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This is a podcast for Enclave Community Church, located in Turlock, CA. Here you can listen to our latest sermons! Visit us online at enclavecc.com
[00:00:00] You're listening to the Enclave Community Church Podcast. For more information about Enclave, follow the links in the description. Enjoy this week's sermon from Carlton Mentz. Today's scripture is 2 Corinthians 12 verses 9 and 10. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
[00:00:23] Therefore I will, 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 weakness insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for when I am weak, then I am strong. Let's pray father. We thank you for. The grace you give us in moments of weakness that you give regardless of our perceptions of its sufficiency.
[00:00:58] And I pray that you would help us [00:01:00] to deeply apply this message that Carlton is going to give us. Be with him as he preaches. Help us to learn from him and draw on the deep well of scripture. Amen. You've just heard Pastor Andrew preach his greatest sermon
[00:01:24] in his most weakest moment.
[00:01:29] Isn't that crazy? It's wonderfully crazy. Oh my goodness. I can't add anything to that. I shouldn't. But I would like to. I would like to just encourage you with just a few scriptures. Because the Father wants to speak to us. He has spoken to us through the heart of Andrew. And now I pray he will [00:02:00] speak to you through his word.
[00:02:05] Um, before I do, I want to do a little shout out. Today is my daughter's birthday.
[00:02:19] And my wife had her gallbladder removed Friday. She's not here. She's recuperating. So they're both home. But I am very glad to be here. This is the place I want to be.
[00:02:37] Weak. Yes, I want to be here. This is a place to be weak and to experience power. As a congregation, we are facing weakness like we probably never faced before in the history of this fellowship. But together in this weakness. [00:03:00] We can see the power and strength of the risen Christ. We just did. I did not expect him to be here.
[00:03:11] Did you? No. Only the power of Jesus could do that.
[00:03:22] Because Jesus knows how to do it. Having gone through weakness, like no one ever, went through by the strength and power of his father in heaven. That's why we gathered together on Sundays. We want to see and hear the person and power of the living Christ. And that as our hearts do see and hear, we will somehow.
[00:03:59] In this [00:04:00] weakness, whatever it is, we will glorify Him and the world, the watching world will witness our rescue and stop in their tracks to know, or ask at least, what is going on with those people.
[00:04:23] Today I want to take us to the second half of the verse that I started last week.
[00:04:32] Where Paul actually talks about gladly boasting through his weaknesses. Boasting
[00:04:44] about his hardships and calamities and weaknesses that he faced. Because the great King Jesus within him and within us [00:05:00] would bring Us through as it brought him through by his power and strength. And will also bring our dear precious family through as well.
[00:05:18] I, I want to, uh, begin, we're in second Corinthians and I wanna, I'm going to just take a little time to share with you because at the end I want to leave time that we can then together talk, share, and pray. I want you to be thinking about that and being prepared about it. We're going to do that with what's left of the service.
[00:05:41] And so I'm watching and I'm pushing myself because I believe the Lord wants to minister to us by his Holy Spirit together as a family that we might share and pray for one another. And so I'm going to ask that you not [00:06:00] visit. At the end, if you wish the family room is going to be open and we got some refreshments there, you can go if you'd like, but if you're here, we want to encourage it to be together and see what the Lord wants to do.
[00:06:16] Because he wants to minister to us and he wants to comfort us and that's what I want to begin and at the beginning of 2nd Corinthians, we're gonna be in chapter 12, but listen to this at chapter 1. This is what how Paul begins. It begins with a prayer Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of all mercies and the God of all comfort Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in affliction with the comfort with which we have been comforted.
[00:06:57] Second Corinthians, Paul's talking a [00:07:00] lot about his weaknesses and challenging the church with their weaknesses. But he begins by talking about comfort and he ends in talking about power. So in between this reality of weakness, he brings the comfort and power of our Lord. I want to remind you of some scriptures we, we looked at last week.
[00:07:29] I just want us to hear them again.
[00:07:34] John chapter 10 verse 27, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice
[00:07:44] and I know them. And they follow me, me saying that to us today, today, we will hear him today. We will follow him. [00:08:00] And again, Mark chapter nine, verse 23, a father came to Jesus because his son was struggling.
[00:08:15] And the father said to Jesus, if you can do anything. Have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said to him, If you can do anything, all things are possible to those who believe. Immediately the father of the child cried out, I believe. Help me in my unbelief.
[00:08:45] Last week we saw in 2 Corinthians 12 that grace is sufficient. Jesus said, so as we see and [00:09:00] hear the power of the Lord Christ completing itself in us, it is our heavenly father's desire that his life and his strength, that which is Jesus would become more and more with us and in us. And yes, these are the weakest of times.
[00:09:23] But the power and strength of our Lord is with us. Do you know how many times we've heard 2 Corinthians chapter 12 in the last three months? Do you remember?
[00:09:38] This is the fourth time we've heard it.
[00:09:44] Adam shared a few months. That scripture. Jacob shared that scripture. A month or two ago. God led me to share it last week and again today. [00:10:00] Four times. You know, when I hear it twice, I call that a double witness. This is a quadruple witness. Our Lord is very clear what He's saying to us. My power is made perfect in weakness.
[00:10:16] Weakness is the way. And that's not our culture, you know, that's not how we were trained or how we were raised. I know we're all trying to be strong, to be self reliant, oh, yes, that's been so much a part of us. And then we come face to face with Jesus, who gave himself completely up in weakness for our sake, and was completely.
[00:10:46] vindicated and risen from the dead in the power of his father. I would like to just, um, I was going to share a month from now, a little more about this. I don't want to say too [00:11:00] much right now, but I just want to say again that this has, this is so close to me because a year ago, this is what I kept hearing when I was, uh, dealing with cancer.
[00:11:14] I was again and again being asked by the Lord, do I believe, do I believe that His grace is sufficient, that His power is made perfect in weakness? And again and again I had to cry out, I believe, but help me in my unbelief, it is so hard. And I want to encourage you, this is so good, but it is hard. And that's okay.
[00:11:41] I, I had a hard time accepting that. I, I mean, you, you would when, when you, when you face the weakness of cancer and it being diagnosed and you begin chemotherapy and you're moving along and you're doing, it, it looks like it's, you're improving. The, the, the, the cancer was [00:12:00] breaking up my tumor. That was exciting because that meant that it was destroying it.
[00:12:06] But then because it was breaking up the tumor, it was the tumor that was holding in place the two stints they'd put in my stomach to help, uh, help me continue to eat. And then because of that, those stints slipped into my middle GI tract. And the day after my fourth chemo, I found myself back in the emergency room because there was an obstruction now in my bowel.
[00:12:34] And they needed to do surgery to remove it. I was, I went from weak to weaker. And I, it was like, what, what's going on, Lord? What, what's happening? My grace is sufficient. My power is made perfect in weakness. Do you believe? And even, and now today we're looking and the Lord says, will you boast? Oh, that's good.[00:13:00]
[00:13:00] Amazing. Boast? Be gladly, Paul says, gladly boast?
[00:13:09] Well, they, they watched me that week to, to do that surgery and, finally on Thursday, um, suddenly things started moving real fast. They had me in for a CAT scan, they did that faster than I'd ever seen them do it, and by the time they got me back to my room, the surgical staff was there, and they wheeled me off to the operating room and I'm, They're not really saying a lot, but I later learned, of course, that the, my bowel had perforated.
[00:13:35] And
[00:13:44] I was dying.
[00:13:49] As weak as I'd ever been. But the power of Christ was on me because I was at peace. I'm [00:14:00] glad they didn't tell me a lot. That's probably part of my peace. But my, what, but thank God I called Wendy and she and Lana were there. They met me there and right behind them was Was Matt Reed, they were, they were there, God, and, and I, she said, my eyes were this big because it's like, what's happening?
[00:14:17] And yet the Lord was so good, was so sufficient, so powerful and, and, and, and I, I didn't realize the things that were going on. First of all, I didn't get the surgeon I wanted. I wanted Jim Greenberg. I know him. And he's a Christian. But he was not on duty. It was Dr. Dow. Dr. Dow is a wonderful surgeon. And he was the one God used to save my life.
[00:14:46] I saw him on Friday when he did Wendy's He removed Wendy's gallbladder. And he was there and he couldn't quite remember. I looked so healthy he couldn't recognize me. And suddenly he realized who I was, and guess what he wanted to do? He wanted to look at my scar [00:15:00] again. Let me take a look at Surgeons love to look at their work.
[00:15:04] Yeah, I did a pretty good job. Yeah, it's good job, doc. Yeah, thank you. And he was there. God had used him, and you were there. I didn't know, but later people were there praying. Your prayers saved my life. Dr. Dow saved my life. I mean, it was just the power and the strength of the Lord that I didn't even know was going on.
[00:15:28] He was doing it. All I knew, I was weak. And yet God was again working in strength. And it didn't just end there. You know, I went into ICU. I was in the hospital. Um, I don't want to go into it too much. I just want to say, though, when I went home, I got even weaker. On, and I got ornery. Oh, dear. Bless my wife and my daughter.
[00:15:58] I showed you that picture of that, that old [00:16:00] fellow, that caricature of me last week. If you haven't seen it, go back to the old sermon. I couldn't, I didn't want to show it today, but, uh, you know, super flatulator. I'm, I'm cleaning up the language of the picture. And there he is, you know, emaciated in pull up diapers.
[00:16:19] But there's one thing about him also that was also made this big frown. He was not happy. And I wasn't either. When I got home, because I wasn't healing fast enough, I wasn't getting through it. I wasn't getting strong as, as I wanted. But that's a part of the weakness. Trusting the power and strength working.
[00:16:41] When we don't see it. He's there. And he's doing it. And that's what he's going to be doing for us. Even when we don't see it. The delays. The long healing process. We're going to be. Involved in that now as a [00:17:00] fellowship and for our blessed, precious family. The Lord is doing this, this weakness and this power that only in Christ can this come together.
[00:17:17] And now we, we will wait. We will listen. We will watch. We will cling. We will cry out. I love the songs God led Tim to pick. We will cry out. And then we will revel in the glory of our Father when we see how He, through His Son, our King, and through the precious, living, loving, counseling, caring Holy Spirit, will do it.
[00:17:52] because he wants to do it. Jesus lives to give, to love and to [00:18:00] forgive. This is his life and grace, which is sufficient. It's enough. And it is more powerful than all things. And we will, and we will somehow be able to book. I sensed pastor Andrew was boasting. Did you, there was something of a boasting there.
[00:18:21] Through this weakness because of the very power that is Jesus
[00:18:34] boasting a crazy faith through our weakness, a hardship, our calamities. When we are weak, then, then, then we are strong for the power of Christ. upon us. Thank you, Jesus, for resting upon us. I'm going to have us now, um, um, uh, prepare to move into [00:19:00] with whoever you want to talk to shade or put you when you're done, you're dismissed.
[00:19:05] But I want us to. We're used. We know how to do this after church. We do it all the time. We, we know how to stay around. So I'm now asking, well stay around. Some have not had a chance to talk about this. And some need prayer. I want to ask you to ask each other one question. How may I pray for you? Okay. How may I pray for you?
[00:19:32] I know we'll all be praying for our precious dear family. And now, to Um, Invite us into this. I'm going to read some scriptures I heard yesterday at Elaine Elliott's memorial, of all places. A dear Elaine Elliott, who was so significant starting this church, went home with, to be with the Lord a week and a half ago, and now yesterday I heard these words, and God said that He wanted you to hear them, heh, [00:20:00] as we come together now at this time.
[00:20:03] Hear now, your Father speaking to you.
[00:20:09] Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41. But now, thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob. He who formed you, O Israel, O enclave. Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name.
[00:20:43] You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, you shall not, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you. For [00:21:00] I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel. Oh, enclave, your savior. From eternity to eternity.
[00:21:12] I am God. No one can snatch you out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done. Father, now lead us. To your presence. You are here and we thank you so much. You're here and we ask now. You'll speak to us, and as we speak to each other and as we pray for each other, we trust you to do this for your name and for your glory.
[00:21:36] Thank you so much for your power in this weakness. Glory to you. We hope you enjoyed this week's sermon from Carlton Menz. At Enclave, our mission is to cultivate and empower disciples, fostering a deepening connection with God and with one another. Together, we joyfully encounter, embrace, and embody the transformative love [00:22:00] of Jesus wherever his calling leads us.
[00:22:03] For more information about us, please follow the links in the description.