“What Paul learned through Pain and Prayer”

 2 Cor. 12:1-10

A few weeks ago I experienced some pain in my abdomen. It occurred in the evening for a few minutes. And then in the middle of the night it came back and continued throughout the night. I was up all night and in the morning I decided to go see a doctor. I ended up in the emergency room.

Well as some of you may know sometimes you wait a long time in an emergency room and I was no exception. After about 3 hours of waiting, I said to my wife, “My love, the pain has subsided. I feel better. Let’s get out of here.” She said, “O no, we are waiting here until you see a doctor.”  I’m glad I did.

When I finally got to see the doctor and after running some test, which included a CT scan, the doctor said that they found what looked like an infection and inflammation in my intestines. She gave me some antibiotics and pain meds and referred me to a specialist who could do a colonoscopy to determine what may be causing this infection.

This past Tuesday I had the colonoscopy, which revealed that I have a large mass the size of a grapefruit in my intestines that was later confirmed to be cancerous. It looks like, because it was detected early enough, that it hasn’t spread anywhere else. Doctor said she believes that this is 100% treatable and that after surgery to remove the mass and chemo therapy, I should make a full recovery.

I thanked the doctor and the Lord knowing in my heart that he’s in control.  Although this was somewhat of a shocked to me, it wasn’t a shock to God. 

Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God? I believe with all my heart that God is up to something great in my life and in the life of our church and that through the prayers of many we are going to see God's grace and power like never before.

I believe that God doesn’t want me to waist my cancer, rather He wants me (us), my family and my beloved church family to learn some life transforming lessons that will bring us into deeper experiences of God’s presence and power in our lives. Can you all believe with me that God is up to something great?

I thank God for the pain that I experienced a couple of weeks ago. If I had not experienced that pain and waited it out in the ER, I wouldn’t have known that there was something much more serious going on inside of me that needed the outside care and attention of a skilled Physician. 

Greater still, I believe that there are some spiritual lessons and blessings that God wants to reveal to not only me, but to all of us because first and foremost we are in this together. And secondly, because the bible and life teaches us that we often learn and experience more of the deeper blessings of God through pain not apart from it. This is why Paul wrote in his dark hour, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9b).

Main idea: The more we understand our weakness the more grace will be available to meet our deepest needs.

This morning we are going to examine briefly 7 lessons that Paul learned through pain and prayer.

1. Keep praying until God answers

First lesson we see that Paul learned through pain and prayer was to keep praying until God answers.  Beginning in verse 7 we read: “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,  a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me” (2 Cor. 12:7-8).   

During a time of deep pain, physical, emotional or both—we don’t know for sure, Paul went to the Lord in prayer about it. I have spent time studying what this thorn in the flesh may have been. Based upon what I read in scriptures I thought that it could have been poor eyes sight.

Some commentators have suggested that it could have been a person or persons influenced by Satan that constantly criticized and opposed Paul's gospel ministry. Others have suggested other types of serious physical and emotional pain.

But I don’t think we can really say for sure. And as I have said in the past, the fact that we don’t know for sure may be on purpose. Perhaps the Lord doesn’t want us to focus on the specifics as much as how Paul responded to what he was dealing with. 

Before we get into how Paul responded, we do know for sure that whatever this thorn in the flesh was, Satan had a part in it.  Why? Because Paul ticked the devil off.  It's been said, if you never collide with Satan its probably because you’re going in the same direction. 

Two Wednesdays ago at our prayer meeting I said, (quoting Daniel Henderson) “When a church gets serious about prayer we pick a fight with the devil at a whole new level.”  

But let me say also that Satan is not behind every problem or sickness that we have.  We already saw a couple of weeks ago when I preached on the rival to the throne of our hearts, that our biggest problem is not Satan, but self.  You better have self in check before you try putting the devil in check through prayer. 

In addition, although the enemy is at work to keep us from living an abundant Christian life, he is under God’s sovereign control. 

When we are living under God’s authority what the devil means for evil, God works it for our good and His glory. He doesn’t want to be used by God, but he has no choice. What he tries to do to make us bitter, God will use it to makes us better.

It’s important that we see also from our text that when God is allowing something difficult to take place in our lives for His sovereign purpose, we can rebuke the cancer and bind the enemy all day long, if God’s wills it, the thorn will remain. 

In Christ, we have power and authority over sin and Satan, but that power is not independent of God.  In the mighty name of Jesus we are to pray confidently and boldly for God to deliver us from difficulties.  We are to believe God for great things because he has and will do great things in answer to prayer. But the power that we have in and through Christ is totally contingent on us being in agreement with God’s will and it’s given ultimately for the exalting of His glory.

It brings me great comfort to know that the enemy is not ultimately in control of my circumstances. God, who loves me with an everlasting love, is in control.  And he uses the devil like an instrument in the hand of a skilled surgeon, who although he may have to wound me, he does so to heal me. 

Once again, the important thing about our text is not what Paul was dealing with, but what he did, namely that he pleaded with God in prayer about it. How many of you know there’s nothing too hard for God? 

I heard someone say rightly that sometimes people struggle with bringing what they call little things to God. But with God everything is little. There's is no such thing as a big thing to God. And besides that, God cares about the details of our lives. He cares about what we consider the big things and the little details.

Knowing this, when faced with what to Paul was a major crisis, he took it to God in prayer.  And he didn’t just pray once. He kept praying until God answered.  Paul prayed persistently.

Persistent prayer, as some have imagined, is not a sign of a lack of faith, but of great faith. We pray persistently not because we think that God didn’t hear us the first time or because we have to nag God to receive what we are asking him for.

•            We pray persistently because we are taking God at his word who promises that when we call on him he will answer us—that he will do great and mighty things that we never thought possible. 

•            We pray persistently because we understand that his delays and not his denials.

•            We pray persistently because he is in control and his timing is always perfect.

•            More importantly, we pray persistently because we believe that the greatest value of continually coming before God’s presence is not in getting what we want from God, but in coming to know what he wants from us.

This leads us to the second lesson that Paul learned through pain and prayer.        

         
2. What God has to say to us is more important than what we have to say to God

Paul learned that what God has to say to us is more important than what we have to say to God.  Notice that in verse  8 Paul wrote, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).  

We know from this passage and others that Paul was a man of persistent prayer.  Someone ask me recently, Pastor Marco, should we ever stop praying about certain things?  I believe the best answer to that question is, "We stop praying when God answers."

In Paul’s case, how did God answer his persistent prayer? In Paul’s case, God’s answer came through His word. 

Ovi, in his message on Wednesday night, shared this quote with us, “The value of persistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we finally hear Him.” 

We will miss God’s best if when we pray we seek only to see God do what we want and not what he wants to do in us and through us during times of hardship and difficulties. This is why the name it and claim it crowd has it so wrong.

When you know God and trust Him—when you know what he has to say is more important than what you have to say, you will not ultimately claim or rebuke anything that God hasn’t first clearly named or willed for your life.

If you’re going through a difficult season, you don’t have to be in denial about it out of fear that if you name it you will be claiming it.  Neither Satan, sickness of self has sovereign control over your life. God is in control.

Knowing this, Paul pleaded with God to remove his thorn. He wasn’t in denial about it. He knew that God had the final word—he knew that it’s God’s word that matters not our words—not our positive or negative confessions of faith.

And it was God’s words of assurance and resting in them that made all the difference in Paul’s life and that will make all the difference in our lives.

Let me add that the more that God’s word is richly dwelling in our hearts, the more confidently, fervently and effectively we will pray.  And when this is the case—when we are taking the time to hide God’s word in our hearts and pray them back to God, our prayers will not only be in tune with God’s purposes, but we will find that the greatest blessings of prayer is that they cause the promises of his word to explode in our hearts.

Brothers and sisters, when you have God’s word of assurance, you will be able to face even the greatest of difficulties with the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit.        

3. Sometimes our greatest need is a need

Thirdly, we learned from our text that Paul learned through pain that sometimes our greatest need is a need. Paul wrote, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9b).

Brothers and sisters, we live in a society where comfort has become the goal of life.  To enjoy comfort is not a sin. But the problem comes when comfort becomes god in our lives.  When a life of ease and comfort becomes the goal of life, these have a way of dulling our spiritual senses and more specifically they have a way of dulling the sense of our desperate need for God.  

When the comfort that we are experiencing comes from believing that because we have money in the back, good health and a nice house, we can sit back thinking that we have it all under control, we are seriously deceived. This is why in verse 7, Paul revealed that the hardship that he was experiencing was being permitted by God to keep him from becoming prideful.  This leads us to our forth point.     

4. God hates pride

Paul learned through pain and prayer that God hates pride. He wrote, “⁷ So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,  a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited” (2 Cor. 12:7).

Let me say it again, sometimes our greatest need is a need. Why? Because the need keeps us from becoming prideful—because the need keeps us humble—because the need keeps us dependent on God and his grace in our lives, which is our greatest need.

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Now this leads us to the most important lesson that Paul learned through pain and prayer, and the most important lesson for us to learn.

 
5. Jesus is enough

Paul learned through pain that Jesus is enough. He wrote in verse 10, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

Brothers and sisters, once again, sometimes our greatest need is a need.  And when our sense of need before a Holy and gracious God leads us to pray persistently, we discover that His grace is enough—that Jesus is more than enough in all circumstances.

For the sake of Christ, whose all satisfying grace we sense more abundantly as we draw nearer to him in our time of need, Paul was content with the hardships he was facing.  The reason Paul declared, “For when I am weak, then I am strong”  was because he knew that when his sense of weakness drove Him to his knees, he found that the greatest blessing in life is not being deliver from your problems, but experiencing the strength, peace and contentment that comes from drawing closer to the Savior. This leads us to the sixth lesson that Paul learned through pain and prayer.

6. Prayer changes us.

Paul learned through pain that prayer not only changes things, but more importantly prayer changes us. Prayer changes us when we learn that what God has to say, what God wants to reveal to us about Him, and what God wants to do in us, is the greatest value of prayer.

“The delays in prayer are not needed to change God, but to change us. Persistence in prayer brings a transforming element into our lives, building into us the character of God Himself. It is a way that God builds into us a heart that cares about things the same way He does.”  (Dguzik)

The fact that Paul said that for the sake of Christ he was content to suffer pain and adversity demonstrated that as Christ suffered for our sake, he was willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. He was willing to endure hardship through the power of Christ so that others would know like he knew that Jesus is enough.

Through the grace that he availed himself of through prayer because of pain, Paul had taken on the heart of Christ. Prayer changes things, but more importantly prayer changes us.

This leads us to our final point:   

7. We grow more in pain than in prosperity. 

Paul learned through pain that we grow more in pain than in prosperity. Prosperity is not sinful. Thank God if you have it, but if we are not careful we can come to a place where we depend more on the gifts than the giver for our security and satisfaction. When this is the case, we will be more than disappointed, we will miss God’s best for our lives namely his grace and power resting upon us.  

If this was a danger for the Apostle Paul, it’s a danger to us also.  This is why Paul wrote, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9b).

What Paul is saying here is that because in his dark hour he took God at his word that His grace would be enough, and because he experienced that it was enough, he boasted in his weakness. 

In the same way, in our dark hour we can come to a place where we don’t have to deny our weakness, but rather we can boast in it—we can thank God for our difficulties—we can thank God for our cancer—and we will when we discover through them, as we lean fully on Christ, that He is truly all we need—that in and through Him we have hope in this life and for all eternity.       

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, at this time in my life I'm entering one of the most difficult seasons that I ever experienced. But I know in my heart that God is able to deliver me in answer to prayer.

And more than that, I believe that God wants to show me—God wants to show us that more than being pain free we need to know that the greatest value of persistent prayer—the greatest value of making our corporate prayer meeting a priority in our lives—the greatest value of interceding in prayer for others continually, is that we will know that God’s grace is sufficient in all things—that Jesus is enough.

Knowing that this is what God wants to do in me—in us, in my wife, in my sons lives and in my church family, I boast in my weakness—I boast in my cancer for the sake of Christ.

I don’t want to waste my cancer. If we can all learn from it and come to know our God more intimately for the greater fame of Jesus, it will be worth it all.