Steven Furtick - Making Friends With Frustration (01/29/2026)
This sermon from 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 explores Paul's "thorn in the flesh" as a metaphor for persistent frustrations and weaknesses. The preacher argues that these frustrations, while often feeling like attacks, can be messengers from God to keep us humble, focused, and reliant on grace. He encourages listeners to "make friends with frustration" by seeing it as a divinely allowed tool for growth and a pathway to experiencing God's strength in our weakness.
When Weakness Reveals Strength
Remain standing for about 84 seconds. I want to read you a passage, a scripture of 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I'm going to read verse 6 through 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 6 through 10. I really love this little scripture. It's very real, very honest, and represents a paradigm shift that I pray God will help us to achieve in his presence today. "Even if I should choose to boast," the Apostle Paul says, "I would not be a fool because I would be speaking the truth." That's cocky. "If I started bragging about everything I've done, I'd just be telling the truth." Paul says, "But I'm not going to do that so that no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations."
"Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But 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. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I look like I'm weak, for when I feel like I'm weak, for when it seems like I'm down for the count, that's when the strength of God is made manifest in my life. When I am weak, then I am strong."
Now, let's go back to verse 7 where he said, "I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I asked God, take it away. But he said, no." Mm-mm. Mm-mm. I want to speak to you on this subject today, and even the title is provocative. I want to talk about, from this text, Making Friends with Frustration. Making friends with frustration. And I have an assignment from heaven today for someone who keeps running up against the same limitation in your life, or keeps dealing with the same type of issue over and over again. And God sent me on assignment today, very specific assignment for you, that you will never deal with that frustration in the same way again, after the words you're going to hear from my mouth in these next few moments. I believe it. I believe it. Making friends with frustration. In Jesus' name. Shake hands with the person next to you before you take your seat and say, "I'm about to make a new friend. I'm about to make a new friend." Thank you, team. Good work.
Hey, congratulations, Uptown, on your seven-year anniversary. I forgot to mention that. Seven years. Seven years in Center City. Amen. Amen. That's the first Sunday we had church there. I had platinum blonde hair. That's how long we've been rocking Uptown. It's been quite some time. It's been a great seven years. Have you ever noticed how two people can have a completely different experience of the same event? A completely different experience of the same event. Like, sit in the same church service, and one person will be like, "I thought they never stopped singing that one song. It's like one song singing over and over." And the other person has still snot on their collar because they were crying so hard because that's exactly what they needed. And it's the same event, different experience.
Faithfulness and Frustration Go Hand in Hand
When you get married to someone, you learn at an accelerated rate that we don't always experience the same event the same way. Amen. Amen. You learn it pretty quickly. You learn that what it means to her might not mean to you. What it means to you, it might not mean to her. Just in the simple things. Nothing too serious or strenuous. I don't want to cause any tension in your homes. But it's just a few little things. Like, for instance, when me and Holly were married, and I remember the first time, it rained pretty hard. And she said, "Ah, I love the sound of rain. It's so relaxing to me." And I'm like, "Relaxing? Rain is depressing to me." So, I'm suicidal. She's sleepy. And like, it's the same rain, but the way she interprets the rain, it puts her to sleep. The way that I interpret the rain, it makes me restless. I don't know why. I feel trapped. And then I start to feel a sense of gloom over all of my decisions and aspirations and hopes for the future. And so it's kind of always been that way for me.
Even in terms of the way we relax, we're different. When we went on our honeymoon, about day three, she started getting real quiet. Real, real quiet. And I was wondering, is she having regrets about her decision? Is this room on the cruise ship that I got not good enough? Was she need a balcony? And, but she wasn't, she was incredibly happy. She wasn't as satisfied at all. And she explained to me, she said, "When I get relaxed, I get quiet." And that's the opposite of me. Because when I get relaxed, I'm usually not that talkative because I have to talk a lot up here. So I don't want to talk other times. I'm saving it up. And I'm a man. I only got about 30 words a day that I can use anyway. So I got to save them for you. But when I get relaxed, I start talking about everything. I start getting real silly. I start getting a little loose. I start talking. I start making a lot of jokes. I start getting real talkative.
And that was weird for me because I'm like, when you're relaxed, you're quiet. When I'm relaxed, I'm talkative. So when you're quiet, I assume that you're depressed like I am when it's raining outside. Like you're dysfunctional and you get happy at those times and relax. And so we're learning one another. The other day, she was walking across the kitchen looking pretty grumpy early in the morning. And I say, you know, not her normal, cheerful self. She just looked a little grumpy. And I said, "What's wrong with you?" And she said, she said, "I'm so sore." We've been trying to work out. Me and Holly have been trying to work out more in the last year. And we're both sticking with our plans. And we work out differently. We don't work out at the same time. She works out really short workouts. I work out long workouts. Not because I work out more, but because I like to take longer rest periods. Hello.
I like my recovery. I like my recovery periods. Got to let them breathe. But she said, "I'm so sore." And she was mad about it. I was like, "Babe, that's good. That's like the goal of working out. Don't you feel good to feel sore? To know that, like, hey, what I did worked." And she goes, she kind of growled this in a demonic voice that I cannot impersonate. She said, "No, I hate it." She said, "It's like we have the flu and we gave it to ourselves." That's the line that got me. I wrote that down. I'm like, totally going in a sermon soon. "It's like we have the flu and we gave it to ourselves." She actually said, "We freaking gave it to ourselves," but I edited it for the TV audience. But, you know, what I'm interpreting as a sign that, hey, I'm gonna get bigger. I'm getting stronger. She interpreted as a sensation that something was wrong. It bugged her to feel that way. Now, life is largely about how you interpret the sensations that you experience.
And for Paul, we see in 2 Corinthians throughout the entire book, but particularly in this 12th chapter, that the sensation of weakness for the apostle Paul was an indication of strength. I'll say that again for all of you who missed the opportunity to write down that treasured Pearl of wisdom. For the apostle Paul, the sensation of weakness was an indication of strength. Paul in 2 Corinthians lists several things that we would have all seen as adversities. And yes, he acknowledges the pain of those things, but he seems to be more in tune with the productivity of those things in his own life. I love the letter that we call 2 Corinthians. It's really just a letter. You know that many people believe that Paul started and stopped writing this letter about three or four different times because if you read the letter, he'll be kind of talking one way and then it's like he abruptly changes tones and then abruptly changes tones.
And he's writing this church that he founded in AD 54 and he made three different visits there. And one of the visits he made was so painful. He didn't ever know if he wanted to go back because what he saw in the church that he started was so frustrating to him. He had this feeling that every parent gets like, "I taught you better than that." And he almost couldn't stand to see how his spiritual children were making a mess of the principles that they had been taught. It was all kinds of sexual immorality and all kinds of division in the church. And it frustrated Paul deeply. But throughout the book, you'll see him start fussing at them and then he'll stop and commend them. And many believe that it's because over the period of time that he wrote this letter in the region of Macedonia, he would get different reports about what was happening back in the church.
So he would write a little bit and then he'd hear the things were going downhill. He'd fuss a little bit and then he'd hear that things would get better. So he'd encourage them on a little bit. And what we have is the result of a man who is airing his frustrations for the world to see. He's being very open about his frustrations, which is good because Paul is also a man who is very open about his faith. And what's very helpful is that when someone who is faithful lets you see not only their faithfulness to God, but their frustration in their faithfulness to God, that gives you a way to know that faithfulness and frustration often go hand in hand.
Frustration Points to Your Engagement
Have you ever heard of the comedian Jim Gaffigan? Have you ever heard of this guy? He did the joke "Hot Pockets." I don't know if you ever heard that joke. He's hilarious, man. He's pretty clean, too. You can watch him. He doesn't say that much horrible stuff like most comedians. Say terrible things, and they kind of have to. It's their job. I wonder sometimes what would happen if I was able to say whatever I wanted up here. It would be pretty scary, so I'm not going to try that. But Jim Gaffigan, he's cool. He wrote this book. It's hilarious. I didn't read the whole thing, but the part I read was funny. It's called Dad is Fat. He has five kids, and he says, if you want to know what having five kids is like, just imagine that you're drowning and someone throws you a baby. And so that's pretty funny.
But he said that because he makes all these jokes about how hard it is to have a big family, he gets all kinds of correspondence from people. And sometimes they accuse him of being anti-family, because a lot of what he's doing in his jokes is complaining about taking your kids to Disney World and how your kids don't appreciate anything. And he said they accuse him of being anti-family. And he says this little thing. This stuck with me when I read it. He said, "Anti-family? This could not be further from the truth. I love being a parent and enjoy finding the humor in parenting. If you complain about how you spend your Saturdays taking your kid to birthday parties, that means you are taking your kid to birthday parties. If you complain about how hard it is to get your kid to read, it means you are trying to get your kid to read. If you are complaining about your kid not helping around the house, that means you have a fat, lazy kid." He said it, not me. That's how you deal. "If parents don't like being a parent, they don't talk about being a parent. They are absent and probably out having a great time somewhere."
Come on, how many know that sometimes the most faithful people are also the most frustrated people? Because they're the ones trying to stick it out and make it happen and make it work. So sometimes, watch this, your frustration is actually an indication of your faithfulness. The frustration points to the fact that you stayed. The frustration points to the fact that you anchored somewhere. The frustration points to the fact that you're deeply engaged in what you're doing. And so Paul says, I have the right to be frustrated because I've been faithful. And throughout the book, he talks about all kinds of things. Read it this week if you want. If you're just looking for some good reading material from the Holy Word of God that will change your life and empower your spirit so that you have a deeper revelation of the love that God has for you and a deeper understanding of all the things that he's called you to do in this world. Read 2 Corinthians, because there you'll read about Paul's frustrations, which include, but are not limited to, strained relationships.
Paul's "Unspoken" Frustration
He was frustrated with some people. He loved them, but he didn't like them very much. In this letter, you'll see it. He was having a very difficult time feeling affectionate toward them. Very difficult. And so he writes about it. And then he writes about limited resources. He was trying to get an offering taken up for some poor believers in Jerusalem and the Corinthian church who had been blessed. They weren't even given as much as some of the poorer churches in Macedonia where he's visiting. So he's frustrated because he's like, I see all this need, but I can't get the resources where it needs to go because you people won't give it. And so he tells them, I'm frustrated with you. Get it done. Give your offering. Do what you said you were going to do. And his frustration is just all over the page. He's facing all kinds of resistance. He's going through all kinds of trials and tribulations. And he mentions them by name.
But then he does something interesting in the passage that I read. He starts doing what we do when we get to those issues in our lives that are the real issues. The root issues. The recurring issues. The embarrassing issues. And he starts speaking in code. He lists by name the trials that he went through that are heroic. That time they dropped him down from a window in a basket to get him away from the riot scene that the preaching of the gospel had caused. He mentions that by name. He talks about when he was beaten by rods and he mentions that by name. He talks about the false believers and the toil and the thirst and the coldness and the nakedness and everything else by name. But when he gets to this one, he does what you do. He does what I do. And he starts using a metaphor. And he calls it a "thorn."
Now, theologians have the trickiest time trying to pinpoint what the thorn was. So, this week, I asked God, what was Paul's thorn? I was praying because I knew I wanted to preach on this passage. So, Monday, when I opened my Bible, I said, "God, I want to know what the thorn was. I know they've been trying to figure it out." And some people think that it was the persecution of the Judaizers. And some people think that Paul had an eye condition. And some people think that Paul had this weak posture because in one of his letters, he said that it was reported that he was forceful in his letters, but not that impressive up close and personal. Maybe Paul was really short. Maybe Paul had something funny going on with his teeth. It could have been... See, I think it might have been a little thing because he used the illustration of a thorn. A thorn isn't very large. It's a little thing that causes a lot of pain.
And so, I asked God to give me some insight. I read my books. I read all the books that I have that talk about these things. Smart people talk about these kind of things. And I read all of them. And I prayed about it. And God answered me. And he said, "If I had wanted you to know what Paul's thorn was, I would have told you or had Paul tell you what his thorn was. But if I told you what his thorn was, then you wouldn't have the opportunity to relate to it because you disassociate yourself from problems that you don't really understand. So, if you don't struggle with something, if you don't deal with something, then you have no problem seeing the craziness in somebody who does. But there is something that you deal with that doesn't make much sense to the rest of us either."
And I think for that reason added to it, the fact that poor Paul was humiliated by it. I think what he wanted to say, I think he couldn't get it out. I think possibly he wrote it and then started over with a new parchment on this section. And I think it was something that was so deeply embedded in Paul. I know it was deeply embedded in Paul because he said, "I went to God with it three times. Three times." Come here, Bernie. Come here, man. Bernie's on our staff at Elevation Church. Everybody give Bernie a big hand. Bernie. Paul said, All right, just stand there, Bernie. Just stand there. You represent the thorn. I'm sorry about that, but somebody had to do it. You represent the frustration.
Taking Your Thorn to the Throne
Paul said, "There was a frustration that had been with me and it had been recurring and a frustration that wouldn't leave me alone. So I took it to a spiritual place. I took it to God and I asked God, 'Please take it away.' And I looked after I prayed and it didn't go away. So I turned around and prayed again a little while later and I asked God, 'No, I'm serious. If you would take this away, I could get more done. If you would take this away, I could be a better mom. If you would take this away, I could be a faithful husband if I didn't have the temptation. If you would take it away. So God, take the temptation away. God, take the hardship away. God, take the opposition away. God, take the rejection away. God, take the need away. God, take the temptation away. God, take the hardship away.' You still there? I'm going to try this one more time. 'God, I signed up to serve you. And when I signed up to serve you, you told me that you would give me everything I need to serve you. And I'm trying to be faithful. But you put this thorn, this thorn in a teal shirt, you put it in my way and every time I try to... every time I try to make progress.' So I'm asking you the third time."
And now Paul does something that he doesn't do in any of his other epistles, because usually when Paul says "the Lord," he uses the Greek word kyrios. That means God the Father. This time he uses a designation in Greek. It's ho kyrios. It means that he went directly to Jesus, because a little thing can hurt that bad, where you dispense with the formalities and all the church talk and all the church language and just get to the point where you are so sick of yourself. Forget about being sick of everybody else. Paul said, "I could deal with the plots of the Jews. I could deal with the problems of the people. I could even deal with the selfishness of the church, but there was a thing in me. There was something pressing in to me, so I pressed in to God, and I went straight to the boss's desk. I walked by the receptionist and went straight. My thorn took me to the throne." And when I got up, it was still there. Still there.
What was it, Paul? Were you tempted in your mind? What was it, Paul? Were you sick in your body? What was it, Paul? Was it the people that didn't like you that tried to shut you down? What was it, Paul? I know you weren't married, so it couldn't have been your mother-in-law. So that strikes that. What was it, Paul? Process of elimination. What was it, Paul? And Paul says something. We used to say this in youth group. Now, I grew up in the Methodist church, and we had MYF, Methodist Youth Fellowship, on Sunday nights, where you would sing songs. Songs y'all don't know, like "Shine, Jesus, Shine." Songs y'all don't know, like "Grin Again Gang Get Gung-Ho About Jesus." Y'all don't know these songs. You don't need to know these songs. You don't know these songs. And then we would do something that if you are not a church person, you have not had the pleasure of experiencing the time where you go around the room and you share. Everybody gets an opportunity to share, if they so choose, a praise report and a prayer request.
And you can choose if you want to share a praise report and a prayer request, a prayer request and a praise report, just a praise report, just a prayer request. And so, being 13 years old, all of us in the youth group, we had some really deep praise reports and prayer requests. And we would go around the room and all would share the praise reports. You know, you can imagine what the praise reports are for the 13-year-olds. It would be about a lot of tests that you passed, or it would be about something good that happened to you, or something so generic that no... But the point is, you are trying to give God praise for what he has done, and then you would enter into the time of the prayer request. And sometimes, in fact many times, when it came time for the prayer request, the predominant prayer request in the circle was a little something called... And this is for when you have something that you want to talk about but you don't want to talk about. And when it comes to you in the circle and it comes time for your prayer request, you say... And this is something that we use a lot, Bernie. You say, "I have an unspoken." Now, that's deep right there. "What I'm going through is so crazy y'all can't even handle it, so I'm just going to leave it unspoken, because if I told you that I'm in love with Jenny and she won't talk to me, it would freak you out."
And so Wade Joy, our worship pastor, was telling me last night that he used to use the "unspoken" as a dating technique, because there would typically be a girl in his youth group, and he would like her, and he would want her to know that he was praying about their relationship, but he couldn't say it out loud, so when it came time for Wade to pray, he would say, "I have an unspoken. I can't even mention your name, girl." He said, "I have an unspoken." The greatest frustrations of life are unspoken. And you speak in code about what's really bothering you, about what you're really thinking about doing, about what you really wrestle against. You develop ways to talk about it. Let's call it a thorn. Let's call it an issue. "I've got an issue." "I'm going through something right now." "I'm dealing with some things." Here's what we say. We say, "It's just a lot right now. It's just a lot right now. I can't even break it down. I can't even tell you all that it is, because if I started telling you all that it is, I know that somewhere along the way, as I went deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into what I deal with, you would lose respect for me. So I'm going to keep it up here. And even though I'm willing to tell you about a lot of what I go through, there are some things that you don't have any business knowing about. And if I don't wanted you to know about them, I would have told you. But this one, this one, this one is going to stay at the throne. I took 11 chapters to show you my frustration so you could feel it. But, but, but when it comes to this thing, let's just call it a... Let's call it a thing. Let's call it a thorn."
From Fighting Frustration to Finding Its Purpose
And then Paul, he taught me what to do about it because I got some thorns. I know you don't. I know you don't. I know you passed. You've graduated. I know you're more spiritual than St. Paul. But me and Paul had problems. And he taught me something very... See, I am an easily frustrated person. If they made a chart about what it takes to frustrate you, my frustration kicks into 10 when the situation is a one. How many of you can relate to me? Especially if it involves anything mechanical. I marvel at the patience of anyone who can install anything. I worship you. I worship you. I honor you. Very, very easily frustrated. Very, very easily frustrated with a video game. I could be up 49 to nothing on Madden and, and let them kick a field goal and I'll drop the controller in anger. I don't know what, what it is.
I, I have a guy who, um, he's a tailor. And, uh, so for years now, he's been, uh, my tailor. So if I have something that needs to be fitted, he'll work on it and we've become good friends. He came to me in tears one day and, uh, said, "I don't, I don't know what's wrong with me. There's something wrong with me." I said, "Well, what are you, what are you talking about?" He said, "I notice all the things that are wrong. Notice everything that's wrong. I noticed the house is dirty. I don't notice the kids that are healthy. I notice everything that's wrong. I notice how far I have to go. I don't notice how far I... notice everything that's wrong." And he was really feeling guilty about it because he couldn't express the gratitude that he knew his life warranted. "Something's wrong with me. I try to get a better attitude and I try to be more positive, but it's always very sure something is really wrong with me."
It changed my life when he said that, because I considered his profession. That what he does all day long, what he was gifted by God to do, was to find what's wrong. That what he was gifted by God to do was to say, "Those are too long. We need to take them up a little. Those are too wide. We need to take them in a little. That's a little snug under the sleeve. We need to adjust it a little." And I realized that everything that was right about him was connected to what was wrong. I don't mean to quote Kanye in my sermon, but one time he said, "Everything I'm not made me everything I am." He said that it was what was wrong with me that helped me discover what is right with me.
So Paul said, "I prayed about it. God take it away. And it was still there. And I prayed about it. God take it away. And it was still right there. And I prayed about it, that God would take it away. And after the third time, I realized, if you're not going to go away, then you might as well get to work. So, hello, thorn. I'm Paul. You've been bugging me my whole life. You've been driving me crazy for years. You've been tormenting me through many sleepless nights. And if you don't want to go away, then I'm about to give you an assignment. If you don't want to leave, then we've got to get to work together. So, hello, frustration. I fought you long enough. I ran away from you long enough. Now it's time to face you and to see how God wants to use you to accomplish his purpose in my life." Come on. If you're going to stand there, do something. Hold my stuff. "If you're going to frustrate me, devil, then at least bring me a reminder of the grace of God. If you're going to try to run me off from what God has called me to do..."
The Messenger from Satan, The Message from God
"I was given a thorn in my flesh." The word "given" is interesting because that speaks of something that is a gift. You don't say, "I was given a shotgun wound," but he said, "Okay, God was taking me higher and higher and higher and higher." And he said that 14 years before this experience, he said that he was taken into heaven and he was shown things so beautiful that he couldn't even talk about it. And it's amazing, because now he has something that's so beautiful that he can't talk about it and something that's so broken that he can't talk about it, all operating in the same life. Something so incredible and something that he's inflicted with, and both are unspeakable. To know a life of ever-increasing faith in God is to know a life of ever-increasing frustration. I'm just going to get it out there. To be faithful is to be frustrated.
And I think the reason that he called it a gift, the reason that he put it in that exact terminology, is because he said, "After a while, I realized that if God was going to do great things in my life, he needed to find a way to keep me grounded. I taught a leadership lesson one time called, 'How Do the Gifted Stay Grounded?' How do those who have been gifted by God with great abilities stay grounded in their attitude? God does it through the affliction that he allows." Although he says the thorn was a gift, he does not say it came from God. He says it was a messenger of Satan. So it did not come from God, but by the end of his exposition of his thoughts about it, he said that it was a gift from God. I don't understand this unless I put it in the following terms and terminologies. I see it this way. I see that the messenger was from Satan, but the message was from God.
The messenger, the temptation, the hardship, the opponents, the rejection, and the need. Those are the five things I put because if you take the first letter, it spells THORN. The temptation, the hardship, the opposition, the rejection, and the need. These are all things that Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians. If you go throughout it, he mentions all of them. He says, "Who is led into sin and I do not inwardly burn?" That's temptation. He says, "I was throttled by the Jews." That's hardship. He said, "I was opposed by people who should have supported me." That's the opposition. He said, "I was rejected by you Corinthians who I shouldn't have to prove myself to, but I do." He said, "There was a need so great and I couldn't meet it and I was frustrated by my own limitations." And then I got this thorn and it was sent by Satan, but it carried a message from God. And the message was, "My grace is enough." Could life be bringing you a God message through a devil situation? Could life be trying to deliver to you right now a gift from God wrapped in the package of an attack by the enemy?
The Only Way to Greatness is Through Frustration
Paul said, "I didn't see it that way at first. I prayed three times and the reason that I had to go directly to Jesus is because he prayed three times. He prayed three times before he went to the cross. He prayed three times that he wouldn't have to drink the cup of the wrath of God. And he prayed a little bit and then he went further and then he prayed a little bit more and he went further. And it was so grueling what was happening inside of him that he began to sweat like drops of great blood. And by the third time he prayed about it, he realized, this is not going away. So he said, 'Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.' And he drank the cup that he didn't want. And he reached out and took the hand of the thing that he wanted to go away. And he went to the cross and Jesus wore a crown of thorns. The thing that they pressed into the crown of his head was the thing that made the blood flow down to his feet that brought the redemption that cleanses all of us who will believe in his name. It was the thorn. It was the thing that brought him pain, that brought God glory."
And Paul said, "You've got to come to a point in your life that when it's all said and done, you say, 'Okay, God, okay, take my frustration and turn it into greatness.'" Can I tell you a secret? The only way to greatness is through frustration. The only way to greatness is through frustration. Frustration is the only thing that can make you great, because if you weren't frustrated, you'd be complacent. I can feel the judgment of some of you like, "I'm not frustrated," right? Because you're not trying anything new. Of course you're not frustrated. You haven't trusted God with a big step in three and a half years. I bet you feel real good about things. You've got it down. I don't remember a single time in the church when I wasn't frustrated. Coming up on 10 years, it's been 10 years of faithfulness and 10 years of frustration.
I've been frustrated when it was growing because we were out of seats and needed another building. I've been frustrated when we weren't growing because you weren't inviting anybody and they're going to hell and it's your fault. Mad about it too. Now I'm learning how to meet frustration at the front door so he can put something under the tree. Because I found out he's a friend who comes bearing gifts. Frustration will show you if you'll stop running away from it. And here's the cycle most of us are caught in. We feel frustrated and we fight frustration and we fail in the fight so we flee. I can do it better. We feel frustrated in our job with the people we work with. We fight with those people thinking they're the problem. We fail to achieve resolution because we haven't learned good people skills. And so we flee to the next job where we take the same thorn into a new work environment.
I can do it better. We feel frustrated in our marriage. We fight the person thinking that they're the issue. We fail because that's not going to reconcile anything until one of us lays our life down and does it God's way and esteems one another as better than ourselves. And so then we flee from the marriage, but no matter how many marriages you go into trying to get away from your frustration or no matter how many new jobs you try trying to get away from your frustration or no matter how many churches you go to. Every time somebody offends you, you're going to take that same thorn to the next church. And before you know it, you'll be the thorn that they're asking to get rid of. Come on, touch three people, tell them, "Deal with it. Deal with it." It's time you pushed through your frustration and found out what was on the other side.
Let Frustration Lead You to Your Future
You know what I found out? Frustration is always trying to talk to me. Frustration is trying to tell me something. He said it was a messenger of Satan, but it carried a message from God. Your frustration is trying to tell you something. It's trying to tell you that there's something in your life that doesn't fit right anymore. There's something in your life that needs to be adjusted. It doesn't fit right anymore. It's trying to tell you that there's something in your life where God is requiring a greater level of focus. Frustration will help you focus. You'll be bothered about a lot of things, and you need a good dose of frustration every once in a while to make you mad enough at what you're missing out on to put some real attention and focus to it. Paul said, "As long as I was doing good, my focus was on my gift. But it was when I came to a low point and couldn't figure out what to do that my focus shifted from my gift to God's grace." Frustration brings focus. Frustration increases faith. Frustration will cause you to trust in a God that you can't see to get you through a situation where you see no way out. Frustration will make you have faith.
And watch this. This is my favorite part. If you follow your frustration, it can lead you to your future. See, because when you pray for God to show you what he wants to do next through your life, he'll send you a thorn, a trouble, a feeling, a disturbance, unsettled. And if you push it away, it's going to come right back. And if you push it away, it's going to come right back. And if you let it get the best of you and you take it all out on all the people who have nothing to do with why you're really frustrated, it'll keep you stuck. But if you learn how to handle it, touch somebody, say, "Handle it." If you learn how to handle it, your frustration will show you the future that God has prepared for you. If you own a business and you would quit crying about your frustration, your frustration is trying to give you a message about what's wrong in your business. But you can't listen to what God is trying to say because you're too busy trying to tell God what he needs to do. But he's trying to show you what's not working anymore, and so he sends a frustration, and he'll let the devil deliver the package, but he's responsible for the contents.
Your frustration... If you're submitted to God, if you let your thorn take you to the throne, your frustration will tell you what to talk to your kids about. Your frustration will tell you where you're misaligned. Your frustration will show you who you need to forgive. Your frustration will show you the bitterness that you need to release. Your frustration will show you the very thing that you were put on earth to do. So the next time you feel a little sore, and it feels like the flu, I want you to remember this little sermon. And I want you to remember Bernie. And how I tried to get rid of it. And I tried to push against him. And that big ol' joker stayed there three times. And I want you to remember how I finally figured out that maybe you're not such a bad guy after all. Maybe you're here to keep me humble. Maybe you're here to keep me focused. Maybe you're here to show me something. Maybe, maybe you're here, Mr. Frustration, with something in the trunk that I need for what's next in my life. Maybe you brought me a lesson. Maybe you came to bring me grace. Maybe the crown is always made of thorns. Maybe the glory always feels like a grind. Maybe your adversity just needs an assignment today.
Father, I preach to your people what you gave me and my heart to share. Father, I thank you for the sufficient grace that is available to everyone who will receive it right now. Hey, have you been fighting about something that God just wants you to surrender to him today? Would you jump up on your feet, throw your hands in the air? If you've been fighting against something within yourself or with somebody, just jump up, throw your hands in the air. Father, I pray right now that that same grace that enabled Paul to see the thing that he wanted to get rid of as the thing that he needed to lead him where he was going and to keep him grounded when he got there. I pray that same grace would flow to your people right now in Jesus' name. Say it out loud. Say, "Your grace is enough for me." Say it three times. "Your grace is enough for me. Your grace is enough for me. And if I still struggle a week from now, your grace will be enough. And if I still struggle a year from now, your grace will be enough. And every time the devil tries to hurt me, and every time the devil tries to wound me, I'm going to turn it into worship. And I'm going to turn what he brought as an attack into an advantage." In Jesus' name, I declare the grace of God is more than enough.