Sermon preached on Sunday, May 5, 2013 at Garden Valley Chapel during our Sunday morning service based on 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

If you have your Bible this morning, I invite you to open your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning with verse seven.

Read 2 Corinthians 7:7-10.

What grabs my soul is not so much what Paul says to the Lord, but what the Lord says to Paul.

These words are recorded in v. 9 –

9And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you…”


As believers, we are all familiar with the word GRACE. In Greek it is the word χάρις. It appears some 125 times in the NT.

Sometimes it is translated as thanks, gift, or kindness, but when it comes to speak of Christian salvation, grace means the unmerited favour of God.

Every aspect of our salvation, even our acts of repentance & faith are by the grace of God. Eph 2:8-9 says –

8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.


We are not only talking about the method God chose to save sinful man. Paul tells us that we are “justified by his grace” (Rom 3:24). The sinner receives grace as a gift – wholly apart from human merit or work.

We are also talking about the realm of God’s grace where believers live and breath. Paul says that it is “this grace in which we stand” (Rom 5:2). God’s grace provides our permanent & secure position in the Lord.

You see, Grace has a way of transforming lives. Not only do we obtain access to God by His grace, but we live by His grace (“by the grace of God I am what I am” – 1 Cor 15:10).
In fact, Peter says that we are to “grow in the grace…of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18).

It is grace that sets you apart from any other religion. While other gods are indifferent and are in constant need of flattery, the ONE TRUE GOD is full of grace.

In fact, Jesus came into the picture and he came “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Christ, in His incarnation, displayed the very glory of God.

I love this phrase from the Apostle John in John 1:16 –

16For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

Can anyone here testify to having received “grace upon grace?”

The writers of the NT could not keep silence regarding grace.

Luke, writing of the early Christians, said that “abundant grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).
James spoke of the grace that is greater than sin’s power (James 4:6). God is in the business of giving a “greater grace.”

Peter described “the manifold [multifaceted] grace of God” (1 Pet 4:10). It shows itself in various ways.

Paul called it the “surpassing grace of God upon you” (2 Cor 9:14).

The point is clear: we have all received “grace upon grace.” We are in desperate need of it every minute of the day.

The author of Hebrews writes that “it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace” (Heb 13:9). Talk about keeping us steady.

*We especially need God’s grace when we go through suffering. None of us are immune to suffering. Not even the greatest of God’s servants.

Jonathan Edwards, probably known as the greatest theologian America has ever known, experienced suffering. For more than 20 years he faithfully labored as the pastor of a church in Northampton, Massachusetts.

FYI: It is said that people in those days were exposed to 17,000 hours of sermons in their lifetime. This was a different time in the church. It is said that he studied 14 hours a day – I wonder if it was expected of a pastor in those days.

Despite all of this, despite his faithfulness for more than two decades, in 1750, the congregation voted Edwards out of the church.

They did so not because of any moral blemish or doctrinal deviation on his part, but because he insisted that only those who had made a public confession of faith be permitted to join the church and partake in the Lord’s Supper. This went against his grandfather’s teaching!

Paul in the same way experienced much suffering. He experienced the deepest pain in life.

Q: Do you know what that was?
A: Being rejected by those whom he cared for and ministered to.

The greatest pain that we feel is that which is inflicted on us by other people. And the closer they are to us and the more we love them, the greater their ability to inflict pain on us.

We're made for relationships by God. We're made to enter in to intimate relationships and therefore we have a high degree of vulnerability.

You see, Paul loved the church at Corinth. He had brought the gospel to them, nurtured them, and taught them. He had poured his life into them.

YET, False teachers had crept into the church and told many lies about Paul. Sadly, the Corinthians had turned on Paul. They betrayed him & he was crushed.

From what we read in 2 Cor 11:22-27, Paul was not stranger to physical suffering. But there was something more painful to Paul.

Turn to 2 Cor 11:28 for a moment –

28Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.


Paul was concerned for those within the churches that weren’t doing so well – those who were “weak” in faith (Rom 14) or the unruly or fainthearted (1 Thess 5:14).

What we see here in our passage is Paul, in his weakest hour of suffering.

What we are in is deemed as “the most emotionally charged passage” that Paul has ever penned (chapters 10-13).

He is exactly what God wants to use this morning!

If you are suffering, listen closely. Paul is a model for us to follow.

From our time together I want us to see the four reasons God allows suffering in believers’ lives.