Are You Ready Even in Weakness?

When we look at our weaknesses, when we look at the thorns that are in our life, when we're looking at the difficulties, Paul's like, "Put all those on your spiritual resume. Not how often you read the Bible, that's a great thing to do, but don't boast about that." Not how often you pray, that's a great thing to do, but don't boast about that. Not how often you serve in kids ministry, that's a great thing to do, but don't boast about that. He's like, "Bost about how broken and messed up you are, cuz that's when God starts to move." You see, this is the great paradox of the Christian life. But 2 Corinthians chapter 12. All right. So, grab that. Uh, we're going to be flipping there as you're flipping over there. All right. Here's what I want you to kind of think through. And I have a question for you to start pondering is, have you ever had a job that you thought you were perfect for? You thought you were made for, and you did not get that job. There are these times in our life where we're like, I'm the great candidate. I'm awesome. I need to do this. This is what God's called me to do and I have the perfect resume. But for some reason, it didn't work out before I came into ministry. I actually worked in HR management for Target. And one of the things I had to do, and I loved it, but this time of year was awful because I had to hire about 60 more people for our store to help us get through. So, I'd do interview after interview after interview. and they would come, they'd check in a guest service, then they'd go kind of sit at our little food court area and I would come get them, introduce myself, tell them the hiring manager, and say, "Follow me back." And we'd walk across the front doors going over to our offices. And as we got there, when I would get to the door, I would open it, and if one or two things happened, if I was waiting 3 seconds and they weren't at the doorway, or if they were more than three paces behind me, the interview did not matter. I already turned them down in my head. And you may think that's rude or that's unfair, but here's the deal. The job was fast-paced. The job was moving. The job was you had to walk with a sense of urgency. So, if you were slow on the interview, I would just have to fire you for being too slow a couple months later. So, in that, like during the interview process, I'm just drawing like pictures underneath their answers, not listening to anything they're saying after that. But maybe you've had some moment in your life where you think you've just kind of built the perfect uh resume. You've got the skills to get that next job. In our world, we have this idea of constantly building ourselves up is making sure that professionally we're gaining the skills we need to get to the next level. That from a social media perspective, we're portraying the people that we want to be. Our world is possibly about building and building and making ourselves look good, cleaning up on the outside. But today, as we dive into 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul is going to show us when it comes to our spiritual resume, how God desires something completely different. And it brings us to our key question for today is, are you ready to build your spiritual resume? Now, you hear that and you're like, great, he's going to tell me I need to read my Bible seven days a week. Great. He's going to tell me I'm going to need to pray without ceasing. That's a verse, right? I don't know how you pray without seizing, but we have to have the attitude of pray without seizing, right? Of like, oh, he's going to tell me I have to show up to church every single week. Oh, I'm going to have to start serving in kids ministry. We can do that if you want to do that. If you feel convicted right now, just sign up on your card on next right now. Um, but you're like, maybe you feel like this means that these spiritual disciplines that I need to get into more that this is going to convict me and go. But what we're going to see today in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 is Paul is actually showing us our spiritual resumes don't look like that at all. That instead as we start diving into this chapter that what we see that God desires to build us to become the Christians we need to be is so different than what our world would have. And he starts this in 2 Corinthians 12 starting in verse one. He says this boasting is necessary. It is not profitable. But I will move on to the visions and revelations of our Lord. Paul's brain works in a different way. All right. As he even writes, he's like, boasting is necessary, but it's not good. But let me talk about some visions. And in verse two, he says, I know a man in Christ who is caught up to the third heaven 14 years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows. I know that this man, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows, there's a lot of funniness in how he writes. All right? But he was caught up into paradise and he heard inexpressable words which a human being is not allowed to speak. In verse 5, I will boast about this person, but not about myself except of my weaknesses. You see, Paul as he starts to take us down this journey and telling us how do we build our spiritual resume? What are the things that we should put on that resume? As we talk about getting closer to God, here's the first thing we see that God wants your spiritual resume to consist of is he wants you to put on your weaknesses. Paul starts with what seems like a contradiction. In verse one, he he says that I have to he he's like it boasting it it's necessary, but it's not profitable. And what he's saying, he's like, I have to brag a little here, but I don't think my bragging is going to help you or going to help me. But then he's like, "So, let me shift to something that God has shown me." And what's fascinating is he talks about this incredible church, this incredible spiritual experience, being caught up into the third heaven of hearing inexpressable things. But he talks about it in third person. He's like, "I know a man in Christ who." Now, all scholars would agree that this is Paul talking about himself, but some even speculate that the reason he says it this way is because he was talking about himself. But he didn't want to brag so much that he couldn't say it in the first person. He had to talk in the third person. It's kind of like when your kids come to you and they're like, uh, you know, they did something bad and they start describing it, but they don't actually use their name for it. Um, they're like, "Hey, something happened. Someone did something. I have no knowledge about it." Literally just happened yesterday. Uh, it's finally nice outside. So, my kids went outside and played for the first time in like 5 months without a swimsuit on. All right. It was a miracle. and they're playing out in the grass and they come over they're like um uh someone kicked a third ball over the fence um to the neighbor's yard. I was like, "Why did someone do that?" Uh or how did someone do that? They're like, "Uh, someone dropkicked it." I'm like, "All right, why did someone dropkick it? They thought it would be cool." I'm like, "All right. Um do you know who the someone is?" They're like, "Maybe." I was like, "Is this someone you?" They're like, "Yeah." I'm like, "Could have saved us some time there, bro." Um, but Paul is like, "Someone had this spiritual experience." And and what's funny is as he's saying this, then they're like, "Oh, oh, Paul's talking about himself." And as Paul begins to describe this extraordinary experience, he he describes it this way. First, he says he saw paradise. He heard things that humans aren't allowed to hear and then speak about. And and here's the thing. If if you're building a spiritual resume, if I'm Paul, the first thing I'm putting on it, if you're are you talking about your resume as a apostle or as a pastor or as someone sharing the gospel, the first thing I would put on there is direct revelation of heaven. Like, I saw heaven. There's a lot of best-selling books that are all lies that have said that, right? Five minutes in heaven. I don't think those are true. But Paul literally is like, I saw heaven. But he says, no, I don't boast about that. And instead he kind of goes and look at verse 5. He says instead I he's like I'll boast about this person but not about myself. He's like kind of he's like I don't even know if this was in the body or out of the body. I don't know what's happening but God knows. But he says the thing I will boast about is my weakness. Now you think about this for a second. Paul, he willingly will talk about this amazing spiritual experience but only in the third person. But when it comes to then boasting about it, when it comes to using this as leverage to silence his critics to tell people how he's smarter, more spiritual, more educated than all of them, he's like, I'm not going to use that card. Instead, he says, "Here's what I'll boast about is I'm going to boast about how weak and how messed up I am." Think about this for a second. When was the last time either you put on a job resume or maybe if you hire people you read on a job resume the weaknesses and the weaknesses that are more like consistently struggle with time management. Right? That's a good one to have. Or or like uh often feels inadequate and un unequipped for the task at hand. You're like right like prone to self-doubt and insecurity and crying in the closet like be like oh yeah let's hire that person. Right? Nobody wants that. and we highlight strengths and we hide weakness. But Paul says, if I'm going to boast about myself, I'm not going to boast about my strengths, but about my weaknesses. So, here's where we get to be fun and interactive in this time is I want you and if you have a note that you got as you came into the room or uh you did you're kind of a digital person so you don't believe in that or if you're watching online, this is where you pull out your phone and pull up your notes tab and I want you to list your weaknesses. And when we say weaknesses, this isn't like the fake like Michael Scott weaknesses like I care too much. Um I I work too hard. I I'm too loyal and devoted. Except I am too loyal and devoted of an Arizona sports fan. Um I'm not checking the Cardinal score yet, but I'm sure they're losing. I'm going to watch it delayed and fast forward through what is probably most of it. But it's like list right now, and I'm serious at this time. Put down on your phone or in front of you, what are your weaknesses? What is it that you despise about yourself at times? Maybe. And if you don't know your weaknesses, if you're sitting next to your spouse, ask them. All right? They're going to help. Or just ask a family member or friend that's next to you. Ask a stranger. Maybe they'll be like, "I just met you, but it looks like you have a weak chin." I don't know. Like they'll throw you something. But what are your weaknesses? Is it anxiety? Is it fear? Is it anger, impatience? Is it pride or self-sufficiency? Is it addiction or habitual sin in your life? Is it insecurity or people pleasing? What is the weaknesses in your life? What Paul is showing us is he constantly displays this is where I fall short. This is where I struggle. But God is still using it. And Paul continues down this line in verse 6. He says, "If I want to boast, I wouldn't be a fool." Paul says, "If I wanted to boast, I could because I'm awesome and I have things to boast about." He's like, "I wouldn't be a fool for doing it." He said, "I would be telling the truth." But he says this, "But I will spare you so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me." Verse 7, "Especially because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me, so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said, being God to me, Paul, he said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness." You see, God doesn't just want us to put our weaknesses on our spiritual resume, but he also wants us to put our thorns. And Paul here, as he leads into the section, he's like, "Hey, I can boast and I can show you how I can legitimately brag about my experiences and credentials, and he wouldn't be lying. He wouldn't be exaggerating." Instead, he intentionally holds back because he doesn't want people to elevate him beyond what they can actually see in his life and ministry. Paul wanted to keep the focus on Jesus and not himself. Now, think about this for a second. This is so hard to do in our culture today. You watch sporting events and and usually like, you know, someone will interview the star player or whoever helps win the game after and they're like, "All glory to God, right? Um and and thank you for my teammates." And they throw that in there like, "Now, let me tell you 20 minutes how I'm so awesome and how I won this game." Right? It it's like our ego can't help but to go there. You look at churches, it is easy for pastors to all of a sudden want to prop themselves up to say like, "Hey, this is why our church is growing. This is going this direction." You look at your workplace. When you do something great, it's hard to just push off the credit to just recognize your team. Recognize your company. The natural instincts in you is I did this. I deserve the credit. And and Paul had that urge inside him like, "Let me take the let me take the credit for this. Let me show you how awesome I am." But he's constantly deflecting glory because he knows that glory is not his. And then comes one of the most mysterious and debated passage in all of Paul's letters in all of scripture is then he says the reason that I have become so humble. The reason that I am not exalting myself is that this thorn in the flesh was given to me. This is an obscure passage because no one really knows what this thorn in his flesh was. the for scholars have debated for 2,000 years is is what is Paul talking about? Some think this was a physical ailment. Maybe he had chronic pain. Maybe he had poor eyesight. Some even has suggested there's things of like epilepsy, epilepsy in there. Others think this was a persistent temptation or sin struggle. Some believe it was opposition or persecution. Some believe it was a difficult person. We don't have any of those in our lives, right? There's no difficult people. A thorn in your flesh. Um, some there's crazy theories out there and I would say this is a crazy theory and a dumb theory. That's a wrong theory. But some believe this was a spouse that Paul had before he came to Christ as a Jew and that this was an unbelieving spouse who never came to Christ. whatever it was. And here's almost the beauty of this is that I love that we don't know exactly what it was because it means that every one of us can relate to having our own thorn in our flesh. That persistent difficulty that won't go away. No matter how much we fight it, no how much we pray about it, no matter how much we just want it to go away, it just lingers there. And notice several things about this thorn that he tells us. He first says it was given to him that this wasn't random. This wasn't punishment. This was purposeful that it and the purpose was it was to prevent pride. He says I would not exalt myself. And he says that twice to emphasize it. God allowed this thorn specifically to keep Paul humble after all these extraordinary things he achieved. He also tells us it was painful. The word torment here means to beat down with fists. Have you ever been beaten with a lot of fists? I had two older brothers, all right? They beat me with fists all the time when I was growing up. And he said, "There was torment. There was pain. There was hardship. There was hurt." And then he tells us it was persistent. Paul says in verse 8, concerning this, "I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me." Three times he begged God to remove the thorn. And look carefully at verse 9. God's answer is, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness." When Paul asked, Paul said remove this from me. God said no. He didn't say wait. He didn't say later. But he said my grace is enough. He said I'm not removing it because my power works best in your weakness. Now think of how radical this is for a second. Paul had direct access to Jesus and visions. He planted churches. He performed miracles. He wrote most of the New Testament. If anyone could get their prayers answered, you think it would be Paul. And God said no. So here's where it becomes personal again. What's your thorn in the flesh? What is that persistent that painful that thing that you want to get rid of so bad in your life and it just lingers? Take a few minutes and just think through in a few seconds I should say otherwise I'll talk for a long long time, right? Uh but just take some time and think through that. It's like what is your thorn? Write that down. put that in your heart. Is it a chronic health condition that you've prayed for it to go away and God for whatever reason has not answered that prayer? It could be a difficult family relationship that you think it's like this should be resolved. We should push past this but it lingers and it continues. It could be financial struggles that don't seem to resolve. It could be a mental health battle with anxiety and depression that just keep coming. It could be opposition. It could be a persistent temptation that keeps coming back. Whatever it is, here's the crazy thing about this is God wants it on your spiritual resume. He doesn't want you to hide from it. He doesn't want you to bury it. He doesn't want you to pretend like it doesn't happen. And he doesn't want this, not because he's cruel, but because that's where his power shows up most clearly. I don't know when this started. I I would guess about 10 plus years ago. actually no probably closer to 15 years ago, but I think it happened a little bit when I was doing my undergrad at ASU. And then as I got into the workforce, I started seeing and I think as stressful seasons came, I saw it more. But I'd have these times and these little bouts where where as I was going through my day and stuff, all of a sudden I'd get really laded. Um all of a sudden, I kind of felt like I couldn't like focus on anything. My words started to kind of become nonsense and I couldn't like say the things that were in my brain. And it just felt like my brain was going 100 miles an hour and I couldn't speak to it. And it would happen. It would happen, but then it would go away. And sometimes it happened multiple times a week. Sometimes it wouldn't happen for months. So I did what all dudes do. And I ignored it, right, for years. And I'm like, eh, I got lots of problems. Whatever. Uh, I'm just going to keep on going. And finally, it kept happening. And I I finally told my uh doctor and my doctor's like, "You need to go see a neurologist." So, I went and saw a neurologist and I did all these tests and they and they looked at my brain and saw all these things like, "You're fine." I was like, "Well, thanks for wasting all my money." Um, right. Uh, that was great. So, then I I started ignoring it again. They're like, "You could do some yoga. That might help." No, I it didn't help. Um, and I didn't do it. But anyway, so I kept going. And then one day when I was at our Phoenix campus and I was pastoring and starting that church there, literally in the middle of this sermon, it happened. And for a couple minutes I just like couldn't I just was like um uh uh uh and you're like sounds like a normal Sunday, right? Um but like people were freaked out and we actually have it on video. Josh watches it every now and then just for entertainment cuz he has it saved but I took that video and I took it to my neurologist. He's like I know exactly what it is. He's like you have a form of neurological seizures and he's like and your brain is just unregulated in those times and it can't focus. So, all of a sudden, you're discombobulated. You don't know what's going on. And he's like, "It should be fine as long as you're not driving." I'm like, "It's happened like 30 times while I'm driving, right?" Uh, I just keep going straight. Uh, but he's like he's like, "Take these two pills and you'll be fine. It'll regulate your brain." I'm like, "Cool. How long do I have to take these two pills for?" "Every day for the rest of your life." I was like, "Really?" I'm like, "Are there any things we can do?" We did, "Well, there's a really invasive surgery." I'm like, "Yeah, let's not do that." Right. On my brain. And in that time, I remember thinking very clearly, God, you didn't call me to do manual labor. Clearly, um you didn't call me to use my body to do my passion and my calling. You called me to something where literally my brain is the thing I rely on. And you gave me a broken brain. And I remember that time be like, God, why do I have this? And in that, it's like that might be my thorn in the flesh. I prayed like God miraculously healed my brain so I don't take these dumb little pills every day but it hasn't happened and God is still glorious through how Paul's describing this that there is a thorn in your flesh. There is something in your life that maybe it will never go away but God is still working through. And look how he continues on in this passage in the second half of verse 9 as he's building this case. He's saying your spiritual resume is your weaknesses are on there. Your thorns are on there. And in the second half of verse 9 after he says, "My grace is sufficient for you. My power is sufficient in weakness." He says there, "Therefore, because of all this, because we look at our struggles and not our strengths, he says, therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weakness so that by that Christ's power may reside in me." He says, "So I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, and in difficulties for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Paul shows us that our spiritual resume consists of our weaknesses. It consists of our thorns. And lastly, it consists of our difficulties. As Paul is building his case here, he's saying, "Hey, I I I I endure this stuff, but guess what?" He's like, "I'm going to gladly boast in all the hardships of my life. I'm going to gladly boast in the weakness, and I'm going to do this so that Christ's power may reside in me." What Paul is saying, he's completely flipping the script of how our world operates. He's not just saying like, "Push past your weaknesses, ignore your weaknesses, pretend they don't exist." Instead, he's saying, "Except your weakness weaknesses. Celebrate them." Why? Because it leaves a void in your life that lets that void be filled by Jesus Christ. And he gets into specifics in verse 10. He says, "Because of all these things that are happening," he's like, "I take pleasure in weaknesses. I take pleasure in insults. I take pleasure in hardships and persecutions and difficulties, all for the sake of Christ." He's like, when all this stuff is happening, when when there's things we can't do and these inadequacies, these limitations and our weaknesses that we get frustrated, he's like, I depend on Christ. When when people mock us, when they criticize us in these insults, he's like, it's for Christ. He's like, when there's hardships, there's these difficult circumstances, these challenges, obstacles, these hardships, he's like, I rejoice in Christ. When persecution comes, when people oppose you because of your faith, when they mock you for it, when they make fun of you, he said, "I rejoice be for the sake of Christ in these difficulties, these general struggles, these pressures, these constraints." He said, "All of it is for the sake of Christ that he be glorified." Let me be honest for a second. is in the difficulties of life. The general stuff that's just a result of living in a broken world. I don't always do great at handling. Don't ask my wife. She'll be too honest to give you too many examples. But when people are stupid in traffic, when things break that shouldn't break because it should last longer than that, right? When when things happen, I get annoyed. I get frustrated. I get mad. I get impatient. In all this, Paul says, "This is going to happen more than it's going to happen less. Is life is going to hit you. Things are going to be hard. Things are going to be difficult. But through it all, do you give glory to Christ or do you keep pushing through by yourself?" So, what are your difficulties? Not the thorn that you can't remove, but maybe the ongoing challenges that you face that every time you seem to make some ground on, you hit another valley. You move up the mountain a little bit and then you hit some hardship. Maybe it's raising kids that have a heightened needs and it's hard to working through and every time you see like to turn a corner, some new challenge comes up. Maybe it's working in a hostile environment. You're like, you all need Jesus and they're not getting Jesus yet, but they're just a bunch of not fun people to work with at this time. Maybe you're in a stage where you're caring for aging parents and it's just a drain on on not just financially but emotionally on you. Maybe you're dealing with criticism or opposition. You're struggling when it's sufficient resources. What are the difficulties that you're facing? Write them down. Take knowledge of them. Think about them. Put them on so that you can see this is the path I'm walking down. You see, Paul says when we look at our weaknesses, when we look at the thorns that are in our life, when we're looking at the difficulties, Paul's like, "Put all those on your spiritual resume. Not how often you read the Bible. That's a great thing to do, but don't boast about that. Not Not how often you pray, that's a great thing to do, but don't boast about that. Not how often you serve in kids ministry, that's a great thing to do, but don't boast about that. He's like, boast about how broken and messed up you are, cuz that's when God starts to move. You see, this is the great paradox of the Christian life. Our culture says strength comes from ability. It comes from achievement. It comes from our having an advantage. But God says strength comes through when we acknowledge our weaknesses and we depend on him. Yesterday my my two boys, they got their soccer game rained out, which as a parent, you feel pretty conflicted when their soccer game rains out. Some of the conflict is you're like, "Cool, I got to pray Saturday, right?" Um, but as it got rained out, we went home and and then it was still raining outside. So they're like, "Uh, we want to build like a fort with our nuggets in the living room." I was like, "As long as I can still see the TV to watch college football, I'm down." All right. And as I'm watching my 7-year-old son and my four-year-old son try to build a fort, they're like putting stuff up and fighting but still having fun. And then they go try to move the coffee table and they can't move the coffee table. And eventually they're like, "Dad, we need you to help move the coffee table." And and then I was like, "Just tell mom." All right. Uh but she went to Goodwill, so she wasn't even there. Um and and so I was like, "All right, I can help you." and and we picked up the coffee table and it moved really easy. I can pick up a coffee table. Aren't you impressed? Right? You didn't think I could do it. Um you're like, "You needed the kids' help." Anyway, but it came to a point where they realized some obstacle in their path was too much for them to do alone. Paul is painting this spiritual picture that in life there are some spiritual coffee tables that we are not strong enough to move. There are some things in our path, some stuff in our way that we do not have the strength to move, that we don't have the strength to push back, but we have a God who can. And Paul is saying in our weaknesses, in our difficulties, that's when God shows up. And you see the beauty of this is all this leads to. Cuz maybe you heard this and you're like, I feel like you just spent uh 30 minutes me writing on paper is how much I suck as a person. All right, don't worry. I did it before by myself this week before you did it. It's like I just put on paper how I'm a failure, how I have weaknesses, how I have stuff that just doesn't go away, how I'm going through hardships that I can't push myself through. None of this is encouraging. But here is our key answer. I think that all this points to in the gospel and in the truth of Christ today is that a successful spiritual resume doesn't consist of your ability, of your knowledge, of your strength, of your smarts, of how much you can endure and push through. It doesn't consist of your ability, but it consists of your dependability on God. You see here, uh, this is a little play on words. Dependability, if you define that, is really how well you can be trusted. Can you be trusted to represent God and not your own ability? But and there's that's a question to ask yourself. But here's the other part of this. The root word of dependability is to depend. And can you be trusted to depend on God and not depend on yourself? You see, God isn't looking for the most talented. He isn't looking for the most gifted. He isn't looking for the most capable people. He's looking for people who will depend on him when they realize how weak they are. I I love the story of scripture because you see a bunch of ordinary people how God uses for extraordinary things. You see people like Moses. Moses had a speech impediment. Moses murdered a guy and God's like, "I'm going to use you when you depend on me to free my people from Egypt." You like guy like David. He was the youngest. He was the smallest. He was overlooked by his own family. But when he depended on God, God used him not only to defeat Goliath but to be king over his entire nation. You look at a guy like Gideon. Gideon called himself the weakest in his family. His family was the weakest in his clan and they were from the weakest tribe, but he depended on God and defeated the Minionites with 300 men. You look at Peter, one of one of God's one of Jesus' disciples. He was impulsive. He denied Jesus three times. He constantly messed up, but he depended on God and became a pillar of the early church. You look at Paul, the the writer of this passage, who persecuted Christians, who had a thorn in his flesh, who faced constant opposition, but he depended on God and planted churches across the Roman Empire. You see, none of these people succeeded because of their natural abilities. None of these people succeeded because of how great their resume looked to the world around them. They succeeded because they depended and trusted on God. And when we look at our own life, you may be thinking, "I don't have it all together." And God's like, "I know you don't, but I can help show you what all together looks like." You may be thinking, "I don't have all the greatest talent in the world." And God's like, "I know. But where you are weak, I will show people how strong I am. And God is in the business of using broken people like you and broken people like me to show his glory to the world around us. He's looking for people who will say what we see in this passage, that I'm weak, but his grace is sufficient. That I'm inadequate, but his power is perfected in weakness. that I'm struggling, but when I'm weak, then I am strong. What I love about the gospel story is that the Bible tells us when Jesus, who was fully God, he was the son with the father and the holy spirit, that they were all God in heaven reigning. Everything was great. And when Jesus looked and saw how messed up we were and decided to step onto earth to become fully man and fully God at 30 years old, he started his ministry. And as he started his ministry, he could have went to the most powerful person in the world and says like, "Hey, we're going to go tell people how I'm God. You on board? I'm going to make you be on board. Let's go do it." But instead, he chose 12 guys that were outcasts, that were rejects, that failed in other areas of their lives, guys that their families didn't even like them that much, that guys who were broken and struggling through life. And as Jesus called those 12 guys, he walked through with them. He poured into them. And as his ministry is expanding, as he's telling people, as the truth of Jesus Christ, telling that he is Lord is being spread throughout the earth, one of those broke up, messed up guys betrayed him. Judas betrayed Jesus, which led to his arrest, which led to his death on the cross. And in that, when all hope was lost, the other guys scattered. The other 11 left, they weren't the cream of the crop. They ran away and they hid. But when Jesus raised again to defeat death, to pay the price for your sin, to pay the price for my sin, for your weakness and my weakness, here's what I love. When he showed back up to the disciples, they started to get on board. They started to get excited like Jesus is back. Maybe all hope's not lost. But one of those guys in the story kind of gets a bad rap. It was a guy named Thomas. Thomas throughout history doesn't have the greatest story of how he failed in that moment. So much so that a couple hundred years later, a false gospel was written and they put Thomas's name on. They're like, "People will believe Thomas said this. He wasn't the sharpest guy." But when Thomas has Jesus is coming back, he's like, "I won't believe. I won't believe that Jesus is back unless I see and feel the hands, the holes in his hands, and I touch his side to see how he was beaten. I won't believe, I doubt he's back. And from then on, he became known as doubting Thomas throughout history. He was known for his weakest moment, the place he failed the most. How would you like to be recorded in scripture as the dude that didn't believe Jesus was back and everyone else did? But I love this quote from Gregory the Great, a church father in about the fourth to sixth century. He said this. He said, "The unbelief of Thomas is more profitable to our faith than the belief of the other disciples." He's saying Thomas's weakness was more of a benefit to us than all the other disciples believing. He says this, "The touch by which he is brought to believe, confirming our minds and belief beyond all question." Here's what he's saying. He said, "Because Thomas doubted, we get one of the greatest examples in all of scripture for someone touching and seeing and confirming that Jesus Christ really did raise from the dead." And even though Thomas was broken, even though Thomas doubted, even though Thomas fell on his face, God used that to glorify himself. God used that to silence the skeptics throughout history, that he really did come back. God used that to make the name of Jesus known. That benefits to us today. And Jesus even told Thomas this. He's like, "You believe because you have touched and you have seen." But he said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Because of Thomas's doubt, we get to be on the side of belief even though we have not seen. And in your life, people are going to see Jesus not because of how awesome you are, but because of how broken you are, and yet how graceful and amazing and glorious our God is. And just like in Thomas's story, when you feel like I'm too weak to be used by God, that I got this lingering thorn in my life, that I feel like a failure, that obstacles, the hardships, the difficulties are too much, God cannot work through me, that's exactly when God uses us. Because in our weakness is when his strength is perfected. Because his grace is sufficient. Because his glory is seen in our brokenness. My prayer as we leave today that we leave this place not puffed up how great we are, but we leave this place knowing, confident, and proclaiming how amazing our God is and how despite the failures we have, he is still seated on his throne. He is still the God of the heavens and the savior of our lives. [Music]