Boast in Being a Weak Church

Sermon Transcript

INTRODUCTION

Until 2008, Lehman Brothers was one of the most coveted financial firms to work for on all of Wall Street. In order to ensure that they landed the very best of their Ivy League applicants, Lehman Brothers developed an interviewing technique known as the stress interview. If you were invited to Lehman’s Manhattan offices, your first interview might begin with the interviewer pretending to shuffle through their papers while thoughtlessly asking you to open the window to give everyone some fresh air. You are up on the forty-third floor overlooking Wall Street, you can hear your heart pounding in your ears as you approach the window to open it, but it’s sealed shut. Of course, that was the point. The interviewers wanted to see whether your inability to comply with their request led you to angrily yank on the window, break into a cold sweat and panic or, as one applicant was rumored to have done, pick up a chair and throw is straight through the window.[1] Lehman Brothers put their applicants through the stress interview because they wanted to know how an applicant would respond to their weaknesses being exposed. Now, I imagine that the elite students interviewing at Lehman were deeply uncomfortable with their inability being exposed and did everything in their power to hide their weaknesses, but the Lord Jesus Christ invites his church to a paradoxically different response to our weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9 – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. The elite candidates at Lehman hated the exposure of their weakness, but followers of Jesus boast in their weakness.

Now, weaknesses are not the same as sins. God never invites us to boast in our disobedience to him. Rather, weakness refers to human inability, frailty, or suffering. A weakness is anything that might hinder our ability to do what we are supposed to do or be who we are supposed to be for God’s glory as individuals or as a church family. Far from being ashamed over, depressed about, or hiding our weaknesses like those elite candidates at Lehman Brothers, followers of Jesus are content in and even brag about our limitations, temptations, and lack of sufficient ability to bear fruit for God’s glory. It’s the upside down way of Jesus. That brings us to the big idea of our passage this morning: Boast in being a weak church. Boast in being a weak church. This year the Lord is inviting us to be content with our lack of self-sufficiency and our inability in ourselves to be who he has called us to be and do what he has called us to do this year. We are glad about weaknesses, inabilities, and limitations.

Citylight Church – there is a reason why we are beginning 2024 with boasting in our weakness. This year, January is prayer emphasis month for Citylight Church. Every sermon this month will focus on prayer – we’ll return to our verse-by-verse journey through Hebrews next month. Every Citygroup gathering this month will be an evening devoted to prayer. The month will culminate with a church-wide prayer gathering on Wednesday January 31. And this is all part of our focus this year on growing as a praying church that bears much fruit through asking boldly and surrendering completely. This is a month for renewal through prayer individually and as a church family and weakness is at the heart of a praying life. Paul Miller says that a praying life is learned desperation. A praying church is a church that comes to the end of its self-sufficiency and learns to boast in our individual and collective weakness. And so we’re beginning our prayer emphasis month by exploring three reasons why we boast in our weakness. This morning we’ll explore: (1) The purpose of weakness (2) The power of weakness (3) The plan of weakness.

THE PURPOSE OF WEAKNESS

The first reason why we are content and even brag about our limitations and inability to do what we are supposed to do and be who we are supposed to be for God’s glory as individuals and as a church family is because Almighty God has a design, a purpose for our weakness. The purpose of our weakness, temptations, sufferings, and limitations is to save us from the pride of self-sufficiency so that we can learn the humility of a praying life. Citylight – you are a gifted, talented, and able group of people. Self-sufficiency and the prayerlessness that results from self-sufficiency is a significant temptation for us. Therefore, our weakness is a gift. Our limitations as a church are not a prison; they’re saving us from the prison of self-sufficiency. Look with me at verse seven.

2 Corinthians 12:7: So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. In the verses just prior to our passage, we learn that God gave Paul a personal tour of heaven! But Paul’s amazing revelations came with the great temptation to become conceited, self-sufficient, overly reliant upon himself, and ultimately, prayerless. Like many of us, Paul’s greatest temptation, because of his great gifting, was functional independence from God. But Jesus says that apart from abiding in Him we can literally accomplish nothing. Therefore, as one scholar puts it, God graciously gave Paul a thorn to puncture his pride (Garland) for the purpose of making Paul more prayerfully dependent on Christ. Paul came to see that as painful as the thorn was, it was ultimately a gift from God sent to rescue Paul from self-sufficiency and teach him the dependence of a praying life.

We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was. Was it a physical ailment that limited him? Was it psychological guilt over his past persecution of the church of Jesus Christ that hindered him? Was it a nagging temptation that wouldn’t let him alone? Was it an ongoing limit of financial support for his ministry? We don’t know. And that’s wonderful because that means we can see our thorns – our weaknesses, limitations, sufferings and irritants in Pauls’ experience. We can see the challenges with and need of resources for renovating our facility at 4050 Main Street into our future home and ministry center in Paul’s thorn. We can see the amazing hurdles to sending a team to plant Citylight NYC and hiring a new pastor to replace Tim in Paul’s thorn. You and I can see our temptations, our areas of inability, our suffering, our trials, and our limitations in Paul’s thorn. And as Paul did, we can embrace our individual and corporate weakness not as a trap or a prison, but God’s gift to rescue us from the prison of self-sufficiency so that we can learn the humility of a praying life.

So, as we begin our prayer emphasis month, let’s gladly embrace our weaknesses being exposed. Let’s boast all the more gladly that we don’t have the resources in ourselves to be who we are supposed to be or do what we are supposed to do for God’s glory because God has a purpose in our weakness: to save us from the prison of self-sufficiency and deliver us into the joy of being a praying church that asks boldly and surrenders completely. As our weaknesses bring us low and dependent, we discover the second reason why we boast all the more gladly in being a weak church…

THE POWER OF WEAKNESS

The purpose of weakness is to make us prayerful. And it’s through our praying that Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness. The power of weakness is that when our places of weakness become places of prayer, our weaknesses become ground zero for the power of Christ to be made manifest. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9: Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul prayed three times for his weakness to be permanently removed, which may refer more to fervency and distinct occasions than an exact number. It’s right to pray that God will remove our weaknesses and limitations, but times come when we have to accept what is inescapable – we have limits and weaknesses that won’t get solved this side of the new heavens new earth.

What do we do with that? Ray Ortlund has helped me understand the way Paul thought about his weakness before God revealed his purpose in it. Paul thought he had one of two options: 1. Keep the thorn and have less to live for and less to offer God’s purposes in the world or 2. Get rid of the thorn and have more to live for and offer to God and his purposes in the world. And God answered Paul’s prayer by revealing a third way entirely that Ray Ortlund calls “Christianity!” Keep the weaknesses, turn to Christ in dependent prayer, and watch as our places of weakness become ground zero for the perfect power of Christ to rest.

This word “rest” is language that reminds us of God’s presence in Israel’s temple in the Old Testament. The shekinah power and glory of God that once rested on the Old Testament Temple and then dwelt on earth when Christ came, now rests on weak, needy, dependent churches who access the perfect power of Christ through prayer. The power of weakness is this: Christ’s power is made perfect in a weak church that prays. If we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit. So, boast all the more gladly in your weaknesses by praying because you are most powerful when you are least reliant on your own resources. I love the way that Dr. Tony Evans put it: “The Lord wanted to keep Paul humble because removing his self-sufficiency would eliminate any stubborn pride, make him more useful, cause him to bear more fruit in ministry, and bring more glory to God…Thus, sometimes God acts like a recycling plant in our lives: He breaks us down so that he can re-use us and increase our anointing.”

Citylight Church I want to invite you to engage in every aspect of the prayer emphasis month by being part of every Sunday and every CG gathering. This week at our Citygroup gatherings we’re going to take time to confess our weaknesses and limitations as individuals and weaknesses that we have as a church. We’re going to tell our Father about our lack and inability on our own to be what we are supposed to be and do what we are supposed to do. And then we are going to turn those areas of weakness into our specific areas of prayer because that is how Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness. We are most powerful when we are least reliant on our own strength.

The purpose of weakness is to rescue us from self-sufficiency so that Christ’s power can rest in our places of weakness as we ask boldly and surrender completely. That brings us to the final reason why we boast in being a weak church…

THE PLAN OF WEAKNESS

God’s plan for our weakness is to give us a singular devotion to Christ. God’s plan for our weakness is to make us a church singularly concerned with living for the sake of Christ. Notice the first five words in the final verse of our passage. 2 Corinthians 12:10 – For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. We boast in our weaknesses because God’s plan for our weaknesses is to strip away everything that competes with Christ for our first love and greatest devotion. God is like a master craftsman and our weaknesses and limitations are his hammer and chisel. And his plan for our weaknesses is that they will fashion us into a people with a singular devotion to Christ so that our prayers are increasingly for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth, in Citylight, and in our lives, as it is in Heaven. We boast all the more gladly in being a weak church because weaknesses bring us to the end of ourselves so that “for the sake of Christ” becomes the banner of our lives, our families, and our church. So, boast in being a weak church because weakness is God’s plan for making us pure in heart so that we will one thing in prayer: “for the sake of Christ.” God’s plan for our weakness is to make us content with losing our lives so that our prayers focus on “for the sake of Christ;” asking boldly and surrendering completely.

So, during prayer emphasis month we are going to turn our hearts toward Christ. We are going to learn to pray for his sake, for his kingdom, and his glory. That’s where our hearts find true contentment.

CONCLUSION

Maybe you don’t know how the story with Lehman ended. In 2008, Lehman Brothers entered into the largest bankruptcy filing in history with $619 billion in debt. At the time, the Wall Street juggernaut was the fourth largest U.S. investment bank with 25,000 global employees. Weaknesses in Lehman’s subprime mortgage position had been showing for months, but the CFO refused to acknowledge the weaknesses, millions paid the price, and the once mighty company is now gone. Pride went before their fall.

But the movement of the gospel marches unstoppably forward on the back of a church that boasts in being a weak church, letting our weaknesses make us dependent, perfectly powerful through prayer, and singularly devoted to the sake of Christ. We walk this path of weakness gladly because it’s the one patterned for us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The power of God hidden in our weakness parallels God’s power hidden Christ’s weakness demonstrated on the cross. The power of God was ultimately revealed in the weakness of the Lord Jesus Christ who took on flesh and lived as a mere man, was despised and rejected by men, was acquainted with sorrow and grief, was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin, and was ultimately crucified for the forgiveness and salvation of all who believe in him. It was through the weakness of Christ, most ultimately and vividly seen in Christ’s crucifixion, that God’s power to save is ultimately and perfectly seen. The gospel is the ultimate plan of power in weakness. So, boast in being a weak church by letting weakness draw you into deeper and deeper dependence on the living Christ in prayer this month, and beyond, and then watch with joy as your places of weakness become ground zero for His power through you. Boast gladly in your weaknesses, Citylight Church, because you’re most cheerfully powerful when you’re least reliant on your own resources.