Giving In To Weakness

Bunbury

Wed pm

16/03/11

“Giving in to your weakness”

Intro: I was stirred about the reality that God saves us so that we can live in dominion over the flesh & our fallen nature.

And if we consider the design God has for His church I think we could all agree that we are living well below His purposes.

The sad truth is that churches are filled w/ people who are living well below the lives of strength & dominion He intends us to live in.

*** Coral’s dad has been a farmer his whole adult life. He has always been very strong, seemed as though nothing was too hard for him. Now @ 86 years of age he is coming to grips with his diminishing strength. A couple of weeks back I was visiting him & he told that he went to lift up the lawn mower to do some work on it & it wouldn’t move from the ground! It seemed to him like it was stuck there.

He was of course joking about it .......

But the truth is that weakness is beginning to overtake him & his strength is failing.

Like most men he isn’t coming to grips w/ this willingly or easily! The failing of physical strength is a reality we all have to face sooner or later.

But the paradox of the life of the saved is that although our physical bodies must grow weak our spiritual man can go from strength to strength.

Why is it then that we so often see a church where men / women give in to weakness?

Why is it that believers learn to live in weakness / failure / flawed character.... living well below what they know in their hearts God wants them to be?

I don’t believe that this is what God wants us to settle for – He has called us to victory as his church & as individuals – not weakness & defeat!

T/n I want to minister a message I’ve entitled ‘Giving in to weakness’.

Text: Galatians 4:9 (NKJV) 9But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

Galatians 4:9 (GWT) 9But now you know God, or rather, God knows you. So how can you turn back again to the powerless and bankrupt principles of this world? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

# 1. Facing the facts of what you are.

A. Let’s be honest about it, none of us like to admit our weaknesses.

a. For the most part weakness is something that we generally feel ashamed of.

i. And only a fool relishes & highlights his weak points & areas of failure & shortcoming.

** It has been observed that “Some people’s weakness is the strongest thing about them.”

*** It always amuses me when preaching in a church about human nature w/ its attendant flaws & there are always one or two that don’t add their amen. Like admitting weakness is a sin or something.

They are usually the ones who struggle more w/ weakness.

ii. None of us enjoy the reality of diminishing strength / ability or their embrace on victory.

iii. But the simple reality is that we have all been born / formed in weakness / frailty & failure.

** I like what one person wrote when they said “We all have weaknesses & some of us have some mighty strong ones!”

b. And in addition this we all have our own particular areas where our strength fails us.

i. For one it might be marriage / finances / employment ..... for another it might be relationships / ethical standards / character failings ...... maybe in even – chocolate!

ii. This reality is illustrated all throughout Scripture ..... We see men who were great but were held back by areas of weakness.

iii. Samson w/ women, Noah w/ wine, Moses w/ anger, Job w/ self justification, Peter w/ racism.

iv. But the simple matter is that none of us are what we should be & for most of us ...... we’re even still a long way short of being what we’d like to be!

B. Even though this is the case we shouldn’t give in to those areas where we’re failing.

a. The troubled parts of our lives deserve more attention.

***When your child brings their report card home from school at the end of the year / midyear & you see some ‘C’s’ ..... what do you say? You probably praise them for the subjects they did well in (or you should) & then gently point out to them that they need to work on the other subjects a bit harder.