How God Uses Weakness

Good morning. Let's feel blessed already and thanks to Miriam who is on the violin. She's a senior hire. It's good to know that there's people with a little bit of talent coming up, you know. Wow. And yet beyond that, their heart is to want to share the gospel of hope that we as his people have to share. And wasn't the worship team really on today? I mean that was, Pastor Dave was back and that's good. Amen. I'm glad to do that. We're really just getting ready and I'll tell you folks next week, I mean this is a holiday, but we determined we weren't going to roll out the holiday worship and the holiday message. We are coming before God and we always give him our best every time we come into this place, so you can be assured of that. And next week I will tell you again, I anticipate a lot more folks will be sort of converging, so allow a little time. I don't know how else to say this, if you show up thinking like normally at two minutes of 11, you'll drive right and get your parking spot, you will be disappointed. So we're, our parking crew is going to try to create some extra spaces and so, but we need to make some room and accommodate. I'm real excited about that on one hand. On the other hand, I want to anticipate it and have you do everything you can to be here and not miss. How many of you missed the prelude? No, don't put your hand up. I don't want you, but even, even in, we do things to prepare you to be in the presence of God, so that's all real important stuff. Take your outline please out of your notes right now and if you're a guest with us, what we try to do is give you something to take home and think about. And I'm so blessed every once in a while someone will come up and they'll show me their, they'll have a three-ring binder with a stack of these and they'll tell me. I use these in my neighborhood from time to time or in my devotions, I'll go back and check something on a subject that we taught about. So that's the purpose of this, it's designed to give you something to take away that you can meditate on and process just a bit more. And we're going to be reading a scripture today. This is the text of the morning. I'm not going to really exegete it in the classical sense of the word, but it is, I will tell you, this became the theme verse of my study break time. In fact, let's read it together up here on the screen, shall we? This is 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, Apostle Paul is writing. He says, to keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me 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. My power is made perfect in weakness and therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. I want to pause right there before I finish. Does that sentence strike you as a bit strange? I mean, is that statement something that you would commonly say in your workplace? I'm going to boast in the places where I'm weak. Obviously not. Well, why? So that Christ's power may rest in me. That's why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties. Let's all say it together. For when I am weak, then I am strong. How about everybody? For when I am weak, then I am strong. Let's pray. Father, as we look at your word this morning, I pray that you would infuse us with hopefulness because I believe that at the core of this message today is your hope. That even in the things that we don't understand, we can't figure out, things that are beyond our coping abilities, Lord, you are at work. We thank you, Lord, that in our weaknesses we find your strength. May it be so today in the name of Jesus. Amen. Now, this being a holiday weekend, our staff made the decision and informed me that I was not to preach on the original subject for the week. And we kind of jokingly determined that, well, you know, we're going to, when we launch next week, folks, it's going to be stuff that you're going to want to hear because it's going to be about the future of our church. We're calling it from the ground up, cultivating a healthy church and really cultivating a healthy life. If you're in a healthy church and you're plugged into it, you're going to be a healthy Christian. That's the bottom line. So that starts next week. But that gave me an opportunity to talk about this subject, something I know quite a bit about, the subject of weaknesses. When someone saw the sign on the road, they said, are you talking about the Steelers season? Or I said, no, actually I'm celebrating the Pirates. But weaknesses are something that we all have. And if we're really honest, emotional, intellectual, relational, physical, psychological, whatever it is, we all are aware of our weaknesses. But what we do with them is really not all that simple. Some of us deny them. Some of us hide them. And some of us plaster them over with all kinds of pretty things to try to help people think that they're not there. Some of us ignore them. Many of us excuse them. And the worst of all, some of us begin to blame others for them. I never had a temper till I married you or something like that. What about these things called weaknesses? The Lord comes along and He says, I've got a better idea. Rather than denying Him, excuse me, ignoring whatever, I want to use your weaknesses. And we say back to the Lord, Lord, no, look, use my strengths. Lord, I'm organized. I'm disciplined. I'm pretty bright. I might be attractive. I might, whatever it is for you, you know, I'm real relational. Lord, you can use that. I'm hardworking. Take away my weaknesses and use my strengths. Now, wouldn't that seem like the obvious thing to do? God says, I know all about your strengths, at least in your mind, but I plan to use your weaknesses in a way that you couldn't imagine as well as the strengths that you think you have. And that way everyone will know that what's going on in you is not because of you, but because of me. And how many of you know that's the key? God is very jealous about His glory. And oftentimes if we just move in our strengths, we knowingly, sometimes unknowingly, or unconsciously anyhow, draw glory to ourself. When God says, when it's your weakness, you know it isn't you. When something happens that you're just not really good at, or in fact it's something that's been difficult for you, God says, the glory is going to come to me. And folks, in the end, that's what this is all about. God must get all the glory. The Lord says, I want you to know that I'll use your weakness to bring glory to myself. Let me define weaknesses. Weaknesses are, they're not, listen, they're not sin. They're not bad choices. A weakness is a limitation that I inherited or cannot change. A weakness that I inherited or cannot change. It isn't willfully disobeying God. It's not a character defect or a fault. You know, people say, my weakness is chocolate, or my weakness is, you know, I'm just constantly late, or I overeat, or I gossip a little bit. No, those are, frankly, those are choices. That's sin. And I'm not even today talking about addictions, which by the way are related to this. And sometimes they can seem to be like they're outside of your control, but in the end, an addiction in the end is a choice. We will talk more about that in coming weeks. Weaknesses are those things that you didn't choose and can't really control, and things that you can't change. The family you were born into, perhaps, the particular kind of body that you were given. Maybe you were living a perfectly, quote, quote, normal life, and you had an accident that took place in your life, and it changed you forever. I think of Johnny Erickson. I don't know if you've read anything about Johnny, Johnny Erickson who had, she was a normal 17-year-old, and she was a competitive swimmer, an athlete, and she dove unknowingly into some shallow water, broke her neck, and if you know anything about her work, she, I mean, a tragedy. She became a paraplegic and really only had some use of her hands, became an artist, an author, just an inspiration to thousands and thousands of people, but her life was changed. A weakness that God has now made a strength. You know, this really came home to me just a few weeks ago. We had our family, our boys, we were up at Chautauqua, and just for a weekend, and one afternoon we were throwing a baseball, and I was just showing the boys I still had it, you know, I was just mowing them down, and just when they mowed me down back the other way, once I was getting up, you know, just holding the palm of my hand, and they had, it was a hot afternoon, and we were throwing in this grass here, and there was this long dock, and they both ripped off their shirts, kind of like they choreographed it, and started running down this long dock, and without any exaggeration, it was at least from this spot to the front doors of the church. I mean, it was at least 150 feet. In fact, there was fairly large boats parked inside the end of this dock, and they're just doing, you know, the two brother thing, you know, 20, early 20s brothers competitively running out there as hard as they could, and they go leaping off, and I just remember yelling, jump, just sort of as a reflex, because we hadn't been in the water, and they disappeared out the end of the dock, and didn't see them pop right back, and I said, oh, they're probably just, you know, messing around with each other, and, but they didn't come up for a good minute or so. I kind of walked out there expecting them to be splashing, and when I got to the end of the dock, they're both standing there, and the water was 18 inches deep. Only funny, it's only funny because they weren't paralyzed. Had they chosen to dive in the water, my life wouldn't have been changed forever, and theirs, most especially theirs. They were bruised up a little bit, you know, I had a broken toe, that kind of thing, um, battered pride, I'll tell you that, um, quite a moment of reflection. People came out of the condos, said, didn't you know, and no, we didn't know, and fortunately, they jumped. You see, life can change in just a heartbeat, so we're talking about those kinds of things. Maybe it's an internal disposition that you have, maybe, maybe there's some of you who are inclined to be worriers, and no matter how much I preach, I'm not worrying you, just, some of you are inclined to be depressed, some of you are inclined to be critical, or have a temper. Maybe there's a circumstance that you couldn't change. These are the kinds of things that I believe Paul Mainsby talks about weaknesses. God says, I want to use these weaknesses, and, and I'm going to use them because I want people to know that it's my power. That verse, 2nd Corinthians 4 7, please, 2nd Corinthians 4 7, we have this treasure, what treasure? The treasure of God, in jars of clay, to show that this all surpassing power is from God, and not from us. I love that verse, that's why we do this, and so that's what we're going to use the image coming up behind the message today, of simply little clay pots. Turn to someone, say, you're a nice looking clay pot, okay, you're a nice looking clay pot, that's what you are. So, how do we go about this process? Well, number one, we've got to be aware, be aware of our weaknesses. First thing, at first this sounds pretty easy, you know, we all know we have them, nobody's going to sit here today and say, oh, I'm perfect, but friends, as we dig a little deeper, what we find is most people will admit the weaknesses that they feel safe admitting. They'll say something like, well, yeah, I am a little too aggressive, I suppose, or, because see, in the back of their mind, it's okay to admit that you're aggressive, because really, it just means that you're a go-getter, you know, you're a get-it-done kind of person. The fact is, when you really look at it, they're mowing people down, they're destroying their relationships, their family's pushing away from them, and the people they care about the most don't want to be near them, and in the end, they're going to be isolated. Their weaknesses, they have a critical spirit, but they call, well, I'm just a little too aggressive. You see, getting down to the root weakness here, the root issue, is very difficult. Just a little suggestion, a little homework for you. See if you have a trusted friend. Maybe it's a co-worker, maybe it's someone in your cell group. I don't mean a big group of people here. At no time am I talking about standing up here and just getting real, like, drippy open about your most profound weaknesses, unless somehow God would lead you to do that in a way that I wouldn't anticipate, but he could. I'm talking about finding someone you trust and saying, help me see myself as others really see me, not as I think they see me, and that is a major step of maturity in your life, if you're willing, and may I say that's what community is to be for. Community is to help you to do that, and here's a little warning for you. If you really want God to use you, how many of you do, but if you won't or can't admit your weaknesses, or you won't or can't deal with them, then God will answer your prayer by bringing something into your life to help you get there. These things are called crises. They'll bring a little crisis into your life. A crisis is an x-ray of your weakness. A crisis is an x-ray of your weakness. It will help you see what's really in there. This happened to me, oh, maybe a year or two ago. I was out in the other part of Beaver County where my mom lives, and I went to one of those large, you know, home improvement kind of stores. I won't name the particular store, but out that way, pretty far away actually, about an hour from here, getting something for my mom and for her house, and when I got to the checkout line, it was a long line. I mean, people were backed up. It must have been 10 people. I know I waited 12 minutes, 15 minutes. I was just really, and I could see a couple of people just sort of chit-chatting over on the side, you know, putting things up, and I couldn't figure it out. Well, I finally got to the checkout person, and I said, and I said it with a little bit of hesitation. I said, you know, this just isn't right. I mean, they need more help. Do you think the management would really like to have the store run this way, and I was, they had that kind of tone going, and she was, and I got down to the bagging person who was putting my stuff in the bag, and then I said, now you look really familiar. I said, are you a pastor at North Way Christian Community? I said, yeah, my name is Dave Fleming. I am a pastor there, and I, no, I didn't say that, but I wanted to. God will engineer little crises for you. He'll help people, help you see what's really going on. So, number one, be aware of it. Be aware of your weaknesses. Number two, be grateful for them, and this is where it gets to be just a little counterintuitive. It seems backwards to us. I mean, I want to get rid of my weaknesses. Isn't that why, don't we come here and have those great praise times today? It's like, take the praise pill, get rid of my weaknesses. Now, actually, praise does have the function of refocusing us on God, and that's good, but it is not a pill, and it doesn't take your weaknesses away. Look at 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. Paul writes, I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses. What? Why? Because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ. Now, I want you to listen to that. Because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ. How many of you wish you had a deeper experience of the power of Christ? Most people that come to this church for more than a week know that we are fairly intense about taking Jesus seriously. Why? Because he's God. He's more important than any athletic team, any presidential race, any economic issue. He's the Lord of all things. And I would say, if I took a little poll, many people say, I'd like a deeper experience of Christ. But I must say that, sadly, my experience over 25 years of pastoring is that most people that I've come to know do not have a deeper experience of the power of Christ, and are unable to convey that experience if they do have one to somebody else. I believe that the church in America is becoming a mile wide and an inch deep, and it's time that that changed. And how is it going to change? It's going to change when we come face to face with our weaknesses, and say, God, I want to be totally honest with you. I want to be where I really am, and I want to be with others in that pursuit together. Because then it's going to mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ. There is an irresistible drawing of God to acknowledge weakness, friends. God will show up when we have the power to admit that we have a need. Let me give you four reasons why we need to be grateful, even though it seems so counterintuitive to our thinking. Number one, it guarantees God's power, or God's help in our lives. Look at the next verse. I am with you, that's all you need. Say that with me. I am with you, that's all you need. Tomorrow morning when you wake up to give that presentation at work, just remember that verse. I am with you, that's all you need. When you go home today and your unbelieving spouse says, did you go to that dumb church again? You can say, you know, Lord, thank you. You're with me, and you're all I need. I'll get through this. You'll work it out. That particular promise can help every one of us in whatever circumstance we're facing. Some of you are looking at a complex problem that's not going to go away, but God is with you, and he's all you need. Some of you are going to be going off to college this week. God is with you. He's all you need. Some of you are looking at a relational heartbreak. I ran into a guy that I hadn't seen through the summer who told me his brother was killed in a motorcycle accident last month, and he's still healing. And I said, God is with you. God's with you. He's all you need. And by the way, we're with you too. God says, if you don't realize this, if you look for other ways to kind of get through it on your own, you're going to get stuck. In fact, here's the next blank here on your outline. You don't usually realize that God is all you need until God is all you've got. We are so adept at filling ourselves up with self-help things and little, you know, kind of props and gimmicks and resources that fall apart when things get tough. God says, I'm going to pull all that away, and then when I get there, then you'll realize that I'm enough for you. And by the way, just for those of you who've been around here for a while, this isn't something you go through once. I mean, no, you learn this again and again and again. You have to come back to this place of God is all you need. Because there's something in me, and it might be in you too, that when I get to a certain point of maturity, I think, you know, I kind of got this down a little bit. And God needs to come back around again and remind you that you must remain dependent upon Him. And He'll bring something into your life to take you to that point. Why? Because you see, dependency is the doorway to intimacy. I want to say that again. Dependency is the doorway to intimacy. The less I have, the more I depend on Him. Look at the last part of that verse, verse 10 of chapter 12. The less I have, the more I depend. So number one, it guarantees God's help. Or letter B, it prevents arrogance in our life. You see, when you're grateful for your weakness, it's hard to be prideful. There's been a huge amount of debate about what these thorns are that Paul had. I have several books on that subject. What was Paul's thorn in the flesh? And you know, honestly, folks, it is one of those things that is going to be asked until the second coming. I don't know what it was. Some think it was his eyes, because he writes in other epistles he couldn't see, so he needed help. That was his thorn. Some think it was the Jews who kept persecuting him. I don't know what it was. It doesn't matter what it was. All we know was it tormented him. It caused him pain. It was a limitation. All we know was it wasn't his spouse, because he wasn't married. So don't turn to your spouse and say, you're my thorn, all right? I just don't go there. It wasn't sin either, because sin is something that God heals and removes. But a thorn is something that guides me, directs me, and motivates me to draw near to God. And all of us have some kind of thorns in our lives. I won't develop much of this, because most of you know the story, but you know, in my life, I've had a significant amount of back trouble. It began, most of you may not know this, really kind of early on. When I was a little guy, my mom said, the doctor said, you had a sway back. It's technically called a lordosis these days. And as early as ninth grade, I remember having pain in my back. And then playing high school basketball once, I was knocked down, getting a rebound, and fell on my tailbone, and I couldn't walk for like three weeks. But I got over it, and things adapted, and so on. But it's just a little problem. Even though I went in the Marine Corps, I passed the I still had a lot of pain at different times, and took a lot of grief for the things that I just, I couldn't figure out why my back hurts so badly. And then it kind of stabilized for a while there. And when I reached my early 40s, it just started, all the things started to compress. And those of you who've gotten over 40, you know what happens. It's just everything starts going south. What's with this? You know, it's like gravity's picking up here. And that's chewing your back. And it got bad enough, those of you who've been here a while may remember, I couldn't really stand for very long. And it's interesting that it happened at the time that North Way was growing at a point in our old building, where we had four services. A Saturday night, and three Sunday morning services. And it was so bad, standing for 90 minutes times four. Okay, that's six hours of standing. I wasn't making it. And how many of you were around here at the time when I used to preach from a stool? That, and it was interesting. It was like we were going up, and I was going down. Why? Because God wanted me to know. I was going to have to remain dependent upon him. Now, mercifully, the Lord has helped me a great deal in the last years, and through surgery, and and prayer. I'm doing much better. It's still an issue. I'm still dependent. I still have to wake up every morning, say, Lord, thanks for another good day of health. But the Lord, He just reigns in your arrogance. Turn your outline over. It also causes you to value others. You see, unbridled strength. If all you are is strong, you know what you become? You become independent. And it's almost the goal of some people, to be so strong that they can stand up and say, I don't need anybody. I don't need you. I don't need this. I don't need that. I just make it on my own. People move to the place of literally thinking, I can be the Lone Ranger. In fact, no one, listen, as far as I can tell, no one gets all the pieces to the puzzle in their little box of life. When you come into this world and dump the pieces of your life out, there's going to be a few empty pieces of that puzzle, and you've got to find someone else to help you fill them. That's just the way it is. And I want you to know, God, listen, listen, God is bringing very wonderful people into this church. Some of you in the back two thirds right now who aren't moving very much, I know you're listening very closely, because what I'm discovering is there's just waves of new people with enthusiasm and giftedness, and He's knitting your pieces of the puzzle into the big picture. And as a result, what we thought was our future just a few years ago was too small. God has a bigger picture in mind. Now, some people saw that years ago. I just didn't get it. And now I see what He's doing. And folks, it's exciting. He's bringing people in. And if, by the way, and if you are one of those new people, get into this new discovery class coming up next week. You don't want to miss that, because it's new, revised, it's going to help streamline you into the essential values of our church and build some relationships. So I just, and some of you who went a long time ago might want to go again. So just be reminded that when you are willing to acknowledge your weakness, it helps you to value others, and also it helps Latter-day to define your ministry. Look at 2 Corinthians 1.4. God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received. What's that saying? It's saying this. It's saying when you go through something really painful and difficult, when you endure a season of having to just be flat out dependent upon God because it's so painful, when you come through the other side, you are a very effective instrument of God in that very point. I'll tell you what, the people, when I was going through my physical affliction, the people that prayed that touched my heart most effectively were the people who'd been there. That's why today people who've been through the pain of divorce are the most effective in ministering to people who are facing divorce. Childless couples who've gone through that season are the most effective in helping those who are facing that disappointment in life. People who've been financially bankrupt and down and out are wonderful encouragements for those who are going through financial pain. And so it goes. The Lord says, I'm going to use the thing you've gone through to become your greatest ministry, and I will tell you this, you will be most effective in the place where you've been hurt the most. That's the way it is. You will be the most effective in the place where your hurt was the deepest. In fact, you will become your life message. Pain sensitizes us to the hurts of others in a way that nothing else can. And I just want to tell you, it can be something you're still working out. It's the thing you're most embarrassed about. The thing that you wish no one knew about you. That can become a point of great strength as God uses you to touch others' lives. When we interview staff people here, one of the questions I ask them is, where have you been hurt? What pain have you gone through? And if they say to me, well, you know, I don't think I've ever really had any disappointment, hurt, or pain, or loss in my life. I say, let me recommend another church for you. Because I want staff people here who understand what it means to be hurt. Because they're the ones that are most effective in reaching out to others. All right, so what do we do? We have to become aware of our weaknesses, become grateful, and then finally, in conclusion, once that happens, that's wonderful. It's all internally beginning to make sense. But letter or Roman numeral three, you have to be willing to share them. Be willing to share your weaknesses with others. Wow. At some point in the journey, in the right safe environment of love, acceptance, and forgiveness, you can just let down the guard and the mask a little bit. You can put aside your defenses and just share your life. Listen, friends, just look down the aisles. I mean, we see people that look pretty happy, pretty normal, but everyone and every one of those seats has something in their life that's not where they want it to be right now. And wouldn't it be just wonderful if we came here week by week and in our small groups and we just said, hey, we're all in this journey together. None of us have it all together, but we all are committed to knowing the one who can see us through it. Here's the real me. We can call it honesty, vulnerability, whatever you want to call it. But I'll tell you this, it's somewhat risky. Years ago, I read a book written by a Catholic priest called, Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? Father John Pyle, anyone read that book? Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? Great little title. The conclusion of the book is, the reason I'm afraid to tell you who I am is because if I do and you don't like me, I'm up a creek without a paddle because I'm all I've got and you're going to reject me. So I'll wear as many masks as I can to pretend to be what I think you want me to be so that you'll like me. But underneath it all, you see the real fact of the matter is you're never really secure because you know in the back that maybe once they find out who you really are, they won't like you. And you know what, that keeps some of you from ever getting into a group because you're afraid once you get into a group, you'll get found out and they won't like you. And that means you come around here for a while and you never receive love because you're never known. I want us just to commit to being known. You know in the study of church history that the only times that I can find in all my studies when a move of God, now follow me on this, when God swept in and turned things upside down, the only times are invariably linked to confession in the church. Without confession, without openly confessing weakness and fault, there is no move of God. And invariably when there has been confession and openness and the sharing of weakness and fault, God rushes into that like a vacuum and his presence comes upon that people. I don't know what forum it's going to take it northward, but as we move forward into the new year, I'm believing that God is going to turn this place upside down with his presence because we're going to be willing to say to one another, this is who I am. This is where I am. And God's going to say and I'm going to come right in there and I'm going to take on and I'm going to change you and I'm going to come through you and change others. And friends, that's my heart. For the last 20 years, we've sought to be a community. A community is a place where you can be authentic. You can be real. It's a place where you can be emotionally honest. It's a place where you can find the grace of God and be spiritually empowered. It's a place where you can be appreciated for who you are. Have you found, are you drawn to arrogant people? How many of you just like to hang out with arrogant people? When you watch someone on Larry King live, you know, who's like has towers named after him or whatever. And, you know, and you, you say, boy, I just, they're just so endearing. I'd like to just hang out with them. No, it's the paradox of our world is that we somehow, we reward that kind of arrogance and strength, but inwardly we despise it. I just want to say today, let's be a place where we can develop emotional health and spiritual empowerment, where we can become relationally attracted to each other. And finally, where leaders provide the kind of inspiration that model this. A lot of you are leaders out here today. A lot of you are leaders. You've got to model this transparency. Paul writes, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. See, true leaders, leaders in their homes, in their neighborhoods, in their communities, in their jobs, in their churches, they're willing to be known. Leadership, by definition, is simply influence. It's simply influence. You're able to direct things. Not, it's not position, it's not title, it's not money. It's the ability to get people to follow you. Sometimes you can pick it out in kids early on. I mean, they, they just have this innate sort of giftedness, but it can also be learned. But the number one mark of it in a Christian is the character quality of dependency upon God, and that comes only through the willingness to share your weakness. My heart is to see North Way have a reputation out in the community of being a place where you can come as you are. I want the buzz to be, you know, out in the community. I can go in there, wherever I am in my life journey, and I can be accepted with my weaknesses, and I can discover a God. I can't change people's weaknesses, but God can. I can't excuse people's weaknesses, but God can forgive them, and change them, and move them on. I want this to be a place where people feel drawn, because the masks are down, and there's real life here, and it's modeled throughout the Bible. You know, Moses, what was Moses weakness? That dude had a bad temper. Didn't he kill somebody? Yeah, he, he saw someone doin