We're ready to jump back into Second Corinthians. You guys ready? All right. We're getting close to being done. We've got two chapters left. And so based on the pace we take, should be another, like, four months, I think. But, no, just kidding. We just got a few weeks left of it. But I'm excited to jump back into it. This morning, as we jump into just chapter 12, we're picking up where Paul has left off. Paul has been kind of going on this boasting montage where he's talking about all these things that he's boasting in, except they're not things that we would normally boast in. He's boasting in suffering. He's boasting in pain. He's boasting in beatings. He's boasting in all these things. And he's doing this boasting, remember, to kind of give a defense against the super Apostles. And so we see all in chapter 11 that he's boasting in his weakness, that he's boasting in these things that are happening to him. And as he picks up in chapter 12, we can see him continue to start boasting. But as he does that, we're going to see Paul move from just talking about boasting and boasting and weaknesses. And we're going to see Paul also talk about power. Specifically, we're going to see Paul talk about the power of Christ dwelling in him. And how many of you would like to experience the power of Christ? Okay, I was hoping for every hand, but, you know, we'll make do with that. There's something we all want, right? We want to experience the power of God. We want to experience the power of Christ in our life. We want to see the power of Christ displayed out in the world. Like, that's. That's what we want as followers of Jesus. We want to see the power of Christ displayed, but we don't always know how. We don't always know how to experience it. We don't always know how to see it displayed. And it's kind of like that country song, looking for Love in all the Wrong Places. You guys are familiar with that one. Except we're looking for power in all the wrong places. Oftentimes we look for power in the wrong places, and we end up coming short. We end up not experiencing the power of Christ like we want to. And so this morning, we want to see how do we experience the power of Christ in our lives? How do we experience that kind of Power. That's ultimately where Paul is going to land, but he's going to get there in a roundabout way. And so for this first part, it. It's going to kind of feel maybe a little academic as we kind of walk through the text a little bit, but we're going to get to the spot of like, where does Paul experience the power of Christ in his life, and how can we do the same? And so chapter 12, starting in verse one, it says, I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. Remember, Paul is boasting, and he's doing this to argue against the super apostles. They've been boasting about their strength, their demeanor, their composure, their physical presence. And Paul has been boasting in his weakness. He's been saying, I don't have much of a physical presence. And they're saying, that shows your lack of ability to minister well. And now we also assume that the super apostles were talking about the spiritual experiences that they had had. And so now Paul, he goes on boasting. He's not happy to do this. He's not excited to do this. He thinks it's a foolish thing to do. But he's ready to play the fool on behalf of the church in Corinth, helping them to see that his ministry is legit. And so that's kind of where he's going boasting in now the visions and revelations of the Lord. And as we start in verse two, he's going to shift to talking in the third person, which can be annoying if you're talking to someone and they just start referring to themselves in the third person. I don't recommend that in daily conversation. But Paul's doing this here. And here's why I think he's doing it. I think he's doing this because he wants to kind of show the disgust that he has and what he's about to do. He doesn't like that he is bragging about or boasting in these revelations or these spiritual experiences. Most people think that Paul would have taken this experience to the grave with him if it weren't for this letter that he had to write. And so Paul starts to shift to talking in the third person because he wants to say, hey, I don't like doing this. In fact, I'm not even going to take credit for this right now. And so he shifts to talking in third person. And this is his experience. He says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, was caught up to the third heaven. Now this third heaven, some religions kind of use this as a text to say the third heaven is like ultimate heaven. Like there's different layers to it, different degrees of heaven. And they'd say, the third heaven, that's the best heaven. That's not what Paul is getting at here. There's no different degrees of heaven. But what he is saying is, in Jewish kind of understanding, back at this time, the first heaven would have been like the sky where the birds fly around, where you fly on airplanes. They didn't fly on airplanes. They didn't have them then. But that would be the first heaven. Second heaven, stars, planets, outer space, that is what they would refer to as the second heaven. Then the third heaven, that's heaven. Like, that's paradise. That's the throne room of God, the presence of God himself. And so that's where he's saying that he was caught up to. I was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of body, I do not know. God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. And so Paul gives us a little description of this experience. And part of me wishes he would have given more because that seems like an awesome experience. It seems like this really sweet encounter with God, being transported up into the throne room in the very presence of God. But Paul doesn't give us any more information. In fact, it seems like God had told him, hey, you're not going to talk about this to other people. You're not going to tell them what you heard up here. But we see Paul give this kind of description of this spiritual experience that he had. And I think he's being purposely vague because I think the point of this isn't to brag about the experience, but to just counter the argument of the. The super apostles that were trying to steal the flock. They would have been saying, well, we've had these visions, we've had these spiritual experiences. We've seen these things happening in our lives. We've had this revelation from God. And Paul is essentially saying, you had revelations, Cool, I went to heaven. How about that? Oh, you had visions. That's cute. I was in the throne room of God. So essentially he's just arguing with them, saying, hey, no, my ministry is real. I am a real apostle. Listen to me. He's trying to keep his church from being deceived. And so he doesn't go into all the details, but he gives enough information so that his people, his church, would know, hey, this is real. This is legit. You should listen to me. And so that's the purpose of the revelation. That's the purpose of this spiritual experience that we see. But notice how Paul ends his encounter here. In verses five and six, he says, on behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weakness. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or. Or hears from me. Even this insane spiritual experience that Paul had, he did not count that as boastworthy. He wasn't trying to boast in the experience that God had graced him with. He didn't see that worth boasting in. In fact, the only place he sees worth boasting in is his weakness. And he says that again. And the only thing that he wants to boast in is the weakness that he has. And I think the cool thing about this is the part of the reason Paul didn't want to give all of this detail about this experience that he had was he didn't want people. He didn't want word to get out about that to keep people from actually hearing what he was saying and seeing who he was. So he says, I'm not going to boast in this experience. I'm going to boast in my weakness. And as he gets ready, as he says that, he now gets ready to continue talking about his weakness, talking about what he actually boasts in. And so let's keep going. And we're going to pick up in verse seven, says, so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh. A messenger of Satan to harass me. We'll pause there for a second because there's a lot of debate about what this thorn in the flesh is. There's a lot of people who say it might have been a physical ailment that he couldn't get rid of. There's people that might say it was persecution or ministry opposition that he was facing. And so we don't know exactly what the thorn in his flesh was. But I think that's okay. And I think it's purposeful because I think what it allows us to do is it allows us to see the thorn for what it is weakness, pain and suffering. It allows us to kind of just put it in that category. So now as we look at the weakness, pain and suffering that Paul has experienced and experiencing, it allows us to see how he experiences it in a way to see the power of Christ in him. See, this thorn from the outside world would have been a showing of weakness, would have been something that those apostles against him could have pointed at to say he's not actually a real apostle. And what Paul is going to do now is he's going to turn their argument on their head. He's going to show them that, yeah, this thorn may look like it's weakness, but there's something deeper at play here than just this thorn. You see, this thorn summed up, it would have been an ongoing suffering for Paul, like, and it would have been something that he was facing on a regular basis. And it's through this thorn we see Paul now talk about boasting and weakness and experiencing power. So let's keep going. A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong man. What a sweet text. But in the moment, like in the midst of that, do you see where Paul experiences the power of Christ? Where is it? Okay, come on. Not a hard question. Where does he experience the power of Christ? In his weakness. It's in his weakness that he gets to the full display of Christ's power and grace. You would have thought that Paul would have pointed to his spiritual experiences, that he would have pointed to this throne room visit as the place where he experiences God power. But that's not what he does. It's not in that instance where he experienced God's power in a unique way. It isn't in that instance where the power and grace of Christ rested upon him. It was in his weakness. It was through this thorn that was in his flesh. It's not in his spiritual experiences or his own ability that he experiences the power of God. It's in his weakness. And I love the wording in verse nine. It says that so that the power of Christ may rest upon me, that Phrase rest upon me. It's the same phrase or same idea used in the Old Testament when God would tabernacle with his people where his presence would be amongst his people at the tabernacle before the temple, that was his presence resting upon them. And it's the same word that and phrase that John uses in John chapter one when he says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And so the idea that Paul is really trying to get at here is he's saying that I experienced the power of God in my weakness. And not just experience it, but the power of Christ literally dwelt among me. It rested upon me, it tabernacled among me in my weakness. That's where I experience the display of Christ's power. Not in my strength, not in the good things that are happening, but in the weakness. And what is this power of Christ that Paul is referring to? I believe it's the power to endure suffering and pain. Like oftentimes when we hear the phrase the power of Christ, it's like all this really cool supernatural things. And it can refer to that. Yes. But I think when you look at the context of what Paul is writing and talking about, the power of Christ that Paul is referring to is the power to endure suffering, weakness and pain. He's saying it's in the midst of all that that I truly get to experience the power of Christ, the Christ who walked in humble obedience and submission to God through intense pain of suffering. Paul saying that's the kind of power that rested upon me. That's the kind of power that I experienced. And I only experienced it in the midst of my pain and in my suffering and in my weakness. Paul saw that it was in his own weakness and suffering that Christ graciously gives him his power, his cross bearing pain, enduring power, church. And that's where you can experience the enduring power of Christ in the midst of your weakness. The problem is we just don't like weakness and pain that much. I think so many of us, we want to experience the power of Christ, but we're unwilling to embrace the thorn of Christ. We want to experience the power of Christ in us, but we're unwilling to embrace the thorn that Christ has given us. But it's exactly through the thorns, through the weakness, through the suffering, through the pain that God actually graces us with the experiences of his power and grace. It's through the thorns that we have. So here's what Paul knew about experiencing God's power that we need to get. We experience God's Power, when we embrace suffering, like you raised your hand earlier, you want to experience God's power, Get ready to embrace suffering. And when I say embrace suffering, I don't mean go looking for it. Like, you don't need to go looking for suffering. You don't need to even be happy about suffering. But it's going to come. You don't need to go looking for it. In fact, we even see Paul plead with the Lord three times in verse eight. It says, but three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. Paul doesn't like the pain, he doesn't like the weakness, he doesn't like the suffering. He's not looking for it, but it found him. You don't have to go looking for the pain, suffering and weakness. It will probably find you eventually. So you don't have to like it, you don't have to look for it. But Paul did know that there was a unique experience of the power of God in the enduring of our suffering and weaknesses. He knew that. And so though he pleaded with God to remove the pain, though he pleaded with God to remove the thorn three times, ultimately he knew that God was doing something in it. Ultimately, he embraced it because of what it could produce. And so if we truly experience God's power in the midst of suffering and weakness, how can we embrace suffering like Paul so we can experience that power? How can we embrace the suffering and weakness in our own lives in a way that we can experience the grace and power of God in a unique way? Now, just to clarify, when I'm talking about weakness and suffering, I'm not talking about consequences for your sin. I'm not talking about discipline for your sinful behavior. That's not what I'm getting at there. Imagine if your kids tried to pull that with you, right? It's like, I'm just really suffering at home right now. My parents, they've grounded me. And you're just like, that's not suffering. You were just stupid. You deserved all that, right? So don't confuse your weakness and pain with consequences for your sin. Don't confuse those two things because that's not the kind of pain, weakness and suffering that Paul is getting at here. Your pet sin isn't weakness, it's sin. And so deal with that, but also prepare for pain, weakness and suffering. And here's when I talk about, here's kind of what I'm meaning by it, it's the things that we experience due to the brokenness of the world or the brokenness of others. It might be physical ailments to your body, chronic illnesses that you can't get rid of, could be suffering inflicted upon by the means of other people. That's the kind of pain and suffering and weakness Paul is really referring to here. And so how do we embrace that kind of pain and suffering like Paul? What did Paul understand about weakness and suffering that we need to understand? What did he get that we need to get if we are going to truly experience the grace and power of God among us? There's three things that I want to see from these last few verses that we have to understand if we're going to endure. Well, three things that are vital to us enduring in a way where we experience the enduring power of Christ. And the first one we see is in verse seven, so you can flip back there. It says, so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. The thing we see right away that's vital to us enduring pain and suffering in this life is this. That it is from God. It is from God. Look at verse seven again. So it said, to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was what given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. Here we see something that we have to understand, that the pain and suffering in our life is given, the weakness in our life is given. It's a messenger of Satan. Yes, but it's given. And we can tell based on the context and the purpose of the thorn, which we'll get to in a minute, that it was given by God. If you want to embrace suffering in your life, you have to understand that it is from God. And you might be thinking, wait, the thorn was a messenger of Satan, but how could it be from God? Like, how could a messenger of Satan be from God? And we kind of create this divide in our head where we think Satan is in control of evil and God is in control of good. The reality is that God is in control of both. And we see that all throughout Scripture. This isn't just a Paul thing. This is a all humanity for all time thing. Look at Genesis 45. This is the story of Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to Egypt. Wrongly accused, thrown in jail, rises to power. This is now when he is showing his brothers who he is. And so Genesis 45. Yep. So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came Near. And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. Joseph's suffering was at the hands of his evil brothers, his sinful brothers, meaning wrong against him, but also by the sending hand of God. Both are true. We see it in Job. In Job, Job had everything. He was a man who had everything, was a righteous man. Satan goes to God and says, hey, I bet he wouldn't be righteous if you took everything away from him. You've been too good to him. So God's like, bet, let's see. And so this is what we see in Job 1. And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand, only against him. Do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. And what we see Satan do is he takes everything from Job. He takes his property, his sons die. He takes all of his wealth, all that Job has, except a nagging wife, which I'm assuming was part of Satan's plan, too. He took it all. But we also see this as Job's response. He says, and he said, naked I come from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It was Satan who orchestrated all that. It was Satan who did it, who accomplished it. But there's also God. Both happen. We see this through the nation of Israel. When they're in rebellion against God. God's about to send them into captivity. We see this in second Chronicles 36. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy. Therefore, he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their young man with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. It's the king of the Chaldeans that does this. But it's at the sending hand of God. All throughout Scripture, all throughout of life, we see that God's mighty hand has always been the one that upholds and holds all things together, good and evil, right and wrong. It's all under the control of God. Because we have to get this. We have to understand that all things are in God's hands, no matter how good it seems, no matter how bad it seems. God is in control all of it. We have to stop thinking that God is only in control of the good and Satan is in control of the bad. Because God's in control of it all. It all belongs to him. It's all within his hand. It's all under his sovereignty. We have to understand that. And not only do we have to understand it, we can trust that God takes those things, that God takes the pain, that God takes the suffering, that God takes the evil in this world and purposes it for good. Paul understood that the thorn was from God. So it kind of leads us to the question of like, why would God do that? Why would God give pain? Why would God give suffering to his people, his people whom he loves, his people whom he bought with the blood of Jesus, the people that he's adopted into his family? Why would God be the one to give pain? Why would he do that? I think Paul helps us see a couple of reasons why. Look again at verse seven. In verse seven, it starts with this phrase, to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. And it ends with a very similar phrase, to keep me from becoming conceited. So why did God give Paul a thorn in his flesh? Why did Paul get weakness from God? To keep him from becoming conceited? To kill the pride in his life, to sanctify him, to make him more and more like Christ. You see, Paul knew that he was prone to pride. That would be my guess, that Paul knew that he was prone to pride. That it would be easy for Paul in the flesh to look at the life that he lived. The revelations that he had seen, the visions that he had had, the spiritual experiences that he had had, the ministry fruit that had come about from his proclaiming of the gospel. It could have been easy for Paul to get really puffed up with pride. And Paul knew that. You know who else knew that? God. God knew that Paul could very easily get prideful due to everything that had been seen and everything that had happened. And you know who saw it as a gracious gift to give him weakness, to kill that pride? God is like, this is going to be good for you. You don't like it right now, that's fine. It might not feel good, but this is good for you. The suffering was good for Paul because it made him like Christ. Paul didn't see it and he wasn't angry at it. He wasn't like, why is this my lot in life? But he saw it as a God given pride, killing gift and church. This is a perspective shift. We have to make. If we want to endure suffering and pain and weakness in this world, we have to understand that it's from God and it is for us. Like, let's get personal. Your pain, your weakness, your suffering. It is for you. It is for your good. It is to mold you and shape you and help you become more and more like Christ. The hurt you've experienced from the people you loved, it's purposed by God for your pursuit of God. The loneliness and depression isn't pointless. It's purposed. It's purposed to make you more dependent on God. The death you experience in your family isn't pointless. It's purposed. No matter what pain, no matter what suffering, no matter what bodily weakness you have, it is meant by God to accomplish something good in you. And if you want to endure suffering and weakness and pain, well, you have to understand that. You have to see it from that perspective. You might not always be able to tell the good that God is making come from it, but you can trust that he is. At our last staff, devo, one of our pastors, Richard, he shared this quote from Charles Spurgeon. It's just been rolling around in my brain, says this. God is too good to be unkind. He is too wise to be mistaken. When you can't trace his hand, we must trust his heart. I'm going to repeat that one more time just for you. God is too good to be unkind, and he is too wise to be mistaken. And when we can't trace his hand, we must trust his heart. Your pain, your suffering, your grief, your trials and your hardship, they are meant by God for your good. You might not be able to see it as clearly as Paul did, but you can trust that it's true. And we have to church, we have to get into the habit of seeing the weakness and pain and suffering in our life with spiritual glasses instead of our earthly ones. Like, you go to the eye doctor, right? And they bring that big thing down in front of you. Anyone know what that big thing is called? No. A headache. No, not quite. No one in the last service did either. So at least you guys are on par with them. That's great, but we'll just call it the big thing for now. They pull that big thing down in front of your eyes, right? And they have you read something on the far wall and they switch it. And the eye doctor always sounds like the teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. A or B? A or B? Or is it about the same? And they do that over and over again because they want to narrow in your prescription. Right, here's what I want you to see is oftentimes, well, when you do that, does what's on the back wall change? No, how you see it changes. What you're reading doesn't change, but how you're seeing what you need to read changes. And here's where I'm getting at. So often when we look at the pain and suffering and weaknesses in our own life, we see it with earthly glasses. We see it with the wrong prescription and we see it incorrectly. We see it from the angle of woe is me. Like how could this be happening to me? I don't deserve this pain. My family doesn't deserve this. Go take that somewhere else. Like God, why would you give this to me? And we see it from a perspective that's just so self focused on the here and now. But when you see it with spiritual eyes, when you see it with a spiritual perspective perspective, you start to see suffering as God intends for your good, to grow, your love for him, your reliance on him, your hatred of sin and your dependency on him, all for his glory Church. We need to see the pain and suffering and weakness in our life. With spiritual glasses, we need to see it from the right perspective. The pain, suffering and weakness in your life does not mean God is against you. If you are a Christian, it means exactly the opposite, that he's doing something great in you. You want to embrace pain, weakness and suffering. You need to see it as good for you. You need to see it as God working something in you. You can't see it as pointless, you need to see it as purposed. Paul knew that. He knew that as he suffered in that way that allowed him to experience the grace and power of God in a way that nothing else could. And when you endure it that way, you'll experience the grace of God. You'll experience the enduring power of God as He meets you in your weakness, in your pain to show him more of yourself and to make you more like Him. Your suffering isn't hopeless, it's not pointless. It's purposed so that you can experience God's grace in his power. Because that's when we experience the enduring power of God in suffering. One, when we know that it is from God, and two, when we know that it's for our good. And I'm not naive to the fact that those are two really hard things to believe. Sometimes you might be in this room, you might be having a hard time believing that to be true or Understanding how could that actually be the way that this works out? I get that it can be challenging to believe. Doesn't make it any less true. But I understand the challenge of it. And so if you're struggling with those, maybe I can at least get you to see a third thing that suffering does. A third thing that Paul knew about suffering that allowed him to endure it well, that will hopefully allow you to endure it well. And that's this. That suffering is good for ministry. Suffering is good for ministry. Look at verse 10. Says for the sake of Christ, on the behalf of Christ, then I am content. Other translations say, it pleases me or I am pleased with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And when Paul is talking about weakness, here he is saying, my perceived weakness, my suffering, my pain, you guys see it as weak. And the super apostles, they were saying, your weakness, your suffering, your pain shows that your ministry is weak, that your ministry is not effective. And Paul's saying the opposite. He's saying it's actually in the midst. It's in the midst of my weakness that I'm the most strong. It's in the midst of my weakness that my ministry is the most effective. Because it's not about me, it's about God. It's not about how good I am, but about how great God is. It's not about what I'm capable of, but about what God is capable of. He knew that his weakness made his is what made his ministry strong, because it's where God's power was more displayed. What is seen by as weakness by the world actually becomes the greatest platform to showcase the power and grace of God to the world. That's what your weakness does. It becomes a platform for you to showcase the power and grace of God to the world. And the way that you embrace your suffering may be the greatest evangelistic tool that you have. Your financial hardship, it may be weakness, but it's also strength because it shows this world that your security isn't in the here and now, but it's in your Heavenly Father. Your infertility may be weakness, but it's also the avenue for you to display that your contentment is in Christ and not in a child. Your cancer diagnosis may be weakness, but it's an opportunity and an avenue for you to display that your hope isn't in this life, in this body, but in the next. The way that you suffer, the way that you go through trials, the way that you endure weakness shows the world where Your hope really is and who your God really is. It may be the single greatest evangelistic tool that you have to show the unbelieving world who God is. Suffering is good for ministry. It shows that your faith isn't just a set of beliefs, but it's an anchor for your soul. And that sort of faith is attractive. That sort of faith, when people look at you as you're suffering, as you're grieving the loss of a child, as you're grieving the loss of a job, as you're struggling through financial hardships, people see you suffering in those ways, and they see that you still have faith. They see that you still have reason to praise God. They see that you still have hope. What's more attractive to a world than that? A hope that can't be shaken. Are you kidding me? They would want some of it. Suffering is good for ministry, and life is about ministry. Life is about the proclamation of the glory and grace of God. And when you see ministry as the primary goal of your life, you understand that suffering is ultimately good. And our problem is sometimes we just don't see ministry as the purpose of our life. And we're so focused on us and not what God wants to do in us and through us. Guys, I want us to be a church that endures weakness. Well, that doesn't just endure, but embraces it. We might not want it, we might not like it. We might plead God to take it away from us, and we should. But if and when he doesn't, may we hear the voice of Jesus speak to us the same way he spoke to Paul. My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in your weakness. And would we endure well, because we understand that it is from God for us and good for our ministry. When you understand it in that way, it changes how you suffer. It's no longer woe is me. It's no longer a pity party. But we can repeat with Paul that I'm content with this. I'm content with my weaknesses, with insults, with hardships, with persecutions and calamities. For when I am street, when I am weak, then I am strong. And we know that our strength is in ourself. And we boast all the more in our weaknesses because we know that that's where Christ's strength dwells in us. That's where Christ's strength rests upon us so that we can endure with his power the weaknesses of life. You can kind of wrap all this up like this. You can embrace suffering because it is from a good God, and for good purpose, you can embrace suffering because it is from a good God for a good purpose Church. Where else do we see God ordained suffering for the good of his people? The cross of Jesus Christ. That on the cross, Jesus gladly endured the greatest suffering this world has ever seen. The physical pain of beatings, lashings and crucifixion, yes, but the spiritual pain of being forsaken by his heavenly Father. A pain that we could never imagine. Jesus gladly endured because he knew. He knew that it was in this weakness, through this display of weakness, that God's power was on perfect display and that his grace would be made available to all kinds of people. So when we look to the cross, as we turn to the cross, as we get ready to take communion, we turn to Jesus, who suffered, who embraced weakness because he knew that it was from his Father, accomplishing the Father's perfect plan of redemption, offering grace to the world, offering reconciliation with God. So as you take communion, remember Jesus, remember his sacrifice, that his suffering made a way for you to receive grace. And then ask God in the midst of suffering, whether you're going through it right now in the midst of weakness, whether you have it right now or whether you're going to experience it in the future, that you would ask him that no matter what may come, you'd experience his sufficient grace and mighty power, all for his glorious name. Let's pray. God, thank you for Jesus, that he didn't just show us what it looks like to suffer. Well, he didn't just show us what it looks like to suffer, to accomplish good in this world, to accomplish your plan, but he meets us in the midst of our weakness and our suffering. So, God, I just pray that you would be with our church, God, that we would be a people that don't view weakness and suffering and pain as something to avoid, something to run away from. God, that we would gladly boast in our weakness, that we gladly boast in suffering. Because that's where your power is displayed the greatest. That's where we get to experience a unique presence of your grace, God. For those suffering in the room right now, experiencing pain, trial and hardship, God, I ask that you would meet them where they are, that they would hear you say that your grace is sufficient for them, that your power is made perfect in their weakness, God. And that all of us would have a heart posture of knowing that it's all from you, it's for our good and it's good for our proclamation of your glory and your grace, God, may that be true of us. It's in Jesus name, amen.