Thorn In The Flesh

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org Wow. So there is some irony, I think, today. We're at the end of this series called Vulnerability. Anybody kind of feel a little vulnerable the last few days? Oh my goodness, right? And of course, today we end, this was planned months ago, like I think June, that we were like, oh, let's do this series on 2 Corinthians and get to the most famous, probably, passage or people have heard the phrase. We're going to talk today about the thorn in the flesh. I feel like we could paraphrase and call it the hurricane in the hind end. And yet, I think we're all so, this is so raw and so real and so still new, where every one of us is still trying to process through this. What just happened? And what are we supposed to make of it? And I'm really hesitant sometimes to make too much or get too preachy, especially on a day like today. I think it was Juergen Moltmann that said, a true theologian is one who is very hesitant about what he says. The confidence comes from, of course, the gospel of Jesus Christ, which James shared with these songs this morning and the promises we have. But beyond what to interpret, how to figure things out, where we're going, what's going to happen next, those are things I better be pretty hesitant about, especially after what we've just been through. Or to assume or presume anything that you've gone through or how you're feeling this morning. And for those who are going to watch this afterwards, I mean, we can't live stream right now, but you could, whoever might be watching during the week, this message, only God knows and God does know where you're at and what you have gone through and how he's brought you through. But if you're standing, if you're breathing today, that is enough to be thankful for. Praise God, right? So, we're going to be a little different. I know this might not be what can be picked up easily on the microphone or for the recording, but I'm going to try to make this a little more interactive today because I think you need to process through this, right? So, we are going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're just reading the first 10 verses. We're really focusing in the last few verses of it, where Paul talks about something that has puzzled people throughout the ages. What is this thorn in the flesh? Nobody knows. I think it's almost best that we don't because I think we've all had a thorn in the flesh or more. Maybe you've had an entire thorn bush in your life, but we've all had something that's really kind of like a stake to the heart. We've gone through grief. We've gone through difficult times. I'm looking at people in front of me, just went through this hurricane, but we've also gone through Irma, many of us, before this, and we've gone through COVID, but then I look, personally, people have gone through grief and loss and struggles and difficulties and doubts and you name it. It's almost best that Paul didn't tell us exactly what he went through because it fits all of those circumstances, right? So, here we go. 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 1 through 10. I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on to the visions and revelations of the Lord. So by the way, chapter 11 that we talked about last week to this one, he talks about the foolishness of boasting and yet he's going to be a fool and still talk this way. And it reminded me of the one t-shirt I used to have that said, I'm a fool for Christ. Whose fool are you? Have you ever heard of that one? I'm a fool for Christ. Whose fool are you? We're all fools. How foolish this last week from how little we know and how much we think we know and how much we boast about what we know and how foolish we all feel, I think, today about, yeah, boy, I didn't see this coming. Not this way, right? And even now, in the aftermath, what do you make of it? I think it's just, it's okay to be, human beings, we're filled with a lot of folly. And if anybody's out there defending whatever and just promoting whatever right now, it's like, oh, just please be quiet. We just need to sit and grieve with some people who've lost so much. A few members in our church as well, right? And we'll get to that a little later. Anybody feel a little foolish today? Anybody feel a little vulnerable? Why is that? Oh, we're going to get to this, okay. So he goes on. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Notice he doesn't even say, hey, this was me, although it was. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. So this is so in contrast to the fools, these super apostles who talked about all these ecstatic experiences and go into great detail...