Wednesday Service | THE FUTURE IS NOW | Part 3: Wounds and Weaknesses | Jordan Brawner

[1] Your greatest is born out of your wounds and weakness

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Rick Warren

“You don’t have one testimony, you have hundreds of testimonies… We think that we impress people with our success and our strength. But the most successful testimonies are of our weakness and pain.”

[2] Jesus our wounds and weaknesses

Hebrews 4:14-16 (NIV)

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

• Jesus ministry to us comes out of his

Isaiah 53:4-5 (NLT)

⁴ Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! ⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

[3] It’s in our weakness where we find God

Hebrews 11:32 (NIRV)

³² What more can I say? I don’t have time to tell about all the others. I don’t have time to talk about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah. I don’t have time to tell about David and Samuel and the prophets. ³³ Because of their faith they took over kingdoms. They ruled fairly. They received the blessings God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions. ³⁴ They put out great fires. They escaped being killed by swords. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became powerful in battle. They beat back armies from other countries.

• God has a plan for us after our

Luke 22:32 (NIV)

³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

• Seven is the number that symbolizes

Proverbs 24:16 (NLT)

The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.

• Our wounds can us

Genesis 37:26-28 (NIV)

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

• Our wounds can us

RICK WARREN

“Pain is the high cost of growth. We want the product without the process. The very thing that discourages you is the very thing God uses to develop you. When you learn this you’ll be unshakeable in life.”

• Our wounds increase the capacity our

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NIV)

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

• Seven times the gospels show us examples of compassion leading to

Matthew 14:14 (NIV)

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

[4] We get stronger when we have for our weakness

• If I want to get stronger where I am weak, I surround myself with who have that strength

• If I want to strengthen my faith I can write a :

  • What I’ve survived with God,

  • What I have accomplished with God

  • The skills God has developed in me