FBC Morning Light – May 23, 2022

Boasting in Weakness Instead of Strength

Well, a good Monday morning to you. Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We're able to gather together with God's people in the Lord's house yesterday on the Lord's Day. Was it a good day for you? The Lord's Day is to be a day of rest.

It's a day where we're supposed to break from all the normal stuff that we do in the course of the week. We need that. I don't think we appreciate it enough, but we do. We need those days where we just break from the Monday through Saturday routine of life and set time aside to gather with God's people, to worship the Lord, to hear from His Word, focus our attention on Him, and to truly rest.

I hope that was a day like that for you yesterday. Today we're reading in 2 Corinthians in our Bible reading plan. Paul makes an interesting statement that really flies in the face of the contemporary way of thinking.

He says in chapter 11, verse 30, if I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. I will boast about my weaknesses. That does fly in the face of contemporary thinking, doesn't it?

We're living in a day where we're encouraged to flout our strengths, and if you've got it, flaunt it, that kind of thing. One of the things that aggravates me when watching professional sports or any kind of sports on TV, I don't do it very often.

I really don't. Usually, it's like the big games, the bowl games or something of that nature. One of the things that really bothers me is the self-promotion of some of the athletes. They make a tackle, and they behave like they're the greatest thing that's ever happened to the game of football because they made a tackle.

Or a guy makes a catch and makes a touchdown, and they call all the attention to themselves, and look how great I am, look how great I am, and so on and so forth. The thing of it is, a lot of those players are great in terms of their skill and their ability, and they far outstrip most other players in the game.

There's no question about that, but the question is, do we call attention to ourselves? Do we make a big deal about ourselves? It is true that we should be aware of our strengths. How has God gifted us?

How has God equipped us? What tools and talents has he given to us just in who we are, in our makeup, our educational background, and so on and so forth? What has God done? What are those strengths? It's good to acknowledge those things and to know what they are, but it's one thing to acknowledge them and be aware of what our strengths might be.

It's another thing altogether to boast about those things, to brag about how good I am at this, or how great I am at that, and how much better I am at this than most people are at that, and so on and so forth.

A person who's like that is really just annoying, aren't they? You really don't want to be around them. They could make you feel inferior. That may be their effort, to make you feel inferior. We don't like to be around those kind of people at all.

But Paul says, no, I'm not going to boast about my strengths. When you think about the apostle Paul, he had plenty of them. There were a lot of strengths. Paul is arguably one of the most influential persons in all of history.

When you get past the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the most, Paul really is incredibly influential in terms of history. We don't usually think of it that way, but really he is. Think about what would we have in terms of the Bible, and therefore, the influence of God's Word, without the books of Romans through Titus, Philemon.

We would have just a fraction of the New Testament. He was the most skilled at putting theology in a way that is understandable and applicable to everyday life. The book of Romans is a powerfully theological book, and so on and so forth.

Paul was very gifted and very capable, but he said, I'm not going to boast about my strengths. If I'm going to boast about anything, I'm going to boast about my weaknesses. Why does he do that? Because he explains, when I am weak, then am I strong.

He says later on in the next chapter, we're going to see in a couple of days, that he could have had this tendency to boast, but God gave him a thorn in the flesh, and then the Lord said, my strength is sufficient for you.

My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Paul says, I'm going to boast about my infirmities, about my weaknesses, because in boasting of my weaknesses, what I'm really going to end up doing is boasting about my God, boasting about my Lord, who uses me and enables me in spite of my weaknesses.

The glory then goes to him. My friend, I don't know everybody's strengths and weaknesses, even in our own congregation. I sense a lot, I see a lot, but I hope you're aware of them. But if you are aware of them, I hope above all things, you don't brag about them.

You don't let everybody else know how great you are. By the way, interesting little side note here. I remember years and years ago, when I was an assistant pastor in the church, and the pastor was considerably older than I, and the pastor was then as old as I am now.

I was a guy in my late 20s when I was serving under him. I think the context of this conversation had to do with my looking for another ministry, and he was all in favor of it. He was encouraging me in that direction, not to try to get rid of me, but his attitude was, I'm preparing you for the pastorate.

That's his goal, that's his motivation. I'm talking to him about this and sharing with him one of the questionnaire sheets that I got from a church. One of the questions on that sheet was, what are your strengths?

I really grappled with that. I just didn't really know how to respond to that. I sat down with the pastor, and I said, what should I do about this? What should I write about this? He says, you can put it this way.

He says, other people say I have strengths in this area. Interestingly, the next question, what are your weaknesses? I asked him about that, and he said, I don't parade my weaknesses, because they're going to become self-evident, and I'd rather just let people find out those things on their own.

I understand what he was saying, and I don't see the Apostle Paul disputing that necessarily. What Paul is doing is he's saying, I'm going to boast about my infirmities, because in the weaknesses of my flesh or my abilities, God still uses me, God enables me, God equips me.

His strength is made perfect in my weaknesses. I'm going to boast in him. Let's do that. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this challenging passage, and one that really does fly in the face of our contemporary culture.

Help us, Father, to be humble servants of yours, and recognize our strengths, recognize our weaknesses, but any boasting that comes, may we boast in you, may we glory in you, and this we pray in Jesus' name, and for his sake, amen.

All right, well, I hope you have a good Monday, and your week gets off to a great start. Have a good day. God bless.