NewCity Orlando Sermons

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 | Preach Your Heart Out

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In this sermon from NewCity Orlando’s Preach Your Heart Out series, Pastoral Intern Connor Bonello explores the surprising strength found in weakness through the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:1–10. Paul recounts a profound spiritual experience yet shifts focus to his "thorn in the flesh"—a persistent trial that keeps him dependent on God. Rather than removing the affliction, God assures Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Connor invites listeners to consider how God's grace meets us not in spite of our weakness but because of it. Rather than striving to escape our limitations, we are called to embrace them as opportunities for Christ’s power to rest upon us. In a culture obsessed with strength, competence, and control, this message offers a countercultural hope: that in our frailty, we are not disqualified—but uniquely qualified—to reflect the sufficiency of Christ.

Rev. Damien Schitter:

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damien. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening.

Raquel West:

Good morning. Please pray this corporate prayer of illumination with me. Heavenly Father, your word is truth. By your spirit, give us ears to hear and hearts to believe your word with joy through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. Today's scripture reading comes from 2 Corinthians 12, 1 through 10.

Raquel West:

I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who, 14 years ago, was caught up to the third heaven, whether in body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows. And I know that this man was caught up to the third heaven, whether in body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

Raquel West:

On behalf of this I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses, though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong. This is God's word.

Connor Bonello:

Well, thank you, raquel for the reading and Jason for the introduction. Yeah, my name is Connor. I'm an intern here. I haven't had a chance to meet you. Feel free to come meet me after the service.

Connor Bonello:

Well, this morning we're going to be jumping into a new sermon series for the month of July. We're titling it Preach your Heart Out. So throughout the month of July we're going to go through a series of passages that are chosen personally by the preacher. So there's not gonna be necessarily a common thread through them all, but there will be a common posture. The posture is gonna be one of tenderness, tenderness, of things the Lord has laid on our heart towards who our God is and what his mission is for us here in Orlando.

Connor Bonello:

So with that, today I decided to talk about weakness, and weakness is kind of a tricky subject. We're all really fine and happy to talk about weakness in the abstract. We talk about weakness and what it means. That's great. But then, when we start to talk about weakness in ourselves, things become a little bit more difficult. We don't necessarily want to talk about weakness, but the truth is that life is hard and that we often come across certain challenges where we come face-to-face with our weaknesses. We come face-to-face with our inadequacies and we have to ask ourselves in those moments what is it that I'm to do? Perhaps you know, we can all think of a time where you come before a challenge and you hear the voice. It could be internal or external and it'll tell you you're not good enough, you're not able. You may believe it, you may not, but it's a voice that you hear.

Connor Bonello:

And to some of us in this room, there's gonna be two groups of people. Some of us are gonna respond to weakness and you're gonna kind of recoil, you're gonna kind of shut down, you're gonna be all too familiar when we talk about weakness today. You're well aware of your inadequacies. And for you, I want to invite you this morning that God has come and called to invite you to his strength and he offers you hope. But then there's another group of people that this message is for this morning, and it's going to be some of us in this room, and that's that we actually are quite confident in our abilities. We don't really associate weakness with ourself. But for you, I want to ask you to go low this morning and to ask God, where he might show and share weakness, for you to learn to rely on his strength.

Connor Bonello:

And so, with that, wherever you find yourself on that spectrum again, we all can relate to when we come across this idea of whether it be yourself or someone else saying you're not good enough. And what do we do in that moment? Do you decide to defend yourself and puff up yourself in pride and explain all the reasons that you are worthy to do whatever the task is before you, or do you shut down? Do you kind of spiral into, maybe, self-doubt and inaction? The world will tell you that the response to this, the healthy response, is to say no, you're wrong, I am good enough.

Connor Bonello:

But what we'll see today in our message is that Paul kind of goes a different direction and in fact, the Bible turns the accusation of you not being good enough on its head. It doesn't say, no, I am good enough. The Bible actually says you're right, I'm not good enough. And in fact I never was good enough. It's not how I was designed. I wasn't designed to rely on my own strength. I was designed to rely on the maker of the universe. I was designed to be a branch that channels his power and nothing less. The question for us this morning is do we believe it? The truth is that we have all the power we may need, and it's not our power, it's God's.

Connor Bonello:

And with that we're going to see what Paul has to say in 2 Corinthians, where he's addressing the matter. You see, throughout the letter of 2 Corinthians we're jumping into the back end of it, but we see, in the first beginning of the opening letter he talks about this burden that he's experiencing that's beyond his strength, and that it requires him to lean on the Lord. And then, later on in the chapter, chapter four, he'll talk about how God has this immense power and he's decided to put it in these jars of clay, this foolishness. That makes no sense. That you have this immense power, but it's in this fragile, weak object. And then, lastly, his argument's building to a climax in our passage today, where he talks about weakness and strength being made perfect in weakness.

Connor Bonello:

So to explore Paul's point, we're gonna have three points to look at. The first one's gonna be how the world sees weakness. The second's gonna be how the Lord sees weakness, and then the third point will be how we can see our weakness. So our first point how the world sees weakness. The world sees weakness through the lens of comparison to others, which is why comparison is the first thing that we go to when we notice weakness in ourselves. I mean, for example, we're all okay with weakness if everybody has that weakness right. Nobody can dunk a basketball like LeBron James, so we're not really embarrassed about the fact that we can't do that. We all have skin where if you have a sharp object and it you know were to pierce that skin, everybody, that's going to happen to them, and so we're okay with the fact that we have our vulnerabilities. It's only when we see a weakness in ourself that isn't in someone else that we start to think less of ourselves, or the opposite. It's only when we see a weakness in others that's not in ourselves, that we begin to become prideful. And so Paul, aware of this human impulse, begins this part of the passage by addressing comparison.

Connor Bonello:

Chapter 12 begins with I will go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. He then goes on to describe this great revelation that he can boast about for the next six verses, of where he went to go see heaven in of itself. You should know well why is Paul going on about this boasting? What's the accusation against him? Well, you see, first century Corinth was a lot like 21st century America. It's all about people that have come to make a name for themselves in a city that's full of opportunity and development. And so, with that, that atmosphere seemed to have influenced a group in the church of these sort of super apostles. These people were going around and they were essentially competing with Paul for the title of apostleship and they were telling people all the reasons why Paul wasn't the guy. They would say things like oh, he's lame, he can't speak well and you know, paul only alludes to a couple things, but basically they're trying to discredit what Paul can do and they're trying to demonstrate their strengths.

Connor Bonello:

And well, what do we see when that happens? Is Paul kind of initially, in chapter 11, talks about how this is a foolish way to go about who is an apostle? But then he decides to play along just for a moment and that's what we see in our chapter today, the beginning. He starts to talk about a vision he had of heaven, where he went to go see the throne room of God, and then he kind of responds have these apostles seen that? It's well played, it's a pretty good point by Paul's part, but he doesn't just do that because he's wanting to demonstrate that he is the guy.

Connor Bonello:

If you notice, he says it in a kind of strange term. He's talking about it in the third person. He's saying I know of a man who has gone to heaven. And then he goes on to say you know, but of him I will boast, but of myself I will not boast. And that might sound a little bit confusing to us today, but what we genuinely think is happening here is Paul is talking about himself, but he's just saying it in a way that can't be confused with an actual boast. He's demonstrating that if he's going to boast, he can and he can beat the super apostles at their own game, but he doesn't want to, and that's why he'll again say this is foolishness and it's not how I'm going to be defined as an apostle.

Connor Bonello:

So, after pulling his ace of spades, what does Paul then do? He tells them that this is foolishness, that this is not how the kingdom of God is built. So why did Paul then go to that length to describe his accomplishments? Because he wants to demonstrate the hypocrisy of these apostles that were discrediting him. He was saying we preach Christ and I'm not preaching Paul, and yet these people are preaching themselves. It's the power of Christ alone that has done anything in any of our lives, and so it's easy this morning to maybe kind of look at the super apostles, to look at these people that want to rely on their own strength and point the finger and maybe talk about how silly or foolish they are.

Connor Bonello:

But I think the truth is that we kind of do that ourselves too, Whether it's coworkers, neighbors, family members, name it. You know other parents. We like to look across the fence and we like to judge, we like to compare, take your pick of whatever setting you want, but just think about it for a moment. At one point, maybe there's some responsibility, some task, some calling that you found yourself to and you're performing at it, you're working at it and you actually feel pretty good about yourself. You feel like you're actually doing it pretty well.

Connor Bonello:

And then what maybe happens is someone comes along new neighbor, new parent, new coworker, whatever it may be and they actually end up being pretty good at their job. In fact, some may say they're a little bit better at it than you. And so what is your initial response? Maybe Is that you start to become consumed with the margin of difference between you and that other individual. You start to think about ways in which you can catch up or ways that you do other things better than they do.

Connor Bonello:

Before you know it, you're more concerned about that person and what they're doing as opposed to the original responsibility or task that you had taken on Before. You're concerned about, maybe, the parenting of your household. You're more concerned. You're totally consumed about what's going on in their household. You're totally consumed about what's going on in their work responsibilities. We become so focused on the competition that we're no longer reminded of and thinking of the original objective.

Connor Bonello:

Maybe you even once thought that, you know, I would never be that way. But then one day, before you know it, you have. You see, why is that? And that's because the world sees weakness as a reason to be lesser. But Paul again is clear that weakness is not a lesser thing, and so that'll transition us now into our second point. If the world sees weakness as an opportunity to be lesser than those around you, how does the Bible see it? How does the Lord see it? And it's actually humanity's desire to be or, excuse me. So I'll start with verse seven.

Connor Bonello:

That's where we'll head to next in our passage, and after describing his visions in heaven, he'll go on to say so. To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. You see, the Lord is keeping these super apostles from becoming boastful in Paul's rebuke of them, but now we see something interesting. Paul himself now has a hardship. He has a, he has a thorn in his flesh, and it's a messenger of Satan. What's weirder, though, than just being a messenger of Satan is that that messenger was sent by God. Now, god doesn't say listen to that messenger. That's an important thing to note, but nonetheless, he does say that God sent a messenger. Well, why is that? Well, paul says that God did it to keep him from becoming conceited. You see, paul just got done rebuking these super apostles about all the reasons that they were living in foolishness, and then he goes and he turns around and he just says I'm no better than them. I'm just as capable as what they're capable of, and God and his mercy has actually delivered me from that by giving me this hardship. He sees his hardship, his weakness, as mercy. You see, the truth is that we all are vulnerable to becoming conceited, and our weakness is an opportunity to come in touch with our reality.

Connor Bonello:

What we can see from this story again, god gives this thorn to Paul. What we can see from that is that the hardest things in our lives, the things that you are most upset and frustrated with about yourself, that very thing God is sovereign over. He's in control. There wasn't an error in the factory machine when he was building you. He wasn't making cookies and he accidentally put baking soda instead of baking powder in there. Not a baker, but I think that's how that works. That would be a mess up. No, the Bible is clear that God is sovereign over everything and he is not too weak to handle whatever situation you find yourself in. He's not looking down from heaven saying, oh no, what do I do now? I didn't see this coming. No, he's in control.

Connor Bonello:

But maybe that leads us to a second question this morning. Then If God's in control, why won't he remove this weakness so that I can better accomplish what he has before me? Right? You frustratingly look at God and you say you know, if I didn't have this issue, I could better disciple my kids. If work wasn't so challenging, then I would be able to have more energy to exemplify Christ in the workplace. You know, I'd be able to love people better, god, if you didn't give me such a hard childhood where I didn't learn how to manage my emotions better.

Connor Bonello:

There's so many different ways that life has just kind of kicked us and brought us down and we just kind of ask God, why? Why did this come to me? If you want me to go and share your light with others, it becomes such a hindrance to what God has called us. Well, what's interesting is that we see Paul pleads the same thing, and I think that's a comfort for us this morning. He says three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but God said to me my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Paul pleads and yet God says no. But what's interesting is that God's answer is not you know I'll remove this from you, just wait a little bit longer. It's simply, my grace is sufficient. You know I'll remove this from you, just wait a little bit longer. It's simply, my grace is sufficient for you.

Connor Bonello:

God, in our weakness, wants us to learn to rely on him and that's because he wants Paul to see that he was always weak. You see, being weak is not something you can possibly avoid, it's human. The thorn wasn't there to make Paul weak. It was there to show him his weakness. That was already there. The thorn was there to help Paul see that he needed God and God's strength and to rely on the Lord.

Connor Bonello:

It kind of reminds me of a conversation that I had with a friend recently. I was talking with him and I was talking about just this weakness that I felt myself and I was just really frustrated, just, you know, with you know how I felt God was not bringing deliverance or healing. And so I was describing it to him and he responded you know, what do you feel when you experience that weakness? And I told him that, you know, I can kind of maybe get shut down. I can maybe kind of get down on myself. I don't like seeing weakness in myself, and so, you know, I can kind of just get my head maybe spiral. I would probably be in that group of people from the intro this morning. And my friend responded you know, I think you see weakness as shame. You see it as a shameful thing to be weak. And of course, my response was well, of course weakness is shame. Weakness is is is showing that you can't be relied upon, it's not something that you want to share with people and it's not something you want to be. And then he replied to me just simply weakness is not shameful, weakness is human, and I don't know about you, but that really struck a chord with me when he told me that weakness is not shameful, weakness is human and I don't know about you, but that really struck a chord with me when he told me that and it got me thinking.

Connor Bonello:

Weakness, you know, has existed since the beginning of humanity. Now, ever since the fall, it is intertwined with our brokenness, and so we need to be wise in how we differentiate the two. We do have a weakness towards sin, and that's something we need to actively work against, but weakness itself existed in the garden. A biblical view of weakness is dependence. In fact, it was our desire to not be weak that actually caused sin to enter the world. It was man's desire to be strong and to rely on themself that actually created every single wrong that's ever existed. Today. A hatred of weakness has created every pain and brokenness that we see in this world when we trust in ourselves to handle our weakness. It doesn't remove our weakness, it just blinds us to it. When we reject how God has made us, how he's designed us, to lean in and rely on him, that's when pain and destruction ensue. And so what the Lord wants us to do in our lives is to look at our weakness and to run to him. It's what we were supposed to do in the garden. We're supposed to rely on him, just walk with him, just eat what he's provided, to not know everything, because we don't need to.

Connor Bonello:

Like I mentioned, there might be two different people in this room. Some of you shut down and maybe live in misery when you experience weakness. Others will live in denial and maybe puff up your pride, but both of these are wrong responses to when we experience weakness. It doesn't matter if you run to yourself or if you run to you know quietness and isolation. The only true response to weakness, which we all have, is running to God. God says run to me, cling to me, reattach to the vine that you were always designed to draw from. And so it seems that God allows us to experience our weakness in our lives because it points us back to him.

Connor Bonello:

Remember, the thorn itself didn't make Paul weak. It magnified his weakness and reminded him that he needed the Lord. And that's how the Lord sees weakness. But if that's how the Lord sees weakness, then that brings us to our third point, and that's how we can see our weakness. You see, in the final verses of our passage today, paul says therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities, for when I am weak then I am strong. Knowing where his strength comes from, paul is now not afraid to face anything that may come his way, whether it's calamities, hardships, you name it, paul's ready to face it, but not because of who he is, but because he knows who's with him. In verse nine he says that the power of Christ may rest upon me, and in that Paul's making a bold statement that is hard for us to catch in the English language, but that language there.

Connor Bonello:

Rest upon me is the same language used in the Old Testament to talk about the glory cloud of God, the presence of God dwelling on the tabernacle of Moses. Exodus, chapter 40, where this happens, says that the power of God there was so powerful that Moses could not enter the tent. That is the power of the glory of God, and Moses is not even able to enter it yet. Now it's that power that wants to enter our weakness, in the parts that you're most scared to show of yourself. That's where God, in his most powerful place, wants to go. It's an encouraging and beautiful truth. In fact, god says that it is in our weakness that we are most experienced as power, and the question then for us today is do we understand the power that rests upon us? The Bible says that the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead now lives in us, and it's living and acting. There's power that can give us strength to accomplish whatever task is before us, and we don't have to be intimidated by what lies before us.

Connor Bonello:

You know, there's a pretty famous story that all this kind of makes me think of. It's in the Bible, going back to Exodus, actually the story of Moses, and you've probably heard of it. It's the story of the burning bush and Moses. If you're familiar with it, you'll remember that God comes to Moses in a burning bush and he starts talking to him about how he's now going to call Moses to go free the Israelites from Egypt and Pharaoh. But Moses, surprisingly, doesn't really want to Imagine that. I think most of us today, if we get called to some really awesome job, we'd probably leap at it, but nonetheless, some really awesome job we'd probably leap at it, but nonetheless, moses somehow is being really coy and he doesn't want to go. He starts saying things like God, you know, I have a speech impediment. I'm just, I'm not the guy, I don't measure up. I think you maybe got the wrong Moses. I don't know, there's another wilderness down, you know, a couple of miles down the road. Maybe you should go check that out. But of miles down the road, maybe you should go check that out. But God, being patient, says no, no, no, I have this for you. But Moses keeps refusing.

Connor Bonello:

And then the Bible says, after Moses' third time refusing, the Lord's anger kindled against Moses. Why did it kindle against Moses? Wasn't Moses being humble? Isn't that what God wants? Maybe it was some sort of false humility. Moses was saying, you know, no, no, I don't want to go. But he really did and he was just kind of being, you know again, playing coy. But no, it doesn't seem that it was even that.

Connor Bonello:

You see, what had made God so angry is that Moses had forgotten who called him angry is that Moses had forgotten who called him. Moses had forgotten who formed the mouth, who formed and created all of life. He had his eyes fully on himself and they were not at all on God. And so he looked at the task before him and he only saw inability instead of looking at the one who is completely able. And so our question for us this morning what do we do when we have a task before us that seems way too big for us to do? Do we look to the Lord for strength? Or maybe we look to ourselves for strength? Because if we trust in ourselves, let me tell you, even if you think you can accomplish things, you're missing out on the greater strength. You see, the story of Moses could have gone another way. Let me paint the picture for you Moses comes to God and there's a burning bush, and God calls him to go do this thing.

Connor Bonello:

And a little thing about Moses that maybe you know. For those that aren't aware, moses was raised by the daughter of Pharaoh, so, for what it's worth, he probably had, it's fair to say, a better education than most Israelites in that region of the world. I think Moses would have been completely justified to say you're right, I'm the guy, let me go do this. Even despite his speech impediment he has it and, honestly, if Moses had done that, he maybe could have gotten some sort of good plea deal going. He maybe could have gotten some reduced work hours or whatever it may have been. I mean, he had some existing relationships. He had some, again, knowledge of their culture. But even if Moses had done that, let me tell you he would not have had the power to send the plagues that would bend the will of Pharaoh. He would not have had the power to send the plagues that would bend the will of Pharaoh. He would not have had the power to part the waters to bring a whole tribe of people across an ocean. He would not have had the power to provide for that same tribe of people in a wilderness where there was no food or water. You see, moses could have relied on himself and it would have gotten the people nowhere.

Connor Bonello:

It's only God who can do the things that are seemingly impossible, and so the question is, why would we wanna rely on a power lesser than that Even the strongest people cannot do what God can. And this morning, it doesn't matter whether you see your inadequacies in yourself, or strength in yourself, or strength in yourself. There's only one strength that really matters, and because we have that strength, we can boldly go face whatever it is that we need. Do you look to that strength daily? Do you look to that strength? Maybe it's in the workplace, when you're about to go give a presentation and you just have a lot riding on the line for that meeting and you just feel so weak and your heart is pounding. Do you just cry out, jesus, I'm weak. Jesus, I need your strength right now, jesus, I need you to empower me if this is your will. You to empower me if this is your will.

Connor Bonello:

Or maybe it's at home. Maybe you just had a child and you're looking at the baby in your hands and you're just thinking to yourself Lord, I have no idea how I'm supposed to raise this child appropriately. I don't know if I have the strength. Maybe you're the youngs and you already have four and you're like a fifth one. What are we doing here? You know? But whatever it may be, you just cry out God, I need you. You cry out to friends that you may have and say, hey, I need help in this endeavor, I can't do it on my own.

Connor Bonello:

And the good news is, because we're past comparison, that's not how we live. We have the freedom to share those weaknesses with each other, to ask each other to come into our weaknesses. Whatever our situation is, we can see our weakness as an opportunity to trust the Lord, to witness his great power, and therefore we can be all the more confident and emboldened to run headstrong into whatever obstacle it is that we have in front of us. And I'll close with this.

Connor Bonello:

I suspect for some of you this morning, you may be hearing all this and you might be asking well, this isn't my experience of life. You see, I've tried to lean on the Lord for strength, I've tried to trust in Him and I don't see deliverance in my weakness. I don't feel powerful at all. And let me remind you and encourage you this morning While God always brings strength in this life, he doesn't always bring deliverance in this life. And for you, I wanna invite you to look at the next chapter of 2 Corinthians, chapter 13.

Connor Bonello:

Paul goes on to say Christ is not weak in dealing with you, but he is powerful among you, for he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live, and with him by the power of God. Jesus knows weakness. He has always been infinitely powerful. That was true since the beginning of time. He has always been infinitely powerful. That was true since the beginning of time. But he put on weakness too when he came to earth. And in him we have this perfect contradiction of complete vulnerability and weakness meeting perfect strength. And in his humiliation, the God who formed and spun the galaxies of the universe willingly took on and humbled himself to a point that was weaker than any of us ever have.

Connor Bonello:

Jesus was on the cross and he was so weak that he couldn't even take care of himself. In weakness, he had to have another man carry his cross for him. In weakness, he had to cry out for a drink of water. Jesus knows weakness and he understands your pain. He understands your waiting. He's waiting on the cross, crying out my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But God used Jesus's weakness to bring about the redemption of the world. And while no one else in the world could have seen it on Calvary, jesus did. He knew what was happening, and because he knew he could then trust his heavenly father, he trusted that the cross was not the end and it was the power of God that would then raise him. And now it surely did, and he's enthroned above heaven in all power and all glory.

Connor Bonello:

Though you can't see the meaning in your weakness this morning, though you can't see the deliverance in your weakness this morning, look to the one who was on the cross. Look to him and trust him, follow him. Dare to believe that in the unknown there's hope on the other side, and it's because our powerful and loving father cares for us. There will be a day when our weakness is fully gone, whether that's today, tomorrow or sometime later. There will be a day when we will do what we were always meant to do, to rest in the glory of the truly strong one, and we will sing that he alone is worthy, and that is good news for those who are weak today.

Connor Bonello:

Pray with me, lord. We just come and we confess that we are just like our fathers and mothers, just like Adam and Eve. We want to be able to rely on ourselves, and so there's some of us that you know are confident enough to do that. And then there's some of us that maybe aren't, but both are doing the same thing, god. If we're insecure in our weakness, it's because we want to be able to rely on ourselves, and if we rely on ourselves, it's because we are blind to our weakness, and so I pray that you would expose our weakness and let it draw us to you. Your word says to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. So, god, teach us to desire to see that, teach us to ask to see that and teach us to trust in that. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.