WEBVTT 00:00:05.631 --> 00:00:06.232 Hello everyone. 00:00:06.232 --> 00:00:07.233 This is Pastor Damien. 00:00:07.233 --> 00:00:10.228 You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. 00:00:10.228 --> 00:00:14.791 At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. 00:00:14.791 --> 00:00:18.807 For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. 00:00:18.807 --> 00:00:19.730 Thanks for listening. 00:00:20.911 --> 00:00:21.553 Good morning. 00:00:21.553 --> 00:00:26.210 Please pray this corporate prayer of illumination with me. 00:00:26.210 --> 00:00:30.507 Heavenly Father, your word is truth. 00:00:30.507 --> 00:00:40.948 By your spirit, give us ears to hear and hearts to believe your word with joy through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. 00:00:40.948 --> 00:00:46.856 Today's scripture reading comes from 2 Corinthians 12, 1 through 10. 00:00:48.901 --> 00:00:53.429 I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. 00:00:53.429 --> 00:00:57.182 I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 00:00:57.182 --> 00:01:04.724 I know a man in Christ who, 14 years ago, was caught up to the third heaven, whether in body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows. 00:01:04.724 --> 00:01:06.787 And I know that this man was caught up to the third heaven, whether in body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows. 00:01:06.787 --> 00:01:13.882 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. 00:01:13.882 --> 00:01:14.664 God knows. 00:01:14.664 --> 00:01:19.760 And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 00:01:21.082 --> 00:01:35.173 On behalf of this I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses, though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. 00:01:35.173 --> 00:01:42.153 But I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 00:01:42.153 --> 00:01:58.028 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 00:01:58.028 --> 00:02:12.713 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:02:12.713 --> 00:02:23.510 Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 00:02:23.510 --> 00:02:39.716 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong. 00:02:39.716 --> 00:02:41.682 This is God's word. 00:02:43.907 --> 00:02:47.674 Well, thank you, raquel for the reading and Jason for the introduction. 00:02:47.674 --> 00:02:49.685 Yeah, my name is Connor. 00:02:49.685 --> 00:02:50.407 I'm an intern here. 00:02:50.407 --> 00:02:51.685 I haven't had a chance to meet you. 00:02:51.685 --> 00:02:54.209 Feel free to come meet me after the service. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:59.312 Well, this morning we're going to be jumping into a new sermon series for the month of July. 00:02:59.312 --> 00:03:01.987 We're titling it Preach your Heart Out. 00:03:01.987 --> 00:03:09.139 So throughout the month of July we're going to go through a series of passages that are chosen personally by the preacher. 00:03:09.139 --> 00:03:15.370 So there's not gonna be necessarily a common thread through them all, but there will be a common posture. 00:03:15.370 --> 00:03:27.030 The posture is gonna be one of tenderness, tenderness, of things the Lord has laid on our heart towards who our God is and what his mission is for us here in Orlando. 00:03:28.241 --> 00:03:34.760 So with that, today I decided to talk about weakness, and weakness is kind of a tricky subject. 00:03:34.760 --> 00:03:39.671 We're all really fine and happy to talk about weakness in the abstract. 00:03:39.671 --> 00:03:41.782 We talk about weakness and what it means. 00:03:41.782 --> 00:03:42.324 That's great. 00:03:42.324 --> 00:03:48.586 But then, when we start to talk about weakness in ourselves, things become a little bit more difficult. 00:03:48.586 --> 00:04:00.610 We don't necessarily want to talk about weakness, but the truth is that life is hard and that we often come across certain challenges where we come face-to-face with our weaknesses. 00:04:00.610 --> 00:04:08.908 We come face-to-face with our inadequacies and we have to ask ourselves in those moments what is it that I'm to do? 00:04:08.908 --> 00:04:17.415 Perhaps you know, we can all think of a time where you come before a challenge and you hear the voice. 00:04:17.415 --> 00:04:22.706 It could be internal or external and it'll tell you you're not good enough, you're not able. 00:04:22.706 --> 00:04:27.100 You may believe it, you may not, but it's a voice that you hear. 00:04:27.161 --> 00:04:30.209 And to some of us in this room, there's gonna be two groups of people. 00:04:30.209 --> 00:04:40.767 Some of us are gonna respond to weakness and you're gonna kind of recoil, you're gonna kind of shut down, you're gonna be all too familiar when we talk about weakness today. 00:04:40.767 --> 00:04:43.625 You're well aware of your inadequacies. 00:04:43.625 --> 00:04:51.973 And for you, I want to invite you this morning that God has come and called to invite you to his strength and he offers you hope. 00:04:51.973 --> 00:05:00.752 But then there's another group of people that this message is for this morning, and it's going to be some of us in this room, and that's that we actually are quite confident in our abilities. 00:05:00.752 --> 00:05:04.528 We don't really associate weakness with ourself. 00:05:04.528 --> 00:05:17.483 But for you, I want to ask you to go low this morning and to ask God, where he might show and share weakness, for you to learn to rely on his strength. 00:05:19.526 --> 00:05:31.930 And so, with that, wherever you find yourself on that spectrum again, we all can relate to when we come across this idea of whether it be yourself or someone else saying you're not good enough. 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:35.002 And what do we do in that moment? 00:05:35.002 --> 00:05:45.307 Do you decide to defend yourself and puff up yourself in pride and explain all the reasons that you are worthy to do whatever the task is before you, or do you shut down? 00:05:45.307 --> 00:05:51.016 Do you kind of spiral into, maybe, self-doubt and inaction? 00:05:51.016 --> 00:05:59.704 The world will tell you that the response to this, the healthy response, is to say no, you're wrong, I am good enough. 00:06:00.865 --> 00:06:11.451 But what we'll see today in our message is that Paul kind of goes a different direction and in fact, the Bible turns the accusation of you not being good enough on its head. 00:06:11.451 --> 00:06:14.509 It doesn't say, no, I am good enough. 00:06:14.509 --> 00:06:18.630 The Bible actually says you're right, I'm not good enough. 00:06:18.630 --> 00:06:22.168 And in fact I never was good enough. 00:06:22.168 --> 00:06:24.709 It's not how I was designed. 00:06:24.709 --> 00:06:28.122 I wasn't designed to rely on my own strength. 00:06:28.122 --> 00:06:31.829 I was designed to rely on the maker of the universe. 00:06:31.829 --> 00:06:36.685 I was designed to be a branch that channels his power and nothing less. 00:06:36.685 --> 00:06:41.553 The question for us this morning is do we believe it? 00:06:41.553 --> 00:06:49.002 The truth is that we have all the power we may need, and it's not our power, it's God's. 00:06:52.108 --> 00:06:57.206 And with that we're going to see what Paul has to say in 2 Corinthians, where he's addressing the matter. 00:06:57.206 --> 00:07:10.846 You see, throughout the letter of 2 Corinthians we're jumping into the back end of it, but we see, in the first beginning of the opening letter he talks about this burden that he's experiencing that's beyond his strength, and that it requires him to lean on the Lord. 00:07:10.846 --> 00:07:19.622 And then, later on in the chapter, chapter four, he'll talk about how God has this immense power and he's decided to put it in these jars of clay, this foolishness. 00:07:19.622 --> 00:07:20.925 That makes no sense. 00:07:20.925 --> 00:07:27.560 That you have this immense power, but it's in this fragile, weak object. 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:33.069 And then, lastly, his argument's building to a climax in our passage today, where he talks about weakness and strength being made perfect in weakness. 00:07:34.321 --> 00:07:37.505 So to explore Paul's point, we're gonna have three points to look at. 00:07:37.505 --> 00:07:40.249 The first one's gonna be how the world sees weakness. 00:07:40.249 --> 00:07:46.607 The second's gonna be how the Lord sees weakness, and then the third point will be how we can see our weakness. 00:07:46.607 --> 00:07:50.889 So our first point how the world sees weakness. 00:07:50.889 --> 00:08:01.694 The world sees weakness through the lens of comparison to others, which is why comparison is the first thing that we go to when we notice weakness in ourselves. 00:08:01.694 --> 00:08:07.408 I mean, for example, we're all okay with weakness if everybody has that weakness right. 00:08:07.408 --> 00:08:13.850 Nobody can dunk a basketball like LeBron James, so we're not really embarrassed about the fact that we can't do that. 00:08:13.850 --> 00:08:25.088 We all have skin where if you have a sharp object and it you know were to pierce that skin, everybody, that's going to happen to them, and so we're okay with the fact that we have our vulnerabilities. 00:08:25.088 --> 00:08:33.388 It's only when we see a weakness in ourself that isn't in someone else that we start to think less of ourselves, or the opposite. 00:08:33.388 --> 00:08:38.846 It's only when we see a weakness in others that's not in ourselves, that we begin to become prideful. 00:08:38.846 --> 00:08:46.250 And so Paul, aware of this human impulse, begins this part of the passage by addressing comparison. 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:51.471 Chapter 12 begins with I will go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. 00:08:51.471 --> 00:09:00.269 He then goes on to describe this great revelation that he can boast about for the next six verses, of where he went to go see heaven in of itself. 00:09:00.269 --> 00:09:04.784 You should know well why is Paul going on about this boasting? 00:09:04.784 --> 00:09:06.801 What's the accusation against him? 00:09:06.801 --> 00:09:11.413 Well, you see, first century Corinth was a lot like 21st century America. 00:09:11.413 --> 00:09:18.442 It's all about people that have come to make a name for themselves in a city that's full of opportunity and development. 00:09:18.442 --> 00:09:27.475 And so, with that, that atmosphere seemed to have influenced a group in the church of these sort of super apostles. 00:09:27.475 --> 00:09:36.635 These people were going around and they were essentially competing with Paul for the title of apostleship and they were telling people all the reasons why Paul wasn't the guy. 00:09:36.635 --> 00:09:48.730 They would say things like oh, he's lame, he can't speak well and you know, paul only alludes to a couple things, but basically they're trying to discredit what Paul can do and they're trying to demonstrate their strengths. 00:09:52.101 --> 00:09:54.740 And well, what do we see when that happens? 00:09:54.740 --> 00:10:03.148 Is Paul kind of initially, in chapter 11, talks about how this is a foolish way to go about who is an apostle? 00:10:03.148 --> 00:10:09.706 But then he decides to play along just for a moment and that's what we see in our chapter today, the beginning. 00:10:09.706 --> 00:10:19.464 He starts to talk about a vision he had of heaven, where he went to go see the throne room of God, and then he kind of responds have these apostles seen that? 00:10:19.464 --> 00:10:27.152 It's well played, it's a pretty good point by Paul's part, but he doesn't just do that because he's wanting to demonstrate that he is the guy. 00:10:27.413 --> 00:10:29.660 If you notice, he says it in a kind of strange term. 00:10:29.660 --> 00:10:31.586 He's talking about it in the third person. 00:10:31.586 --> 00:10:34.480 He's saying I know of a man who has gone to heaven. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:40.586 And then he goes on to say you know, but of him I will boast, but of myself I will not boast. 00:10:40.586 --> 00:10:52.865 And that might sound a little bit confusing to us today, but what we genuinely think is happening here is Paul is talking about himself, but he's just saying it in a way that can't be confused with an actual boast. 00:10:52.865 --> 00:11:07.461 He's demonstrating that if he's going to boast, he can and he can beat the super apostles at their own game, but he doesn't want to, and that's why he'll again say this is foolishness and it's not how I'm going to be defined as an apostle. 00:11:10.147 --> 00:11:14.234 So, after pulling his ace of spades, what does Paul then do? 00:11:14.234 --> 00:11:20.732 He tells them that this is foolishness, that this is not how the kingdom of God is built. 00:11:20.732 --> 00:11:27.236 So why did Paul then go to that length to describe his accomplishments? 00:11:27.236 --> 00:11:32.811 Because he wants to demonstrate the hypocrisy of these apostles that were discrediting him. 00:11:32.811 --> 00:11:39.533 He was saying we preach Christ and I'm not preaching Paul, and yet these people are preaching themselves. 00:11:39.533 --> 00:11:58.908 It's the power of Christ alone that has done anything in any of our lives, and so it's easy this morning to maybe kind of look at the super apostles, to look at these people that want to rely on their own strength and point the finger and maybe talk about how silly or foolish they are. 00:11:59.860 --> 00:12:06.822 But I think the truth is that we kind of do that ourselves too, Whether it's coworkers, neighbors, family members, name it. 00:12:06.822 --> 00:12:07.845 You know other parents. 00:12:07.845 --> 00:12:17.760 We like to look across the fence and we like to judge, we like to compare, take your pick of whatever setting you want, but just think about it for a moment. 00:12:17.760 --> 00:12:28.649 At one point, maybe there's some responsibility, some task, some calling that you found yourself to and you're performing at it, you're working at it and you actually feel pretty good about yourself. 00:12:28.649 --> 00:12:31.163 You feel like you're actually doing it pretty well. 00:12:33.147 --> 00:12:42.600 And then what maybe happens is someone comes along new neighbor, new parent, new coworker, whatever it may be and they actually end up being pretty good at their job. 00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:45.770 In fact, some may say they're a little bit better at it than you. 00:12:45.770 --> 00:12:49.869 And so what is your initial response? 00:12:49.869 --> 00:12:55.927 Maybe Is that you start to become consumed with the margin of difference between you and that other individual. 00:12:55.927 --> 00:13:01.408 You start to think about ways in which you can catch up or ways that you do other things better than they do. 00:13:03.620 --> 00:13:13.961 Before you know it, you're more concerned about that person and what they're doing as opposed to the original responsibility or task that you had taken on Before. 00:13:13.961 --> 00:13:16.568 You're concerned about, maybe, the parenting of your household. 00:13:16.568 --> 00:13:17.351 You're more concerned. 00:13:17.351 --> 00:13:20.033 You're totally consumed about what's going on in their household. 00:13:20.033 --> 00:13:23.264 You're totally consumed about what's going on in their work responsibilities. 00:13:23.264 --> 00:13:33.751 We become so focused on the competition that we're no longer reminded of and thinking of the original objective. 00:13:36.921 --> 00:13:41.293 Maybe you even once thought that, you know, I would never be that way. 00:13:41.293 --> 00:13:44.702 But then one day, before you know it, you have. 00:13:44.702 --> 00:13:47.773 You see, why is that? 00:13:47.773 --> 00:13:53.384 And that's because the world sees weakness as a reason to be lesser. 00:13:53.384 --> 00:14:04.754 But Paul again is clear that weakness is not a lesser thing, and so that'll transition us now into our second point. 00:14:04.754 --> 00:14:11.394 If the world sees weakness as an opportunity to be lesser than those around you, how does the Bible see it? 00:14:11.394 --> 00:14:12.596 How does the Lord see it? 00:14:12.596 --> 00:14:17.150 And it's actually humanity's desire to be or, excuse me. 00:14:17.150 --> 00:14:19.756 So I'll start with verse seven. 00:14:20.519 --> 00:14:27.932 That's where we'll head to next in our passage, and after describing his visions in heaven, he'll go on to say so. 00:14:27.932 --> 00:14:38.898 To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 00:14:38.898 --> 00:14:50.014 You see, the Lord is keeping these super apostles from becoming boastful in Paul's rebuke of them, but now we see something interesting. 00:14:50.014 --> 00:14:53.600 Paul himself now has a hardship. 00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:57.937 He has a, he has a thorn in his flesh, and it's a messenger of Satan. 00:14:57.937 --> 00:15:04.799 What's weirder, though, than just being a messenger of Satan is that that messenger was sent by God. 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:08.356 Now, god doesn't say listen to that messenger. 00:15:08.356 --> 00:15:13.476 That's an important thing to note, but nonetheless, he does say that God sent a messenger. 00:15:13.476 --> 00:15:15.961 Well, why is that? 00:15:15.961 --> 00:15:22.240 Well, paul says that God did it to keep him from becoming conceited. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:34.397 You see, paul just got done rebuking these super apostles about all the reasons that they were living in foolishness, and then he goes and he turns around and he just says I'm no better than them. 00:15:34.397 --> 00:15:44.735 I'm just as capable as what they're capable of, and God and his mercy has actually delivered me from that by giving me this hardship. 00:15:44.735 --> 00:15:49.721 He sees his hardship, his weakness, as mercy. 00:15:49.721 --> 00:16:01.817 You see, the truth is that we all are vulnerable to becoming conceited, and our weakness is an opportunity to come in touch with our reality. 00:16:04.510 --> 00:16:10.475 What we can see from this story again, god gives this thorn to Paul. 00:16:10.475 --> 00:16:22.283 What we can see from that is that the hardest things in our lives, the things that you are most upset and frustrated with about yourself, that very thing God is sovereign over. 00:16:22.283 --> 00:16:23.591 He's in control. 00:16:23.591 --> 00:16:27.951 There wasn't an error in the factory machine when he was building you. 00:16:27.951 --> 00:16:33.111 He wasn't making cookies and he accidentally put baking soda instead of baking powder in there. 00:16:33.111 --> 00:16:35.779 Not a baker, but I think that's how that works. 00:16:35.779 --> 00:16:36.581 That would be a mess up. 00:16:36.581 --> 00:16:47.157 No, the Bible is clear that God is sovereign over everything and he is not too weak to handle whatever situation you find yourself in. 00:16:47.157 --> 00:16:50.595 He's not looking down from heaven saying, oh no, what do I do now? 00:16:50.595 --> 00:16:51.599 I didn't see this coming. 00:16:51.599 --> 00:16:55.999 No, he's in control. 00:16:57.850 --> 00:17:00.078 But maybe that leads us to a second question this morning. 00:17:00.078 --> 00:17:08.693 Then If God's in control, why won't he remove this weakness so that I can better accomplish what he has before me? 00:17:08.693 --> 00:17:10.758 Right? 00:17:10.758 --> 00:17:17.518 You frustratingly look at God and you say you know, if I didn't have this issue, I could better disciple my kids. 00:17:17.518 --> 00:17:23.798 If work wasn't so challenging, then I would be able to have more energy to exemplify Christ in the workplace. 00:17:23.798 --> 00:17:33.598 You know, I'd be able to love people better, god, if you didn't give me such a hard childhood where I didn't learn how to manage my emotions better. 00:17:34.601 --> 00:17:41.201 There's so many different ways that life has just kind of kicked us and brought us down and we just kind of ask God, why? 00:17:41.201 --> 00:17:43.772 Why did this come to me? 00:17:43.772 --> 00:17:50.900 If you want me to go and share your light with others, it becomes such a hindrance to what God has called us. 00:17:50.900 --> 00:18:01.739 Well, what's interesting is that we see Paul pleads the same thing, and I think that's a comfort for us this morning. 00:18:01.739 --> 00:18:13.278 He says three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but God said to me my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:18:13.278 --> 00:18:16.698 Paul pleads and yet God says no. 00:18:16.698 --> 00:18:23.115 But what's interesting is that God's answer is not you know I'll remove this from you, just wait a little bit longer. 00:18:23.115 --> 00:18:26.413 It's simply, my grace is sufficient. 00:18:26.413 --> 00:18:27.997 You know I'll remove this from you, just wait a little bit longer. 00:18:27.997 --> 00:18:28.939 It's simply, my grace is sufficient for you. 00:18:28.959 --> 00:18:40.829 God, in our weakness, wants us to learn to rely on him and that's because he wants Paul to see that he was always weak. 00:18:40.829 --> 00:18:43.435 You see, being weak is not something you can possibly avoid, it's human. 00:18:43.435 --> 00:18:45.981 The thorn wasn't there to make Paul weak. 00:18:45.981 --> 00:18:47.653 It was there to show him his weakness. 00:18:47.653 --> 00:18:48.836 That was already there. 00:18:48.836 --> 00:18:57.442 The thorn was there to help Paul see that he needed God and God's strength and to rely on the Lord. 00:19:00.451 --> 00:19:03.094 It kind of reminds me of a conversation that I had with a friend recently. 00:19:03.094 --> 00:19:21.234 I was talking with him and I was talking about just this weakness that I felt myself and I was just really frustrated, just, you know, with you know how I felt God was not bringing deliverance or healing. 00:19:21.234 --> 00:19:29.420 And so I was describing it to him and he responded you know, what do you feel when you experience that weakness? 00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:35.193 And I told him that, you know, I can kind of maybe get shut down. 00:19:35.193 --> 00:19:37.557 I can maybe kind of get down on myself. 00:19:37.557 --> 00:19:44.419 I don't like seeing weakness in myself, and so, you know, I can kind of just get my head maybe spiral. 00:19:44.419 --> 00:19:48.314 I would probably be in that group of people from the intro this morning. 00:19:48.314 --> 00:19:56.412 And my friend responded you know, I think you see weakness as shame. 00:19:56.412 --> 00:19:59.736 You see it as a shameful thing to be weak. 00:19:59.736 --> 00:20:05.864 And of course, my response was well, of course weakness is shame. 00:20:05.864 --> 00:20:14.432 Weakness is is is showing that you can't be relied upon, it's not something that you want to share with people and it's not something you want to be. 00:20:14.432 --> 00:20:34.809 And then he replied to me just simply weakness is not shameful, weakness is human, and I don't know about you, but that really struck a chord with me when he told me that weakness is not shameful, weakness is human and I don't know about you, but that really struck a chord with me when he told me that and it got me thinking. 00:20:35.609 --> 00:20:38.259 Weakness, you know, has existed since the beginning of humanity. 00:20:38.259 --> 00:20:45.740 Now, ever since the fall, it is intertwined with our brokenness, and so we need to be wise in how we differentiate the two. 00:20:45.740 --> 00:20:55.621 We do have a weakness towards sin, and that's something we need to actively work against, but weakness itself existed in the garden. 00:20:55.621 --> 00:20:59.599 A biblical view of weakness is dependence. 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:08.000 In fact, it was our desire to not be weak that actually caused sin to enter the world. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:18.570 It was man's desire to be strong and to rely on themself that actually created every single wrong that's ever existed. 00:21:18.570 --> 00:21:18.891 Today. 00:21:18.891 --> 00:21:29.759 A hatred of weakness has created every pain and brokenness that we see in this world when we trust in ourselves to handle our weakness. 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:33.422 It doesn't remove our weakness, it just blinds us to it. 00:21:33.422 --> 00:21:45.654 When we reject how God has made us, how he's designed us, to lean in and rely on him, that's when pain and destruction ensue. 00:21:45.654 --> 00:21:50.395 And so what the Lord wants us to do in our lives is to look at our weakness and to run to him. 00:21:50.395 --> 00:21:52.942 It's what we were supposed to do in the garden. 00:21:52.942 --> 00:21:59.491 We're supposed to rely on him, just walk with him, just eat what he's provided, to not know everything, because we don't need to. 00:22:01.998 --> 00:22:04.143 Like I mentioned, there might be two different people in this room. 00:22:04.143 --> 00:22:08.181 Some of you shut down and maybe live in misery when you experience weakness. 00:22:08.181 --> 00:22:15.542 Others will live in denial and maybe puff up your pride, but both of these are wrong responses to when we experience weakness. 00:22:15.542 --> 00:22:22.289 It doesn't matter if you run to yourself or if you run to you know quietness and isolation. 00:22:22.289 --> 00:22:27.172 The only true response to weakness, which we all have, is running to God. 00:22:27.172 --> 00:22:35.792 God says run to me, cling to me, reattach to the vine that you were always designed to draw from. 00:22:35.792 --> 00:22:43.896 And so it seems that God allows us to experience our weakness in our lives because it points us back to him. 00:22:46.066 --> 00:22:48.814 Remember, the thorn itself didn't make Paul weak. 00:22:48.814 --> 00:22:53.624 It magnified his weakness and reminded him that he needed the Lord. 00:22:53.624 --> 00:22:56.694 And that's how the Lord sees weakness. 00:22:56.694 --> 00:23:02.796 But if that's how the Lord sees weakness, then that brings us to our third point, and that's how we can see our weakness. 00:23:02.796 --> 00:23:13.200 You see, in the final verses of our passage today, paul says therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:21.538 For the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities, for when I am weak then I am strong. 00:23:21.538 --> 00:23:37.797 Knowing where his strength comes from, paul is now not afraid to face anything that may come his way, whether it's calamities, hardships, you name it, paul's ready to face it, but not because of who he is, but because he knows who's with him. 00:23:37.797 --> 00:23:50.914 In verse nine he says that the power of Christ may rest upon me, and in that Paul's making a bold statement that is hard for us to catch in the English language, but that language there. 00:23:51.016 --> 00:24:00.141 Rest upon me is the same language used in the Old Testament to talk about the glory cloud of God, the presence of God dwelling on the tabernacle of Moses. 00:24:00.141 --> 00:24:09.855 Exodus, chapter 40, where this happens, says that the power of God there was so powerful that Moses could not enter the tent. 00:24:09.855 --> 00:24:18.211 That is the power of the glory of God, and Moses is not even able to enter it yet. 00:24:18.211 --> 00:24:26.505 Now it's that power that wants to enter our weakness, in the parts that you're most scared to show of yourself. 00:24:26.505 --> 00:24:30.721 That's where God, in his most powerful place, wants to go. 00:24:30.721 --> 00:24:35.240 It's an encouraging and beautiful truth. 00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:45.134 In fact, god says that it is in our weakness that we are most experienced as power, and the question then for us today is do we understand the power that rests upon us? 00:24:45.134 --> 00:24:52.173 The Bible says that the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead now lives in us, and it's living and acting. 00:24:52.173 --> 00:25:00.672 There's power that can give us strength to accomplish whatever task is before us, and we don't have to be intimidated by what lies before us. 00:25:03.464 --> 00:25:06.836 You know, there's a pretty famous story that all this kind of makes me think of. 00:25:06.836 --> 00:25:13.291 It's in the Bible, going back to Exodus, actually the story of Moses, and you've probably heard of it. 00:25:13.291 --> 00:25:15.313 It's the story of the burning bush and Moses. 00:25:15.313 --> 00:25:28.766 If you're familiar with it, you'll remember that God comes to Moses in a burning bush and he starts talking to him about how he's now going to call Moses to go free the Israelites from Egypt and Pharaoh. 00:25:28.766 --> 00:25:34.517 But Moses, surprisingly, doesn't really want to Imagine that. 00:25:34.517 --> 00:25:44.993 I think most of us today, if we get called to some really awesome job, we'd probably leap at it, but nonetheless, some really awesome job we'd probably leap at it, but nonetheless, moses somehow is being really coy and he doesn't want to go. 00:25:44.993 --> 00:25:48.411 He starts saying things like God, you know, I have a speech impediment. 00:25:48.411 --> 00:25:51.750 I'm just, I'm not the guy, I don't measure up. 00:25:51.750 --> 00:25:53.651 I think you maybe got the wrong Moses. 00:25:53.651 --> 00:25:57.431 I don't know, there's another wilderness down, you know, a couple of miles down the road. 00:25:57.431 --> 00:25:58.346 Maybe you should go check that out. 00:25:58.346 --> 00:25:59.710 But of miles down the road, maybe you should go check that out. 00:25:59.710 --> 00:26:11.508 But God, being patient, says no, no, no, I have this for you. 00:26:11.508 --> 00:26:12.329 But Moses keeps refusing. 00:26:12.349 --> 00:26:16.318 And then the Bible says, after Moses' third time refusing, the Lord's anger kindled against Moses. 00:26:16.318 --> 00:26:17.923 Why did it kindle against Moses? 00:26:17.923 --> 00:26:19.747 Wasn't Moses being humble? 00:26:19.747 --> 00:26:20.809 Isn't that what God wants? 00:26:20.809 --> 00:26:24.446 Maybe it was some sort of false humility. 00:26:24.446 --> 00:26:27.493 Moses was saying, you know, no, no, I don't want to go. 00:26:27.493 --> 00:26:31.631 But he really did and he was just kind of being, you know again, playing coy. 00:26:31.631 --> 00:26:34.385 But no, it doesn't seem that it was even that. 00:26:34.625 --> 00:26:44.118 You see, what had made God so angry is that Moses had forgotten who called him angry is that Moses had forgotten who called him. 00:26:44.118 --> 00:26:54.757 Moses had forgotten who formed the mouth, who formed and created all of life. 00:26:54.757 --> 00:26:57.045 He had his eyes fully on himself and they were not at all on God. 00:26:57.045 --> 00:27:01.876 And so he looked at the task before him and he only saw inability instead of looking at the one who is completely able. 00:27:01.876 --> 00:27:08.518 And so our question for us this morning what do we do when we have a task before us that seems way too big for us to do? 00:27:08.518 --> 00:27:11.209 Do we look to the Lord for strength? 00:27:11.209 --> 00:27:14.817 Or maybe we look to ourselves for strength? 00:27:14.817 --> 00:27:22.931 Because if we trust in ourselves, let me tell you, even if you think you can accomplish things, you're missing out on the greater strength. 00:27:22.931 --> 00:27:27.604 You see, the story of Moses could have gone another way. 00:27:27.604 --> 00:27:33.986 Let me paint the picture for you Moses comes to God and there's a burning bush, and God calls him to go do this thing. 00:27:34.948 --> 00:27:37.173 And a little thing about Moses that maybe you know. 00:27:37.173 --> 00:27:47.027 For those that aren't aware, moses was raised by the daughter of Pharaoh, so, for what it's worth, he probably had, it's fair to say, a better education than most Israelites in that region of the world. 00:27:47.027 --> 00:27:53.729 I think Moses would have been completely justified to say you're right, I'm the guy, let me go do this. 00:27:53.729 --> 00:28:03.766 Even despite his speech impediment he has it and, honestly, if Moses had done that, he maybe could have gotten some sort of good plea deal going. 00:28:03.766 --> 00:28:07.896 He maybe could have gotten some reduced work hours or whatever it may have been. 00:28:07.896 --> 00:28:10.130 I mean, he had some existing relationships. 00:28:10.130 --> 00:28:12.396 He had some, again, knowledge of their culture. 00:28:12.396 --> 00:28:20.231 But even if Moses had done that, let me tell you he would not have had the power to send the plagues that would bend the will of Pharaoh. 00:28:20.231 --> 00:28:22.122 He would not have had the power to send the plagues that would bend the will of Pharaoh. 00:28:22.122 --> 00:28:28.282 He would not have had the power to part the waters to bring a whole tribe of people across an ocean. 00:28:28.282 --> 00:28:36.167 He would not have had the power to provide for that same tribe of people in a wilderness where there was no food or water. 00:28:36.167 --> 00:28:42.720 You see, moses could have relied on himself and it would have gotten the people nowhere. 00:28:45.586 --> 00:28:56.375 It's only God who can do the things that are seemingly impossible, and so the question is, why would we wanna rely on a power lesser than that Even the strongest people cannot do what God can. 00:28:56.375 --> 00:29:02.605 And this morning, it doesn't matter whether you see your inadequacies in yourself, or strength in yourself, or strength in yourself. 00:29:02.605 --> 00:29:12.570 There's only one strength that really matters, and because we have that strength, we can boldly go face whatever it is that we need. 00:29:12.570 --> 00:29:17.880 Do you look to that strength daily? 00:29:17.880 --> 00:29:19.967 Do you look to that strength? 00:29:19.967 --> 00:29:30.151 Maybe it's in the workplace, when you're about to go give a presentation and you just have a lot riding on the line for that meeting and you just feel so weak and your heart is pounding. 00:29:30.151 --> 00:29:32.675 Do you just cry out, jesus, I'm weak. 00:29:32.675 --> 00:29:39.557 Jesus, I need your strength right now, jesus, I need you to empower me if this is your will. 00:29:39.557 --> 00:29:46.528 You to empower me if this is your will. 00:29:46.548 --> 00:29:47.009 Or maybe it's at home. 00:29:47.009 --> 00:29:52.912 Maybe you just had a child and you're looking at the baby in your hands and you're just thinking to yourself Lord, I have no idea how I'm supposed to raise this child appropriately. 00:29:52.912 --> 00:29:54.717 I don't know if I have the strength. 00:29:54.717 --> 00:29:58.691 Maybe you're the youngs and you already have four and you're like a fifth one. 00:29:58.691 --> 00:29:59.532 What are we doing here? 00:29:59.532 --> 00:30:00.114 You know? 00:30:00.114 --> 00:30:10.847 But whatever it may be, you just cry out God, I need you. 00:30:10.847 --> 00:30:13.894 You cry out to friends that you may have and say, hey, I need help in this endeavor, I can't do it on my own. 00:30:14.916 --> 00:30:18.909 And the good news is, because we're past comparison, that's not how we live. 00:30:18.909 --> 00:30:25.455 We have the freedom to share those weaknesses with each other, to ask each other to come into our weaknesses. 00:30:25.455 --> 00:30:41.633 Whatever our situation is, we can see our weakness as an opportunity to trust the Lord, to witness his great power, and therefore we can be all the more confident and emboldened to run headstrong into whatever obstacle it is that we have in front of us. 00:30:41.633 --> 00:30:43.855 And I'll close with this. 00:30:45.778 --> 00:30:52.519 I suspect for some of you this morning, you may be hearing all this and you might be asking well, this isn't my experience of life. 00:30:52.519 --> 00:30:58.876 You see, I've tried to lean on the Lord for strength, I've tried to trust in Him and I don't see deliverance in my weakness. 00:30:58.876 --> 00:31:01.048 I don't feel powerful at all. 00:31:01.048 --> 00:31:13.781 And let me remind you and encourage you this morning While God always brings strength in this life, he doesn't always bring deliverance in this life. 00:31:13.781 --> 00:31:17.433 And for you, I wanna invite you to look at the next chapter of 2 Corinthians, chapter 13. 00:31:17.554 --> 00:31:32.993 Paul goes on to say Christ is not weak in dealing with you, but he is powerful among you, for he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live, and with him by the power of God. 00:31:32.993 --> 00:31:36.319 Jesus knows weakness. 00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:39.509 He has always been infinitely powerful. 00:31:39.509 --> 00:31:41.272 That was true since the beginning of time. 00:31:41.272 --> 00:31:43.557 He has always been infinitely powerful. 00:31:43.557 --> 00:31:45.801 That was true since the beginning of time. 00:31:45.801 --> 00:31:47.105 But he put on weakness too when he came to earth. 00:31:47.105 --> 00:31:51.310 And in him we have this perfect contradiction of complete vulnerability and weakness meeting perfect strength. 00:31:51.310 --> 00:32:04.465 And in his humiliation, the God who formed and spun the galaxies of the universe willingly took on and humbled himself to a point that was weaker than any of us ever have. 00:32:05.929 --> 00:32:10.577 Jesus was on the cross and he was so weak that he couldn't even take care of himself. 00:32:10.577 --> 00:32:14.638 In weakness, he had to have another man carry his cross for him. 00:32:14.638 --> 00:32:17.627 In weakness, he had to cry out for a drink of water. 00:32:17.627 --> 00:32:23.079 Jesus knows weakness and he understands your pain. 00:32:23.079 --> 00:32:25.846 He understands your waiting. 00:32:25.846 --> 00:32:30.938 He's waiting on the cross, crying out my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:32:30.938 --> 00:32:37.056 But God used Jesus's weakness to bring about the redemption of the world. 00:32:37.056 --> 00:32:41.776 And while no one else in the world could have seen it on Calvary, jesus did. 00:32:41.776 --> 00:32:53.916 He knew what was happening, and because he knew he could then trust his heavenly father, he trusted that the cross was not the end and it was the power of God that would then raise him. 00:32:53.916 --> 00:32:59.497 And now it surely did, and he's enthroned above heaven in all power and all glory. 00:33:01.648 --> 00:33:13.335 Though you can't see the meaning in your weakness this morning, though you can't see the deliverance in your weakness this morning, look to the one who was on the cross. 00:33:13.335 --> 00:33:19.336 Look to him and trust him, follow him. 00:33:19.336 --> 00:33:29.794 Dare to believe that in the unknown there's hope on the other side, and it's because our powerful and loving father cares for us. 00:33:29.794 --> 00:33:37.938 There will be a day when our weakness is fully gone, whether that's today, tomorrow or sometime later. 00:33:37.938 --> 00:33:55.791 There will be a day when we will do what we were always meant to do, to rest in the glory of the truly strong one, and we will sing that he alone is worthy, and that is good news for those who are weak today. 00:33:56.775 --> 00:34:00.165 Pray with me, lord. 00:34:00.165 --> 00:34:08.367 We just come and we confess that we are just like our fathers and mothers, just like Adam and Eve. 00:34:08.367 --> 00:34:16.532 We want to be able to rely on ourselves, and so there's some of us that you know are confident enough to do that. 00:34:16.532 --> 00:34:20.489 And then there's some of us that maybe aren't, but both are doing the same thing, god. 00:34:20.489 --> 00:34:33.612 If we're insecure in our weakness, it's because we want to be able to rely on ourselves, and if we rely on ourselves, it's because we are blind to our weakness, and so I pray that you would expose our weakness and let it draw us to you. 00:34:33.612 --> 00:34:39.728 Your word says to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. 00:34:39.728 --> 00:34:45.992 So, god, teach us to desire to see that, teach us to ask to see that and teach us to trust in that. 00:34:45.992 --> 00:34:49.159 Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.