I’m Too Weak
Every Thought Captive, part 3
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
Feb. 4, 2007
Matthew 4:1 (NIV)
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
Have you ever been in the desert? The desert is the place where you are no longer surrounded by things that bring you comfort. It’s the place where you are perhaps tempted in extraordinary ways. It’s the place where you are more aware than usual of your weakness, your humanity, your emptiness, your sin. And if you understand the desert well enough, it can be the place where you learn to serve God not because it feels good, not because of the highs, not because of immediate reward, but simply because that is what you have decided to do and – come hell or high water – you’re going to do it.
Susan Muto wrote: When we follow Jesus into the desert, we are likely to experience what could be called ego desperation. Basically this means acknowledging that our life is not nor ever will be completely under our control. In the desert the pillars of human power, pleasure and possession are smashed. One feels powerless, miles away from sources of immediate gratification, the owner of little or nothing of material value. One cannot barter one’s way out of loneliness and silence. One can only wait until it passes on the wings of faith and hope.
The desert is a time when we are supposed to feel our weakness. We are supposed to feel inadequate. We are supposed to doubt ourselves because it is in doubting ourselves that we are able to focus our faith squarely on God. That’s the point of the desert. The desert is given to us, as it was to Jesus, as a blessing. Notice our text says Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. God took him to that place. God desired that Jesus spend time there and endure the difficulties he faced there. Sometimes in your life, God will lead you into a desert. You will face seasons of extra difficulty, extra suffering, extra temptation. During those times you will have to call on all your discipline, all your faith, to get through. And still you will find yourself coming up short. You will realize that only God is sufficient. My friends, there are times in our lives when we need to be reminded of our weakness and insufficiency.
The problem is that many Christians today are living desert lives. Like, always! “I’m weak. I stink. I can’t live this life. I can’t follow God. I can’t do anything right. I’m a loser. I’m a mental case. I’m just too weak.” Do you know what this misses? It misses the important truth that God has chosen YOU. You. In all your weakness. In all your lack of confidence. God has called your weak, stinky, can’t-live-this-life, can’t-follow-God, can’t-do-anything-right, loser, mental case self to not only follow Him, but to do great things for Him. And you think, “Who am I? Why would God choose me for these things? I’m nobody special.” My friends, hear me, please. God does not choose special people. He just doesn’t. God chooses ordinary people and gives them opportunities to exercise extraordinary faith. The Bible and the pages of history books are full of nobodys who became somebodys for no other reason than the fact that God chose them. Had God not chosen them, they might have lived the same selfish, quivering-mass-of-needs lives most other people live. The Apostle Paul was on course for that kind of life. So was every one of the disciples Jesus called. So was practically every person Jesus encountered in the gospels.
I want to talk to you today about the lie that you are too weak to serve God. The lie that your flaws are too profound for God to be able to do anything with you. The lie that nothing holy, nothing spiritually worthwhile, can ever come from your life. This is a lie, my friends. Some of you are Christ-followers here today and you are listening to this lie and as a result you are spiritually weak and flabby, less available to God than you need to be, and completely lacking in spiritual power and authority. Some of you here today are not Christ-followers, have never made that commitment with your lives. And I’ll bet for at least some of you that’s because you believe this lie. You think you can never be good enough, you are too bad of a person to serve God, God can’t really do anything with you. I’m glad you’re here today. Thank you for coming. And if it’s okay for me just to say this gently, I think you are wrong today. You are wrong if you think that God can’t use you. You are wrong that your life can never be more than it is right now. You are wrong that you can’t break old habits, wrong that you can’t change, wrong that what you’ve done is too bad even for God to deal with, wrong that your sin and your mistakes are unredeemable. Let’s look at the rest of our text today and I want to spend time addressing this lie that keeps so many Christians from living spiritually powerful lives, and so many others from ever surrendering their lives to God in the first place.
Our text today is 2 Cor. chapter 12. The Apostle Paul is writing to a church he started back in the city of Corinth. They had recently become fascinated by spiritual leaders who portrayed themselves as superstars, as being all-powerful. So in this passage, the Apostle Paul, the greatest pastor, missionary, and theologian of all time, writes to compare himself to them and to put this in proper perspective.
2 Corinthians 12:1-10 (NIV)
1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.
2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows.
3 And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows--
4 was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.
5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.
6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Pretty mysterious stuff, isn’t it? Not hard to understand, though. Paul is simply telling about some extraordinary spiritual experiences he had had, speaking of himself in the third person. Now remember, if any man who ever served God could be called a superstar, I’d say it’s this man who wrote 1/3 of the New Testament, whose works have been studied by the greatest minds of the past two thousand years. That’s some clout right there, I’d say.
Paul writes about these amazing experiences he had had, and then goes on to say that God had given him some kind of extraordinary weakness – a “thorn in the flesh” – he would have to struggle with all his life. No one knows what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. Perhaps it was lust. Perhaps it was some kind of addiction. Perhaps it was a physical issue of some kind. It doesn’t really matter. But one thing here does matter, and that’s the fact that we all have thorns. No one is without them, no one has fully shaken them. What’s your thorn in the flesh? What’s that weakness you have that drives you crazy? Maybe some of you have more than one. I do. I have things in my life drive me crazy and I beg God to take them away from me so I don’t have to deal with them anymore. Sometimes they go away for weeks or months or even years at a time, but then they’ll pop back up again and remind me that they’re still in there. I still have to mind the store and be diligent. When they catch me off guard they divide my heart, overtake my thoughts, and plunge me into depression, frustration, guilt, or sometimes even hopelessness and a deep sense of unworthiness. “What right do I have to pastor a church when I can’t even get my own act together?” My friends if you think you’re the only one with thorns, you’re wrong. We all have them. We’re all struggling with them. When you find yourself face to face with them, you are in the desert. And if you’re not careful, your thorns will cause you to think terrible thoughts, which will lead to terrible feelings, will likely lead to terrible behavior which will have terrible consequences.
Meeting with a group of pastors a few weeks ago I was asked how I’m doing. I answered that I was in the desert. One pastor said, “How are you going to deal with that?” My answer for them was “I’m going to try not to do anything stupid.” Strangely enough at that moment every pastor in that room came forward and admitted he was in some kind of desert – feeling weak, vulnerable in some way, maybe numb, tangled up in thorns.
Everyone has thorns. Stop saying you are too weak to be used by God. God doesn’t call strong people. There are no strong people. And don’t start doing this mental game like, “Yeah, but I’m weaker than so and so,” or “But you don’t know my problems, or what I struggle with, or what life looks like from my perspective.” You know what? I don’t. And you don’t know my problems. You don’t know what I struggle with, or what life looks like from my perspective. For all you know, just believing in God is a struggle for me everyday. You don’t know my struggles, and I don’t know yours. So now that we’ve gotten that out of our system, what difference does it make? Granted, sometimes we are lonely. Oftentimes we are strangers to one another and to ourselves. Big deal. The thorns, the deserts, the low places are a part of this life. If we think we can’t live a godly life until we get rid of our thorns, guess what? That’s like saying you’ll wait to have kids until you can afford them. So are you in the desert right now? I’d recommend two things. Pray. And try not to do anything stupid. Don’t let your life unravel because you’re not in the mood to care. I think a lot of divorces happen because partners get in a fight and aren’t in the mood to care anymore. I think a lot of affairs happen because partners are isolated from each other and aren’t in the mood to care about consequences. I think a lot of leaders fail morally because they’re stressed out and under pressure and aren’t in the mood to care about losing everything they’ve worked for. I think a lot of well-intentioned laypeople live weak lives because they have given in to the lie that their weakness will keep them from living effectively for God. It’s a lie. And worse than that, it’s not true!Furthermore, the second thing we see in our text is that some of our weaknesses are given to us by God as blessings.
1 Cor. 12:7
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
That thing you struggle with that you wish you could get rid of? It may actually be God’s blessing on your life, keeping you from slipping into pride and arrogance and being a jerk. It may be the thing that keeps you depending on God. That thing you hate in your life might be the reason you are still serving God today. Without it you might come to believe you had arrived spiritually – that there was no spiritual ground left to be taken. That you had rooted out the major sins and inconsistencies in your life and didn’t really need God any more. Some of our weaknesses are given to us by God as blessings.
Third, God’s power shows best when your power is gone.
1 Cor. 12:9-10
9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
When you pray and ask God to show his power to you, realize that the best way for God to answer this is to put you in a place where you are completely drained of your own strength. We must be careful of what we pray for and ask ourselves if we really want the answer and everything that comes with it.
Notice God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient.” In other words, “it’s enough. All you need to rely on is the fact that I’m a merciful, gracious, forgiving God. You can count on that, and that’s all you need to count on.” Did you hear that? You out there today who is always convinced you’re just too weak, just not disciplined enough, just not good enough, just not together enough, just not strong enough to serve God – God’s grace is sufficient. You do not need to rely on your strength. All you need to rely on is God’s mercy, which he wants to pour out on you abundantly; God’s grace, which he gives to you freely; and God’s forgiveness, which he offers you constantly.
Too weak, huh? Then spiritually you’re in good shape, for when you are weak, then you are strong. God doesn’t need your strength. That would imply that there is strength somewhere that God doesn’t have, strength he is lacking, because he needs it from you. God doesn’t need your strength.
1 Corinthians 1:25 (NIV)
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
There is no gift you have that God needs, no strength you have that will complete him, no ability that will complement any inability in him. God has offered you his grace, and his grace is enough. It’s enough for your mental hangups. Enough for your lack of confidence. Enough for your shyness and self-consciousness. Enough for your fear and insecurity. Enough for your lust, for your greed, for your inability to stay focused on a task for 30 consecutive seconds, enough for your anger, for your desire for power and influence, for your envy of another person’s house or spouse or health or wealth or income or outgo. Enough for your uncertainty, for your lack of self-discipline. Enough for your regrets from the past, for your worries for the future. Either God is sufficient or he is not and if he is, than he is more than enough. And if he is more than enough, than what does your weakness matter? It matters not at all. Not a bit. And all your focus on it accomplishes one purpose – keeps your eyes on you and not on God.
“I’m too weak,” is not a lie because you are strong. It’s a lie because your weakness doesn’t matter. The secular position on weakness is to despise it and be humiliated by it. The Christian position on weakness is to embrace it and exalt in it, because it’s then that God is finally free to be God.
I need to address one last thing with you. Sometimes it’s easy to just put a straw down into our bottle of weakness and drink from it constantly, like Will Smith sucking down that benedryl in Hitch. We walk around all hunched over, feeling like a worm, like we can’t accomplish anything, like there’s just no real use for us at all. Folks, living this way isn’t the same thing as spending time in the desert. You know the difference? Jesus confronted weakness in the desert and then came out of the desert and lived with passion and conviction, picked his disciples and set out to do what he was sent to do. The desert periods are necessary when they are defined periods of time. In last week’s language, they are events! We enter, we exit, and after exiting we find ourselves with renewed strength and purpose. Ultimately our times in the desert should strengthen our confidence in God’s ability to work through our weaknesses. Living an “I’m weak, I’m miserable, I can’t do anything good for God,” life is not God’s plan. You are meant to spend time in the desert, but you are not meant to live there.
I want to close by reminding you of our theme text in this series. I’ve been reading it from the New International Version, but today I want to read it from The Message:
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (MSG)
3 The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will.
4 The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.
5 We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
6 Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.
Does the idea that God cannot use your life fit anywhere in the structure of a life shaped by Christ? Of course not. Therefore, does that thought have any place in your mind? Anyplace whatsoever? Of course not. It has to go. You have to stop thinking that. It’s a lie that will keep you focused on you, and as long as you’re focused on you, you will never attain any kind of spiritual maturity.
If you have lived most of your life in the desert, you need to get out. You need to embrace your identity as someone God has paid a very high price for. You need to stop focusing on your weakness, and focus far more on God’s strength. The more you do that, the less your weakness will matter and you will find it freeing to admit your weakness and even talk about it, because you will understand that your weakness is necessary in order for God to show his strength.
