Vulnerable

Message Transcription

Well, if you have your Bible with you, I invite you to turn over to Matthew 26. That's where we'll spend our time together. This morning, as we've been thinking together about imperfect disciples learning to be God's men, his women, in the ways that he has challenged us and growing us. We've been looking each week at different qualities that an imperfect disciple achieves, or at least tries to take on. Following the example of Jesus. And the reason we're doing all of this is because of this great challenge that Dallas Willard has put before us, that the most important thing that God gets out of our life or not all the amazing things we might accomplish, but the person that we become, that's something that we take really seriously at Broadway. We want to be the kind of people who reflect the reality of an empty tomb and a grace filled and hope filled God, and a messiah that has promised that one day he will come again. And so that's who we're trying to live into, to, to become more like. And so we've been looking at a different quality or characteristic each week. I've been taking some from Peter Guerrero's book Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, where he posits that we can't be spiritually mature for not emotionally mature. And so we've been wrestling some with what it means to be the kind of people who who open themselves up to God's Holy Spirit and to his work in our lives.

So we talked some about what it means to be disciples who are slow, who take our time about disciples who are intentional, who recognize our limits that God gives to us, who are long suffering, willing to struggle and to suffer and to persevere, to hang in. We also talked some about what it means to be disciples who pursue in growing in our love, love for God and love for others. Last week we talked some about what it means to be a disciple who is calm and thinking together about how God works in and through us, and some pretty powerful ways. Today. This is our last week in this particular series, and I want to talk to us about vulnerability, which is a quality I think that in our world is is not very highly regarded. In fact, if you think of our leaders, the leaders that are around you, how many of them are are most known for their vulnerability and weakness, that's not often something that is held up in high esteem. I mean, think about our local leaders, our state, national leaders in all kinds of industries, not just government, but education and business. How many of them have been known for being the kind of people who, in the midst of an interview, would say, I don't know. Or. I'm sorry I messed that up. Would you forgive me? Or I don't have an answer for you, or I'm confused. Or you know what? I'm not really sure.

In fact, if we read an interview or listened to an interview where one of our main leaders said that, what would we think of them? Why are you admitting this on TV? Why are you saying that out loud? Our culture doesn't really promote weakness and vulnerability. In fact, they place a high value on power and influence. And if you need to know about that, all you have to do is turn on your favorite social media newspaper news outlet and just see who's who's presenting stuff to us. Who do we look for when we're looking to be influenced in our world? Sadly, this is too often been the reality in churches, whether its celebrity pastors and preachers with preachers sneakers to mega churches with private jets. The church is too often tried to saddle itself up next to someone who's powerful or influential to get our way in the world somehow, in some way. What did Jesus think about all this? What might Jesus think about all this? How did Jesus respond to power and influence in his day? That we see. He responded with vulnerability. And so I want us to think together about the power of a disciple who's willing to be vulnerable, to follow Jesus in the way of weakness and vulnerability. In fact, in his chapter on this particular topic, he outlines four different qualities, or core characteristics of an emotionally healthy disciple who who's learned how to embrace a life of.

Vulnerability, he says. Number one, we have to develop a theology of weakness. Number two, we have to embrace the gift of our limp. Number three. Transition to becoming a church based on weakness. And number four to start practicing vulnerability daily. Now, some of us know a little thing about a limp, don't we? Gary Moyers. Well, let's take a look at each one of these as we think about what it means to be the kind of people who embrace a life of vulnerability. We'll start by just developing a theology of weakness, meaning just what we think about weakness, our belief about God, and His view that so often if you read through Scripture, what you see is a God who's willing to be vulnerable. It starts in the very garden itself, that creation story where God gives Adam and Eve that opportunity, that choice to choose him or themselves. It didn't just end there. In fact, all through the rest of the pages of Scripture, we see God being vulnerable, continuing to pursue time and time again his creation, even though they have chosen to reject him. How many times do we read stories about God choosing to work through a weak and broken, imperfect disciple? The story of Abraham, or Isaac or Jacob. We see stories of Sarah, or Tamar, or Rahab, or Ruth, or David, or Peter or Paul, time and time again, God's chosen vessel to work into his world, to show his grace and his love to all people are through broken vessels.

We all know that you don't have to look anything further than just the life of Christ. To see this picture of God working in vulnerability. And when Jesus came to earth, he was born in relative obscurity in the middle of nowhere. And a tiny little town in a cave. Born to a poor family. Not not born to a wealthy, powerful, influential family that would all know and learn about instead. He's spent 30 years again in obscurity. Waiting for his ministry to begin. And then within those three years, we follow him around through the Gospels, and we see that Jesus was not willing to use his power, his miracles, to. To manipulate or to coerce people to follow him. In fact, Xk0 says this about him. He said he revealed just enough of himself to make faith possible. But he hid just enough of himself to make faith necessary. Unlike Alexander the Great, who would conquer a city and ride in on the back of a horse, a stallion, Jesus rides into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey. And there he's willing to submit himself to the authorities to be. Murdered on a cross. And hanging there on the cross, instead of calling down curses on those who were jeering him and mocking him from the crowd. Instead, he cries out a lament to his father. In fact, if we look again at the passage that Jennifer read for us just a moment ago, that Matthew 25 passage, it's just a few hours before this crucifixion is about to take place, and he's taking some of his disciples to go with him, to pray because he is upset.

Now, I know for many scholars, as I was reading a study this week, they have a hard time trying to to put Jesus in the context of this story, because it's here that we see Jesus vulnerability in his raw humanity in ways that, unlike maybe many others in the text. And they've wrestled with how do we justify fully God and fully man? And yet this weakness that, unlike what many might say, Jesus didn't approach his death as a super hero. That there was true concern. Listen again to his words as he invites his disciples to sit while he goes over there to pray. He takes Peter and the two sons of Zebedee with them, and he began to be sorrowful. A troubled. And he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Going just a little further. He fell with his face to the ground. He prayed, my father, if it's possible. May this cup be taken from me yet not what I will. But as you will. Verse 42, he went a second time and he prayed, My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.

Verse 44. So he left them, and he went away once more and prayed a third time, saying the same thing. Have you ever noticed that Jesus didn't approach his upcoming death like some superhero? Like, this doesn't bother me. I'll show you. Just wait. Instead, he approaches it with sorrow. In fact, he says himself. He's overwhelmed with it to the point of death. I think about that type of vulnerability. That Jesus was expressing right there in the middle of the folks he was trying to lead. Right. Compare that in your mind, if you will, to the leadership that we see today as K0 makes a chart here, I want to show you about just comparing how those who lead often in our day, comparing to how Jesus himself led. Just read through each of those invite you to consider how often in leadership do we see? I allow myself to be sorrowful and troubled in front of my team, in front of the folks I'm leading, versus I cover over my feelings of sorrow and confusion. Or I admit to my team when I'm feeling overwhelmed or I refuse to. I've got a model. Strong faith and vision. I usually ask for help and ask for prayers. Or I rarely appear needy in front of others. I pray and utter dependence to surrender my will to God's will. Or, I pray, how to strategically turn a bad situation around and and expand the ministry.

Or the business. The culture. I have no problem falling face down on the ground in front of others when I struggle to submit myself to the unfathomable will of the father. Or I try to stand tall, being decisive and unwavering in crisis so that others can lean on me for faith and strength. I don't know about you, but this is one of those qualities that makes me nervous. And as a preacher, that that temptation to be able to stand up in front of all of you and say, I have it figured out, I understand. I know the answer. Just ask me. Is so overwhelming. And yet. And yet. That's not the truth. In fact, that's why for the last year, I've tried to invite you in as appropriately and as often as possible to demonstrate, to show you, to try to be vulnerable. Because I understand that temptation to want to to manage impressions is powerful. Let's see if we're going to be the kind of disciples who truly embody the leadership of Christ in the world. Then we've got to learn how to be vulnerable and how to open that up. In fact, when you compare these two lists, it's it's maybe no wonder that Paul would write to the church in Corinth about this very thing he says in verse 25 of chapter one, for the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.

And the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. See, because God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things and the things that are not. To nullify the things that are. So that no 1st May boast before him. See Paul was captured by this same reality, the same willingness to to seek vulnerability. Jesus didn't power up on people. In fact, he modeled to them no, no, no. It's about allowing others to go in front of you. It was not just something he said. It was something he did, how he lived. He understood that truth and brokenness and humility release God's love and power in our life. But lies and secrecy and pride quench it. And so it's this theology, Escudero says, that we've got to learn to, to rethink, to reshape our mindset, that weakness and vulnerability is not something to be avoided. It's something to be embraced. And so he says, we've got to learn how to embrace the gift of our limp. Now we all have a limp. Now some of us have a limp physically and we see it. Some of us have a limp emotionally. Some of us it's spiritual. But the fact is, we all have it. We all have something that drives us to our knees that we ask God, God, would you just take this away? God, could you make this go away? God, could you change this? What is it for you? What's your limp these days? Is it maybe an addiction? Or is it anxiety? Is it worry or loneliness or fear? Maybe for some of us it's a cancer diagnosis or some other physical physical challenge that we're facing.

Maybe it's chronic pain. In the next year. I think we're going to see some limping in our country. As we deal with that temptation to want to judge, to temptation, to hate. We want you to know, church. Whatever your limp is, you're in good company. Because you're sitting in a room full of limpers. And we're all limping because of something. It's part of the human condition this side of heaven. We all have a limp. Let's see, as a result of the Genesis three challenge and problem, that brokenness and weakness are a reality in our world. But see, if you listen to the people around you, most of the time, what you're going to hear is this your weakness is something you got to get rid of. It's a liability. It's keeping you down. It's keeping you from becoming the person that you need to become. Right. That that weakness and vulnerability are to be avoided and overcome at all costs. That's not really the pathway we see in following Jesus. See for those who follow Jesus, what we what we discover is that our limps are actually an opportunity for grace.

A chance for God's power to show up in our lives. Remember how God responded to Paul when Paul said, God, I'm tired of limping. I'm so tired of limping. Could you just take it away? In fact, Paul tells on himself, he didn't just pray that prayer once. He prayed it over and over and over again. Some of us that sounds that resonates with us, doesn't it? But God's response to him was, my grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in weakness. I said, my power is unleashed in your life through your weaknesses, in ways that in your strengths never will be. Because so often when we are strong, we have a tendency to think, I'm okay. I don't need much help. And I kind of grew up with this picture of of being a true follower of Jesus means you didn't need much grace in your life, right? Because you got it all figured out. So I don't need a whole lot of grace. That's actually not true. And what you find when you when you talk with with those models, those heroes of faith, what you find is their burning grace. That's their fuel. That's what they depend on. Everything. Everything depends on that grace. God's power, Paul says in chapter four of Second Corinthians. It says, we have this amazing power at work in our life, but it's in this clay jar.

It's this immense treasure. But it's held in this clay pot. To show that the power, this all surpassing power is from God, not me. He says. We're hard pressed on every side, but we're not crushed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted but not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body. The death of Christ. So that the life of Christ may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our bodies. See, weakness in vulnerability is not something to be avoided. What we're told is to be embraced, because that's where God's light can shine most brightly in our world. And I know we hear that, I hear that, and I think, yeah, I know, I know that up here I'm just not really sure here. Like maybe for you guys or maybe this group over here, that might be true, but. But not not me, right? I need to get it together. Even though we all know the person that we admire the most in their faith journey are not the people who are perfect, right? In fact, they're often the first in line to say, I am not perfect, right? I'm burning Grace all the time. If it weren't for God's grace in my life, I wouldn't be who I am and where I am doing what I'm doing, and that doesn't repel us from them.

It actually draws us closer. When we encounter people who can say, yeah, I really screwed that up. I really made a mistake. I'm really sorry. Could you please forgive me? That doesn't make him less endearing. It makes him more endearing. There's a reason. Let's see in that little clay jar. God's light shines out most brightly. Through our weaknesses. So not only do we believe that we start to embrace our limp, it says, then we become transitioned to become the kind of church that's built on weakness. We commit to being a church that's open and honest about our struggles. We get to meet. We commit to being a church where we say questions are welcome here. Even the really sticky, complicated ones that make us nervous. It's okay. Because we believe that even in the midst of our own brokenness and our search for that answer, that God's power is going to be made sure, made manifest. We commit to not managing impressions and pretending to be better than we are. We don't look for easy and simplistic answers to really complicated questions. We don't avoid having hard conversations. Why? Because we believe that God's power is the ultimate power, and that his light will shine into the darkness. And so we don't have to be afraid of shining God's light into any darkness. I grew up and I don't know that so much because of the church I grew up in.

More so just again, the mindset that I had was, well, you came to church and you always put on a good face. And some of the hardest conversations and drives we had in our family's life was between home and church. It was like, you better have it together by the time we pull in there. Right. The expectation was we would all walk in happy family. Yeah. Kelly and I had took a vacation with our kiddos to one of our good friends in California, and he took these wonderful family portraits. Right? And one of those portraits is us as a family walking hand in hand on the beach. Oh, how sweet. Look the eyes are on the beach in Malibu. Isn't it beautiful? Now what it doesn't show you is on the front side. I'm like, you guys better cut it out. You know, like I'm yelling at our kids while they're taking this serene picture in the background. We didn't say, hey, Brad, run around the other side and get the picture of this. We feel like showing up to church. We got to have to have it all together. But what if we don't have it all together? What if we don't know where the next paycheck is going to be coming from? What if we don't know how this relationship is going to go? And how this decision might impact us in the future that we still have to come.

Pretending we have it all together. Or can we be the kind of community that says you're welcome here? Limp and all. There's limp right on here beside me. So you want to become the kind of church that's that's based on our weaknesses? Not not because they're so important. It's because God's power is so good. That we believe we can bring him anything, any challenge, any obstacle, any conversation, any worry or fear or concern. God's power is strong enough. That nothing can separate us from his love. But I promise you, church, you're going to hear some things in the next year, right, that are going to try to convince you there are things that need to separate us. That not even God could empower. Change that. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. Let's see. We're the kind of community that's going to be vulnerable. In fact, we're going to practice it daily. And step four practice daily. So I invite you to think about how is God inviting you to practice vulnerability this week? Maybe for you it's it's by intentionally going last in line. Let everybody go in front of you. Maybe if it's if it's you, it's in the grocery store, or maybe it's in that queue trying to get onto the highway or onto another street. For others of us, it may look like taking the last word and giving it to somebody else, letting someone else finish the conversation. They get a chance to have the last word.

Maybe it's letting someone else get the remote control. Choosing the movie. Choosing the restaurant. For those of us, it may be being the first to say, I'm sorry I screwed that up. I'm late. Not because I hit every light in Lubbock, even though every time I'm late, I hit every light in Lubbock. It's because I didn't make the time. I valued my time more than I valued yours. And I'm sorry. Would you forgive me? How might God be inviting you to embrace the way of vulnerability this week? To embrace your limp. I'm limping. But, Jesus, I'm trusting that you're at work in this. How might God do an amazing work in and through? How might God shine his light in your life into our world this week? Got. I'm praying for us that that you would help us to embrace the way of vulnerability. In a world right now that's so full of chaos. So much hurt, so much brokenness. The temptation, Lord, is to want to power up. To get influence and to get control. And God, I know that's not just a temptation in the way of the world. That's that's our temptation. As we perceive some of our way of life is being threatened by some belief, by some people group. Our temptation is to want to to sidle up next to someone who has some power, who has some influence, to try to manage this.

God. For others of us, it's it's much more personal. It's a relationship. That's just stretching us further than we can imagine going. Others of us. It's it's in our school. It's it's in our business, in our neighborhood. Yeah, but you help us to embrace the way of Jesus. Do not power up. But. Allow your your light to shine through us in our brokenness, to not pretend to be perfect or better than we are, but just to be who we are. And not just staying there. But taking our next step and following you. Yeah, but give us courage this week, because I know for some of us, it's an amazing act of courage. God, I know for some people, showing up here today is the most courageous thing they've done all week long. Because they're in a place where they're just wrestling and wondering. Am I safe here? God, do you love me? Will these people love me? Oh, God. I pray that they would know in a deep place today how much you love. Yeah. Would you give us the courage to follow you in the way of weakness? They're not always having to be right. They're not always having to have the last word. To be willing to sacrifice. Trusting and believing that your power can overcome anything, any challenge, any relational struggle, any physical impairment. Got anything? And Lord, we know, just as Jesus did, that didn't exempt him from a cross. From suffering. From sacrificing yet it's going to it's going to cost us.

Father, help.

Pray that you would help us to see that cost in the light of Jesus own life and death and resurrection. The death is not the end of the story. Oh, God. We want to be those kind of people. We want to be that kind of church. So, father, give us courage this week, I pray. Help us to be people who are vulnerable, who embrace our limps. And that we do it together, trusting and believing that you will do in and us, in and through us, more than we can ask or even imagine. Oh God, thank you that we get to be a part of this church family together. Help us. Father, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.