Expect Mountain Top Seasons Sometimes (Linton Hall)

2 Corinthians 12:1 CSB – Boasting is necessary. It is not profitable, but I will move on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4 CSB – I know a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don’t know; God knows. 3 I know that this man—whether in the body or out of the body I don’t know; God knows— 4 was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a human being is not allowed to speak

Caveat: Enjoy mountain top seasons, but don’t expect them to be reproduced.

Appreciate mountain top moments, but don’t pursue them.

Expect Seasons of Trouble (Don’t be Surprised)

2 Corinthians 12:7 CSB – …because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself.

1 Peter 1:16 CSB – it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.

Happiness follows pursuing holiness

James 1:2-3 CSB – Consider it a great joy… whenever you experience various trials, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Matthew 5:45 CSB – “He makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust”

John 16:33 CSB – In this world, you will have trouble..

Three Reasons Christians Suffer

1. Sometimes, because we live in a broken world

2. Sometimes, because of our own disobedience

Psalm 119:98 CSB – Your command makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me.

3. Sometimes because God is working to mature us

Hebrews 12:7ff CSB – Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. …we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them.

Hebrews 12:11 CSB – …No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

2 Corinthians 12:7 CSB – …so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglas

Expect God’s Grace in Every Season

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 CSB – Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

“I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one that I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic.”  – C.S. Lewis

When God becomes man, that Man, of all others, is least comforted by God, at His greatest need. There is a mystery here which, even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore. Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle.”  – C.S. Lewis

Matthew 7:7 CSB – Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.

God’s Power made perfect in our weakness

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 CSB – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. ¹⁰ So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1 Corinthians 1:25b-28 CSB – …God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. ²⁷ Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something,