2nd Corinthians 12:7-10
Awww come on and praise the Lord everybody. God is awesome! And he is truly worthy to be praised! Amen. Amen. You may be seated in the prescense of the Lord. Ushers, let the worshippers in, that they may hear a word from the Lord. I dare not try to read this text again, lest we all might go crazy & I might not be able to preach, amen? amen... But God says to Paul in verse number 9, "But my grace, is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in your weakness!" Ha, ha, ha. You got it sister. She got it. She got it. You’d better bless him! Ha, ha, ha! I dare ya... I dare ya... Alright I’ll give you about 30 secconds ha, to thank God, ha, for his Grace! Somebody oughta shout GRACE!!!!!!!! I’ve gotta get outta here as Bishop would say, I’ve gotta get outta here. I ain’t messin’ with y’all. I ain’t messin’ with y’all. I might not be able to preach this thing. I’m going to try to hold it together, Deacon Wright please pray that I can hold it together. Paul is writing about a vision that he has in the spirit in this text, and Paul basically opens up this chapter talking about a vision that he had 14 years ago... Why talk about it now? And in the 3rd person? Because as he says in the text just so that he would not become full of himself & boast that God gave him a thorn in the flesh. So he waited 14 years and then talked about it in 3rd person just so that it wouldn’t seem as if he was boasting of himself & that HE got the revelations! Hmmm... And then Paul goes on to say that the thorn was buffering him, challenging him, or even iritating him. And he says that he asked God to remove it three times. Twice God said nothing... And on the third time out of nowhere we hear, "My Grace", ha, ha, ha, ha, he , he. "My Grace is SUFFICENT!" And my power is made PERFECT! What? PERFECT! In, in your weakness! And Paul begins to say, "I’m WEAK! I’m WEAK!! Ha, ha, ha! And he says, in essence, that, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ, might rest on me. Somebody got it! Can I take my time on this? And so, and so... That’s what I want to talk about. I want to talk today from the subject of, "Power For The Powerless!" Turn to your nieghbor & say "Nieghbor, i’m powerless, but I got power!" I’m trying to hold it together...
My brothers and my sisters, if I could keep it real with you for just a few minutes on today, I am convinced today beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are several times in our lives when we feel powerless. Times when we feel weak. Times when we’re tired. When we just feel like giving up, like throwing in the towel. Situations in our lives are just wearing us down and it seems like if it ain’t one thing it’s another & as if God just doesn’t care. Times when we feel drained & hopeless, humiliated, and, and fed up. We get weary & bogged down with the worries and cares of this world. And my brothers and my sisters, I would submit to you today that although it may be uncomfortable, uneasy, and painful, that that is right where God wants you to be. Because it’s not until you become weak & vulnerable that God can really use you. Oh, you gonna look at me funny huh? Come on & get honest up in here... You know & I know that as long as everything is peachy keen and we feel like we can handle everything that we don’t need God! But as soon as things start going haywire in our lives & we really get weak, then God is able to make us strong in him! Ohhh I wish I had a witness up in here! And so, God works best in us when we’re weak, because when we’re weak then God can make HIS power evident, and get HIS glory! Because it’s only then that we can truly say that it was nobody but the Lord! But i’m still trying to figure out, how in the world can I be powerless and still have power? Well, i’m so glad you asked because I sat down the other day & I talked to Paul, I talked to Paul & he dropped some things on me, as to how I can be powerless & still have power? And if I can be powerless & still have power, when i’m weak, what do I do to get strong? And it’s in the text, it’s in the text, and I felt obliged to share these things with you in order to even yet prove my point... Can I go ahead & share with you for awhile?
The first way to recieve power when you are weak is to acknowledge your weakness before God. God wants us to be humble before him, and so we have to acknowledge our weaknesses. Because as long as we’re thinking that we really have it together and are still trying to control our own lives & destinys, God can’t move in us because we have not acknowledged our weaknesses! Oh, you don’t believe me? Look at the text, in verse number 5, Paul says, "That I may glory in my infirmities, or my weaknesses!" He goes to God and acknowledges his weaknesses. So the first thing that you must do in order to recieve true power is to admit the fact that you are weak.
But not only that, the seccond way that you can recieve true power in weakness is to accept your weaknesses. Paul accepts his weaknesses because he begins to glory in his own infirmities. He accepts them. He gets gut level honest with God and makes it known that he’s weak. And that’s one of the reasons why there’s a lot of powerless people running around the church today... Because everybody wanna act like they allll that & a bag of chips, and that they’ve got it all together, and that they’re strong! That’s a myth & an illusion I need to dispell right now... People think that Christians are & have to be some of the strongest people in the world! Amen! But the truth be told, we’re some of the weakest, most frail & fragile people out there! Can I get a witness? We need to stop acting like we’ve got it all together BECAUSE WE DON’T!!!!!!! We wanna walk around & dress all cute, look all nice, smell all good, put on a front. Well I don’t know about you but i’m tired. I’m tired of frontin for you all, i’m tired. Go to the hairdresser yesterday & now many of y’all done sweated your hair out, wrinkled your clothes out, messed your make up up, and broke the heels on your shoes!!! Ha, ha!!!!! GOD IS TRYING TO GET YOU TO BE REAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!! Hey, hey!!!! Hey!!!!!!!!! I ain’t messing with y’all. Alright, alright, i’m trying to hold it together, i’m, i’m trying. But you have to first acknowledge & then accept your weaknesses in order to recieve true power.
But not only that, a final thing that you must do in order to recieve true power is to admire your weaknesses. Look at the text, Paul says in verse number ten, "I take pleasure in my weaknesses!" Paul learned to delight in his weaknesses. He learned to be happy about them. And to see them as a blessing from God. And the reason why he delighted in his weaknesses is because he knew that when he was weak, God was strong, and that God’s grace would ultimately bring him through & out of his weakness. And when you start to glory in your weaknesses, it opens up the door for you to recieve power from on high. And so I don’t know about you today, ha, but I thank GOD, ha, for my weaknesses, for my infirmities, for my afflicitions, for my struggles, for my hearaches, for my trials, and for my tribulations, because when I am weak, ha, ha, ha, then I am, ha, I’m strong! I’m going back to my seat, ha, but can I help somebody right now, ha, I need you to understand, ha, ohh I feel the holy ghost, ha, that sometimes I feel powerless, ha, but that when I got down & couldn’t make it, ha, and couldn’t see my way, ha, GOD, ha, made a way, ha, outta no way, ha, well now, ha, I feel a keepin’ it real spirit coming on up on me, ha, can I go ahead & keep it real with you? ha, look at the text, ha, Paul has just told us, ha, about a vision, ha, that he had some 14 years ago, ha, and now he says, ha, in order to keep me from being concieted, ha, there was given to me a thorn, ha, in my side, ha, a messenger of satan, ha, to buffer me, ha, can I stop right there for a minute?, ha, God will always give you, ha, a thorn, ha, in your side, ha, to keep you from thinking, ha, that you’ve got it all together, ha, it could be a hindering sin, a sickness, a desiase, ha, a situation or circumstance that don’t look good, ha, or even an annoying person, ha, but you’ll always, ha, have a thorn, ha, to keep you ha, in check, ha, it might not always be the same thorn, ha, but as soon as you get rid of one thorn, ha, & you start thinking, ha, that you’ve got it all together, ha, God has a way, ha, of giving you, ha, another thorn, ha, because he never wants you, ha, to get so puffed up, ha, that you begin to think that you were the one, ha, who got it all like that! Can I get a witness?, ha, and so now, ha, Paul has this thorn, ha, and it’s bothering him. We don’t know what the thorn was, ha, but it bothered him so bad, ha, that he went to God, ha, three times, ha, and asked God to remove it, ha, and twice, ha, God didn’t answer him, and then the third time, ha, God turns up and says, ha, "My GRACE, ha, my grace, ha, my grace, ha, is sufficient for you, ha", I feel like, ha, coming up outta my clothes, ha. Can I tell you a secret? ha, sometimes, ha, God doesn’t always anwer us, right when we want him to, ha, but God’s delays, ha, somebody say it, are not God’s denials, ha, and don’t think or believe for one seccond, ha, that just cause you ask God, ha, to remove you from something, ha, that he’ll always do it!, ha, sometimes, ha, God wants to keep you, ha, right where you’re at, ha, but he’ll give you grace, ha, grace to endure, ha, whatever you’ve got to face, ha, and then Paul says, ha, "Therefore, ha, I’ll boast in my infirmities, ha, so that the POWER, ha, of Christ, ha, might rest on me!!!!! I’m weak, ha, i’m weak, ha, i’m weak!!!!!!! I said i’m weak!!!!! ha, and I can’t do this thing, ha, on my own, ha, but if I can just go to God, ha, and give him praise for my weaknesses, ha, than his power, ha, his power, ha, HIS POWWWWWWWEEEERRRRR, ha, might rest on me! Ha, I’ve gotta leave it alone, ha, i’m going back to my seat now, ha, I’m closing my book, ha, cause I feeeeeeeeelllll, ha, a crazy praise, ha, about to break out up in here, ha, turn to your nieghbor, ha, give em’ a high five, ha, and say nieghbor, ha "Oh nieghbor, ha, I need to confess, ha, yes, ha, i’m standing here, ha, with all of my make up on, ha, with the stockings & the shoes on, ha, with my suit & my tie on, but sometimes I feel powerless, but when you got down & couldn’t make it, ha, he wanted you to start leaning on him, ha, and the more you leaned on him, ha, the more power you got, I’ve got to leave it alone, ha, my time is up, ha, y’all about to mess me all up, ha, but I dare you, ha, no matter, ha, what you’re going through, ha, no matter, ha, what you’re facing, ha, don’t give up, ha, don’t give in, ha, because God has a way, ha, of turning stuff, ha, upside down, ha, he’ll flip the script, ha, won’t he do it?, ha, and so, ha, I dare ya, ha, even in your weakness, ha, begin to give God praise, ha, for he holds, ha, alllllllll power, ha, in his hands, and he will, ha, yes he will, ha, yes he will, ha, give you POWWWWERRR!!!!!!!! POWWWWWERRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! POWWWWERRRRR!!!!!!! SOMEBODY OUGHTA SHOUT POWWWWWWWWEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, HA, PAUL SAYS, HA, THEN I AM STRRRRRRRRROOOOONNNNGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!! I FEEL A CRAZY PRAISE!!!!!!! I FEEL A HOLY GHOST MOVIN!!!!! ha, IF YOU THANK GOD, HA, FOR HIS STRENGTH, HA, TO GON ON, HA, I DARE YOU, HA, GIVE HIM PRAISE HA, MAGNIFY HIM, WORSHIP HIM, HA, ALLL UP IN THIS HOUSE!!!!!!!!!! HE’S WORTHY!!!!!!! HE’S WORTHY!!!!!!!!!! HE’S WOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!
I’m going to leave it alone. There may be somebody here today, you feel powerless. You feel hopeless. You feel depressed, like you just can’t go on. God can give you power. Power, to endure anything that you’ve got to face. Just come to him, come to him. The doors of the church are now open...
