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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

A Thorn in the Flesh

We're going to briefly discuss this morning from the topic, A Thorn in the Flesh.

We'll read verses 6 through 10 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verses 6 through 12 6 through 10, sorry Paul says for though I would desire to glory I shall not be a fool.

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 a when 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 and reproaches in necessities in persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake.

Father God we just ask now that as we go diligently into your word that Lord the Holy Spirit would fall upon this place afresh.

Lord our hearts and minds would be made fertile ground to your word, and that the angels that excel in wisdom and strength would be given charge over this place.

That, Father, when we leave here, we do not leave as we came, is our prayer in Jesus's name.

Paul was speaking to a church that he really had an issue with.

Paul was quite concerned about the state and the fate of the church at Corinth.

His church, in a lot of ways, had a lot of issues that were very difficult for Paul to deal with because Paul wasn't always there.

As you probably know, Corinth sat on what we call an isthmus.

It sat on what is described best as a land bridge with water on 2 sides.

It was a central point of the ancient world where much of the trade that would happen came through that area.

And so as a church was planted there, it was planted there and it did well, but it was ripe for infection with the world.

Because as people would join the church, as we often see, people join the church and try to bring with them into the church something from their past.

And so the church at Corinth was a difficult place for Paul to work with.

In order for Paul to try and make some clear points to them, he begins to give them some instruction and the books of Corinthians are powerful on this, but Paul in chapter 12 of the second book actually begins to describe to them how he visited the third heaven.

He had seen things that no man had been able to see.

He had seen the city that sat on 12 great stones.

He had been where the mansions would be built.

And Paul, when he would finally come back down and have to live on earth, was concerned because Paul was 1 of the most humble people in all of Scripture.

As a matter of fact, it's Paul who says, I am chief among sinners.

Paul understood that he came out of a past of legalism and persecution of the Christians.

So Paul made sure not to begin to elevate himself too fast, because he realized that the ruin of the nation of Israel before the time and at the time of the Messiah was that they had become spiritually arrogant.

They figured they had it all right and in having it all right they began, they became so legalistic and the Pharisees and Sadducees were elevated to such a high point that Paul was trying to set precedence for the church as it would be developed through the ages that the Christian church would never go the way that Israel went.

I want to tell you that truthfully Paul was a man of foresight, because the church has been inundated with the elevation of men.

The truth is that in Adventist, we always talk about the papacy, but you could exclude all of Roman Catholicism and just look at modern Protestantism and you can see that men have been made demigods.

If certain pastors from certain evangelical churches say something, the word is held almost as if it were God who said it himself.

And because of this, so much false and spurious doctrine has been perpetrated onto the Christian world that now there are lies that have been accepted as truth with no biblical foundation.

It's just established that there will be a secret rapture in most denominations now.

Ask somebody who believes it to show you 4 texts that prove that.

They can't do it and the answer often is my pastor says so.

The Paul trying to remain humble gives them something and I've learned it as a minister and as a Christian sometimes you've got to be a little bit vulnerable.

You've got to show people some of your own struggles and weaknesses for them to understand that their struggles are not crazy.

I can tell you that the church where I'm the youth pastor at, when I leave here I'll be shooting over there and I can tell you that I have to be a bit transparent for those young people because when they see someone who is already in their minds made it, they don't attach to that any struggle.

They assume that you just made it and you just were born that way.

They don't understand the struggle of late night study sessions.

They don't understand the struggles of growing up in a single-parent home where when the groceries ran out they ran out.

And it wasn't until my mother got another paycheck that there would be anymore.

And every Thursday night when we got back from the grocery store, my mother would always say, this must last until next week Thursday.

We have to be transparent because we have to show people who are contemplating the Christian world that if they step into it, it is not a life free of struggle, but through the struggle there is progress.

God works with us in our weaknesses, he works with us in our difficulties to develop in us the 1 thing that we will actually bring with us to heaven.

He said, For though I would desire to glory, I've just been to see heaven, I've just walked the streets of gold, in vision I've seen it all.

He says, Although I would desire to glory, he says, I shall not be a fool.

I was also raised Adventist, and I think really what saved me from probably being growing up and turning into a criminal or or at best just an afterthought in the in the footnotes of American society is the fact that we were raised Adventist.

And the fact that the church warned us against things that nobody else warned us of.

It was the church that taught us sexual purity.

It was the church that said stay away from drugs and alcohol.

So we figured, alright, if we eat meat and don't do drugs and alcohol, we're doing alright.

It was the church that taught us that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that you don't even belong to yourself.

The church taught us all of these things and in that teaching it was protective.

There are a lot of people who want to water down our beliefs and they don't know, they don't understand the disservice you do.

When people are living in a violent and afflicted and deadly world and you walk in with these precious truths of how to live and not get diabetes and hypertension.

How to live and have your mind clear to think.

The Bible says in Isaiah 1 and verse 18, God speaking to his people, come let us reason together, though your sins were scarlet, they'll be as white as snow.

If you are constantly in a state of intoxication, you cannot reason.

If you can't reason, you can't have salvation.

That's why Paul in Ephesians 6 talks about the helmet of salvation.

So I praise God that I was a part of a church that taught me that I had to be able to think clearly.

But I also had a church that at times did display some spiritual arrogance.

There were times that we kind of lifted our chin too high towards those who were around us.

But Paul says we have to be real careful as Adventists especially.

Because we do have all of these great and precious truths that we don't take them and begin to believe that we can boast in them.

Paul says that we must remain humble even though God has given us great revelation.

We must remain simple even though God has opened up truths that the world has long forgotten.

But Paul says to glory in yourself is to be a fool.

Verse 7 he says, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations that he was given.

He says, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.

And he goes on, he says, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

There are those who say that Paul had a physical problem, probably a sight, Sister White refers to.

But I believe that Paul actually had more than simply a physical problem.

I believe that Paul had some strong spiritual struggles that Paul had to deal with.

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A Thorn in the Flesh

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