Sermon #1: Around the turn of the century a young man named Clarence took his girlfriend on a summer outing. They took a picnic lunch out to a picturesque island in the middle of a small lake. She wore a long dress with about a dozen petticoats. He was dressed in a suit with a high collar. Clarence rowed them out to the island, dragged the boat into shore, and spread their picnic supplies beneath a shade tree. So hypnotized was he by her beauty that he hardly noticed the hot sun and perspiration on his brow. Softly she whispered to him, "Clarence, you forgot the ice cream."

Clarence pulled the boat back to the water and rowed to shore. He found a grocery store nearby, bought the ice cream, and rowed back to the island. She batted long eyelashes over deep blue eyes and purred, "Clarence, you forgot the chocolate syrup."

Love will make a person do strange things. Clarence got back into that boat and returned to the store for syrup. As he rowed back toward the island, suddenly he stopped. He sat there in the boat the rest of the afternoon, fascinated by an idea. By the end of that afternoon, Clarence Evinrude had invented the outboard motor. And by the way, Clarence later married the girl who waited so long on the island.

Clarence Evinrude illustrates a basic principle of Christian living: When life delivers a problem or pain, force it to pay dividends. If life gives you a thorn that you and God can't remove, make it produce a rose. The minister Bruce Larson states this principle as follows: "In every disaster, God has a gift for you. Claim it."

In chapter twelve of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, he illustrates this truth in his own life. In verse 7 he tells us: "A Thorn Was Given Me..."

What was this thorn? We don't know. It was some very painful, chronic affliction. Sometimes Paul was totally disabled by it. Some cynic has suggested that Paul's thorn in the flesh was his wife, but there is no evidence to support that. The best guesses are that the thorn was epilepsy or migraine headaches or a malarial fever common in the eastern Mediterranean area.

Notice that Paul refers to the thorn as a "messenger of Satan." The Bible teaches that all diseases and death came into the world because of sin. God's perfect original creation did not include disease or death. People do not get sick and die because God wills it. People get sick and die because our world is flawed by sin. In this flawed universe, thorns are distributed indiscriminately as one would deal a hand of cards, to the just and the unjust alike.

A thorn in the flesh in modern terminology might be called "a pain in the neck" or a pain in some other sensitive part of one's anatomy. A thorn is whatever causes you pain or frustration or sadness. Thorns come in all shapes and sizes: migraine headaches, bad backs, arthritis, depression, anxiety spells, shingles, an unhappy marriage, an impossible boss, a child on drugs, and on and on. Though thorns vary in length and severity, most of us have at least one at any given time. Do you know what your thorn is?

As you think about that let’s look at what Paul did about his thorn and how God responded:

1.      First, three times he pleaded with the Lord to take it away.

2.      Second, the Lord responded, “My grace is sufficient for you.”