2. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:11-12
I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought
to have been commended by you. For I was not at
all inferior to these super-apostles, even though
I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience,
with signs and wonders and mighty works.

3. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:6 Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be
a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But
I refrain from it, so that no one may think more
of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

4. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7 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.

5. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:8-9 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about
this, that it should leave me. But he said to
me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.”

6. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:9-10
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 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.

7. “(These) weaknesses are not sins,
but experiences and situations and circumstances and wounds that are
hard to bear and that we can’t remove
either because they are beyond
our control or because love dictates
that we not return evil for evil.”
JOHN PIPER

8. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7 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.

9. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7 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.

10. me from becoming conceited.
2 CORINTHIANS 12:7
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.

11. power is made perfect in weakness.”
2 CORINTHIANS 12:8-9
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about
this, that it should leave me. But he said to
me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.”

12. 1. TO CAUSE US TO RELY ON HIM

13. 2 CORINTHIANS 1:8-10 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers,
of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril,
and he will deliver us. On him we have set
our hope that he will deliver us again. 

14. 2. TO HELP US BE A BLESSING TO OUR CHURCH COMMUNITY

15. 2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all
comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction
so that we may be able to comfort those who
are in any affliction, with the comfort with
we ourselves are comforted by God

16. 3. TO HELP US WAGE WAR ON THE SIN IN OUR HEARTS

17. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7 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.

18. 4. TO DRIVE US TO HIMSELF

19. Zechariah 13:9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine
them as one refines silver, and test them as gold
is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

20. 5. TO REMIND US OF HIS GOODNESS

21. comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction…
2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-4a
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all
comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction… 

22. Matthew 7:9-10 Which one of you, if his son asks him for
bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks
for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then,
who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is
in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

23. 6. TO GLORIFY THE GRACE & POWER OF HIS SON