Do I have to hide all my struggles to be welcomed in a church?
WATCH
The War With Pride, 3 of 5 from November 16, 2025
“In a world bragging of its own greatness we disclose our weakness to highlight Jesus’ strength.”
2 Corinthians 11:16-33 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon focuses on 2 Corinthians 11, highlighting how the Apostle Paul ironically boasts about his weaknesses and sufferings to counter false teachers. It challenges the cultural focus on self-promotion, advocating for transparency in our brokenness so Christ's strength is emphasized. Pastor Michael urges the church to be a haven for the broken, not a showcase for the faultless, and calls believers to confess their weaknesses to highlight Jesus's transformative power. He addresses the disparity between perceived ministry glamour and the messy reality of service, encouraging openness about failures as testimonies to God's grace.
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Hey, good morning, church.
I finished reading this week. A biography by or about a guy who. His name is Brother Andrew. And in the wake of World War II, he was in Holland. He had military service.
And the Lord, like, he went to the military and was serving for Holland and in fighting a war. And his mom, like, before he left, like, put a Bible in his bag, and he was like, thanks, Mom. I will need cigarette paper. Like, did not read it at all, Put it in the bottom of his bag, ended up getting wounded, had nothing to do. And so, like, found a Bible, decided that he should probably surrender his life to Jesus, came back to Holland, and it was after World War II.
And so he's living, like, on the borders of, like, a communist empire, a bunch of different countries. And the Lord just laid it in his heart, like, if the word of God changed your life, you need to get it in the hands of people who are behind the Iron Curtain. And so he becomes an accidental smuggler. And it's a really, really fascinating book. I'd encourage it.
I encourage you if you need something to read. This is very, very interesting. But he ends up, over the course of his ministry, getting the opportunity, miraculously, to go into China, which he felt like was. He's like, my biggest goals were to make it into Russia. I felt like that was the bastion.
And then I got to Russia and realized that China was just a step further, and I could never get into China. It would never work. It's way too closed. And he miraculously gets into China. And so he's just going around as a tourist trying to figure out what's the status of the church, what are the status of Christians in China?
Like, what do I. Like what do I figure out? And so he's. But the problem is he's got tour guides, but all the tour guides work for the government, and they have to tow the party line, and they have to show him the best parts of communism. And he's like, how do I figure out what's really happening?
And so on the. I want to read to you a passage. At the risk of boring you. Can I read to you? Okay.
All right. I know, I know. This is the introduction, and I'm supposed to get your attention. I'm supposed to keep it so that we can. But let me read this to you because this stood out to me.
And if you're like, yeah, church is boring. And now the pastor's proving it. Here we go.
So he asked the tour guide, hey, can you find me a church? And they're like, no. And the tour guide runs off, comes back a couple hours later. He said, I have found your church. Come with me.
He says, the little church was unkempt and uninviting, and it did not surprise me that my guide refused to go inside. So I walked alone.
Sorry I cried doing the welcome this morning. This is going to be a rough morning.
So I walked alone through the rusted iron gate and found myself in a large, bare room as dull to the eye as the outside had been. In the whole room there were only two touches of color. One woman wore a red cardigan, and beside the pulpit stood a red Chinese flag. I sat down in the back just as a granny tottered over to a little out of tune piano and started to play. The melody was a 19th century English hymn whose mood and message were in no way appropriate for China.
I counted 56 of us in the congregation, and I believe I was the only one under the age of 60. An ancient man with a thin beard and vague watery eyes stood up and began to preach, and most of his congregation went to sleep.
He writes, my heart went out to these poor old men and women holding on to the slim thread of the faith that had been brought to them by missionaries so long ago. But what chance did the Gospel have when it was believed only by the old? What chance did it have when it was associated at every turn with yesterday's empires? I was glad my guide had stayed outside. I had been trying to convince him that Christianity was a great adventure, but this.
As I joined him outdoors after the service, I found myself thinking that if this were a fair example of Chinese Christianity, then the government would have an easy job snuffing it out. All it would take was one little poof.
He goes on to discover that that's not the whole story of the church in China, but I think our impressions most of the time of like, what church is like sound like that.
Unenthusiastic, stuck in the past and on the verge of collapse.
I hope our perspective is adjusted by the Scriptures this morning. Let's pray together.
It's our habit. Clicker's not clicking. It's our habit to pray together. The disciples prayer. And we don't do that because it's tradition.
We do it because Jesus said that you ought to pray like this. And I'm simple enough to just do what Jesus says when I can. And so the words are on the screen if you'd like to pray together with me out loud. But more importantly, he says that these ideas need to resonate in your heart. And so let's just pause for a second and we'll take a deep breath together.
And let's pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Humor me a little bit. And let's dust off the old book and navigate to 2 Corinthians 11, 2nd Corinthians 11. We've been in a series we've called the War on Pride.
And we've been looking at these last couple of chapters in this letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. And just as a reminder, we've kind of got three parties in this story. The first is the Apostle Paul. He's the one who started the church in this city. And this city is a wealthy port city.
And I think probably the quickest corollary to tell you what Corinth is like is it's kind of like Las Vegas. They had a reputation for loose morals. And if you were into it, you could probably find it in Vegas. If you were in Europe, I probably would equate it to Amsterdam or something like that. Like, that's the city that Paul started a church in.
And so people in that community decided, I'm going to give my life to Jesus. And then as Paul went on to continue and start other churches, there was another group of people that came in and saw, oh, we've got a group of people here that are, that are trained to listen to a speaker. And we are speakers. And so we're going to get up and say our flowery speeches, and then we're going to undermine and lead them to question Paul. Like Paul, Paul is kind of foolish.
He's silly, he says weird things. He's not a good speaker. And so we shouldn't listen to Paul, right? So. So he's writing this letter.
It's now the fourth letter that he's written to this church. He sent people to try to reconcile. And this is kind of his last ditch, last message before he shows up himself and says, hey, this is what's going on. So that's what's going on. As we read in 2nd Corinthians 11, I'm going to start reading in verse 16.
It's on page 1209 in these blue Bibles, right at the Top of the page, 1209. I repeat, Paul writes, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little, what I am saying, what I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say, not as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast too, for you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves, for you bear it. If someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or strikes you in the face to my shame. I must say we were too weak for that.
As he's starting here in this letter, in this section of the letter, he's kind of saying, hey, I'm going to share something. It's not the way that Jesus would talk, but it's the way that you guys have, like, trained yourselves to listen. Like, you go and you listen to these influencers that are puffing up themselves, and they're aggressive and they're sarcastic and they're boastful. And he says, that's not how Jesus would talk. But let me try, Let me try that on.
Since you're so used to that, let me try that on. He says, you've gotten used to speakers who yell at you and they say mean things to you and they tear you down. They even strike you. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm not as strong as they are. He's a little bit ironic, don't you think?
In a world fighting by arrogance and by deceit, we triumph by meekness and integrity. So I think perhaps, like the main mud that these influencers are slinging at Paul and trying to get the church to question his authority is that he's foolish. And he says, okay, if I'm a fool, let me act like a fool. He repurposes the occasion to speak openly. And as he starts to speak a little bit foolish, I think he's hoping that if you see how when I talk like a fool, you see how silly that is, it'll make the things that I've said before seem a lot more reasonable.
Like, you thought I was foolish. Let me show you what foolishness is like. And then what I've said before will be clear, right? He's going to share some background that he normally keeps to himself. He's going to disclose some of that meekness.
Like we talked a couple of weeks ago, that meekness is strength under control. If you go in and you go to, like, set a world record in Weightlifting, Right. You have the maximum amount of weight on the bar that you will ever be able to lift. It's a world record. Right?
And if you were able to lift that, then everybody will know what your limit is. But if even if you could set that world record and you're just working out, you're trying to keep tone. And so you. You have significant amount of strength, but you're just trying to keep it under control, trying to keep conditioned. No one sees the maximum effort of your strength.
And so Paul says, I've been strong, but I've been meek. I've kept it under control. I've used it specifically and purposefully. And so let me just share with you a little bit about the world record that I could set. I've been kind of understated.
Let me just state in the way that other people are stating things. Now you're like, michael, I'm a little bit nervous. This is a weird thing. I was like, okay, yeah, but I want to share with you. And I got his permission.
I learned a principle from Pastor Ryan years ago that I wanted to share with you, and I do have his permission to quote him on this. And so this is not original to me, and I was actually surprised to find it in the Bible. I thought Ryan just made it up. But here's the principle, okay? Sometimes meeting ridiculousness with ridiculousness is the only way to move a conversation forward.
Now, I thought a. That Ryan had invented the word ridiculousness, but it is in the dictionary. Spellcheck did not fix it. Okay? So sometimes meeting ridiculousness with ridiculousness is the only way to move a conversation forward.
If someone comes in and they are just going crazy, sometimes you just have to meet them with being silly so that we can now move together towards something that's profitable. And do you want to know where Ryan learned this principle that he has bestowed to me and now I impart to you?
He worked for years in a retail environment in a community called the Villages. And the stories he could tell you.
Okay, I'm not saying anything disparaging. I'm just saying we learn some of the greatest life skills in community years working in the Villages in customer service. Like, he learned that sometimes you got to get a little bit silly when. When someone's being silly in order to move the conversation forward. And so he used to tell me all the time, just, you gotta meet ridiculousness with ridiculousness sometimes.
Right? And I think that's what Paul's doing. He's like, y' all are being. Y' all are being Ridiculous. I've been like, let me.
Let me play your game. You wanna be silly? Let's be silly. Okay, now what? He intends to make it clear to Corinth that he's been acting out of love this whole time.
That's what he said. Just a couple of verses before he says, have I acted this way because I don't love you? God knows I. Everything I've done has been to show you how much I care for you. And he's also like.
He's also trying to show that he has a sense of responsibility for their fidelity to Christ. He says, I love you and I want you to be faithful to Jesus. My purpose has always been for you to grow in your faithfulness to Jesus. And he seems to say that the super apostles like talk in this way and act severely in order to manipulate people into complying with what they want. But Paul and his team were ironically, kind of too weak to play that game.
In a world absorbed with manipulating appearances, we openly practice a faithful love. And so this morning, before we go further, I don't want to get lost in the silly. Let me give you the big idea that we're going to take with us. In a world bragging of its own greatness, we disclose our weakness in order to highlight Jesus strength. So we're going to get a little bit silly, but that's where we're headed.
In a world bragging of its own greatness, we disclose our weakness to highlight Jesus strength. Let's read together. Second Corinthians, chapter 11. I'm going to read verses 22 through 28, and then I'm going to add a couple more at the end.
So I guess I'm in the middle of 21. That paragraph break didn't show up in my notes. Okay. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I'm speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast.
Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham?
So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman. For with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death, Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes, less one.
Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, thrown rocks at, not drugs. Once I was stoned, Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. Sea on frequent Journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
And apart from the other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Now, he's going to pick up that list again in verse 32. So just drop your eyes a couple of sentences. And he says, at Damascus, the governor under King Aretaeus was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands. Okay?
So he says, you want to get silly? Let's get silly. I got some stuff. If we want to boast about things, let me boast about some things that I've been through. And he's got kind of six.
I count six different movements in his boasting. The first one is he boasts of his heritage, which is kind of boasting about things you don't get to take credit for, like, who got to choose the birthday?
Who got to choose their parents. Sorry, Camden.
Who got to choose, like, what nation they were born in? Who picked usa? Who picked Australia?
Right. We didn't get to pick. So he's boasting of his heritage, which is stuff that you didn't get to get to choose. So then he boasts of his service. He says, I actually serve Jesus.
I choose to serve Jesus, and I served you as well. And then he boasts of an account of all of the ways that he suffered. And then he boasts of, like, the strenuous rhythms of his ministry. Like, these are the habitual ways that I. That I pursued Jesus.
And then he, like, boasts of, like, I actually have a day job. That is what I'm supposed to be responsible for. That is actually my side hustle, but, like, I got to do that, too. And then he closes with an example. So that was those couple of verses at the end.
I think he's, like, buttoning this whole thing up with. Remember that one time I had to get let out of the city with a basket? Right? So he boasts of his heritage. He says, oh, I flipped the page.
Oh, that's okay. I just flipped one. It's all right. All right. He boasts of his heritage.
He says, are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham?
So am I. He says, look, I was born a Jew. I was born. I was Born into the promises of God. If the God of the Bible is concerned about having a relationship with anybody, it would be the promised people, the people that he said, like, hey, I will be your God and you will be my people.
Like, he says, okay, I was born into that nation, he says. Elsewhere in Philippians, he kind of describes his heritage and how he grew up. If anybody thinks they have reason to boast or put confidence in the flesh, I have more. And he starts to describe, like, the most Jewish things that he can describe. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
In regards to law, Pharisee. As for zeal persecuting the church, as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. He said. Not only was I born a Jew, I was a real good one. I wasn't born into the family and then kind of got rebellious.
No. I went to school, and I did just what my parents told me to do. I studied under Gamaliel, which was his teacher. I practiced the law like I did all the good stuff. I got straight A's, and then I became a teacher, and I taught my students to have straight A's because that's what we do.
I was born into a good family, and I didn't squander it. If anybody's got a reason to boast, it's me, he says. I boast of my service.
Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. Okay, I guess we are being a little bit silly. I'm talking like a madman. With far greater labors, I worked harder.
Far more imprisonments. I've been to jail more with countless beatings. I get punished a lot for what I say, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes, less one that was considered the death penalty minus a hair. In the ancient world, they thought if we hit you with the lashes 40 times, you will die.
And he said, I got sentenced to 40 lashes, minus one. I got 39. And everybody assumed that if I got hit one more time, I would have just died. Three times, or no, no, no. Five times at the hands of the Jews.
I got whipped within an inch of my life three times. I was beaten with rods. That's just sticks. It's a little bit different. Okay?
They didn't count when they beat me with sticks. It's fine. Once I was stoned, they threw rocks at me until I was dead. He doesn't say that. He woke up the next morning on the side of the road and walked to the next town.
But that's a different story. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at the sea, that is sunburn, on frequent journeys. So, like, he's describing of his service, he's recounting his sufferings. He says, I've put it all on the line before.
And if you want to read some of those stories, if you look in the Book of Acts, it talks about his before he was a Christian, which is when he was a Jew and, like hunting Christians in 7 and 8. So Acts 7 and 8 is like, before he was a Christian. And then he meets Jesus in Acts 9. And then starting in Acts 13, from 13 until 27, it's all the stories or not all the stories. It's many of the stories that he's recounting here, like they're recorded down in history.
So if you want to read more about these adventures, like, they're there in the Book of Acts. He says my rhythms of ministry were strenuous. He says frequently. So he's describing this happened often, frequently on frequent journeys. I traveled a lot.
In danger from rivers, in danger from robbers, in danger from my own people. Jews didn't like me. In danger from Gentiles. People who were not Jewish also did not like me. Danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.
People who said they were my friends betrayed me in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Like, my, like, rhythms, the regular habits that I had as I was going about ministry, they were not a cakewalk. It was difficult. And then he says, oh, yeah, and by the way, like, my job, the thing that I'm, like, entrusted with, he says, and apart from the other things, so forget all that. There is the daily pressure on me for my anxiety, for all the churches.
Like, I care about, the people that I preach to, and I pray for them, and I hear about news from them and I write to them, My friends. Ministry is exciting.
It's a grand adventure. Doesn't that sound like a grand adventure? Like, as I'm reading that, you're like, oh, my gosh, there's so much. Like, when I look at the Book of Acts, like, I only get half of this stuff. They give me the footnotes.
Like, come on, Dr. Luke, you could have written more. Like, what about the third shipwreck? What was going on there? Like, that sounds like adventure. That sounds like there's something to serve that's greater than myself.
That sounds like there is something worth laying down my life for. That sounds grand. And doesn't that sound unattainable?
Isn't that a little bit frustrating? You're like, I say stupid stuff all the time. People don't hit me for it.
I hope, because I believe that if the spirit of God is moving and calling you into ministry, I hope that you don't shy away from it because you think it's boring. Because if you think that ministry is boring, you just haven't tried it. There's a lot. There's a lot going on all the time.
But I was really transparent, Full transparency. I was really mad to have to preach this text this week. I was like, what am I supposed to do with this? Like, I can't tell you guys to go get on a ship that's gonna sink. Like, that's not practical.
What do we do with this? And I spent the week wrestling. Like, what are we supposed to do with this, God? Like, it's great for Paul, I'm glad that he had a grand adventure. I'm glad that he got to float away into the sunset on a drift.
But, like, what does that do for me?
And I think, let's remember where we started. I think he's being a little bit silly. And his goal is not that we would be impressed with his resume, which is what I want to do first, right? You're like, oh, wow, you did a whole lot, man. Like, you're the goat.
He says, my goal is not that you would be impressed with my resume, but that it would be. You are astonished at Jesus because, like, I think of grand sailing ships and adventures when I read that passage. But really it probably looked more like a guy in a busted down car just trying to get to the next place. Like, think about what we just read for a minute and like, think about practically what he is admitting here. Paul was a criminal who spent a lot of time in jail.
Paul had to pay a lot of court fees to a lot of Judges in a lot of jurisdictions. Paul did not take care of his body.
In fact, he was abused by others.
Paul apparently didn't know when to keep his mouth shut.
He didn't have enough sense to keep a lawyer on retainer.
He brought a doctor with him, but not a lawyer. I'm just thinking, I don't know, I don't think he was a smooth talker in a stressful situation. I think when things got heated, he just fumbled over his words and made it worse. You don't get arrested and beaten that many times if you can talk your way out of something, right? I think Paul trusted other people too much.
I think that Paul was not great at travel planning. Either he was not great at travel planning or he was too cheap to make decent travel arrangements. Three ships, Paul. Three ships sunk, bro. You are the problem.
Pay for the one that floats. Like, what do you want?
He either didn't follow his budget, wasn't a very good leather worker, because, remember, he worked leather work. He made and sold tents in order to help make a living. So he either didn't keep to his budget, he wasn't a very good leather worker because his business wasn't profitable, or he wasn't a very shrewd business person.
That's a different kind of list, isn't it? Like, that's a different picture than, like, sailing or floating into the sunset for the Lord. It's like, bro, can't you, like, buy a car with, like, that works? It's all the same color. He's like, no, I just got to get to the next town.
I just got to get to the next town. Like, Paul, take a break. He's like, I can't sleep. I just got to get to the next town. Like, dude, you just got out of prison.
You're bleeding. But I gotta get to the next town. Like, homie, you can't even write your letters because the arthritis is set into your bones. Like, stop trying to encourage people and stay at home. I gotta get to the next town.
In a world bragging of its own greatness, we disclose our weaknesses to highlight Jesus strength.
But we cover this.
We cover this.
We put our degrees on the wall and we hide the court orders and the felon.
We hide the failures.
And my friends, I think Jesus would get a little bit more credit if we would just be honest about what it is that he's saving us from.
What's on our list of reasons that Jesus shouldn't use us? Like, think about it. What is on your list of reasons that Jesus should not use you? Prison time, Lack of income, bad money management, family problems, abuse in my past.
What's on the list?
My car doesn't work. I'm not good at talking. I'm not good at talking. And then when I do talk, I say the wrong thing really loud and people get angry at me. Like, what's on the list of reasons why Jesus shouldn't use you?
Paul had written to the church here in a previous letter. He said, guys, I want you to think about it. Consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful.
Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world. Even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
In a world bragging of its own greatness, we disclose our weakness to highlight Jesus strength. He's saying, look like you might hear this and hear adventure, but I am just holding it together trying to get to the next town.
I got the people in Macedonia, they don't have six pennies to rub together, but I'm taking five of them to get there.
I got another earth shaking principle for you. This is going to change your life.
Every human is human.
I don't know if you thought about it before, but every human is human. The apostle Paul, human.
Michael, human. Ryan human.
Every human is human. And yet Jesus calls them into the most important mission in eternity.
In a world bragging of its own greatness, we disclose our weaknesses to highlight Jesus strength. Let's read just these last couple of verses starting in verse 29. Who is weak and I am not weak.
Who is made to fall and I am not indignant. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is blessed forever knows that I am not lying.
Paul burns with indignation. Like when he leads folks to Christ and they walk away from Jesus. He's not just an evangelist who comes in, he preaches the word, he gets the altar call, he takes the check and he moves on. He's a guy who is invested in the continued life of the church. I don't know if you know this, we're in the Bible belt and so I know that there's lots of people who in their life at one point walked in the aisle and signed a prayer card and they have a date in the front of their Bible that they got saved for the Lord.
I don't know if people know that salvation is the starting line of a marathon of following Jesus for the rest of your life. And Paul was not just concerned with getting you to the starting line. His heart broke when people got to the starting line and then fell off the race, he says, who's weak? That I'm not weak. Like, I will confess my weak, but who is made to fall.
And I am not indignant. I care when people fall away. I care when people turn their back on Jesus.
He's saying for us, like, I will boast in my weakness so that Christ can be shown to be strong. Because if he can use a guy like me, who can barely walk in a straight line, who can't carry his criminal record with him because there's just too many pages, if God can use me, if Jesus can take my life and he can plant a church in the city like Corinth, then maybe. Maybe he's real. Maybe he's the living God who's speaking today. A healthy church is a hospital for the broken, not a museum for the faultless.
He had the record. He had the birthright. He was born into a good family. They raised him right. He took that right raisin and he practiced the law.
He was blameless. And what he boasts in today is his brokenness before Christ. In a world bragging of its own greatness, we disclose our weakness to highlight Jesus strength. So church, my friends, when we hide our weakness, we deny Jesus the glory of showing his perfect strength.
One author writes, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power. As it is working. We might have grown up in a church tradition where if you were going to confess a sin to somebody, he had to have a fancy collar on. But I just want you to see in the book, it says, confess your sins to one another.
We got to take the mask off.
We got to own what's broken. Not because we're proud, not because we just want everybody to see how disgusting we are, but because we want everybody to see how glorious and mighty and merciful and gracious and loving and slow to anger our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So you knew I was getting there. Y' all have been quiet for a couple of minutes. You knew I was getting there. But who do we disclose our weakness to?
I don't know that we have to share it with everybody, but we do have to share it with somebody. Who do we disclose our weakness to? And how does Jesus get credit in our disclosure? Who are we sharing what's burdensome and what's keeping us from walking in step with Jesus? And how, as we share that and bear one another's burdens, is Jesus getting the credit?
For giving you another day.
At the risk of boring you, I'd like to read to you another passage from a book. This is from a missionary in India. Apparently, I'm supposed to be reading about missionaries this week.
And they had started this practice of just, like, reading the scripture and then sitting quietly and as long as it took until the Lord laid something on somebody's heart. And she tells this story in this school that these teachers are doing this together. She says there was one teacher who would never share anything in the staff fellowship. She's quiet, I'm here, but I don't want to be here. Never share anything.
We were all praying for her. And then one day she shared. She told us that some years previous, she had stolen a gold belt from. From her aunt.
She's a thief, and her thievery had eaten her alive. She didn't feel like she could trust anybody. She couldn't talk to anybody. She couldn't rejoice in anything. So she finally shares that she has stolen this gold belt from her aunt.
She wept. But we all started to sing. Praise God for her courage and victory to confess church. If we're going to be a hospital for the sick, we can't kick the wounded when they come in and tell us that they're broken. When they confess their weakness.
We praise God for the courage that they would share. We praise God that the Holy Spirit has been at work in them, that he would lead them to understand what's right and what's wrong.
And it's crazy, you know, God does God's stuff. That week there was a theft in her classroom. So she shares about her story. And that week somebody stole something, stole money out of her desk.
She took a couple of minutes to pray. And she prayed with the class and said, class, let's ask God what we should do. And she felt like the. The Holy Spirit was leading her to share with her class how she had stolen this belt.
She obeyed. She told the children how Satan had tempted her to steal the gold belt and made her heart hard not to confess it. So for many years she was very unhappy. And when she listened to God and confessed her fault, great joy came to her. And then she said to her class, I pray that the child who has taken the money will confess it right away so that he can be happy again.
Let us all pray for courage for the child to confess it. The children closed their eyes and prayed silently. Then the boy stood up and confessed. I took the money. The children clapped and they sang, praise him.
God is love. And all the children learned that it is a wonderful thing to confess your fault quickly and not to hide it. Because in a world bragging of its own greatness, we disclose our weakness to highlight Jesus strength. God, we need you.
I don't know if my faults make me more qualified to preach this or less.
Lord, I've endeavored to do as you have led me to do, to share your word with these friends here. And so, God, I pray that you would make it useful.
I pray that if there's anything I've said that's been distracting or just my own opinion that all that stuff just be forgotten. Lord, let me be forgotten where your Word has grabbed ahold of our heart with youh truth, God, I pray, I pray. Lord, please don't let us get away from you. Please don't let us shrug you off.
Please don't let us wait until later.
Please, just don't let us wait and see how we feel tomorrow.
God, will we not have rest until we take our rest in you?
For big things, for secrets we've carried for too long? For little things, God, all is laid bare in your sight. God, forgive us for the ways that we have thought that we could cover it up with you. Father, forgive us for the injury we've done to one another by trying to put on a face it.
