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Instead of hiding and denying our weaknesses, we need to learn to recognize them. We need to learn to share them. And we need to learn to glory in our weaknesses. Because if God is ever going to use you greatly, you’ll walk with a limp the rest of your life.

I’m going to throw out my message tonight. I think you need to see the hidden side of my ministry.

I have struggled with a handicap all my life. I was born with a brain disorder. My staff knows about it. My church knows about it. My prayer team knows about it. I was born with a disorder in my brain chemistry that makes public speaking excruciatingly painful to me. It is a genetic problem that is resistant to any medication. If doctors could have cured it, they would have years ago. I’ve been to the top neurologists in the nation.

In a nutshell, my brain over reacts to adrenaline. The neurologists at UCI would tell you I’m allergic to adrenaline. Throughout childhood, anytime adrenaline would hit my system, I would faint. Just fall over backwards and pass out. Black out on the spot! All the way through high school, I took medication for epilepsy (not because I’m an epileptic but for this disorder). And I still get severe reactions to adrenaline. First I get very dizzy. My vision blurs and then it blacks out. Sometimes I get headaches – severe headaches. Sometimes severe hot flashes. Any of you who have ever seen me speak have seen me wipe my face. But the most common reaction to this is an absolute sense of irrational panic. Absolute irrational panic! The only way I can explain it is kind of like if you were to fall off the and you’re holding on with one finger looking down. It’s that sense.

When Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2;3 “I came to You in weakness and fear and trembling,” I know what he’s talking about. I know what he’s talking about!

As You know, as a pastor and preacher, of course this has been a thorn in my ministry for 25 years I’ve been in ministry. Every public speaker, every preacher knows that adrenaline is your best friend. If you don’t have adrenaline you’re boring!! Without it, you don’t make it in preaching. Having done four services for years – which is a killer – you need adrenaline for four services. But instead of helping me, it makes me absolutely miserable. The very thing that a preacher needs the most of to get the job done, is like poison to my body.

You have absolutely know idea how bad I feel every time I speak. Every single time. My brain chemistry over reacts. These painful symptoms. I start getting all these things. My head explodes. Blurry vision. Sometimes I’m speaking and I cannot even see the audience. I can’t even see them.

These symptoms usually last until about 15-20 minutes into the message where I’ve expended enough adrenaline that my body kind of goes back into normal. So the first part of any message is excruciatingly painful to me.

When I started Saddleback church I thought, I can make it through one service but I could never do two. Then I said, I could do two but I could never do three. Then I knew I could do three but I could never do four. And as I told some of you, this Easter I did seven. And I spoke to 22,000 people and 1084 people gave their lives to Christ. Honestly, people often say to me, “Rick, when you speak to crowds like that, do you get proud of all the people you speak to?” I want you to know, honestly, that when I’m speaking and when I’m through from the bottom of my heart, that is the last thing I’m thinking about. I’m usually thinking, “God, just get me through this one more time.” If I wasn’t convinced that God has called me to do what I do and that He’s gifted me and blessed me to do it, I would have found a whole lot easier way to make a living a long time ago.

I keep doing it in spite of the pain because I know God wants me to do it and He’s called me to do it. And it’s my thorn in the flesh. If God’s ever going to use you greatly, you’ll walk with some kind of limp the rest of your life.

I’ve been in ministry for 25 years. I’ve done everything possible. I’ve prayed about this every day of my life. I’ve fasted for days on end. I’ve seen the best doctors, counselors, read the best books. You name it! And God has not chosen – although I will keep praying. I do know this that prayer dramatically relieves the symptoms in my life. One of the things I’ve figured out is that God has used this to build a praying church at Saddleback. I wouldn’t think of preaching without having my prayer team praying for me during the message. And they pray for me during each service through the entire service.

What’s the lesson? God uses weak people!! He uses weak people.

Paul had a handicap and he said, “I glory in my weakness.” It is an absolute myth that you must be a super human being to be effective in ministry. In fact, that’s a handicap in itself.

Why does God use weak people?

2 Corinthians 4 (Good News) “God in His mercy has given us this work to do so we do not become discouraged. It is not ourselves that we preach. We preach Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. Yet we who have this spiritual treasure are like common clay pots in order to show the supreme power belongs to God not to us. We are often troubled but we are not crushed, sometimes in doubt but never in despair. There are many enemies but we’re never without a friend and though badly hurt at times, we’re not destroyed. At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus so that His life may be seen in our bodies. All of this is for your sake. As God’s grace reaches more and more people they will offer to the glory of God more prayers of thanksgiving.” Why do we do it? Because people need the Lord. People need the Lord. Everybody needs Jesus. For this reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying [you guys are obvious proof of that one – The three B’s bifocals, baldness and bulgings!] For this reason we never become discouraged, even though our physical body is decaying our spiritual being is being renewed day by day.”

God says “I put My glory in clay pots.” Clay pots break easily. You drop hem, they break. You may think you’re unbreakable but you’re not. Emotionally, you’re not unbreakable. Physically, you’re not unbreakable. Spiritually, you’re not unbreakable. “Let him who stands take head lest he falls.” The moment you think you’re safe, you’re dead!

So clay pots break easily. We’re all broken people. Everybody’s got a hurt! God has used me to build Saddleback church but the power is from God and I glory in the fact that He took someone who the weakness is speaking in front of other people and said, “Now go speak to ten or twelve thousand people every week!” That’s just like God! If God is ever going to use you greatly you will walk with a limp the rest of your life. But you’ll carry it. You’ll carry the weakness.

If by sharing my handicap it causes you to stop making excuses for not serving more, then I’ve made my point. One of my life verses is 2 Chronicles 16:9 “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him.” God is looking for people to use. I used to think that God played favorites. I really did. I thought God looked out on people and said, “I’m going to use you. And I’m going to use you… and the rest of you, tough luck!” But the Bible says that God is looking for people to use. And if you get usable, He will wear you out. You’re not waiting on God.

Do you know why God’s using me? Because I said, “God, I will do the very thing that is the most painful to me if I will bring glory to You.” And I was available. God’s looking for people to use.

You say, “God can’t use me like that.” You’re dead wrong. What is your excuse for not giving Jesus Christ 100% of your ministry? We all hold back. I do. You do. We say 100% unreserved! But we still hold closets that we hold back. What we hold back is our weaknesses because we don’t want anybody to know what they are. So rather than glory in them and letting God use them, we hide them. We deny them. We put them off in a closet and pretend like we don’t have them.

You say, “Rick, you don’t know my background.” God wants to use that background. You say, “I’ve got a major weakness!” God wants to use that weakness. “I’ve got a pain in my life,” – it may be relational, it may be physical, it may spiritual, it may be emotional but God wants to use that pain. You say, “Rick, I’m afraid.” God wants you to use that fear.

Where does it say in the Bible that pain and fear exempt you from serving Jesus Christ? It isn’t there. I think about this. Where would Saddleback church be tonight if 15 years ago I told God, “Public speaking is painful for me and You know how sick it makes me and I’ll do anything except that.” There would be about 10,000 people who aren’t Christians. There would be 26 churches that would have never started. There would be 25,000 pastors who had never been to a Purpose Drive Church Seminar.

1 Corinthians 3 “After all, who is Apollos? And who is Paul? We are simply God’s servants by whom you were led to believe. Each one of us does the work that God has called him to do. I planted a seed, Apollos watered it, but God makes the plant [and churches] grow. The one who plants and the one who waters really don’t matter. It’s God who matters because He makes the plant grow. There’s no difference between the man who plants and the man who waters. God will reward each one for the work done according to what he’s done. For we are partners working together for God. And you are God’s field. You’re also God’s building. Using the gifts that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and I laid a foundation. But each one must be careful how he builds and the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the day of Jesus Christ exposes it. For on that day, the fire will reveal everyone’s work and the fire will test it and show its real quality. And if what was built on the foundation survives the fire the builder will receive a reward.”

The ultimate test of my ministry and the ultimate test of your ministry is this: Did it last? Does it last?

What kind of ministries last? Ones that are real and authentic and vulnerable and honest and non-hypocritical about our weaknesses. I believe that there are two grate pillars of ministry. Paul’s confession and Peter’s confession. These are the two great pillars of ministry. Peter’s confession was this “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Obviously, ministry is built on that one. Mark 8.

But Acts 14:15 is just as important. And that’s Paul’s confession at Iconium where he says “We are but men.”

“Thou art the Christ… we are but men.” They tried to turn Paul into a god. He said, “I’m a man!” The problem we have today is we take ourselves too seriously and we don’t take God seriously enough. We need to reverse that one.

I’m going to out laugh my people. It is not by accident that “humor” and “humility” come from the same Greek word. God uses humble people. Humble people don’t put on airs. They don’t take themselves seriously. And if you learn to laugh at yourself you’ll always have plenty of material!

I have met many pastors who are very interested in declaring their spirituality. But I haven’t met too many pastors in my life who are interested in declaring their humanity. We want to hide it. I would say to you, that to deny your humanity not only does a disservice to you and it’s dishonest but it does a disservice to your church, your congregation. In fact, I’d go further than that and say that your humanity is actually one of your greatest strengths.

God puts His greatest gifts in ordinary containers so He gets the credit.

Hebrews 11:32 “I don’t have time to tell about Gideon and Barek and Samson and Jeptha and David and Samuel and the prophets who by faith conquered kingdoms and administered justice and gained what was promised and who shut the mouths of lions and quenched the fury of the flames and escaped the edge of the sword and whose weakness was turned to strength.” That’s a beautiful phrase “who’s weaknesses were turned to strength”

It’s not talking here of sins of character. It’s not talking about flaws that we can change – eating, laziness, impatience, greed… He’s talking here (weakness) about any limitation in your life and ministry that you inherited or can’t change. A thorn, a weakness, is any limitation in your life and ministry that you inherited or can’t change. You are the product of your parents. You are the product of a background. You are the product of genetics and God was in every bit of it. That’s the weakness. There are emotional weaknesses, circumstantial weaknesses, talent limitations, physical limitations. But all throughout the Bible we have so many examples of the fact that God loves to take our greatest weakness and turn it into our greatest strength.

There are only two people in the Bible called meek – Jesus and Moses. Yet what was Moses’ greatest weakness? He had a temper than wouldn’t quit. He got angry and killed the Egyptian. He got angry and struck the rock. He got angry and threw the Ten Commandments down; they had to go rewrite them. It was anger that kept Moses out of the Promised Land. And yet he’s the only other person in the Bible that God calls meek.

Gideon -- ‘mighty man of valor” and what was he doing? What a coward! He’s hiding in the winepress. He’s in the weakest tribe, the weakest family, the youngest kid – a runt! A “mighty man of valor?” God made him that way.

Jesus looks at Peter and says, “Peter, you’re a rock!” Right! Mr. Foot in Mouth, Mr. Impulsive. He was anything but a rock. He was impulsive bar none. He was always saying the wrong thing – “Let’s build three tabernacles here!” Jesus said, “You’re going to be a rock, Peter. I’m going to take your greatest weakness – impulsiveness – and turn you into an island of stability.”

David. A man after God’s own heart. And we all now what he did. Yet he is called a man after God’s own heart! The impure becomes the ultra pure.

Abraham. He’s called the Father of faith. Oh, yes! Abraham had so much faith that twice he said to his wife, “Tell them you’re my sister so they won’t kill me.” I’m sure your wife would appreciate that!

Hudson Taylor once said, “All God’s giants have been weak people.”

God loves to use weak people to work his life through and work His work through. Why? 1 Corinthians 1:27 “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to put the wise men to shame. And what the world considers weak in order to put powerful men to shame. He receives glory.”

What are the benefits of weaknesses in our lives?

1. It creates a dependence upon God.

2. It prevent pride. It acts as a governor on your life.

3. It causes a greater dependence upon other people. I depend upon my staff. I depend upon my wife and close friends. I’m no Lone Ranger preacher. We need each other. We really do. If you haven’t figured that out yet, I hate to think what’s going to come in your life. God’s going to teach you that lesson one way or the other. We really do need each other.

4. It expands out capacity to minister. Weaknesses, rather than limiting our lives, expand our capacity to minister. 2 Corinthians 1:4 “God comfort us in our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” If you’re going to have a Christlike ministry, it means that sometimes other people are going to find healing in the wounds that are in your life. Who can better help an alcoholic than someone who is a former alcoholic? Who can better help a childless couple than a childless couple? Who can better help than the person who’s been there? I believe that our greatest life messages come out of our deepest hurts. If you’ve never struggled with any weaknesses, my guess is that your ministry is out of touch with the people you minister to. I don’t want any person on my staff who hasn’t been deeply hurt. Why? Because they’re phony! They have the attitude of “All you need to do is pray about it!” Yeah!?! Well, you have a kid go off the deep end and see if just prayers are enough.

It expands your capacity to minister. Luke 22, Jesus is talking to Peter and says, “Peter, you’re going to deny Me. But when you have returned to Me, strengthen the brothers.” Strengthen the brothers! That’s the value of the weakness. That’s the value of the pain. I could stand up here all day and tell you about successes in my life and it would have absolutely no benefit to you. But when I start talking to you about my pain, all of a sudden I’ve got your attention.

Your weaknesses can only help the people in your church if you’ll have the guts to share them. There are things that you have never told your church that they need to know. So that they can pray for you. You say, “If they know my weaknesses they won’t honor me.” “Before honor is humility.” Let me tell you from experience, vulnerability enhances your leadership. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Follow me as I follow Christ.” I used to read that and think, “I could never say that!” What an ego tripper – “Follow me as I follow Christ!” Can you imagine saying that to your people? “Follow Rick Warren, as I follow Christ.” I used to think, “What an ego this guy had!”

But the reason why Paul could be so brutally honest about his strength was because he was brutally honest about his weaknesses. He even wrote them down and 2000 years later we study them verb for verb! All of us are a bundle of strengths and weaknesses. I have some very great strengths. I also have some very great weaknesses. And so do you. You have some great strengths. You have some great weaknesses. We’re all a bundle of strengths and weaknesses. Humility is not denying your strengths. Humility is being honest about your weaknesses. Humility is not me saying, “I don’t know how to preach. I don’t know how to outline.” I do. I know how to craft sermons. But humility is saying, “In addition to those strengths, let me tell you a few things about myself.” It’s not false humility – “I’m no good!” We’ve had enough of that in our churches.

We’re all combinations. Paul was honest about his strengths because he was honest about his weaknesses. He wasn’t claiming perfection. He was just saying, “At least I’m making an attempt to live for Jesus. Follow me.”

Honestly, I’d rather have people follow me than some rock star out there. At least I’m trying to live for Jesus. From the bottom of my heart, I’m trying to live for Jesus.

Every leader has weaknesses. You’ve got them. How you handle those weaknesses in your life will determine whether they help you or whether they hinder you. People want to follow a pastor who’s real. You don’t have to be super gifted to grow a church, but you do have to be real. The more honest you are about your weaknesses the more you’re perceived as being real. The more real you are the more credibility you have. The more credibility you have, the more influence you have. The more influence you have, the more you can get done. It starts with realness.

I could tell you about the time where we went out on a land deal and after working for a year and a half we lost $100,000 and a year and a half of time in a deal that fell flat. Some pastors would get kicked out of their church for that. But people rallied around me rather than deserted me. Why? Because I was honest about how I felt about the situation. Rather than putting on a stiff upper lip and pretending to know what was going on. I was just as confused of you guys. I didn’t have the slightest idea of what God was doing. Be real.

I had to learn this lesson the hard way. At the end of the first year of Saddleback church I burned out emotionally. I started a church and was working 18-19 hours a day and loved every single moment of it. It was so fun! Everything was new and great and at the end of the year we had about 150 new believers and I was like the director of an orphanage. On the last Sunday of 1980 I got up to speak and in the middle of it I collapsed. I went through a period of dark depression. Fear filled my life. The whole next month of January, I was afraid to go back into the pulpit in the fear that I would collapse again. Steve Williams, who was the associate at the time, preached the whole month of January. I took a month off and went to the desert. I had my desert experience. I took my wife and kids to Phoenix where her parents lived and I went to the desert for a month. And I was depressed! Down! There were two haunting fears in my mind. One of them was, “God, I don’t deserve this. You are blessing my life too much.” This church had gone from 0 to 150 people in the first year. People were getting saved. “God, I’m not the man of God I ought to be. I have a difficult time just being consistent in a quiet time much less pastoring a church! I don’t deserve this.”

The second fear in my life was, “God, I can’t handle this. The growth!” I had enough brains to figure out from 0 to 150 in one year, at that growth rate within several years, we’ll be running several thousand. (Little did I know!) I thought, “I can’t handle this. This is the only church I’ve ever been a senior pastor of. I’m right out of seminary. This is my first church. I can’t handle this.”

I was depressed. God said three things to me in that month.

One, “Rick, you’re right. You don’t deserve it.” I never will. I am a trophy of God’s grace and so are you. I don’t deserve to be saved, much less in the ministry, much less be blessed in ministry. Everything that God does in us and for us and through us He does by grace through faith. Don’t ever forget that one! The moment you stop being awed by that get out of the ministry! Because you’re through, you’re washed up. When you’re no longer awed by God’s grace, get out of the ministry. Do everybody a favor.

We are trophies of grace. If God only used perfect people, what would get done? Nothing. And God uses ordinary people. He uses us in spite of our faults, our weaknesses, our missteps and even our mixed motives. I’ve stopped trying to figure out other people’s motives because I can’t figure out my own half the time. I’m not going to judge you on your motives. But grace is the fact that God knows every stupid mistake I’m going to make in ministry and He still chose me . Grace is the fact that God knows every dumb thing that you’re going to do and He still chose you.

We could stop right there on that one!

He said, “You don’t deserve it, but don’t worry. You never will. So forget that one. Quit trying to earn it. You’ll never earn it. It’s all grace. All gravy.”

Two, He said, “Who’s church is it, Rick?” I said, “It’s Your church, Lord.” Jesus said, “I will build My church.” Jesus said to me, “Rick, focus on building people and I’ll build the church.” And that’s what I’ve done for sixteen years. I said, “God, You’ve got a deal! I’m going to focus on building people one life at a time. And Jesus, You build the church.” I imagined myself getting up out of the chair and saying, “Jesus Christ, You’re now the pastor of Saddleback church. It’s Your problem on how to find land in one of the most expensive counties in the world. It’s Your problem to figure out where we’re going to meet.” And it was like a mountain of burden that went off my shoulders.

And He said, “Just remember. I use you by grace through faith.”

When you do that, you can learn to be vulnerable. Let me wrap it up by suggesting maybe four or five areas that you might work on. If you want God to bless you greatly you will walk with a limp the rest of your life. You’ve already got that limp most likely. But you’re probably trying to hide it and you’ve got a crutch down your pants and everybody thinks you’re walking straight. But you’re not. And every night when you get ready to go to bed, you pull that crutch out of your pants and lay it down. But you put it back in so nobody knows you’ve got a limp.

Five areas you need to learn to share with your people:

1. We need to learn to share our failures. Romans 7 “I have the desire to do what is right but I can’t carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to. No, I keep on doing the evil I don’t want to do. [Have you ever said that to your people? If you did, they’d say, “Thank God! He’s one of us! He struggles.” I’d be divorced today if it weren’t for a good Christian counselor. Kay and I, when we got married, we loved each other, we knew God had put us together, but we fought like cats and dogs. At the end of the first year we were so miserable, Kay felt like she was having a nervous breakdown and I ended up in the hospital. Our honeymoon was hell on earth and that’s putting it mildly. It was terrible. But where does a pastor go to get marriage counseling? We’re not supposed to have marriage problems. But we humbled ourselves. I was teaching at Cal Baptist and going through my last year at school at the same time and was making $800 a month and my counseling bill was $100 a week. I racked up a $1500 counseling bill on my MasterCard. I’ve often thought I should do a commercial: “MasterCard saved my marriage!” It took me two and a half years to pay off that card. Was it worth it? Are you kidding? My wife is my best friend today. There would be no Saddleback church without Kay. I wouldn’t have dared even thought of starting it if we hadn’t had a strong, strong marriage. She’s my best friend. She’s my lover. She’s my girlfriend. I’d rather spend time with her than with any of you! Or anybody else. We’re going to Billy Graham reception next week but I’m going to spend most of the time in the hotel with Kay! It’s just an excuse to get alone with her.

What would I pay for what I’ve got today? I’d pay two million dollars for what I’ve got today. I don’t understand when people say, “We can’t afford counseling!” I want to say, “How much is your happiness worth to you? How much is your ministry worth to you?” I don’t care if it cost me the rest of my life to pay off that, if it saved my marriage and confirmed my ministry, it’s priceless.

When we do a marriage series here at Saddleback, Kay and I get up and lay it out about how we had difficulties. When we do that, you can hear a pin drop because it gets people’s attention. It got yours. Notice how quiet it got when I started talking about marriage problems? Name me a marriage that hasn’t had problems! If your marriage has never had a problem, you’re a liar. Because you married a sinner and she married a bigger one. We need to be honest abbot our failures. It helps my people far more when I tell them how we grew through our struggles than if I got up and said, “We have a perfect marriage. I wish you had one!” That’s encouraging, isn’t it!?!

2. We need to share our feelings. 2 Corinthian 6:10. Paul says “Oh my dear Corinthian friends, I’ve told you all my feelings and I love you with all my heart.” There are congregations all over California that are dying to hear their pastors get up and say, “I love you guys!” I don't know how long it’s been since you stood up and told your people before you started preaching to them, “I love you guys!” I say it every week in my heart. I pray it every week. I say, “I love You, Lord. You love me. You love these people. I love you. You love me. This is not an audience to be feared but a family to be loved. There is no fear in love.” I get up and look out at the people and, before I ever start talking, I remember I love these people.

3. We need to be honest about our faults. 2 Corinthians 3:5 “There is nothing in us that allows us to claim that we are capable of doing this work. The capacity we have comes from God.” If you’re not a good preacher, you will endear yourself to your people by admitting it. That’s a mindblower. You say, “Folks, I realize I’m just an average preacher. I may not even be average. Thanks for putting up with this. I want you to know that I love you.” You’ll go miles on that one! Don’t try to pretend you’re something you’re not. An endearing quality – we’re attracted to people who just tell it like it is! If you’re lousy a details (like I am) admit it. It’s a grand joke at Saddleback. They run around picking up all the messes I make. It’s the grand joke – “You’re not going to put Rick in charge of that, are you?” Five minutes before we came up here we were going, “Do we need a car? Do we need bedding?” Why are we doing this? Because Glenn was in Hawaii and he plans everything for us and he wasn’t here and we were helpless! Absolutely helpless. You have to have people on your staff and in your church who compensate for your weaknesses.

4. We admit our frustrations. That is endearing to people. 2 Corinthians 1 “We didn’t know about it but we did live through it and we felt like we were domed to die. We despaired of even life itself.” He said, “I was so depressed I was ready to kick the bucket!” Have you ever told your people that? No? Paul did. And he’s got a thing or two to teach us about ministry. Be vulnerable. Admit your frustration. He said, “We saw how powerless we were but that was good because then we put everything into the hands of God who can even raise the dead.” That’s good!

When we got ready to go into a building program, some of you heard about our miracle offering a year and a half ago where we raised 3.5 million dollars one day. The largest offering in the history of American Christianity. It took four Brinks cars to carry it away. They had Uzies standing out there guarding it. The children’s offering—we had them bring in their coins and come in singing thanksgiving to the Lord as the marched down the aisles. They poured the coins into big buckets. We forgot that we’d never be able to move anything that heavy! It weighed over a ton. Nobody could move it! We got a money counter that counts 6000 coins a minute and it took 17.5 hours to count the children’s offering. Prior to that great day we’re looking at 74 acres in Orange County. That’s nine million dollars worth. We’re looking at millions and millions of dollars over the next years. People would say, “Rick, what do you think of that?” I just don’t know how much that money is. I just think it’s all zeros! When we got ready to start on this big program, I had two choices – be honest or fake it. People wanted to know what I felt as leader. They’d say, “Does it ever scare you when you think of the enormity of the task before us in this church?” I’d say, “Are you kidding?!? It scars me to death! But I happen to believe that we should base our goals on how big God is not how big we are. And I’ve never thought that fear was a legitimate reason for not doing something. I’m scared to death to do it but we’d better do it or we’re going to be disobedient to God. Because this part of the county needs Jesus.

Instead of me pumping up saying, “I know we can do it. I’ve never had any doubts.” – they’re going, “I sure do!” – but to admit it to your people and say, “It doesn’t matter if you have doubts. You doubt your doubts.” You don’t have to believe your doubts. Doubt them! What we need to do is doubt our doubts and believe our beliefs. Usually we doubt our beliefs and believe our doubts. We admit our frustrations.

5. Finally, I think we need to admit our fears. That may be the hardest of all. 1 Corinthians 2 Paul says “I came to you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.” Notice that Paul was not afraid to admit that he was afraid. He was an intellectual and spiritual giant. We’ve never seen a greater mental capacity than the Apostle Paul. He was an intellectual giant! But physically and probably emotionally he was probably very vulnerable. He was crippled.

We probably would have chided Paul. If he’d come to this conference we would have probably said, “You’re a mature man. You shouldn’t be nervous!” Yet we need to see that very nervousness as the key to God’s power.

As I said, I have this incredible weakness in my own life. And you say, “How do you speak to so many when you’re so scared?” Because God’s called me to do it.

So what do I do with my weaknesses? I recognize them. That’s the mark of emotional maturity. You’ve got to first know what they are. If you don’t know what they are, ask your wife! Then you’ve got to start sharing them. Then the ultimate: You’ve got to glory in them! Paul says, “I glory in my weaknesses.” 2 Corinthians 12 “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Phillips translation says it like this “I cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses because they mean a deeper experience with Christ.” The living Bible says it like this, “I am glad to be a living demonstration of Christ’s power instead of showing off my own powers and abilities.”

So rather than posturing yourself as a self confident and invincible pastor, see yourself as a trophy of God’s grace. It’s the secret of power. And if God is going to use you greatly, you will walk with a limp the rest of your life.

I invite you to pray this prayer with me aloud.

Dear God, I want You to use me in ways I’ve never thought possible. I want to serve You with all my heart any time, anywhere, any way. Make me usable. Help me to recognize my weaknesses and help me to be honest about them and help me to share them in the right way. Most of all help me to glory in my weaknesses that Your power may rest on my life . Thank You that You use ordinary people. Thank You that You love me in spite of myself. Thank You that You’ve used me in spite of all my mistakes. Thank You for Your grace. By faith, I ask You to use me in the future. And by faith I want to thank You in advance that You will use me. Would You turn my weaknesses into strengths and help me to walk before You with humility and with integrity.

Father, I want to thank you for these who’ve prayed this prayer and I know this could be a turning point in many of our lives. Is there not new lessons that we all need to be reminded where the power comes from? Lord, help us not to compare ourselves to each other and help us not to be jealous and help us not to be resentful. But help us to be positive and to walk in vulnerability and authenticity and to realize that we hold this treasure in clay pots. God, there are some guys here tonight who are broken and they’re hurting but they’ve been hiding it. May they find healing. There are guys here tonight that the tide’s out in their lives. Help them to hold on and that the tide does come back in. Would You bless our convention. Would you bless our churches would You bless our families, turn our thorns into triumphs, turn our trials into triumphs, turn our messes into a message that You want to say to the world through us that God uses ordinary people. Thank You.

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