So in 2 Corinthians chapter 12,
the apostle Paul writes in verse 9, and he said unto me, my grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me." Now, what the apostle is saying here, he writes
it, and it's very personal to him. It's very personal, what
he's writing here. And yet, it's suitable for every
one of us. It addresses each and every one
of God's saints. We all can enter into what he's
saying at some point, of our walk of faith, of our believing
lives. At some point we enter into this
and to some degree we all come into it. And what our Lord gives
to Paul and what he teaches Paul here is indeed something made
very useful to every believer, every child of God. Paul was
something of a specimen of grace. He was, in our eyes, he's an
eminent apostle. He's an eminent apostle. He's
someone, one of the fathers of the faith, if you will. And we're
very thankful for Paul and the sacrifices he made. He was used
of God mightily. We are told that when he was
in Thessalonica, Paul and those that were with him, the moniker
that was given to them was them that turned the world upside
down. This little ragtag band of men
turned the world upside down. Paul was a man greatly gifted
of God, full of the Holy Ghost, and he was made useful in the
spreading of the Gospel. made very useful in the spreading
of the gospel. He was man fulfilling the Great
Commission. He took that to heart. He heard
it, which was to go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. Paul even says that. That's what
they were doing in one of his epistles, I think also to the
Corinthians. or maybe it was the Colossians,
but this man, he endured whippings, he endured lashes and beatings
and mockings and spittings and threats against his life. He
was cast into prison and that unjustly and shipwrecked and
had all kinds of troubles. He traveled further and at less
cost than any other apostle, probably all of them put together.
So that we read of him hungering and thirsting We read of him
being cold and being naked. He had to ask Timothy to bring
him a cloak. I can imagine that man being
cold and suffering. Paul was doing God's work, and
so it seemed that nothing would get in his way. If God be for
us, he said, who can be against us? Who can be against us? Well,
the Lord was not done showing Paul how great things he must
suffer for Christ's name. He wasn't done yet. So that he
added an infirmity to Paul. He gave Paul an infirmity. And
in doing so, he would teach not only the Apostle Paul, but all
who are born of grace, he would teach us that Christ's grace
is sufficient for us. Paul was an eminent Apostle and
we are eminent sinners. Christ's grace is sufficient
for us. It's sufficient for even the
chief of sinners. The infirmity that was given
to Paul was very humbling to him. It sounds as though when
the Lord gave it to him he thought, this is it. I've run my course. I'm not going to be able to do
anything else for the Lord in his kingdom. This is it. I've
come to the end. This infirmity is too great to
overcome and no one's going to hear the gospel by me. The infirmity
is just too much. However, it was not the end of
Paul. It wasn't the end of Paul's usefulness
in the kingdom of his Lord. He simply had a need for humility. He had a need for humility and
so God humbled him by giving him an infirmity in his flesh. In Paul's own words he said,
lest I should be exalted above measure. And out of this affliction given
to Paul comes one of the most foundational truths that the
Church has stood upon her entire existence. That Christ's grace is sufficient
and that when I am weak, I am strong. Christ gave us those
things. He taught us this. He gave this
to Paul to teach you and I these very precious truths. When I'm
weak, I'm strong, and my Lord's grace is sufficient, even unto
me. When this flesh is broken, and
when our confidence is washed away, then am I strong in the
Lord. Now I'm not standing. in my confident
flesh. Now I'm not leaning on the strength
of my flesh and the wisdom of my mind and all the resources
that I have and the gifts and talents that I have in the flesh.
Now I'm leaning upon his grace. Now I'm leaning upon the grace
of my Lord. And this is something that we,
this is where we learn something of what Paul said to the Philippians
when he said, I want to know the power of his resurrection. If I'm dead, if he's slain this
flesh, if this flesh is crucified with Christ, I want to know something
of the power of his resurrection. I want to know something of the
fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death. When I'm weak, when I'm weak,
when I'm strong, I don't want to know nothing about that. I
don't want to partake of sufferings and what it is to be crucified. I have visions and dreams and
things I want to do. Goals I have, but not when I'm
weak. Then the only thing I want to
know is Christ. I want to know Christ. I want
to know His power. Lord, I need Your grace. Now
there's times in our lives when things come together pretty well. There's things aplenty. We have
a desire. We have the strength that's necessary. We have support from friends
and family. We look around. We have plenty
of resources to meet every need. And we have a plan of what good
we're going to do in one of these kingdoms, the kingdom of this
world or the kingdom of heaven. And these things seem to come
together. And I'm thankful for those times. I really am. I'm
not knocking. Those times when you have the
things that you need to do the things that you have to do. But
who gets the glory in those things? Who gets the glory? You know,
if I'm being honest, I really don't remember a lot of those
times. I don't really remember a lot of those times. They don't
stick out to me when I've been able to do things in times of
plenty. But you know when I do remember
something? when I struggled, when it was hard. I remember
those times when I would be brought to tears and suffered and was
afraid and groaned and cried to the Lord. And that's because
the things that the Lord built out of those difficult and dark
times are precious, they're lasting. They're eternal things. And I
know it's precious to me because it wasn't me, but my God did
it. My God did it. And we can all
look back on certain things that we knew it was impossible for
us, but God did it. And so those are precious to
us. Those are precious. Now, Peter encourages God's people
saying, Be clothed with humility. And this is relevant to what
Paul endured, because Paul says, I needed humility. I needed this. I was being puffed up in the
flesh. And so I'm just bringing here
to bear what Peter says. And he says to God's people,
be clothed with humility. Take the garment when God hands
it to you. Put it on. When he gives it to
you, you put that on. For God resisteth the proud and
giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. God means our humiliation, our
humbling. He means it for our good. He gives us pains and afflictions,
because they're good for us now, they're suitable for us now. Paul reminds us, saying, our
light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And so Paul
tells us that the Lord was heading off pride in him. He was heading
off pride. The Lord did this to deliver
him from the pride that was welling up in him. Remember, that infirmity
was lest I should be exalted above measure. That was the immediate
need that Paul had. That was the immediate need,
but it led to the opening up of some very precious truths. It led to the opening of a well
being digged, a wellspring out of which these precious truths
are given to the people of God to know that my Lord's grace
is sufficient for me. His grace is sufficient for my
corruption. His grace is sufficient for my
infirmities. In fact, it's so sufficient that
all my salvation is of the Lord. It's all of Him. It's all of
His grace. And I wouldn't have known that
well except it had been dug through the afflictions, through the
difficult times and the hardships. And so where the flesh flourishes
and there's an absence of struggles, there's a missing out on these
precious things. We don't elect to have difficulties. We're not searching for trouble.
We're not looking for it. But there's a missing out on
these precious truths, these heavenly blessings. Confidence
in the flesh is not where a believer needs to be. There's a better
place to be, a better place, and it's found in the arms of
our Savior. But it's a thorny way. It's a
thorny way of affliction. It has tears and piercings in
the flesh. Just as Paul said, we must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. It's going
to be that way. It's going to be. And though
we be stripped of all, everything that this flesh could want, that
we're stripped of these things, we shall be well supplied with
the precious blessings of our Savior, His strength, His grace,
sufficient and abundant for all our need. And because pride grows
very bountifully in the soil of this flesh, thorns also do. Our God has made it so that just
as pride grows, with fury and vigor. So thorns also grow with
fury and vigor because they keep us humble. Now the thing which
lifted Paul up were his visions and revelations of the Lord.
You think about that. That sounds pretty amazing. That
sounds impressive. This man was caught up to the
third heaven. As my understanding goes, the
first heaven would be where the birds fly and the airplanes go.
And the second heaven would be where the stars are hung. And
the third heaven is where our God most eminently manifests
his glory. There in the third heaven. And
he was brought up there. He saw visions and revelations
of the Lord in glory. And I'm sure it was very encouraging
to Paul himself. But how profitable do you think
it was to others in the church? If Paul said, oh, I had another
one of those visions last night, it was amazing. How wonderful
or how profitable do you think it was to the church? Well, you
don't have to wonder. He tells us, verse 4. He tells
us that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable
words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. In other
words, he can't even bless another child of God with the precious
things he saw and heard. He can't even bless them with
those things. It's not lawful for him to even speak of what
he saw and heard. That's not very profitable to
the church, is it? It's not profitable to the church.
They may have been necessary for a time for Paul himself in
instructing Paul. And the Lord knows what he gave
him and why he gave him those visions. But I believe that it
was actually working towards this purpose, something more
profitable for the brethren, something more useful for the
church. Paul says to the Corinthians,
don't speak in tongues unless there's someone there to interpret
it. Otherwise, it's not profitable. And so since there's no one interpreting
tongues, no one's speaking in tongues. It's not profitable.
It's just not profitable. Well, so his visions and revelations
that was unlawful for him to speak of to anybody, it wasn't
profitable. It wasn't doing anything good
for the brethren. But God gave it to him because
it was leading towards something much more precious, a greater
blessing for God's people. And so rather than it continue
on and be a hindrance to Paul's fruitfulness, God gave him an
infirmity in the flesh. He pruned Paul. He took a snipping
out of Paul. out of his flesh. Just as our
Lord tells his disciples in John 15 verse 1 and 2, he said, I
am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. In other words,
he's saying there is no such thing as a barren Christian. There's no such thing as a fruitless
Christian. It just is not so, cannot be. And every branch that beareth
fruit, which is every believer, every true believer, everyone
that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more
fruit. He takes the pruning shears and
he cuts a little there, he cuts a little over there, and a little
here. He trims it, he cuts it back
so that it's more fruitful. more fruitful. That's what I
do with roses or something like that. There are certain things
that you prune them and they're more abundant in their fruit.
So by the grace of our God, rather than allow Paul's flesh to puff
up and him to get a big fat head because he had these visions
and revelations, the Lord humbled him. He humbled him lest he should
have spiritual pride. And that's because our Lord does
that. He humbles his people. You ask
any pastor and I can tell you they all say the Lord in a very
particular way prunes and deals with his pastors in a very particular
way. A particular way in which he
deals with us to give us humble, to keep us humble, to give us
humility. Why? Because, well in a sense, not
like Paul, but in a sense we do have the honor of visions
and revelations that our Lord gives us. We can read the word
a lot. And we can collaborate with other
men who have read the word and been blessed of the word and
really look into these things and drill into these things and
seek the Lord for a message for the people. And so he gives us
this. And so he humbles us. He brings us low in ourselves
that we would be profitable to the church, the people of God.
But this is also a work that he does, a gracious work which
he does for all his people in measure. And the way he does
it is he uses what he calls a thorn in the flesh. Now a thorn is
a small thing. It's a tiny thing. Some thorns
are almost imperceptible to our sight. We almost can't even see
some thorns. But once a thorn has entered
your flesh, once it has pierced that flesh, and it's in there,
and it's got hold in there, you know it's there. And it's very,
very painful. And you're reminded of it, and
that often. That very often. You know, there's
a thorn I found in, or there was a weed I found in Missouri,
and I think I've told you this before. If it's growing out in
your grass, it doesn't become anything. You just mow over that
thing, and it doesn't grow very big, and you just, it's just
a little scrub that you hardly notice. But if it gets into your
garden soil, where it's loose, and there's nutrients there,
that thing takes off, and it gets big. And if I don't get
to it quick enough, that thing gets a good footing and it starts
to grow thorns like long thin piercing thorns and one day I
was being careless I thought I could grab it and I did I took
hold of it and I grabbed it wrong and I got pierced and not only
did I get pierced with the thorn but when I took it out I it broke
and I lost a little piece right in there and it was right in
my the pad of my thumb, which is used in everyday life, that
thumb there. And so it was very painful. Within a day, it was really smartening
me. It was painful. And every time
I grabbed something, oh, I remembered that that thorn was there. It
was a constant reminder to me of the infirmity that I now had
in my flesh. And it went on for about two
weeks. But I'll tell you, after about a week, I began to remember
before. And I began to touch things differently. I began to handle them more carefully. It adjusted my behaviors. It
changed me and how I was. Because that thorn was there,
and it was always reminding me. It was always reminding me. And
if I forgot and grabbed that thing, oh, and it would remind
me again. Nope, I'm still here. I'm still
here. This thorn in your flesh. You're
not going to forget me that easy. Now if we transfer that memory,
if you've ever had a thorn, if you transfer that to these spiritual
things, then we can see why infirmities and difficulties and afflictions
and trials and sorrows serve. They make good thorns in the
flesh because They remind you. They don't let you forget them
too easily. It's just not easy to forget
them, and so they keep us humble. And all of God's people know
for themselves that we need to be humble. Every one of us needs
to be humble. That's not something for brethren
to do to brethren. That never works out good, ever. but it is something that the
Lord is capable and does for his people and that perfectly,
that very perfectly. Now I want to give you, I want
to encourage you with seven things, encourage your hearts that you
who are being humbled or you who soon will be humbled, whatever
it is, I'm going to give you seven things that might settle
your hearts and comfort you when you're being humbled. Because
it's for your good. It's not for your destruction. It's not for my destruction.
It's for my good. And it's for your good. Because
it keeps us ever dependent on his grace. So with the Apostle
Paul as our pattern, first we take comfort because all of our
troubles, all these storms that we have and experience, they're
given. And they're given specifically
by God to you. Your God, your all-powerful,
all-wonderful God, gives them specifically to you. Paul says in verse 7, Now, it
wasn't Satan giving it to him, because this was for good. This
was God giving it to him. lest I should be exalted above
measure." So God designed this thorn specifically for Paul.
And God gave authority to this affliction for Paul, to have
its work in Paul and for Paul. Now, this affliction may not
have had the same impact on another person. They maybe wouldn't have
cared. It wouldn't have bothered them, but it bothered Paul, and
vice versa. What affects you doesn't affect
me. What affects me doesn't necessarily affect you. God gave it, and
when he gives it, it hits its mark. It hits its mark. I can tell you, there are thorns
that have, boom, hit me, right? Bullseye, right where it was
supposed to go. And I knew God did that. So that it doesn't
affect anyone else, but it affects me. It's not just some big, overwhelming
wave that just takes everyone out. No, it's precise, and it
hits right where God intends it. with immaculate, impeccable
marksmanship. He's able. He knows exactly what
touches us and what we need. Second, the Lord will, in his
time, show you, when he gives it to you, he'll show you this
was absolutely necessary. This was absolutely necessary
for him to give it to us. And you're going to have the
right attitude about it. He's going to give you the right
attitude because you're going to know this was necessary. If
God didn't do this, I don't know what would happen, but I know
what He did was perfect for me. Read verse 7 again. Now, did
you notice that there is a repetition in that verse? I read that verse for days and
did not notice that Paul repeats something two times here, two
times, lest I should be exalted above measure. That's how he
starts the verse and that's how he ends the verse, with the same
exact phrase. In other words, you can tell
Paul knows this, I needed this. I needed this, lest I should
be exalted above measure, lest I should be exalted above measure,
God gave me this thorn in the flesh. And so Paul got it. He said, I know exactly why the
Lord did this, because I was puffing up. I was getting a big
fat head. I was something having all these
visions and revelations. And so the Lord did it to to
to smack down that that fleshly spiritual pride. That's why he
did it for me. And whatever it is, it may not
be pride, although pride's abundant in everybody and we all need
to be humbled, but whatever it is, the Lord brings us low in
ourselves for our good. And we know all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. It's all for good. Now, here's
the third thing. Where God is being gracious to
a sinner, He takes everything into account. The whole of your
salvation is taken into account. And that's why there's nothing
off limits to the Lord. There's nothing off limits. There's
nothing that we keep back that God can't touch. If we keep it
back, God will be sure to touch that very thing. There's nothing we can keep from
Him. Nothing's off limits from Him. And the point here is that
everything is taken into account because that's what salvation
is. We need a whole salvation. We need a complete Savior. We need our God and Savior to
do everything for us because nothing, nothing can lean on
us. There's nothing that you or I
can bear to save ourselves. We don't have it in us to do
for ourselves. But the Lord does everything
so that you and I are wanting for nothing. There's not even
a speck of righteousness that we come short in because your
God gives it all. He does everything for your salvation
and mine. And that means we don't have
a part in our salvation. It's all of Christ. It's all
given from Him right down to every infirmity, every trial,
every tribulation, every weakness, every affliction. We find that
Christ Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. We learn
that Christ is all and in all. He's everything. He's made everything
to you, brother and sister. He's everything to us. Nothing
lacks in Him and we don't lack anything because it's all of
Him. That's what He's shown us here. Fourth, the Lord's grace
is humbling. It's humbling because He makes
it known to us that His salvation His salvation of us is not because
there's anything good in me. I did nothing to merit it. I
did nothing to qualify myself for it. Except that I'm a sinner.
And I got nothing. He didn't love me or love you
because he saw a little sparkle or something precious or shiny
or sweet in you. No. We're all sinners. Worthy
of eternal death and damnation. He saved us because he would.
because He loved you and chose you and gave you to Christ to
be your salvation, your mediator, your surety, your sacrifice,
your substitute, your all. Your all, because He would, because
He chose you, because He loves you before the foundation of
the world. And so, it's not of us, it's
of His grace. It's of the fullness of His grace
in Christ Jesus. Fifth, if the Lord is in it for
your good, that thorn is going to drive you to Christ. It's
going to drive you to Christ. It's going to be such that it
keeps you driving to Christ. You're not going to find security
or rest or respite in the things of the world. They're not going
to be your peace. Your peace is going to be in
Him. And you're going to keep being driven to him by that very
thorn. Paul said it in verse 8. He said,
for this thing I besought the Lord thrice, three times, that
it might depart from me. Maybe he saw it, I don't know
if three times means I kept on asking and asking. I don't know,
or maybe he cut it off at three, but he asked the Lord. He did
what he thought he needed to do, and he brought it to the
Lord. Sixth, the Lord will answer your prayer. The Lord will answer
your prayer. Look at verse 9. And he said
unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Now, when we're able, when we're
made able, when the Lord gives it to us to get hold of what
he's saying, that's a great comfort. That's a great comfort to us
in what Paul is saying here in regards to the Lord answering
our prayer. You know, typically, when we
get a thorn in the flesh, when something happens and there's
a thorn in our flesh, how do we begin? Lord, take it away. Lord, please remove this from
me. Lord, please just take it away. Just get this thing out
of here. I hear you. I hear you, Lord.
Just remove it. Just let it be gone, and let's
just get things back to normal, reset everything, and all is
well. We'll just forget this thing.
Lord, just take it away, please. I got it now. Just take it away.
Take it away. And as time goes on, we can get
into some dark places and foolish places, and we can start imagining
all kinds of wrong things that we think about the Lord, and
that we think about ourselves, and there's a whole variety of
things. We could think that God is unfair or unjust, or we can
think that maybe my faith isn't right, maybe I'm not a believer,
maybe God doesn't love me, and we get into all kinds of weird
places, sinful places, and things that are not profitable. You
know, because we think, well if he loved me, he would hear
the prayer and he'd answer my prayer and the thorn would be
gone and everything would be set back and restored again to
normal. And if he didn't do that, well
then there's something wrong with me. But Paul, if you notice,
his trouble, his thorn, wasn't taken away. God did not take
his thorn away and there was nothing wrong with Paul's faith.
There was nothing wrong with what Paul did at all. And yet
God didn't take the thorn. The problem isn't there in you. It's not that there's a problem
with you. It's not that he's teaching you you need more faith
or you got to do this or you better stop doing that or I'm
going to get you. That's not what the Lord's saying to you.
He's bringing you to see you're all in Christ. You're all in
Christ. And so Paul's trouble wasn't
removed and yet the Lord heard Paul's prayer. The Lord received
Paul's prayer and the Lord answered Paul's prayer and the answer
was my grace is sufficient for thee. I'm providing for you. Paul I got this the whole thing. You're not done. You've not run
your course. Your race is not over. I'm not
done with you yet. You're just not going to be leaning
on those gifts and talents that you thought was your strength.
that you thought was your salvation, that you thought was your glory,
that you gloried in and rejoiced in and thanked me for them, but
that's not what you're going to have anymore. You're going
to lean on me and you're going to see that my grace is sufficient
and it's recorded for us because it's good for us to see that
as well, because otherwise we'd be in despair. We'd be inspired. We see the Lord gave this to
the Apostle Paul. It was for his good and it's
for our good also to learn this to to look for his all-sufficient
grace to believe him to hear his word and trust him and So
he's saying you're not going to be overcome or undone by this
and I know there's there's thorns that you think this is it I am
done life as I know it is is over over and then The Lord provides. And He shows you, I'm not through
with you. I'm not done. You're not undone.
You're not washed up and over. I'm with you because it's my
grace. I have a purpose and I'm going to bring my purpose to
pass. And so God didn't answer Paul's prayer in the letter the
way Paul asked, the way Paul thought it would be. God did
something better. God did something better. And
that's the seventh thing. God is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
according to the power that worketh in us. And so according to the
good pleasure of our God, through these various trials, various
temptations, various afflictions and thorns, what does he do? He strips away the strength and
the confidence that we have in the flesh. As He is growing us
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
this flesh is getting weaker. He must increase. Like John the
Baptist said, I must decrease. And He does that. He weakens
this flesh. He strips this flesh. He brings
this flesh down. We feel temporary pain and suffering. But when it's over, what do you
have? You have that peaceable fruit
of righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have what He
gives you. James tells us in James 1 verses
2 through 4, he said, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall
into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
Wanting nothing. Our Lord provided more abundantly
for Paul. Paul still was going out there
and preaching the gospel, and there's some interesting ideas
of what it was. Maybe some kind of a speech impediment
or something, or greater frailty in his body, or more ugliness,
or something. But it brought him down. He thought, ain't nobody's gonna
listen to me. no one's gonna hear me now no
one's gonna give me the time of day to speak to them and so
he thought this is it this is what I do and I can't even do
that anymore effectively so he thought so he thought but he
he he found that something greater and it and the Lord taught him
something that's foundational to the church of Christ to this
day that my grace is sufficient for thee. That's a precious,
precious truth. That is our very hope in salvation
that his grace is sufficient for me the sinner, me the chief
of sinners, me the greatest sinner, all my wickedness, my filth,
my shame, my slime. His grace is sufficient. My unbelief,
my doubts, my fears, my worries. His grace is sufficient. His
grace is sufficient to overcome. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. He says, yeah, you're weak. That's
right where I want you. That's right where I put you.
You're weak, but you're now going to see my strength is sufficient. My grace is sufficient. I'm providing. I'm providing everything you
need so that in our infirmities, this is where we shall learn
His almighty strength, His grace, and He'll, through those things,
cut down and shake down and put down the spiritual pride or whatever
it is that's rising up in this flesh. So, through every humiliation,
with every humbling reminder, every time we grab that glass
and we smirk from that thorn in the flesh, we're reminded
of how weak we are. But we see Jesus, made a little
lower than the angels, and He's precious, He's made precious
to us for what He did in taking upon Him the weakness of this
flesh, and in that weakness, He wrought salvation for all
his people when he went to the cross and laid down his life,
his body, broke his body for us, shed his blood to put away
our sin. And so we see that weakness is not anything for God that
he can't overcome. He overcomes it all by his grace
and power. He's risen from the dead and
he's ascended into the right hand of the throne of God and
all things are in his hand. Therefore, verse 10, I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. And so, Paul, through all those
difficulties and oppositions and obstacles that came, he more
clearly, more evidently saw the hand of God in it than he ever
would have before he had that thorn. And so grace sufficient,
that's what we're talking about brethren, every believer is going
to find that Christ is all our salvation. That our salvation
is not dependent on our gifts and talents, our looks, our ability
to speak, our ability to walk, it's not dependent on us. God's
grace is sufficient. Our Savior's grace is sufficient.
It rests all on His shoulders, not on ours. It rests on His
shoulders. And so we don't know, we don't
know that until the thorns are given and it pierces and we see
our weakness and we smart forward in pain and it shows us all the
fleshly confidences that we had. And then he takes them away.
He takes them away so that we learn his sufficiency. We learn
it. And that way, he receives all
the praise, the glory, and the honor. Amen.