Empowered by Grace

Anything that happens to you has to pass through God's fingers first. Dr. Tony Evans says when the Lord allows something negative to enter our lives, he'll give us the grace to get through it.

So don't make God so small that you think the devil gets to make the final decisions in your life. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. No matter how much we wish it weren't true, it remains a fact. Real growth doesn't come easy.

It's a struggle, often a painful one. But today, Dr. Evans explains how to lean on God's grace to carry us through the process and what awaits us when we do. Let's join him. In 2 Corinthians chapter 7.

The Apostle Paul is speaking. And he's got a problem. He is dealing with what he calls in verse 7 a thorn in the flesh. A thorn in the flesh. The Greek word for the word thorn refers to a splinter.

Or a needle.

Something pricking you. Irritating you. If you ever got a splinter in your finger or in your foot or you got stuck with a needle. It's pricking you.

Now Paul does not tell us what his thorn is. There are a number of possibilities. For example, the Bible tells us Paul had an eye problem, so it could have been an eye illness. We also are told, since it says, there were messengers of Satan. that there were people who irritated Paul.

Who constantly traveled behind him, undermining him, and he couldn't get rid of them. Whatever it was, it was It was driving him crazy. I'm wondering if there's anybody here right now that's got a thorn in your flesh. Maybe you're living with a thorn in your flesh. I don't know, but it's an irritating situation.

that won't leave you alone. Yeah. Not only is Paul saying he has a thorn, He says this thorn. came from the devil. He says it's a messenger of Satan.

It is a satanic. Prick. That was allowed by God. The devil can't do anything to you that God doesn't allow. And when God has a spiritual purpose, That he can use the devil To accomplish in your life, he will even allow the devil to do it in order to fulfill his purpose.

So don't make God so small. That you think the devil gets to make the final decisions in your life. Anything that happens to you has to pass through God's fingers first. If you don't believe me, read the book of Job. The only reason he went through what he went through is because the Bible says, and God allowed the devil to do it.

And he says God gave it to him for a couple of reasons. Number one, he says, because of the revelations in verse 7. God's plan to use him cause God to let Satan irritate him. Because God would get better use of him after the irritation than without it.

Now let me flip the side. Because he says the other reason, verse 7, that God had to give me this thorn. It's so that I don't get the big head. Notice what he says in verse 7. He says, to keep me from exalting myself.

So one reason God gives you thorns is to keep you humble. To keep me humble. Because It's easy to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Easy for me to do that, you to do that. It's easy for people.

So, to make you remember, you're still human. To make you remember there's only one God, and you and I are not He. To make you not forget. That you are dependent and not independent. God allows things in your life and my life that you can't fix.

Man, you say, what's that got to do with grace and power?

Well, you only know How powerful a medicine is When you are desperately needing of it, to get better.

Okay. Extra shank Tylenol doesn't mean a thing. Until you need extra strength for the headache. It is the headache that irritates you that causes you to go to the pharmacy to get extra strength, Tylenol, because you need. Power to fix or address a problem.

So watch this. God allows what he's getting ready to call weaknesses. Through thorns, even though it's caused by the devil, so you can see what extra strength God feels like. God allows weaknesses. To give you a greater experience of the power of his grace.

So if you are Seeking to live for the Lord, and there is something that won't go away. Then you are a perfect candidate. For grace being unleashed. In you, to you, through you, and... On you.

Notice what he says in verse 9. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient. The word sufficient means Adequate For every scenario, Okay, let me let's let's illustrate this way. There is more than enough water. In the ocean and the seas.

For every fish that has ever existed. I don't care. How many generations of fish there has been, there is more than enough water to handle them. There is more than enough foliage. In the forest.

To handle all the generations of animals and birds and reptiles and insects that have ever existed. Because while they are dying, New leaves are growing and new grass is growing. In other words, God keeps the foliage coming so that generationally there's more than enough. Oh, okay. Let's try this one.

There is. More than enough oxygen. For all the human beings over thousands of years that have ever lived that we haven't out breathed the amount of oxygen available for the human race. And while we dying, folks still breathing because there's more than enough oxygen. Come on now.

You mean to tell me there is so much oxygen that me breathing out the carbon dioxide hasn't eroded the oxygen so that generations have to worry about not having enough oxygen to breathe? There has been more than enough. For generation after generation after generation.

Well, what water is to fish, foliage is to animals, and oxygen is to the human race, grace is to the believer. There is more than enough. He says it is. Overabundant. It is.

Sufficient. It doesn't have a shortage. The women. Then why am I not experiencing this grace? Because while grace is there, like our lady in the boondocks, it has to be accessed.

Philippians 2 verses 12 and 13 says, Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. But you can't understand that verse. It's been misquoted a million times until you read the next verse. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. In other words...

Work out your salvation. That doesn't mean work to get saved. These are people already saved. He's saying the salvation that's working on the inside, cooperate with it on the outside.

So, that what's happening in here is working out here in your circumstances.

So let's get this straight. Grace is sufficient. There's more than enough.

Some of you have in your home, like I do in mine, power strips.

Okay, so you may have two outlets on the wall, but you put a power strip, it gives you six more locations to plug in six more new things. In other words, this one thing allows you to expand it to other things so that you can deal with multiple appliances at the very same time. Let me tell you how much grace is out there. If you got multiple thorns. Multiple challenges.

God has power strips.

So that he can handle each one of those things by grace. Why? Because he says in verse. 9. My grace is sufficient, for power is perfected in weakness.

Most gladly, therefore, shall I boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Guess what grace has? Power. It has power strips. Divine Provision.

That comes with grace.

So what does that provision look like? And how will we know when we have it? doctor Evans will answer those questions when he returns in a moment. First, I want to tell you about the follow-up book we've selected for our current series. It's called Anchored by Grace.

We're helpless to make it to heaven on our own. But God has provided a way for us through the incredible gift of grace that Dr. Evans has been talking about. As you make your way through the individual devotions in this book, You learn how to avoid the traps that restrict or cut off the flow of grace in our lives. And discover why we are more likely to change as the result of God's work on the inside than our work on the outside.

We want you to have this devotional book as our gift, along with a copy of Tony's current 12-message series, The Magnificent Grace of God. Just visit tonyevans.org, make a contribution, And we'll say thanks by sending both of these resources your way. Make a request today before this limited-time offer runs out. Visit TonyEvans.org or or call 1-800-800-3222. and let one of our resource team members help you.

That's one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two. We'll get back to the second part of our lesson right after this. I want to invite you to join me for the trip of a lifetime. Tony Evans invites you to journey with him through Israel this October. We're going to gather together with many of our friends to survey the sites of the Holy Land.

You'll visit the site of the Sermon on the Mount, tour the Old City, including the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, and the Garden of Gethsemane. You'll overlook Nazareth, stand on the Mount of Olives, and walk the road where Jesus made his triumphal entry. Along the way, Tony will share messages that'll give you new insight into familiar Bible stories. Not only will we have a great time in his word together, we'll have a great time being together with so many who love the Lord and who love his word. There's a lot more in the itinerary.

Visit tonyevans.org today to get the details and register before space runs out. Don't miss this chance to add a whole new dimension to your faith. Visit tonyevans.org today. Looking forward to meeting you for a glorious time on our journey to Israel.

Well, Dr. Evans is back now with more about being empowered by grace. Let's listen. How do you know when you're getting this grace? You know you're experiencing grace.

when you're being strengthened in the midst of your thorn. He allows the thorn To give you the need for the grace. And you know, the grace is working when he is strengthening you, even though the thorn may still be there. Because Paul's thorn hasn't disappeared yet. But he's getting power.

When you get fresh strength. To handle The circumstance, the negative circumstance you're dealing with. It is God's grace and work in your life. That's why I love Isaiah chapter 40, verses 29 to 31. It says he gives new strength.

to the weak. He gives new strength in three ways. One way the verse says, he takes you out of the situation. That's the one we want most. Get me out of this.

That's one way. But then he says he has a second way. He says, you will run and not get weary. The second way it gives new strength is you run, so you still are dealing with it. but he gives you a second wind.

He gives you a third reason of new strength. He says the third reason in those passages in Isaiah 40 is: you walk and don't faint. The third reason, nothing changes, he changes you. And you do not faint. Yeah.

Walk, you're in the airport, you're going from this gate to this gate, and you got to catch a plane, and you got to catch a plane, and you're walking, and you're walking, and you're walking, and you get tired, because it's a long way to the gate, and you're walking, and you're walking, and then you come on a moving sidewalk.

Well, you still can walk on the moving sidewalk. But there is something underneath you giving you new strength even though you're doing the walking. Even though you're moving, there is something burying you, carrying you along, easing the steps.

So it doesn't change the fact that you got to walk from this gate to this gate, but it changes the nature of the walk because it's gliding you where you had to use all your own strength before, or where you're carrying a suitcase with wheels. See without wheels you carrying the suitcase the suitcase is heavy because you got a lot of stuff in it But one too because I did this one time I was carrying two suitcases I was heavy sweat was breaking out and the guy asked me doesn't I have wheels? And I say it all. I put it down and began to roll it. Guess what?

The weight didn't change. Same stuff was in the suitcase. Oh, but I wasn't getting weary like I was. Because grace gives you wheels. even if it doesn't change the load.

So He says That this grace gives new strength.

So you know you're getting new strength when it's power. is operating. And let me tell you another way you know. Verse 10, therefore I am well. Content.

You get new strength when you do it, so that's the power of grace at working. And the second indication you're experiencing God's grace. is you're at ease where you are. until you get to where God wants you to go. Content, at rest.

At ease. It's not what I prefer. But I'm okay. I'm not panicking. I'm not losing it.

So now the question is. How do you get this grace? activated. I remember. Grace has already been provided.

You can't earn grace. You can't earn it. You can't buy it. You can't even work for it. But what you can do is access it.

How did he access grace? Because he needed it. He was being driven crazy by this messenger of Satan, this thorn in the flesh. Verse 8: Concerning this, this thorn. I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.

To employ means this is a serious prayer. This is not just throwing up something light. This is like begging. God, please. Anyone ever gone to God and said, please?

In other words, this thing is deep. This thing hurts. To employ means, come on, God. Do something. He said, I employed the Lord three times.

So I want to deal with the theology of three. The Bible uses numbers to teach theology.

So you will see a lot of numbers in the Bible to make a spiritual point. The most famous number in the Bible is the number seven. The number seven means complete.

So whenever God talks about seven, he's bringing something to completion.

So the seven judgments to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, to the seven bowls and the seven vials, and you got sevens all over the place showing God bringing something to completion.

So biblical numerology uses numbers to teach theology.

So I want to talk to you about the number three. Three is somewhat like the number seven with a little nuanced difference. is the number of fullness. It involves a beginning, a middle, and an end. Three.

Beginning, middle, and end.

So it's where you start, it's in the middle of where you are, and it is where that fullness. comes where it it ends. For example, Jesus died on Friday. On Saturday, while his body was in the grave, he went and preached in hell and brought the saints to heaven. Led captive, a host of captives.

On Sunday, he rose from the dead.

So when they describe Jesus's, they talk about the three days and three nights. When they talk about Jonah being in the belly of the whale, three days and three nights. When they talk about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, Jesus quoted the scripture three times to Satan before Satan left him.

So you'll find this concept of three regularly throughout the scripture to speak of God's fullness.

So when he prayed He prayed three times. That is, he prayed. Until there was Full mess. That raises a question. How do I know when there's fullness?

Look at what he says. Concerning this, I prayed three times that it might leave me. Verse 9. And he said to me. There it is.

There's your answer. You have hit fullness. when you hear God's voice. Do we say it again? You have hit Three.

When you're talking to God and imploring God about the thorn, and you hit fullness when God speaks into your situation.

So, how much do you pray about something that's messing over you and killing you and disturbing you and needling you? Until you hear his voice. You say, but how do I hear his voice? Oh, you hear his voice a number of ways.

Sometimes you may be in church, and it looks like the sermon was just for you about the thing you were dealing with. You just heard his voice. You may have another believer come speak into your life prophetically. And when they speak into your life prophetically, it was just the word that you needed to hear from God. And that prophetic word was hearing God's voice.

You can hear God's voice when you're reading the Bible and God, the Holy Spirit, lets a verse jump out at you. And you know that verse was what you needed at that moment. You can hear his voice when you're listening to a song on the radio and God makes that song come alive and it speaks into your life. The key is you are hearing the voice of God. The problem is, most people aren't listening for it.

He employed God, but Paul had such a relationship with God that he could tune in to God's voice. And he said, the problem is. Many times God is talking and he's really speaking into our thorn, but we're not tuned in.

Now watch this. He did something else. He says Most gladly, now you're not going to like this part of the verse. But please pay attention. Most gladly therefore Somebody say therefore.

I will rather boast about my weaknesses.

So that the power of Christ might dwell in me. What am I supposed to be bragging about? Please notice what he says. I boast about my weaknesses and then I got more power. How did you get more power?

Because he began to look at what was wrong spiritually and not merely circumstantially. That's why the Bible says, in everything, give thanks. What it means by that is that he doesn't say, don't act like something is wrong, because he implored the Lord to get rid of what was wrong.

So you're not ignoring what's wrong, but because you want more power, because you want more juice, because you want your grace to express itself in a, he says, God, since God likes to show his extra strength, Tylenol, when I have a headache, God, I have a headache, so I'm going to boast about Tylenol. I'm going to boast about your grace because I have a thorn, and your grace is sufficient for my thorn.

So I'm going to brag on Tylenol. I'm going to brag on grace. I'm going to brag on God. And when he bragged in the midst of his weakness, it says he got more power. He got more grace.

He got more of the substance of God working to him and through him and for him. It turned things around. Dr. Evans will return in a moment with a final illustration about how that power of grace works. First, though, today's message on being empowered by grace is part of Tony's series, The Magnificent Grace of God.

The set includes the full-length versions of all twelve messages in the series, including material we didn't have time to bring you on the air. As I mentioned earlier, it's yours with our thanks when you visit Tony Evans dot org and make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Along with the series, you'll get the companion devotional book I told you about earlier, Anchored by Grace. This special double offer is only available for a limited time.

so be sure to make the arrangements before time runs out. You can do that today at tonyevans.org. or reach out to our resource center by calling 1-800-800-3222. Team members are on hand 24-7. Again, the number one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two.

You know, many people think of generosity in terms of giving money away. But tomorrow doctor Evans explains why it's really more of an investment than a handout. Be sure to join us for that. But right now, let's listen as Tony wraps up today's lesson with his final story. When the cars broke down, you called AAA.

And you see the power of a tow truck. When it's broke down, it can't go anywhere, and the tow truck pulls up and there's a hookup. Christ who dwells in me, there's a hookup. There's a spiritual connection, Christ who dwells in me. The answer is already in you.

And the grace truck hitches up to your brokenness. What does the tow truck do? It lifts the front tires off the ground. And even though the car is broke, the tow truck still takes it from where it is to where it needs to go until it gets fixed. You're not stuck any longer.

God's got a grace truck and he can meet you where you are.

So even though you can't brag about your weakness for being weakness, you can brag about the grace card you got in your soul because he says it's Christ who dwells in me.