You
Find your seat and grab your blue song book and turn to page number 493, Onward Christian
Soldiers.
Song number 493, Onward Christian Soldiers, let's sing it out in the first.
Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before, Christ the royal master leads against the foe,
Forward into battle, see his banner go, Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before, At the sign of triumph, Satan's host a flee,
On then Christian soldiers on to victory, Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise,
Brothers lift your voices loud, your anthems raise, Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before, Like a mighty army moves the church of God,
Brothers we are training, where the saints have trod, We are not divided, all on body we,
One in hope and doctrine, one in charity, Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before, Onward then ye people, join our happy throng,
Blend with us your voices in the triumph song, Glory lot and honor unto Christ the King,
This through countless ages man and angel sing, Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
This through countless ages man and angel sing, Onward then ye people, join our happy throng,
Once so aimlessly I wandered round the tangled paths of sin,
All about me seemed so hopeless, doubts and fears without within,
Then a voice so kind and gentle spoke sweet peace unto my soul,
Gone my days of sin and wandering since the Savior made me whole,
I have never lost the wonder of it all, I have never lost the wonder of it all,
Since the day that Jesus saved me and a whole new life He gave me,
I have never lost the wonder of it all, Now my life is full of gladness,
All my days are filled with joy, I no longer walk in sadness,
Happy songs my life employ, For I've learned the wondrous secret,
Only those in Christ can know, Tis the peace of sins forgiven joy,
That makes my glad heart flow, I have never lost the wonder of it all,
I have never lost the wonder of it all, Since the day that Jesus saved me and a whole
new life He gave me, I have never lost the wonder of it all.
All right, welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church. Let's look at our bulletins.
If you need a bulletin, would you lift up your hand? Does anybody need a bulletin?
All right, on our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says,
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, Philippians chapter 4 verse 4.
Our service times are listed below, 10 30 a.m. for Sunday morning and Sunday evening service
is 3 30 p.m. Thursday Bible study is 6 30 p.m. This Sunday evening we're going to be in Genesis
chapter 47 and tonight we're in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. I'm going to preach two sermons
out of this chapter. Our soul winning times are listed below. We had soul winning tonight. Did
we have any salvations brother Robert? At one, amen. All right, cool, that's great.
So we had one salvation tonight, we had three on Sunday. Anybody else record a salvation
this week? Okay, all right, so keep up the good work on soul winning. So below we have our
salvations, baptisms, and attendance totals and on our page over we on the inside right hand side
there we have the announcement of the 80 salvations we had in Detroit. Just wanted to thank everybody
once again for going on that trip and sacrificing your time, your vacation time, and your hard-earned
money to go and pull some people out of the fire and so it's a very successful trip. I'm sure we're
going to go back again May 7th which is not tomorrow but Saturday. I'm on fast forward right
now. May 7th which is Saturday is going to be the ladies tea here at the church building at 10 a.m.
and so there's gonna be some prizes for the adult ladies and for the teen ladies and for the
girls. There'll be two prizes for each category for best dressed or something like that.
Huh, yeah, yeah, something like that. I don't know, just ask my wife. There she is right there.
She's looking at me like, anyway, it's gonna be some kind of prize. Just talk to my wife after
church about it, right? Sorry, I don't know the, I think it's best dressed. So anyway,
so it's gonna be fun. All the ladies are gonna wear hats and the gloves and have tea and they're
gonna have some food so if you're gonna go please let my wife know if you already haven't done that.
And let's see, we got Mother's Day which is Sunday and so we're gonna be, I'm gonna be
preaching a sermon targeted towards mothers and also we're gonna have an afternoon meal
provided by the church so nobody has to cook. No mothers have to cook on Mother's Day around here.
So anyway, I haven't figured out what I'm gonna get yet but there's some definite options that
I'm looking at so it's gonna be a surprise. It's gonna be Panda Express. No, just joking.
Just joking. Surprise, Panda Express again. No, just joking. It'll be hot dogs,
chicken hot dogs though, you know, never mind. I'm not gonna do that. I'm just teasing.
Okay, so let's see, we got a field trip coming up. Oh, also there'll be gifts for all the mothers
in attendance on Sunday so make sure you're here for that. And the homeschool field trip is on May
17th in the field. So it's a field trip to the zoo so please give your final numbers. It says
May 7th but May 13th is good to give Miss Rachel. She needs to know for sure so she can get the
tickets on the 13th. All right, so that's the deadline to let her know to RSVP. The parking
will be paid for as long as you're there on time and time so we can pay for the parking but if
you're late then you're gonna have to pay for it yourself. That's the punishment for being late
and you have to go into the monkey cage for a little while but other than that you'll be
you'll be good to go. So anyway, you guys need to wake up or I need to get funnier, one of the two.
All right, so what else we got? The Sony marathon in Bellingham, Washington is on May 27th
and brother Robert's leading that and so please let brother Robert know that if you're going to
be going to that or not. I got jury duty on May 23rd so I might not be able to even go until
Saturday morning or something. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm trying to get out of it. I'll
say I'm not vaccinated which is true. I doubt they're going to want me in there. I don't know.
They'll say no we still want you but you gotta wear a mask. I'll be like no.
Anyway, so I do have that but I'll be preaching on May 28th in Blaine, Washington at the park
that we went to before and we'll be meeting up with our brethren from Shure Foundation Baptist
North and brother Wayne and Ms. Queenie are leading that group. They'll be there and then
hopefully a lot of our church members will be there and so it's basically the only place where
we can meet up with our Canadian brethren because they have like a strict vaccine policy in Canada.
So anyway, you don't have to have any ID to go to the park or anything like that so don't worry
about that. June 1st through 4th is church camp and I just confirmed that Pastor Pazarski is going
to be there on Thursday and he's going to be preaching a sermon on Friday and also on Saturday
morning so it's going to be nice to have his family up there coming to preach for us so I
appreciate that and the northwest or northeast excuse me new IFB conference night is going to
be in New Jersey. It'll be 6 p.m. at the venue and fellowship so we're also going to be preaching
me and Pastor Jimenez will be preaching at 7 p.m. I'll preach first they'll be preach after I'm done
and then we'll have so many marathon on Saturday there's going to be baptisms on Friday night so
it's going to be a good time over there and then looking forward we're going to have a men's
shooting event and I announced this last time without brother Sean being here but I'm sure it's
same thing same same okay and usually we provide some ammo nine millimeter and 556 or 223 or
whatever so we'll probably have a competition but we'll have to make it shorter this time
somehow we'll have to make it shorter but Kyle won last year he didn't miss a shot made me sick
he pulled the Kyle Rittenhouse got every target exactly except for he wasn't shooting pedophiles
so anyway let's see what else we got going on father's day on the 19th and then the Red
Hot Preaching Conference all the other information down below skip through and we didn't get a chance
to sing happy birthday to miss crystal and she's here in the flesh so yeah your birthday was
yesterday right did you go to Mongolian girl I was I was hating I was hating I was I had to
go to bed early but uh I'm glad you had a nice time let's sing happy birthday to miss crystal
all right
all right he's 23 is that 24 okay that was close
all right well that's all I got for announcements let's sing another song and then we'll receive oh
wait that's not all I got for announcements I need some men's help after the church service
that grabs tables and chairs if you would please and I feel like I'm missing something else but
is there something else the ping pong table needs to be moved into that room over there
all right so if can I get some men right now I want I want to see hands hands all around the
building one two three four five six yeah okay seven all right can I get eight can I get a
witness over there in the booth all right I see eight all right so we should be able to do it
really fast right after the service bing bing bing bing all right anyway that's all I got for
announcements all right our next song number 31 in your blue hymn books praise the lord the almighty
song number 31 in your blue hymn books praise to the lord the almighty
song number 31 let's sing it out on the first
praise to the lord the almighty the king of creation oh my soul praise him for he is thy
health and salvation all ye who hear now to his temple draw near join me in glad adoration
praise to the lord who or all things so wondrously rain shelters the under his wings yay so gently
stay
has thou not seen how thy desires there have been granted in what he ordaineth praise to the lord
who with marvelous wisdom has made thee deck thee with health and with loving hand guided and state
thee how often grief hath not he brought thee relief spreading his wings for to shame
thee praise to the lord oh let all that is in me adore him all that has life and breath come now
with praises before him let the amen sound from his people again gladly for i we adore the amen
good scene brother sean could you bless the offering for us
the father again i thank you for this day lord and lord i just prayed that you would
fill pastor thompson with your spirit lord and i just pray that you help him to preach
bold to us and uh have clarity of mind lord and i just pray that you give us
years to hear the mess up and bless us all we're afraid of saints
so
thank you for the special music all right as we always do on thursday nights we're going to
go to the lord in prayer so let's all bow our heads together lord we just want to thank you
for the ability and privilege to come to you come before you in jesus name and lord we just
ask that you would listen to our request lord and and many of these have been already requested to
you lord throughout the week and we just pray lord that you would answer those things according to
your will first and foremost lord we just ask for uh comfort and peace to brother alex and his wife
mary and just pray that you would help that situation lord she's fallen very ill she's in
the hospital i just pray that you would lift up their spirits and lord i pray that you would help
her to come out of the sleep that she's in right now and if it be your will lord that she would
recover fully and lord we ask that you just be with alex as he goes through this hard time
and heal his wife and lord help him and give him comfort and also lord we pray for
our friends at steadfast baptist church and pray that you'd put a hedge of protection about our
church lord and all of our church plants that we have around the country and in the world lord
i pray that you would just help the leaders to be strong and be vigilant and that you would
bless and help their wives lord and also that you would help the congregations to grow spiritually
lord and we just pray that many souls would be saved throughout the country and throughout the
world through the soul-winning efforts of our churches pray you'd help us to stay on fire lord
and lord sometimes it's easy to not be on fire lord but i pray that you'd help our church to
be on fire to you lord and i pray that you would help and watch over brother chris as he's away on
deployment and we also pray for miss sheila as she's experiencing a lot of pain and going
through a lot of anguish because of her physical ailments that she has and we also pray for all the
pregnant and expecting mothers lord for miss alana miss chantel miss amy and miss nia pray
that you would help this nia to get over her morning sickness as soon as possible
and also lord we pray for traveler's mercy for all those that are coming to town early for
mother's day and lord we also ask that you give travelers mercies to remy and miss and kylie and
the kids and lord pray that you just comfort miss kylie and their family over the strength or over
the death of her dad and i just pray that you would just help everything to go well and lord
that you would just comfort the hearts of those that have lost i pray that you'd allow them to
or just think about the good times that they had with them lord and that they'd be a blessing
miss kylie could be a blessing to her family and remy and also for miss sarah she has a prayer
request lord for brother gary who sprained his ankle lord i pray that you'd help him to heal
quickly and that he'd get back on his feet as soon as possible and for miss julene's upcoming
ultrasound lord i pray that you would give her the answers that she needs and uh also for
brother drew whose shoulders been hurting him we also pray for brother kenny to have strength
and for a place a permanent place to dwell for miss amanda for her family and wisdom and
decisions concerning her sister and for miss sarah miller continued prayer for their move
to go smoothly and that there would be no hiccups or issues josh is unspoken also lord we pray for
that for brother roberts unspoken for his friend for miss elana's unspoken prayer and for miss
and for miss sheila miss sierra and brother ethan lord we pray that you continue to comfort them
after they've lost their son and brother and uncle ricky and uh also pray for um or thank you lord
for miss zoe getting better and feeling better and being in church and uh we just so thankful
lord that you brought her through that sickness and uh we also thank you lord for brother sean
to get their vehicle fixed so they could come to church tonight and lord we know that you answer
our prayers when we ask them and we thank you so much for them we thank you for each and every
single person in this church lord we pray that you bless the rest of our evening together in
jesus name we pray amen
all right good evening would you please turn with me to second corinthians chapter 12 second
corinthians chapter 12 as is our custom we're going to read the entire chapter starting in
verse one so would you please read along with me silently as we read second corinthians
chapter 12 afterwards i'm going to ask brother bill to pray for us so it's okay to make eye
contact gentlemen second corinthians chapter 12 it is not expedient for me doubtless to glory
i will come to visions and revelations of the lord i knew a man in christ above 14 years ago
whether in the body i cannot tell or whether out of the body i cannot tell god knoweth such
a one caught up to the third heaven and i knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body
i cannot tell god knoweth how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which
it is not lawful for a man to utter of such and one will i glory yet of myself i will not glory
but in mine infirmities for though i would desire to glory i shall not be a fool for i will say the
truth but now i forbear lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be or that
he heareth of me and lest i should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the
revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of satan to buffet me lest i
should be exalted above measure for this thing i besought the lord thrice that it might depart
from me 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 therefore 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
i am become a fool in glorying you have compelled me for i ought to have been commended of you for
in nothing am i behind the very chiefest apostles though i be nothing truly the signs of an apostle
were wrought among you in all patience and signs and wonders and mighty deeds for what is it wherein
ye were inferior to other churches except it be that i myself was not burdensome to you forgive
me this wrong behold the third time i am ready to come to you and i will not be burdensome to you
for i seek not yours but you for the children ought not to lay up for the parents but the
parents for the children and i will very gladly spend and be spent for you though the more
abundantly i love you the less i be loved but be it so i did not burden you nevertheless being
crafty i caught you with guile did i make a gain of you by any of them whom i sent unto you
i desired titus and with him i sent a brother did titus make a gain of you walked me not in the same
spirit walked me not in the same steps again think ye that we were that we excuse ourselves unto you
we speak before god in christ but we do all things dearly beloved for your edifying
for i fear lest when i come i shall not find you such as i would and that i shall be found unto
you such as ye would not lest there be debates envyings wraths stripes backbitings whisperings
swellings tumults and lest when i come again my god will humble me among you and that i shall
bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication
and lasciviousness which they have committed brother bill
father thanks for your word thanks for
amen all right we're in second corinthians chapter number 12
and so this is a brand new chapter i preached three sermons out of second corinthians chapter
11 and where i left off was i preached last week about persecution and the reality of persecution
that it's just something that we're going to go through and it could be light
it could be hard persecution paul explains kind of how he feels like he has to keep telling
you know he says i i speak as a fool when he's explaining about how he uh is he's kind of
saying what his uh good works resume is basically and as he does it he's saying i'm speaking
foolishly because this is not what a mature christian would do is sit there and brag about
all the things that they've gone through and so we really shouldn't be christian braggarts
and sit there and blow a trumpet every time we do something good for the lord
and god knows when you do something good and obviously we can still rejoice when we get people
saved i'm not saying that that's bad or wrong but the apostle paul basically he's talking about
these false prophets that uh we're trying we're basically talking smack about him and coming to
the church and saying well paul's not that great you know he's he's mediocre or whatever and it's
like really they're talking about probably the greatest missionary that's ever lived
probably one of the greatest christians that's ever lived even though he didn't start out that
way did he and he started out on the wrong foot and uh on the opposite side and now he
is in heaven with the lord obviously but uh he talked about all the persecutions he went through
and and not only that but just like he kind of just displayed it out about everything that he
does everything he did and it's like well if you guys want to compare numbers let's compare numbers
let's compare how much i've been beaten let's compare how much i've done for the lord and he's
speaking as a fool he's not bragging he's just saying you know if i was going to be like you
i have more things to brag about than you do i'm the hardest working apostle you know i mean
basically he's saying the truth and so he's not really bragging but he kind of continues on with
this thought um in in chapter number 12 and look at verse number one it says it is not expedient
for me doubtless to glory i will come to visions and revelations of the lord so now i mean he does
kind of change gears a little bit but he's still kind of talking about uh things that he's done but
he also wants to to i think he's trying to wind down from what he said in the last chapter and
just say look the only thing that you know if you were reading along the only thing that paul wants
to glory in is the infirmities that he has and he wants to glory in christ and glory in the lord
but the lord did bless paul with a lot of great gifts paul had he said i spake in more tongues
than you all that's one of the things he had he also committed uh you know he god committed to
him to do miracles in front of the people and next week i'll get into a lot of the miracles he did i
don't even know if i put all of them in there but paul you know you think of him being this great
preacher and this great evangelist but he also did miracles before people and he was you know
it talks about in this chapter how he's not behind even the chiefess of apostles that he
he's right there with them and uh so but he says it's not that i will come to visions and
revelations verse number one he says it's it's not expedient for for me doubtless to glory so
it's what does that what's expedient mean well it means suitable for achieving a particular end
in a given circumstance so you know he he says it's not expedient for me to keep going on
and to glory in the in the great works that i've done it's it's not expedient it's not
suitable for achieving an end so it's not really needed to be talking about all the stuff
but he does talk about he will come to visions and revelations of the lord and no doubt at this
point he had already come to a lot of visions and revelations well let's turn over to keep your
finger here and turn over to galatians chapter 1 verse 11. now the apostle paul does claim
that he got revelations and visions from god and and it says of the lord and the book of galatians
explains this a little further also look at verse number 11 in chapter 1 it says but i certify you
brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man so it's not something he made up
it's something that god specifically gave him it's not after man it's after god now look at
verse 12 it says for i neither received it of man neither was i taught it but by the revelation
of jesus christ so he's claiming direct revelation from jesus christ and see these these guys that
are just saying like paul you know you know they'll say that paul isn't who he says he is
he's not that great of an apostle there what's so great about paul and it's like paul paul was a
great man and he really shouldn't have to keep defending himself like this but it seems like
great men of god always seem to have to defend themselves all the time against people that are
saying they're evil and wicked and false prophets i mean anytime there's some kind of a video about
like pastor jimenez or pastor anderson they always say oh these guys are heretics you know it's like
they just throw these baseless accusations without saying well how how are they heretics why don't
you explain how they're heretics instead of just you know putting a railing accusation when
someone's a railer like that i just dismiss everything that they say at that point because
if you're not going to explain why someone's a heretic you're not going to explain why someone's
a false prophet then don't don't open up your mouth you know if you're not willing to explain
it but they just want to throw that in there because when people like i was watching that
that guy he did like an inner pastor anderson did an interview with that cassidy what's his name
campbell and people you know you know he's got a lot of subscribers so all these people are like
getting this content for the first time which i think is great and then of course you got the
trolls in there you know just dropping their little hateful seeds in there and instead of
letting people just decide for themselves you know they take it upon themselves to call him a heretic
and all this other stuff and he played a clip in there there's just a viral tik tok video i guess
of him kicking this guy out during the oneness fiasco and people are saying look at he just
kicked this guy out you know he's so mean or whatever but you know you don't get the full
story people always like to just clip things without putting the context of what's going on
the guy just walked over walked up in the middle of the service and started talking and obviously
you know he was michael the archangel so he felt like he had some reason to come and speak but
the guy was just loony and so pastor actually kicked him out and
you know just people just will say baseless things like that but like if someone tried to come over
come up and take over the service when i was preaching i would do the exact same thing i'd
say get him out of here get out so i mean this is not a free-for-all up here we're gonna do
things decently in an order so anyway paul claimed to have direct revelation from the lord that he
he had visions and then you know just think about the revelation that paul did receive
number one he he basically lays out salvation multiple times in the new testament so it's
very easy to understand he's talking about how it's grace through faith and it's just we're
justified by faith alone and all of sin comes short of the glory of god it's eternal security
it's a gift i mean he got a lot of great revelation didn't he wrote hat over half the new testament
he also he has a whole chapter in first corinthians 15 about the resurrection
the resurrection of christ and how we're going to be resurrected the different all the different
doctrine concerning the resurrection end times you know he's has the most famous rapture verses in
the new testament besides of course matthew 24 where he just explains in the timeline what has
to happen first and that's why we believe it's after the tribulation that jesus is going to come
back because he says he flat out says let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not
come except this uh the the son of perdition uh the man of sin the son of perdition is revealed
right so you know and so paul just explains everything about the end times for us and make
it really easy he explains ordinances you know he explains the lord's supper he explains you know
even hairstyles and how we should how we should dress how we should act the christian life
ordination pastoral qualifications i mean the apostle paul's the one that lays all this stuff
out and who gave him these revelations well the lord jesus christ that's what he said right
he uh again wrote all that scripture and the apostle paul's writings are straight from god
you know when he says that you know this is scripture then that's what you know why is
this in the bible why is all paul's writings in the bible because they're scripture so
turn back to second corinthian chapter 12 verse 2 it says i knew a man in christ so he
so he before i read this verse he says i'm gonna i will come to visions and revelations of the lord
then the very next verse he says i knew a man in christ above 14 years ago whether in the body
i cannot tell whether or whether out of the body i cannot tell god knoweth such and one caught up
to the third heaven and so you know that's talking about obviously where god lives that there's three
different heavens we've got the heaven that's like the sky where the birds fly you got space
and then above that is the third heaven so and the third heaven is not something we can see with
the telescope we can't see angels we can't see god you know there's it's it's closed off for us
to be able to see so um and if god wants us to see that he's gonna let us you know see some of that
or all that in our own given time but obviously we can't look up there right now but anyway he's
talking about getting caught up to the third heaven and it says in verse three and i knew such
a man whether in the body or out of the body i cannot tell god knoweth how that he was caught up
into paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter so he's saying
i knew a man in christ and so there's some controversy over this uh passage a little bit
and it's not i mean it's not really super controversial but some people have differing
opinions about it so i just want to give you a couple different opinions about it and you might
even have a third opinion about it i'd like to hear it after the service if you have a different
theory but one of the one theory that i that i would put forth is that paul is speaking about
someone else seemingly at random and i say seemingly at random because it's like he's like
i'm i'm i'm getting these these visions of revelations i knew this man uh or i knew a man
in christ about 14 years ago and it you know it doesn't say who it is and he's not sure whether
it's a bodily experience or not right isn't that what it says whether out of the body
i cannot tell whether in the body i don't know i don't know which one it was but then he says
that how this man i knew such a man and then again he says whether in the body or out of the body i
cannot tell god knoweth so he's obviously talking about a vision or a revelation that he had
so now so the theory i that i would basically put forth that um is that one thing to consider
is that you know this could just be some random person that he's talking about okay and that's
kind of what the context is seeing right here but you know there's another theory about this that he
could this could be paul talking about himself but he's not talking about himself as if you know
because he says i'm not going to doubt i'm not going to doubt his glory but he's only going to
glory in his infirmities so this is like what you would call an outer body experience or maybe it's
an inner body experience paul's saying he doesn't know what what it is but isn't it weird how there's
a lot of people nowadays that claim to have these outer body experiences or that they that they died
on the operating table and they went to heaven and then they come back and write a book about it
and then they say about all the things that they saw while they're in heaven and then they get
caught with being frauds some of them some of them not but it's funny because it says
that he uttered things that are not lawful for man to utter he he heard these unspeakable words
while he was in paradise now paradise in case you didn't know it says it's in the third heaven and
it says it's paradise so paradise is not abraham's bosom but i'm going to get back to that here in a
minute because that's what people will say that paradise was in the heart of the earth and then
it was moved up into heaven later on but the tree of life you know all the a lot of the things that
god deals with on the earth are things that are already in heaven like the tabernacle the arc
all these different things an altar and so the tree of life was on the planet earth but there's
also a tree of life in heaven so i'll get to that here in just a minute let me continue through this
theory so but the thing is is that so paul's not saying what the words are so i mean to me it's
just it's it's a little my opinion is is that this is paul that's my opinion so i'm just saying it's
my opinion you can disagree with me all you want because it's not really clear but i do think it's
interesting how paul's saying hey you know it's not expedient for me doubtless the glory i will
come to visions of revelations and he's talking about this man that he knew above 14 years ago
and he's not you know so if he was saying well i went to heaven 14 years ago then he's he is
glorying isn't he isn't he saying that i i was in heaven and i did this and i did that i think that
this is my what i think about it i think that paul
was you know that he had an inner or outer body experience when he was stoned at lystra
that's what i personally think because when are you weak would you be weak if you got hit with
rocks until you were unconscious and looked like you're in you were dead or whatever i mean you
you would be pretty weak then right so would you would you say that paul was infirm when he was
pounded with rocks by people and that's probably the closest he ever came to death and and he
probably you know according to this you know at least he had a vision you know if it's talking
about paul he had this vision where he went up to heaven heard these things and and in in here it
also christ also talks about you know you have the words of christ in red where it says you know that
he's not going to take that thorn away from him that's in the flesh and he's that his power is
made manifest in in the weakness of people right that's not exactly what it says but i'll get to
that later but um when we when paul says at the end of this chapter near the end of this chapter
when i'm weak then i am strong so when is paul doing his greatest works well when he's weak
and when is you know and this this would hold true to anybody you know some sometimes people
you know they they get lifted up and then god's not going to use you as much when you're have some
kind of pride or when you have some kind of you know this person's good looking they speak well
and they they do everything right and you know sometimes god just won't use someone like that
he uses people that you know he calls people that are not necessarily you know the best voice
and the best looking and the best body and all this other stuff that people think is such a big
deal god looks on the heart so the weaker that someone is god can use that person and his power
his power can rest upon a person who and maybe it's just you're weak in the way you you think
about yourself you think i'm i'm not strong the only power i can get is the power of god
and so when we go out and do things in our own flesh and think that we're the ones that are doing
everything and we and we just put god on the back burner then god's not going to use someone as
highly as that when you're tired and you go soul winning isn't it funny how sometimes when you're
really tired you go soul winning it's like you just don't feel like going then you get someone
saved and it's like god used your weakness and just allowed you to be that vessel for someone
to get saved and so that's why i kind of think that this is paul talking about him being weak
because he said i'm not going to glory in my own you know power you know he's not going to he's
not going to glory it's not expedient he's just saying well you know i had this vision of this and
again it could just be some random person but to me it doesn't make sense of the whole context of
the chapter when he's talking about how when he's weak he is strong and christ is telling him i'm
going to use you when i'm going to put my power upon you when you are weak and so how weak do
you have to be after being stoned to death you're pretty weak and so maybe god just allowed that
timing for paul to uh you know see this great vision and hear the things that god wanted him
to hear and so paul you know he talks a lot about his physical ailments he talked a lot about what
he went through in the last chapter and i i when i preached that i was talking about how the scars
that the apostle paul probably would have had on him you know he would have had scars he would have
had you know scar tissue on top of scar tissue being whipped as many times as he was being beaten
with rods if you're being with rods you're gonna that's gonna leave a mark that's gonna leave
multiple marks on you and you know just having rocks thrown at you until you're dead i mean
that's that's gonna look pretty bad so he he talks about how he bears in his body the marks of the
lord jesus in the end of the book of the book of galatians but i i think paul speaking of himself
personally that's what i think um you know it's something that he experienced with his own
infirmity so um and this is where i lean because paul is talking about coming to visions and
revelations from the lord and he's saying it's not expedient for him to glory look at verse number
five it says of such and one will i glory yet of myself i will not glory but mine infirmities
so again he's not he's not glorying in something that he personally did through his own strength
he's glorying in something that god showed him because he was weak that makes sense and this
is the verse where someone could say well he's talking about somebody else and you know what if
he is then i'm wrong and again that's my opinion so you can have your own opinion about that let's
turn over to acts chapter number 14 though verse number 19 acts chapter number 14 and verse number
19 we'll see the story where paul is stoned so and this is early on in the apostle paul's ministry
now and he said in this chapter that 14 years ago you know he saw he saw this vision or whatever
so it kind of fits the time frame as to when the apostle paul would be preaching you know
14 years ago i knew that i knew such and one you know and so again he's not glorying in himself
he's said i'm only going to glory in my infirmities look at acts 14 19 it says
and there came thither certain jews from antioc and iconium who persuaded the people and having
stoned paul drew him out of the city supposing he had been dead how be it as the disciples stood
round about him he rose up and came into the city and the next day he departed with barnabas to
derby now something to think about in this in this uh they said supposing he had been dead
so i'm not saying that paul was even really dead but he could have been to the point of being dead
i mean if they thought he was dead then he must have looked dead right i mean usually if someone's
like faking have you ever been okay i know people have done this pretended like you were dead
and then someone's going to find you like that like where you hold your breath so you don't think
that people are going to see your stomach moving or your chest moving or whatever you know you've
done it somebody didn't realize no i know my wife's done because she told me but she would pretend
but she didn't realize that her or you know that you could see her breathing or whatever and she
finally figured that out but paul looked dead do you think it looked like he was breathing
probably not and he probably looked dead probably because there's a lot of blood
i mean they didn't aim for the the leg they didn't aim for the arm they're aiming for the face
they're aiming for the head they're trying to kill them obviously body shots are going to kill people
but you know they're picking up rocks and they're throwing they're not they're not picking up little
pea gravel they're picking up rocks and they're throwing it as hard as they can trying to kill
them so he probably they thought he was dead probably because he looked like he was dead
and maybe he quit breathing for a minute i don't know but they drew him out of the city
so he still seemed dead long enough for them to drag him out of the city
and leave him outside and then his disciples are just like kind of standing around i'm like
is he dead you know you know they probably thought he was dead too but then he just
gets up so i mean is that his own strength that allowed him to get up do you think or do you think
it's god's strength do you think he was weak when he was laying on the ground pelted with rocks he
was probably weak but god you know i believe that god wrote allowed him to rise up and says and came
into the city and the next day he departed with barnabas to derby that's a pretty tough guy most
people if they got stoned and left for dead and their friends are standing around them they're
gonna be like take me to the hospital i need stitches you know i mean paul's a tough guy
so but he's not glorying in himself he doesn't get up and go man i'm so tough i took all those rocks
you guys couldn't have done that you know but that's the people just tend to glory in their
own flesh you know and it's not you know when we get people saved obviously you're you're
preaching the gospel that person but the holy spirit is working through you have you ever just
been preaching the gospel and all of a sudden a verse that you really don't have memorized comes
to your memory like maybe you've heard it a lot of times or whatever but it's not something that
just rolls off your tongue easily and then you're just like preaching all these verses and you're
hitting with all these verses like wow is this how's this happening you know that's the power
of god when you're willing to be used by god to reach people then god's gonna say you know what
that person's weak that person worked 60 70 hours this week and they're still out there knocking
doors and they're tired and they're sore but they're still doing you know what i'm gonna use
that person because they're they're weak and i want to show my strength in them so that's how
god uses people god uses people small in number he uses people that aren't the most popular i mean
david was what the eighth son of jesse and he's like nope it's not this guy when samuel's supposed
to be anointing him nope it's not this guy this is not the lord's anointed and samuel's looking for
this big strong guy because saul the guy he first anointed was a big tall he was tall head and
shoulders above the rest and so this is what samuel's looking at because we look at people
and we think that person's strong but god was looking for david david just this ruddy little
guy with a a good countenance or whatever and god used him to do great mighty things but it
wasn't who samuel thought it was and so david was humble you know just like saul was humble
in his own sight at one point but then he got you know he got to the point where he thought
he was something special and then that's when he started messing up and making all kinds of
mistakes and that's when he started to sin and go against what god said to do so and then ultimately
he was denounced as the king so infirmity what does infirmity mean well it means physical or
mental weakness if someone has an infirmity that means that they have something physically
or mentally wrong with them and again if you have rocks hit you until you almost died that
would make you physically weak wouldn't it so you know again paul makes this big point in this
chapter to you know through weakness in the flesh he is strong and then ultimately you know whichever
you believe like i said is fine you can believe that he's talking about somebody else and i don't
care because really is it a salvation issue is it something that you just can't live with pastor
thompson believes it's paul you know so what though what can i prove it a hundred percent
definitively no but i just you know he's talking about these revelations and all of a sudden he's
just talking about this person for no apparent reason i i don't know to me that just doesn't
make sense with the context of the chapter that's just my opinion but anyway people also will say
like i said earlier that this is the paradise that it's talking about so it's talking about
paradise in these verses right but they'll say well paradise is a place called abraham's bosom
that was in the center of the earth because the bible is very clear that jesus went to hell
the bible says his soul was not left in hell and then jesus tells a story about the rich
man and lazarus and how you know he was the the lazarus was was caught up to abraham's bosom and
he was comforted right so a bosom actually literally means like your chest okay so some
people believe that abraham's chest is a place where people rest down there and so before abraham
i don't know where people went to rest i don't know if abraham's bosom was made this chasm and
and next to hell it was like a tropical paradise you know so turn to luke chapter 23 so i just
want to show you there's only a three verses where the bible actually talks about paradise
and what does paul say we're supposed to look at things through the the scope of the new testament
what does the new testament say that paradise is well it's the third heaven right that's where
paradise is look what jesus said look at in luke chapter 23 verse 42 says and he said unto jesus
lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom this is a thief on the cross he has a change of
heart he repents he gets saved he says you know he says this he prays a little prayer right here
and gets saved imagine that he prays a little prayer he says lord remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom that's all he says guess what he saved so all these people that say you know
you know you don't have to confess christ you don't have to call upon the name of the lord
well you know and a little prayer doesn't save you ought to believe a little prayer saves it
well did a little prayer save this person yes it did and it says and it says and jesus said unto
him verily i say unto thee today shalt thou be with me in paradise and people say see
jesus went to paradise well but his soul went to hell okay so whether you think everything else
his spirit or whatever went to heaven his soul went to hell okay and look jesus is god
so god can be everywhere at once so technically was god still in heaven yes he was so when he
says today that shall be with me in paradise he didn't wake up in you know abraham's bosom
next to hell okay that's ridiculous paradise where does the bible say paradise is says it's
in the third heaven okay so it doesn't say in the center of the earth now look at revelation
chapter 2 verse 7 is another verse that talks about paradise revelation chapter 2 verse 7
so revelation chapter 2 verse number 7 is the last book in the bible a couple pages in there
it says he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches to him that
overcometh will i give to eat of the tree of life where is the tree of life at which is in
the midst of the paradise of god where's the paradise of god it's in the third heaven that's
where god resides okay so there's a tree of life in the midst of paradise and paul already said
where it was okay so there's the second verse about paradise right now turn to revelation
chapter 22 verse number one revelation chapter 22 verse number one and just to prove that paradise
or this tree of life is in heaven look what it says in verse number one and he showed me a pure
river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of god and of the land where's
the throne of god at it's in heaven and it says in the midst of the street of it on the on either
side of the river there was a or excuse me the the tree of life which bared 12 manner of fruits
and yielded her fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations
so this tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of god the paradise of god is in the
third heaven is is that clear so far as everybody following me okay now look at verse number 14 in
the same chapter it says blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the
tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city what city is it talking about
let's talk about new jerusalem and it says for without our dogs and sorcerers and
whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh alive amen to that
glad to hear that so god can let in whoever he wants to and where's he going to let him into
paradise which is heaven which is new jerusalem so you know the bible specifically says
where paradise is so this theory that abraham's bosom is paradise is just not true it's unfounded
and they just they say well see if the bible says in luke that he's gonna be with him in paradise
so that means it's abraham's bosom that why does that mean it's abraham's bosom
that's just you know and if it is abraham's bosom it's not in it's not in the center of the earth
abraham you know abraham's bosom you know is his body part it's where he's he's like come here
lazarus let me comfort you you know you had a rough life let me give you a hug let's hug it out
bro and then you know of course he has this conversation with the rich man who lift up his
eyes in hell and i believe that that was some kind of miraculous thing that the lord allowed to happen
because we can't communicate with people in hell or people in hell can't communicate with people
in heaven on a normal day-to-day basis and you know jesus christ is telling that story
to show that hell is a reality when you open up your eyes and you haven't trusted christ as your
savior your reality is that you wake up in hell in torments begging for water and there's no
water there you're in a flame you're tormented by a flame and that those that die and believe
and if they had a bad rough life here if they uh you know did not fare sumptuously like the rich
man if he's begging at the gate and a dog's licking his sores i mean that's pretty love
pastor and this is you know this is this isn't that it's just like that's just not it's not
something a mature christian does so if you're doing something like that you just need to grow
up a little bit and it says in verse seven unless i should be exalted above measure through the
abundance of revelations so he's saying i got a lot of revelations but lest that should happen
lest i should be lifted up because look knowledge puffeth up and paul had a lot of knowledge and so
god had to kind of you know put something on him to where he wouldn't get to where he's all haughty
and thinking he's i'm the master of all revelations i'm i'm better than everybody else he doesn't he
doesn't think that way and he doesn't think that way because god allowed him to stay humble through
the infirmities that he had and the things that he suffered and received it says lest i should
be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in
the flesh the messenger of satan to buffet me lest i should be exalted above measure
so let's just unpack this verse really quickly it says you know because i you know god you know
lest i should be exalted this with this abundance of revelations there was given to me a thorn in
the flesh now if you get a thorn in your flesh it hurts doesn't it have you ever had a thorn that
got stuck in your flesh and like you couldn't get it out and you're just like digging at it
all the time trying to get it out you know what i'm talking about like if you're a construction
worker you had like a a sliver or anybody could get a sliver anybody could get it you get a paper
cut and then like you get some lemon juice on it on actually like ah you know so you can get like
these little things that would hurt but a thorn like you know you think about the crown of thorns
that was on jesus's head it was probably these big thick thorns that they have in the desert they
have the same type of thorns in desert places like arizona and things like that but if it's
a thorn in the flesh it's something that hurts it's something that bothers you it's some you know
old football injury or whatever it is you know i have a shoulder that's just not quite right ever
since i worked for the water department like a long time ago and i just i picked something up
i heard this shoulder like make a popping type sound and then it's never just been the same
ever since you know i have a bad hip i had my hip popped out of socket one time and you know
doing a water thing with the water company and like i was i was stuck in a main break which is
you know when the waters are flooding out because the the water thing break and i was up i was up to
mud like all the way up to almost my knees i was just trying to pull my feet out and remy knows
what this is like because he's probably been the same situation but i went to because i was kind
of freaking out because i couldn't get my feet out of it and then i finally just pulled i felt
like this you know my hip come out of socket and then i just kind of popped back and i was like
oh it'll be fine it'll be fine and nine years later it hurts worse it's it's just a thorn in
the flesh it's something that just gives me pain and some days it's worse than others sometimes
i'll bend over and i can't get back up it's just it's just one of those things so you know a thorn
in the flesh could just be a nagging injury that you've had that just never will heal my wife you
know has some ailments where she just you know she jumped off of a bridge when she was in her teens
and she broke her back and she didn't even know she broke her back until like years later when she
they were like well when did you break your back so she's been walking around you know with back
with back pain it's like well no wonder you had a broken back you know
so don't jump off bridges that are too high that's the lesson you can jump off bridges not kids
without your parents but just don't jump from stuff that's too high because all you have to
do is just look down right before you hit or not hit right or you're going like this you know then
your arms slap on the water it hurts but anyway i'm off in the weeds so let me get back to the
sermon here so he's got this thorn in the flesh so it's something in his flesh that's hurting him
okay and it says the messenger of satan to buffet me so now i don't believe christians can be
possessed by devils but can they be can we be afflicted by them well saul you know saul of
not saul of tarsus saul in the king saul he when he the spirit of god was removed from him
there was a messenger of satan to buffet him too sent from the lord it says it was sent from the
lord and so it's very interesting how both sauls have this messenger sent to them and one you know
is because he was bad the other one's because he was good isn't that interesting it's a weird
dynamic but anyway so this messenger of satan buffets him says lest i should be exalted above
measure and look we already talked really good about the apostle paul i always talk really good
about the apostle paul but he didn't want to be exalted above measure see he would probably if
he was here today he's like don't talk about me like i'm the greatest christian ever don't say
that to me but we can't help it because he was so he was such a good christian you know but if he
was here he would probably not like that very much because he just he wants to be humble and
if everybody's saying how great you are all the time then it can lift you up with pride so it
says for this thing i besought the lord thrice what's he saying well i prayed three times that
god would take this away from me that it might depart from me so what what would depart from him
the thorn in his flesh which is some messenger of satan to buffet him now you're thinking well
does this satanic being just come down and like work them over and then leave or something
well i don't think so but you know the thing is the devils have power over the flesh in some
situations when they possess somebody they definitely can make them epileptic or you know
you think about the kid that threw himself in the fire and was trying to drown himself all the time
why would he why was he trying to hurt himself because the devil is trying to make him do that
but this is some kind of physical ailment that god is allowing him to inflict upon paul and it's
a thorn in his flesh it's something that's hurting him or bothering him so and a lot of people think
it's his eyesight and i think that that could be it but maybe it's just multiple things maybe it's
you know uh you know when when boxers box and there's an accumulation of punches that usually
makes that person you know the referee will call the fight even though the person's not knocked
out or whatever it's just they're not responding back they're they've taken too many hits basically
and so when you get an accumulation of damage like that it can make you you know it can it can
make you lose the body make you knocked out or whatever while you're standing up and just it's
not good for you but it says let's look over at galatians chapter 4 verse 13. Galatians chapter 4
verse 13. Galatians chapter 4 verse 13 it says you know how through infirmity of the flesh so
paul's talking about the infirmity of the flesh again i preach the gospel unto you at the first
so i don't know what he means by that but it says if you read on further it says in my temptation
which was in my flesh he despised not nor rejected so it's not really saying what it is
but it's talking about this temptation this infirmity of his flesh and it says but receive
me as an angel of god even as christ jesus so they treated him really good when they received him
he got a bunch of people saved he started these churches it says wherein is this blessedness which
you spake of for i bear you record that if i had been if it had been possible you would have
plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me so a lot of people think that because
he he says it in this way he's talking about his infirmity in the flesh he's talking about
his temptation that it's talking about his something wrong being wrong with his eyes
and he talks about in other epistles how how great of words i wrote like he was like talking about
how he maybe when he signed his name that he used great words like he just maybe he you know
because i have to use like this is like 16 or 18 bold or something or i'm blind up here i'm just
like dude yeah so maybe paul had to to write his sermons of big letters i don't know but uh it
seems like that could be the problem that he had but we don't really know i mean but one thing we
do know is that it was a temptation in his flesh it was a thorn in his flesh that that kept him
humble that kept him weak that kept him usable by god and so what's the moral of the story well
you know maybe you have some problems but are you still serving god with your problems
are you still able to serve the lord with your infirmities maybe you have some aches and pains
that make it hard for you to get out soul winning well hey maybe you can only go out
solely for an hour at a time but go out and so win for an hour at a time if you can
you know when you're weak then are you strong and if god will allow you to
continue to do his work in his will if you're if you're weak in some way then god will use your
weakness and he'll show his strength in you that's how god's always done it from the beginning to the
end he's he's he's a guy that likes to use people that are underdogs like david you know he's facing
off goliath and he's got like a little sling goliath's got a shield a guy with a shield in
front of him he's got this huge staff he's got this giant sword he's big he's scary he's been
a man of war from his youth and then god uses a shepherd boy to take down the greatest fighter on
on the planet or at least in that area so but the devil devils can cause physical ailments
of people and that's why what it says it's a messenger of satan to buffet them look at
matthew chapter 12 verse 22 matthew chapter 12 verse 22 i'll just use a couple examples here
matthew chapter 12 verse number 22
says then was brought unto him one possessed with the devil and what does it say blind and dumb
so he was blind and dumb why was he blind and dumb because the devil made him blind and dumb
and it says and he healed him so much that the blind and dumb both spake and saw so this guy's
possessed with the devil he's blind and dumb jesus cast the devil out he can see again he can talk
because dumb just means that you can't i think you're deaf and you can't you can't see is that
what it is you can't talk yeah you can't talk so joe chapter two let's turn to job chapter two
now satan has already come to job or to god one time saying that uh you know if you take away all
this stuff then he'll he won't serve you god says yeah right and god is right well joe uh satan
comes to joe or to god one more time and verse four says and satan answered the lord and said
skin for skin yea all that a man hath he will give for his life but put forth then hand now and touch
his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face and the lord said unto satan behold
he is in thine hand but save his life so went satan forth from the presence of the lord and
smote joe with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown so god allowed satan to touch
joe and to hurt him physically because satan said that he was going to curse unto his face
over his flesh and with a lot of people maybe this would be true but not with joe with many people
all the other stuff that he lost in chapter one his whole family you know all of his kids his
wife turned against him he lost all of his goods all of his money and he still did not curse god
and he still didn't curse him when he was smote with all these sores but the point is is that
the devil can physically hurt people but was joe saved yes he couldn't possess joe
you know the bible says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world
so a christian cannot be possessed by a devil okay i know that a lot of people think that that's true
you know you got you got a demon in you or whatever it's like if you're saved you don't have
a demon in you so that's a good reason to get saved you don't want the devil to just be able
to have his way with you or devils then get saved but my point is is that it's it's not
i mean that's what the bible says that a messenger of satan came to buffett paul the apostle
and it humbled him and so went through his weakness you know he was able to show his
strength look at verse chapter uh go back to second corinthians chapter 12 we'll finish up
the last couple of verses here
i always have my coughing attacks at the end of my sermon so i'd use a
cough drop but it's still not working let's try a little water
for my infirmity oh just kidding all right second corinthians chapter 12 verse 9 it says
and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee because paul sought god thrice to get this
infirmity of the flesh off him because obviously it's bothering him and jesus said my grace is
sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness my strength is made perfect
in weakness do you think that only applies to the apostle paul no it doesn't only apply to the
apostle paul it applies to each and every single person in this room and what's jesus what jesus
saying is very profound because you know as men men are like hey i want to get strong
and they want to lift weights and and be strong but you know when the way god look and i'm not
saying don't do that i'm just saying that god the way god looks at things is that the stronger that
we are physically maybe the stronger we are mentally and spiritually then god can sometimes
god has a hard time dealing with people because they get lifted up because they get puffed up
because they think they know the bible really well you know people will say i've read the bible 20
times cover to cover and you know i got all these verses memorized and it's like why are you telling
everybody that do you want people to just think you're like the most spiritual person in the world
or something i mean if it gets brought up and it's just like a casual conversation that's one thing
but like i've noticed that people like to do stuff like that they like to to pull their
scorecards out and compare themselves with what other people are doing why don't you just do you
why don't you just be the best you you can be why don't you just be the best christian you can be
and hey if god allows you to to be strong through your weaknesses then that's a good thing
that's what the apostle the apostle paul god had to actually do this to him
so he wouldn't get lifted up that just shows you that anybody can be lifted up because the apostle
paul is a great man but like because of the fact that god had to do that you know to in order to
keep him humble that just shows you the state of mankind the state of human beings is that we will
glory in our own flesh if we have a chance to do that and so be thankful for your infirmities you
know if god doesn't take it away then that means he wants you to deal with it if you have an
ailment of some kind and you ask god multiple times and you keep asking him and asking him
and asking him and he keeps saying no then just serve god in your infirmity serve god in your
weakness and you know what and through that god can do great things through you he can make
his strength his strength can be made perfect in your weakness
isn't that what it says it says most gladly therefore will i rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of christ may rest upon me so what's the apostle paul say hey i asked three times
god said my grace is sufficient i'm gonna show my strength and in in your weakness
and paul says well i guess i'll just glory in my infirmities then the things that i'm weak at
and that the power of christ may rest upon me you know paul got the picture he understood
you know that's why probably god used him so much because a lot of people if they had this
kind of infirmity whatever it was it was obviously bad enough where paul is saying
please god take this away from me and everybody in this room probably has something that they want
god to take away from them and i could serve god better if i had more money or if i was better
looking or if i was skinny or whatever whatever you think whatever it is that you're asking god
that he's saying no to maybe that's a weakness that he wants to use his strength through you
ever think of it that way and the fact that paul got all this abundance of revelation
and it was so much that he wrote over half the new testament he was a walking you know theologian
also great soul winner did all these miracles in front of people got stoned not not the
washington way all right got stoned and left for dead and then got up and was like let's go let's
go back let's go back to lystra let's go get some more people saved let's go to these other towns
and they're like paul you want to put a mandate on that or what but through he you know what what
did god say to ananias he said i'm i'm going to show him what great things he must suffer for
my name's sake and so paul was predestined if you will to suffer a lot of things reaping what he
sowed and who wrote that scripture the apostle paul whatsoever man soweth that shall he also
reap he knew it very well because he hurt people he had people hurt he had people suffer and so
you know what you know they say what comes around goes around but that's really
you know that's just a way of people like denying what the bible teaches
or using their own spin on people say well that's karma that came to them or whatever
no that's not what it is it's reaping and selling whatsoever you sow the things that you do to
others the way that you treat other people that's the way you're going to get treated by other
people you sow to the wind you're going to what reap the whirlwind if you're just like a whirling
dervish that's just causing all kinds of problems all the time in people's lives then don't be
surprised when it all comes back on you tenfold so it says in verse 10 therefore i take pleasure
and infirmities that's strange but that's where the apostle paul was that's why he was spiritual
therefore i take pleasure in the in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions
in distresses for christ's sake for when i am weak then i am strong so the apostle paul's
telling his story of how he was humbled and how his infirmities was the the reason why
god used him so much is because he got this he understood this he's like and even though i'm
messed up even though i'm banged up even though i have a thorn in the flesh even though i got
problems you know what god's still using me christ is still using me to do great things for him
because when i'm weak then i'm strong and that's the way we should have the same attitude as the
apostle paul we all have ailments we all have boo-boos all right tough it out get tough because
the pain's not going to go away you know when you see people that are really old you you see that
the problems that have just they've carried with them in their life and they have those problems
with their knees they have those problems with their hips they have those problems with aches
and pains and arthritis and stuff because you're going to carry that stuff with you in your life
anyway will god still heal people from their infirmities absolutely but maybe he's not healing
yours or he's not fixing your problem that you're asking him to fix because he wants to use that as
a strength to do his will to to show his strength being made perfect in your weakness let's have
a word for heavenly father we thank you lord so much for this great chapter and lord i pray that
you'd help us to understand that when we are weak then you can use us the most and the most mightily
lord i pray that you'd help us to understand this and grasp this truth lord a lot of times
things are preached and it goes over people's head they're thinking about something else lord
i just pray that lord that people would think about this and take it to heart and apply it
to their lives lord in whatever area they need to apply it and it could be a physical ailment lord
it could be something that they're spiritually you know lacking or whatever lord just pray that
you'd use our church use the people in our church lord help us to be humble help us not be proud
help us not be lifted up against our neighbor help us not be lifted up in pride against our brothers
and sisters of christ help us to lord to support each other and have the best intentions for every
person in this church and not to have any evil towards our brethren i pray that you'd help us
lord to get along so that we can through our weakness serve you in a mighty way in jesus
amen
all right let's turn to page 56 and your green hymn is in the last song page 56
when we all get to heaven page 56
those babies are ready to sing
all right when we all get to heaven on the first
sing the wondrous love of jesus sing his mercy and his grace in the
mansions bright and blessed he'll prepare for us a place when we all get to heaven what a day
of rejoicing that will be when we all see jesus we'll sing and shout the victory
while we walk the pilgrim pathway clouds will overspread the sky but when traveling days are
over not a shadow not a sigh when we all forget to have and what a day of rejoicing that will be
when we all see jesus we'll sing and shout the victory
let us then be true and faithful trusting serving every day just one glimpse of him in glory
will the tours of life repay when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be
when we all see jesus we'll sing and shout the victory on the last onward to the prize before us
soon his beauty will be home soon the pearly gates will open we shall tread the streets of gold
when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see jesus we'll sing and
shout the victory good to see you all tonight great singing brother bill can you hit us with
the word of prayer