THE VALUE OF VULNERABILITY

To be vulnerable is to admit that you have weaknesses.  It means to admit that there are limitations to your knowledge, limitations to your ability, limitation was to your energy.  I think to be vulnerable means to take down your guard and remove your defenses -- to be genuinely open to people.  This is risky.  To be vulnerable is a scary proposition.  There are some people in your church who don’t want you to be vulnerable as a human being or as a pastor.

I heard a person say one time, “There are three kinds of people:  men, women, pastors.”  The problem with that it denies a truth of life and keeps us from having full impact in other people’s lives.

Sometimes pastors will succumb to that, to the pressure of maintaining an image that’s more than human.  But I challenge you not to cave in to this pressure.  Do not let people put you on a pedestal.  It’s dishonest.  It’s hypocritical.  When you try to act like you’re not imperfect, that you’re not human, you end up projecting a false image and you won’t be real.  Then when the inevitable truth comes out, people become disillusioned because there’s been such an unrealistic image.  

Values.  Why is it worth the effort to be open and honest about your humanity and your weaknesses.

1. It’s emotionally healthy. 

James 5:16 “Confess your faults to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”  It brings health.

1. It’s spiritually empowering.  

James 4:6 "God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble.”  You know we cannot minister without the grace of God.  So the question then becomes, how do you get grace?  How can I get the grace I need to pastor the church God called me to pastor?  

One answer:  By humbling ourselves.  God gives grace to the humble.  

What is humility?  I think there is a lot of misconceptions about the definition of humility.  Humility is not denying  your strengths.  Humility is being honest about your weaknesses.

1. It is relationally endearing.  It draws us closer to other people when we’re vulnerable, when we’re open, when we’re authentic, when we’re real.  People gravitate toward us. 

1 Thessalonians 2:8.  “We were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our own lives as well.”  

Paul shared his life with people.  He exposed himself to them.  He didn’t keep his distance.  He related to people on a personal level.  

When you’re honest, when you’re open, people love to be around you.  People don’t relate to perfection.  They relate to humanity.  James knew this when he said in 

James 5:17 “Elijah was a man just like us.”  

When a pastor throws away his mask and becomes real with his people it does a couple of things.  

People love to be around real people.  Vulnerability creates fellowship.  Rather than be driven apart when you share a personal weakness, it draws you together.  When you share a personal pain with the people in your church. You will discover a new level of fellowship that you have not know previously.  Some of the loneliest people I’ve met are pastors.  I think it’s because they’re afraid of being vulnerable.  Vulnerability endears you to people.   

4.  It is enhances your leadership.  It makes a more credible leader.

Every leader has weaknesses and how you handle them will determine whether they help you or hinder you as a leader.  If you understand and accept your natural limitations they become useful to you.  But if you ignore them, they become embarrassments.  

People want to follow a leader who is real.  A study done recently suggest what people desire most in a leader.  The four characteristics that they said they wanted most in a leader were 

1.  Integrity

2.  Transparency

3.  Vulnerability

4.  A sense of humor

They’re simply saying, “I want a pastor who’s real.  I want a leader who is real.”  The more honest you are about your weaknesses, the more you’re perceived as being real.  The more real you are, the more credibility you have.  The more credibility you have, the easier it is for you to lead and the more willing people are to follow you.  Vulnerability enhances leadership rather than destroying it.  

1. It increases the impact of your preaching.  

2 Corinthians 6:11 “We have spoken to you Corinthians and opened wide our hearts to you.

When preparing the message I’d ask myself, “What is the most powerful way to say this point?”  I no longer ask that question.  I now ask myself, “What is the most personal way to present this point?”  I have discovered that the most personal way is the most powerful way.  Personal communication is the most powerful communication.  I’m much more effective as a witness than I am as an orator.  When I speak out of the overflow of experience, then I speak with conviction.  And conviction moves people.

WHAT TO DO WITH OUR WEAKNESSES

We all have them.  We’ve seen the benefits of them.  We’ve seen the importance of vulnerability.  What do I do with my weaknesses?  First, what not to do:

1.  Don’t ignore them.  They are not going to go away.  

2.  Don’t excuse them.  Anytime I make an excuse for my weaknesses, I lose credibility.  

3.  Don’t deny them.  That doesn’t work.

4.  Don’t defend them.  Don’t blame somebody else for your weaknesses.

Glory in them, because his grace is sufficient.....

THE HUMAN SIDE OF MINISTRY

The human side of ministry.  I think there are two great confessions in the Bible.  One of them is Peter’s great confession.  In Mark 8:28 Peter says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and we know that is the great confession on which our faith is built.  But there’s another great confession that I call Paul’s great confession.  In Acts 14:15 at Iconium he said, “We are but men, human like yourselves.”  I know a lot of people who are quick to agree with the first confession, “Thou art the Christ,” but they’re more reticent to proclaim Paul’s great confession that we’re only human.  We’ve got a lot of leaders and pastors who are interested in proclaiming their spirituality but they’re uncomfortable in admitting their humanity.  They’d like to deny that they’re mere mortals, human beings.  They’d want to pretend that they’re super human.  

I want to offer two propositions.  

1. The first is that to deny your humanity is not only untruthful but it’s a dis-service to both yourself and the people you serve.  

2. The second proposition is that your humanity is actually one of your greatest assets in ministry.  

2 Corinthians 4:7 “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.

It talks about jars of clay.  

They’re very ordinary.  

Jars of clay are not indestructible.  

They have limitations, flaws.  

They break easily.  

I think the point that God is making here is that He puts His greatest gifts in ordinary containers.

God loves to use very ordinary people in extraordinary ways. 

Hebrews 11:32-34 “I do not have time to tell you about Gideon, Barek, Samson, Jepeth, David, Daniel, Samuel, the prophets who, by faith, conquered kingdoms , administered justice and gained what was promised, who shut the mouth of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength.”  

I love that last phrase – “whose weakness was turned to strength.”  

That’s what God likes to do.  He likes to take weak people and make them strong.  

When I use the term weakness, I mean any limitation in your life or ministry that you’ve inherited and can’t change.  

There are many different kinds of weakness. Character flaw. It might be a circumstantial limitation, disadvantage that you’re facing in your church, problems, external pressures

Then there are emotional limitations, scars that we all carry from childhood, from school, natural temperament, personality characteristics that you have, how you handle stress, your basic predisposition toward life.  I think we all carry talent limitations.

The fact is, you’re good at some things and you are not good at some other things.  Matthew 25 makes it real clear that there are one talent people there are five talent people and there are ten talent people.  We’re limited.  Nobody is good at everything.  And then we have physical limitations.  There are limits on how much energy we have.  We have handicaps.  Each of us go through illnesses, disabilities.  I think it’s ironic that most pastors resent it when they get sick.  Yet that’s silly!  You’re a human being and we all have physical limitations.

So when I talk about weaknesses, I’m talking about any limitation on your life or ministry that you inherited or you can’t change.

Consider Moses.  There are only two people in the Bible who are called meek: Jesus and Moses.  When you think of meek you think of someone who has their temper under control, yet what was Moses’ greatest problem?  His anger.  He got angry and killed an Egyptian.  He got angry and threw down the Ten Commandments so that they broke.  He got angry and struck the rock when he should have spoken to it.  It was anger that kept him out of the promised land, yet in the Bible he’s the only other person besides Jesus who is called meek.  

Gideon.  God said, “Gideon, you are a mighty man of valor,” and yet when you look closely at his life, Gideon’s problem was timidity.  He was afraid.  He had a fear of failure.  Yet God said you are a courageous man of valor.

Jesus called Peter “a Rock.”  Yet, Peter was anything but stable.  He was Mr. Impulsive, Mr. Foot-In-Mouth, always speaking before he had thought things through.  Yet Jesus said, “You’re going to be a rock.”

David.  He was called, “a man after God’s own heart,” and yet his greatest defeat was in the area of moral impurity.

Abraham.  Abraham was called the “father of faith,” and yet he had so much faith that twice he told his wife, "Tell them you’re my sister so they won’t kill me in order to take you.”  That didn’t show too much faith!

We preachers love to speak about their victories but dont like to mention their defeats.

Thats why its all by the grace of God. 

We shouldn’t avoid talking about OUR humanity it makes the grace of god more powerful.

God loves to choose weak people to work through.  Why?  

1 Corinthians 1:27 (Good News) “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to put wise men to shame and what the world considers weak in order to put the powerful men to shame.”  

Why does He like to use weak people?  So He will receive the glory. 

Zachariah 4:6 “`It’s not by might not by power but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.”  

I remember I used to imagine that Samson was some muscle bound giant but later I learned that the Bible says when the Philistines looked at Samson, they couldn’t figure out his secret of strength.  

Evidently he must have looked very average and they didn’t know why he was strong.  

Judges 14:19 tells us that the secret of his strength was the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.

Not the size of his muscles.  There’s another example of weakness turned into strength.

Let’s look at the benefits of our weaknesses.  The limitations that God allows in our lives can actually be a blessing in disguise.

1. You have a greater dependence upon God.

2 Corinthians 12:10 (Living Bible) “For when I am weak, then I am strong.  The less I have, the more I depend upon Him.”

Prayed three times, God take it away, but he didn’t.

Usually we resist or resent any limitation that we have on our ministry.  

But if God shows Himself strong in the limitations in your ministry and if God shows Himself strong in your weaknesses, then why should He take it away?  

The fact is sometimes God works through our human weaknesses rather than eliminating those weakness.  I think this is true for not just physical weaknesses but also emotional ones.  I believe there are times we have to look at our psychological weaknesses as part of God’s providential plan for our life.  That they can increase our dependence upon God.