SPEAKER_01: And one called to two, he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
SPEAKER_01: And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken from the tongs from the altar.
SPEAKER_01: And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.
SPEAKER_01: Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.
SPEAKER_00: The word of our God, the word of our God, the word of our God, the word of our God.
SPEAKER_01: You were not able to drive up this driveway.
SPEAKER_01: I tried.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a lot of hard work over the last hour, hour and a half to be able to get this place where you probably didn't even notice driving up that driveway.
SPEAKER_01: So a big thanks to all the guys who out here this morning uh standing in the cold.
SPEAKER_01: I think we'd have learned by now that that driveway freezes over uh when it's cold, but every time it's a surprise.
SPEAKER_01: I want to read to you uh a parable.
SPEAKER_01: It's a story.
SPEAKER_01: Esther Lou actually heard it in a sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Uh she had a little 31-day devotional on shame.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there are about six of you who actually came to my Sunday school class for shame, but uh so this is a new story for you all.
SPEAKER_01: Uh for the six of you, you've heard it.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a parable about a cracked pot.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to read you this uh parable.
SPEAKER_01: There once was a water bearer who walked to the stream every day to fetch water for her mistress.
SPEAKER_01: She carried two large pots, one on each end of a pole that rested on her shoulders.
SPEAKER_01: One of the pots was cracked.
SPEAKER_01: The other pot was perfect.
SPEAKER_01: The cracked pot would leak water and was always half empty by the time the water bearer reached her mistress's house.
SPEAKER_01: The perfect pot would still be filled to the brim.
SPEAKER_01: This happened for years.
SPEAKER_01: The cracked pot delivering only half the amount of water to the mistress's house every day.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, one day the cracked pot could bear it no more and cried to the water bearer, I'm so sorry and ashamed.
SPEAKER_01: And the water bearer asked, Well, why are you so sorry and ashamed?
SPEAKER_01: The pot responded, Because of my cracks, water leaks out of me as we walk back from the stream, and I am unable to deliver only half a pot of water.
SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, the perfect pot is able to deliver a full pot of water every time, and I am so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: The water bearer paused and then responded to the crackpot.
SPEAKER_01: When we walk back from the stream today, I want you to notice the flowers along the path.
SPEAKER_01: As they walked back from the stream to the house, the cracked pot did notice the vibrant flowers along the path and was delighted by their beauty.
SPEAKER_01: But when they arrived at the house, the crackpot was half empty again and apologized to the water bearer.
SPEAKER_01: The water bearer tenderly replied, Dear cracked pot, did you notice there were flowers on only your side of the path?
SPEAKER_01: The thing is, I have always known about your cracks, so years ago I decided to plant flower seeds on your side.
SPEAKER_01: Every day as I have walked back from the stream, you have watered these flowers.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks to you, I am able to pick the most beautiful flowers to adorn the mistress's house for everyone to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: I read you that story because I think oftentimes we feel like that cracked pot.
SPEAKER_01: We have weaknesses that we feel like are hindering our use, that aren't allowing you to live up to your potential.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you feel, hey, I'm sorry, God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry I'm not doing more for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry I'm not enough for you.
SPEAKER_01: When I read that story, I think it hits home to a lot of us.
SPEAKER_01: John Bloom, I promise I'm not just going to read long quotes and stories, but John Bloom was a writer for Desiring God, and he wrote, How well are you investing the weaknesses you have been given?
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps no one has ever asked you that question before.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps it sounds nonsensical.
SPEAKER_01: People invest assets in order to increase their value.
SPEAKER_01: They don't invest liabilities.
SPEAKER_01: They try to eliminate or minimize or even cover up liabilities.
SPEAKER_01: It's easy for us to see our strengths as assets, but most of us naturally consider our weaknesses as liabilities, deficiencies to minimize or cover up.
SPEAKER_01: My question this morning is: how well are you investing in your weaknesses?
SPEAKER_01: Weaknesses aren't a liability.
SPEAKER_01: Weaknesses are in fact the way God works through us.
SPEAKER_01: He invests in us by his grace through our weaknesses so that you're able to serve people.
SPEAKER_01: Our point today, in what I was reading from Isaiah, is that he expresses an insecurity.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He expresses a weakness.
SPEAKER_01: And then he experiences God's grace, and then he goes to feeling empowered.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I want us to look at today.
SPEAKER_01: Your weaknesses being confronted by God's grace and you feeling empowered by them.
SPEAKER_01: When you read Isaiah 6, 5, and he says, Woe is me, that is the first time in the book of Isaiah that you hear Isaiah speak.
SPEAKER_01: It isn't some bold proclamation of I'm going forth, here I am.
SPEAKER_01: It's not some song of praise.
SPEAKER_01: His first words that you hear from him, woe is me, right?
SPEAKER_01: Lost.
SPEAKER_01: That means ruined.
SPEAKER_01: What he's expressing is, I can't be used.
SPEAKER_01: There's actually a bit of a grief there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm unclean, I'm sinful.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want me to go on your behalf.
SPEAKER_01: How often do we feel like that?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But what is Isaiah doing?
SPEAKER_01: He's acknowledging who he is.
SPEAKER_01: He's not trying to put on a front.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, here I am, I'm weak.
SPEAKER_01: Because guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Weakness is who we are.
SPEAKER_01: We aren't strong.
SPEAKER_01: We're weak.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The world says, be strong, you're strong, you can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Being strong is what's necessary for success.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You look at like Nike, right?
SPEAKER_01: Just do it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Adidas a long time ago had an impossible is nothing kind of phrase, or it was kind of a twist on right, like nothing is impossible.
SPEAKER_01: They kind of switched it around.
SPEAKER_01: But the world is all you can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Miranda Lambert has a song called Mama's Broken Heart.
SPEAKER_01: This is a shout out to Betsy.
SPEAKER_01: When we were talking about this months ago or weeks ago in our women's Bible study, I could not remember this song.
SPEAKER_01: And Betsy knew it.
SPEAKER_01: But it's Mama's Broken Heart by Miranda Lambert.
SPEAKER_01: And here's kind of some of the lyrics.
SPEAKER_01: Don't matter how you feel, it only matters how you look.
SPEAKER_01: Go and fix your makeup, girl.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a breakup.
SPEAKER_01: Run and hide, you're crazy, and start acting like a lady because I raised you better.
SPEAKER_01: Gotta keep it together even when you fall apart.
SPEAKER_01: That whole song is about keep it together, be strong, don't show weakness.
SPEAKER_01: And we feel like that at times.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing scripture is real clear that the greatest danger for you is feeling that you're strong.
SPEAKER_01: It's feeling that you have it together, that you can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're so strong enough to do it on your own, you have zero reason to boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You have no need for him, you have no need for his grace, you have no need for his providence.
SPEAKER_01: There's no reason to boast in what he's done if you can do it all.
SPEAKER_01: Only people who are weak boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
SPEAKER_01: And because of him you are in Christ who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's very clear from the get-go, your calling was not because of your wisdom or your worldly standards or your power.
SPEAKER_01: It was quite the opposite of that.
SPEAKER_01: He called you because of your helpless state, which makes it more ironic when we try to convince people of our strengths.
SPEAKER_01: It it happens here.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We feel the pressure sometimes of coming here on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's you've been screaming in the car up here, and it's like, put on a put on a smile.
SPEAKER_01: I never really hear any of you talking about how you scream at your kids on the way here, but it happens.
SPEAKER_01: You do it.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's like, let's let's get it together.
SPEAKER_01: But the irony is when we try to convince people of our strengths, that doesn't even matter.
SPEAKER_01: The only person it matters to is the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And he called you because of your weakness, not your strength.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the fact that our births should be enough for you of understanding this.
SPEAKER_01: No one in here was born and then self-sufficiently sustained themselves.
SPEAKER_01: When a newborn is born, it only survives because someone takes care of you, feeds you, clothes you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't just come out self-sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: You're born in weakness.
SPEAKER_01: God calls weak people.
SPEAKER_01: Think about Moses in Exodus 4.
SPEAKER_01: He kind of has a similar response to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Look, don't send me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm slow to speak.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Some kind of say that he probably had a stuttering problem.
SPEAKER_01: He actually pleads.
SPEAKER_01: He says, please send someone else.
SPEAKER_01: And actually, Jeremiah has the same response.
SPEAKER_01: If you go read the beginning of Jeremiah, he's like, please send someone else.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord kind of gets angry with him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why would the Lord get angry at that response?
SPEAKER_01: Because what he's saying is, Moses, this isn't about you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need you to be strong to carry this load.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to be weak.
SPEAKER_01: I need people to realize that I am the one who's actually sustaining you through this.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you'll remember what does happen, Moses gets prideful.
SPEAKER_01: People start complaining about water, and he's like, You want water?
SPEAKER_01: Here's water.
SPEAKER_01: And he hits the rock and they're given water.
SPEAKER_01: And he does this act of pride, is like, I'm the one who's sustaining you people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the one.
SPEAKER_01: And so from there, from that sinful act, right, he he's not able to enter into the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord was saying, I need you in your weakness so that people will see my glory and not yours.
SPEAKER_01: He says kind of the same thing for Paul, right?
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Corinthians 12, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's got the thorn in his flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And what does he say to him?
SPEAKER_01: My grace is sufficient for you.
SPEAKER_01: My power made perfect in your weakness.
SPEAKER_01: My power is made perfect in your weakness.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Paul, I don't want people thinking you're the one who is providing all these miraculous works, who's proclaiming this truth.
SPEAKER_01: I want people always to know, like it couldn't be you, Paul, doing this.
SPEAKER_01: Someone else has to be working through you.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how we want to live our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have it together.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not strong enough.
SPEAKER_01: When you see me, you see the Lord miraculously working through me.
SPEAKER_01: When you are able to be gripped with this weakness, right?
SPEAKER_01: Weakness says, hey, life's not about you.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the Lord, his glory, his power sustain you, his grace given to undeserving sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Jesus' first temptation, Satan's like, hey, well, just turn this these rocks into bread.
SPEAKER_01: You do that.
SPEAKER_01: You self-sustain yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't do it.
SPEAKER_01: He responds, right, in Deuteronomy 8.3.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing when you read this whole thing, right, where it's like, man does not live on bread alone.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the whole context of 8.3.
SPEAKER_01: And he humbled you, and he let you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It is a blessing when we come to the recognition that our weaknesses humble us and allow us to experience that hunger to see that it is the Lord who feeds you.
SPEAKER_01: And that it's the Lord who sustains you.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah is doing this.
SPEAKER_01: He's acknowledging his weakness.
SPEAKER_01: And he's allowing God to show his grace.
SPEAKER_01: What is the next thing that happens?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Then one of the seraphim flew to him, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
SPEAKER_01: And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.
SPEAKER_01: Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.
SPEAKER_01: And so I ask you this.
SPEAKER_01: Have you let God's grace deal with your sins?
SPEAKER_01: Have you let God's grace deal with your weaknesses and your insecurities?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't let God deal with those, with His grace, the only other alternative is Satan and the world.
SPEAKER_01: And they're only going to use those things to shame you, to make you feel insufficient, right?
SPEAKER_01: And worthless.
SPEAKER_01: But God's using those weaknesses to redeem you.
SPEAKER_01: It allows you, kind of in 1 Timothy 1.16, right, to tell people, I received mercy for this reason, that in me is the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: When you let God's grace deal with you, your response is no longer hiding and it's no longer shame.
SPEAKER_01: It's Isaiah's response.
SPEAKER_01: Here I am, send me.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5: Woe is me, I am ruined, I am lost, I am useless.
SPEAKER_01: He experiences God's grace, his next words out of his mouth, here I am, send me.
SPEAKER_01: He's been empowered.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a shame to him.
SPEAKER_01: It's a I'll go and tell people what God has done for me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced that one of the biggest issues with evangelism is not so much a theological understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I think a big part of the struggle with evangelism is I don't have anything to say.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't have anything to say.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a story in my own personal life to tell someone what the Lord is doing for me right now.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a big, I think that's a big part of why we have a problem with it.
SPEAKER_01: Because we have lots of stories to tell.
SPEAKER_01: We still we tell stories all the time to people.
SPEAKER_01: We have things to say.
SPEAKER_01: But then when it comes to uh salvation or evangelism, you know what to say, but that's different than having something to say.
SPEAKER_01: And the more you let God deal with your weaknesses and work through those, the more you have to say.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Here I am, send me, is to tell people what you've done.
SPEAKER_01: John 4, the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_01: A Samaritan woman.
SPEAKER_01: Right, meets Jesus, he tells her everything about her life.
SPEAKER_01: She's had five husbands, she's currently living one who's not her husband.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of things to be ashamed of.
SPEAKER_01: She experiences his grace and love and mercy, and she immediately goes and runs into town.
SPEAKER_01: A town that does not respect her, probably doesn't acknowledge her most time, but she was making such a commotion about what Jesus has done for her that people listened and they started to believe.
SPEAKER_01: And then they went out to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: For you to be a light of the gospel with your weaknesses to where you live, to where you work, right?
SPEAKER_01: To the communities.
SPEAKER_01: I tell people this when you know if they're kind of thinking about getting into full-time ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, before you go into full-time ministry, you need to consider the impact you might be giving up.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And since that kind of seems odd, we're like, well, hold on, if I'm a pastor, right, isn't that a bigger impact?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, maybe not.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you become a pastor, this is kind of what happens.
SPEAKER_01: This happened to me at a birthday party recently.
SPEAKER_01: They find out you're a pastor, this is a total stranger, and they'll immediately start telling you their spiritual resume.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So I'm at this birthday party, and uh this older lady uh had found out I was a pastor, so she starts telling me about all of you know her spiritual resume in her church, and it's actually a very complicated story.
SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm just thinking to myself, you know what, ma'am?
SPEAKER_01: I just I walked into this kitchen because there's a huge plate of Chick-fil-A nuggets.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I just want to eat some Chick-fil-a nuggets.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm I'm in here for the nuggets.
SPEAKER_01: But she found out I was a pastor, right?
SPEAKER_01: And why she why is she telling me her spiritual resume?
SPEAKER_01: Because she thinks I have my life together.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't a joke, Steve.
SPEAKER_01: Like uh Yeah, see, you know, she doesn't know me, but yeah, I would have been like, don't talk to that guy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're a pastor, you have your life together.
SPEAKER_01: So people have to be strong.
SPEAKER_01: When people think they have to kind of just show you, like, look, I'm I'm qualified, like, I'm doing okay.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Usually my response is look, I don't I don't have my life together.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm a sinner who needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to just try to tell people, look what he's done for me.
SPEAKER_01: Think about some of the ministries we have in Birmingham.
SPEAKER_01: Unbound grace, turning point.
SPEAKER_01: Those ministries started in someone's weaknesses.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: They decided to say, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Instead of just continually to spiral downward in shame, I'm gonna run to the Lord and I'm gonna experience his grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And now I'm going to use the weaknesses I have to be an encouragement to other people and show you that, hey, God works through weaknesses.
SPEAKER_01: It's a powerful vision.
SPEAKER_01: If you have doubts, right?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you struggle with doubts.
SPEAKER_01: The opportunity, right, for you to continually run and look to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I doubt you love me.
SPEAKER_01: I doubt you forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you what is your option?
SPEAKER_01: You run to the cross and you see that he does.
SPEAKER_01: But then guess what?
SPEAKER_01: If you have doubts, there are other people who have doubts.
SPEAKER_01: If you doubt you're forgiven, if you doubt you're loved by the Lord, there are other people who feel that way.
SPEAKER_01: And it's an opportunity for you to share those moments of weakness and how the gospel continues to help you.
SPEAKER_01: Not fix you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna be, you're not gonna be fixed until you're dead.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that releases a little bit of this pressure.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about you saying, let me fix you.
SPEAKER_01: It's let me help you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me help you.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing, if you became fixed, then you would really not wouldn't think you need the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But let me continue to help point you to the gospel and how daily it sustains me.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's physical weaknesses.
SPEAKER_01: Jody Erickson, right?
SPEAKER_01: She has a huge ministry, right?
SPEAKER_01: Where when she was uh, I think like 17 or something, dove into a pool and became a quadriplegic.
SPEAKER_01: She's had a huge ministry in her life now of showing the way in which the Lord has sustained her and used her physical weaknesses to be a blessing to other people, to share the gospel.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's stress.
SPEAKER_01: All of those ways in which I don't know what it's like to feel stress in a law firm or a banking community, right?
SPEAKER_01: Or dealing with people people in the financial world.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know the stresses that you know and the anxieties that you feel.
SPEAKER_01: But you feel them and you work with people that feel them.
SPEAKER_01: And they're willing to listen to you.
SPEAKER_01: One of your strongest assets is that people deem you as equal in a sense.
SPEAKER_01: They're like probably less likely to listen to me honestly.
SPEAKER_01: Because they're like, well, you don't you wouldn't understand.
SPEAKER_01: You're a pastor, like you have your life together.
SPEAKER_01: But then for you all, and the unique opportunities that you have, and the weaknesses that you experience, and some of the very specific circumstances that allow you to be that gospel to people.
SPEAKER_01: Christ displayed his weakness on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: He is God and emptied himself to become a man and experience a fallen world to be hungry and to bleed and to be thirsty and to be tired.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he wanted you to know that I know about your weaknesses, I understand them.
SPEAKER_01: It's very hard for someone who is hurting to be heard by someone that they do not believe can understand how they feel.
SPEAKER_01: If you're hurting and you're talking to someone like you, you wouldn't know.
SPEAKER_01: You want to like, but you can't say that to Jesus, can you?
SPEAKER_01: Because he displayed weaknesses.
SPEAKER_01: He was able to say, I know what that feels like.
SPEAKER_01: I know what it feels like to be betrayed.
SPEAKER_01: I know what it feels like to deal with the frustrations of sinful people.
SPEAKER_01: I know.
SPEAKER_01: And so from him emptying himself and experiencing this fallen world so that he can relate to us, it allows us in 2 Corinthians 1, 3, and 4 to say, Blessed be God who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
SPEAKER_01: The blessing of the body of all of us here, or that we cover a multitude, or maybe an infinite amount, of afflictions that you all have experienced in different ways and can use the Lord's grace to sustain you through those situations and tell it to other people.
SPEAKER_01: Living our life as mission is not complicated.
SPEAKER_01: It's go and tell people what He has done in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Here I am, send me is to be a comfort to others with the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It's to reach those, right?
SPEAKER_01: With the grace given to us in weakness.
SPEAKER_01: The last 10 years I've been here, what's drawn me to this place is the vulnerability, the realness, the saying of you all, I struggle and I need the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go out and tell people that.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, it's it's hard to not feel in control, to not feel strong, to not feel sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: Weakness is hard.
SPEAKER_01: But what a comfort in knowing that you called us because we are weak.
SPEAKER_01: You called us in our weak state, so that the only thing we could boast in or to talk about is how you have sustained us.
SPEAKER_01: That we don't have the answers, that we don't have it figured out.
SPEAKER_01: What we do have is faith in you, in your perfection, in your providence, in your sovereignty, in your grace, in your holiness.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we have.
SPEAKER_01: Help us not feel shame or uselessness or feel like we we just send someone else because I'm flawed.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, Father, again, our grace or our understanding of your grace and mercies will grow daily as we continue to allow you to sustain us through our weaknesses.
SPEAKER_01: And it's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.