00:00Hello everyone, this is William Chambers and it's so good to be here with you all today
00:03to look into the Word of God. Let us get right into it. Today if I had a title for
00:10this message
00:11I would call it Stop Hiding Your Past. God Wants to Use It. That title right there just gets me
00:23excited. Stop hiding your past. Oh everybody has a version of themselves they don't want to talk
00:30about. Lord knows I got a version of myself I don't want to talk about. They want to push it
00:34away.
00:35They wish they could erase it. I don't want nobody to know about it. A version of us that made
00:41decisions that hurt people. A version of us that failed God. A version of us that failed ourselves.
00:49The world teaches us to hide our weaknesses. Oh don't expose your flaws. Cover them up. Only
00:58present strength like you got it going on and that you're powerful and like like you're nice neat and
01:03packaged up and I've always been this way. That's what the world teaches us. But what if I told you
01:09today God doesn't erase your past because he wants to use it. Let us get into the text today. Paul
01:18is
01:18speaking. He says this and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made
01:24perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of
01:31Christ may rest upon me. Paul is talking about the perfection of God's power showing through weakness.
01:41Human weakness. Human weakness. Human failure. God works his best not through our strengths. We
01:48naturally think that God can work through our strengths our abilities and all that but God
01:52works best through our admitted weakness. When we present just our strengths and our abilities
01:58and all that before people it hides God. Oh but our weakness reveals what he can do. Oh when I
02:08was weak
02:08look at what God did in my life. Oh when I was a failure look what God took me from.
02:15He took me from that
02:16to this. Oh look at the power of God. God wants men to see the contrast between who we were
02:25and who we are
02:27now. Uh what do I mean by that? That glorifies God's transformation in our lives. It shows men the
02:36power of God in our lives. Paul he persecuted churches. Paul destroyed churches and and God turned
02:45him into an apostle and a preacher. When Paul told us about his past we could more appreciate what God
02:51did
02:51in his life. Therefore Paul says I I most gladly therefore glory in my infirmities because the
02:59power of God rests upon me. Because you can see the power of God working in my life when you
03:04see what I
03:04once was and what God has taken me to. Oh God. What am I talking about? I once knew a
03:11man who was an addict
03:12and he was so honest. He was a believer and he was an addict and he would tell me when
03:16he would struggle
03:17and what he would struggle with and it was heinous. But I always looked at that man and said if
03:23God
03:24can take an addict that did these things and he can make him into you. Oh it made me think
03:31that God
03:32can use me. God's using that man over there. Oh man that word man's a lot worse than me. Nah
03:38he really
03:39wasn't. But that man's a lot worse than me that God can use me. The power of God was resting
03:44on that man
03:45in my eyes. God spoke through that man. I seen the the transformative power of God on a man.
03:54Ah help us today. Weakness is not something that we're supposed to hide at all costs. Ah no no no
04:01we
04:01think that we're supposed to hide the weaknesses. Don't tell nobody about my past what I've done and
04:04all that. Oh but no no our weaknesses are to be yielded unto God. What about yielded so God can
04:11use it
04:12in wisdom. There are some people in our lives that God wants to use our paths. We shouldn't be just
04:17uh uh acting perfect and like we got together. No. God actually brought me through that.
04:25That used to be me. Quit denying everything and acting like you wonderful. No. Yeah yeah yeah. Now I'm
04:32saying use the wisdom of God and all this. Not blabbing everything to everybody but surrender and yield
04:37your uh weaknesses unto the use of God. So he can use them in the lives of other people. So
04:44that so
04:45men know it wasn't you. Uh there's no other explanation but except God stepped in. So that
04:50people know that I can't explain this gentleman's story except for God. Ah the power of God. When you
04:57feel weak don't look at that as a failure. Ah but look at it as an opportunity for God's grace
05:05to show
05:05strong in your life. When you look at your past and your failures. Look at that as that's an
05:10opportunity. God you brought me from that stuff. Oh I'm not gonna do that anymore. That's not me
05:16anymore. God get some glory. Use that in somebody else's life. Show your power in the lives of other
05:22people. Praise be unto God. Your broken places are where God wants to show his strength. Oh quit. Let's be
05:31honest. Basically what I'm saying is let's start being honest. Quit acting like you didn't do all
05:35that stuff. Praise be unto God. But what if they leave me? What if God already knows everything about
05:41you and he chooses to stay and pour himself into your life? Oh let God use your failures. God chose.
05:50He
05:50said he knew everything about you and still chose to stay. You don't have to live in fear that one
05:58day
05:58I'll be exposed when God has already seen you. And God says I'm right here. I ain't went nowhere.
06:06Meaning you can be honest and still love. I'll just go ahead and be honest. God already knows.
06:12And beloved let God use you. Ah your identity is not your past but it's in the grace of God.
06:23Ah
06:23it's in what God has done. Ah the enemy wants us to use our past to silence us. Shut up.
06:30Go sit your
06:31butt down somewhere. Who you think you is trying to get up here and do anything? Zip it. But God
06:37wants
06:37our past to become a very testimonial that shows his power. Speak up. Get out there. Yes you messed up
06:45and I want to use it. Oh glory. Let me calm down so I look sophisticated. What once brought you
06:53shame
06:53can now be used to point people to the grace. Look at what God has done. Oh God his strength
07:06can be made
07:07perfect in my weakness. People always bring up your past. But grace writes stronger than your past.
07:16Uh what am I trying to say? Paul was persecuting the church destroying the church. But we don't know
07:21Paul as a persecutor. Not really. That's not what we really we know him as the greatest of apostles.
07:27Oh that went from town to town city to city and spread the gospel in a powerful way. We know
07:32him as a man
07:33used mightily by God more than we know him about about him being a persecutor. Uh why is that? Because
07:39grace speaks louder in your life. Uh let the grace of God look at what God has done. Let that
07:45speak
07:46louder in your life than what you did. Uh you no longer saying I am enough. Not relying on what
07:52I've
07:52done. I'm not enough. I'm saying that God is enough for me. He brought me through. I wasn't enough.
07:59Oh I messed that up. I screwed it up. I wasn't enough. But God is enough for me. Praise his
08:06holy
08:06name. Uh the power of God in your life should become the greater story. The greater story of
08:13your life shouldn't be what you did. Not your past but God's glory in your life. That's let that be
08:17the
08:17greater story in your life. When you accept the power of God in your life you stop trying to appear
08:25perfect. No no no you need to see who I was. You stop trying to appear perfect. You can actually
08:31be
08:31honest and still be loved. You are not broken to the point where God can't repair you. You're not too
08:38guilty and too far gone that the power of God cannot work in your life. Oh you're not too far
08:45gone
08:45and not too guilty. In fact those very that very guilt that very brokenness that very sense of not
08:53being enough. Ah is the exact place where God wants his power to be seen the clearest. I want my
09:01power to
09:02be seen the clearest in your broken spots in your where you didn't have it all together where you
09:07screwed it all up. I want my grace to be shown. Quit hiding your past. Oh when we speak of
09:14our past and
09:15wisdom God gets the glory. This text speaks directly and powerfully to people who carry shame regret and
09:24guilt and fear about their past. Tells them to stop hiding it. Let God use it. In Jesus name I
09:31pray and say amen.
09:45Amen.
09:46Amen.
09:48Amen.
09:53Amen.
09:56Amen.
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