Leadership Is Part 1 – Inadequacy
Pastor Scott Applegate
Sermon Notes:
Like Jacob, We All Walk and Lead with a Limp:
- Walking is a figure of speech to describe someone’s relationship with God
- A leader is anyone who has someone following them
- The leaders limp: Past failures, present fears, and persistent pain
“…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. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV
Other Leaders who have limped:
- Moses: Committed murder; huge inferiority complex
- David: Committed adultery and murder; he was betrayed
- Peter: Talked big talk but did not walk the talk
- John Bunyon: Struggled with fear and anxiety
- Charles Spurgeon: Battled deep depression
- Billy Graham: Struggled with doubt
- __________________: ________________________________________
How to Let God Use Your Inadequacy:
- Let God have your shame
“No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame…” Psalm 25:3 NIV
Shame says: God’s response:
“I am damaged” “I will heal you”
“I am dirty” “I will wash you whiter than snow”
“I am incompetent” “I will give you wisdom”
“I am unwanted” “I created you”
“I am weak” “In your weakness I am made strong”
“I am hopeless” “I will give you hope”
“I am unlovable” “I sent My Son to die for you”
- Let God move you from “broke-ness” to brokenness
“The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17 NLT
- Let God shine through your weakness
“For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.” Philippians 4:13 NLT
- Let God use your story
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV
“It’s good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.”
C.H. Spurgeon