As I prayed about where to begin, I sensed the Lord bringing to mind something the Apostle Paul once wrote to the church in Corinth. The Corinthians were a troubled church. They struggled with unity, with pride, with spiritual immaturity, and Paul wrote to them more than once to help straighten things out. And they didn’t always appreciate what he said. And when some wanted to ditch Paul in favor of other more agreeable leaders, they compared Paul to those other leaders who claimed to be better than Paul.
But instead of defending himself or trying to out-shine the other church leaders, Paul took an entirely different approach. Let’s read what he wrote.
BTW, I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation today. It’s what I typically preach because: 1) It’s easy to understand, 2) It’s accurate and reliable, and 3) It’s different from what most of us are used to and that's important. Sometimes, we've heard Bible stories so many times and we're so familiar with them that we don't hear them with fresh ears. Because the NLT sounds different, it encourages to hear familiar stories with fresh ears.
2 Corinthians 11:30
30 If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.
2 Corinthians 12:6-9
6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
The part the Lord wants us to focus on this morning is Paul’s choice to boast about his weaknesses. Rather than saying the Corinthians should follow his leadership because he was better than his competitors, Paul boasted that he was weak.
That’s the opposite of human nature, isn’t it–focusing on our weaknesses? When we first meet someone—especially when we want them to like us—we want to put our best foot forward.
We highlight our strengths. We polish our image a little. We might even boast a bit about our accomplishments or drop a few names. It’s human instinct to lead with the best version of ourselves.
And in Paul’s case, it must have been especially tempting. Some in the Corinthian church were criticizing him. They said other leaders were better, more eloquent, more “spiritual” than Paul. They questioned whether he was worthy of respect. If anyone had a reason to defend himself, to build himself up, it was Paul.
But instead of doing that, Paul does something unexpected. He boasts—not in his strengths, not in his successes, but–in his weakness.
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What would it look like for us to boast in our weaknesses? What would that look like for a pastor to boast about his weaknesses on his first Sunday with a new congregation?
Well, I have plenty of weaknesses. I'm terrible with names. And that's tough for a pastor learning hundreds of new names in a new congregation. I care about you and I want to know your name. But I will struggle to remember them. It will take a bit of time. But even worse than that, I struggle with the names of people I have known and loved for a long time. Their names will occasionally just slip from my mind--and I mean people I really know well. And usually it happens at the most in opportune time--like when I'm praying for them: "Lord, please watch over... Him... while he has surgery today." (And the "Him" in the story is thinking, "You've known me since high school. You don't even know my name?" That's one of my weaknesses.
And I'm forgetful. I forget things. A lot of things. People will say, “You remember that conversation we had three weeks ago?” And I’ll think, I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday.
And it’s not just that I forget — sometimes I misremember, which is actually worse. I’ll be absolutely convinced something happened. I’ll remember vivid details. I’ll think, I know this is true.
This usually happens with my wife, Kelly. I’ll say, “Remember when we went to that town and visited your friend? I remember it clearly — I was wearing these pants, we’d just eaten dinner, and I had steak.” And she’ll say, “No… we didn’t.”
Then she’ll pull out her phone — because phones never forget — and she’ll show me pictures and say, “We were four hours away in a completely different town when you think that happened.”
And I just stand there thinking, How does that happen? Because in my mind, it’s all so clear. That’s how forgetful I can be.
I tend to skip things in the worship service. You’d think after doing this for twenty-five years, I’d have it all down by now. But we’ll be moving right along in the worship service, and the children’s moment is coming up… and I’ll skip right over it. Sometimes I’ll even skip the offering (and some folks out there are thinking, Amen! Skip it! But the finance chair is thinking, No, no, no — don’t skip the offering!)
It’s not intentional. It just goes right past me. I’m already thinking about what’s next — and suddenly I’ve forgotten what’s right in front of me.
I have trouble focusing on more than one thing at a time. I can focus in on one thing like a laser. I'm great at that. But I'm a terrible multitasker. If two people are talking to me at the same time, I can't hear what either of them are saying. If a TV is on in a room and someone is trying to talk to me, I literally cannot stay focus on what they're saying. It's a weakness of mine.
I'm an introvert. I love having deep, one on one conversations, but I struggle with mingling in large crowds. I'm socially awkward. And some people are great at working the room, but not me. You'll usually find me standing to the side talking to one or two people. And I'm just not good at making my way around the room to get to everybody.
I can be messy. My wife can say amen to that. I can be messy — not because I don’t care, but because I get laser-focused on things, and tidying up doesn’t always make the list.
At my last church, where I served for fifteen years, I just finished packing up my office about a week ago. And I discovered there were things in that office I never even unpacked when I first arrived — fifteen years ago.
I promise I’ll try to do better. But I’m not going to stand here and tell you my office is going to be the neatest one in the building.
That said, don’t think I’m unorganized — I do have a system. Sometimes my system is: put it on my desk, leave it there until I’m done with it, and then put it away. And if after six months it’s still on my desk and I’m still not done with it… well, that probably means it doesn’t need to be done at all. So it goes in the trash. That’s often how my system works.
I make mistakes. I make lots of typos–especially when texting or writing with my phone. I promise you — I am an intelligent person. I don’t misspell words because I don’t know how to spell them. I misspell them because I start typing, and my brain is already three thoughts ahead of my fingers.
So sometimes you’ll see things on the slides and think, Is that spelled right? I’m looking right now — I think we’re okay today — but every now and then, something slips through.
Emails and letters can be bad enough, but text messages are the worst. My fingers are too big for those tiny buttons on my phone. I’ll type something out, send it, and then look back at it and think, What did I just write? That makes no sense. That’s complete gibberish.
Susan can probably testify to this, because we’ve been texting back and forth quite a bit over the last few months while she’s been serving as the SPRC chair. I’d send her a message trying to say something encouraging — something like, “I’m grateful for you and excited about coming to serve this church” — and then I’d look at what I sent and think, I promise I know how to spell these words.
I make mistakes. Not because I don’t care — but because I’m human and that's one of my weaknesses.
I struggle with visiting. I want you to hear this clearly: I love you. I truly do. I pray for you. I lose sleep over you. But the Lord gives each of us different strengths, and I want to be honest with you about mine — and about my weaknesses. Visiting is not my greatest strength. I do it, and when I do, I value that time. But it hasn’t been my strongest area.
Going back over the last twenty-five years, I think every church I’ve served would say I ministered to them faithfully — and they might also say, “I wish he’d visited more.” That’s not something I’m proud of. It’s simply an area where I’m weaker. And I want you to know that upfront — not as an excuse, but as honesty — because God often does His best work right in those places of weakness.
None of these are things I’m proud of—but they are places where I depend on God, and where I depend on others.
But I love Jesus. He is God and He created me. And he designed me for a loving relationship with Him. And even though I started out my life trying to live to please myself and do what I wanted, not caring what He wanted, Jesus forgave me. And I am ever grateful for His mercy. And I love Him. And I know I’m a citizen of His Kingdom and He’s my King!
And I want to invite as many people to follow Jesus as I can. We're designed for a relationship with Him. We need Him just as much as we need air to breath and water to drink. It's part of our DNA.
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And somehow, God works through me–not because I’m great or talented or more spiritual than anyone else. God works through my weakness when I am faithful. It brings Him glory.
God worked through weak and unexpected people throughout the Bible. Jacob was the second born twin-son. The blessing is supposed to pass to the firstborn son. But God gave Jacob the Abrahamic blessing not Esau.
Moses was “slow of speech”, but God delivered the Israelites from slavery through him.
Ruth was a foreigner and a widow, but became the great-grandmother of Israel’s greatest king.
David was just a forgotten shepherd. When the prophet Samuel came to Jesse's house and said he wanted to look at all his sons and choose the next king of Israel, Jesse didn't invite David to the feast. He left him in the field with the sheep. But after looking at all the other sons, Samuel said, "None of these are the one. Don't you have any more sons?" And Jesse said something like "Well, there's David, but he'll never amount to anything so we left in the field with the sheep." And Samuel said, "Bring him here! We won't start eating until he arrives!" And then he anointed David as the greatest king Israel ever had.
And David's great, great, great... Granddaughter was Mary. She was too young, too poor, and lived in an unknown, backwater town. People said, "Nothing good ever comes out of Nazareth." But God thought differntly. He sent the angel Gabriel who said, "May, the Lord has found favor with you and you will bear His son and He will be the Savior of the world..."
God is always working through the weak, the unexpected, the overlooked, and the forgotten. He doesn’t choose the strong, because they might boast they did it on their own. God chooses the weak and He gets all the glory, because people can clearly see the only way they succeed is through the power of God.
And that’s what I want as I start with you. I want God to get all the glory.
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So what does this mean for us—for the people of Stark Methodist Church? It means we don’t have to pretend here. We don’t have to impress God. We don't have to pretend with each other. We don’t have to hide our struggles. We don’t have to polish ourselves up before we come to Christ. The same grace that met Paul in his weakness meets us in ours.
Some of you may feel strong today. Some of you came in feeling tired, worn out, or run down. Some of you came in feeling ashamed, broken, overlooked, or forgotten. The good news is this: God does His best work right there.
Paul didn’t hide his weakness — he offered it to God. And I wonder what might happen if we did the same.
What is your “thorn”? What is the place where you feel insufficient, frustrated, or tired?
And what about this church? What are this church’s greatest weaknesses?
Instead of asking God to wait until we’re stronger, what if we asked Him to work right there–in our weakness? Because God says, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
So I want you to hold your weakness in your heart as we prepare to come to the Lord’s Table. We don’t come because we are worthy. We come because He is gracious.
This table is not for the strong—it is for the needy. Not for the perfect—but for the forgiven.
When we receive Holy Communion, we are reminded that Christ gave Himself fully—even in suffering—so that our weakness would never be the end of the story.
Holy Communion
