Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / What If You Struggle with a Permanent Disability │ Msg 812

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What If You Struggle with a Permanent Disability │ Msg 812 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: It is easy to forget what a privilege it is
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Speaker 1: to have a copy of the scriptures in our possession,
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Speaker 1: in our language, in whatever version you may choose to use.
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Speaker 1: It is not true in all countries. May it always
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Speaker 1: be true in this one. We never take for granted
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Speaker 1: the fact that we have God's mind in writing. There
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Speaker 1: is no further revelation we need. And because we have this,
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Speaker 1: we have with it all things to enjoy. I say
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Speaker 1: that because it is so easy to open a Bible
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Speaker 1: and forget the privilege of having a Bible and being
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Speaker 1: able to read truth from his heart to ours. All
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Speaker 1: scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching doctrine, for reproof,
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Speaker 1: for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. We would have
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Speaker 1: no righteous direction without the truth of the written word
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Speaker 1: of God. We arrive today at another in a series
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Speaker 1: on what if in life. Today, what if you struggle
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Speaker 1: with a permanent disability? The basis of that is found
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Speaker 1: in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 you've brought a Bible with you,
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Speaker 1: I urge you to open it to the 12th chapter
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Speaker 1: of 2 Corinthians. The book of 2 Corinthians is the
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Speaker 1: Apostle Paul's most personal letter. Here, it's as if he
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Speaker 1: opens the curtain to many things in his life revealed
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Speaker 1: nowhere else. And this particular First 10 verses is an example.
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Speaker 1: We read of things here we read nowhere else in
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Speaker 1: Paul's works, and it allows us to understand things we
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Speaker 1: would not otherwise know. Once you find the reference, please
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Speaker 1: stand with one another for the reading of the scriptures.
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Speaker 1: I'll be reading from the New Living Translation, 2 Corinthians 12,
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Speaker 1: beginning at verse one. This boasting will do no good,
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Speaker 1: but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about
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Speaker 1: visions and revelations from the Lord. I was caught up
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Speaker 1: to the third heaven 14 years ago. Whether I was
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Speaker 1: in my body or out of my body, I don't know.
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Speaker 1: Only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether I was
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Speaker 1: in my body or outside my body, but I do
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Speaker 1: know that I was caught up to paradise and heard
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Speaker 1: things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words,
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Speaker 1: things no human is allowed to tell. That experience is
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Speaker 1: worth boasting about, but I'm not going to do it.
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Speaker 1: I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted
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Speaker 1: to boast, I would be no fool in doing so
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Speaker 1: because I would be telling the truth, but I won't
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Speaker 1: do it because I don't want anyone to give me
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Speaker 1: credit beyond what they can see in my life or
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Speaker 1: hear in my message, even though I have received such
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Speaker 1: wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud,
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Speaker 1: I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger
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Speaker 1: from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
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Speaker 1: Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.
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Speaker 1: Each time he said, my grace is all you need.
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Speaker 1: My power works best in weakness. So now I am
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Speaker 1: glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power
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Speaker 1: of Christ can work through me That's why I take
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Speaker 1: pleasure in my weaknesses and in the insults, hardships, persecutions,
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Speaker 1: and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I
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Speaker 1: am weak, then I am strong. It's a paradoxical thought
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Speaker 1: that you will see emphasized nowhere else on the planet.
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Speaker 1: only in the scriptures. When we are weak, then we
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Speaker 1: are strong. We'll understand why in a few moments. Please
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Speaker 1: be seated. It is easy in a time of prayer
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Speaker 1: to let your mind wander. Sometimes prayers go too long
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Speaker 1: and the natural response is you begin to think of
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Speaker 1: other things. My prayer today will be brief to the point.
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Speaker 1: Think with me. Bow with me. Let's close our eyes
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Speaker 1: to shut out all interrupting visual images as we pray.
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Speaker 1: We have been reminded already, our Father, of how faithful
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Speaker 1: you are and have always been. Summer, winter, springtime or fall,
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Speaker 1: you were there, ever the same, ever faithful. Abundantly providing
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Speaker 1: for the deep needs of our lives, not the greeds
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Speaker 1: that we want. but the needs that we have. And
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Speaker 1: we are all needy, needy people, struggling deeply with our
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Speaker 1: own disabilities, the things that keep us from glorying in
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Speaker 1: our own flesh. Though it may seem strange, Lord, today
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Speaker 1: we do thank you for what you have withheld. We
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Speaker 1: thank you for the hard moments, for the pain that
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Speaker 1: has played its role in our realizing that you are
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Speaker 1: the one in control. You are the one pleased when
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Speaker 1: we are weak, for then you're able to display your
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Speaker 1: strength as never before. Help us to get that straight.
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Speaker 1: Help us to come to an understanding of what that means.
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Speaker 1: For we will not hear of that anywhere but from
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Speaker 1: you and from your inerrant word. Remind us today, our Father,
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Speaker 1: that you are the master and we are the servant.
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Speaker 1: You are the potter. We are the clay. You are
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Speaker 1: the groom. We are the bride. You are the exalted one.
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Speaker 1: We are your humble slaves. Therefore, our Father, we find
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Speaker 1: delight in giving you everything about ourselves. Take our wills
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Speaker 1: and make them yours. Take our love and pour it
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Speaker 1: at your feet as a treasure. Take our silver and
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Speaker 1: our gold. Not one penny would we withhold. Take our
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Speaker 1: voices and let them sing always only for the King.
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Speaker 1: Take our hands and our feet and let them move
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Speaker 1: at the impulse of your leading and love. Take my
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Speaker 1: life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. We
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Speaker 1: give it all without restraint or reservation. because of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: our matchless Savior. And everyone said, Amen. I want to
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Speaker 1: speak to all of you who struggle with disabilities. In
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Speaker 1: other words, I want to speak to everyone here today.
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Speaker 1: since we are all disabled in one way or another.
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Speaker 1: You may not agree with that statement. In fact, you
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Speaker 1: may resent it. If you do, you are especially the
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Speaker 1: first person I want to talk to today. You may
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Speaker 1: be the type of person who finds great joy in
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Speaker 1: your own competence and great pride in your own adequacies.
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Speaker 1: and ambitious thoughts. Truth be told, you may not only
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Speaker 1: wish to impress others with your capabilities, you may secretly
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Speaker 1: desire to eclipse others of equal status. You see, appearing
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Speaker 1: self-sufficient is terribly important to many people. And though we
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Speaker 1: may not like the way this sounds, pride lurks at
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Speaker 1: the core of self-sufficiency. It's been my observation that there
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Speaker 1: are at least three different types of people who appear
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Speaker 1: what I would call super adequate, extremely self-sufficient. The first
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Speaker 1: would be the highly intelligent, Those with minds that are quick.
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Speaker 1: You take tests and you love taking tests because you
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Speaker 1: get all the answers right. You have rapid comprehension, a
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Speaker 1: great memory, a keen wit, high IQ. It's easy for
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Speaker 1: the very bright person to appear clever and competent and
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Speaker 1: sometime even suave. The highly intelligent often are impressive because
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Speaker 1: they seem so self-confident. There's a second category, and that
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Speaker 1: would be the greatly gifted. You with artistic skills or
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Speaker 1: athletic skills, you with the ability to handle yourself with creativity,
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Speaker 1: you have talents that border near the extraordinary far more
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Speaker 1: than the majority of the rest of us. It may
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Speaker 1: be in a realm of art that many of us
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Speaker 1: look up to with great admiration. You have mastered your
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Speaker 1: instrument that you play beautiful music on. You may have
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Speaker 1: a wonderful voice that causes audiences to applaud and even
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Speaker 1: give standing ovations. You may have skills with your hands
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Speaker 1: so that you can sculpt or paint It's easy for
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Speaker 1: the greatly gifted to appear super adequate, completely self-sufficient. The
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Speaker 1: third would be the deeply religious. You seem to live
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Speaker 1: in the realm of the ultra holy, which gives off
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Speaker 1: an air of sufficiency and a depth of spirituality that
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Speaker 1: others rarely attain. You're very adept in the scriptures. You
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Speaker 1: can pray easily, whether in public or in private, and
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Speaker 1: words seem to flow as you describe the depths of
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Speaker 1: spiritual truth. You have a deep religious ability. Please understand
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Speaker 1: me here. There is nothing wrong with any of the above,
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Speaker 1: nothing innately wrong with being that intelligent or that gifted.
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Speaker 1: or that religious isn't fair, but there's nothing wrong with it.
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Speaker 1: The rest of us look upon it and think, my,
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Speaker 1: how great that must be. However, I'll remind you, any
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Speaker 1: of the three or all of the above and others
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Speaker 1: can be a source of enormous pride, blinding us to
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Speaker 1: the reality that nothing we are or have or are
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Speaker 1: able to do originates with us. I think Paul put
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Speaker 1: it better than anyone in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7.
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Speaker 1: What do you have that you did not receive? Or
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Speaker 1: as the New Living Translation renders it, what do you
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Speaker 1: have that God hasn't given you? A bright mind? You
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Speaker 1: didn't give yourself that mind. You may have continued your
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Speaker 1: education and cultivated it, but you didn't give yourself your
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Speaker 1: great memory. God gave it to you. You didn't give
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Speaker 1: your hands the ability to paint a canvas, or to
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Speaker 1: sculpt a stone, or to throw or catch a football,
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Speaker 1: or put the round ball in the hoop, or to
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Speaker 1: become All-American while you were in college. You didn't give
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Speaker 1: yourself that coordination. You didn't give yourself this depth of
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Speaker 1: spiritual interest. Here's a major question that arises in my
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Speaker 1: mind and ours. How does God enable us to rely
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Speaker 1: on his strength even though we may be exceedingly capable
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Speaker 1: in our strength? You get that? How does God enable
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Speaker 1: us to rely on his strength when we are in
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Speaker 1: our own selves rather capable, competent? and sufficient. The answer,
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Speaker 1: and you won't like it. God uses trials and tests
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Speaker 1: and disabilities that level us, that keep us humble. He
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Speaker 1: uses pain and brokenness, whether it is the pain of
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Speaker 1: the loss of an adult child that levels us, or
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Speaker 1: the pain of some disease that won't go away or
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Speaker 1: the loss of something very significant like our occupation or
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Speaker 1: our physical ability due to a stroke. He reaches our
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Speaker 1: pride through pain and he uses the pain and the
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Speaker 1: brokenness to replace the arrogance and the pride to make
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Speaker 1: us consciously dependent on him. It's a truth, tragically, some
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Speaker 1: do not learn throughout their adult life. But those who
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Speaker 1: do are remarkable individuals. What we must understand is that
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Speaker 1: God uses broken instruments to make incomparable music through life.
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Speaker 1: I thought of that when I remembered a story, parts
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Speaker 1: of which I've told before, about the colorful 19th century
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Speaker 1: showman and gifted violinist named Niccolo Paganini. Paganini performed his
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Speaker 1: first concert, if you can believe it, when he was
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Speaker 1: 11 years old and he entered into a world he
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Speaker 1: was really not prepared to handle. He indulged excessively in
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Speaker 1: gambling and romantic love affairs, so he was often in trouble,
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Speaker 1: frequently misunderstood. Throughout his life, Paganini was no stranger to
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Speaker 1: chronic illnesses, some of which included remedies using mercury and opium,
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Speaker 1: which caused serious physical and psychological side effects. However, let
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Speaker 1: me be clear, he was extremely gifted. Based on his works,
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Speaker 1: the violin concertos and the sets of variations, he revolutionized
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Speaker 1: violin techniques that demanded a wide use of harmonics and
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Speaker 1: pizzicato effects, new methods of fingering and even of tuning
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Speaker 1: the instruments. In performance, Paganini improvised brilliantly. I need to
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Speaker 1: add he was also a flamboyant showman who used trick
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Speaker 1: effects such as severing one or two violin strings and
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Speaker 1: continuing the piece on the remaining strings. Once in concert,
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Speaker 1: Niccolo Paganini was standing before a packed house playing through
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Speaker 1: a difficult piece of music. A full orchestra surrounded him
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Speaker 1: with magnificent support. One string on his violin snapped and
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Speaker 1: hung gloriously down from his instrument. Beads of perspiration popped
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Speaker 1: out on his forehead. Paganini frowned but continued to play,
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Speaker 1: improvising beautifully. To the conductor's surprise, a second string broke.
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Speaker 1: Shortly thereafter, a third Now there were three limp strings
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Speaker 1: dangling from Paganini's violin as the master performer completed the
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Speaker 1: difficult composition on the one remaining string. Well, as you
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Speaker 1: would expect, the audience jumped to its feet and in
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Speaker 1: good Italian fashion filled the hall with shouts and screams
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Speaker 1: of bravo, bravo. As the applause finally died down, the
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Speaker 1: violinist asked the people to sit back down. Even though
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Speaker 1: they knew there was no way they could expect an encore,
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Speaker 1: they quietly sat back in their seats. He held his
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Speaker 1: violin high for everyone to see. He nodded at the
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Speaker 1: conductor to begin the encore, and then he turned back
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Speaker 1: to the crowd, and with a twinkle in his eye,
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Speaker 1: he smiled and shouted, Paganini! Paganini! and one string. After that,
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Speaker 1: he placed the single-stringed Stradivarius beneath his chin, and he
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Speaker 1: played the final piece literally on one string. As the audience,
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Speaker 1: and I might add the conductor, shook their heads in
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Speaker 1: silent amazement. Paganini and one string. And I might add,
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Speaker 1: an attitude fortitude. Years later in a book titled A
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Speaker 1: Place of Healing, quadriplegic Johnny Erickson writes this related to that.
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Speaker 1: That's another truth that enables me to keep going. Whatever
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Speaker 1: strings are broken in our lives, if we concentrate, if
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Speaker 1: we apply what we know, we can still play beautiful
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Speaker 1: music with what we have left. In fact, it will
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Speaker 1: be music that no one else can play in the
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Speaker 1: same way. This is a lesson, she adds, a lesson
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Speaker 1: I've learned in a wheelchair for so many years. and
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Speaker 1: have had to relearn in these days and nights of
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Speaker 1: unremitting pain. Sometimes you have to take what's left and
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Speaker 1: coax out of life something new and different. Life becomes,
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Speaker 1: I love this word, a recomposition, a series of new chords.
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Speaker 1: If you will accept this analogy, severely disabled people aren't
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Speaker 1: your regular violins, and God doesn't perform in our lives
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Speaker 1: in the ordinary way. People suffering from debilitating injuries, terminal illnesses,
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Speaker 1: or chronic physical distress aren't your standard musical instruments in
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Speaker 1: the orchestra. We can't do everything able-bodied people can do
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Speaker 1: in their physical strength and mobility and vitality. It takes
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Speaker 1: a special skill to bring music out of broken instruments.
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Speaker 1: And the one who does deserves recognition and glory. God
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Speaker 1: is that one. God is the one who finds incomparable
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Speaker 1: beauty and makes matchless music using the most unexpected and
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Speaker 1: unlikely of instruments. All of this prepares us for the
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Speaker 1: testimony of the great Disabled. Apostle Paul. And how rarely
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Speaker 1: you will have that adjective connected to his name, though
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Speaker 1: it's true, as it should be connected to your name
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Speaker 1: and mine. For we're all disabled in one way or another.
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Speaker 1: Some more obvious to the naked eye than others, but
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Speaker 1: we all deep within struggle with our own list of disabilities.
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Speaker 1: If we knew that and if we remembered that, we
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Speaker 1: would never pedestalize a soul on this earth. For we
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Speaker 1: would realize they too are fellow strugglers. Now, you talk
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Speaker 1: about a classic example of highly intelligent, greatly gifted, and
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Speaker 1: deeply religious. Is there one more so than the Apostle
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Speaker 1: Paul himself? I can think of none more than he.
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Speaker 1: His religious resume could stand up against anyone who has
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Speaker 1: ever lived their day or our day. His credentials, impressive.
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Speaker 1: His pedigree, pristine. Matter of fact, Paul was the recipient
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Speaker 1: of remarkable visions and revelations that set him on even
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Speaker 1: a higher plateau until a disability came that leveled him
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Speaker 1: and stole away his own self-sustaining pride. To begin with,
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Speaker 1: we read in 2 Corinthians 12, 1 through 4, as
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Speaker 1: we put together a brief description of Paul as a
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Speaker 1: man of this and a man of that. To begin with,
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Speaker 1: he is a man of unsurpassed privileges, verses 1 through 4.
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Speaker 1: Look at the privileges. I was caught up in the
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Speaker 1: third heaven. How many do you know caught up in
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Speaker 1: the third heaven? You can't name one. He calls it
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Speaker 1: later paradise. I've never known a soul who's ever been
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Speaker 1: to paradise and lived to tell the story. I was
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Speaker 1: caught up in the third heaven 14 years ago, whether
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Speaker 1: in the body or out, I don't know, only God knows.
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Speaker 1: But I do know this, I was in that place
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Speaker 1: of paradise. I heard things so astounding. I saw revelations
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Speaker 1: so amazing. I cannot put them into words. For God
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Speaker 1: revealed to me a plan that would unfold in the
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Speaker 1: days ahead, tying in beautifully with what had happened in
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Speaker 1: the past. I saw it all. It was all portrayed
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Speaker 1: in front of me. Think about it. Don't rush ahead.
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Speaker 1: Think about this. First of all, he has kept all
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Speaker 1: of this to himself for 14 years. How many do
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Speaker 1: you know, and we cannot name a one, who would
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Speaker 1: be caught up into a third heaven and would be
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Speaker 1: given revelations from God himself who would keep that to
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Speaker 1: himself for a day to say nothing of 14 years?
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Speaker 1: He didn't rush out and seek a publisher so he
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Speaker 1: could put a book together and sell 10 million copies.
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Speaker 1: He had zero desire to market his ecstasy. No interest
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Speaker 1: in pulling rank or playing king of the mountain. No
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Speaker 1: promotion of his own celebrity. He didn't announce his own
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Speaker 1: special app on the internet. How relieving is that? For
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Speaker 1: only $ 100 you can get on and he would have
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Speaker 1: made millions come and listen to and see a man
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Speaker 1: who saw the Lord I'm the only one who has
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Speaker 1: seen God. You know how they say it? God. None
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Speaker 1: of that from Paul. None of it. Which brings us
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Speaker 1: to the second. He was a man of uncommon humility.
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Speaker 1: Verses 5 and 6. Not only a man of unsurpassed privileges,
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Speaker 1: 1 to 4. Verses 5 and 6. He is a
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Speaker 1: man of uncommon humility. This bears close scrutiny. Don't just
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Speaker 1: rush by these two verses. That experience is worth boasting about.
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Speaker 1: He says that, as it were, in the flesh. It's
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Speaker 1: something to be really proud of. But I'm not going
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Speaker 1: to do that. I will boast only about my weaknesses.
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Speaker 1: Look at the vulnerability here. I could boast about my strength.
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Speaker 1: You haven't seen God. You haven't seen God. You haven't
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Speaker 1: been in paradise. You haven't heard what I've heard. But
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Speaker 1: I will not boast about it. What kept him from
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Speaker 1: doing that? That which 99% of the other part of
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Speaker 1: the world would have done in a heartbeat, especially in
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Speaker 1: this day of celebrity. which I tire of more every
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Speaker 1: day I live. As I see it, I detest it.
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Speaker 1: And I realize those beating their own breast have already
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Speaker 1: forgotten that everything they have came from God who gives
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Speaker 1: them breath in their lungs and can snuff it out
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Speaker 1: in a moment's time. Why didn't he take his story
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Speaker 1: on the road? Why didn't he showboat his sainthood? Look
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Speaker 1: at the answer in verse 6. Look at it. If
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Speaker 1: I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in
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Speaker 1: doing so because I'd be telling the truth, but I
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Speaker 1: won't do it. Why, Paul? Why? Because I don't want
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Speaker 1: anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see
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Speaker 1: in my life or hear in my message. Isn't that great?
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Speaker 1: I don't want anyone to think anything more than what
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Speaker 1: they hear from me or literally see in my life.
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Speaker 1: How on earth do you stay that uncommonly humble having
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Speaker 1: had that kind of unsurpassed experience? A disability is the answer.
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Speaker 1: He calls his, look at it, a thorn in my flesh.
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Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. To keep me from becoming proud,
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Speaker 1: he says it twice in the same verse, I was
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Speaker 1: given a scollops te sarki. When I'm through, you'll understand
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Speaker 1: why I call it a disability. But before spelling it out,
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Speaker 1: let me define disability because some of you think it
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Speaker 1: is only a crippling disease or the results of such
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Speaker 1: or some paralysis or some debilitating blindness. The word disable,
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Speaker 1: according to Webster, means to deprive of capability. With such
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Speaker 1: synonyms as cripple, immobilize, incapacitate, The core meaning, according to Webster,
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Speaker 1: is to render powerless. I was rendered powerless, we would
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Speaker 1: say of Paul, by infliction of a severe affliction or
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Speaker 1: injury or damage. Paul calls it a scallops and it
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Speaker 1: appears nowhere else in all the Bible. Nowhere else. Only here.
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Speaker 1: And it isn't an ethereal thorn, it is a thorn
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Speaker 1: in the flesh, in the body. Interesting facts I discovered
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Speaker 1: in my research. Walter Bauer helps us by telling us
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Speaker 1: that it represents anything sharp or pointed. The word is
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Speaker 1: really stake. It's translated thorn in most Bibles, but it's
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Speaker 1: the word for a sharp pointed stake that would be
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Speaker 1: used to impale a body, a form of brutal crucifixion.
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Speaker 1: A body would be impaled on a tall, sharp stake.
33:49
Speaker 1: Something that causes serious annoyance, writes Bauer, the lack of
33:54
Speaker 1: detail makes it impossible for there to be a truly
33:58
Speaker 1: scientific analysis of Paul's scolops teisarchi. Whatever it was, it
34:05
Speaker 1: resulted in debilitating pain that remained with him throughout those
34:10
Speaker 1: 14 previous years and from then on. He lived with
34:15
Speaker 1: this pain. What was that pain like? A.T. Robertson, the
34:20
Speaker 1: great Baptist scholar, writes, certainly it was some physical malady
34:24
Speaker 1: that persisted. All sorts of theories are held. Malaria, eye trouble, epilepsy, migraine.
34:32
Speaker 1: Another source, William Barclay writes, the very word steak indicates
34:38
Speaker 1: an almost savage pain. The whole picture before us is
34:43
Speaker 1: one of physical suffering, such as a certain virulent fever.
34:49
Speaker 1: One who suffered from it describes the headache that accompanies
34:52
Speaker 1: it as being like a red hot bar thrust through
34:57
Speaker 1: the forehead. Another speaks of the grinding, boring pain in
35:02
Speaker 1: one's temple like the dentist's drill. When the thing became acute,
35:08
Speaker 1: it reached the extreme point of human endurance. And don't
35:12
Speaker 1: miss his additional comment, said in apposition, it was a
35:17
Speaker 1: messenger of Satan. Look at that. Angela Satana, an angel
35:23
Speaker 1: of Satana, a messenger. a demon who took it as
35:29
Speaker 1: his opportunity to bring Paul down. R.C.H. Lenski, the great
35:38
Speaker 1: Lutheran theologian, writes, the verb is rare, translated torment. In it,
35:44
Speaker 1: we have the idea of blows that are struck with
35:47
Speaker 1: a closed fist. Blows struck with a fist. derived from
35:54
Speaker 1: the word for knuckles, referring to blows that sting and crush.
36:00
Speaker 1: Lenski renders it to fisticuff me. I was given a
36:06
Speaker 1: stake in the flesh to pound me black and blue.
36:13
Speaker 1: Those blows struck Paul with inhuman power like an implacable
36:18
Speaker 1: demon who assaults a mere mortal with hellish glee. If
36:22
Speaker 1: that doesn't describe a disability, I don't know what does.
36:26
Speaker 1: Some of you know what that's like. Well, it's not
36:29
Speaker 1: the same pain. It's a deep pain that you can't
36:34
Speaker 1: even put into words as you try to go on
36:37
Speaker 1: with your life. As for one who is intellectually sharp
36:42
Speaker 1: and greatly gifted and spiritually deep as Paul, those blows
36:47
Speaker 1: reduced him to putty in the Lord's hands. Twice we read,
36:54
Speaker 1: to keep me from becoming proud. It's as if God
36:59
Speaker 1: was saying this, here is one servant of mine, conceit
37:05
Speaker 1: will not ruin. Here is a man who will never
37:10
Speaker 1: be arrogant. He had been, as a Pharisee, you know
37:16
Speaker 1: his background. But now, Now he is reduced to prayer.
37:24
Speaker 1: Look at verse eight. Three, three different times I begged
37:37
Speaker 1: the Lord, I begged the Lord to take it away.
37:45
Speaker 1: So let's include this in his resume. He is a
37:48
Speaker 1: man of inescapable pain. Verses 7 and 8. A man
37:54
Speaker 1: of inescapable pain. Or you could write excruciating. It's hard
37:59
Speaker 1: to spell, but it's the same. Inescapable. He is living
38:04
Speaker 1: with this excruciating pain. So much so that he prays
38:07
Speaker 1: and he prays and he prays. First time and only
38:11
Speaker 1: time you'll read Paul praying three times. And God with
38:14
Speaker 1: the same answer. I parakaleoed God. I called on him.
38:22
Speaker 1: I summoned his aid. I called for help. Maybe it
38:26
Speaker 1: went something like this. Oh, Lord, I plead with you,
38:33
Speaker 1: remove this. The answer, no, my son. No, I will
38:39
Speaker 1: not remove it. Lord, I come again, maybe several days later.
38:43
Speaker 1: I come again, broken and at wit's end. I beg
38:46
Speaker 1: of you, take away this excruciating agony. I can't take
38:50
Speaker 1: it anymore. I will not. It is yours to bear
38:54
Speaker 1: from here on. My answer remains the same, no. Oh God,
39:01
Speaker 1: my father, maybe a week later. My father, I come
39:06
Speaker 1: yet again to you for relief. Please, please, please remove
39:13
Speaker 1: the stake. For the third and last time, Paul, no.
39:22
Speaker 1: Now a cynic hears that and thinks right away of
39:25
Speaker 1: how cruel God is. If you think that, it shows
39:29
Speaker 1: how shallow you are. are. You don't understand that God
39:32
Speaker 1: is too good to be cruel. His plan is too
39:35
Speaker 1: great ever to torture anyone. He doesn't torture. Humans torture humans.
39:44
Speaker 1: But God's plan is profound. He knows what it takes.
39:48
Speaker 1: He knows what he's dealing with. Because of what God says,
39:55
Speaker 1: we know it wasn't cruelty. Each time, look at the verse.
40:01
Speaker 1: Verse 9, each time he said, my grace is all
40:05
Speaker 1: you need, my power works best in weakness. No, Paul,
40:10
Speaker 1: my grace is all you need, my power works best
40:13
Speaker 1: in weakness. No, Paul, my grace is all you need,
40:17
Speaker 1: my power works best in weakness. No, Paul, my grace
40:21
Speaker 1: is all you need. My power works best in weakness.
40:28
Speaker 1: Claim it. Cling to it. Walk in it. Be clothed
40:35
Speaker 1: by it. Stand firm on it. My power is brought
40:40
Speaker 1: to completion in your weakness, my son. Learn this. Learn this.
40:48
Speaker 1: You will never again be proud of your intellect or
40:51
Speaker 1: your giftedness or your depth of spiritual understanding. So verses
41:00
Speaker 1: 9 and 10, we see Paul as a man of
41:04
Speaker 1: paradoxical power. Paradoxical power. Track with me here. Paul must
41:14
Speaker 1: have thought, I finally got it. I finally got it.
41:21
Speaker 1: I never learned it from the rabbis when I was
41:23
Speaker 1: in school. I never learned it from the applause of
41:27
Speaker 1: my fellow Pharisees, from my peers. I never learned it
41:31
Speaker 1: when I achieved my goals and my dreams. But I've
41:35
Speaker 1: learned it from the stake. I've learned in the brokenness
41:41
Speaker 1: and the pain. That which I begged the Lord to
41:44
Speaker 1: take away, I've learned to accept it. Eugene Peterson does
41:49
Speaker 1: a masterful work on this section in his work called
41:52
Speaker 1: The Message, and I quote, because of the extravagance of
41:56
Speaker 1: those revelations and so I wouldn't get a big head,
41:59
Speaker 1: I was given the gift of a handicap to keep
42:04
Speaker 1: me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did
42:09
Speaker 1: his best to get me down. What he in fact
42:12
Speaker 1: did was push me to my knees. No danger then
42:17
Speaker 1: of walking around high and mighty. At first I didn't
42:20
Speaker 1: think of it as a gift and I begged God
42:24
Speaker 1: to remove it. Three times I did that. So what
42:31
Speaker 1: did Paul learn? Look at the paradoxical power that appears.
42:37
Speaker 1: Each time I learned his grace is sufficient for me.
42:41
Speaker 1: His power works best, not in my strength, but in
42:44
Speaker 1: my weakness. So look carefully, now I'm glad to boast
42:48
Speaker 1: about my weaknesses so the power of Christ can work
42:51
Speaker 1: through me. He would have never said that as a Pharisee.
42:56
Speaker 1: He would have never said that when he was walking
42:58
Speaker 1: in the flesh without Christ. But now, 14 years after
43:03
Speaker 1: the stake has found its residence in him and he
43:06
Speaker 1: lives with it, he says, now I've got it. I
43:09
Speaker 1: understand it. In fact, now I gladly boast about my weaknesses.
43:14
Speaker 1: That's why I can take pleasure in my weaknesses and
43:17
Speaker 1: in the insults and hardships and persecutions and troubles that
43:22
Speaker 1: I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then
43:24
Speaker 1: I am strong. I get it now. If I boast
43:30
Speaker 1: in anything, it's my inadequacies. I boast in my lack
43:34
Speaker 1: of sufficiency, my physical hindrances, my personal abilities, all of
43:41
Speaker 1: this has taught me the true source of power, your grace,
43:48
Speaker 1: oh God. G-R-A-C-E, it is grace, it is grace, it
43:54
Speaker 1: is grace. Grace to keep going, grace to withstand. In
44:00
Speaker 1: a few words, when I am weak, which is often,
44:05
Speaker 1: then I'm strong. Isn't it interesting? Think about it. You
44:11
Speaker 1: never read of this suffering going on while he's in
44:13
Speaker 1: his journeys. He doesn't go into it in Romans or
44:18
Speaker 1: Galatians or Ephesians or Philippians or Colossians or the first
44:23
Speaker 1: letter of Corinthians or the Thessalonians or Titus or the
44:28
Speaker 1: letters to Timothy or Philemon. He doesn't mention it. It
44:32
Speaker 1: isn't about him. What you read are the humble directions
44:39
Speaker 1: And counsel of a man who is living his life
44:44
Speaker 1: playing on three strings. Broken. Disabled. Now then. So much
44:56
Speaker 1: for Paul. I'm talking to people today who must go
45:00
Speaker 1: on with the disabilities that you have. And as I
45:05
Speaker 1: look at faces across those of you who are here
45:08
Speaker 1: in front of me and as I imagine those who
45:10
Speaker 1: hear these words in weeks and months to come, I
45:14
Speaker 1: think the number of disabilities would be beyond our ability
45:18
Speaker 1: to count. So include yourself when you think about the
45:24
Speaker 1: gloves of grace that you need to handle the thorns.
45:30
Speaker 1: I have three suggestions that might help. They certainly have
45:35
Speaker 1: helped me. I can tell you there have been times
45:38
Speaker 1: in my life when I've come across so poorly, I
45:42
Speaker 1: would have given myself an absolute F, a complete flop,
45:48
Speaker 1: only to find out later how greatly God used those
45:51
Speaker 1: words that I would have never guessed he would use them.
45:55
Speaker 1: I'm serious here. Stammered and stuttered and couldn't read very well.
46:01
Speaker 1: I wasn't feeling that great and I was delivering a
46:04
Speaker 1: message and out came words that later I could hardly
46:07
Speaker 1: remember and people said later, you'll never know what that
46:10
Speaker 1: meant to me. Talk about being weak and God comes
46:15
Speaker 1: across as strong. You learn to accept that. So first
46:21
Speaker 1: of all, look up. Look up. You find yourself with
46:26
Speaker 1: a disability? Who doesn't? We all do. Look up. Here
46:30
Speaker 1: it is, accept the fact, accept the fact that your
46:37
Speaker 1: disability is not an accident. You're blind, you're unable to hear,
46:42
Speaker 1: you're a victim of polio. It's not an accident. It
46:45
Speaker 1: has a plan that is beyond our ability to comprehend,
46:49
Speaker 1: but otherwise it is a happenstance. It is the result
46:54
Speaker 1: of someone's accident or failure. And so we blame somebody
46:58
Speaker 1: for it. There's no one to blame. This takes away
47:01
Speaker 1: all anger and blame. You know what looking up will do?
47:04
Speaker 1: It'll change your perspective. It'll change your whole perspective on life.
47:12
Speaker 1: It'll turn you from bitterness to beauty. From a sour
47:18
Speaker 1: spirit to an effective messenger that has something to share
47:23
Speaker 1: with others who can't quite get there. So look up.
47:26
Speaker 1: Here's the second. Look within. Think of your disability as
47:32
Speaker 1: your friend, not your enemy. It's your friend. It isn't
47:37
Speaker 1: your enemy. And that will give you unexplainable joy. Everybody
47:44
Speaker 1: expects you to be bitter because you can't get around
47:46
Speaker 1: like others do on two good legs or because you
47:50
Speaker 1: can't use this arm like others can that have both arms. Oh.
47:56
Speaker 1: When you think of the disability as your opportunity to
47:59
Speaker 1: display the power of God, it becomes your friend, not
48:02
Speaker 1: your enemy. By the way, it will also take away
48:07
Speaker 1: your bitterness. Number three, look beyond. The first, by looking up,
48:16
Speaker 1: will give you perspective. The second, by looking within, will
48:19
Speaker 1: give you joy. This one will give you hope. Look beyond,
48:24
Speaker 1: instead of staring at the thorns, focus on the fragrance.
48:32
Speaker 1: Instead of staring at the thorns, focus on the fragrance.
48:36
Speaker 1: Hope is like the fragrance from blooms on flowers. Suddenly
48:42
Speaker 1: you find yourself enveloped in the fragrance and the smell
48:46
Speaker 1: diminishes everything else. You see beyond where you are and
48:50
Speaker 1: you know there is a future. that will be rewarded
48:53
Speaker 1: in magnificent ways. A return to some writings of Joni Erikson.
49:00
Speaker 1: She titles this book, Choices and Changes. Listen to her words.
49:04
Speaker 1: Remember they are written by a quadriplegic. Everywhere we go
49:10
Speaker 1: in Poland, people give us flowers. Fresh, thick bouquets, sweet pea, tulips, gladiola,
49:19
Speaker 1: in full bloom in our drab hotel rooms. But how
49:24
Speaker 1: odd it is to see these same flowers swishing in
49:27
Speaker 1: the wind here, here in Auschwitz. Even though the grounds
49:36
Speaker 1: of this death camp are so very tidy, Delicate wisps
49:40
Speaker 1: of wildflowers crop up here and there around the bases
49:44
Speaker 1: of brick buildings and trunks of trees. We wonder if
49:48
Speaker 1: the government, which operates a museum here, has sown wildflowers
49:55
Speaker 1: seeds to brighten this horrible, depressing place. I notice a
50:01
Speaker 1: row of lovely rose bushes planted just yards away from
50:06
Speaker 1: the gruesome gas chambers. I ask our guide about the roses.
50:11
Speaker 1: He's quick to point out that where the flowers are now,
50:16
Speaker 1: there once was naked hard clay, every blade of grass
50:21
Speaker 1: picked clean and eaten by starving prisoners. Bare bricks and
50:29
Speaker 1: barbed wire, storehouses of eyeglasses and hair and gold teeth,
50:36
Speaker 1: canes and crutches, shoes, hearing aids, Stacks of yellowed and
50:41
Speaker 1: dusty record books, neatly tabulated, numberless names, gallows and guard towers.
50:50
Speaker 1: Even the ominous chimneys and the ovens. All these things
50:55
Speaker 1: I've always associated with Nazi death camps are here and
51:00
Speaker 1: I shiver. Not so much from the cold as from
51:05
Speaker 1: the thought that people handicapped like me were the first
51:11
Speaker 1: to be exterminated, labeled as useless bread gobblers. But even
51:24
Speaker 1: this thought is not entirely new. It's the flowers. The
51:31
Speaker 1: flowers are something I didn't expect, and for that reason,
51:34
Speaker 1: their out of placeness touches me as nothing else. What
51:38
Speaker 1: are you thinking? My husband, Ken, asks, stooping to pluck
51:44
Speaker 1: a wildflower. I was thinking of Tante Corrie, Corrie ten Boom.
51:51
Speaker 1: I finally answer, she was in a place not unlike this.
51:57
Speaker 1: A nod toward the field of ghosts. By all accounts,
52:04
Speaker 1: she should have died years ago in that concentration camp.
52:10
Speaker 1: I sigh. I then recalled Corrie Ten Boom's recent funeral
52:18
Speaker 1: at a small suburban cemetery a few miles south of
52:23
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. It was the flowers that impressed me that day, too.
52:28
Speaker 1: No hothouse blooms stuck in styrofoam, cut out shapes of
52:34
Speaker 1: hearts or crosses or doves. No. No white satin banners
52:40
Speaker 1: or gold-sprinkled messages of sympathy. Instead, there were vases, tens
52:47
Speaker 1: of vases, freshly cut tulips of yellow and red, bouquets
52:53
Speaker 1: of dewy white carnations and bunches of heavy red roses
52:58
Speaker 1: someone had clipped from Cory's own backyard. The casket was closed,
53:07
Speaker 1: the music was Bach. The eulogies were glowing but understated.
53:16
Speaker 1: The only extravagance was the profusion of flowers and the
53:22
Speaker 1: little stone chapel was filled with their sweet fragrance. Now
53:32
Speaker 1: I sit in the silence of this vast fields, memories
53:35
Speaker 1: of Corey stirring my thoughts. She closes by saying, I
53:41
Speaker 1: recall another memory of Corrie and the flowers. The evening
53:45
Speaker 1: at the convention when amid the applause of thousands, she
53:49
Speaker 1: lifted her bouquet of flowers, of roses toward heaven. She
53:54
Speaker 1: would be the first to say that books on a
53:56
Speaker 1: bestseller list mean nothing except that lives are changed through them.
54:03
Speaker 1: She would say that a first run major motion picture
54:06
Speaker 1: of her life was not worth the accolades except that
54:10
Speaker 1: people were helped through the movie. Even a ministry that
54:15
Speaker 1: took her all over the world with opportunities to speak,
54:19
Speaker 1: meeting headlining names and evangelical circles, even that, she would say,
54:24
Speaker 1: only counts in the kingdom as far as it serves Christ.
54:30
Speaker 1: I love that. And I would say the same, says Johnny.
54:37
Speaker 1: In both my public ministry and my private life with Ken,
54:41
Speaker 1: God constantly asks me to uncover my face, but that
54:46
Speaker 1: is my joyous choice, to ask him to chasten and
54:51
Speaker 1: purify and melt any resistance to change I might secretly
54:56
Speaker 1: hold onto. I smile, in fact, I throw back my
55:01
Speaker 1: head and laugh out loud, and I tell Ken, of
55:04
Speaker 1: the time I first met that remarkable woman years ago.
55:08
Speaker 1: We were both attending a convention where our new books
55:12
Speaker 1: were being presented. Corrie approached me from down the long
55:15
Speaker 1: red carpeted hallway of a hotel. People were all about
55:20
Speaker 1: and many sought her attention, but she strode directly toward me,
55:24
Speaker 1: hiked her cane on her elbow, reached for my hand
55:29
Speaker 1: with those strong hands that all survivors have, and announced
55:36
Speaker 1: in her thick Dutch accent, one day my friend, one
55:40
Speaker 1: day we will be dancing together in heaven because of
55:44
Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus. And today I can laugh and rejoice
55:50
Speaker 1: because Corrie is dancing now all over the devil and
55:58
Speaker 1: all over Auschwitz. And one day We shall be changed.
56:09
Speaker 1: We shall join her. How good is that? I invite
56:23
Speaker 1: all of you who are disabled to bow with me, please.
56:28
Speaker 1: Just sit still. Isn't it time to get rid of
56:36
Speaker 1: the bitterness and the gall, the caustic comments, the self-serving
56:48
Speaker 1: attitude of anger. As if you were in charge of
56:54
Speaker 1: your life, you would change things. Well, you're not. I
57:01
Speaker 1: plead with you to accept what has happened. whatever it
57:05
Speaker 1: may have been, accept it. See it not as an enemy,
57:12
Speaker 1: but as a friend to bring you to a place
57:16
Speaker 1: of humility and beauty where you can blossom like a
57:23
Speaker 1: rose in a world that's lost its way. Come to
57:33
Speaker 1: terms with this. Let it go. Interesting, Paul never wrote
57:43
Speaker 1: a letter dedicated to pain. His pain became that cross
57:49
Speaker 1: that he bore for the glory of God. He became
57:52
Speaker 1: the apostle of grace. I urge you to go there.
58:02
Speaker 1: And if you discovered for the first time that you
58:04
Speaker 1: really are not sufficient in yourself, and you now understand
58:08
Speaker 1: that that sufficiency must come from another, then it is
58:11
Speaker 1: your moment to turn to Christ. This isn't manipulation. This
58:17
Speaker 1: is a rescue operation. Trust him right now. Ask him
58:24
Speaker 1: for strength. Ask him for forgiveness to come and take
58:28
Speaker 1: up residence in your life. Simple prayer, Lord, I'm I've
58:34
Speaker 1: never really known you as I should. I've never had
58:37
Speaker 1: a relationship with you. I come to Christ now. Take me.
58:45
Speaker 1: Help me with this disability, the sinfulness of my life.
58:51
Speaker 1: Forgive me. And he will take you as his own.
58:57
Speaker 1: We'd love to help you in your journey, so please
59:00
Speaker 1: let us know you've come to Christ. We'll take it
59:05
Speaker 1: from there to help you along. Thank you Father for
59:08
Speaker 1: speaking forcefully and directly to us in ways that we
59:12
Speaker 1: hadn't expected today. And may we, for the rest of
59:17
Speaker 1: our lives, boast in our weaknesses that your power may
59:21
Speaker 1: rest upon us. Deliver us, we pray, from this arrogant
59:27
Speaker 1: self-sufficiency that marks our age the spirit of entitlement. Yes, Lord,
59:34
Speaker 1: take our life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
59:44
Speaker 1: Take all that we have and turn it into a
59:48
Speaker 1: thing of beauty out of brokenness so that we might
59:54
Speaker 1: realize what appears to others as a thorn is in
1:00:00
Speaker 1: fact a rose with fragrance. Fill our lives with that
1:00:11
Speaker 1: aroma so that we might provide it for others who've
1:00:17
Speaker 1: not yet come quite this far as we live with
1:00:21
Speaker 1: this permanent disability. In the name of Jesus, who understands thorns,
1:00:29
Speaker 1: we pray. Everyone said. Amen.
1:00:39
Speaker 2: The preceding message, What If You Struggle With a Permanent Disability,
1:00:43
Speaker 2: was copyrighted in 2013, 2015, and 2017, and the sound
1:00:48
Speaker 2: recording was copyrighted in 2017 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
1:00:53
Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
1:00:58
Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.