WEBVTT - Work Your Weakness (Rich Wilkerson Jr.) 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:07.280 Hey, did you hear the news. Elevation Nights Spring twenty 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.360 twenty two tour April twenty sixth through May fifth. Oh 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.800 you gotta come. I mean, you really gotta come. I'm 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:22.759 going to be preaching, Holly's going to be sharing Elevation Worship. 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:28.600 Your favorite songs, old songs, new songs, kind of old 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:33.199 new ish songs. I want to see you if you 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.360 are anywhere near these cities, I want to see you. 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:42.560 No excuses, no delay. Get your ticket right now. Let 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:44.280 me know in the comments what night I'm going to 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.319 see you, and what's your name? So I can try 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.080 to shout you out, but I'll probably forget. But this 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:57.360 is going to be amazing, the best night of our year. 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:02.360 Go to Elevation Nights dot com right now, get your ticket, 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.920 leave a comment. Let's go to the Word of God. 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.679 So good to be in the Lord's House. Do me 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:12.720 a favor. As you find your seat, just look at 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:14.800 your neighbor and say, it's so good to see you 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.920 in church. Say I'm happy I'm sitting next to you. 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:23.360 I'm happy I'm worshiping next to you. Everybody online right now, 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:25.640 just tell us where you're watching from right now in 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.280 the Chat, people all over the world today joining us. 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.840 They brought me the real pulpit today. This is the 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.120 real pulpit. I haven't preached behind a pulpit in a 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:40.759 long time like this. So good to be at Elevation Church. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:46.080 How may all love your church make some noise no 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.040 place like Elevation Church. And what an honor, what a 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:52.760 privilege it is for me to be back here in 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:55.160 Charlotte at one of my favorite places in all of 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.680 the world. And a really special weekend if you don't know, 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:08.000 because yesterday your pastor, he celebrated his birthday, and I 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.200 think it's important on birthday weekends that we let Pastor 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.880 Stephen rest. And I love Pastor Stephen Verdick so very 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.040 very much, and what a voice he has been in 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:23.080 my life, What an impact and inspiration he has made 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.800 on my life and our family. And I just counted 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.880 an honor to not only get to follow behind him, 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.400 but also to get to call him friend. And today 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.640 on his birthday weekend, I just think that all of 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:37.840 us in this place we should be praying for Pastor 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.600 Stephen Hawley. We should be sending all the love. If 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:42.000 you're in the Chat right now, just put it in 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.400 the chat. Happy birthday, Pastor Stephen. We love him so 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:48.440 very very much. Come on, if you love Pastor Steven, 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:50.160 can we go ahead and make some noise and just 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:58.079 thank God for who he is and no one like him, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.480 no one like him. I seemed to be under his preaching. 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.480 What a blessing to be under his leadership. I learned 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.440 a long time ago it matters what you get under 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:10.839 in life. It really matters. Because I'm telling you there's 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.480 a whole lot of people in life they never get 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.720 over what God's placed under them because they never got 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.920 under what God placed over them. And I think getting 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:22.000 under the right spiritual authority and the right spiritual council 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.120 makes all the difference. And so I love you and 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:29.080 love this church honestly. Just being here today nothing like 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.400 the presence of God. I'm thankful for the presence of 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:37.200 God and he's here today. And recently, last time I 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.160 got to be around Elevation Worship, they were in Miami 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.280 on an elevation night. Wherever you're at in the world 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.440 right now, I know they're about to get out all 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.560 over the places in April. I think in May, I 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.120 think I'm getting the dates right if they're coming to 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.280 your city, if they're in a five hour radius drive, 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.200 you ought to make it there because I'm telling you 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.080 there's something on these nights that you're going to get 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.840 in that room, and power of God is there, and 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.160 I sense it here today in the house. Anybody ready 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:07.880 for God's word today? Tewo. Corinthians, chapter twelve. I'm just 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:10.040 I'm kind of gushing up here, but I got a 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.000 word on my heart, and I came to preach today, 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:16.240 and so I like a little bit of response. You 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.880 could say, amen, you could say I like that. You 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:21.960 could say preach it, white boy. I don't really care. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.760 But you are going to tap into your inner Pentecostal 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.640 wherever he or she is today, and we're gonna have 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:30.800 some church and we're gonna believe that God's Spirit's going 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.080 to meet us right what we are. Second Corinthians, chapter twelve, 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.400 verse six. This is the apostle Paul writing, he says, 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:40.440 even if I should choose to boast, I would not 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.560 be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.080 But I refrain so no one will think more of 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:49.920 me than what is warranted by what I do or 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:55.680 what I say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, 0:04:55.760 --> 0:05:01.120 someone say, therefore, therefore, in order to keep me from 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:07.200 becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.719 a messenger of Satan to torment me three times. Someone 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:16.120 say three times three times. I pleaded with the Lord 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.760 to take it away from me, But he said to me, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.400 my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:27.279 made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.839 more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.640 rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:41.919 delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:48.920 For when I am weak, then I am strong. I 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:53.080 came to Elevation Church today to encourage somebody. I don't 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.240 have a doom and gloom message. I don't think church 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.520 is to be endured. I think it's to be enjoyed. 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.119 And I got one mission, and that is to make 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.920 sure you walk out of this room feeling better, believing 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:08.400 for more, knowing that God wants to work in your life. 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:13.599 I want to preach for the next two hours. I 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:15.600 want to preach the next thirty minutes or so from 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.880 the subject, work your weakness. Look at your neighbor, say neighbor, 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:25.360 work your weakness. Look at your other neighbor, say other neighbor, 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.520 work your weakness. Hopefully in your living room. You're talking 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.640 to somebody right now, would you prayer one were talking 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:37.240 with LORDI thank you so much for your word. We 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.640 thank you that it's sharper than any double edged sored. 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.159 We believe that today God, it brings truth, Lord to 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.200 our chaos. It brings truth, Lord of the lies that 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.520 the enemy wants to put in our mind. I pray 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.240 that today Lord, as we know your truth, we walk 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.640 into true, real freedom through the power of Jesus Christ. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.039 Thank you for being here with us today. Thank you 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.760 for meeting us here. We thank you in advance for 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.839 the transformation that's about to occur. If you agree with 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.080 that prayer, all of God's people said, all of God's 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.159 people said, and if you love Jesus one more time, 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.320 go ahead and make a big, big shout of praise 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:18.560 all over this place. Y'all. Don't make it fair up here. 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.280 They just keep playing stuff. It sounds way too spiritual 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.679 with these guys. I just got done at our church 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:30.320 doing a seven week collection of talks on mindsets, the 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.000 power of the mind, And I came across this this 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:35.040 study that was done in two thousand and five by 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.560 the National Science Foundation, and it was a study of 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:40.920 the brain, and I found the research to be really interesting. 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:43.600 They say that on average, that you and I we 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:48.240 have about forty thousand thoughts a day, and out of 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.280 those forty thousand thoughts, what we learned is that eighty 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:56.320 percent of those thoughts are negative. Watch this. This is 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.559 where I thought was really really interesting that ninety five 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.760 percent of your thoughts are the same thought that you 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:08.320 had yesterday. So what do we learn about humanity? We 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:13.160 learned that humanity tends to go negative, and humanity is 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.320 a broken record. Anyone out there, I'm not gonna get 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:17.720 you put your hand up anyone out there, like you 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:19.880 get on one song and you are on that song 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:26.480 till I don't play songs. I execute them, just over 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.440 and over and over and over again. And what I've 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.200 learned about myself, but what I've learned about pastoring people 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.800 is that we have a tendency to make much out 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:40.800 of our weaknesses and very little out of our strengths. 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.600 We have a tendency to focus on all that's missing, 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:50.760 rather than noticing all that we have. My wife, she's 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.080 here with me today, fifteen years of marriage. Holler at 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:57.080 your boy. And her name is don Shriie, and she 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.960 has a little bit of a struggle of her own, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.640 and that is she's addicted to online shopping. My wife 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:06.880 makes you laugh because like she'll purchase something and she's like, 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.680 oh my god, like the package, just like where did 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:11.960 this come from? I'm like, you bought it for yourself, 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.560 you know, And some of you girls are like, what 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.439 do I get for Valentine's that you got yourself? Okay? 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.240 She loves the online shop is always interesting because you 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.080 purchase something online and typically they'll send you like a 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.280 FedEx number, and if you ever take that fed X number, 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:28.640 you put it into the website and then all of 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:30.600 a sudden a message pops up, and what does it say. 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:35.079 It says the package is in transit. And I think 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:36.920 it's such a word for all of us in this 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.560 place that if you have given your life to Jesus, 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.760 please recognize that two thousand years ago he purchased you 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:50.080 with his blood. But now all of us are in transit, 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.040 all of us are in process, All of us are 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.520 become mean who God has called us to be. I 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.200 am not perfect, but thank God, I am being perfected. 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.199 Anybody grateful out there that God has not done working 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:10.319 on you yet, that you are becoming something. I've been 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.760 purchased by Jesus. He owns me, but I have not 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:19.760 arrived yet. Therefore, watch this. I can be becoming and 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:25.080 struggling all in the same sentence. And we're gonna have 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.600 to learn, you and I that although we're struggling in 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.560 different areas, it does not negate the truth that we 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.160 are still becoming the person that God has called us 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.760 to be. I got to learn how to work my weakness. 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.760 I got to recognize that problems do not actually overshadow 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.880 God's purpose. You need to know today that you might 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.720 have some weaknesses, but God still wants to work in 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.280 your life. You're gonna have to learn that, yeah, you 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:56.080 have some deficiencies, but none of those deficiencies are gonna 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.680 delay the destiny that God has planned for you from 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:04.720 the beginning. Am I preaching to anybody today? Work your weakness. 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:10.400 You're becoming something in Jesus. You're becoming something in Jesus. 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.120 I love our passage of scripture. Today, we don't have 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.920 nearly enough time to truly put this text into its 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.120 full context, but it is important that we recognize that 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.760 Paul is writing to a church in Corinth. This is 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.520 a church that he started, and he's been gone from 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:26.800 this church for about a year and a half. And 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.319 as he's been gone, there have been some false teachers 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.480 that have snuck in and now they want to sway 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:34.720 that audience to follow them. And the way that they're 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.440 doing that is they're trying to discredit Paul. And they're 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:39.400 discredit him in all sorts of ways that they're lying 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.320 about him. They're really trying to challenge his integrity, and 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.280 so they're saying all sorts of stuff. They're saying that 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.719 he's got bad teaching, they're saying that he has moral failings, 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.160 that his motivations are impure. They even just say stuff like, 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.520 you know, he's just he's not a good preacher, Like 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.560 he's not eloquent, he don't have the gift of pastor Steven, 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:01.120 Like he's not good, you know. And so Paul is 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.679 coming back to this church, and as he writes this church, 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.520 he doesn't want this audience to be swayed into this 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.080 false thinking and this false teaching, and so he has 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:15.400 to defend his ministry. And as he becomes to defend 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:17.880 his ministry, you can see like his hesitation go back 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.880 to Second Corinthians ten, eleven and twelve, and he's kind 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.040 of going through it and there's like a it's almost 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:24.800 annoying to Paul that he has to do this because 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:26.839 he doesn't want to give his resume, and he kind 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:28.679 of starts by giving his strengths, and it kind of 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.880 starts by sharing all the things that he's done. But 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:33.720 then like halfway through, as you get into chapter eleven, 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:35.800 what you see Paul's he flips the script. He's like, 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.959 you know what I'm done going this route. If I'm 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.200 really gonna try to impress you, let me just be 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.920 honest with you. What's really impressive is not my strengths. 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.600 What's really impressive is all that God has done despite 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:56.920 my weaknesses. That if God's really gonna get glory and 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.280 if you're really gonna witness the supernatural power of God, 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.880 it will not happen because you witness and testify all 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.680 the areas about my life that are strong. But rather 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.719 when you recognize all of the gaps and the deficiencies 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.920 that I have. And so Paul begins to talk about 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.960 this thing he calls the thorn in his flesh. It's 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.280 amazing because as we go through it, scholars have talked 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:24.640 for many, many, you know, years about what is Paul's thorn? 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:26.920 And there's lots of things we could just spare you, 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.080 but they, you know, they talk about maybe it's his eyesight, 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.400 maybe it's the shame of his past. You know, it 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.480 wasn't just tough things that were happening to Paul. Paul 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.520 did some really bad things. He killed Christians. That's why 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.120 I always think for people in church, like I don't 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:44.200 know if God can use me well, like like like 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:51.040 what have you done? Bro? You know? Like and so 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:53.480 really they talk about that, they think maybe it could 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.400 be a physical thing. What I love is is that 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.640 none of us actually know what Paul's thorn in his 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:01.959 flesh was? And how do you know that? This is 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:07.360 both merciful and quite instructive. It's merciful that we don't 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:08.840 know what Paul's thorn is because how me all know, 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:10.400 I just know how we are. If we knew what 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.800 Paul's thorn was, we would all be comparing our thorn 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.880 to his thorn. Some of y'all be like, oh wow, 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.440 like Paul, you struggle with that, not me, superiority would 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:23.840 hit your life. Others of you be like, that's your thorn, Paul, 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:28.440 Oh man, I'm really jacked up. And then inferiority would 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.840 hit your life. So it's merciful that we don't know 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:35.960 what it is. But it's also instructive because apparently the 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.000 point is not the thorn, but rather it's the purpose 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.720 of the thorn. What's the purpose of the thorn? For 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.200 a lack of better terms, today, just as we're talking 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.760 about this idea of Paul's thorn, let's just use this 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.920 word weakness that every one of us in this room 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:53.880 and all of us watching online today, we have some 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.000 sort of weakness. We have some sort of gap, some 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.280 sort of deficiency, some sort of struggle, fear, worry, anxiety, 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.600 something that our brain loves to replay, something that our 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.880 brain told us yesterday. And if we're not careful today, 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:08.960 even on the Lord's Day, we will walk out of 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:13.480 here still rehearsing and playing the broken record. But I've 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.040 come today to encourage you that you're gonna have to 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.240 work that weakness, that you might be weak, but God 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:25.760 still wants to work in and through your life. How 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:27.520 do y'all know? Like, when it comes to this idea 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.280 of weaknesses, the first step about our weaknesses is that 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:35.880 we have to stop denying our weaknesses, Like you can't 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:40.600 denying your weakness isn't going to solve your weakness. And 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:42.720 sometimes church like it teaches us how to be like 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.200 professional mask wears, Like we come in, we play the part, 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:52.200 how you doing, brother blessed and highly favored, Like we 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.800 just say it's this funniest stuff at church that you 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.800 don't say on Mondays at the cubicle, you know. And 0:15:57.840 --> 0:15:59.840 if we're not careful, we just project all of our 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:05.000 strength and all that's going good as opposed to exposing 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.440 the weak areas of our life. I think many times 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.720 we don't expose our weaknesses because honestly, just we're afraid 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.880 to be embarrassed by them. When I was in Bible college, 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:15.600 I was eighteen years of age and I was really 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.360 on fire for Jesus. And I had started this Bible 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:22.240 study at my Bible college that's funny and winning my 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:28.080 Bible college to Jesus. And I decided that that summer, 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:29.920 I wanted to like kind of go, you know, on 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:32.440 the road doing some ministry. My dad's a preacher, and 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:34.440 so I said, Dad, I want to go and preach 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:36.240 and somebod. Dad called all his pastor friends and like 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.920 booked me all up and down, you know, the East 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.040 Coast preaching these little youth ministries. And so we got 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.160 a mini van and we got a trailer. And I 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.000 quickly realized I was like, yo, I'm gonna need some help. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:47.680 And so I can't just go preach. I'm gonna need, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:49.720 you know, like a like a worship team. And so 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.160 we put a group together. Our group was called Broken. 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.600 I mean it's no elevation nights, but I mean Broken 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:04.119 coming to a town near you, you know, you know it. 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:06.200 It was a wild summer. We had this little van 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:08.879 and this blue trailer and we just drove everywhere. And 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.520 I remember one time I drove across the state of 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.960 Georgia five hours to get to a youth ministry that 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:19.080 had five people in the audience. I still used a 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:25.440 microphone because I didn't see five people. I saw five thousand. Okay, 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:32.919 true story though. Anyways, I remember we would go to 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:34.720 these places that I would preach and stuff, and so 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:36.760 we were like real like into it. And I used 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:38.439 to I used to wear this little microphone under my 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.159 shirt because I wanted to replay and listen to my 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:41.879 sermons and try to get better at them. And so 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.120 I remember at the time there was this big Michael W. 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:47.400 Smith song out there called Here I Am to Worship, 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:49.160 and there was this part on the bridge that said, 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.320 some of y'all remember it's like, oh, never know how 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:57.720 much it costs to see my sin upon that cross. 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.480 Thank you, so all glory to him. Honestly, honestly, it's 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:08.679 not about me. It's not about me. Shut up. And 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.399 I uh I remember. I remember like sometimes when I 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:19.000 get preaching and I get real annointed, shut up, and 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:22.520 the spirit of worship would like come upon me, you know. 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:25.800 And so uh I remember, in particular, we had this 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.600 little leap ministry and like I was off the microphone, 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.040 but now I'm like praying for students and like this song, 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:32.840 you know, the Michael W. Smith was on, and so 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.800 I'm like singing. And so we get in the car 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:37.439 the next day and I know this is super strange, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.240 but we would like always recap the night before, and 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.160 so we're driving to the next town, and we put 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.800 on the tape to listen to the sermon. We're all 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.720 gonna evaluate it, we're all gonna like talk about it 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.600 and give feedback. And the sermon's over. But now it's 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.399 like in the ministry time, and so I'm praying for students, 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:52.840 and so I'm not on the microphone, but you can 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.399 still hear the recording, and that song comes on. And 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:57.800 when that song comes on, I'm I'm praying for people, 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.960 but I begin to sing that song in a register 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:09.440 that certainly does not belong to me. And and it 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:11.679 wasn't that I was like opposed to everybody laughing in 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.480 the car. It was just after twenty minutes of still 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:20.560 laughing that the embarrassment hit my life to a point 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.000 that how ma y'all know that was the last time 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:29.400 I asked for feedback from those guys with my message. 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.560 Why because many times what happens is is that once 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:38.119 we expose the weakness, shame hits our life. Listen to me, 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:42.800 you will always be as sick as your secrets. God 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.240 can't heal what you just continue to hide. And so 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:47.840 what happens is if we're not careful, we start to 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:50.760 close up and we start to hide the weak areas 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:52.560 and we just start to play church and we just 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.439 start to play Christianity, but all the while we're not 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.080 finding encouragement. Listen to me loud and clear. Don't expect 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.439 someone to weak courage that which you do not expose. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.480 We have to be people that are least willing to 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.960 expose the weak areas of our life because just denying it, 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.960 I'm never ever gonna find freedom from it. I have 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.080 to come to terms with it. I have to bring 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.960 it to the light. I have to showcase my friends, 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:22.480 my pastors, those around me, because if I want God 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:24.320 to work, I'm going to have to get comfortable to 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.760 realize that although I have a weakness, he's not done 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.199 working on me yet. But I have to expose it. 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:34.960 So here's the apostle Paul, Like he's like you and 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.400 I and he's writing, he's defending his ministry, and now 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.600 he gets to this area about his weak area, and 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.159 he's trying, I think, to encourage you and I that 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.159 although he's weak, God still working. But he kind of 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.159 just testifies about his story about his weakness, and he 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:56.800 genuinely says out loud he says, three times I pleaded 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:01.240 with the Lord to take it away from me. Three 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.359 times I ask God, take this weakness away. Is there 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.600 something in your life today that you are convinced that 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:14.959 you know better than God? God? If you would just 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:21.159 do that, then I could do this. God. If you 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:23.080 would just take away that thing, I could be so 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:27.480 much more effective for you. God. If you just gave 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:32.240 me that promotion, then I would actually be happy. God. 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:38.440 If you would just give me a spouse, I'm a Yeah, 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:46.480 people coming alive this morning. And sometimes we say we 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:48.959 want God's will, but really we just want our will, 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.480 and we want to call it God's will. And so 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:54.040 here's the apostle Pau and he's like, He's like, if 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.360 you'll just take away this thorn, I just know then 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:59.040 I could three times I've pleaded with the Lord. I 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:00.919 think the most beautiful thing about that passage is that 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.040 at least Paul is bringing the weakness to God. At 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:07.199 least Paul is praying about the thing. How mey ell know, 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:11.360 if you've got time to complain about it, you got 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.880 time to pray about it. I'm not sure. I think 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:20.600 some people they don't actually want resolve. Some people just 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:25.200 want attention. But if you actually want something to change, 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:27.800 if you want something to turn around, don't just talk 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.359 about it to your friends. Don't just talk about it 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:34.399 to your therapist. You bring that thing before and Alrighteous God, 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:36.640 and you bring it before him saying God, I need 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:42.679 you to turn something around. Three times, I'm pleaded with God. Yo. 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:47.560 If it's worth praying, it's worth repeating. Repeat those prayers. 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:51.160 Bring those prayers before God. There's a story in Luke 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:53.760 chapter eleven that Jesus is teaching about prayer, and it's 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:55.639 one of the most peculiar stories in all the Bible. 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:57.280 You ought to go back and look at it. I 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:01.119 preach the message one time entitled the Art of ba God, 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.600 because the entire parable is all about this guy waking 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:08.080