Harvest Pointe Christian Church, Milford Ohio is a non-denominational Christian Church (Church of Christ) on the Eastside of Cincinnati OH

What Can You Expect from the Christian Life? | 05-03-09

What You Can Expect from the Christian Life?
II Corinthians 12:1-10

  I. An occasional mountaintop experience.

 II. Normal human difficulties.

    Why Christians Suffer

    1. We are human.
    2. We, ourselves, are disobedient and foolish.
    3. Suffering is a tool God uses to build godly character.

III. The constant sufficiency of God's grace.

Full Text 

II Corinthians 12:1-10.  "1I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know-God knows. 3And I know that this man-whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows- 4was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 5I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.  7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

People often suffer from unrealistic expectations.

Have you ever had someone tell you about a movie?
"It's the funniest movie I ever saw! 
You've just got to see it!"


And they build up your expectations to the point that
when you see it,
it just doesn't quite measure up.
Your expectations are too high.

Sports fans suffer from unrealistic expectations.
UK basketball fans think they should win every game.
Bengals fans look at the draft and
dream of the super bowl!

Unrealistic expectations can be
devastating to a marriage, too.

Starry-eyed couples get married and then
a couple of years later they're talking divorce.
She discovered he's self-centered and
he's discovered
she expects to be the center of attention all the time.

Someone said that when the wedding march begins
the bride sees 3 things.
The isle, the altar, and him.

And from that time on her motto is:
I'll … alter … him!

And since husbands are resistant to change,
there is disillusionment and difficulty.

Unrealistic expectations can be
dangerous for a Christian, too.

Some people think that
when they give their life to Christ,
all their problems will be eliminated.

And they begin the Christian life with
such unrealistic hopes that
they are quickly disappointed.

Even parents get frustrated when
their child accepts Jesus and is baptized, and
they are so proud.
But then they go home and
their child gets into a fight with their brother or sister.
The parent thought that would end!

Unrealistic expectations.

Some churches, with the testimonies and sermons,
leave the impression that
when you give your life to Christ
you'll find immediate and permanent peace.

Troubles in the home and financial problems
will be immediately eliminated.

There's an old song I always liked that goes,
"I've found happiness all the time,
Wonderful peace of mind,
When I found the Lord!"

Really?  "Happiness ALL the time?"

Jesus does bring
peace, joy, harmony, and happiness, but
If we aren't realistic about the time it takes or
the struggles involved,
people can be disillusioned.



In Acts 9 God was sending Ananias to Paul to tell him
what  to do to be saved.

Paul had been persecuting Christians and
sending them to their death.
So Ananias questioned God - who wouldn't!

Verse 15:  "15But the Lord said to Ananias, 'Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.'"

God began Paul's Christian life,
NOT by promising peace, but suffering!
NOT ease, but service.

And I believe we should
present the Christian life realistically
so people will know what to expect.

In our text for this morning
Paul speaks of both his glory and pain.

Here we find 3 realistic expectations
of the Christian life.

I. An occasional mountaintop experience.

In VS. 1 Paul talks about his spiritual highs.
He said, "I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord."



In order to prove his authority as an apostle to his readers,
Paul reflects on some mountaintop experiences
he had had as a Christian.

He had had a number of visions:
Jesus appeared to him
on the road to Damascus.

A man from Macedonia appeared in a vision and
said, "Come over and help us!"

When he was on a ship that was about to wreck,
and angel appeared to give him courage.

But the greatest revelation came when
he was caught up into Paradise.

Look at Vs. 2.  "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know-God knows."

Paul doesn't like to brag, so he uses the 3rd person here.
We know he's talking about himself from Vs. 7.

This had happened 14 years before and this is
the only time we read of it.
If it had been me, I'd be telling everyone who
wouldn't think I was crazy!
But Paul was humble.

He said he was caught up into the 3rd heaven.

Now, to the Jews,
the 1st heaven is the atmosphere where
the birds fly and we can see it.

the 2nd heaven is the universe where the
stars and planets are.
We are currently exploring this area.

But the 3rd Heaven is another dimension.
We cannot see it,
  explore it, or
  spoil it.
It is where God is.

It is where Jesus said,
"I am going there to prepare a place for you."

Paul said he was caught up to the 3rd Heaven
where he heard things he wasn't permitted to repeat.

It was such a mystical experience
he didn't even know whether or not he was in his body!

There have been a lot of out of the body experiences
reported through the years.

Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross,
one of the foremost authorities on
the emotional cycles a person goes through when
dying or losing a loved one, and
another psychiatrist named Raymond Moody,
interviewed over 500 people who were
declared clinically dead and then
were forced back to life.

Dr Ross wrote, "All of these patients have experienced a floating out of their physical bodies, associated with a great sense of peace and wholeness.  Most were aware


of another person who helped them in their transition to another plane of existence."

I heard about one man who sued the doctors for
bringing him back to his miserable life!

I'm not totally certain how to interpret these experiences.
Some say it is Satan giving false messages of salvation.
Others believe God is giving us evidence
of a world beyond.

But one thing is certain.
They show there is a spiritual world
beyond our physical senses.
There is life outside the body.

Paul had a mystical experience
in or out of the body,
where he was caught up to the 3rd Heaven.

It's interesting to note that the year this happened
Paul was stoned and near death at Lystra.
Maybe it happened then.
Or maybe it was simply a revelation from God.

But whatever, it was an uplifting experience
he would never forget.

Most of us have occasional times when
we are on a spiritual mountaintop.

Maybe it was at church camp or a meeting like
CIY or a conference.
Maybe it was a special church service that moved you.
Maybe it was when a child was born.  Or

When a loved one was going to be OK
after a long siege of prayer.
Maybe you got that job you had been praying for
for a long time.

But it's important to realize that
mountaintop experiences are occasional.

If you expect the Christian life to be one continuous high
you're going to be disappointed.
They are rare.

Paul said it had happened 14 years before and
hadn't happened since.
Probably didn't happen again until he died.

Emotional and spiritual highs are to be remembered,
not reproduced.

And though we have fond memories,
they are not the standard by which you
measure your level of spirituality.

In 1990 the Cincinnati Reds swept the world series.
Everyone was running around with brooms yelling,
"Sweep!  Sweep!  Sweep!"
But if you took a broom down to
the Great American Ballpark yelling,
"Sweep!  Sweep!  Sweep!"
they'd sweep you up into a loony bin!

The point is,
emotional highs are not normal.
Don't expect them all the time.


And the same is true of spiritual highs.

People who go around all day every day shouting,
"Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord!"
are just not normal!

Christianity has some mountaintop experiences
but they are rare.
Savor them and rejoice in them.
But don't expect them all the time.

Jesus, Peter, James and John
went up to a mountain top.

Jesus was transfigured.
He was changed into his glorified state, shining brightly.
Moses and Elijah, who had been dead for centuries appeared with Jesus and they spoke together.

Peter said, "Lord, this is wonderful! 
Let's put up 3 shelters here. 
One for you.  One for Moses.  And one for Elijah.!"

But Jesus simply led them down to
the bottom of the mountain where a boy needed healing.

Peter was saying, "Lord, let's build a memorial so we can come back and reproduce this experience!"
But Jesus, in essence, said,
"No.  Remember it.  But there is work to do in the valley."

If you expect the Christian life to be one continuous high,
you will be vulnerable in 2 ways.

1. First, you will be open to depression.

When the high is not there you will begin to question,
"What's wrong with me?
Why isn't my walk with God as close as
when I was at camp or
when I was baptized?
Have I strayed?
Doesn't God love me anymore?"

2. Secondly, you are in danger of manipulation.

There is a constant temptation to
try to reproduce that feeling.
But you don't get the same high from the same experience.

There is a song called, "He's Alive".
It is about Peter meeting Jesus
after He rose from the dead.
The 1st time I heard it,
the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
But the song was so popular
you heard it over and over.
Soon, I had no reaction to the song at all.

In the same way, to get the same effect,
the experience has to be intensified and
it's like an addiction.
You have to keep gearing it up.

I've seen people bouncing from church to church and
concert to concert
in search of the next spiritual high.
Unrealistic expectations.

Mountaintop experiences are rare.
Be happy with the ordinary as well.

Continue to trust God in valley, as well as
praising him on the mountaintop.

The 2nd thing you can expect from the Christian life are
II. Normal human difficulties.

Verse 7.  "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me."

We don't know exactly what the thorn was.
There are many speculations that range from
temptations to being a hunchback to poor eyesight.

Personally, I think one of the better ones is that
Paul had frequent migraine headaches
after contracting malaria.
He had traveled in the eastern Mediterranean where
malaria was a dreaded disease.

After his 1st missionary journey, Luke, a doctor,
traveled with him.

The word for thorn is most often translated, "stake".
Paul says "I've got this sharp stake twisting in my body."

One man who had suffered from malaria
described the headache like,
a "red-hot bar, thrust through the forehead."

Maybe that was Paul's thorn in the flesh.
We really don't know.
But he did have a major problem.


And when you become a Christian,
you will experience the normal difficulties of life.

The Bible makes it clear that
God does not exempt His people from pain.
If He did, people would serve Him
for selfish reasons.

In Matthew 5:45 Jesus said God "causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
Jesus said in John 16:33
"…In this world you will have trouble…."

And here is the Apostle Paul, a great Christian saying,
"I've got this thorn in the flesh."

Bum Philips, ex-coach of the Houston Oilers said,
"There are 2 kinds of coaches in the NFL. 
Them that's been fired and them that's going to be."

And there are 2 kinds of Christians.
Them that are hurting and
them that's going to hurt.

Just because you bring your kids to church
doesn't mean they will never try drugs.
Just because you're a Christian
doesn't mean you'll never get cancer.
Just because you tithe,
doesn't mean you won't have any financial strains.
Just because you marry a Christian
doesn't mean it will be happily ever after.
Just because you're driving to church
doesn't mean you won't get a speeding ticket!

Warren Wiersbe said there are 3 main reasons
why people suffer.

1. We are human.

We live in a fallen world.
Our bodies age just like everyone else's.
The world is full of sin and
we live in the fall out.

Some one gets behind the wheel of his truck while drunk.
He heads the wrong way on the interstate.
He hits a bus load of Christian young people in Ky.
They are not exempt.

God is not a tyrant causing grief.
It is because we live in a fallen world and
we have to experience it.

 2. We, ourselves, are disobedient and foolish.

Sometimes, when a family is watching a loved one
die of lung cancer because for many years
they ignored the doctors orders to quit smoking, or
they watch a loved one die of diabetes that
refused to watch their diet, or
they watch a loved one die of sclerosis of the liver when
for years they ignored the doctors orders to quit drinking,
and the family asks,
"Why is God doing this to him?"

Love fights back the urge to say,
"God isn't doing it to him.
He knowingly hurt himself
by ignoring the doctor's orders!"

Sometimes our pain is a direct result of
our own rebellion.
We bring it on ourselves like
a child touching the hot burner of a stove
after being told not to.

3. Suffering is a tool God uses to
build godly character.

Sometimes suffering is not a punishment, but
a training ground.

Parents sometimes let their children go through pain
to build their character.

You bring your child to church and
leave them in the nursery.
The child cries because he wants to be with you.
It is more secure.

But if you never walk away and let them cry,
they'll grow up being insecure when you're not around.
So you let them hurt a little.

Actually it's harder on Mom and Dad.
I remember the 1st time we left David with someone.
We didn't enjoy ourselves that much
worrying about David.

Hebrews 12:10-11.  "10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

Paul says in our text, Vs. 7, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me."

God knew that He had to
counter Paul's blessing with a burden so
he wouldn't have an ego problem.

God was developing in Paul a healthy balance.

Roy Lauren said, "There is no such thing as painless power.  Power is always the result of pressure, fire, constriction, or tribulation.  Water power, for example is the result of massive building up of water that is then forced through pressure through turbines that generate electricity.  ,,,Gasoline power is  the explosion of volatile gasoline in a chamber which forces the piston to turn the crankshaft and it creates motion.":

And the same is true of the Christian life.
Physical suffering and mental anguish create pressure
which produces spiritual power.

That's why God said in Vs. 9,
"… my power is made perfect in weakness."

Someone said, "It's doubtful that God uses anyone greatly until he has hurt him significantly."

One other thing you can expect from the Christian life is
III. The constant sufficiency of God's grace.

Paul said in Vs. 8, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me."

I'm sure that In his own mind Paul was thinking,
"God, if you take away this pain,
I'll still be humble - I promise!"

So on 3 separate occasions Paul
plead with God to remove the problem.

But God didn't answer they way he wanted.

One of the things you can expect in the Christian life is
prayer will not always be answered
the way you want and especially
when you want.

There is tremendous power in prayer, but
it is not an immediate guarantee of
everything you desire.

There are times when God says,
"No.  It's going to be better
if you don't have it your way."

The pilot came on over the intercom and said,
"We've lost one of our 4 engines, but don't worry.
We'll be able to make it to our destination
with 3 engines.
And you will be reassured to know that
there are 4 preachers on board.
One of the passengers said to a stewardess,
"I don't know about you, but
I'd rather have 4 engines and 3 preachers!"

Most of the time we'd like to have life go smoothly and
not have to pray,
not have to rely on God.

But sometimes that's why He lets us hurt-
so we will rely on Him and pray and
His power is made perfect in our weakness.

God often meets our needs,
not by eliminating the problem,
but by transforming us.

We pray for the pain to go away but
God gives us strength to endure.

We prefer it the other way,
but His grace is sufficient.

That's why the Bible tells us not to become anxious.

In Matthew 6:34 Jesus said, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Jesus did not say,
"Don't worry because there wont' be any problems."
He says don't worry about tomorrow because
if you get some big problems,
I'll see to it that you get some big grace.
I'll supply your every need.
You just trust me and
I'll see you get the strength to endure.

Someone wrote this prayer:
Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup of uncertainty, asking any small drop of refreshment.  If only I had known you better I would have come running to you with a bucket.


In the Christian life you can expect
some mountaintop experiences and
you can expect some pain in the valleys as well.
But always you can expect that
His grace will be sufficient for you.

One other thing you can expect is
to go to Heaven when you die.

Paul said he was
"caught up to Paradise" and "heard inexpressible things."

In I Corinthians 2:9 Paul wrote, "…'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.'"

He said that if he had the choice between
staying here and dying and being with the Lord,
being with the Lord would be far better.

The greatest expectation of a Christian is that
we will go to Heaven when we die.
And that's more than we deserve.

If you don't have that hope because
you've not yielded your life to Jesus Christ,
as we sing, come forward in faith,
accepting his forgiveness,
being baptized into Him.

Or maybe you've already done that and
would like to place your membership with us,
then come forward as we stand and sing.