Speaker 1: Well, good morning FCC.
Speaker 1: Good to see you all.
Speaker 1: Welcome to those who are here and up in the balcony and those online.
Speaker 1: Great to have you all tuning in with us as well and joining us on this wonderful Sunday.
Speaker 1: I want to dive right in.
Speaker 1: Nate said I've got until 3 to kind of communicate.
Speaker 1: Why are y'all laughing?
Speaker 1: That wasn't even a joke.
Speaker 1: That wasn't a joke.
Speaker 1: Anybody here hungry for God?
Speaker 1: Good, then let's act like it.
Speaker 1: 3 o'clock, it is 3 o'clock, it is.
Speaker 1: No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 1: But one of the things I do kind of joke about or not is like I just I really have like one, one message that I'm just preaching my entire life and um, and I just get to share bits of it and opportunities like this, so I don't really ever finish, I just end because we have to go home.
Speaker 1: That's's pretty much it.
Speaker 1: This is like one big message for my whole life.
Speaker 1: One of the things I want to share today is a principle that I don't consider a secret.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people say I've got these five secrets about prayer, like if it's from the Bible.
Speaker 1: It's not a secret.
Speaker 1: Like it's a book that's been printed, it's been published all over the world, it's been being read for thousands of years.
Speaker 1: It's not a secret, like it's, I guess.
Speaker 1: It's a book that's been printed.
Speaker 1: It's been published all over the world.
Speaker 1: It's been being read for thousands of years.
Speaker 1: It's not a secret.
Speaker 1: Some might call this a secret it's right there.
Speaker 1: But I will say that it's a significant principle that I believe will shift in our relationship with God, where we can experience more of his grace and power in our lives.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of promises that God has for us in his word, but there are some things that some of us are unaware of that can actually hinder us from experiencing the grace and power that we see in the word of God and the grace and power that other people that we see around us might be experiencing.
Speaker 1: And so sometimes people go man, what am I doing wrong?
Speaker 1: It's like.
Speaker 1: Well, it's not so much doing it wrong, but there might be a way of believing that we have that is limiting us in our relationship with God.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we have walls up in our relationship with God that we don't know we have.
Speaker 1: We're unaware of them, and so I want to share an idea today that I believe will help you with that.
Speaker 1: But let me begin by sharing this story.
Speaker 1: I've got three daughters at home.
Speaker 1: They're nine, six and four, nine, six and four and, yes, that was a prayer request.
Speaker 1: So every day is like every day is an adventure.
Speaker 1: No day is the same, but they are amazing.
Speaker 1: It's really cool to see little gifts come out and their personalities and stuff, but one particular day, one of them was trying to tie her shoes, and all of us have experienced this in our own lives and in our own kids, whether they're our kids or we've seen other kids experience other people's children.
Speaker 1: We see this part of their development where they're learning to do something on their own and they're trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: And even though there are things that all of us, you're constantly learning, one of the things that is important in our stages of growth is our ability to do things on our own.
Speaker 1: We kind of make these like mile markers or growth milestones.
Speaker 1: We're able to do it on our own.
Speaker 1: Look, she's able to eat on her own now, right, and so we don't have to keep feeding her.
Speaker 1: Now she can grab a spoon and eat it.
Speaker 1: Or look, he's doing something.
Speaker 1: He's brushing his teeth on his own.
Speaker 1: And so these stages of development where we determine growth by a person's ability to do things on their own, and guess what?
Speaker 1: And our kids know that too.
Speaker 1: So they want to do things on their own.
Speaker 1: But it can be frustrating when they're trying to do something that they don't know how to do.
Speaker 1: And so on this particular day, my daughter, who's currently six now I think she was maybe four, four or three at the time so we're getting ready to go out of the house to go do something I don't even remember what it was and she's wanting to tie her shoes on her own.
Speaker 1: And she's wanting to tie her shoes on her own.
Speaker 1: She has not learned how to tie her shoes on her own yet.
Speaker 1: Now you and I know when it's time to go.
Speaker 1: This isn't the time for Discovery zone here.
Speaker 1: We're trying to go.
Speaker 1: Now you're trying to learn something.
Speaker 1: So he's trying to do her shoelaces and you can clearly see she's nowhere near tying these shoes.
Speaker 1: She hasn't learned bunny ears yet.
Speaker 1: We haven't gotten to that phase yet.
Speaker 1: This is the time she wants to.
Speaker 1: And so I said I'm seeing her struggle, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: So I said do you want Daddy to help you?
Speaker 1: No, daddy, I got it.
Speaker 1: I don't need your help.
Speaker 1: That's not true.
Speaker 1: I don't need your help that's not true.
Speaker 1: Got laces everywhere, like this is.
Speaker 1: So she's trying to do it on her own, trying to do it on her own.
Speaker 1: So now I'm waiting, now I have the experience to help her.
Speaker 1: I have the desire to help her.
Speaker 1: As her father, I'm present to help her.
Speaker 1: I have the power to help her, but I can't, because she has refused this help, because she wants to do it on her own.
Speaker 1: Now, on a personal level, there is a sense of achievement.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about the first time they did tie their shoes on their own, or the first time they did do something right.
Speaker 1: I did it, I did it on my own, I did it without any help.
Speaker 1: Like there's a sense of achievement there because it is a milestone in development.
Speaker 1: And so here she is and she's struggling and I'm having to wait.
Speaker 1: I don't want to wait.
Speaker 1: I want to help her, not just because I want to go somewhere, but because I can see the struggle and the frustration and it's mounting.
Speaker 1: So time and time goes by and she goes and she starts crying.
Speaker 1: Now she's crying and I'm watching the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Daddy, can you help me?
Speaker 1: Can you help me?
Speaker 1: Sure, we could have done this ten minutes ago, we could have avoided all the tears.
Speaker 1: But yet here we are and guess what?
Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell you.
Speaker 1: We could have done this 10 minutes ago.
Speaker 1: You should have asked me a long time ago.
Speaker 1: No, I'm going to help her tie her shoes, so we can go.
Speaker 1: So what's interesting to me?
Speaker 1: So we can go.
Speaker 1: What's interesting to me is that in our relationship with God, there are things that he would want to do.
Speaker 1: He has the power, the desire, the will, the presence to do it, but we oftentimes, like my four-year-old daughter trying to tie her shoes Daddy, I got it, I don't need your help.
Speaker 1: And behind the I don't need your help is a message in her mind and in our minds that if we can do this on our own, it says something about us, about our ability, about our power, about our knowledge, and we really want that.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but it's uncomfortable to be trying to do something that you don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1: No one likes to feel incompetent.
Speaker 1: No one likes the feeling of not having confidence in what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Maybe you get a new job or maybe you weren't trained well, and it's just frustrating.
Speaker 1: I have this responsibility and I don't know what I'm doing and I don't really feel like I want to ask somebody to help me because I just got promoted.
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to look like I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Where do we get that from?
Speaker 1: Where do we get that from that?
Speaker 1: We have to sometimes hide some of our issues and hide some of our weaknesses.
Speaker 1: Where do we get that from?
Speaker 1: We have to feel like we have to look strong and look like we have it all together.
Speaker 1: Like why do we even?
Speaker 1: Why do we do that?
Speaker 1: Sometimes people have a criticism of church because they think, well, people in church they have it all together and I don't have it all together.
Speaker 1: It's like no newsflash, have you been to church?
Speaker 1: They don't have it all together.
Speaker 1: Well, they all look like they have it all together.
Speaker 1: I know, I know.
Speaker 1: I know Some of them are like Oscar nominees for the way they reacted.
Speaker 1: I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1: But true Christianity is not about acting like anything, like acting like we don't need God's forgiveness, what.
Speaker 1: Acting like God hasn't done miracles in our lives.
Speaker 1: Acting like we got it all together, we did all this, like what Some of us need to just remember the miracle right?
Speaker 1: We're talking earlier about how God does all these different miracles and so some of them are really big, like raising people from the dead or healing and things like that.
Speaker 1: But there are other everyday kind of things big like raising people from the dead or healing and things like that.
Speaker 1: But there are other everyday kind of things and sometimes there are some things God has done in our lives, miracles in our lives, that when we were first experiencing them, when we first told the story, we told it as a miracle, but then over time it began to be one of our achievements.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an example, because some of you look like you don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Alright, first of all, you want to buy this house right Now.
Speaker 1: You know your credit is in the negative, stuff is all whack.
Speaker 1: You don't have what you need in the savings, you don't have what you need from income.
Speaker 1: On paper you should not have gotten approved for the loan.
Speaker 1: But you got the loan and you got the house and you had people praying all over the place for things to go through for you, because you knew on paper you were not qualified on paper to make that step.
Speaker 1: But God blessed you with a house.
Speaker 1: God answered those prayers and when God first blessed you with that house or apartment or car or job, doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: You can follow with the same principle.
Speaker 1: When God first blessed you with the house, you told everybody look what God has done.
Speaker 1: Because, let me tell you, my credit was looking kind of bad, my income was not looking good at all, but God made a way.
Speaker 1: Oh, god is so faithful, he's so faithful.
Speaker 1: Okay, now, 10 years later, it's Thanksgiving dinner, family's at your house.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is a beautiful house, you know well.
Speaker 1: I thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: We worked hard, we worked hard for this house and we saved up and we no, no, wait, wait.
Speaker 1: Ten years later, it's the same miracle that it was ten years earlier, but now, some kind of way, you want to put your stuff in there.
Speaker 1: It's the same.
Speaker 1: And it's so important to recognize that God and his power ten years later, because knowing how he stepped in to help you is information you're going to continue to need as you grow in your faith and build your faith.
Speaker 1: But sometimes our faith doesn't grow because our appreciation of God's power has decreased.
Speaker 1: The thing he did, we no longer give him credit for doing it.
Speaker 1: This is why in the Old Testament it's so important.
Speaker 1: God says hey, I want you to tell your kids what I just did Set up these monuments.
Speaker 1: Tell your kids, and you tell your kids, your kids, your kids so that they don't lose the fact that I am God, because one day you're going to be off the scene and I'm still going to be here and they need to know what I did for you so they can know that I'll do it again and again and again and again.
Speaker 1: Right you and again and right you got to pass it on down, but some kind of way we end up puffing our chest out because we don't like the fact that we needed his help.
Speaker 1: Where do we get this idea?
Speaker 1: So I have a question for you.
Speaker 1: Our first question is where do you think are some of the lies that are told by our family or our culture about portraying strength or admitting weaknesses?
Speaker 1: What are some of the things?
Speaker 1: In a second I'm going to give you, you can think about it.
Speaker 1: I want you to yell some things out at me.
Speaker 1: What did you learn in your family?
Speaker 1: What have you learned in culture about looking big or looking strong or looking like you don't need help?
Speaker 1: What are the lies that are told to us about that.
Speaker 1: Maybe you learned them in your family, maybe some things?
Speaker 1: I heard quite a few at the nine o'clock service.
Speaker 1: They were really, really good ones.
Speaker 1: What else Shout some things out at me?
Speaker 1: What are some things told to you about how you need to be strong all the time, or whatever?
Speaker 1: Real men don't cry.
Speaker 1: Yep, someone said that at nine o'clock too.
Speaker 1: That's a popular one.
Speaker 1: Real men, don't cry.
Speaker 1: What's that?
Speaker 1: Never admit your weakness.
Speaker 1: What happens to your life if you live by that?
Speaker 1: You're done Right.
Speaker 1: What else?
Speaker 1: Fake it till you make it.
Speaker 1: Listen, the kingdom of God does not agree with that.
Speaker 1: That is not a kingdom principle or kingdom value.
Speaker 1: Fake it till you make it.
Speaker 1: No, what else?
Speaker 1: Or kingdom value?
Speaker 1: Fake it till you make it, no, what else?
Speaker 1: God only helps, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: God only helps those who help themselves.
Speaker 1: Is that what the gospel of Jesus is?
Speaker 1: God helps those who can't help themselves.
Speaker 1: Sweep it under the carpet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you make that mistake.
Speaker 1: Cover it up right.
Speaker 1: No pain, no gain oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: You can have all kind of pain and still no gain.
Speaker 1: That doesn't just because you have pain doesn't mean you're gain, right.
Speaker 1: That's not true.
Speaker 1: Oh, suffering is bad.
Speaker 1: That's interesting, like if you go through hard times and if you suffer, it means something that's not good, that's bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we hear that one a lot.
Speaker 1: Right, even Job's friends told him you must have done something wrong.
Speaker 1: Job to be experiencing this.
Speaker 1: Job wasn't going through what he went through because he did something bad.
Speaker 1: He's actually going through it because he was good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we hear these lies all the time.
Speaker 1: And so here's what's crazy.
Speaker 1: All right, here we go.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 1: Real men, don't cry.
Speaker 1: Fake it till you make it.
Speaker 1: Suffering is bad.
Speaker 1: Don't admit your weaknesses.
Speaker 1: Now what happens if I take those same beliefs into my relationship with God?
Speaker 1: Who, number one, he knows the truth about you.
Speaker 1: Number two, he doesn't believe your lies, even when you do.
Speaker 1: Number three, we're faking it in the presence of the only person we really can trust with everything.
Speaker 1: See, when you're taught not to be real with yourself, then you won't be real with yourself, you won't be real with others, you won't be real with God.
Speaker 1: And the problem is, then there are going to be times where you cannot tie your shoes and you're telling God I got it, let me do it on my own, and he'll be right there watching you With your shoelaces, all over the place, nowhere close to bunny ears.
Speaker 1: I got it.
Speaker 1: I got it, but he's here with his wisdom, with his power, with his desire, with his experience, with his presence.
Speaker 1: But we don't want to say I need your help, because we're believing these lies that have convinced us that we don't Show of hands.
Speaker 1: How many of you wish you would pray more than you actually do right now?
Speaker 1: Okay, good, good, good.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an insider tip.
Speaker 1: You only pray when you believe you need to, and there could be some moments in your life where you just you don't know what to say, like they're traumatic.
Speaker 1: You can't pray for yourself.
Speaker 1: That's when you tell somebody else I need you to get me because you don't know what to say.
Speaker 1: Like they're traumatic.
Speaker 1: You can't pray for yourself.
Speaker 1: That's when you tell somebody else I need you to get me because I don't even.
Speaker 1: I'm having a situation Like I know I need prayer but I can't even.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what to right.
Speaker 1: There are those moments, but the biggest motive for prayerlessness is feeling like we don't need it.
Speaker 1: We don't need his help.
Speaker 1: Some of you, if you're in a hospital bed, you might find time to pray, then you might find the need.
Speaker 1: I know some people found the need to pray when in a jail cell or maybe a bankruptcy, or maybe a challenging family situation with a kid situation, whatever.
Speaker 1: When you get to a place where you are like my daughter now you've tried what you know how to try.
Speaker 1: It's not working.
Speaker 1: First you're like I don't need your help, I don't need your help, I don't need your help.
Speaker 1: And then you shift to will you help me?
Speaker 1: For some of us it takes a serious situation to motivate us to say will you help me when that same access is available, the moment you start trying to tie shoes, the same power, but when those lies in our head convince us to try to go it alone, to try to do it on our own, to try to do without God.
Speaker 1: Prayerlessness in many cases is because we don't feel like we need God's help in that area.
Speaker 1: We don't feel like we need God's power, his strength, so we don't ask him for it.
Speaker 1: Even in my own life, my seasons of prayerlessness was when I felt like I got it, like I can handle it, and the issue for me wasn't that I needed a 10-week series on prayer To learn about the power of prayer, the benefits of prayer, how to pray.
Speaker 1: You know acts, you know confession, all I can know.
Speaker 1: I don't need a formula for prayer.
Speaker 1: No, in my heart I didn't want to do it because I didn't feel like I needed his help.
Speaker 1: And prayer is only prayer, if you like.
Speaker 1: Need his help.
Speaker 1: That was my belief.
Speaker 1: So if I felt like there were situations that I could handle on my own, I'd handle on my own, until the tears came and, just like my daughter, I realized I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: Some of us in here, you are taught we're talking about these different lives from our family.
Speaker 1: You are taught that you are the rock of the family.
Speaker 1: Let me give you some insight.
Speaker 1: You're not.
Speaker 1: There's only one rock and you are not him.
Speaker 1: But here's what happens.
Speaker 1: This is an example.
Speaker 1: So if you take that identity on yourself, they say you know we can always come to you, we can always count on you right.
Speaker 1: Over time and some of you let's start when you were a kid Over time you start taking on this identity like I am the one my family depends on, I am the one that they count on right.
Speaker 1: You can even have somebody in your family die and they're all crying and you're saying I'm not crying because I've got to be strong for them.
Speaker 1: Since when does strong mean you can't cry at somebody's funeral, see?
Speaker 1: But that's what those lies do.
Speaker 1: They convince us to try to be something that we're not, and then we end up trying to be something that's really not human.
Speaker 1: You're not in touch with your own stuff.
Speaker 1: Trying to be strong, I've got to be strong.
Speaker 1: Forever, says who Like.
Speaker 1: Who told you that?
Speaker 1: Who told you you have to be strong for the whole family?
Speaker 1: Who told you that it's not healthy?
Speaker 1: It's not healthy and it's not kingdom.
Speaker 1: And God never told you that.
Speaker 1: And here's what's crazy.
Speaker 1: Here's what's crazy.
Speaker 1: This is why this is so important, because the more you think you are the rock, the less you will count on the one who really is.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the rock.
Speaker 1: He's the one that's not movable.
Speaker 1: He's the one you can always trust and always count on.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you another secret he cried, in case you didn't know that.
Speaker 1: But see, if you think you're supposed to absorb it all and you think that you cannot let other people know when you need help, where does that put you in your relationship with God?
Speaker 1: You think you're going to be a rock for God too.
Speaker 1: Now you can't ask him for help because you've taken on this identity like I'm the one that I can suck it up, I can hold it all, I can bear the weight of it all.
Speaker 1: No, you can't Let it go.
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 1: You need help, you need help.
Speaker 1: That's one of those family kind of things that just you know.
Speaker 1: That's just one example.
Speaker 1: But if we pass this microphone around, all of you would have something that you can say or something that you believed about this.
Speaker 1: What are?
Speaker 1: Let's go to the next question.
Speaker 1: So let's look.
Speaker 1: I gave you some examples.
Speaker 1: Let's look specifically.
Speaker 1: What are lies that you believe about your image, reputation or identity that prevent you from admitting weakness or your need for help?
Speaker 1: What are some things that you believe about you, about, maybe, your image?
Speaker 1: Remember, stuff was going down in the family and what happens in our family stays in our family.
Speaker 1: Right, you know in good and well that kind of dysfunction.
Speaker 1: There are agencies out there to help you all with what was going on, but you couldn't say anything because you were told to keep it right there, to protect the image of the family name the image the people suffered for decades to protect an image, to protect their reputation.
Speaker 1: And not only did they suffer for decades, but because you didn't get help, you passed it on to your kids.
Speaker 1: Because we didn't ask for help, because we believe lies.
Speaker 1: What lies In your own life?
Speaker 1: What was told to you about image, reputation, image is everything.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 1: What lies were told?
Speaker 1: First impressions matter.
Speaker 1: How many of you have blown a first impression before?
Speaker 1: Right, my goodness, yeah.
Speaker 1: So I want you to think about this and reflect personally.
Speaker 1: Just think, just think Lies about your identity when you were a kid, when you were a young adult, whatever.
Speaker 1: Now, how many of you have?
Speaker 1: Just raise your hand, don't yell out anymore.
Speaker 1: How many of you you've recognized something in your head like something that you were told okay, looks like some of you need some more time, because this is all of us.
Speaker 1: Y'all, this is all of us.
Speaker 1: This is part of the human experience.
Speaker 1: This is all of us.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's no shame.
Speaker 1: Some of you thought if you ask for help, it's shame on you if you need help from anyone.
Speaker 1: No, that's a prison.
Speaker 1: If you can't ask for help when you need it, or you don't even recognize when you need help, that's a prison.
Speaker 1: That's lonely, that's isolating.
Speaker 1: That's not God's plan for you.
Speaker 1: That's not God's best for you Not at all.
Speaker 1: And one of the reasons why we talk about church and community right, a lot of people don't think they need community because they don't think they need help.
Speaker 1: I need help.
Speaker 1: It says something about me if I do it on my own.
Speaker 1: It says something about me if I achieve it on my own.
Speaker 1: But what cost are you willing to pay to your soul for trying to do it on your own, like you literally weren't even created to do it?
Speaker 1: You were created to need people.
Speaker 1: So how do you look?
Speaker 1: Trying to neglect your need for people?
Speaker 1: You were created to need God.
Speaker 1: So how do you look, trying to neglect your need for God?
Speaker 1: Or do you act like it's not there?
Speaker 1: The answer to this question, what are the lies you believe?
Speaker 1: All right, god wants to meet us in that place, because if we want to experience the empowering grace of God that can fill in the areas where we're weak, we'll have to admit the areas where we're weak.
Speaker 1: He can't come into a place that you're trying to put a do not disturb sign.
Speaker 1: He can't enter a place you're trying to put no entrance.
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 1: You can't because guess what, like me and my daughter, I will stand right there when you push off.
Speaker 1: I don't need your help, I don't need your help.
Speaker 1: I don't need your help.
Speaker 1: I don't need your help the whole time.
Speaker 1: He's like you have no idea how much you need my help.
Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul ran into a situation where he was asking God for relief from a specific challenge, and God told him I'm not going to relieve you of this challenge.
Speaker 1: Instead, I want you to turn your attention away from the challenge and toward what I have provided for you to overcome the challenge with.
Speaker 1: So, in this passage in 2 Corinthians, paul helps us see a perspective that we need to have towards our weakness, because it helps us to see what God wants to do with his weaknesses.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to unpack a little bit about what these weaknesses look like.
Speaker 1: So, beginning in verse 6, for if I want to boast, I wouldn't be a fool because I'd be telling the truth.
Speaker 1: Going to boast, I wouldn't be a fool because I'd be telling the truth, but I'll spare you so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me, and here's what Paul is saying.
Speaker 1: Because of Paul's relationship with God and through Christ, I mean, we know he got you know, he encountered the resurrected Jesus on his road to Damascus, a city where he's going to go to persecute Christians.
Speaker 1: On his way there, jesus intercepted him and met him, and that changed Saul of Tarsus' life into the person we call Paul now.
Speaker 1: But as Paul was growing and developing as to be a mature apostle, one who's going to go and share the gospel of Jesus all around the world well, asia Minor he had some encounters with God and some experiences with God, and he received some deep understanding and revelations that he says.
Speaker 1: It could have made me arrogant, and if I would have told you all these things, I wouldn't even be boasting, because these things are true, the things that he told me.
Speaker 1: But I don't want you to respond to me based on that.
Speaker 1: I want you to respond to me based on how I'm living in front of you.
Speaker 1: I'm not boasting about the knowledge that I have.
Speaker 1: I have seen some things, he's revealed some things to me, but I'm not here to brag about that.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you about something that happened to me.
Speaker 1: I went to God three times, verse 7.
Speaker 1: Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me, so that I would not exalt myself.
Speaker 1: So something was given to me and allowed to enter into my life to keep me humble, so that I wouldn't act all arrogant and cocky and proud because of all the knowledge that I have.
Speaker 1: There was something given to me that was going to keep me on my knees.
Speaker 1: It was going to keep me from being proud and arrogant, and arrogant, he says.
Speaker 1: A messenger of Satan.
Speaker 1: Messenger is another word for well.
Speaker 1: Some pastors talks about like an angel, right, a demonic spirit, demonic influence.
Speaker 1: How do these things pop up?
Speaker 1: It came through people.
Speaker 1: Now, ever heard somebody call somebody else man, they're such a pain in the neck.
Speaker 1: You ever heard that?
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you haven't said it, but I mean you heard other people say it.
Speaker 1: Right, and they're such a pain in the neck.
Speaker 1: Now, when they say that person has a pain in the neck, do they mean they're actually causing some problems in their spine?
Speaker 1: No, it's a phrase, it's like a colloquialism.
Speaker 1: Right, it's a phrase that's not to be taken literally, but it represents something and you have to be part of the culture to know what it represents, right?
Speaker 1: So thorn in the flesh.
Speaker 1: Every time in scripture it points to an enemy.
Speaker 1: In the Old Testament, god would say hey, you need to take out this particular group of people because if you don't take them out now, they will be a thorn in your flesh or a thorn in your eye.
Speaker 1: So thorn is enemy.
Speaker 1: So Paul's saying man, there's an enemy that was present and I was telling God, take this thing away from me.
Speaker 1: And he's like no, I'm not going to take this enemy away from you, I'm going to give you something else.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you something else.
Speaker 1: So he says, concerning this, in verse 8, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me, but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in what Weakness?
Speaker 1: My power is perfected in weakness, therefore.
Speaker 1: So this is what God said to Paul.
Speaker 1: So then, watch Paul's change of an attitude towards his weakness, his change of an attitude towards this thing, this thorn in the flesh.
Speaker 1: He says therefore I will gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may reside in me.
Speaker 1: Power may reside in me, so I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Speaker 1: Everywhere that Paul went in his missionary journeys, there would be people who would follow him just to try to persecute him, to try to stir up crowds.
Speaker 1: Paul found himself in jail.
Speaker 1: All the time People try to, and so this is the enemy, the thorn in the flesh, this is the persecution.
Speaker 1: I want you to know.
Speaker 1: I want you to know the one thing God does not promise to take away is persecution for our faith.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, what he always promises us when there's persecution is I'm going to be there with you.
Speaker 1: One, I'm going to be there with you and then, two, I've got something for you on the other side.
Speaker 1: So Paul's like these folks are aggravating me, the demons in these people are aggravating me.
Speaker 1: God, take them away, take them away, take them away.
Speaker 1: He's like no, I'm not taking them away, but I'm going to give you a power to overcome them.
Speaker 1: So where we, as you're sharing the message of the gospel, in all these places, it won't matter who your haters are or who tries to stop you.
Speaker 1: My power, my grace for you, will aid you to overcome them in the midst of the presence of your enemies.
Speaker 1: But check this out.
Speaker 1: He's like Paul.
Speaker 1: This is what I want you to notice, paul.
Speaker 1: Paul, I know that you grew up in the best schools.
Speaker 1: I know you have powerful oratory skills and you know how to speak, but your speaking is not going to get you out of this.
Speaker 1: You have to acknowledge you can't do this.
Speaker 1: So you can see my power to do that.
Speaker 1: When you acknowledge that your batteries are empty, that's when you depend on my generator.
Speaker 1: God, just take away.
Speaker 1: Ministry would be so easy if you take it away.
Speaker 1: Life would be so easy if you take it away.
Speaker 1: He's like no, I'm not going to take it away, but I've given you something.
Speaker 1: See, your rationale is that success and victory.
Speaker 1: Is me taking that away?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: The way I do things is I give you the power to overcome in the midst of it.
Speaker 1: Man, how many times could Paul have prayed God, I don't want to go to jail.
Speaker 1: He's like no, I need you to go to jail.
Speaker 1: I need you to go to jail because you've got a right to the Colossians out of jail.
Speaker 1: You got a right to the Philippians out of jail.
Speaker 1: Some of the most powerful letters we have right now came out of Paul's prison ministry.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 1: We don't have a whole lot of right now?
Speaker 1: Paul's sermons, because he spoke them in person, because he was able to be there.
Speaker 1: You know what we have right now?
Speaker 1: Paul's letters Because he had to write it, because he couldn't go.
Speaker 1: Interesting huh, interesting huh.
Speaker 1: I'm glad Paul was in prison on a few occasions at least.
Speaker 1: So he sent some emails.
Speaker 1: We're reading his emails and in his emails he's telling people to the Corinthians.
Speaker 1: Corinthians says guys, listen, I was annoyed by something.
Speaker 1: There was something happening in my life that I wanted God to take away and he wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I wanted him to stop it and he wouldn't, because I couldn't change it on my own, I couldn't fix it on my own.
Speaker 1: It was an area of weakness for me and I wanted him to take it away because I didn't like the feeling of being, because I didn't like the feeling of being weak.
Speaker 1: I didn't like the feeling of being attacked like this.
Speaker 1: I didn't like the feeling of experiencing this.
Speaker 1: And God said I'm not taking it away, paul, there's a whole other answer.
Speaker 1: I don't have to take that away for you to relieve the pressure to relieve the pain.
Speaker 1: I've given you something.
Speaker 1: I've given you grace.
Speaker 1: And here's what the interesting thing about Paul like, we know more about the grace of God because of Paul's letters, because, like, paul knew about the grace of God, the God who would save him on his way to killing his people, that's grace.
Speaker 1: So when Paul tells the Colossians and the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3, he's talking about by the grace of God, I am what I am, it was God's grace working through me, his power working through me.
Speaker 1: Like I shouldn't even be called an apostle, the way I was persecuted in the church, but he let me in anyway.
Speaker 1: That's grace.
Speaker 1: Now, paul knew about that kind of grace.
Speaker 1: Paul did not know that there's another side to what grace can do for you.
Speaker 1: Paul did not know that there is a thorn overcoming grace.
Speaker 1: So this didn't take a long explanation for Paul to understand.
Speaker 1: When God says hey, listen, paul, I know you want this thorn gone.
Speaker 1: You've asked me three times for it to be gone.
Speaker 1: But I want you to know this is another thing that my grace does.
Speaker 1: My grace is sufficient for you.
Speaker 1: And Paul goes oh, it doesn't just save me, it equips me.
Speaker 1: It doesn't just save me, it empowers me, okay?
Speaker 1: Well, if that's the case, then I'm not going to complain to you about these weaknesses anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm going to boast about the fact that I have them, because when I am weak, you are strong.
Speaker 1: That's where we see the strength of God, in the area where we see the weakness of humanity.
Speaker 1: But we're afraid to show our weakness, that we can't convey God's strength.
Speaker 1: Now isn't it crazy how we would all say I want people to see Christ in me.
Speaker 1: Right, I want people to see Christ in me.
Speaker 1: I want them to see it.
Speaker 1: Right, you look at me.
Speaker 1: You see Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know what we say when they look into my eyes.
Speaker 1: I want them to see Jesus.
Speaker 1: We have a time sometimes we pray that prayer right, god, just take me all out of the way.
Speaker 1: Let them just only see you, he's like.
Speaker 1: Well, the problem with that is, you kind of want them to see you.
Speaker 1: You want them to see you.
Speaker 1: You'd be really uncomfortable if I put you in an area where you're incompetent.
Speaker 1: Then they'd just see me, because you know you can't do it.
Speaker 1: But you don't want to go in those areas.
Speaker 1: You want to go in the areas where you feel confident and comfortable, like you know what you're doing, but then you want them to see me.
Speaker 1: No, let's be real, you don't.
Speaker 1: That's awkward, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, paul's like.
Speaker 1: This is what I learned that God's power shows up and is perfected.
Speaker 1: His power shows up when my ability doesn't.
Speaker 1: If I want people to see God, then they've got to see less of me.
Speaker 1: That means I've got to lean into those areas where I'm uncertain.
Speaker 1: He keeps on setting that stuff up like that.
Speaker 1: He keeps on setting it up Gideon, I want you to be a leader of my people.
Speaker 1: We're going to conquer the Philistines.
Speaker 1: He's like no, I don't think you got the right person.
Speaker 1: He's like I'm the weakest.
Speaker 1: My tribe, benjamin, is the weakest of the tribes.
Speaker 1: And then my family is weakest in the tribe of Benjamin and I'm the weakest.
Speaker 1: My tribe, benjamin, is the weakest of the tribes.
Speaker 1: And then my family is weakest in the tribe of Benjamin and I'm the weakest in my family, like I'm the weakest.
Speaker 1: I'm the weakest, I am the weakest link.
Speaker 1: I'm the weakest link, and God's like I know, think about that.
Speaker 1: Right, god didn't disagree with Gideon.
Speaker 1: God, I'm the weakest one.
Speaker 1: I know my power is seen through you.
Speaker 1: Right, when David is the one that kills Goliath.
Speaker 1: You got the whole army, a whole mouthful, a whole army of people been fighting in shields and helmets and all kind of warfare classes and swinging it, and now it's time to fight Goliath and no one wants to do anything.
Speaker 1: And now a kid kills Goliath.
Speaker 1: Praise God, but as a kid, no, he's like I know, and there's a tension.
Speaker 1: We want God to use us to do stuff, but we actually want him to use us in the area where we know what we're doing.
Speaker 1: So Paul says I have learned to not just accept weaknesses, not just accept some situations that I can't turn around, not just accept it.
Speaker 1: I embrace it.
Speaker 1: I will boast gladly.
Speaker 1: Hey guys, guess what?
Speaker 1: I'm in a situation I can't do nothing.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, I feel so incompetent man.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: I've never had less confidence in all my life.
Speaker 1: Hit man.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: I've never had less confidence in all my life.
Speaker 1: And that's how I know God's about to do something amazing.
Speaker 1: See, offered up to him.
Speaker 1: There's some things happening in our lives you wish you could change.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact.
Speaker 1: You tried and discovered that you can't.
Speaker 1: God take it away.
Speaker 1: Change.
Speaker 1: Change is like no, there's some things I'm not going to change.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you grace.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you power to sustain, power to overcome.
Speaker 1: In the midst of it.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the easiest prayer request God, just take it away.
Speaker 1: I know you're able, I know you're powerful, I know you can just take it away.
Speaker 1: He's like my grace is for you, my grace is for you.
Speaker 1: You got to discover grace, discover grace, because my power is there.
Speaker 1: When you're weak, I'm strong, not when you're strong, you're strong.
Speaker 1: When you're weak, I'm strong.
Speaker 1: I said earlier I'm going to share with you a principle helps shift your relationship with God, and it's this.
Speaker 1: Paul shared it with us.
Speaker 1: Instead of our weaknesses being something that we want to deny or neglect or, you know, act like it's not there or try to cover up or sweep under the rug, why don't we own that stuff?
Speaker 1: Why don't we be real with ourselves and stop believing those lies that we're spending a lot of energy trying to keep up?
Speaker 1: Stop believing the facade we're trying to keep up.
Speaker 1: Let's get in touch with our humanity.
Speaker 1: We were created with weaknesses.
Speaker 1: We were created with limitations.
Speaker 1: We were created with the need for each other.
Speaker 1: It's not shameful to ask for help.
Speaker 1: We're created with our need for God.
Speaker 1: It's not shameful to ask for God's help.
Speaker 1: Let's put those lies of the enemy away.
Speaker 1: We can show up as our real selves in our relationships with each other, in our relationships with God, and then watch God do some amazing things and watch God turn some things around.
Speaker 1: Instead of trying to embrace a lifestyle of deception and trying to put on like we're this or that, let's embrace a lifestyle of vulnerability, because that's what Jesus did.
Speaker 1: Though he was rich, for our sakes, he became poor.
Speaker 1: Though he was God, an equal God, he didn't consider that something to be grasped.
Speaker 1: He humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
Speaker 1: We can acknowledge this, and this will help our relation with God be more real and authentic, and that's where we experience more of his power.
Speaker 1: You cannot experience God's power trying to deceive yourself or him.
Speaker 1: You experience his power when you are real.
Speaker 1: That's why, when a person gets saved for the first time, they're confessing like it was real.
Speaker 1: They're talking about man I blew it, I've been running away from you and now I want to turn to you and I want to put my faith in Jesus Christ Like that's real.
Speaker 1: That's when you get saved, when you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth Like it's real.
Speaker 1: It's got to be real.
Speaker 1: The way you grow with him has got to be real.
Speaker 1: You got to be honest with him, say God, I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: God, I'm really angry right now.
Speaker 1: God, I'm disappointed.
Speaker 1: God, I'm hurt.
Speaker 1: God, I feel like I'm limited, I don't know what else to do and I need your help.
Speaker 1: I need your help, I need your help.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make you less of a human, less of a man, less of a woman.
Speaker 1: No, I need your help.
Speaker 1: That's what makes you powerful.
Speaker 1: That's what makes you strong because you know how to believe God.
Speaker 1: You know how to trust in God.
Speaker 1: You know how to depend on God.
Speaker 1: That's where the power is.
Speaker 1: When you're weak, he's strong.
Speaker 1: And if you want God to be strong, then learn how to be weak.
Speaker 1: And as you learn how to be weak, god will teach you how to tie those shoelaces.
Speaker 1: He's right there with his wisdom, his power.
Speaker 1: You're his child and he loves you.
Speaker 1: Now he'll watch you.
Speaker 1: I don't need you, I don't need you.
Speaker 1: He'll be right there the whole time.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, when you respond saying I need your help, he will respond back to you saying I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, amen, amen.
Speaker 1: God bless you all.
Speaker 1: We'll see.