Limitations: The Key to Usefulness

None of us likes to dwell on our flaws or our weaknesses.

It's not information we include on our resumes. If we're honest, we'd much rather talk about our strengths, our talents and our gifts. On Truth for Life weekend, however, Alistair Begg explains why our limitations are actually the key to being useful to God. I'd like to invite you, first of all, to take your Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians and chapter 12 if you would.

I must go on boasting. Paul is speaking ironically here. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 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. And I know that this man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, but God knows, was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself except about my weaknesses. 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. 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. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, 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. 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.

Let me begin by asking you a question. Have you ever considered the possibility that your limitations and your handicaps may prove to be the key to your usefulness in your service of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever considered the possibility that your limitations and your handicaps may prove to be the key to your usefulness in the service of the Lord Jesus?

Now, for those of you who regard yourselves as being eminently strong, able to cope with everything, this is not going to mean much to you. But for any of you that are prepared to acknowledge your weakness, to confront your limitations, to recognize that what you are in the silence of your own bedroom and in the privacy of your own heart before God is what you really are, then I hope and pray that this simple study will be foundational to you as you begin this great journey through this academic year. There is no question that the evil one is very happy to champion those kind of thoughts. He's happy to encourage us to doubt the integrity of God's character, the integrity of God's purposes. When we face peculiar difficulties, when we deal with severe discomfort, when we're aware of our own sinfulness and our own declension, then he particularly comes alongside seeking to encourage us to cast doubt upon the love of God.

Certainly Paul understood this. When he writes to the Ephesians, he says, we're not wrestling against flesh and blood. We're involved in a great cosmic and spiritual battle, spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. He even refers to that which is his grave concern in physical limitations here in 2 Corinthians 12 as a very messenger of Satan himself. And if you were listening carefully, and I think you were, you would realize that Paul is very prepared to acknowledge the challenges that have come his way.

He defines them there in verse 10, weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, difficulties. Now, when we study the Bible, it's always important that we exercise the control of scripture on the passage we're considering. Failure to do so may allow us to make legitimate conclusions from illegitimate premises. In other words, we may reach the right answer, but we shouldn't really try and reach it from this particular passage. And so the way in which we safeguard against that is to stand back from the passage enough to see why it is that 2 Corinthians 12 falls as it does and what it is that is going on in the context of Paul's life and ministry that allows him to speak as he does.

Because after all, it's a fairly strange way to speak, isn't it? If I may boast and I may boast about this and so on, you say, why is the apostle doing this? Well, if you just turn back for a moment to chapter 10, you'll understand. I'm not going to go all the way through it, but there were four particular accusations leveled against Paul and his companions.

And you can do these or find these for your homework. But first of all, they accused him of being a coward in verse one. The way in which we understand what the accusations are, incidentally, is by the way in which he responds to these things. And so he says, I appeal to you, I Paul, who I'm quote timid when face to face with you, but bold when away. He's simply reiterating what people were saying. They were saying, you know, Paul, he's real strong when he's, when he's writing his letters, but if you ever see him up close, he's a pushover.

And so he says, here I am. They were accusing him also of being worldly and unspiritual. In verse two, some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. In verse seven, they were being regarded. He and his colleagues are suspect members of the body of Christ. And in verse 12, they were being accused of frankly being second class citizens.

Hence the irony of 2, 10, 12. We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

Of course they're not. These people were writing their own resumes, which was bad enough, but they were also providing their own references. They commended themselves. And as a result of this, Paul, out of his concern for the gospel and for those who were under his pastoral care, he then has to inevitably enter into a defense of ministry and in part the defense of himself, respond to these accusations, respond to these insinuations and in doing so to establish one vital truth. And it's there in verse 17 of chapter 10, let him who boasts boast in the Lord. And then verse 18, paraphrased, for what you say about yourself means nothing in God's work. It's what God says about you that makes the difference. There is an inherent danger in coming to a school like this, especially if you've come from a little church somewhere or a little school somewhere and you've been a bit of a big fish in a small pond and here you are in the middle of 3,000 students and you immediately feel that it's imperative that you begin to, you know, put your cards on the table quickly.

Don't do it. None of your friends need to hear how brilliant you were or how spiritual you are. They don't need to listen to your sanctimonious talk first thing in the morning when they're trying to wake up and brush their teeth. It is not what you say about yourself in God's work that matters. It's what God says about you. You may safely leave it to God to vindicate, to bless, to exalt he or she who humbles themselves.

Resist the temptation to let everybody know who you are. Now in chapter 11, Paul tackles this head on. He takes them on at their own game. He says in verse 11, I can go all the way through it. I'm sure you'll read it because you're such wonderful students, but he says, you know, I hope you'll put up with a little of my foolishness, but you're already doing that, of course, he says. And if you take verse 1 and then go to verse 16, I repeat, let no one take me for a fool, but if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting, I'm not talking as the world would, but as a fool. But look what he says in 17 and 18.

Let me paraphrase it for you. I didn't learn this kind of talk from Jesus. It's a bad habit I picked up from the three ring preachers who are so popular these days. To talk this way is not Jesus talk. His detractors boasted about their Jewishness, verse 22 of chapter 11. They boasted about their service, verse 23. And so Paul goes down that road and look at how he concludes in the 30th verse. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. Look at verse 32.

In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was Lord in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands. It's an interesting humility, isn't it? It's a striking honesty, sadly missing in evangelical Christianity, not least of all in people like myself who received such wonderful accolades as to come and speak to a student body like this. I'd really like you to know how weak I am. If you knew how weak I really am, you would never actually come and listen to me talk.

And if I knew how weak each of you are, I would realize how important it is for me to talk to you. Have you ever considered the possibility that your limitations are actually the key to your usefulness in serving Jesus? What Paul is making clear here and what he clarifies now in the verses that we read in chapter 12 is that for him, weakness is an asset.

And in the beginning of chapter 12, he tackles another area in which his detractors were challenging him. They were challenging him in the area of spiritual experience. And loved ones, young people listen, of all the contexts in which boasting is inappropriate, it is never more so than in the realm of spiritual experience. Because any experience of God is his gift to us. It's not an earned experience. It's not a reward.

It is a gift. So would we then go out and boast on the basis of this? Would we use this as a platform to elevate ourselves and do down someone who may be struggling in the early days, who may be faltering, who may have come limping into this institution, who may be tottering between faith and its demise even tonight? And your very posture of having it all together simply drives them further away.

For they want to know that there's somebody, just at least one person that recognizes, I need help. Now what Paul says is this, if you ever wanted something to boast about in terms of spiritual experiences, I know a man who had such an amazing spiritual experience, caught up into the third heaven, had a sight of paradise. He uses language that actually beggars description. And he says, I could boast about a man like that, but I certainly couldn't boast about myself. Now what he's doing is he's using the third person in order not to draw attention to himself. The details of this experience are not our focus this evening. The point is simply this. This experience was in human terms worth bragging about, but he determined that he would not do it.

That's what he's saying there. I refrain from doing this. Why? So no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. When I engage in spiritual pride, I can guarantee you these two things that I have lost sight of the cross of the Lord Jesus and I have lost sight of my dependence upon him. You see, there is nothing good, even our experiences of God that the devil doesn't try to turn to evil. And so look at what he says in verse seven, in light of all of this, again paraphrasing, because of the extravagance of these revelations and so that I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in touch with my limitations. God said, you know, I don't want Paul to get a fat head. And so there was a messenger of Satan to torment me. What is the messenger of Satan?

My best shot at it is simply this, that it was a messenger of Satan in that it became the occasion of Satan's insinuations. So that here was some experience, whatever it was, it was physical, it annoyed him regularly, it annoyed him intensely, and it became to him a messenger of Satan because Satan would come to his mind and say, why do you have this Paul? Without this Paul, don't you think you would be a lot more useful to God? Why should God allow this in your life Paul?

Now if we're almost all of us have things like this, our view of ourself is such that we wish we were six inches taller, you know, or three inches broader or whatever else it is. But God fashioned us, intricately brought us together in our mother's womb, established our DNA, made us purposefully. But the messenger came, the pain was real, and he did what we would expect him to do. He prayed about it, verse eight.

In fact, he did so in a very intense and organized way. That's why I think he's able to say three times I pleaded with the Lord. It's interesting that he says three times I pleaded with the Lord. Don't you think that if you had a thorn in your flesh that bothered you every single morning that you awakened, every single morning you would plead with the Lord?

But he says three times I did it, and the answer came back. My grace is sufficient for you Paul, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. Now the principle and the reality of this didn't alter his pain, but it did change his perspective.

And so he says, therefore in light of this, this is exactly as it happened. I had this amazing experience. I have this thorn in the flesh. Three occasions I asked for its removal. The answer came back. My grace is enough.

It's all that you need. And so says Paul, once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the hardship and I began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now says Paul, I take my limitations in stride and with good cheer, for these limitations cut me down to size.

I just let Christ take over. And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. It's the complete reverse of what society says, isn't it?

And so if we allow the prevailing culture to dictate to us in the way in which we seek to live our lives, we stumble and falter. I wonder, are you helped by this at all? No wonder is anyone as helped by it as I am. That God makes even Satan's insinuations work out for our good when they cause us to turn afresh to the Lord Jesus in childlike, prayerful dependence upon his promises. Therefore, how rewarding is the thorn that brings us into the discovery of verse nine. Difficulties and disappointments in the Christian life are inevitable and they're also purposeful. The Christian life is just full of goodbyes. The goodbye that you said to your mom and dad and they said to you, especially if you're the first one going off is, is a little taste of what death will be. You say that's weird that you would say that.

Well, I may be weird, but that's no surprise because I'm weird. You see, the hymn writer puts it perfectly when he says, I thank you God that all my joy is touched with pain, that shadows fall on brightest hours and thorns remain, so that earth's bliss may be my guide, but not my chain. Paul says, listen to me. You feel weak. He gives strength to the weak. He deliberately chose weak things. He tells the Corinthians in his first letter, he chose the weak in order to show the strong, how powerful the weak can be. Earlier in his second letter here, he describes the himself and others like him as old clay pots so that the transcendent power might be seen to belong to God and not to us. Listen, young people, even the Christians we most admire for their godliness and for their gifts are just as much jars of clay as we are.

One story and I'm through. The servant girl in the East end of London applies to the missionary organization. The missionary organization turns her down. You're far too small, they say.

You're far too uneducated. You're really not what we're looking for. She returns to her bedroom in a garret of an East London home bemoaning the fact that her hair is so black, so straight. Why couldn't it be blonde like some of those other girls? And why couldn't she at least have been a reasonable size? Why did she have to be so tiny?

Turning her back on the advice of the missionary organization, trusting God, she takes her belongings, her bits and pieces, and she heads on her way out and across the China Sea and arrives in one of those great Chinese ports. And when she comes up on deck and she looks out at the crowds that have gathered on the key sign, a shiver went up her back because what did she gaze upon? All these tiny little ladies with jet black hair. God made her tiny, gave her jet black hair so that she would be known for posterity. Gladys Aylward, the little woman, she thought that her smallness and the straightness of her hair would be a detriment to usefulness.

God had fashioned her exactly in that way so that he could use her for his express purpose. You don't have to tell anybody how good you are at anything. Let others praise you.

You don't have to apologize for anything. God, he don't make junk. Have you ever considered the possibility that your sense of limitation and weakness may actually prove to be the key to your usefulness in the service of Christ? That is Alistair Begg with a counterintuitive and yet biblical look at limitations.

You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. I want to remind you, if you haven't already downloaded the audiobook, Pray Big, it's available today to download for free, but only until October 31st. This is a book written and read by Alistair that will help you learn how to pray with more boldness, like the Apostle Paul prays in the book of Ephesians.

He prayed frequently, joyfully, confidently, asking God to move in bold ways. And as you listen to the audiobook, Pray Big, you'll learn to talk to God with the same hope and conviction. Download the free audiobook today at truthforlife.org slash Pray Big. In addition to Alistair's audiobook, we want to recommend to you a book that explores the very heart of the Christian faith. It's titled The Beauty of Divine Grace. This is a book that takes a clear and careful look at the message of the gospel, the truth that our salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in scripture alone, all to the glory of God alone. These alone statements are sometimes called the five solas. When you read The Beauty of Divine Grace, you'll look at each of these truths and learn how to live in light of their reality. Find out more about the book at truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for including us in your weekend plans. The Apostle Paul often exhorted believers to have a Christ-like attitude, but what exactly does that look like in our culture today? Find out when you join us next weekend. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.