:32:54.960 --> 0:32:58.520 How sweet the sound that saved the wretch like me? 0:33:00.120 --> 0:33:03.400 When he hung up on that cross and he didn't 0:33:03.480 --> 0:33:06.960 come down. What do you think he was there for? 0:33:09.960 --> 0:33:18.920 That's what his grace is. Therefore, your weakness, that's what 0:33:19.760 --> 0:33:26.040 his grace is. Therefore, the insults, that's what his grace 0:33:26.720 --> 0:33:32.720 is there for the persecution, that's what his grace is 0:33:32.800 --> 0:33:41.200 there for, the hardship, the difficulty, the thorn is what 0:33:41.280 --> 0:33:50.800 grace is there for. And see Paul had to pray 0:33:50.840 --> 0:33:56.680 about that thing three times, three seasons. You think he 0:33:56.800 --> 0:34:01.040 wasn't fasting, You think he wasn't keeping a journal, a 0:34:01.120 --> 0:34:07.040 foreign journal. You think Paul wasn't You think Paul wasn't 0:34:07.040 --> 0:34:09.680 doing everything in his power to get that thing to 0:34:09.680 --> 0:34:11.520 go away. And you have been to and that's good 0:34:12.360 --> 0:34:14.279 because we don't want to glory in our thorn. Some 0:34:14.320 --> 0:34:18.080 of people will pervert any message you preach. You know, well, lord, 0:34:18.120 --> 0:34:21.680 I'm gonna just go over here on this pornographic website. 0:34:21.719 --> 0:34:23.640 But hey, lord, that's what grace is there for him. 0:34:23.640 --> 0:34:26.160 Who's gonna go on over here and and just do 0:34:26.239 --> 0:34:32.560 it thornographic website. I should have said where you just 0:34:32.640 --> 0:34:37.520 keep recreating the weakness by not dealing with it. But 0:34:37.560 --> 0:34:39.600 grace is there to change you too, So it's there 0:34:39.640 --> 0:34:41.200 for you when you fail, but it's also there to 0:34:41.200 --> 0:34:43.719 build you up so you can get stronger. When I am, 0:34:44.400 --> 0:34:51.120 we some of us, we worship our weakness. Just going 0:34:51.200 --> 0:34:54.239 off on people. That's how I am, not just the way, 0:34:54.680 --> 0:34:56.719 that's just my thorn in the flesh. You heard old 0:34:56.719 --> 0:34:59.879 Pastor Furnick over there at the elevation. He said, it'll 0:34:59.920 --> 0:35:02.239 be grace for it. Now, you need to put the 0:35:02.239 --> 0:35:04.840 grace on me. Well, they're not God. They might slap 0:35:04.880 --> 0:35:07.720 you across your face if you act thorny out there. 0:35:07.480 --> 0:35:09.960 So it's not like, oh well, let's just all be 0:35:10.280 --> 0:35:13.400 you know, just everybody, just everybody, just let's have a 0:35:13.680 --> 0:35:16.680 let's have a thorn party. Let's all tell our thorn stories. 0:35:17.239 --> 0:35:20.719 My thorn is bigger than your thorn. That's how we 0:35:20.760 --> 0:35:25.560 came to church. You want to be transformed. I want 0:35:25.560 --> 0:35:30.160 to receive grace for what we struggle with, he said. 0:35:30.160 --> 0:35:34.320 I prayed, raise your hand if you want me to 0:35:34.360 --> 0:35:36.799 go deeper in this or you can raise it on 0:35:36.840 --> 0:35:39.959 the chat and just put in the chat right now, 0:35:40.480 --> 0:35:44.600 I've got grace for this and the beautiful thing. You 0:35:44.600 --> 0:35:46.520 don't even have to specify what this is to the 0:35:46.560 --> 0:35:48.560 other people in the chat. It's none of their business, 0:35:49.280 --> 0:35:51.080 it's none of mine. You take it to God and 0:35:51.120 --> 0:35:53.200 you get the grace that you need for the season. 0:35:54.840 --> 0:35:57.080 And and don't don't take it to so many other 0:35:57.120 --> 0:35:58.880 people either to tell you what they would do if 0:35:58.920 --> 0:36:03.319 they were you. They're not the God who knows your 0:36:03.360 --> 0:36:08.440 thorn knows the grace that you need. Now, this is 0:36:08.440 --> 0:36:10.960 pretty beautiful. How many of y'all like actually really love 0:36:11.000 --> 0:36:12.759 the Bible? And you're not even a little bit bored 0:36:12.800 --> 0:36:21.040 right now? All right for you, that's not the only 0:36:21.120 --> 0:36:24.000 Therefore in the passage he said three times, Verse eight 0:36:24.120 --> 0:36:26.400 is back, I said Corinthian's twelve. I don't even think 0:36:26.400 --> 0:36:28.960 I'm gonna get to the other scripture today. That's all right. 0:36:29.800 --> 0:36:33.200 Three times I've pleaded with the Lord to take it away. Okay. 0:36:33.920 --> 0:36:38.120 Is he the lord of your thorn? Does he get 0:36:38.160 --> 0:36:40.360 to decide what to leave in your life? Who to 0:36:40.440 --> 0:36:43.560 leave in your life, and what to remove? Is he 0:36:43.719 --> 0:36:48.360 the lord of your thorn? He says, I was given 0:36:48.400 --> 0:36:53.120 a thorn. The messenger was Satan, but the master was 0:36:53.200 --> 0:36:59.759 the Lord. So whatever the devil is doing in your life, 0:37:00.160 --> 0:37:05.520 he doesn't get the ultimate authority. It's not about the thorn. 0:37:05.760 --> 0:37:11.359 It's the story you tell yourself about the thorn. Now, 0:37:12.600 --> 0:37:15.120 Paul could have just as easily come to the conclusion 0:37:15.120 --> 0:37:17.319 because he said it was a messenger of Satan to 0:37:17.320 --> 0:37:20.880 torment me. But verse nine, God said to me, my 0:37:20.920 --> 0:37:22.960 grace is sufficient for you, for my power has made 0:37:23.000 --> 0:37:26.000 perfect in weakness. I read that so many times this week. 0:37:26.000 --> 0:37:27.520 I felt there was something in it for us, and 0:37:27.560 --> 0:37:31.799 there is. But he said to me, okay, back to 0:37:31.880 --> 0:37:37.400 verse eight. Three times I pleaded with the Lord verse nine, 0:37:37.560 --> 0:37:44.440 but he said to me, so Paul asked three times, 0:37:44.480 --> 0:37:46.480 and God said, my grace is sufficient for you, for 0:37:46.560 --> 0:37:48.640 my power has made perfect in weakness. And then what's 0:37:48.680 --> 0:37:54.360 the next word in verse nine? Therefore that's the sandwich. Therefore, 0:37:54.880 --> 0:37:57.480 to keep me from becoming conceited, there was given to 0:37:57.520 --> 0:37:59.239 me a challenge that I could not handle in my 0:37:59.239 --> 0:38:01.960 own strength, something that made me realize, I don't have 0:38:02.080 --> 0:38:05.200 enough IQ to do this. I don't have enough I 0:38:05.200 --> 0:38:08.879 don't have enough physical stamina to do this. I don't 0:38:08.920 --> 0:38:11.240 I don't have enough experience to do this. He said, 0:38:11.520 --> 0:38:14.239 That's what it was there for, because I had so 0:38:14.360 --> 0:38:17.520 many things going for me in my life that there 0:38:17.600 --> 0:38:20.759 had to be this thing. It was said one way 0:38:20.800 --> 0:38:23.800 by one preacher. He said, the thorn took him to 0:38:23.920 --> 0:38:31.600 the throne. It reminded him he wasn't in charge. But 0:38:31.680 --> 0:38:35.000 then after he says that, he says, he said, to me, 0:38:35.080 --> 0:38:37.400 my grace is sufficient for my powers made perfect a weakness. 0:38:37.719 --> 0:38:44.279 Therefore I will not post but boast all the more 0:38:44.400 --> 0:38:49.040 gladly about my weakness, so that Christ power me rest 0:38:49.080 --> 0:38:52.000 on me. Not so I can just stay complacent, stay selfish, 0:38:52.080 --> 0:38:55.600 stay mean, stay hateful, just stay sick, stay in this 0:38:55.680 --> 0:39:00.160 bad physical condition. That's not what I'm glorying in. But 0:39:00.239 --> 0:39:06.400 he said, therefore, therefore I realized what the thorn was 0:39:06.440 --> 0:39:10.360 there for. And he could have taken this anyway, because remember, 0:39:10.760 --> 0:39:14.880 Paul persecuted the same church that he ultimately helped to build. 0:39:16.520 --> 0:39:18.960 So now if this had been your thorn, whatever it was, 0:39:19.120 --> 0:39:22.120 is it Paul's eyesight? Who knows? Was Paul a little short? 0:39:22.200 --> 0:39:24.880 Who knows? Was Paul talking about the people who followed 0:39:24.960 --> 0:39:27.200 him around in every city trying to run him out. 0:39:27.320 --> 0:39:29.520 Was he talking about the people who threw actual stones 0:39:29.560 --> 0:39:33.440 at him, trying to persecute him for the Gospel? We go? Oh, persecution. 0:39:33.560 --> 0:39:36.720 I relate with Paul. You don't relate with Paul because 0:39:36.760 --> 0:39:39.120 one atheist on your Facebook said they didn't like your 0:39:39.120 --> 0:39:41.600 Bible verse. That is not what he's preaching about here. 0:39:45.600 --> 0:39:49.879 But Paul could have just as easily told himself this 0:39:50.200 --> 0:39:54.760 thorn story you ready, Well, this is what I get. 0:39:55.480 --> 0:39:57.279 This is God punishing me for all the bad things 0:39:57.320 --> 0:40:02.160 I did. I guess it doesn't matter how much I change, 0:40:02.200 --> 0:40:08.960 God's never gonna really accept me. I do happen to 0:40:08.960 --> 0:40:12.560 know that Paul studied, struggled with He studied, but he 0:40:12.600 --> 0:40:18.799 also struggled with an inferiority complex because one time he 0:40:18.840 --> 0:40:21.879 called himself the least of the Apostles as one abnormally 0:40:22.000 --> 0:40:25.439 born because he didn't physically walk with Jesus like Peter did. 0:40:27.400 --> 0:40:32.759 He could have just as easily told himself this story 0:40:33.239 --> 0:40:38.600 about the thorn, Well, I guess, I guess if God's 0:40:38.600 --> 0:40:40.560 not going to take this thorn away from me, it's 0:40:40.560 --> 0:40:45.759 really not worth serving him. He could have just as 0:40:45.800 --> 0:40:48.360 easily told God, well, if you would have wanted to 0:40:48.440 --> 0:40:50.200 use me more than you should have made me more whole. 0:40:52.640 --> 0:40:54.520 And I tell the Lord these kinds of things all 0:40:54.560 --> 0:40:57.000 the time, just to be honest with you, because I 0:40:57.040 --> 0:40:59.280 can get in this thing of comparing myself to people 0:41:00.760 --> 0:41:03.960 whose thorns I don't see. I'm not saying they don't 0:41:04.000 --> 0:41:08.880 have them. I just don't get a viewing party. And 0:41:11.120 --> 0:41:15.400 I don't think it's as important what your thorn is. 0:41:15.520 --> 0:41:20.480 You could name it if you wanted to in your heart. 0:41:21.840 --> 0:41:24.080 I think the story you tell yourself about the thorn, 0:41:25.800 --> 0:41:29.680 because Paul says, the Lord said to me, show him 0:41:29.680 --> 0:41:33.279 again in the text he said to me, he said 0:41:33.320 --> 0:41:37.759 to me, he said to me, I don't think he 0:41:37.760 --> 0:41:41.240 heard God out loud, and I don't think God's voice 0:41:41.280 --> 0:41:46.400 was the only one speaking to him about that thorn. Remember, 0:41:46.480 --> 0:41:50.640 he said, a messenger of Satan was sent to torment me. 0:41:52.160 --> 0:41:54.440 So at the same time Paul's trying to do ministry, 0:41:54.520 --> 0:41:56.439 or you're trying to raise your kids, or you're trying 0:41:56.440 --> 0:41:59.319 to grow up in a really weird, wicked world and 0:41:59.360 --> 0:42:03.480 have some integrity about you, there's two voices going on. Really, 0:42:05.040 --> 0:42:08.360 there's two stories being told. He said, there's a messenger 0:42:08.400 --> 0:42:13.840 of Satan that's tormenting me. And then there's the voice 0:42:13.840 --> 0:42:20.000 of Grace that's coming forth to strengthen me. If I 0:42:20.080 --> 0:42:22.880 listened to the first voice, the messenger of Satan, in 0:42:22.920 --> 0:42:25.920 this season of my life, I will not have the 0:42:25.920 --> 0:42:29.959 strength to get up and face myself in the mirror tomorrow. 0:42:30.600 --> 0:42:32.920 If I listen to the message of Satan in my life, 0:42:33.200 --> 0:42:37.040 I'm gonna wind up like Elijah the Prophet, not my son, Elijah, 0:42:37.080 --> 0:42:41.960 the prophet, Elijah, who had the power. You talk about strong, 0:42:42.239 --> 0:42:45.200 you talk about a mentor, you talk about somebody who 0:42:45.280 --> 0:42:48.759 had the sauce, who had the glory of God. Elijah 0:42:48.760 --> 0:42:52.000 Eli Yahoo, my God is they ah Wad called down 0:42:52.120 --> 0:42:55.600 fire on the prophets of Bail, called down fire on 0:42:55.680 --> 0:42:58.640 the prophets of Ashra. Eight hundred and fifty died in 0:42:58.680 --> 0:43:01.920 the valley that day. The nation was turning back to God. 0:43:02.200 --> 0:43:05.160 Spoke and the rain stop spoke again, and it rained 0:43:05.160 --> 0:43:08.040 to cloud the size of a man's head. Then how 0:43:08.120 --> 0:43:13.680 in the world did Elijah wind up standing at the 0:43:13.719 --> 0:43:20.320 mouth of a cave in one kings nineteen. Strong people 0:43:20.400 --> 0:43:31.239 have weak moments. Strong Christians have sharp thorns. Every believer 0:43:31.520 --> 0:43:34.960 has places of brokenness. I need you to know this 0:43:35.360 --> 0:43:39.759 so you don't quit, So you don't stop coming to 0:43:39.920 --> 0:43:43.759 church because you think God doesn't have enough grace for you, 0:43:45.120 --> 0:43:47.640 or because you stopped showing up for the rule God 0:43:47.719 --> 0:43:51.279 gave you, because you don't think you're smart enough. You're not. 0:43:52.520 --> 0:43:56.040 And the thorn is there for you to realize. I 0:43:56.160 --> 0:43:59.440 need your wisdom God. I don't look to the north, 0:43:59.680 --> 0:44:04.120 the east, or the west for my wisdom. My health 0:44:04.200 --> 0:44:10.560 comes from the Lord, so God has given it to me. 0:44:10.680 --> 0:44:12.640 Like this, Turn to somebody next to you. Turn to 0:44:12.640 --> 0:44:14.959 somebody next to you him say the thorn came from 0:44:14.960 --> 0:44:20.279 the enemy, but the grace came from God. I'm gonna 0:44:20.280 --> 0:44:23.920 say it again. The thorn came from the enemy. That 0:44:24.120 --> 0:44:26.719 was the lessnger. I hated the angel that brought it. 0:44:26.920 --> 0:44:29.040 You don't have to like what's happening in your life. 0:44:29.360 --> 0:44:31.279 You don't have to like the people that are in 0:44:31.320 --> 0:44:33.880 your life. You don't have to like the challenge. You 0:44:33.920 --> 0:44:36.560 don't even have to like your personality, but you do 0:44:36.680 --> 0:44:43.280 have to realize that it must be submitted to God's purpose. 0:44:52.880 --> 0:44:54.520 Stand up. I want to show you something, and we're 0:44:54.520 --> 0:45:07.680 out of here. Of your therefore is greater than the 0:45:07.719 --> 0:45:25.080 power of your thorn. God's purpose will prevail, he said. 0:45:26.120 --> 0:45:31.600 Paul said three times. That's a significant number. In scripture, 0:45:32.760 --> 0:45:36.920 three represents perfect unity. You know, Jesus prayed three times 0:45:36.920 --> 0:45:39.680 in the garden of gussemone. He said, nevertheless, I'm gonna 0:45:39.680 --> 0:45:42.520 take this cup, even though I don't want it. I'm 0:45:42.520 --> 0:45:45.600 gonna do this what I came to do. This is 0:45:45.640 --> 0:45:49.200 what I came for. Don't you see it. You are 0:45:49.400 --> 0:45:54.560 running from the stuff that God put you. Therefore, you 0:45:54.600 --> 0:45:58.320 are not praying about the things that God's grace is. Therefore, 0:46:01.520 --> 0:46:03.960 you don't just get to bring God your praise. You 0:46:04.000 --> 0:46:11.040 get to bring your pain too. That's what the grace is. Therefore, 0:46:12.719 --> 0:46:16.560 three times I asked the Lord to take it away, 0:46:17.320 --> 0:46:22.080 but he said to me, hey, here to allow. My 0:46:22.160 --> 0:46:27.719 grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made 0:46:27.719 --> 0:46:32.560 perfect in weakness for us as acute scripture. For Paul, 0:46:33.000 --> 0:46:35.400 that was a story that he had to tell himself 0:46:36.200 --> 0:46:40.040 every time that thorn pressed into his flesh. God's power 0:46:41.080 --> 0:46:45.400 is made perfect every time it presses your flesh. I 0:46:45.440 --> 0:46:49.120 want you to tell yourself a different story. You don't 0:46:49.120 --> 0:46:57.440 get to choose your thorn. You get to choose your story. 0:46:57.920 --> 0:47:03.440 He said, there's no shortage of grace. There's no shortage now, 0:47:05.680 --> 0:47:09.640 he said. Three times I asked, and one time he answered, 0:47:11.320 --> 0:47:14.560 you know what that means. That means the first two 0:47:14.600 --> 0:47:20.719 times that Paul prayed about his storm, silence, some of 0:47:20.800 --> 0:47:25.040 us are standing in the silence right now asking God 0:47:25.080 --> 0:47:26.799 to do stuff. And he didn't say yes, but he 0:47:26.840 --> 0:47:33.800 didn't say no either. That waiting place, that's what grace 0:47:33.880 --> 0:47:40.400 is there for that silence, And it's the story you 0:47:40.480 --> 0:47:44.200 tell yourself about that silence that determines whether or not 0:47:44.239 --> 0:47:48.920 you walk in grace or whether you give up the 0:47:49.080 --> 0:47:55.080 story in the silence. Three times I asked, one time 0:47:55.120 --> 0:48:06.920 he answered, My grace is sufficient. Silence. I don't know 0:48:06.920 --> 0:48:15.200 if this is going to get better, Silence. I'm waiting 0:48:15.239 --> 0:48:21.400 for this to come through. Silence. I have no idea 0:48:21.400 --> 0:48:23.160 if my kid's life is going to turn around, they're 0:48:23.200 --> 0:48:28.680 going to come back to God. Silence. I don't know 0:48:28.719 --> 0:48:33.719 if I ever be in a loving relationship again. Silence. 0:48:35.920 --> 0:48:44.120 I'll know if I'll ever feel better. What story are 0:48:44.160 --> 0:48:49.160 you telling yourself in the silence? Satan wants to use 0:48:49.200 --> 0:48:53.319 that silence and plant a seed. See God doesn't love you. 0:48:54.280 --> 0:48:57.360 See God isn't with you. See the whole thing is 0:48:57.400 --> 0:49:00.359 a bunch of fairy tales and myths. See you'll never 0:49:00.400 --> 0:49:03.759 be good enough. See you can't change everybody else can. See. 0:49:04.040 --> 0:49:06.799 You knew this church thing wouldn't work. See there's no way. 0:49:06.960 --> 0:49:11.080 You never stick to it, you never do it. But 0:49:11.200 --> 0:49:17.560 I believe the spirit wants to plant a different story 0:49:17.719 --> 0:49:22.880 in the silence, so you can know. That's where grace lives, 0:49:25.600 --> 0:49:30.080 the story in the silence. And then he said to me, 0:49:30.360 --> 0:49:34.120 and he'll say it to you too if you let him. 0:49:34.120 --> 0:49:41.719 My grace is sufficient for what you struggle with. My 0:49:41.840 --> 0:49:46.960 grace is sufficient for your mistakes. My grace is sufficient 0:49:47.000 --> 0:49:51.279 for your inexperience. My grace is sufficient for your sin. 0:49:51.640 --> 0:49:54.800 Oh yeah, where sin abound it, there did grace abound 0:49:54.880 --> 0:49:59.640 that much more. I praise God for grace that is 0:49:59.719 --> 0:50:06.879 gre later than oh my sin. And I spent all 0:50:06.920 --> 0:50:10.879 week thinking about the silence. You know, I asked God, 0:50:11.080 --> 0:50:14.560 he didn't answer. I tried that it didn't work. I 0:50:14.800 --> 0:50:17.160 waited for it. I don't even see a sign of 0:50:17.200 --> 0:50:20.520 it coming. I have no idea what that was there for. 0:50:23.480 --> 0:50:26.120 And I saw Elijah, God's great prophet, see Paul wasn't 0:50:26.120 --> 0:50:28.120 the only preacher who had to deal with the silence. 0:50:28.920 --> 0:50:33.200 You're not the only one either, the great prophet who 0:50:33.239 --> 0:50:38.560 called down fire from heaven. In One Kings nineteen, verse thirteen, 0:50:40.080 --> 0:50:43.560 the Bible says that God was passing by Elijah. He 0:50:43.600 --> 0:50:46.320 was depressed. Now, he was discouraged. Now he was tired, 0:50:46.400 --> 0:50:50.880 Now he was exhausted. Now the nation had rebelled against God. 0:50:50.920 --> 0:50:53.400 And he had been suffering from the ramifications of a 0:50:53.480 --> 0:50:55.840 drought for so long, and he was considered by many 0:50:55.880 --> 0:50:59.439 to be the troublemaker who started it all. And even 0:50:59.480 --> 0:51:02.840 after call down fire from heaven, he still felt something 0:51:02.880 --> 0:51:06.879 in his soul. It was the isolation of the draft 0:51:06.920 --> 0:51:10.960 that landed him in this place. And Elijah says something 0:51:12.920 --> 0:51:16.319 in One Kings nineteen that you may have said a 0:51:16.320 --> 0:51:21.799 few times this past week. I have had enough, Lord, 0:51:23.239 --> 0:51:28.200 I'm sick of this. A woman named Jezebel, who was 0:51:28.200 --> 0:51:31.400 the wife of Ahab the King, was chasing Elijah. She 0:51:31.560 --> 0:51:36.920 sent a messenger to threaten him, which lets me know 0:51:37.040 --> 0:51:39.920 there was really nothing she could do to him. She 0:51:40.120 --> 0:51:43.080 was just trying to intimidate him to the point that 0:51:43.160 --> 0:51:45.520 he would leave the place where God had assigned him. 0:51:46.680 --> 0:51:48.799 That is what Satan is trying to do to you 0:51:49.000 --> 0:51:52.239 right now, is trying to run you off from the 0:51:52.280 --> 0:51:55.200 place where God's greatest grace is about to be released 0:51:55.200 --> 0:51:58.080 in your life. That place of weakness, that's where the 0:51:58.160 --> 0:52:04.960 grace is coming. That's where the grace is coming. So 0:52:05.320 --> 0:52:09.000 let me preach this for every Jezebel, for every thorn 0:52:09.239 --> 0:52:12.080 that has been threatening you, that has been tormenting you, 0:52:12.320 --> 0:52:15.239 that has been pressing into you, that has been causing you. 0:52:15.400 --> 0:52:18.760 Pain in your spirit is worse than pain in your body. 0:52:19.000 --> 0:52:21.440 Is a pain in your spirit you can't shake, and 0:52:21.520 --> 0:52:24.640 God won't remove it. And the Bible says when Elijah 0:52:25.200 --> 0:52:28.360 heard the voice of God, by the way, God didn't 0:52:28.440 --> 0:52:35.240 shout to Elijah, he whispered, and Elijah pulled his cloak 0:52:36.640 --> 0:52:41.319 over his face and went out and stood at the 0:52:41.360 --> 0:52:46.040 mouth of the cave. I know it's just a figure 0:52:46.040 --> 0:52:49.480 of speech, but knowing that it's called the mouth of 0:52:49.520 --> 0:52:54.360 the cave makes sense to me. That was the place 0:52:54.360 --> 0:52:58.080 where he had holed up, waiting to die. That was 0:52:58.120 --> 0:53:00.279 the place where he had shut himself in because he 0:53:00.280 --> 0:53:03.680 didn't want to take it anymore. That was the place 0:53:03.680 --> 0:53:06.279 where he was all by himself with nothing but the 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:09.359 movies in his mind to watch of how bad his 0:53:09.360 --> 0:53:13.680 life was. So now he's standing at the mouth of 0:53:13.719 --> 0:53:17.040 the cave, and so are you. The only voice you 0:53:17.080 --> 0:53:20.719 hear in the cave is an echo the thoughts that 0:53:20.760 --> 0:53:26.680 bounce around your head, the thoughts that torment you. You've 0:53:26.880 --> 0:53:30.719 already thought those enough that if those thoughts could bring 0:53:30.760 --> 0:53:34.400 you out, they would have by now. So when he 0:53:34.480 --> 0:53:37.680 stood at the mouth of the cave watched this, he 0:53:37.680 --> 0:53:41.880 heard the voice of the Lord. And the voice said, 0:53:43.200 --> 0:53:48.440 what are you doing here? Elijah? I could ask you 0:53:48.480 --> 0:53:55.840 the same question, What are you there for in the cave? 0:53:58.360 --> 0:54:02.000 When God has a great ministry for you, when God 0:54:02.040 --> 0:54:05.920 has a great future for you? Remember, Jeremiah said this 0:54:06.080 --> 0:54:11.319 I recall to my mind. Therefore I have hope. What 0:54:11.440 --> 0:54:13.840 are you doing in the place of shame when there's 0:54:13.920 --> 0:54:18.880 so much mercy with your name on it? What are 0:54:18.880 --> 0:54:22.000 you doing running around the people to get what can 0:54:22.160 --> 0:54:27.600 only come from God? So God said to Elijah, I've 0:54:27.640 --> 0:54:29.960 still got an assignment for you if you want it. 0:54:30.360 --> 0:54:33.080 I've still got a job for you if you want it. 0:54:33.440 --> 0:54:36.359 I still got grace for you if you want it. 0:54:36.680 --> 0:54:39.440 I still got a hope for you. If you want it. 0:54:39.719 --> 0:54:42.719 I still got a future for you. If you want it, 0:54:43.160 --> 0:54:52.120 I got joy for you. There's no sortish, It's the 0:54:52.200 --> 0:54:55.759 power of a Therefore, lift your hands. The Lord is 0:54:55.800 --> 0:55:00.520 passing by. The mountains were ripped apart. That was God. 0:55:01.239 --> 0:55:04.960 The wind came sweeping through. That wasn't God. The fire 0:55:05.120 --> 0:55:09.280 came sweeping through. That wasn't God. The earth started shaking. 0:55:09.360 --> 0:55:15.080 That wasn't God. It was in the whisper that Elijah 0:55:15.160 --> 0:55:22.080 heard is voice. Lord, I thank you for a new story. 0:55:22.120 --> 0:55:28.399 In the silence, we come against every false belief and 0:55:28.480 --> 0:55:31.800 every messenger of Satan that was sent to torment on us. 0:55:31.960 --> 0:55:36.560 Today we flip it in Jesus' name, in Jesus's name, 0:55:37.160 --> 0:55:41.359 in Jesus's name. No, no, not in our strength, in 0:55:41.560 --> 0:55:47.200 Jesus's name. What tormented you before is going to bring 0:55:47.280 --> 0:55:50.520 you to the throne of God for a greater release 0:55:50.560 --> 0:55:54.880 of grace. I speak, greater anointing over your life, Greater 0:55:55.000 --> 0:56:00.239 anointing over your leadership, Greater anointing over your relationships, later 0:56:00.360 --> 0:56:04.800 annoint over your mind. Here comes your peace, Here comes 0:56:04.800 --> 0:56:09.160 your joy, Here comes your provision. There is no shortage 0:56:09.200 --> 0:56:13.959 in heaven for a heart that is open to God, 0:56:15.520 --> 0:56:22.560 So lift your hands, because if he dress the lilies, 0:56:24.440 --> 0:56:32.440 it's beauty and slender. How much they come? How much? 0:56:35.920 --> 0:56:47.719 If he waw much? Does he know you? All right? 0:56:48.280 --> 0:56:50.960 Hang out one second? So here it is. This is 0:56:51.040 --> 0:56:52.960 the new story I want you to tell yourself in 0:56:53.040 --> 0:57:02.799 the silence. The more thorns you're dealing with, the more 0:57:03.000 --> 0:57:12.960 grace you are to expect. Holy is your name, God. 0:57:13.880 --> 0:57:17.960 Glory to your name. God. We worship your great name. God. 0:57:18.400 --> 0:57:22.120 We worship your great name God. Glory to your name, God. 0:57:22.480 --> 0:57:26.200 Release your glory in this place. Release your glory on 0:57:26.280 --> 0:57:31.680 every location. Release your glory. Lake Norman, release your glory. 0:57:31.800 --> 0:57:35.520 Release your glory right now, all over the world. Through 0:57:35.560 --> 0:57:39.560 this broadcast, through this sermon, through this worship moment, I 0:57:39.680 --> 0:57:43.920 pray a great release of grace, a great release of glory. 0:57:44.200 --> 0:57:53.720 We give you glory, We give you glory, a new 0:57:53.840 --> 0:57:59.720 story for the silence. Father, we bring those storms right 0:57:59.760 --> 0:58:05.080 now to the throne. You are the Lord of the thorn, 0:58:06.360 --> 0:58:11.080 and you are the God of all grace. When I 0:58:11.120 --> 0:58:15.280 stood up today to preach, Lord, I had no idea 0:58:15.800 --> 0:58:18.919 whose thorn I would be preaching to, But you did. 0:58:20.760 --> 0:58:23.240 I had no idea who would take the time to 0:58:23.280 --> 0:58:28.400 come to church to log on, but you did. And 0:58:28.440 --> 0:58:31.800 they didn't even know what they came for, but you did. 0:58:35.360 --> 0:58:41.160 So now I know what I was here for. God 0:58:41.200 --> 0:58:47.440 wanted me to receive this grace, and I receive it 0:58:49.360 --> 0:58:55.280 right now in the name of Jesus. Pray that I lod. 0:58:55.320 --> 0:59:00.080 I receive it right now in the name of Jesus. 0:59:01.680 --> 0:59:07.840 I receive grace right now, in the name of Jesus. 0:59:08.880 --> 0:59:14.680 I receive healing right now, in the name of Jesus. 0:59:15.680 --> 0:59:21.480 I receive joy right now in the name of Jesus. 0:59:22.440 --> 0:59:26.160 And I celebrate your grace. God. I celebrate your grace 0:59:26.640 --> 0:59:34.640 for my thorny, I celebrate your grace. Come on, we 0:59:34.680 --> 0:59:37.040 didn't come to have a pity party about our thorn. 0:59:37.440 --> 0:59:41.840 This is a celebration of grace, A celebration of grace. 0:59:43.120 --> 0:59:50.320 Sing that song again. Sing that song. There's no shortage. 0:59:51.360 --> 1:00:27.160 My God will supply on your Jesus. Therefore I will 1:00:27.240 --> 1:00:30.600 both stall the more gladly in the things I used 1:00:30.600 --> 1:00:36.800 to complain about. You know what, when Paul was locked 1:00:36.800 --> 1:00:40.120 in prison at Philippi, when God opened the prison doors 1:00:40.120 --> 1:00:43.720 because he sang a song at midnight, Paul didn't even leave. 1:00:44.720 --> 1:00:47.680 He wanted to lead the jailer to Christ. He said, 1:00:47.720 --> 1:00:50.320 I'm not coming out until I find out what I 1:00:50.400 --> 1:00:53.320 was there for. And do you not know that the 1:00:53.440 --> 1:00:58.320 Church at Philippi was born out of that situation. So 1:00:58.480 --> 1:01:02.560 tell the devil, I'm not until I find out what 1:01:02.640 --> 1:01:07.360 God has for me in this spiritualation. I talk too far, 1:01:07.880 --> 1:01:17.120 I turn around. Whoo. So campus pastors, y'll take the service. 1:01:17.520 --> 1:01:25.120 I'm done officially right now in the name of Jesus. 1:01:27.160 --> 1:01:29.560 And here at Valentine, clap your hands and give God break. 1:01:34.040 --> 1:01:40.480 All right, all right, there's what I'm gonna do in 1:01:40.560 --> 1:01:42.760 this room. There's somebody God wanted me to give you 1:01:42.800 --> 1:01:47.760 the invitation to receive Christ by your head. You didn't 1:01:47.760 --> 1:01:49.520 come to church today because your girlfriend wanted you to. 1:01:51.360 --> 1:01:55.160 That's just who God used. God brought you here for 1:01:55.400 --> 1:01:59.920 this moment, all right, That's what God brought you here for. 1:02:00.960 --> 1:02:03.240 Because as I've been preaching today, God's been speaking to you, 1:02:03.400 --> 1:02:05.560 calling you out of the cave, calling you out of 1:02:05.600 --> 1:02:07.960 your sin, calling you out of your shame, calling you 1:02:08.000 --> 1:02:11.120 out of your self reliance. Just the voice of the Lord. 1:02:11.160 --> 1:02:13.400 And he's whispering to you right now. He's not going 1:02:13.440 --> 1:02:16.760 to force you. He's not going to make you. But 1:02:16.800 --> 1:02:18.880 if you want to surrender your life to God, the 1:02:18.920 --> 1:02:21.080 Bible says it's by faith we are saved. Is by grace. 1:02:21.120 --> 1:02:24.240 We are saved through faith. It is the gift of God, 1:02:24.760 --> 1:02:26.880 not work, so that no one can boast about it. 1:02:27.480 --> 1:02:30.560 So you have the same right to receive grace as 1:02:30.640 --> 1:02:33.040 anybody in this room. And if you need a new 1:02:33.040 --> 1:02:35.840 start with God and to know you have a relationship 1:02:35.880 --> 1:02:38.400 with Him, whether you're coming to Jesus for the first 1:02:38.480 --> 1:02:41.360 time or coming back to Him, I want to give 1:02:41.360 --> 1:02:45.280 you that opportunity. In this moment. You pray with me 1:02:45.360 --> 1:02:48.680 out loud and repeat after me this prayer. And God 1:02:48.720 --> 1:02:51.840 will hear you from heaven. If you place your faith 1:02:51.840 --> 1:02:54.760 in Him, He'll forgive you of all your sins. There 1:02:54.920 --> 1:02:59.720 is a grace in this moment. Repeat after me out loud. 1:02:59.720 --> 1:03:02.240 For everybody who's coming to God today, let's pray as 1:03:02.240 --> 1:03:08.800 a church heavenly Father. Today today is by days of salvation. Salvation. 1:03:09.080 --> 1:03:14.000 I am a sinner in need of the grace of God. 1:03:14.080 --> 1:03:17.960 I believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son 1:03:18.040 --> 1:03:22.360 of God and the Savior of the world. And today 1:03:23.120 --> 1:03:27.120 I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe 1:03:27.160 --> 1:03:31.680 he died that I would be forgiven and rose again 1:03:32.560 --> 1:03:37.600 to give me life. I receive this new life. This 1:03:37.800 --> 1:03:41.240 is my new beginning. If you pray that shoots your 1:03:41.240 --> 1:03:44.040 hand up right now on the count of three, two three, 1:03:44.200 --> 1:03:50.120 put it up. Bless your man, blessed, bless it. Come 1:03:50.160 --> 1:03:53.480 on and celebrate like you know what it means to 1:03:53.480 --> 1:03:57.640 get a second chance. Let's celebrate the grace of God. 1:03:58.840 --> 1:04:11.360 How many are breaks? Yeah? What ah? It is all right, 1:04:11.800 --> 1:04:14.680 I gotta dismiss you now. You know we gotta go. 1:04:15.840 --> 1:04:19.720 You know we gotta go. But you better leave here 1:04:19.720 --> 1:04:26.400 more focused on your therefore than your thorn. Every time 1:04:26.440 --> 1:04:29.960 you feel that thorn this week, there's a therefore. Oh 1:04:30.040 --> 1:04:32.360 God's about to bring me into every time you see 1:04:32.400 --> 1:04:35.320 a Goliath this week, Oh God must have a sword 1:04:35.360 --> 1:04:38.200 that I'm gonna need in the future. Goliath has got 1:04:38.240 --> 1:04:41.320 your sword. Y'all better stop, stop, stop, don't encourage me. 1:04:43.480 --> 1:04:47.520 And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, 1:04:48.680 --> 1:04:54.320 for my power is made perfect in weakness. On your 1:04:54.320 --> 1:04:57.080 way out, touch three people and say I got my 1:04:57.160 --> 1:05:02.280 own sauce. I see y'all next. I love you well. 1:05:02.320 --> 1:05:04.400 If you enjoyed Today's podcast, there are a couple of 1:05:04.440 --> 1:05:08.120 things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, 1:05:08.400 --> 1:05:11.400 and review this podcast. You can also help us reach 1:05:11.440 --> 1:05:15.280 others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give 1:05:15.720 --> 1:05:18.520 and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast