WEBVTT 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:03.460 I'm going to invite you to Second Corinthians Chapter 11. 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:05.900 Right, the tail end of second Corinthians, Chapter 11 today. 00:00:06.300 --> 00:00:12.620 And we're going to enter into, I think, probably the most famous passage in all of the second Corinthians. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:19.700 In fact, most people memorize a verse out of this section we're going to look at today in verse nine about their own relationship with 00:00:19.700 --> 00:00:20.060 the Lord. 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:27.140 So this is probably out of all Corinthians, the most talked about passage in second Corinthians that we're going to get into, as 00:00:27.140 --> 00:00:30.410 well as a little bit of theology in regards to eternity. 00:00:31.340 --> 00:00:34.720 It's specifically heaven in light of your life. 00:00:34.720 --> 00:00:36.500 As it relates to that, where are you going to spend eternity? 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:38.980 We'll talk a little bit about that. 00:00:39.260 --> 00:00:46.800 But I want to start here and I want you to know in starting here, I have a disdain for myself in the beginning where I'm about to begin. 00:00:47.580 --> 00:00:55.260 But I don't know if you've ever been in those group settings where people are like, man, to get everybody involved and engage, we need to have an icebreaker, right? 00:00:55.340 --> 00:00:58.460 And then someone comes up with this idea of icebreakers. 00:00:58.460 --> 00:01:01.930 I find when you get in big groups, some people like icebreakers, some people don't like icebreakers. 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:06.640 If you had to divide the room like I would belong to the group that doesn't like icebreakers. 00:01:07.160 --> 00:01:08.410 I would rather just let's just talk. 00:01:08.500 --> 00:01:09.920 We don't have to engage in the silliness. 00:01:10.360 --> 00:01:13.080 But there's one icebreaker above all, icebreakers. 00:01:13.100 --> 00:01:14.830 If I could just ban forever. 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:16.220 It's the question. 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:22.840 It's like when you start to hear the question stated, do you think whoever was in charge of making the icebreaker just put nothing into this? 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:22.940 Right. 00:01:23.360 --> 00:01:24.950 And the question is this. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:29.140 If you had if you had I hate myself for saying this. 00:01:29.300 --> 00:01:31.950 If you had if you had one spiritual power. 00:01:32.580 --> 00:01:34.600 Right, what would it be or not? 00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:35.360 Spiritual power. 00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:36.450 Excuse me, one superpower. 00:01:37.600 --> 00:01:41.160 What would it be and why break up into groups and discuss it? 00:01:41.420 --> 00:01:42.880 I just I hear that, I think. 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:45.640 Did you put no thought to the why does that have to be the end of all? 00:01:45.820 --> 00:01:48.580 Why do we have to enter Fantasyland to engage this group? 00:01:48.580 --> 00:01:51.320 Well, can we just talk about why we're here or something else related to that? 00:01:51.320 --> 00:01:51.860 Maybe our families. 00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:52.610 I don't care. 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:54.060 But just not this question. 00:01:54.060 --> 00:01:55.590 That is the one question. 00:01:55.600 --> 00:01:58.120 When I think about it, I'm like, Oh, yeah, but. 00:01:58.660 --> 00:02:00.920 But I did put a little bit more thought to it today. 00:02:01.100 --> 00:02:04.220 Like, normally I'm completely rebellious about it, but I thought. 00:02:04.240 --> 00:02:08.449 Man one One superpower, if you could have all power, what would it be? 00:02:08.620 --> 00:02:15.660 And then as I started thinking about it, I decided to reject the question again because I realized, man, half, half of humanity 00:02:15.660 --> 00:02:23.120 already has a greater superpower than any superpower that we could give anyway, which is the power to create 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:24.900 life out of all. 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:27.300 I just started thinking, man, Superman can't do that. 00:02:27.740 --> 00:02:29.120 Spider-man can't do that. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:30.420 Iron Man can't do that. 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:31.940 But women can do that, right? 00:02:32.040 --> 00:02:35.460 That is that isn't so half of our human race. 00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:37.900 You know, that's a that's a pretty powerful gift. 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:43.860 And then as I started thinking about that a little bit more, I realize I know who the greatest superhero is in all of superheroes. 00:02:44.440 --> 00:02:45.460 They have the greatest superpower. 00:02:46.440 --> 00:02:48.190 It's Helen Parr. 00:02:48.660 --> 00:02:52.880 And I know you guys are thinking, who in the world is Helen Parr? 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:55.260 It's because you know her by a different name. 00:02:55.440 --> 00:02:56.700 She's Elastigirl. 00:02:57.160 --> 00:03:01.500 And Elastigirl, to my knowledge, is the only super hero I know that's pro created life. 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:04.650 If you're familiar with The Incredibles, I got four kids, so I know The Incredibles. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:05.480 Right. 00:03:05.480 --> 00:03:09.940 And she has super power making her the greatest superhero to ever exist. 00:03:09.940 --> 00:03:11.840 She can she can stretch and procreate. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:13.580 She made three other superheroes with that. 00:03:14.040 --> 00:03:17.500 But it's funny when you when you look at superheroes and by the way, I'm getting. 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:18.180 Somewhere with this. 00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:20.320 So let me just land the plane here in a minute. 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:29.500 When you think of superheroes, one of the things that's still interesting about them and all the superhero marvelous that you've been exposed to over the last decade, maybe 00:03:29.500 --> 00:03:30.600 longer now, I don't know. 00:03:30.600 --> 00:03:32.970 Years start to just go faster and faster as you get older. 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:37.820 But super power doesn't necessitate that life is going to be better. 00:03:37.820 --> 00:03:37.940 Right. 00:03:38.020 --> 00:03:40.370 It's great to have strength to help yourself in a situation. 00:03:40.620 --> 00:03:44.260 But the moment that heart becomes corrupt, that power is. 00:03:44.260 --> 00:03:44.760 Used for. 00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:45.180 Evil. 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:45.400 Right. 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:52.780 And so that you find now with these people and all the superhero world, they have these superpowers, but there's always these villains that their heart is corrupted and they're 00:03:52.780 --> 00:03:54.300 even more destructive now. 00:03:54.340 --> 00:03:56.320 And it's not it's not that it's solved anything. 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:59.930 In fact, it's just it's just it could, in a sense, made it worse. 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:01.500 Right, because. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:03.080 It's his failures. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:05.960 It's his sin. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.160 I mean, you remember the apostle Paul before he came to Christ. 00:04:09.660 --> 00:04:11.930 He was persecuting God's people. 00:04:12.460 --> 00:04:16.500 He was there for the first stoning of Stephen and supported it. 00:04:17.700 --> 00:04:22.950 And so the Apostle Paul encountering Jesus, what he brought to Jesus was nothing but his sinful nature. 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:28.020 And in fact, Paul tells us as much in verse, verse 30, he says, If I must boast. 00:04:28.640 --> 00:04:31.360 I will boast of the things that show my. 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:32.600 My weakness. 00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:40.240 And you remember, we've gone through this together that as Paul started in Chapter ten of Second Corinthians, he starts to engage these corrupted 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:42.320 leaders that have gone into the Church of Corinth. 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:49.680 And these leaders were all about putting Paul down, poisoning the church against the Apostle Paul, and talking about how great 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:51.240 they were and listing their. 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:52.940 Accolades for what made them so great. 00:04:54.100 --> 00:05:00.260 And then when it becomes Paul's turn to talk about why they should listen to him rather than these false teachers, what Paul says is, That's fine. 00:05:00.260 --> 00:05:02.240 You want me to brag about what makes me great, then? 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:02.860 Fine, let me brag. 00:05:03.380 --> 00:05:05.070 I want to brag about my weakness. 00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:09.380 Anything got out of all of the Christians that have ever lived. 00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:16.200 If there's someone that can list a series of accolades that what makes them great, it's going to be the apostle Paul. 00:05:16.400 --> 00:05:23.460 But what Paul does here in bragging about his weaknesses not only contrary to what we've seen accomplished in his own life, it's counterintuitive to 00:05:23.460 --> 00:05:25.700 really every culture in society. 00:05:25.700 --> 00:05:27.320 I mean, who leads with their weakness? 00:05:27.340 --> 00:05:30.580 No one does, especially in the Greco-Roman society. 00:05:30.580 --> 00:05:34.180 I think what leadership was about during this day was about looking attractive. 00:05:34.180 --> 00:05:36.250 It was about overpowering the circumstance. 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:38.320 It was about dominating the situation. 00:05:40.500 --> 00:05:41.280 But, Paul. 00:05:43.320 --> 00:05:46.840 Pulse starts not about bragging in himself. 00:05:46.840 --> 00:05:48.580 He begins with his weakness. 00:05:48.640 --> 00:05:48.840 And then. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:49.280 He. 00:05:49.280 --> 00:05:50.460 And then he doubles down on it. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:53.980 And verse 31, he goes, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:05:54.440 --> 00:06:01.700 He who was blessed forever, knows that I'm not lying, as if to say that he expects the people would question the seriously poor. 00:06:03.140 --> 00:06:07.200 Out of all the people you're going to talk about your weakness and impulse. 00:06:07.200 --> 00:06:11.300 I know you need to understand my heart here, that my heart wants you to know this. 00:06:11.320 --> 00:06:13.840 And before the Lord, I'm not making this up. 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:16.040 This is this is not a facade of humility. 00:06:19.400 --> 00:06:20.500 I'm not lying about this. 00:06:21.940 --> 00:06:25.120 And Paul in doing so, his ultimate desires. 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:26.360 To direct his attention. 00:06:27.400 --> 00:06:28.040 To the Lord. 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:30.500 And so in verse 32, it doesn't just double down. 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:31.280 He triples down. 00:06:31.280 --> 00:06:38.480 He says this Damascus, the governor under King Artis, it was guarding the city of Damascus in. 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:40.020 Order to seize me. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.760 But I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall. 00:06:44.020 --> 00:06:46.500 And escaped his hands. 00:06:48.460 --> 00:06:50.840 Paul, who was esteemed in his society. 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:55.420 He hung out with the elites of his day. 00:06:55.420 --> 00:07:02.440 He was he received the greatest of educations that any Jew would receive under the hand of Gamaliel. 00:07:02.460 --> 00:07:09.820 And yet you see in this passage, Paul, saying, you think I'm great, and Paul gives this picture of himself being 00:07:09.820 --> 00:07:15.800 lowered as if he's some sort of criminal, like some sort of fish just flopping in a basket leading to his death. 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:17.080 That's the picture of me. 00:07:17.080 --> 00:07:18.110 You want to know what I'm about? 00:07:18.340 --> 00:07:24.440 People came after me and I had to beg others to help me, to lower me down outside of the city in hopes that I would not be murdered. 00:07:27.860 --> 00:07:32.440 And Paul describes the humblest of situations to illustrate. 00:07:34.140 --> 00:07:34.840 Who he is. 00:07:34.840 --> 00:07:37.060 And I think what Paul is teaching us here. 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:44.700 Well, Paul wants us to understand that what he is in Christ is not something unattainable. 00:07:46.400 --> 00:07:50.720 He's not some superpower human doing the things that he's done for the Lord. 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:54.050 All he really is. 00:07:55.400 --> 00:07:58.320 It's just a surrendered human being to Christ. 00:08:00.700 --> 00:08:01.660 And Paul is. 00:08:01.700 --> 00:08:05.920 Saying this not so that we elevate him on a pedestal and. 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:10.320 Think about how great Paul is, but to recognize that he's just a person, too. 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:12.840 And just as Paul has stepped out for the. 00:08:12.840 --> 00:08:13.980 Lord, so our. 00:08:14.320 --> 00:08:15.720 Are we able to do the same? 00:08:18.540 --> 00:08:25.900 What Paul is saying to this church and specifically maybe we could say to our church, is that as long as we surrender to Christ, our 00:08:25.900 --> 00:08:28.160 greatest days are still ahead of us. 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:33.220 And what God can do through his people that are fully committed to him. 00:08:36.140 --> 00:08:39.900 Paul is acknowledging he's a weak man that couldn't rescue himself from a situation. 00:08:41.539 --> 00:08:42.409 And he had to run. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:46.900 Maybe even like a wimp in this in this moment. 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:52.780 But in and giving his life for the Lord what he also found. 00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:54.140 This is point number two in your notes. 00:08:55.920 --> 00:08:58.340 God's power is life giving. 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:06.500 I would even say because Paul was willing to acknowledge his weakness. 00:09:07.580 --> 00:09:14.640 Under that situation, was he only able to discover that God's power is life 00:09:14.640 --> 00:09:14.960 giving? 00:09:16.180 --> 00:09:18.090 And this is what Paul is doing in this passage now. 00:09:18.160 --> 00:09:23.400 As a year to the end of second Corinthians 11, you start to start beginning in Chapter 12. 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:31.020 Paul now is going to contrast the identity that he carries apart from Christ and now what He receives 00:09:31.020 --> 00:09:31.960 because of Christ. 00:09:32.880 --> 00:09:37.940 And to look at the power of who God is that rests in us rather than to figure it out ourselves. 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:46.580 And so he starts and chapter 12, verse one, he says this I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained 00:09:46.580 --> 00:09:47.120 by it. 00:09:47.280 --> 00:09:50.660 I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:55.420 I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven. 00:09:55.500 --> 00:09:56.330 Let me just say this. 00:09:56.600 --> 00:10:02.290 Paul is pretending in this moment to act like he doesn't know who this person was caught up into the third heaven. 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:07.340 But the Apostle Paul reveals in verse six and seventh that this is actually him that he's talking about. 00:10:07.340 --> 00:10:10.020 But he's starting very modestly in this statement. 00:10:10.120 --> 00:10:17.440 And the reason he's starting modestly is because during Paul's day, these false religious teachers would come around and they would they would proclaim this divine 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:24.580 authority over people because they had these special revelations and visions that made them more unique than anyone else in the church 00:10:24.580 --> 00:10:26.210 or wherever they would be worshipping. 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:29.350 And so, Paul, he's following suit and saying, You want to know what makes me great? 00:10:29.460 --> 00:10:30.560 Fine, we'll talk about this. 00:10:30.640 --> 00:10:32.060 But this is not worthy to brag about. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:35.920 And he uses it as if it's some sort of mystery that he was caught up to the third heaven. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:42.440 He eventually tells us he was, but he starts off modestly, and then he says, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:42.880 God knows. 00:10:43.540 --> 00:10:48.100 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body. 00:10:48.420 --> 00:10:49.720 I do not know, God knows. 00:10:50.020 --> 00:10:53.980 And He heard things that cannot be told which man may not utter. 00:10:54.040 --> 00:11:01.400 Let me say about verse four, just to throw out there, if you ever read about people that talk about dying and going 00:11:01.400 --> 00:11:08.520 to some afterlife and then write some bestseller to describe that for you, Paul says in verse four that he doesn't even want to utter the 00:11:08.520 --> 00:11:09.560 things that he saw. 00:11:09.620 --> 00:11:09.760 Right? 00:11:09.760 --> 00:11:16.180 So if the Apostle Paul is going to approach it that way, it just gives you a thought to relate to people that talk about the afterlife. 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:22.240 And verse five, on behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not. 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:26.300 Boast except of my weakness. 00:11:28.380 --> 00:11:29.970 And Paul's acknowledging here in these verses. 00:11:31.400 --> 00:11:32.260 While he was weak. 00:11:33.780 --> 00:11:37.980 God lifted him up into the third heaven. 00:11:39.780 --> 00:11:44.740 And this is this is important for us is to understand the light of eternity, to talk about this passage. 00:11:44.860 --> 00:11:50.600 We may be wondering as we gear a dive into this for a minute, what does this have to do with weakness, essentially? 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:58.560 But when Paul starts to talk about heaven, I think this is important for us to stop and just engage this passage for a minute, because eventually one day you're 00:11:58.560 --> 00:11:59.440 all going to die. 00:11:59.580 --> 00:12:00.910 Every one of us, we are mortal. 00:12:01.260 --> 00:12:01.760 We will. 00:12:01.780 --> 00:12:05.080 Unless your superpower is not dying, you will. 00:12:05.140 --> 00:12:05.620 You will die. 00:12:05.720 --> 00:12:06.000 Right. 00:12:06.420 --> 00:12:13.580 And I think it's important to have some confidence when we face death to know what's it going to be like and where in the world am I going and 00:12:13.580 --> 00:12:14.530 how am I going to get there? 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:15.080 Right. 00:12:15.180 --> 00:12:22.240 Those are just some basic essential questions that if Jesus has come in pursuit of your life and he's offering you an eternity with him, it's probably 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:25.230 important to ask those types of questions What is it like? 00:12:25.560 --> 00:12:26.940 Where can we go? 00:12:26.940 --> 00:12:28.670 And how in the world can I can I get there? 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:29.080 Right. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:37.000 And Paul, he really starts to lay this out for us when he begins to talk about being taken up to the 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:37.840 third heaven. 00:12:38.380 --> 00:12:43.420 And in terms of when we die, what happens to us. 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:51.140 Important to answer and we see this term used here third heaven and some people may 00:12:51.140 --> 00:12:54.500 take this term and use it to suggest. 00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:56.390 Wait a minute, wait a minute. 00:12:57.240 --> 00:12:58.700 How many heavens are there? 00:12:58.700 --> 00:13:01.940 And when I go, how do I know I'm going to get to the best one, right? 00:13:01.980 --> 00:13:03.160 Are there really three. 00:13:03.160 --> 00:13:05.340 Heavens and am I just going to hang out in the lower one. 00:13:05.400 --> 00:13:07.380 Am I good enough to make it to the say or the third one? 00:13:07.400 --> 00:13:09.040 How does this how does this work in our lives? 00:13:09.100 --> 00:13:16.560 Well, let me just say second Corinthians, chapter five, verse eight, which we've already studied together, but second Corinthians, chapter five, verse eight says this To 00:13:16.560 --> 00:13:18.700 be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:21.440 To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. 00:13:21.680 --> 00:13:26.220 The point of eternity is not for you to continue to prove to God that you're worthy to be in His presence. 00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:30.380 In fact, the point of life is not about you proving to God that you are worthy in His presence. 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:35.540 That's the entire point of what Paul is making for us, is that we're not here to prove anything to God. 00:13:35.780 --> 00:13:37.800 We already know that we're sinful before God. 00:13:38.020 --> 00:13:44.620 And so therefore, to try to make God love you is an impossibility as being sinful, coming before a holy God that cannot happen. 00:13:45.820 --> 00:13:51.440 But God in his great love extended His grace to you anyway, that while you are sinners, Christ, Christ died for you. 00:13:52.760 --> 00:13:55.000 So the point of eternity is not proving to God anything. 00:13:55.260 --> 00:14:02.400 There's not these layers of heaven that you go on to try to justify yourself before God, as if He would finally accept you to this third level of Heaven. 00:14:02.400 --> 00:14:04.860 The Bible says second Corinthians chapter five, verse eight. 00:14:04.860 --> 00:14:07.090 To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. 00:14:07.460 --> 00:14:14.300 The whole point of your existence is for relationship with God and what God desires for your life is to be with Him. 00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:18.140 Eternity is all about being in God's presence. 00:14:18.500 --> 00:14:26.240 If you would turn to God and repentance of your sin and embrace what Jesus has done for you on the cross, a God gives us a choice as 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:29.220 to how we will position ourselves in light of who He is. 00:14:29.300 --> 00:14:32.680 We surrender our lives to Him and accept what Jesus has done for us. 00:14:32.740 --> 00:14:35.680 Or will we go on living as if we are God and kings of our own world? 00:14:37.820 --> 00:14:38.890 If we turn to Jesus. 00:14:41.180 --> 00:14:42.080 If we accept his kingdom. 00:14:43.940 --> 00:14:44.800 His forgiveness. 00:14:45.820 --> 00:14:46.720 We accept his presence. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:50.820 To be absent from the body is to be present. 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:52.270 With the Lord and Philippians. 00:14:52.540 --> 00:14:53.400 Chapter one, verse 21. 00:14:53.400 --> 00:14:59.160 Paul says it like this For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. 00:15:00.920 --> 00:15:04.490 Paul knew he would go straight to the presence of Jesus. 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:14.160 So then if the point of eternity is about being directly in the presence of God, not moving on to prove anything, the question 00:15:14.160 --> 00:15:15.000 is then. 00:15:15.520 --> 00:15:17.010 Then why does it talk about three? 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:18.020 Heavens. 00:15:19.400 --> 00:15:21.100 Or what is Paul mentioned here? 00:15:21.460 --> 00:15:22.240 The third heaven. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:25.820 And what is it like if first be straight in the presence of God? 00:15:25.880 --> 00:15:29.120 I'll say again in verse four, Paul doesn't get in the details of exactly what. 00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:30.820 Eternity is like. 00:15:30.880 --> 00:15:30.920 But. 00:15:31.020 --> 00:15:33.560 But just discussing the third heaven becomes important for us. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:34.850 And I think for some. 00:15:35.400 --> 00:15:35.840 People it. 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:38.020 May have confused them. 00:15:38.020 --> 00:15:39.710 When you study Jewish theology. 00:15:40.700 --> 00:15:43.400 The Jews had this tendency of layering what they. 00:15:43.400 --> 00:15:44.700 Refer to as the heaven. 00:15:44.860 --> 00:15:47.920 Some Jews taught a theology as many as seven layers. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:48.510 Of the heavens. 00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:56.250 But when they were when they were talking about the heavens, they were referencing all of God's creation that is beyond us. 00:15:56.900 --> 00:16:00.400 Not that when you die, you have these layers of heaven, but beyond in God's creation. 00:16:00.400 --> 00:16:06.000 In fact, in your notes, you'll see that they're the way that the Jews divided the heavens. 00:16:06.060 --> 00:16:08.610 Most traditionally was in three categories. 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:12.930 The first layer of heavens they referred to as the place where the clouds and the birds flew. 00:16:13.160 --> 00:16:15.860 They would look out to the sky and refer to those as the heavens. 00:16:16.660 --> 00:16:20.900 And it was anything beyond from the sky above them to the place where God's will. 00:16:20.940 --> 00:16:22.250 They would refer to that as the heavens. 00:16:22.620 --> 00:16:28.360 And in Jewish theology, the first layer was the heavens, where the birds flew and where were the clouds moved across the sky. 00:16:29.400 --> 00:16:35.240 And then they would refer to and you have some references here if you want to look that up, they would refer to the second layer of the heavens. 00:16:35.300 --> 00:16:39.400 And that was where the stars and the planets were that hung on the sky at the night. 00:16:39.400 --> 00:16:40.400 You could see those. 00:16:40.400 --> 00:16:45.280 In fact, in Jewish literature, they would often relate those stars to angelic beings. 00:16:45.340 --> 00:16:51.000 If you read in Revelation, it talks about in Chapter 12 how the angels, the stars fell from heaven. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:58.240 And so as humanity would look out into the skies, they would refer to the place of the stars as the second heavens, but never, never a place that 00:16:58.240 --> 00:16:59.840 we would ultimately live in eternity. 00:17:01.820 --> 00:17:02.360 And then there. 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:03.160 Was the third heaven. 00:17:04.660 --> 00:17:07.220 The celestial presence of God. 00:17:07.740 --> 00:17:09.900 When the Jews would think about dying. 00:17:09.900 --> 00:17:11.300 Some didn't believe in an afterlife. 00:17:11.460 --> 00:17:11.740 But the ones. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:17.800 Who did, when they would think about the presence of the Lord, it would be in terms of before God in the celestial kingdom. 00:17:19.560 --> 00:17:20.740 And this is what Paul's saying. 00:17:20.780 --> 00:17:21.660 I was caught up. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.470 But just, I'm not just floating in the clouds. 00:17:24.500 --> 00:17:25.920 I'm not just hanging in the stars. 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:27.099 That's not what I'm describing here. 00:17:27.300 --> 00:17:34.520 This is what Paul sang to us, but rather what he is saying to us is he's gone straight to the presence of God where we as people are 00:17:34.520 --> 00:17:36.020 created to belong. 00:17:36.060 --> 00:17:37.880 And so the question is, how? 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:39.540 How do you know? 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:42.440 How do you know you would end up there? 00:17:43.520 --> 00:17:50.600 I mean, Paul wants us to understand the beauty of God's presence here in contrasting to his weakness, how God was still gracious 00:17:50.600 --> 00:17:57.680 to him and gave him this opportunity to have this kind of experience with the Lord, and in order to encourage us that we could have the same 00:17:57.680 --> 00:17:58.520 before God. 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:01.920 How do we know that we would end up there? 00:18:02.280 --> 00:18:05.660 How do how do how do we know that what I'm talking about with heaven is. 00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:07.110 Is it really just three layers? 00:18:07.220 --> 00:18:10.280 Well, you'll notice in the same passage when. 00:18:10.940 --> 00:18:12.880 When Paul talks about the third heaven. 00:18:13.840 --> 00:18:17.920 He then he then refers to the third heaven by another word in verse three. 00:18:18.120 --> 00:18:18.440 As. 00:18:18.440 --> 00:18:18.920 Paradise. 00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:19.320 Listen to this. 00:18:19.700 --> 00:18:20.800 He these are interchangeable words. 00:18:21.120 --> 00:18:21.760 And I want you to see this. 00:18:21.900 --> 00:18:23.260 And you read verse two and three again. 00:18:23.260 --> 00:18:30.300 He says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body 00:18:30.300 --> 00:18:32.500 or out of the body, I do not know. 00:18:32.500 --> 00:18:32.780 God knows. 00:18:33.360 --> 00:18:36.100 And I know that this man was caught up to into paradise. 00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:41.240 He's using this word third heaven and paradise interchangeably for a reason. 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:44.500 He's talking to a mixed audience and Jewish culture. 00:18:44.660 --> 00:18:49.980 The way that they would talk about the celestial kingdom was the third heaven in Greek culture. 00:18:49.980 --> 00:18:52.390 The way that they would often picture heaven was paradise. 00:18:52.960 --> 00:19:00.120 This word paradise is actually a Persian word that was borrowed by Greek culture in order to paint a picture of what eternity 00:19:00.120 --> 00:19:00.920 could be like. 00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:07.940 And so when Paul is talking to this mixed audience of both Jew and Gentile, he's referring to eternity in 00:19:07.940 --> 00:19:10.300 ways that they understand in their own upbringing. 00:19:10.600 --> 00:19:11.280 The Third Heaven. 00:19:11.320 --> 00:19:12.870 You know what it's like we call that paradise. 00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:15.640 And the Jews weren't unfamiliar with the word paradise. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:16.600 In fact, Jesus. 00:19:16.600 --> 00:19:17.480 Used this word paradise. 00:19:18.220 --> 00:19:23.620 The word paradise in Persian identity represented a garden. 00:19:24.500 --> 00:19:32.060 In fact, more specifically, it represented the garden of the wealthy, or even a Kings Garden like a menagerie and Persian days, 00:19:32.120 --> 00:19:35.810 the a person that had a lot of wealth, what they would include in. 00:19:36.120 --> 00:19:38.440 The place that they lived would be a garden. 00:19:39.020 --> 00:19:41.700 Of that just showed their luxury of life. 00:19:41.700 --> 00:19:45.240 And when you would walk into that garden, it was as if to. 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:47.880 Communicate that you had no need, you lacked nothing. 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:51.500 You had wealth, and you would invite friends to this garden to hang out. 00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:55.980 So you had fellowship and the garden supplied life and food. 00:19:56.020 --> 00:19:59.780 And so you were a person that was thought to have all that you would need for human flourishing. 00:20:00.180 --> 00:20:04.040 You were blessed in that sort of circumstance, by earthly means. 00:20:04.060 --> 00:20:11.540 And so that idea of that garden came to reflect what eternity could be like, this ultimate Eden, this place of paradise. 00:20:11.540 --> 00:20:13.560 And this is what Paul is saying to us. 00:20:13.560 --> 00:20:14.830 He was caught up into. 00:20:15.260 --> 00:20:18.740 Paradise, this perfect Eden presence with God. 00:20:20.300 --> 00:20:20.480 Now. 00:20:20.600 --> 00:20:21.080 Why is this important? 00:20:23.180 --> 00:20:27.360 Well, as I already hinted, Jesus also taught a theology on this. 00:20:28.840 --> 00:20:29.280 In fact. 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:32.460 When Jesus was hanging on the cross. 00:20:32.940 --> 00:20:36.080 If you remember the story, Jesus was crucified between two thieves. 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:40.520 And we don't really know what those two thieves were guilty of. 00:20:41.180 --> 00:20:44.280 Thief in Jesus's day was kind of like a drunk, a. 00:20:45.340 --> 00:20:46.600 Drunk, a junk drawer word. 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:47.760 And maybe they were a drunk. 00:20:47.760 --> 00:20:48.120 Who knows? 00:20:48.120 --> 00:20:52.520 But a drunk junk drawer word that could just cover all sorts. 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:52.880 Of. 00:20:53.100 --> 00:20:53.600 Things. 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:58.360 It could be something to someone could be referred to as a thief because they stole a human life like they killed somebody. 00:20:58.820 --> 00:21:03.240 So it was a generic word that just encompassed all that someone could really do that. 00:21:03.280 --> 00:21:03.740 Would be wrong. 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:07.280 And so whatever it was, it was warranting being crucified. 00:21:07.560 --> 00:21:14.420 And so most likely it wasn't just stealing a couple of bucks or whatever it was, it led to these two individuals being crucified. 00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:15.580 And we know one of. 00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:17.280 Those thieves cursed Jesus. 00:21:18.580 --> 00:21:23.020 But the other thief, in moments just before Jesus died, said something altogether different. 00:21:24.740 --> 00:21:32.140 In fact, in Luke 23, it says this, and the thief said, Jesus, remember me when you come into 00:21:32.140 --> 00:21:32.740 your kingdom? 00:21:34.360 --> 00:21:35.850 And then Jesus gave him this promise. 00:21:36.620 --> 00:21:42.520 He said to him, Truly, I say to you today you will be with me in paradise. 00:21:45.100 --> 00:21:47.820 And having just studied paradise, we know exactly what that is. 00:21:49.600 --> 00:21:50.340 It's the third heaven. 00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:53.000 It's the celestial kingdom. 00:21:54.820 --> 00:21:57.680 It's straight into the presence of God, he says to the thief. 00:21:58.140 --> 00:21:58.720 Today. 00:21:59.940 --> 00:22:00.440 Right now. 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:04.280 You're not going to go on to eternity and try to prove yourself to me. 00:22:04.440 --> 00:22:11.680 You're going to turn eternity and you're going to be exactly where you're made to be, which is, in my presence, 00:22:11.960 --> 00:22:13.020 paradise. 00:22:15.020 --> 00:22:22.320 It's important to just put this passage of Scripture in your back pocket when you dialogue with people 00:22:22.320 --> 00:22:30.020 over about the extent of God's grace in this world because of what Paul says here, the third heaven is paradise. 00:22:30.140 --> 00:22:31.500 And the thief went to paradise. 00:22:31.520 --> 00:22:32.810 And this is what makes it so profound. 00:22:34.080 --> 00:22:39.540 Here you have for the first time in his life, someone expressing expressing a saving faith in Jesus. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:48.420 Remember me and your kingdom, meaning he's turning from all other kingdoms in this world, and he's putting his trust in Jesus and his kingdom and what He came to accomplish. 00:22:48.500 --> 00:22:55.080 Which is so ironic, because this man is now looking at his king who was being crucified, about to die and trusting in him. 00:22:57.620 --> 00:23:00.220 He's trusting in him and wanting to belong to that kingdom. 00:23:00.260 --> 00:23:02.550 And Jesus promises he'll be with him in paradise. 00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:10.180 And here we have the most extreme example of how the how far God's salvation will go, how far his grace can run for us. 00:23:10.180 --> 00:23:14.980 Really, if God can redeem this thief, there is there is no one on the planet that God can't reach. 00:23:14.980 --> 00:23:17.440 I mean, you think about the situation the thief is in. 00:23:17.520 --> 00:23:19.400 His hands are nailed to the cross. 00:23:19.400 --> 00:23:20.900 He could never be baptized. 00:23:20.900 --> 00:23:22.960 He can never lift a finger to do a good work. 00:23:23.080 --> 00:23:25.540 All he was left to do in these moments was simply die. 00:23:28.820 --> 00:23:30.180 And yet God rescued him. 00:23:31.580 --> 00:23:31.800 Why? 00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:36.420 The cause is not about the power of the thief. 00:23:38.540 --> 00:23:42.720 But about the power of the one who came on behalf of the thief to give his life for him. 00:23:45.080 --> 00:23:47.890 And this is why Paul chooses to use this illustration. 00:23:48.120 --> 00:23:53.780 He's saying, If I'm going to boast, I want to boast to my weakness that the power of Christ will be made known to you. 00:23:54.020 --> 00:24:00.940 It's Christ to who has this power, and that is where we need to rest, because it's not by my strength that this takes place. 00:24:00.980 --> 00:24:03.500 Our lives are not transformed by our goodness. 00:24:03.500 --> 00:24:06.140 Our lives are changed by his goodness. 00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:10.780 Therefore, point number three in your notes. 00:24:13.160 --> 00:24:14.280 Therefore surrender. 00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:15.660 To live. 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:18.520 Therefore surrender. 00:24:20.140 --> 00:24:20.520 To live. 00:24:23.320 --> 00:24:24.260 You could ask the question if. 00:24:24.460 --> 00:24:27.860 If we're elevating our weakness. 00:24:29.940 --> 00:24:32.460 Then what do we have to impress God? 00:24:35.300 --> 00:24:37.540 And that is precisely Paul's point. 00:24:39.600 --> 00:24:42.200 We're not here to impress God with ourselves. 00:24:43.660 --> 00:24:45.380 We're here to be impressed with God. 00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:48.960 We're not here to boast of our glory. 00:24:50.360 --> 00:24:53.300 We're here to boast in his glory. 00:24:54.380 --> 00:24:59.160 And so in verse seven he goes on and he says, like this he says, sort of Keep me. 00:25:01.360 --> 00:25:02.850 So to keep me from being conceited. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:06.840 Because of the surpassing greatness of revelation. 00:25:08.340 --> 00:25:09.740 A thorn was given me in the flesh. 00:25:11.340 --> 00:25:13.440 A messenger of Satan to harass me. 00:25:14.460 --> 00:25:16.230 To keep me from becoming conceited. 00:25:17.820 --> 00:25:18.760 Three times. 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:22.680 I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. 00:25:25.260 --> 00:25:32.400 What Paul is saying is sometimes when you see God's favor in your life, for example, when you get, I don't know, lift it up to 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:34.610 paradise like Paul was in this moment. 00:25:36.280 --> 00:25:44.000 Paul saying, Our tendency is to lose sight of the grace of God and His glory and start boasting in 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:44.520 our own. 00:25:45.600 --> 00:25:47.360 And to keep Paul from becoming conceited. 00:25:47.760 --> 00:25:50.980 What he says in this passage is that God gave gave him a thorn. 00:25:52.660 --> 00:25:58.380 So we're all susceptible as people to think we're better than others or more special than someone else. 00:25:59.180 --> 00:26:00.500 How we like to as people. 00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:03.870 If we mess up, we like to blame our circumstance. 00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:08.140 But if others mess up, we like to blame their character. 00:26:09.320 --> 00:26:12.770 And if you ever want to see how that plays out, just watch every politician to ever exist. 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:15.200 I mean, we as people. 00:26:15.260 --> 00:26:19.400 Well, it's the circumstance that did this right, but at others messed up. 00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:21.020 Well, it's because they're an awful human being. 00:26:22.120 --> 00:26:27.560 We blame circumstance and tear down to other people's character. 00:26:28.280 --> 00:26:31.760 But the reality is trouble is the truest test. 00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:35.600 Of a person's spiritual character. 00:26:37.460 --> 00:26:39.440 When adversity strikes us. 00:26:40.440 --> 00:26:48.400 The superficial veneer of our peace and happiness can get stripped away. 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:51.140 And it reveals what's really in our hearts. 00:26:53.760 --> 00:26:57.580 How we live for self and our own self-made glory. 00:26:58.280 --> 00:26:58.920 And when. 00:26:59.080 --> 00:27:00.620 When people read this passage of Scripture. 00:27:00.820 --> 00:27:06.780 Just to want to get to know a little bit more about what Paul's saying here in verse, verse seven and eight, they ask the question, Well, what? 00:27:06.980 --> 00:27:07.920 What was Paul's thought? 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:09.960 Because I know what mine are. 00:27:12.540 --> 00:27:13.180 I know what sets me off. 00:27:13.180 --> 00:27:15.000 I know where I get frustrated, what's. 00:27:15.260 --> 00:27:22.300 What's Paul's thoughts and reality is I know we like to blame circumstances or sometimes other people for why 00:27:22.300 --> 00:27:23.560 we do what we do. 00:27:23.560 --> 00:27:26.340 But the reality is you're still in charge of you. 00:27:28.060 --> 00:27:29.480 You're still in charge of you. 00:27:29.480 --> 00:27:35.680 And what Paul helps us see in this passage, scripture, he says, this messenger of Satan sent to harass us. 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:36.780 You know, theologians have. 00:27:37.100 --> 00:27:38.200 Debated this for years. 00:27:38.220 --> 00:27:40.180 They've looked this and they thought, what's Paul's thorn? 00:27:40.520 --> 00:27:42.680 You know, where is his weakness really expressed in this? 00:27:42.700 --> 00:27:46.670 How does God show how much he's he needs the Lord in his life through this thorn. 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:48.240 People have debated it. 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:50.940 And most people will either say it's a physical ailment or some. 00:27:50.940 --> 00:27:53.660 Sort of sickness that Paul has developed over the years. 00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:55.900 And that's probably what his thorn is. 00:27:55.940 --> 00:27:56.920 But I say. 00:27:57.020 --> 00:27:57.440 Baloney. 00:27:57.460 --> 00:27:57.780 On that. 00:27:58.220 --> 00:27:59.200 I don't think that that's true. 00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:03.940 I can only speculate, just like anyone else, as to what Paul's thorn might be. 00:28:04.300 --> 00:28:11.020 But the reason I say that's baloney is because when you read in chapter 11, verse 23, and on Paul, just describe. 00:28:11.020 --> 00:28:12.820 For us every difficult thing he's gone through in life. 00:28:13.580 --> 00:28:16.350 And he talks about being beat and shipwrecked and all the hardships. 00:28:16.660 --> 00:28:21.280 And when he lists those things, he never says to us, Oh, and by the way, I'm really sick, right? 00:28:21.340 --> 00:28:26.780 Or by the way, I've got this physical ailment as well that makes it difficult to get around. 00:28:26.780 --> 00:28:28.020 And he never lists those things. 00:28:28.020 --> 00:28:29.970 He never talks about it, never mentions it. 00:28:30.100 --> 00:28:31.880 And so that's why people have just speculated. 00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:39.680 But I think if you stay in the context of what he's described in Chapter 11 and Chapter 12, you can find what Paul specifically means 00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:41.120 by his thorn in the flesh. 00:28:41.140 --> 00:28:41.600 Here, because he. 00:28:41.940 --> 00:28:45.840 Says it was a thorn was given to me in the flesh. 00:28:45.860 --> 00:28:47.760 And then he says, a messenger of Satan. 00:28:49.180 --> 00:28:56.520 The word messenger is also translated as angel in scripture, angel and messenger, 00:28:56.540 --> 00:28:57.820 the same thing. 00:28:57.940 --> 00:29:03.360 And if you read in Chapter 11, it tells you Satan is an angel of light. 00:29:04.020 --> 00:29:08.040 And he sent his messengers out to go towards the Apostle Paul, right? 00:29:08.040 --> 00:29:09.120 To go after the Apostle Paul. 00:29:09.720 --> 00:29:13.700 And so I think in Chapter 11, Paul's already identified for us what this thorn is. 00:29:13.700 --> 00:29:17.880 It is a messenger that was sent out by Satan, who was an angel or a messenger of light. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:21.940 So I think what Paul is saying to us, if you want to know what his thorn is that keeps him humble, it's people. 00:29:22.520 --> 00:29:28.340 It's people that everyone in this room is very you're very godly when you're by yourself. 00:29:28.340 --> 00:29:28.500 Right. 00:29:28.500 --> 00:29:31.890 You are the most perfect person you know, when you left and to your own devices. 00:29:32.360 --> 00:29:37.460 But when you get around people, then you start to realize how weak you are. 00:29:37.760 --> 00:29:39.880 Sometimes people bring the greatest things out of you, right? 00:29:39.900 --> 00:29:42.620 Like it's it is fun to celebrate wonderful things of people. 00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:43.880 People do some great things. 00:29:44.700 --> 00:29:46.020 But also our hearts are corrupt. 00:29:47.540 --> 00:29:50.220 And honestly, sometimes relationships can bring the worst out of you. 00:29:51.760 --> 00:29:55.520 And Paul is saying my weakness for myself, it's really exposed. 00:29:55.520 --> 00:30:02.720 When I meet those challenges, I find out how quickly I want to revert to the flesh and I want to react rather than 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:03.620 act in faith. 00:30:03.620 --> 00:30:03.860 Before the Lord. 00:30:05.380 --> 00:30:07.170 And God has allowed me to go through those things. 00:30:08.300 --> 00:30:08.780 They keep me humble. 00:30:10.800 --> 00:30:12.880 Relationships are some of the greatest sanctifies. 00:30:13.320 --> 00:30:16.690 In life that will teach you more about your walk with God and anything if you don't believe me. 00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:19.920 I mean, watch Elastigirl and her children or watch you with yours. 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:20.120 Right? 00:30:20.840 --> 00:30:22.560 There is these things in life called teenagers. 00:30:23.580 --> 00:30:26.080 That becomes some of the most humbling thing that you can go. 00:30:26.140 --> 00:30:26.580 Through as. 00:30:26.600 --> 00:30:30.440 Parents to realize, I can't control this. 00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:32.840 And then when this does not always happen the way that I want. 00:30:33.080 --> 00:30:34.500 I can't control me anymore. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:35.700 I need Jesus. 00:30:36.500 --> 00:30:37.780 I am in a place of weakness. 00:30:37.840 --> 00:30:40.820 And Paul is saying in his own walk with the Lord, he. 00:30:42.080 --> 00:30:43.920 He discovers this place of weakness through the storm. 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:47.880 Now, I may be completely wrong, but probably not all right. 00:30:49.160 --> 00:30:50.900 But whatever it is that Paul goes through. 00:30:52.140 --> 00:30:59.160 It continues to be a reminder for him of what got him started on this journey with the Lord and what continues to keep him on 00:30:59.160 --> 00:30:59.900 this journey with the Lord. 00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:02.200 It's not his impressive power. 00:31:03.840 --> 00:31:07.190 It's recognizing just how desperate he is for Christ. 00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:10.110 And then he goes on and says. 00:31:12.100 --> 00:31:12.760 For my grace. 00:31:13.360 --> 00:31:13.820 See if. 00:31:14.340 --> 00:31:16.400 But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. 00:31:16.500 --> 00:31:18.020 By the way, this is the verse most people memorize. 00:31:18.980 --> 00:31:21.440 But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. 00:31:22.580 --> 00:31:26.650 From my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:31:27.280 --> 00:31:29.380 Therefore, I will boast all the more. 00:31:29.560 --> 00:31:34.420 Gladly of my weakness of the power of Christ may rest up on me. 00:31:35.860 --> 00:31:39.500 Now, one of the things I love about this is one it's a great truth to hold on to. 00:31:41.160 --> 00:31:43.540 God's grace is sufficient for me in my weakness. 00:31:44.300 --> 00:31:46.880 I mean, God's communicating to us so many wonderful things here. 00:31:48.140 --> 00:31:49.180 He knows where we are. 00:31:49.180 --> 00:31:49.940 He knows what we need. 00:31:50.840 --> 00:31:52.360 He wants to walk with us through. 00:31:52.500 --> 00:31:55.480 He loves us and wants to continue to conform in us. 00:31:55.480 --> 00:31:58.520 His image, I mean, all of that being expressed to your beautiful truth. 00:31:58.920 --> 00:32:05.920 And one of the things I also love about this is this is a passage that's not only should be believed in our lives, but experienced experience through our 00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:06.540 living with Christ. 00:32:07.180 --> 00:32:14.340 It's an experiential verse that as you accept this truth and live in light of it, you continue 00:32:14.340 --> 00:32:15.900 to discover that. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:16.600 Yes, while I. 00:32:16.800 --> 00:32:21.300 I oftentimes will veer off course and try to rely on my own strength time and time again, I'm reminded. 00:32:22.320 --> 00:32:23.740 That God's grace is all that any? 00:32:26.700 --> 00:32:29.340 I don't need to impress people with me, and I certainly don't need to impress God. 00:32:31.600 --> 00:32:33.510 What I really need is to be surrendered to him. 00:32:36.180 --> 00:32:38.420 His grace is sufficient for you. 00:32:39.980 --> 00:32:47.500 Sufficient for battling against your sin, against temptation, for enduring suffering and disappointment and pain, 00:32:47.500 --> 00:32:51.460 and to be obedient to him, to serve him effectively, to worship the Lord. 00:32:51.580 --> 00:32:53.860 His grace is sufficient for you. 00:32:54.180 --> 00:32:55.660 And then He goes on and says, Therefore. 00:32:56.780 --> 00:33:03.760 Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ. 00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:08.680 Then I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. 00:33:09.040 --> 00:33:13.140 For when I am weak, then I am strong. 00:33:14.300 --> 00:33:19.300 Did you see the theme where the pole hashes over and over here, verse one, verse five, verse nine, verse ten. 00:33:19.300 --> 00:33:22.720 I'm weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak. 00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:24.480 You know what we don't like to talk about as people? 00:33:27.340 --> 00:33:28.880 We don't like to talk about that word. 00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:30.400 We are weak. 00:33:32.180 --> 00:33:33.630 We get uncomfortable with that. 00:33:34.240 --> 00:33:39.580 It's a doctrine of Christianity that we like to ignore in our weakness. 00:33:39.580 --> 00:33:40.900 We find our depravity. 00:33:41.720 --> 00:33:44.800 We discover the theology of original sin. 00:33:44.860 --> 00:33:47.520 We don't we don't like to talk about weakness, what we like to talk about. 00:33:47.520 --> 00:33:54.620 And sometimes maybe even why we show up to a religious service is because we want someone to help me figure out how to be the 00:33:54.620 --> 00:33:55.040 best. 00:33:55.060 --> 00:33:55.440 Me, right. 00:33:55.460 --> 00:33:56.380 Just point me in the right direction. 00:33:56.820 --> 00:34:00.860 Give me a couple of tips and I'll show you how to make me a better me. 00:34:00.860 --> 00:34:02.400 I'll show you what makes me so great. 00:34:02.420 --> 00:34:09.620 So just give me some warm and fuzzies over some nice ideas and I'll get out here and live those practical thoughts and you make me just a little bit better at 00:34:09.620 --> 00:34:12.340 what it is that I'm doing and I've become a better version of me. 00:34:12.600 --> 00:34:14.120 And I want you to know that's religious teaching. 00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:15.040 That's not the gospel. 00:34:17.159 --> 00:34:20.060 And that is certainly what Paul is not saying. 00:34:20.080 --> 00:34:25.159 Paul is not saying just give me the right advice for improving my life so I can keep being great, help me live my best life. 00:34:25.260 --> 00:34:28.290 Now, that's not that's not what Paul's saying here at whole. 00:34:30.080 --> 00:34:30.580 We don't like. 00:34:30.679 --> 00:34:37.900 To talk about our weakness because it causes us to reflect on our on our faults, on our sin, when 00:34:37.900 --> 00:34:40.980 we when we mess up what makes us so weak. 00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:48.300 And in fact, I would even say over the last few centuries, our culture has been trained through the great enlightenment to have a disdain 00:34:48.300 --> 00:34:53.699 for Christianity's theology on depravity and original sin. 00:34:55.340 --> 00:35:02.760 I would say the Enlightenment has been brought by like Francis Bacon and Descartes and Rousseau 00:35:02.760 --> 00:35:06.070 have come along and said, you know what, humanity, we're not really that bad. 00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:08.140 In fact, we've just been oppressed. 00:35:08.140 --> 00:35:12.560 If you just knock our chains off, what will ultimately really come out of human beings is good things. 00:35:13.200 --> 00:35:17.220 So just remove those bad things and let those good things and we'll be good, in fact. 00:35:17.240 --> 00:35:19.360 Jean-jacques Rousseau and the Enlightenment. 00:35:19.380 --> 00:35:20.440 He's he says it like this. 00:35:20.820 --> 00:35:23.540 People in their natural state are basically good. 00:35:23.620 --> 00:35:24.820 This is what the Enlightenment told us. 00:35:24.820 --> 00:35:27.000 Don't ignore the idea of human depravity. 00:35:27.040 --> 00:35:28.480 Christianity is wrong, right? 00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:31.510 He says people in their natural state are basically good. 00:35:32.340 --> 00:35:33.310 And then he goes on, says this. 00:35:34.120 --> 00:35:38.260 But this natural innocence, however, is corrupted by the evils of society. 00:35:38.980 --> 00:35:42.260 And which I got to say, in regards to philosophy, this is one of the dumbest statements. 00:35:43.100 --> 00:35:48.640 And the reason for this is if he's saying, look, humans are good, but that society is this. 00:35:48.960 --> 00:35:51.460 Bad thing, if we could just get rid of the constructs. 00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:54.020 Of society, human beings would be good. 00:35:54.040 --> 00:35:58.160 But he never answers the question Who in God's name made the society right? 00:35:58.320 --> 00:35:59.400 Like, where do you think you come from? 00:35:59.620 --> 00:36:01.400 It just all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere. 00:36:01.640 --> 00:36:04.800 It was it was human beings that created the society, for Pete's sake. 00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:06.840 That is the demonstration of who we are. 00:36:06.980 --> 00:36:08.020 What are you talking about? 00:36:08.680 --> 00:36:15.820 It does not make any sense at all that he would even make this kind of statement because he's identifying by acknowledging society, the people that corrupted 00:36:15.820 --> 00:36:16.160 it. 00:36:16.420 --> 00:36:18.920 It's a revelation of what comes out of us. 00:36:18.920 --> 00:36:25.940 In fact, just recently in the 1960s, Randall Gerald, one of our writer, who I don't even think claimed to be Christian, he said this Most of 00:36:25.940 --> 00:36:28.600 us know now that Rousseau was wrong. 00:36:29.660 --> 00:36:33.660 That man, when you knock his chains off, sets up death camps. 00:36:34.260 --> 00:36:38.160 Soon we will know everything the 18th century didn't know and nothing it did. 00:36:38.240 --> 00:36:41.050 And it will be hard to live with us. 00:36:42.080 --> 00:36:44.360 I mean, he's saying, look, we just got out of the last century. 00:36:44.400 --> 00:36:45.980 You know what the last century us was. 00:36:46.140 --> 00:36:48.220 It was it was the bloodiest century in all of human history. 00:36:49.260 --> 00:36:53.840 And it was it was the century where people walked away from God more than any other century. 00:36:54.620 --> 00:36:55.300 World War One. 00:36:55.300 --> 00:36:56.400 World War Two. 00:36:56.700 --> 00:37:00.880 We got all sorts of violence that filled the last century. 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:02.340 Did the Enlightenment really help? 00:37:02.340 --> 00:37:06.580 And then there was a Christian author that came along in light of all this, and he said this. 00:37:06.620 --> 00:37:07.920 He wrote an original sin in his book. 00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:08.920 He said, Wait a minute. 00:37:10.500 --> 00:37:15.480 Modern culture says it has left behind Christianity's repulsive doctrine of original sin. 00:37:16.860 --> 00:37:22.580 But it also says it has left Rousseau's naive naivete about human nature behind. 00:37:22.620 --> 00:37:24.880 So where the blank are? 00:37:24.880 --> 00:37:26.480 There was there was a curse word there. 00:37:26.500 --> 00:37:27.560 I just bleeped it out for you. 00:37:27.560 --> 00:37:29.060 But where are we? 00:37:29.060 --> 00:37:29.180 Right. 00:37:30.340 --> 00:37:33.800 If human beings we thought were good and all of a sudden we gave them freedom and found out we're not. 00:37:35.580 --> 00:37:37.070 And then we want to reject original sin. 00:37:37.720 --> 00:37:38.620 What hope does that give? 00:37:40.780 --> 00:37:44.100 Blaise Pascal, philosopher and I need to close here. 00:37:44.100 --> 00:37:47.400 He says this Nothing jolts us more rudely than this doctrine of original sin. 00:37:48.840 --> 00:37:49.240 And yet. 00:37:50.180 --> 00:37:51.140 But for this mystery. 00:37:52.500 --> 00:37:54.960 The most inconsequential and comprehensible of all. 00:37:56.040 --> 00:37:59.860 We remain incomprehensible to our selves. 00:38:02.660 --> 00:38:03.320 It is wild. 00:38:05.640 --> 00:38:07.220 The depravity that rests. 00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:09.940 In my heart and yours. 00:38:12.500 --> 00:38:14.180 And if we're honest with it. 00:38:15.260 --> 00:38:17.060 It's a recognition of how much. 00:38:18.200 --> 00:38:19.280 We need the Lord. 00:38:21.040 --> 00:38:23.360 Not by proving ourselves to him that we're acceptable. 00:38:25.260 --> 00:38:28.010 But by accepting him because of what he has done for us on the cross. 00:38:30.500 --> 00:38:33.660 It is a freeing thing to know before a biblical god. 00:38:35.380 --> 00:38:38.640 I can be completely honest with my brokenness. 00:38:40.600 --> 00:38:43.440 God gives me a place to confront my own weaknesses. 00:38:45.540 --> 00:38:46.340 And still be loved. 00:38:48.700 --> 00:38:51.180 And still be transformed. 00:38:51.880 --> 00:38:53.880 And then, rather than resting on my power. 00:38:55.600 --> 00:38:57.160 Rest on the power of Christ. 00:38:57.380 --> 00:38:58.480 That works through me. 00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:03.460 This is what the Apostle Paul knew about his own life. 00:39:04.760 --> 00:39:10.120 If you ask the apostle Paul, how did you get to do so many great things for Christ in this world? 00:39:10.120 --> 00:39:10.710 He would say. 00:39:11.680 --> 00:39:14.340 You would be foolish to assume it was because of me. 00:39:16.060 --> 00:39:19.100 I am only where I am because of him. 00:39:20.920 --> 00:39:23.480 Do you remember the kind of man he was on the Damascus road? 00:39:24.620 --> 00:39:28.660 His heart was full of anger and hatred. 00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:32.480 But when God exposed him. 00:39:33.740 --> 00:39:36.280 And he was laid completely bare before the Lord. 00:39:37.380 --> 00:39:39.640 And his life utterly surrendered to Christ. 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:45.980 God and his strength radically transformed the Apostle Paul, and he continued to live in light of that. 00:39:46.620 --> 00:39:48.030 Someone comes to you and asks. 00:39:49.140 --> 00:39:49.680 Why are you so important? 00:39:51.620 --> 00:39:53.070 Why do you have value? 00:39:54.680 --> 00:39:57.700 If your answer isn't Jesus alone. 00:39:59.360 --> 00:40:00.580 You don't understand this passage. 00:40:02.520 --> 00:40:08.380 Because apart from Christ, at best, all we have is a facade of good living. 00:40:09.560 --> 00:40:13.260 But Jesus is the one who delivers and fulfills. 00:40:15.240 --> 00:40:17.980 Until we're willing to surrender our lives. 00:40:20.140 --> 00:40:22.200 We're not ready to follow Christ. 00:40:24.860 --> 00:40:26.860 But if you're willing to go all in. 00:40:28.400 --> 00:40:32.020 Jesus can do incredible things through your life as you journey with him. 00:40:33.040 --> 00:40:40.480 That journey is not about inviting God into your life, but rather letting go of yours and embracing 00:40:40.900 --> 00:40:41.600 His. 00:40:42.600 --> 00:40:44.280 We're not here to improve you. 00:40:45.720 --> 00:40:48.980 We're here so that you can die to you and lift him.