The Paradox of Power

Q. 4: What is God?

A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

If you had to pick only one Christmas song to listen to every day until January, what would you pick?

What does it mean to have power?

Introduction to Series

A Paradox is a completely true statement that appears to be contradictory, we saw some examples in the game we just played.

A Divine paradox are some things about God or the Christian life that appear contradictory but actually give us a deeper understanding of reality when we examine it closer. It's December, and one that could come to mind is how could a limitless, all-powerful God dwell within a little, weak, vulnerable baby. How does the trinity work? One I talked with Dan about a bit this week was how can Jesus be fully God and Fully man. We are not going to talk about these in this series, but if you would like to, let me know let your small group leader know and we can make a series around it for the spring semester.

The ones we will be focusing on for this series are having strength in weakness, and gaining by losing.

The Goat Conversation

What do we think of when we think of strength? Bodybuilders? NFL linemen? World record lifters. There are different things that can be strengths or power, it doesn’t always have to be physical.

Does anyone hear the term GOAT? Let’s play a game, you get two today. I am going to show you a picture of someone and you have to guess what they are considered the GOAT of.

Michael Jordan

Two Olympic Gold Medals

6 NBA Championships

6 Finals MVPs

5 regular season MVPs

The current Net worth of 3.5 Billion Dollars

Chuck Norris

When Chuck Norris enters a room, he doesn’t turn the lights on—he turns the dark off.

The Boogeyman checks his closet for Chuck Norris before going to bed.

Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch. He decides what time it is.

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.

When Chuck Norris enters water, he doesn’t get wet—the water gets Chuck Norris’d.

Magnus Carlson

Highest rated chess player ever

Was world chess champion from 2013-2023 and gave it up because he got bored of winning so much.

Youngest grandmaster ever

Elon Musk

The richest person in the world 340 Billion Dollars

Owns so many successful companies

Alexander the Great

Tutored by Aristotle

Created one of the largest empires in history

Undefeated as a military leader, and is perhaps the most incredible military leader of all time.

The story is told of Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia (336-323) and conqueror of Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia, almost all of the known world. One day Alexander and a small company of soldiers approached a strongly fortified walled city, and Alexander raised his voice and demanded to see the king. When the king arrived, Alexander ordered him to surrender the city and everyone inside. The king laughed, “Why should I surrender to you? You can’t do us any harm!” But Alexander offered to give the king a demonstration. He ordered his men to line up single file and start marching. He marched them straight toward a cliff. The townspeople gathered on the wall and watched in shocked silence as, one by one, his soldiers marched without hesitation right off the cliff to their deaths! After 10 soldiers died, Alexander ordered the rest of the men to return to his side. The townspeople and the king immediately surrendered to Alexander the Great. They realized that if a few men were actually willing to die at the command of this leader, then nothing could stop his eventual victory.

How do we get strength from weakness?

We just saw a ton of examples of power, strength, and greatness. So how do we get that from weakness? Let's see where we even get this idea.

Scripture

Let me give you what happens before we get to our scripture.

Paul is dealing with the issue of boasting and what to boast about.

Paul has had some incredibly intense experiencial revelation that He doesn't even know what exactly happened. Paul doesn’t want to boast in in or even really bring it up, because it was so miraculous that it has the potential to make him conceited in his experience. But He feels He needs to, so He explains it a bit, then that leads into our passage today.

2 Corinthians 12:7 ESV

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.

This is one of the more famous passages of scripture, we don’t know what the thorn was, and that’s probably a good thing. It could be an embarrassing disease, the trauma from his past, the persecution he faces, we don’t know. What we do know, is the purpose he has it, and the one who is causing it.

The purpose is so that he won’t become conceited, and it is Satan who is causing it by God’s allowance. We know that this thorn was bad, because of the next verse.

2 Corinthians 12:8 ESV

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

This seems really serious and horrible, what do we think God said to Paul who is crying out to Him to take this thorn away from him?

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

We see something bizarre. Instead of God taking away the thorn, He gives Paul His grace. His power is made perfect in weakness.

Some people can look at that, and I’ve had conversations with people who have said, “What kind of God is that? You’re crying out for help and for this to be taken away and He doesn’t take it away.”

Some people could draw that conclusion, but do you know who didn’t draw that conclusion? Paul, the one who had the thorn. Instead, he says he will boast all the more gladly of His weakness so that Christ’s power may rest upon Him.

Paul concludes with this:

2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV

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.

This is the Paradox of Power, when I am weak I am strong. We look beyond the apparent contradiction and find the deeper meaning.

When we think about it, this is not a new teaching that Paul is coming up with.

God is continually using people, setting them up to fail miserably, so that when they succeed, the only logical conclusion is that God was with them.

This is why God brought Gideon's number down from 32,000 to 300, this is why God chose David, the youngest and weakest son of Jesse, to kill Goliath and be king of Israel. God is always using the weak to shame the strong.

My faith in myself must decrease, so that my faith in God will increase. I will boast about my weaknesses and shortcomings because God will use me in spite of them to accomplish great things for His Kingdom.

Why are we content with these things Paul is talking about?

We are content with these things for Christ’s sake, because for our sake He came down from heaven, lived a perfect life, died, and took upon himself the wrath of God we deserve, He resurrected and ascended, and He’s coming back.

I am going to live for Him because He died for me. I’m weak, but my strength comes from the Lord.

Let’s remember the birth of Jesus this month, He came in weakness to take our weakness, and He resurrected and ascended in power to give us His power and grace through the Holy Spirit.

When you feel weak and discouraged, remember that God’s power is made perfect in weakness.

I could end there but let's see how you practically do that:

What you’re not going to want to do whenever you feel lost, or weak is say, ah I can do it all myself. And then pick yourself up by your bootstraps and try to trot along. That is going to cause unneeded and avoidable stress and anxiety.

Whenever you feel lost, or weak, or you have no idea what to do, find a trusted adult and ask them to pray with you. Whether that’s a small group leader, me, a pastor, a parent, whoever. When you do that, you're accomplishing two things, you are first and foremost turning to God in the midst of weakness to depend on His strength, but you’re also able to gain insight into the situation from someone older and more mature in the faith.

You are depending on God and upon His church. Let’s walk this week with the mindful of our weakness so that God’s power can be made perfect in us.