1. The Pain

2 Corinthians 11:23-28—far more imprisonments…countless beatings…often near death.  Five times I received… forty lashes less one.  Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;  in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

2. The Preview

2 Corinthians 12:3-4— 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—he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

3. The Purpose

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.

4. The Prayer

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.”

5. The Perspective

2 Corinthians 12:10— 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.

A. Right  

B. Right  

C. Right  

Here Is The Point: Despite our situation we can be content…