God Does Not Despise Your Weakness

Denver well let's give the Lord Praise right now let's give the Lord good praise let's love him from the bottom of our heart today he is so worthy God is so worthy he is so worthy oh Jesus oh Jesus oh Jesus oh Jesus oh Jesus Jesus Jesus blessed be your name today God Glory Glory Glory Glory Glory Glory Glory Glory Hallelujah God bless you you may be seated today I want to say thank you so very much to this wonderful because of the times committee I want to give honor to brother Mangan wonderful wonderful man of God that I love so much I want to give honor to my pastor that I love so much brother GE chance today and my family and a man that's Fen me in just a few minutes brother Tenny who has been a dear dear friend of mine and there's a lot of things that he has helped me with one of the smartest men I know that's the truth I heard last night when brother Huntley made a statement about how that because of the times has been such a blessing to our church and it really hit home especially last night and I want to tell this for just a little bit because this goes along with what I'll be speaking on two years ago I was on my way to because of the times and I stopped in a little convenience store in Columbia Louisiana it was about 10:30 at night and just to get a Coke my wife and I and while I was in the in the convenience store I turned to say something to her and all of a sudden my lungs shut down I could get no air I was strangling I was drowning in fluid and I could not breathe at all I ran outside pumping my arms just trying to pull some air into my lungs and I couldn't do it and there was constant hemorrhaging blood just flowing out of my mouth and I couldn't stop and couldn't breathe I was I was and I really truly felt that I was going to die right there finally they got Medics there and took us to the hospital and it was a trauma all night long of test and then they to took us to Monroe Louisiana and more test there about 6:00 in the morning the doctor came in where I was and said would you cough into this cloth and still blood was flowing and he said that's pretty bad took me into the U x-ray room there to show me the X-ray and while I was sitting there in that wheelchair looking at the X-ray he showed me a place on my lung they had eliminated blood clot they had eliminated tuberculosis now it had come to the fin final thing and he pointed to a place on my right lung a large mass that was there and said we have found that this is where the blood is coming from I said what does that mean doctor he said that means you have cancer and it was such a shock to me that I was numb I couldn't I couldn't believe what I was hearing and and he said we don't know what else to do you've got cancer and took me back to the room my family was around the bed at that time and there was prayer going on all over the country including right here believe and tremendous tremendous prayer I I thought what is it going to be like now in my last days what is it going to be like because I do believe that my life has been dramatically changed in 2 years and there are some things that are good that

have happened out of this but I got to thinking about death and what it was going to be like and then finally I was able to sleep for the first time and and probably 24 hours while I was sleeping the lord gave me a dream and I would have to say I know without a doubt that it come from God and in that dream dream the lord gave me the most peaceful situation showed me standing on the side of an incredible F that feel was a f of corn and the corn was extremely extremely high the ears of that corn were almost the size of a man and there would be three and four ears that size on each stock and it was incredible I was raised on a farm so the first thought even while I was in the dream the first thought was this is the most fertile field I have ever seen in my life and as I started out walking across the field I was able to see above that about 30 probably 40 ft High stalks of grain I could see huge silos on the other side three of them huge silos and when I finally came to I told my wife that was there by my bed I I didn't tell her the whole story I said you know I believe the Lord is going to take care of this I believe he gave me a sign I believe he showed me that everything's going to be all right because I felt that I was going to be in the middle of that field which was the greatest Harvest field that I had ever seen in all of my life I did not share that with anybody because I wanted to make sure that it was directly for me the doctor came in that evening now this was my final test results that evening he came in and he stood by my bedside and put his hand there and just St stared at me and made this statement he said I don't know what in the world to tell you about the blood and where it's coming from because we just got the results back and you have literally not one cell in your body is a cancerous cell not one hallelujah oh oh blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be the name of the Lord I want him to receive Glory today sh praise God the reason I made this statement to you not only because of the tremendous prayer of this group of people here but the doctors talk to my in-laws they live next door to them and and made they made this statement they came over and said we want to know the name of that prayer group one more time because without one doubt in my lifetime the doctor said I have seen a major miracle I want to know that prayer group aren't you glad you've got a god friend that you can turn to in the greatest crisis hour but that's not all of that and I'm going into my message with this today I listened to the tremendous reports here last night of the foreign missions and home missions and all of that and the Lord quickened that to me one more time and said this is that Harvest field and we are already into the Harvest and the grain is not just one little grain here and there but it's whole corn ear of corns which is almost the size of a man which would represent to me major families and major Church groups and everything else is going to be influenced by the power of the almighty God hallelujah hallelujah we're in it I believe we're in it amen I couldn't wait to get back to

Denver to tell them but the doctor had told me he says you cannot preach for 6 months you cannot I said what about this Sunday he said absolutely not you cannot preach for 6 months and besides all that it's this is we don't know anything else to tell you but it must be just stress do you have a lot going on your life and the boards you're on and so on I said yes sir I'll try to eliminate what I can I got back home listen list to this now I had made in my mind I'm going to give up a lot of things just to have a good health I want to be in good health I've got six grandkids almost five and a half and U so I want I want to be in good health but I got a phone call the next day after I'm going to commit to give up a lot of things from Africa Africa brother hail we want you to be a part of the Africa project I said I can't do that I'm sorry I'm giving up stuff now I can't do that and while I was talking God showed me three silos of grain again which represents the three regions that are of Africa and God says this is a part of the major fertile field that he is going to give a mighty mighty move God I said I got to be a part of that I got to be a part of that would you stand and let's love the Lord everybody Lord my my my my my my my my praise God praise God let me read the word of the Lord to you today my subject I will keep it well within range for our district superintendent of of Louisiana that I love so much brother amen but I want to give you this subject I tried to get out of this I promise you I did last night while I was praying I had a man to come and spoke a word of Prophecy over me and the Word was preach what the Lord preach what I have given to you and so I'm going to do that today am going to talk to you about a subject you haven't heard very much of I didn't want to be unique it's just that I felt it's coming out of my own life and the word is weakness the word is weakness when you hear the word weakness don't think of sin don't hear sin okay what you need to hear is inadequacy limitations humanness cless good we all have that and I feel that when you go home I hope and pray that you hear these words I'm going to be a part of that Revival I heard them saying me too it's going to happen to me too last night I thought Lord I want to make sure that I understand about weakness because I believe this is a part of my Revival 1 Corinthians 1 ver 26 for ye see your calling Brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound or shame the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are Mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen yes and things which are not to bring to know things that are that no flesh should GL glory in his presence God bless you you may be seated if this is the choosing of God then there is something I feel that God wants us to understand that weakness is not something negative that's important for me and you so much in the Bible shows that weakness is very much a part of God's purpose and God's plan for us and that weakness propably understood is not something really to be fought against but rather something that needs to be embraced if I have a discussion with people often times especially with theologians and with Scholars and Pastors in any kind of meeting there's a question that I really like to ask especially to those that feel they know a lot about the Bible that question is this what is the very first thing that God created when he set out to create

the universe most go directly to Genesis chap 1 and try to remember what that verse says was it the Heaven and the Earth was it the firmament was it the Deep was it light actually it's none of those if you were to look there in Genesis chapter 1 you would not find what God first created because there is a catch that's in the question and that is that it's not even found in Genesis chapter 1 or even in Genesis at all but it's found in the eth chapter of the Book of Proverbs listen verse 22 the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from Everlasting from the beginning orever the Earth was when there were no depths I was brought forth when there was no fountains abounding with water before the F mountains were settled before the hills was I brought forth while as yet he had not made the Earth nor the fields nor the highest part of the Dust of the earth that my friend is is wisdom speaking in the first person metaphorically and wisdom is as we all know and throughout this book God's point of view it's God's perspective it's the way that God looks at things wisdom is God's value system and here wisdom is talking about itself and the essence of what it's saying is that God has a plan and a purpose and a design and that plan was established a long time before the visible world was ever created it anti-ed our universe and before there was anything there was God's principles that were intact and his purposes that were given it was not as though the children of Israel wanding there in the wilderness and the Lord looked at their behavior and they were worshiping idols and doing so many wrong things that God says these people need some rules then he calls Moses to the top of the mountain and said here here's some Ten Commandments this will help those people do better it was not that way at all because God's purpose and God's design and God's choosing and moral Foundation is eternal because it is the expression of God's Own nature and it predates the universe all right now what does that mean to you and I what that means to me is that this Universe has a boss and this boss knows exactly what he wants and has very defined and clear ideas and what is wrong and what is right and what really matters I don't want to get off on it but I want to tell you something friend abortion was long settled before the Earth was ever put in orbit all of these kind of situations were taken care of a long time before we came on the scene so it doesn't matter too much what men think but it does matter what God thinks and what makes this so significant today is that in 1 Corinthians 1 and 27 it says that God hath chosen the foolish things to confound the wise God before there was anything made up in his mind that I want something really weak I going to use something extremely weak and that which is despised I am going to take it and confound the wise and the strong if God wanted to friend he could have chosen strength just as easily he could have chosen the wise and the Highborn and the mighty but he chose to look for listen now credentials that are found in mankind which is weak weakness and foolishness and baseness that ought to help all of you in the house to relax for a little bit because that's exactly what we are made out of and what we are these credentials are things that we try to disguise and try to hide with everything that we have but everyone has the same ones nobody is glad about it nobody wants anybody else to really know what they're weak Ness might be remember not sin God hates sin we know that but there's something in us there is a cless

there is a humanness there is something about us living in the confines and the context of a human body that we wish somehow another we could step out of and go into higher Realms and greater Dimensions according to God's wisdom which is greater than man amen wisdom man's Wisdom and strength and might are not particularly desirable things for God at least not grounded in the things the world grounds them in I've often read these passages and wondered because I came from a home where strength was a tremendous virtue four boys and two girls and a daddy that ruled like a patriarch it was a very stoic kind of background as a matter of fact I don't remember and growing up that my dad ever did break down and cry even at the tragic loss of a loved one even my mother I could see him bite his lip I could see all of that but there was not a whole lot of Brokenness that was there no no no it wasn't right I know that and I'm just the opposite I'll I'll weep at the drop of a hat but there's there's something there in our home so when I heard and I read about this in the Scripture it it mutilated it militated everything that I had been grown up had grown up with and that about strength and so I had to come the grips to that but here God is teaching that weakness is not just a part of us it is a significant part of us and it is a part of his plan and a part of his purpose 1967 I just got out of the army and made my way to the camp grounds in tyoga 1967 The Six Day War was going on and I had I had been raised in wonderful Pentecostal home background and my mom and dad was the greatest Christians and all of that but the people that was there in the little church that we were raised in the Usher got picked up he got a little cold in the soul and got picked up for DWI and and the treasure couldn't had could roll her own cigarettes and the board member who was my uncle he would smoke every chance he got and it was just that kind of thing that I was raised around incidentally that was the first church I pastured so you can imagine what I went through but what took place was that when I was growing up I I saw these wonderful Christian people in my home but when I went to church I saw something else and I had a hard time really receiving the Holy Ghost because I felt that I had to become absolutely perfect before God would give me the Holy Ghost and I I would try so very very much and I would speak with other tongues but I wasn't satisfied because I wanted I wanted a portion that know nobody would doubt and I wouldn't doubt it and when I got out of the army and I went to that sixth day war there that was going on in the camp the Youth Camp brother K not K Kershaw brother Kershaw was preaching it and he had on his Arab Garb and he didn't have to wear that that night because I was already under some heavy conviction I could hardly breathe when they mentioned the headlines that was in the newspaper and finally I broke through God gave me the Glorious gift of the Holy Ghost and and and then with all of this background and and hypocrisy that I had lived around and I thought dear God I've got to I've got to stay so perfect I I remember the next day going to the little dormatory and laying across the bed and there was people playing ball and I thought my Lord how could they be playing ball and God's coming and all of that and I prayed until I went to sleep and I woke up and listen the Lord spoke these words to me and I have lived by them and lived with them the rest of my days hopefully he said you will go in the Rapture if you keep your heart right that was all that was said I thought God I can do that and I started working on it I started praying and I'd pray for hours brother Mangan and and I I didn't have time to pray for anybody else I just I had so much I wanted God to change in me I couldn't pray for anybody else I couldn't pray for the kingdom of

God I don't know that I did for the first three or four months pray for anybody but Billy hail I'd get up off my knees and I didn't feel like that was good enough dear God I had something so wrong with my life and finally God got it into this thick Cranium of mine and this gray matter that seems to be a darker shade than most folks but he finally got it into my thinking son I don't want a golden vase I can't do much with a golden vase I don't need to polish you up that you will shine to men all I want is a clay vessel that I can put my glory in I want somehow another for my glory to shine through and I want you to know from that point on I've been able to kind of sit back a little bit and say that's just an old human beings what he is come on let's praise the Lord Lord everybody hallelujah hallelujah you may be seated I had to get used to my cless and the limitations of clay because it's in an earn vessel that the glory of God can be seen the clearest there was an article many years ago by a designer of the Crockery and glassware company called dance dance glassware they make crystals and so forth and this is what he said he said Clay is a compound material that's not easily worked with it has a great many limitations and you can only do so much with it but what creativity is all about is learning to get the best out of the element you're working with and learning to create in the context of the limitations of the material I thought that's excited because that's exactly what God does with you and I God creates in the context of our human limitations when I say limitations please hear that that's not something negative for him because God doesn't despise your limitations I said God doesn't despise your humanist that's why he put us in a human body and that's why he came himself in a human body he even had to have somebody to help him bear his cross of God Go's Hill and I have never read in the Bible where Jesus ever took it as something negative being there with limitations in that human body there's just times I say that those limitations and those weaknesses have got to be faced and as was preached here last night they have to be faced in the realm of reality I can't be pretentious about it I can't say you know what I'm not as bad as I some people think I am I'm I'm I'm not as sufficient as I need to be I'm not very adequate but I'm going to cover it up no God only dwells in reality my friend he dwells in Ultimate Reality and he wants you to make a confession I Am Lord I am fearful I do have problems I do have needs and God says you know what that's just exactly what I want I'm trying to get you to the place of your greatest weakness because then can I show you my greatest Str come on let's praise the Lord woo hallelujah hallelujah if you and I do not live and come to grips with meeting God in the real place now that that's why repentance is so wonderful is because you don't really repent until you say Lord I did do it it is me this is where I am and God says you know what I like that I think I'll pitch my tent right where he's making an open confession but the the devil always deals in pretense and fantasy how many people you know are always making statements like if only I was not born the way I was born or what if that is Plastic Fantastic that's where the devil lives no that's like getting on a Magic Carpet

somebody wants to get away from that which is real and God says no you're going to come back here if you want the supernatural now if you want the glory if you want the glory God says you're going to operate out of your weakness but you're going to have to come out of my strength to get the work done I thank God for what I feel in this house today I said I thank God for what I feel in this house today hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah praise God praise God praise God I'm I want to give you just a little bit of evidence of what I'm talking about God seems to use men that were so as a modly crew is all I can think of greatest man in the Bible when you're teaching spiritual leadership is a man Moses this man had an incredible call there's two Covenant communities in the Bible Moses Covenant Community and Jesus Christ when Jesus said Upon This Rock I will build my church my Ecclesia my called out ones he was speaking in contradistinction to Moses and the called out children of Israel out of bondage because Moses was the leader of the progeny of Abraham and brought them out he wrote a lot of the Old Testament and was greatly used of God and considered probably one of the greatest historical leaders of Israel and by us I might add as being a tremendous leader but when God appeared in Exodus 3 to Moses and began to speak to him there in the desert through that burning bush and Called Moses listen the first thing that Moses did was he looked at his own limitations and hearing the voice of God having Supernatural evidence that he's being called but the first thing he did was look at his own limitations and said Lord I don't know that I can do this but I I I I don't think that they will even receive me and the Lord listen he adapted himself God adapted himself to the limitations of a human being and said you know what I'll do I'll give you some signs that'll confirm and there will be evidence of your call throw down the rod pick it up sck your hand in the bosom pull it out and all of these and then Moses moved a little further and looked at his his limitations he said you know Lord even with all of this evidence that you've given to me I still can't talk I'm so slow of speech I got the southern draw no no it's not that but I'm so slow of speech and he makes the statement even talking with you Lord look how slow I am the Lord could have said you know if you're going to be like that why don't you step over here I think I'll find somebody else but he had called Moses and instead of him walking away from the man's call he said within the frame work of your limitations I'll adapt myself and I'll give you a mouthpiece amen we're going to have Revival brothers and sisters I'm telling you we're walking through the Harvest field but I believe we've got to go back and say you know what I may be weak but God says that's the place that I need to be it's to recognize I can't do it in my own strength in my own limitations but God you can get the glory out of this clay pot and you can see the mighty works of God done through me and God will be worshiped and praised Hallelujah be seated please amen amen amen he came to Gideon and of course you know what he was doing hiding there threshing wheat in the wine press Angel appear on the edge hollers down old Mighty Man of Valor had to he looks up he talks with the angel and the Lord says you're going to be used to be the judge what did he do same thing he said I can't do that he comes to the god in prayer and he says Lord I know that I've talked to an angel but I I want you to give me a sign and put water on this fleece and nothing

else around and God did it God adapted himself that is so beautiful to me God adapted himself to this man's limitation instead of getting angry God says you know what I I know your limitations and I'm glad you're confessing them because that's exactly what I want to hear I don't want toar here somebody that's strong and wise and Noble that thinks they can handle this thing but if they'll yield to me I will get the glory and I'll give you the power and you'll be blessed and so will my people be blessed Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah in fact in the light of 1 Corinthians 1 I'm not so sure but what that was the reason God chose those men I believe it's God's purpose to press every man to the realization of his own weakness and preparation to be used of God because if there's one thing that stands between God and man it's the strength of man if there's one thing that has to go to the cross it is our own strength let me give you one more and this is very important and that is in John 21 here Jesus is pressing another man again to the recognition and admission of his own weakness he is pressing the Apostle Peter you know his background he was a strong man even in his own evaluations he was a good fisherman he was mouthy that probably made him a good fisherman but he he had a lot of self-confidence and the Lord began to push him at one time he thought he would could be the Lord's counselor and another place he said Lord they may all leave you but I will die for you now listen if he said I will die that's a covenant loyalty Covenant loyalty I won't go there but that's important Jesus looks at him and says Peter before the cowls you'll deny me three times and Peter probably left not me Lord not me so later when he was confronted with his own weakness and his own fear and failure and above all else his disloyalty to the one he had been the first to confess was the Messiah Peter was so crushed he became so disillusioned and felt he had disqualified himself as a disciple I doubt he still considered himself as being a discipline follower of the Lord and probably that's why that Jesus said to Mary go tell my disciples and tell Peter make sure he knows I want to see him too Jesus had several encounters with his disciples and this is one of the last he's talking with them now and I want you to see what he says he turns there to this dis illusion this mixed up this hurtful disqualified feeling person and he said Peter do you love me the word there of course is the word Agape the Lord chose that word I don't think that word could be understood outside the context of a covenant because it's a covenantal word it's not just loving somebody as an emotional thing but but it is a volitional thing amen you will find that Agape is something that is tied closely with Covenant faithfulness and so when the Lord looks at this man and says Peter do you Agape me at one point you made grand statements about your loyalty to me Peter do you have that much loyalty and Peter changes the word word now and basically says Lord at one time I thought I did in that meeting when the spirit was flowing and the worship was so good I thought I could do anything you wanted me to do I committed my life to you Lord with obedience I want to do that I would God that I could be Covenant faithful but you know when you saw what I just did Jesus the most I can say is I I fil oh you I have fond

affections for you but I don't know that I can be covenantal loyal and faithful it might happen tomorrow again I didn't know I had the capacity inside of me to fail you the way I did and since I have seen that I don't know if I can fully obey you the Lord pressed him further let me ask you something what if Peter would have been your pastor before the Lord did this what if he would have been your preser or your superintendent a man that was this strong and strong willed and could coers and and run over people amen but the Lord knew what was there and he pushed him further Peter do you agapy me Lord I would that I could tell you that I wish I could but no the most I believe I can say is that I have found affections for you and notice this Jesus Jesus became flexible and adapted to this man's limitation and he used the very word that Peter was using and said Peter do you feto me he said Lord that's the most I can say and the Lord said that's good enough I'll take you right where you are because at this point you have just learned an important lesson that you're are going to have to operate out of your weakness that my strength may come into you because if you had operated out of your strength you would have led people with that strength and coerced them and dominated them you have put more on them than and demands on them than they could have ever accomplished you would have beaten them down but now out of an awareness of your weakness you're ready to feed my sheep and to lead my church I wonder if we could stand right now I wonder if we could give the Lord worship and praise today God I can make that confession to you I know there's an exchange of life where your life flows in more reality to me if I can embrace my own weakness Hallelujah come on let's love him just a little Hallelujah out of our credentials of weakness and foolishness we're going to have the greatest Revival because when it's all through God is going to have been all in all aren't you glad today aren't you glad for that