New International Version (NIV)
I. PAUL’S VISION (II Corinthians 12:1-4)
1. I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.
2. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.
3. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—
4. was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.
II. PAUL’S HUMILITY (II Corinthians 12:5-6)
5. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.
6. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say,
III. PAUL’S THORN (II Corinthians 12:7-8)
7. 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.
8. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
IV. PAUL’S CONFIDENCE (II Corinthians 12:9-10)
9. 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.
10. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.