Strength Through Weakness

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, September 21st. Inability and weakness aren't usually seen as gifts from God. Get a different perspective as you learn to gain strength through weakness. Another in our series on the helps to holiness. The world says today that they admire and promote the man or the woman who is strong.

It is strength and might and power and force and affluence that affects the world. They are greatly impressed by this. They're greatly impressed by the size, greatly impressed by the might and the power.

They'll walk in an entirely different direction on a whole different wavelength than we who are believers. Yet isn't it strange how we court their favor? And the result of courting their favor is this. We have little by little allowed them to infiltrate their humanistic ideas into the ideas that you and I preach in the gospel.

They believe that the world is man centered. This book says that the world ought to be God centered. That in the life of a person, it is not his ability or his talent, but rather the talent, the ability, the might, the strength of God. So with that in mind, I want us to look at this morning under the theme strength through weakness.

And I want you to get a pencil and piece of paper out toward the end of the sermon. I want to give you six things that you need to get ahold of that Paul learned about the source of his real strength. When we think about strength and our weaknesses, I want us to look at several things. And the first of all is this, and that is the presence of the weakness in our life.

Now all of us have different types of weaknesses, but we all do have our weaknesses. In the life of Paul, if you'll notice here, beginning in verse seven, he says, And lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Everybody has an opinion as to what Paul's problem was.

I don't know what Paul's problem was, I have an opinion just like you do. But it was a very definite thing that he had to deal with on a recurring basis in his life. Something that continually harassed him.

And the word Buffett means it's taken from the word knuckles, which means that he felt like he was being sucked in the jaw constantly. reoccurring he had this problem. He had a weakness in his life, like all of us do. Now the problem is that most of us think that the evidence of strength is to deny weakness, that if we expose our weakness, if we confess our weakness, someone won't think that we match up to their expectation. Paul settled the battle of other men's expectations. The only thing that mattered to him, as God taught him the basic truth is that as long as God was pleased with him, it mattered not what the world thought.

But he had to wrestle through this thing of the presence of this weakness in his life. You and I have wisdom when we begin to see things from God's perspective. That is we see them as he sees them. Paul had a change of attitude. Paul suddenly got his eyes open. He saw that the very thing that at one time he pleaded with God to remove became the source of his greatest strength.

And you see, we have been brainwashed by the world. The man who confesses his weakness to the world, they say, aha, I knew he couldn't do it. But the saint of God who says yes, I am weak, I cannot in my own strength, while the world looks with disdain upon that God takes great pleasure in the man or the woman who is honest about their weaknesses. The second thing I want you to notice here is this. He says, if you'll look in verse seven again, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Now the question comes, what was the purpose of this particular problem that Paul had?

Well, notice what he said. He had said in the first few verses of this 12th chapter, he said that God years ago had given him a tremendous revelation. In fact, he says it was so intimate, so mighty, so profound. He says, I was so lifted up. I'm not sure I was there in the spirit or in the body.

He says, I'm not sure about that. I just know that God did something mighty and wonderful in my life. But in order to keep Paul from getting out of line and getting proud, egotistical, what did he do?

God just balanced that off by allowing him to be continuously buffeted by Satan. Now let's be honest, God blesses your life and he blesses your ministry and he gives you tremendous victory. But somewhere in your life this morning, there is one thing that you have to keep going back to.

And you say, Lord, why don't you get rid of that? And you say, I've confessed, I've repented, I've yielded, I've surrendered. You've made promises. You've worked twice as hard. You've done all those things. All of us have done that. And you look around and there it is staring you in the face.

Could it be that God has allowed that to keep us ever conscious of the fact? Don't get too big for your britches. Now we don't like that. The world doesn't like that. The world says, a man ought to be self-sufficient.

He ought not depend upon anybody. And we are living in a society that hates dependence and wants to be independent. We want a permissive society. I want to do what I please, when I please, the way I please.

I don't want to have to ask anybody. Don't want any responsibility and no accountability. I just want to be my own self, my own strong man. The only problem with that is it is totally unscriptural. And Paul had a difficult time learning that lesson. The purpose that God had in mind was to teach Paul the dangers of pride and the absolute essential spirit of humility. When we talk about having a servant's spirit, what is the servant's spirit but the spirit of humility?

Willing to get down on the level of someone else and serve them regardless of the consequences. And God knew that with his tremendous intellect that he'd given Paul. It'd be awfully easy for him to depend upon his intellect, to depend upon his devotion to Jesus.

Now here's the problem sometime that we miss. A man even in his devotion to Jesus Christ and his total commitment to him can sometime resort to depending on his own degree of devotion to God as a reason for God blessing him. God isn't going to allow us to depend on anything but him as a person.

Not our ability, not even our faith, not even the degree of commitment we have to him. So what does he do? He just takes us over there and he just peels off another layer. He just keeps stripping us off and stripping us off and stripping us off, pruning us down, sanding us down, chiseling away because God doesn't want to risk losing your influence and your testimony and your witness. So what does he do?

He keeps the phone there. When you notice the purpose in Paul's life, there are three words that you and I could write down. Number one is, first of all, inability. You see, God's purpose was to bring him to a place of total personal inadequacy. We don't like to admit that.

We don't want to face that. We think if a man has enough education, if he has enough degrees, if he has enough experience and he has enough ability that he can do anything and sometimes we misquote and misuse Philippians 4 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and sometimes we're a little prone to think or to be a little heavy on the first part. I can do all things. Paul said, through Christ who is continuously pouring his strength into my life so that God's purpose was to show him and to reveal to him and to bring him to a place of utter dependence upon God. The second thing was instruction to teach him the problem of pride in his life, the value of humility and to reveal to him that God's grace was sufficient for everything that God called him to do. You see, God always has instruction in every thorn he allows in our life. Now, if we respond in the wrong manner and we want to be anxious and we want to get better resentful toward God and blame someone else, we're going to miss the truth. And he always has the word of instruction. Lord, what are you trying to teach me in this given situation?

And then the third thing is the inspiration. You see, Paul says that what at first seemed to be a real problem with him. He said he sought the Lord that he would remove this thing. And then verse nine, he said, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Then Paul said, Most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. What Paul discovered in his life was this. The very thing that at one time he wanted to have removed from his life became the motivation. It became the inspiration because he knew whenever he was feeling the worst and the whole bottom dropped out, he knew that the mighty supernatural power of God was about to be released in his life so that that which was the weakness of his life became the inspiration.

It became the thing that Paul began to bubble and be glad about. He says, I take pleasure in these infirmities so that you not need to ask the question, Lord, this weakness that you've allowed in my life, this continuous buffeting of Satan, this continuous harassment of the devil, these continuous satanic attacks. What is your purpose? There will always be to bring us to the point of incapacity, the point of instruction, the point of inspiration to begin to look at that thing not as a black spot in their life, but to become the pivotal point whereby the Lord Jesus Christ is able to release through us his almighty power. Could you be honest this morning and say that you had rather learn a divine principle which would change your relationship to him, deepen your understanding of him, deepen your intimacy with him or have the problem or the weakness of the buffeting removed?

And you wouldn't dare answer that quickly because it depends upon what it is some people say, get rid of the buffeting. But look what you'll miss. And we have to decide if we had rather know God on a deeper level or we'd rather have just a little ease, comfort and pleasure. You see, we say, oh, you mean the unlimited, unconditional, undeserved love of God or the thorn?

That's right. Which would you rather have? Well, when the stick comes and when we really get jabbed, we'd rather have peace from that. But on our knees, we're quietly contemplating God. We'd rather have the thorn if we can experience the unconditional, unlimited, undeserved love of God enveloping us growing into a sense of oneness and warmth and intimacy with him so that we have to look at the thorn in our flesh to ask the question, what is it doing in my life? Is it building me up or is it tearing me down?

And that will depend upon our response. Yet how many of us buckle under a little work? How many of us will get away?

And so I just can't do it. But Paul says he learned the secret. And I want to share with you six things. I want you to get these down six principles here that I believe that Paul learned that made it possible for him to turn his weakness into the point of strength in his life.

There's six statements. Number one, the mighty strength of God is best demonstrated is best demonstrated at our point of weakness. The mighty strength of God is best demonstrated at our point of weakness. The point in which we are the weakest is the point in which God can demonstrate his mighty power the most effective. Secondly, our realized weakness can become the greatest potential of our strength. Our realized weakness, I didn't say just our weakness, but our realized weakness. If you don't realize it's a weakness, it won't be that potential. But a realized weakness can become the greatest potential of strength in our life. And this is what happened to Paul, instead of dwelling upon it, every time the thorn pierced him every time he had an reoccurring attack of a satanic attack, what happened? That was the moment and I believe if you and I could go back and know what was happening to Paul intimate as a person, some of these greatest epistles, some of the greatest messages in these epistles may have been at the point when Paul was suffering his greatest harassment from Satan. The third thing I want you to notice, and I believe he learned this when God told him about his grace, that is the mighty strength of God, the mighty strength of God is constantly available. I want you to notice the word he uses here. He says in verse nine, most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me abide upon me.

You know what that says? It says that Paul lived under the umbrella of the mighty strength of God, because he tapped in with his weakness to that power. How did he do it? He lived, he says the mighty power of God is resting upon him. He walked under the umbrella of the strength of God, not in his own strength, not in his own ability, not because he was a Jew, not because he may have been eloquent, not because he was a tremendous elect. He walked, listen, he walked in the valley of constant weakness under the umbrella of the supernatural strength of God, which meant that he was always living in God's strength.

It is always available. The fourth thing I want you to notice is this. He learned that God's strength always was tailored to meet his immediate need, that God's strength was tailored to meet his immediate need of weakness. That is, God wants us living in utter dependence upon him so that at the moment of weakness, what do we do? We cry out to God. You see, he wants us dependent upon him. He doesn't want us living in the security of the world. He wants us living in the security of Jesus Christ.

He says, what? The strength of God was abiding upon him, resting upon him constantly. The next thing I want you to notice, and I think this is one of the two major keys here, the mighty strength of God in Paul's life, the mighty strength of God was an overflow of his personal relationship to Jesus Christ. The mighty strength of God in his life was an overflow of his intimate relationship with the Lord.

And I think this is where we need to take a moment to take stock of ourselves. What we do oftentimes, we begin to serve the Lord, and we're going to serve him and serve him and serve him. And sometimes we forget that God isn't interested in our service. He's not interested in how many sermons we preach, how many activities we care on, how many programs we put out.

God isn't interested in that. God is interested primarily in our seeking him. He wants to be the object of our affection. He wants to be the object of our pursuit. He wants to be the desire of our heart. He wants to be the object of our pursuits, our longing, our most intimate desires.

So what do we do? We pursue things, activities, objectives, and programs, and God gets lost in it. The last point I want you to get is this. The key to the release of the mighty strength of God is not only that intimate relationship, but it is the spirit of utter dependence upon him. The spirit of utter dependence.

And you see, we don't like that. We don't like to feel dependent upon anyone or anybody. But you see, the secret, the key to the whole thing is to recognize our inability and our weakness and to live every day in dependence. You wrap it all up and say he lived by faith. The only people who live by faith are those who have learned to live in dependence upon him.

But dependency is a key word. Am I willing to get up tomorrow morning and say, all right, Lord, I know that in my own strength I cannot, but I know that you can do through me all that you desire if I am wise enough to depend upon you. Now listen, we depend upon him for the things we think we cannot do. We don't depend upon him for the things we are skilled at doing. And here again, Satan gets us, we're able to do well the things we don't depend on him for doing through us.

The only problem is we are barren and fruitless. He wants us to be fruitful. And Paul was fruitful because he learned to live in utter dependence upon the Lord constantly day after day.

And notice how he says it. He said to me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I don't know what your weakness is this morning, but this I do know that if you are willing to put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're willing to surrender your life to him, confess your sins to him, repent of your sins and bow before him in submission, he will forgive you, pardon you, cleanse you, and the mighty power of God will move into your life. And that which is the great area of weakness in your life can become the point at which God will send you his greatest blessing. And I want to challenge you this morning to examine your weakness, be honest about what it is, confess to the Lord, and then no longer to pray for God to remove it, but pray that God will give you the wisdom to love it, that it may become the source of your greatest strength. Thank you for listening to Strength Through Weakness. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.