God’s Grace, Sufficient

Class Outline:

Wesley Wright

Lighthouse Bible Church

Sunday, October 4, 2026

God’s Grace, Sufficient

2CO 12:7-10

Remember, Paul was vague for the sake of being humble where his vision + revelation was concerned. He was ministry-first, not vision-first, and wanted readers to understand that.

We’ll talk about a certain thorn Paul says he had today. Is it a literal thorn? Is it a physical sickness? What do we make our God not removing the thorn? Where does His grace come in?

God said the inhabitants of the land would be a thorn if the people did not destroy them: NUM 33:50-56

If the people of Israel followed after other nations, those strangers would be a thorn in their eyes: JOS 23:6-13

Strangers would be a significant nuisance to the disobedient people of Israel: JUD 2:1-5

The Bible isn’t explicitly clear about the thorn Paul had, but whatever it was, it was a messenger of the evil one to torment him. Why does that matter?

The evil one sought to prove that Job would curse God having been physically struck with boils: JOB 2:4-10

The evil one sought even to have Jesus Christ bow to him: MAT 4:1-11

Paul delivered a man to the evil one with the goal of eventually bringing that man back into the fold: 1CO 5:1-5

It’s true that Paul had this thorn, and true that the evil one tormented him. Remember that our God has control even over the operations of satan in this dark world, as evil as those operations are.

Paul’s prayed three times for God to remove the thorn, but God declined to do so. Instead, he made it clear that His grace was sufficient instead.

Think of grace here as a way that God gave Paul the strength to endure. He (Paul) isn’t alone in having enjoyed that grace from God.

Jesus Christ also prayed three times, and His Father provided gracefully when the time came: LUK 22:39-46

The Bible isn’t clear about the thorn Paul had, but it was there ultimately for His glory. God can take something evil and use it for our ultimate good: ROM 8:26-32, PRO 13:22

Rejoice when others persecute you for his sake: MAT 5:11-12

Remember Nebuchadnezzar? He exalted himself but later understood his evil ways, and exalted the One who should be exalted: DAN 4:31-37

Paul has a thorn given to him to keep him from exalting himself. God didn’t remove the thorn because His grace is sufficient.

That grace was sufficient for Paul, and it’s sufficient for us. May we all be gracious to one another with that in mind, and remember that all of our sufficiency comes from our God.