Joseph Prince - What To Do With Your Weaknesses
Friend, just keep on confessing who you are. The devil wants to define you by your habit. The devil wants to define you by your failures. Yes, even your recent failure. The devil wants to define you by your sinful thoughts, but that's not who you are. You're still on a journey. But the fact is you have been made the righteousness of God. The moment you are born again, you are born the righteousness of God and you need to confess who you are. And when you confess that, who you are will overcome what you do. Amen. Praise the Lord.
Always remember this principle: Who you are is your standing. What you do is your state. Sometimes you are depressed. Okay? Sometimes you are sad. Sometimes you feel rebellious. You want to rebel. Sometimes you feel good, you want to do something good. But that is your state. Your state fluctuates. Your standing doesn’t. Your standing remains forever. Who you are is the righteousness of God. That is your standing. Never judge your standing by your state. Your state fluctuates. It can be good. It can be bad another day. Okay? But your state doesn't define who you are. Your real person, your standing. That is permanent. Always judge your state by your standing. Look at your sins square in the eye. Don't deny it! Don't excuse it. Look at it and say: "This is not who I am. I am not a resentful person. I'm not an angry person. I'm not a depressed person. I'm not a fearful person. This is not who I am. I am the righteousness of God in Christ".
Judge your state by your standing. Never let the devil tell you that you are your state, that your state defines you. Never judge your standing by your state. And it's something we need to remember every day. So once again, grace is supply. Law is demand. So why was the law given? It tells us: "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound". Wow. You don't hear that preached often in many seminaries. And it's just like they pass by this line very fast. Because for many of us, if the truth was known, we don't fully understand this. And we are afraid to preach it because we might be misunderstood. Because we ourselves are misunderstanding this truth. "The law entered that the offense, the sin, might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more"!
So we see where sin "pleonazo", where sin increased. The word there "abound" for "sin" is not the same word as "grace abounded". It is a different word! Again, two separate Greek words. "Where sin abounded" is the word "pleonazo", which means you can quantify it. "Increased". It is actually the word for "increased", increased. "Where sin increased". Now watch this, the other word for "abounded, grace much more abounded". This word here is "huperperisseou". "Perisseou" is already overflowing. "Perisseuo" is to fill your cup until the cup keeps on overflowing. "Perisseuo" is more than "increase". You can quantify "increase". But for "perisseuo", you cannot quantify it. It is like the stars in heaven. No one can count them. Except God. "God telleth the number of the stars". It’s like the dust on the ground. No one can count them. Things that you cannot quantify. This is what the word "perisseuo" is used for. And it's used for the idea of something overflowing. But then, the word "huper" in the Greek is added to the word "perisseuo". "Huperperisseou".
Now, "huper" is where we get our English word, today, "hyper". So in other words, it's already overflowing. "Perisseuo" is already overflowing, but "huper" is on top of it. It's added on top of it. On top of what? It is added on top of the overflow! Wow. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. So where sin increased: location. Where sin increased. Look at your own life. Where sin increased. Where there was the greatest difficulty in that area, right? That is the area God's grace superabounds. Amen. "Even in the area of weakness, My grace is sufficient for you for My strength is made perfect in weakness". Right? God said that.
My challenge has always been, even in secondary school, I would stutter and stammer for as long as I can remember. I'm always stuttering and stammering and I can't even string a sentence together. Don't talk about standing up and giving a speech. So the teacher will come into our class and always make me stand up and make me read for the sheer joy of seeing my ears turn red and the girls in the class laughing. And I felt so ashamed of this weakness that I had. But when I got born again, I didn't know much about my inheritance in Christ. But I did tell the Lord. And I felt pity for the Lord in a sense that I felt that He didn't get much when He saved me, I felt like He couldn't do much with me because of my stuttering. And I told Him I stuttered. I stuttered a lot and I don't think I can even share the gospel with the people You want me to share with. And I never dreamed that I would be standing in the pulpit to share His Word one day. "But just to share with a friend, I don't think I can do it". I told the Lord. "So if you don't mind, Lord. I will serve you in other ways. But anyway, Lord," I said, "I give you my whole life, plus my stuttering. Plus my weakness". And the very area of my weakness.
To define sin is actually falling short. The very area of my falling short, that's the area God's grace superabounds And sometimes it superabounds, man I just want to go on and on. But don't worry. I have the time, the clock right in front of me. So I'm gonna let you off. But I'm saying that the grace is so superabounding that many a times, you just feel like being borne along by another, the wonderful Holy Spirit. And I feel like that sometimes. And I know what this verse is saying. But if you preach like this, won't people say: "Well, you're saying where sin increased, grace superabounds. You're encouraging people to sin". Now that's logical reasoning, right? That's a logical conclusion, but it is logical. It is from the human mind. It is not divine. It's not divine logic. It's not divine reasoning. Look at this verse. It is because of this verse: "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more".
I just feel like I want to stop here and tell you this. Look at the stories in the Bible. David had so many sons, more than 10 sons. But of all the sons, who did God choose? God chose the one from Bathsheba, Solomon, to become king. Where? Of all the women or the wives that David had, of all the sons that he had, more than 10, who is the one that God chose? The one who came from Bathsheba. Now, who is Bathsheba? The lady that David committed adultery with. Now we are definitely not saying: "Commit adultery, and then grace will superabound". Neither is the apostle Paul. But he's saying: "Where there is sin, and the sin increases," Where? The location. "Grace superabounds". If we look to the Lord! Instead of being downcast, looking at our sin and saying that our sin disqualifies us, and there's no hope for our future, we look to the Lord! And that's what David did. Even though he sinned against God. Right? He looked to the Lord and you know what? From that woman, same woman. Of all the sons, God chose Solomon to become king. Amen.
Who was the one among the 12 disciples that denied knowing Jesus? Who was the one, with cursing and swearing, he denied he ever knew the Lord. Peter! Three times, he denied knowing the Lord. The same mouth that denied the Lord. A few days later, because he turned to the Lord, God used the same mouth that denied Him. Just a matter of days, God used that same mouth to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the Day of Pentecost. Hallelujah. And we have it written down in the book of Acts, his entire sermon. And the Bible says 3000 people were saved. Hallelujah. That's the mouth of grace, people. Come on. Amen. When the law came on Mount Sinai, 3000 people died. Now grace is being proclaimed. Where? At Mount Zion. When grace was proclaimed on the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit was given, not the law. When the Spirit was given, what happened? 3000 people were saved. The law kills, the Spirit gives life. Hallelujah.
Instead of looking at your weakness as a minus in your life, and you wish that you never had this weakness or you are feeling depressed over your weakness or over your sinful habits. Perhaps you have a sinful habit, that doesn't seem to be able to break. Have you ever rejoiced in the superabounding grace that covers the entire situation because you have that weakness? You have something that no one else had. That's superabounding grace in that area. And if you receive the superabounding grace, your testimony will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
And people will say: "Are you sure that is the same girl that had those fears? She was so bold today when she shared God's Word"! Are you sure it is the same man that was hooked on drugs? And we have so many testimonies of people partying and being addicted to drugs. I shared some of that in the past few weeks. If you go to JosephPrince.com and our praise reports, you can read it at your leisure. So many people bound in addictions and sinful habits, especially pornography, today, they are clean. Hallelujah. They are sanctified. They have no desire even. And that's a testimony we keep on hearing because true deliverance is not wanting something. But you are no more doing it, it is not even wanting it. Hallelujah.