My Power is Made Perfect in Weakness 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, NIV “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Introduction Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title “My Power is Made Perfect in Weakness.” During the time of judges there was one period wherein God gave the Israelites over to the Midianites as slaves for seven years. He was angry with his people because they worshipped foreign gods and did evil in His eyes. One day Gideon, in fear of the Midianites, was threshing wheat in a winepress; and an angel of the Lord appeared to him. The angel said to Gideon: “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” (Judges 6:12) Gideon was surprised at this remark because he knew his circumstances. Gideon was very much aware of his weaknesses so what the angel said seemed odd to him. Judges 6:15 says: “‘But Lord,’ Gideon asked, ‘how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.’ “ At that time Gideon honestly confessed his weaknesses. God uses a person who is ready to do His will regardless of when and what He requires of that man to do. There are people who say: “I don’t care what God is telling me. I’ll put his word behind me and do whatever I want. Today I’ll drink and do the things that I want to do. Well, perhaps some other time I’ll look back at what He wants.” God would say, “Okay, go your way” and He will not use those people. 1. Paul pleaded three times but was refused In church history Paul was one of the prominent apostles of Jesus. There were many chances for him to become haughty. Firstly Paul came from a prestigious family. Circumcised on the eighth day, Paul was of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee. He was a disciple of Gamaliel; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. Paul lacked in nothing. Apart from his good heritage, he was talented in philosophy and literature and more than that Paul was a man of great faith. He was a Jewish young man of promise. After he became a Christian he received God’s surpassingly great revelations. But God wanted him to be humble. God gave Paul a thorn in his flesh to keep him from becoming conceited. He allowed Paul to be tormented. Those who were raised in the countryside might have seen the piercing of a cow’s nose. When I was young my family farmed on a fairly large scale. So we had many farm-workers and cows. When a calf grew to be strong enough to bear burdens and cultivate; a farmland servant would string a straw rope through its pierced nose and easily lead it or tie it to a post. The piercing was quite easy because a calf’s nose has soft flesh. I would reproachfully stare at a piercing. It was unbearable for me to watch a calf get its nose pierced; and when I heard the poor calf scream in pain, I would hate the servants. “Why do they torture this blameless calf by piercing its nose?” The calf would struggle to free itself but the servants would mercilessly overpower it and affix a big ring through its freshly punched nose. The servants would then tie a string to the ring and easily lead the calf. The calf would cry out in pain whenever the servant pulled the rope. The servants would say “Giddyap, Giddyap!” as it followed them obediently. Then they would say “Whoa, Whoa!” and the calf would stop. No longer was that calf allowed to move by the power of its own will. And so these calves were readied for their master’s service in the farm fields through this piercing of the nose. Without this piercing the servants could not put the necessary harness and reins on the calves to work the land. Do these calves want to carry burdens? Do they want to pull plows? Of course not! They will not follow the will of their master. But those calves which are controlled by a rein attached to a ring nose are compelled to do the works which is willed by men. In America there are lots of huge ranches. Ranchers might still ride horses to take care of their cattle on their range. The horse is trained to obey the rancher on his back? This is because a gag bit is put into the horse’s mouth and secured to reins on both sides of its mouth. The rancher would then control where he wanted the horse to go by pulling on the gag bit. Pulling on this gag bit is painful to the horse. A large, potentially dangerous animal like a horse can be controlling just by the slight pulling of a rein attached to a gag bit. He is rendered obedient to its master’s will. God would let us be if He did not want us to do His will. However if God intends to use us he will pierce our nose. If need be He will put a gag bit in our mouth. There must be such a process of disciple in our lives. This process is painful. However without this process of piecing and securing a gag bit in our mouths; we will not go to where God wants us to be. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, humans are naturally haughty and disobedient. By nature we are arrogant and indocile so without a rein we could not be used. God will pull our reins to keep us from becoming conceited. We can visualize our reins whenever we experience suffering and toil in our lives. It is for this process of repeatedly working compliance into us that God allows and does not remove agony and pain from our lives. The higher God’s call on you the more you will face various trials and tribulations. Those whom God wants to use moderately will be the ones who have a moderate faith. They do not have to concern themselves with intense hardships and frustrations. If we pray: “Lord, use me for Your glory in a great way.” Then God will say: “Alright. Are you ready for reins?” “Yes, I’m ready.” God will use this kind of person. Let’s look at Moses. When he was 40 Moses was in his prime. He was a well educated, highly confidence, shrewd and firmly muscled young man with a compelling compassion and drive in his heart to deliver the Israelites. As Pharaoh’s daughter’s adopted son Moses was raised in the royal palace. One day while walking across the king’s workplace he witnessed an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew slave. Moses became enraged and killed the Egyptian in defense of the slave. He tried to deliver an Israelite slave with his strong muscles only to endanger his own life when the Pharaoh heard of what he had done. At the age of 40 Moses was eloquent in speech and swift in action. In his own wisdom and strength, Moses tried his best to deliver the Israelites but his attempt only earned him the status of an outcast. He fled for his life from Pharaoh and went to live in the Midianites wilderness. He married and for the next 40 years tended his father-in-law’s flock of sheep. What do you think he would have learned during those 40 years in the desert? Moses would have learned that he actually is unwise and incompetent. It took him 40 years to learn that he was inadequate to do God’s bidding in his own wisdom and strength. One day Moses saw a strange sight. He saw flames of fire coming from a bush that would not burn up. He heard God’s voice from within that burning bush. “Moses! Moses! Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” God said to Moses: “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” Moses had lost all his pride in that desert. His self-confidence was replaced with a sense of helplessness and ineffectiveness. Moses had become humble. “Lord, I can’t go.” He had heard what God said but in himself he knew that he was not able to deliver God’s message to Egypt. “Please, send someone else to do it. I am useless.” The Lord became anger with Moses and commanded him to go. Moses’ feeling of inadequacy was crippling his will to obey God. The hardships and tribulations of the desert had laid reins through his nose and secured a gag bit in his mouth and Moses was truly humble. Moses was sufficiently rehabilitated for the calling that he had received at the age of 40. Then God greatly used Moses for the next 40 years from the time Moses was 80 to the time God took Moses to heaven at the age of 120. Brothers and sisters! When you face difficulties, remember that God wants to use you and is pulling on your heavenly secured reins. Stop your blame shifting, complaining and self-pity. Do not step backward but rather “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.” When we are in trouble we should pray more and become broken. 2. To rely on God’s grace more Trials come so that through them we might rely on God’s grace more. God challenges us through our tribulations to “Pray more. Rely on me more! I know you pray right now but go into a deep level of prayer and learn how to rely on me.” James 5:13 says: “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.” 2 Corinthians 1:9 says: “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” Because we are weak and suffer much we need to pray more and rely on God’s grace more. God allows us thorns of trouble in order to let us cry out to Him in prayer so that we would stay in His grace. God calls our intention to Him to keep us from being forsaken and going astray. He lets us pull the plug out from under self to put the plug only into Jesus. Before we were afflicted we plugged into self. But through our troubles we come to realize that there isn’t any power in us to overcome our troubles so we unplug our confidence in ourselves and rightly put our confidence only into Jesus. But our voltage is too low. When we plug into Jesus we can get a great power supply from his high voltage. He can provide us supernatural energy. Psalm 121:1-2 says: “I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” God is my only help. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) The Lord who came to help humanity a long time ago is the same Lord ready to help us today. He is there right beside you to help you. 1 Corinthians 15:10 says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” We are awaking to this wonderful truth. Look at Paul. “By the grace of God I am what I am…” He was a great disciple, theologian, and powerful servant of God. But he knew that “I am what I am not by my distinguished ability but by the grace of God which works inside of me.” “I am nothing. I cannot be what I am. Only God’s grace can change me like this.” How did he get to know this? Paul came to this realization through his many tribulations; in agony he found his incompetence. He learned that only God’s grace raised him up to where he was. You also are what you are now because the grace of God has entered into you. It is God’s sign for us to pray when we face all kinds of trouble. When you pray the power of Christ will rest on you. You will be much better than before. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” The Lord will grant you power when you rely on Him but give Him the credit. How can we expect to be empowered by Him if we do not give him the honor and praise? “Only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now; He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now.” God will give us power when we rely on Him. God will not grant his power to someone who continually boasts on himself that he is well able to do all things without trusting in God. The turning point in a man’s life is when he trusts in God because he knows he is weak. A human will not rely fully on God without first recognizing his human weakness. God humbles a man to make him realize how weak he really is so that he would rely on Him. 1 Peter 5:10 says: “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” God will use your suffering to restore you, make you strong, firm and steadfast. A German poet and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, and please repeat after me: “See what hardship left. You will find all the footsteps of hardships are overflowing with joy.” Isn’t this wonderful? When we remember our past we will see footsteps of pain which have been changed into a fullness of joy. “It was good for me to be afflicted.” Before we were afflicted we went astray; but now we obey God’s word and have become fully renewed. Our weakness and affliction can be a turning point in our life. When do we go through a major change? We go through a turning point in our lives when we go through suffering. Changes take place in our life in the same way a pupa breaks out of its chrysalis and becomes a beautiful butterfly. Something is happening in our times of suffering. Of course our time of trouble is painful but we get through it with more fervent prayer which draws us to rely more on Jesus. The Lord will enable you to break out of your pupa and put your wings to flight. He will make you into a beautiful butterfly. 3. Paul’s enemies weakened him Let us listen to what Paul said about his enemies that weakened him. 2 Corinthians 12:10 says: “That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Romans 8:35-37 says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” After all his trials, Paul confessed that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. He could boldly proclaim this because he experienced his sufferings himself. Brothers and sisters! If God is not in our center; we are always empty even if we possess all things in this world. There will an empty place in his heart no matter how rich a person may be, or how powerful he is. People feel emptiness even if they have good husbands or the most beautiful wives. How can we know this? Solomon is our example. How did he live? He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. One wife is enough but Solomon had 1000 wives. Was he satisfied with his wives? No he was not. He also built splendid palaces for himself. Solomon lived most extravagantly all his life but later he said: “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) If God is not in our center of heart everything is meaningless. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” If we love Jesus, even if trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger of sword threatens us; we are more than conquers and we will overcome every obstacle through the love of Christ. “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so; Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.” Jesus is absolutely good. Nothing is more special than Jesus. When a ship is sailing its mast must not be broken even in a strong wind. That is why ship-builders make masts out of strong wood. They choose wood from special trees which they look after very carefully. They choose trees from the top of high mountains and then cut all the neighboring trees so that these special trees stand alone. They want these trees to be exposed to difficult circumstances. They want the most severe winds to blow against these trees, and the heaviest of snow to fully cover them. These special trees grow to become very strong after being repeatedly challenged to stand alone through strong winds and heavy snowfall on mountaintops. Finally when these trees have grown firm and strong they are cut down to be built into masts. The wind can blow a ship as hard as it can but their mast will keep it steadfast. Even a raging sea storm must not blow the mast down. If the mast breaks at sea everything is over for that voyage. Sailors must have a ship with a strong mast which is strong enough to encounter the worst of storms at sea. It generally takes more than 10 years to build endurance into a tree that has been continually exposed to adverse conditions. When these trees are cut down the masts they are made into will not break by the lashing of strong rain, winds and waves. They are strong enough to be used at sea in the worst of storms. The same is true with you. There are many enemies who challenge you to try to knock you down. Family and business problems, poverty and diseases, weaknesses, insults, rejection, hardships, frustrations, persecutions come to weaken us. We become weak because the enemy of suffering challenges us but God uses this same suffering to make us into His strong army which will not ever be shaken even though difficulties as a mighty storm come against us. God’s process of equipping us for service seems frightful and strange in our sight as we think trials, hardships, agony, and pain will ruin us and defeat us as Christian; but in fact after many years of suffering we will see ourselves empowered, not shaken; strong and great believers ready for the Master’s use. Conclusion God uses weak and incompetent people in their eyes. If they think they are strong and smart; God makes them to realize how incompetent they really are. Please do not lose your heart. “I’m not educated. I have a low IQ. My circumstances are worse than most.” Remember, when you are weak God is strong in you. When we feel insecure and hopeless we will seek God and we will rely on Him saying, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” God makes us into a precious bowl. God will send us trials and make us realize how incompetent and helpless we are whenever we see ourselves strong and wise in our own eyes. But God uses trials to draw us to bow before Him confessing “we are useless.” A person who is too smart and too great in his own eyes will face many trials which are sent by God. We had better not think ourselves smart if we want to be used by God. When I am not smart God’s smartness will be revealed more in and through me. When I am incompetent God’s power will be manifested more in and through me. A candle light cannot mess with the sunlight of high noon. At night a candle light can clearly be seen. The darker it gets the more light will reach out from a candle. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” The God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were is on our side through Christ Jesus. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” The Most High is God and we can take rest in Jesus, the shadow of the Almighty. We can boldly state: “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Surely he will save me from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. … This God is with me. I will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, but it will not come near me.” "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation." This God is with us. What shall we then fear? God breaks us into pieces to be obedient to then pour more grace upon us. God uses the weak and incompetent as His great servants. And God makes the strong and smart realize how incompetent they really are in the ways of the Lord. Therefore in your earthly journey through life; whenever you are weak do not be dismayed because God is strong within you. Your God is strong. He says, “I will be there for you. Rely on me. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” It is time to put all things to God when you realize you are weak and burdened. God will do it all things that we cannot do by our own might or power. Let us pray together. Father God! Thank you that You are strong within us when we are weak. Everyone who receives God as Father through Jesus Christ has nothing to lose. Even if trials and suffering come to us we know that it is because You want to grant us great power and strength. Poverty has come near; but it is because You want to provide us with Your richness. Weakness in our body prevents us from boasting that our restoration is in our own strength. It is You who lets us go through trials to conquer all things. Our Father! We know in the end each one of us will face God’s goodness. We know that You want us to enjoy good health so “that all may go well with us, even as our soul is getting along well”. You want us to have an abundant life. Father! Give each one of the congregation wonderful comfort and peace. Let them all always look up toward God’s throne; and compel their steps to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen. 1