[Mr. Tim Pebworth] Well, you know, for today, I guess I wanted to start out by telling you that, you know, I grew up in the church. And growing up in the church, there was a term that was not often discussed. And when it was discussed, it was really not considered a very good thing. And that was the term “self-esteem”. I mean, the first part of the word is self, right? So that kind of tells you maybe could be a problem. And a lot of times, self-esteem was kind of associated with modern psychology, and it certainly seemed to be kind of opposed to sort of a focus on God's support for us and His guidance and more kind of on us and looking to ourselves for our own strength.

But the problem with the term itself is that it tends to confuse these two things where we have the focus on self but also the need to esteem how God has given us talents and to honor those talents that He has given us. So a focus on self tends to exaggerate our own abilities. And esteem for God, and the talents He's given us tends to point us back to Him in terms of how we live. And so tend to be a little bit of a confusing term. If I think about all the people who got up here and played special music, you know, I really congratulate you because it takes a lot of courage to get up in front of a big group, nobody wants to mess up, and nobody wants to make a mistake that way.

And, you know, a lot of times, people will just say, "Hey, that's too scary. I can't do that." And, you know, to some degree, you know, we have to kind of go through that and we need to be patient with one another and so forth. But other times, some people can say no because that person is really focusing too much on themselves and their own insecurities, and it becomes about them. But if we focus on the fact that, as I said, that God gave us musical talents, maybe our parents invested in those musical talents with lessons, and now, here's our way of giving back. Here's our way of thanking God for the talents that we've been given, and thanking our parents for the investments they've made, and honoring God through these beautiful pieces of special music. Well, now, we have something that really speaks to God working in us.

And if we think about our society in general right now, the Apostle Paul wrote to his assistant, Timothy. And you don't have to turn there, but in 2 Timothy 3, in the first two verses, we have this prophecy of the end time where he says, "Perilous times will come upon us." And the first thing he says is that people will be lovers of themselves. And I think we see in our society this rise of the self and this misunderstanding of this term, self-esteem. And I think it's led to many child-centric families where, you know, it's all about the kid and what the kid wants and, you know, give them whatever they need and tell them they're special. And, you know, we tend to make fun of this, give them an award for getting last place and all these types of things. And it also kind of brings a rise to this thing that we hear more and more about, which is this term narcissism and narcissistic traits and so forth.

So we have this thing going on in our society and yet there's this strange paradox that as there's more and more discussion about these types of things, as we focus more and more on ourselves, we actually become more and more insecure. I mean, I think we see this, for example, in bullies, right? You know, a bully is a person who's got really deep insecurity somewhere, and so they're really overcompensating and they turn into a bully. And if they could just kind of get over whatever that is, they might actually be a nicer person. The paradox is that as we have societal pressures to focus more on self and this misappropriation of the term “self-esteem” I think it's leading people to feel more anxious about doing things, or saying things, or trying new things because they don't want to look bad.

People can feel and become terribly afraid of messing up, or doing the wrong thing, or not being accepted, and not realizing mistakes happen. We have this thing now called imposter syndrome. Maybe you've heard of it, imposter syndrome. It's this feeling that you don't belong, right? That you're going to get discovered for really who you are. And then when people really discover who you are, they're going to be like, you know, "You don't belong here, get out of here." And it's a real thing. And people become stressed out about it. In an article in The Guardian Newspaper from March of this year titled "Feel Better Now? The Rise of the Anxiety Economy," Eva Wiseman writes, "If the 1980s were the age of stress," and I'm looking at some friends from the '80s, "If the 1980s were the age of stress, this is the age of anxiety."

This is the age of anxiety, anxiety about body image, anxiety about fitting in, anxiety about not being on track to, you know, where we thought we'd be when we were 22, or 25, or 30, or 35, or whatever age, anxiety about really, frankly, whether someone will even love us. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America—and, yes, that's a real thing—the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, which tells you that if we have that society, this thing's becoming more serious. And I'm going to quote now, "Anxiety disorders are now the most common mental illness in the United States affecting around 40 million adults, almost 1 in 5." Now, one in five means if you just kind of look around you, okay, that means somebody, in fact, would have an anxiety disorder. Now, everybody's looking at me. I'm not the one that has it. Oh, maybe you're the one that has. Right?

And if I continue quoting, millennials are the most anxious generation. Now, you poor millennials, you can't get a break, can you? You poor guys. I'm just quoting. Okay? I'm just quoting from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. And so the question men often ask themselves, especially now in this kind of environment is "Do I have what it takes? Do I have what it takes to do whatever, to be whatever?" And the equivalent question for women is often, "Am I enough? Am I enough to be loved? Am I enough to be...?" And then you kind of fill in that blank. And this really touches on questions like, "Who are we becoming as Christians in our Christian walk? And are my priorities coming from a place of fear or from a place of love? Am I developing godly character and do the outcomes of my life reflect that character?" The outcomes being my relationships, my work, the ways I serve in church.

And if you want to know the answer to the question, "Do I have what it takes? Am I enough?" Well, I'll tell you the answer is, yes, you do! You do have what it takes. And the answer to that question is, no, you don't, you don't have what it takes. And that's very confusing, isn't it? Because a lot of times, society wants to stop by that first part, "Yes, you do. You have what it takes." But, you know, if you stop there, then we're back to the self. We're right back to the self, we're right back into that vicious cycle of anxiety. "Oh, okay. I do have what it takes, but I don't feel like I have what it takes. And I'm very nervous about that, and I don't want to screw up and then mess up and so forth. So I'm going to not participate in whatever it might be." And so God willing, hopefully at the end of this message, we're going to examine kind of the difference between these two types of things. And I tend to think that part of the reason that many of us don't step up to participate is because we're afraid and we're going to fall into the ditch of, "No, we can't. I don't have what I need. I don't have what it takes. I'm not enough." And we're going to deny God's power. We're going to deny His talents that He's given us.

Today, I want to focus on four tools, four tools that you can reach for when you need to confront insecurities when I need to confront insecurities. And with these tools, I hope each of us can make a breakthrough, a breakthrough where we can start stepping up to the plate, and we can start making commitments even if we feel the butterflies in our stomach and our palms a little bit sweaty. The title of today's message is, do I have what it takes, and am I enough? Do I have what it takes and am I enough?

Tool number one, invoke the power of God's name. Invoke the power of God's name as you align your ways to his ways. And that's kind of long, but I hope you just get the part about invoking the power of God's name. And this is the theme of our weekend here, our great creator, invoke the power of God's name.

I'd like you to turn over to John 14:12-14. We're going to see in this passage that Jesus Christ encourages His disciples with a truly amazing promise, one which we can claim at any time.

John 14:12-14 Let's read this amazing promise. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also and greater works than those he will do." That's an amazing promise. We believe in Jesus Christ. We are going to do the kinds of works that are described in the gospels, the types of works that Jesus Christ himself did. And not only that, we're going to do greater. It says, "Because I go to my Father," and then he follows it up and says, "Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the son." This is for God's glory that we have this chance to call upon His name and have Him do these things and help us. And it says in verse 14, "If you ask anything in my name, I will do it."

I'd like to tell you a story here that I think illustrates this personal story of when I first started my career in Silicon Valley. I worked 25 years in finance and accounting before I went into the full-time ministry about three years ago. And through a series of miracles and seven long years after graduating with a theology degree from Ambassador College, I got my MBA in finance, and I landed a job at Intel. And Intel was and still is the world's largest producer of computer chips. And at the time, it had about 45,000 employees. I think it has like a hundred and something thousand employees now. And I was employee number 10503345. And I'll tell you when I prepared this sermon, I didn't even have to go look that up. I still know what that number is, and I haven't worked there in like...well, I guess it's been almost 15 years.

I worked in building SC12 second-floor pole E4. And I didn't have to look that up either. I remember it. I felt like this tiny little cog in this giant machine, just this little person of no significance. I was a financial analyst. You know, I just kind of did my thing, and it was cubes. There were no offices, and there's still no offices there. So I just have this little cube, and I just do my thing, SC12 second-floor pole E4. And sometimes we feel that way, right? The world is big. We're just our little person here, and we just do our thing and, you know, nobody knows we even exist. But after about six months on the job, I received an urgent assignment that was passed down from the chief executive’s office, the CEO's office. The CEO at that time was a man named Andy Grove, and he needed something urgently.

Now, Andy Grove, by that time, had become kind of this larger-than-life figure. He, I think about six months later, was named "Time" magazine's man of the year for his contribution over his lifetime of mass-producing computer chips, which are in everything now, and they've completely changed our world. And he was this person who, you know, you'd see in the hall and he would almost kind of look straight through you. He was a very sort of impressive man. And I got a call from my boss at 9:00 a.m., and she was telling me I had to find this advertisement that he had seen and I had to get it to his office, get it to his admin that afternoon. And she told me that no one had seen the ad but Andy Grove. And I was only given a very vague description of what this ad looked like. I didn't know what newspaper or magazine it ran in. I don't know what country it ran in. I didn't really know anything except that it was in English. So I had that to go on, and that it said something about buying a computer and getting a free TV. That's all I had to go on.

I had like, you know, four or five hours to find this. And so here I was, this person who's going to...you know, just this view, I was this tiny little cog. And now, suddenly, I had this really impossible assignment in my view. "How am I going to find an ad somewhere in the world that I don't even know what it looks like? And it has this concept and what am I going to do?" And I was getting a little panicked. And as I formulated my strategy, I began to call people, people I didn't even know.

And again, I'm just a little financial analyst in the company, and an amazing thing started to happen. I would say to the person, "Hi, I have an urgent action required for Andy Grove to get an advertisement." And they would stop what they were doing, and they would help me. And within a couple hours, I probably talked to two dozen people, and they were all working on this with me. And after a little while, I could tell it was going to my head, "Hi, I'm Tim Pebworth. I have a urgent requirement from the CEO, Andy Grove." I mean, like I had power. I was like this little, tiny analyst, you know, SC12 second floor. And, you know, suddenly, you know, there's like anybody in the company, 45,000 people I could call and I could ask for help. And, you know, what I realized after a while was that, you know, there was power, there was power in that name.

And amazingly, by about noon, we found the ad. We found that ad. And I contacted the CEO's admin. And with relief, I sort of turned the ad over. Now, he needed it for something he was presenting to the board of directors. But yet, you know, if we consider the teaching here in John 14, you know, Jesus Christ doesn't want His name to be used like some magic spell or some incantation. That's not the point here. This is about His authority. This is about His authority and our decision to seek His will and live according to His authority and His power.

You know, if I had called somebody up and said, "Hi, I'm Tim Pebworth, and I'd like you to give me a raise," they wouldn't have done that. You know, I wasn't empowered to use the CEO's name to get a raise. I was empowered to use the CEO's name to accomplish a goal that the CEO had given me. And we have the CEO of the universe available to us. And all that goal has to do is just be aligned to what He wants, and He's going to give it to us. That's pretty amazing. That's pretty amazing for people who might be dealing with some anxiety or some insecurity about something.

Now, this is where a lot of people I think get hung up on, "Well, how do I know if I'm doing God's will? How do I know if what I'm asking is aligned to what God wants me to do?" That's where we tend to get kind of hung up on that. And, you know, I think what ends up happening is that we start getting into details like, "Well, does God want me to live in Ohio, or does He want me to live in New York? Or maybe He wants me to live in Texas. You know, maybe He wants me to take this job or that job." And I think, fundamentally, God doesn't really care about a lot of those details. What He's interested in is, "Are we reading the Word? Are we living by the principles? And are those things in accordance with the principles here, or are they not in accordance with the principles?" And after that, "Hey, you know, this is your potential. Go out and do something beautiful."

We have this amazing power at our disposal, and we have this book before us. And when those two things align, God just is going to open a door, and He's going to do something that we thought was impossible, just like I thought that assignment was impossible. I want to wrap up this point by turning to a memory verse in Philippians 4:13. And I say this is a memory verse. I think this should be on post-it notes in every church member home. If you want to, like, figure out something to put on your bathroom mirror, put this on your bathroom mirror and read it in the morning. Put this on your dresser mirror and read it when you get up and when you go to bed. This is one of those really empowering scriptures.

Philippians 4:13. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Now, when we know where our strength comes from, when we know where our power comes from, when we know what that power is to be used for, I think we can begin to comprehend a concept that sometimes we hear about called resilience. Resilience. What is resilience? Resilience is a word that is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. And it comes from the concept of something that can keep its shape. So, you know, when something is hit or dropped and it keeps its shape and it doesn't get busted in some way, it's called resilient.

There's a great quote on the Mayo Clinic's website on resilience. If you want to find it, you can go to the Mayo Clinic, type resilience, and search, you'll see it. It says, "Resilience won't make your problems go away, but resilience can give you the ability to see past your problems." And if you want to see the concept of resilience in the Bible, just back up two verses, just back up two verses and read verse 11 and 12. Let's look at that.

Philippians 4:11-12 "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." That's resilience. When we have gotten ourselves to that point, we can see past the difficulties that are in front of us.

And verse 13 is the follow-up to that. That's why he can be resilient because he knows that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. A lot of us have plans, and we're struggling through those plans, and we're trying to work through those plans, and we're trying to figure stuff out. But, you know, there's a great quote by Mike Tyson. You know Mike Tyson? Who knows who Mike Tyson is? You know who Mike Tyson is, heavyweight boxer. Mike Tyson once said, "Everyone has a plan until he gets punched in the mouth," right? That is just a little reality. Like, “This is what I'm going to do” BOOM “oh, what was my plan? I don't know what my plan was. It hurts."

This is what we're talking about here in Philippians 4:11-12. This is a very nice way of saying Paul has been punched in the mouth, and he keeps his shape. He is resilient because he knows where his strength comes from. This stuff is not easy. This stuff can be hard, and we can feel punched in the mouth as we go through this. But it is in those times when we find out where our true strength comes from. And it doesn't come from us, it comes from Jesus Christ and God the Father working in us through His spirit. As I said, anxiety and serious mistakes can come when we rely too much on ourselves, but the power to move mountains comes from a little tiny grain of faith, pure faith in our Heavenly Father. Invoke the power of God's name.

Tool number two, tool number two, take our insecurities to God and step up to the plate. Take our insecurities to God and step up to the plate. So I'd like to ask everyone here, what is your greatest insecurity? What is your greatest insecurity? And as you think about that, I want you to turn to Isaiah 6:1. We're going to read the first eight verses. And I want you to think about that insecurity and imagine that you are taking that insecurity and you are in the context of Isaiah 6:1. Let's read one through four.

Isaiah 6:1-4 "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. And the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two, He covered His face, with two, He covered His feet, and with two, He flew. And one cried to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of Him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.'"

Imagine you come before God in prayer with your greatest insecurity and this is the scene that is stretched out in front of you, the awesome power of God's might as you bow and kneel before him. And now Isaiah speaks in verse 5. And put yourself in this verse.

Isaiah 6:5 It says, "Then I spoke, I said," Tim Pebworth said, put your name in there. "Woe is me. I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

Now, if there was ever a place of anxiety, of insecurity, of fear of failure, this is it. It says he was undone. Now, that is such a crazy English term. You almost feel it, right? “Sink me. I'm undone. I'm undone.” Huh? In my margin, and this is what's written in my margin here, it says, "I am destroyed." The New Living Translation says, "I'm doomed." Okay. That's what he is talking about. Don't let that undone get in your way. I am destroyed. I'm crushed. It's over. I have no strength left. So we gained from the context here that Isaiah knew he was going to be called upon to tell the nation their sins. And like Moses, he felt that he was incapable. He had a problem with speech. And, you know, when we talk about our problem with speech, that's not like you just can't open your mouth. That's the brain saying the mouth can't open, and it happens. People have panic attacks. They can't get it out. That's what he's talking about. And he felt inadequate, not up to the task. He felt that the sins of the people and his own sins had cut him off completely from God.

And we can feel that way. We can feel we're not going to make it. And I've done some bad things, and God's not going to forgive me. And we can think, "I don't have enough. I can't do this. I'm a failure. I'm too old, I'm too young, I'm too skinny, I'm too fat, I'm too slow. I come from nothing." There's all these voices of doubt that come into our head and tell us we can't do these things. But look at the response in verse 6.

Isaiah 6:6-7 "Then one of the seraphim flew to me having in His hand a live coal, which He had taken with the tongs from the altar. And He touched my mouth with it. And He said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged.'" This is a precursor to the saving power of Jesus Christ. And our calling is first fruits. He touched Isaiah, and God can touch us. He can touch us in a place of our greatest insecurity. Isaiah didn't think he could speak. And He touched the coal on his lips, and He said, "You can do this."

To give us strength and power to walk straight through that insecurity, to accomplish something meaningful, this is called courage. This is called courage. And courage is the first step out of frustration, out of victimization, and out of hopelessness. And verse 8 then caps it off. It caps it off with a discussion of what I think God wants to hear from every single one of us.

Isaiah 6:8 "Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' And then I said,” That's your name in there. That's your name. And then Tim Pebworth said, fill in your name. "Here am I, send me. Here am I, send me." Now, it's like this, "Me, me, I want to do it. Send me." That's the message in there. I will do this. When we accept and embrace what God wants us to do, we connect with that power and he wants to provide us a quest, a mission, a purpose. And it doesn't have to be one of those sort of, you know, big things written in here, right? It might be. Who knows in the future? We talk about how the Book of Acts doesn't have an amen, you know, and these types of things, but it doesn't have to be at that level. It could be something simple.

Whatever we ask God, He will provide with His name. And yes, yes, yes, I have what it takes, you have what it takes when we're in this position right here. What is that commitment that you aren't ready to make? Let's pick up the phone. Let's ask for some advice. Let's schedule some time of fasting. Let's schedule some time of prayer, extra prayer. Let's be bold. Let's be serious about which way we want to go, whether it's baptism, going back to school, committing to a relationship, whatever it is. Let's be proactive in seeking the chance to serve in God's church. Even if it seems like maybe there isn't any place to serve or people don't want to let go of things, maybe we like to see them go, work with people in love. Just jump in, just start helping. Let's practice the way of give by having an outward focus, serving in our communities, helping others.

You know, last week in our local speakers' club during the table topic session, a question was asked, and you can think about this, "If you could have a remote control in life, and you had a choice between a pause button or a rewind button, which would you choose?" It's a great table topics, I think, right? Hmm, rewind or pause? Which would you prefer? You get the do-over, or you get a little more time to think? Well, you know what? I think in life, we don't get the do-over. That doesn't happen. But what I think is that a lot of us have pressed the pause button on our lives. We press the pause button because we're afraid, we're insecure. We aren't sure what to do. And it's time to press the play button again. It's time to move beyond the anxiety, beyond the insecurity, beyond the fears, and start imagining us in this scene in Isaiah 6.

God is going to touch you. He's going to touch you in a place of insecurity. He's going to help you in that place. And that's going to be okay. You might have heard a famous 19th-century philosopher. His name is Soren Kierkegaard. He's often quoted in church. He said once, "Life can only be understood backwards." That's why we want to press that rewind button all the time. We want to go back. "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." Take our insecurities to God and step up to the plate.

The third tool I want to share with you is: know thyself. Know thyself. Now, in more modern language, you might hear, "Get a clue. Would you get a clue? Come on." We can all be clueless from time to time. Now, I'm a guy. So I'm going to talk about me as a guy, and I'm going to talk about you as guys out there. A lot of times, guys, we can tend to be more clueless than the girls. Okay? We can tend to be a little bit more not self-aware, a little bit more bumbling along into things. Oh, didn't realize you had those feelings. Right? We tend to just not like...you know, we compartmentalize and those boxes don't touch. You've probably heard all those stereotypes.

Now, why do I think it's harder for men to get a clue? Why is, I think, it harder for men to know themselves? Well, I think it's because we tend to have a harder time having close guy friends. We're not as connective as women sometimes that way. In fact, there's an old joke and stereotype about women can meet each other touching up their makeup in a restaurant and then come out friends. Maybe you've heard that. That's a little extreme. Maybe the guys are like, "No, not me. I'm not going to do that." But let me ask you, we heard about an announcement about a women's weekend coming up, right? Women's weekend. How many women's weekends do we have? We have a lot. You know, the home office had to write code to smooth the registration process. There were so many. How many men's weekends do we have? Not very many, not very many. Very, very few.

So getting a clue means having a dialogue about the state of our lives, and women tend to do…they are really, really good at that, at least better than men anyway. Getting a diversity of opinions, inputs. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self." And I'm very encouraged because that tells me that even 18th-century men couldn't figure this out. Okay? Because, you know, like, even Benjamin Franklin has said this was hard. So let's turn over to Proverbs 20:5. And let's see something that I think is such an interesting insight that we're given here.

Proverbs 20:5. It says here, "Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out." And this is such an interesting verse, and there are different interpretations of what the Hebrew means here. But I think one of the primary understandings of this verse is described by the Good News Bible. So I'm going to read this to you from the Good News Bible. "A person's thoughts are like water in a deep well, but someone with insight can draw them out."

The Pulpit Commentary describes this verse this way, and I'm going to quote here, "The thoughts and purposes of a man are hidden in his breast like deep water in the earth, hard to fathom, hard to get, but a man of understanding will draw it out. One who is intelligent and understands human nature penetrates the secret and by judicious questions and remarks draws out the hidden thought." So men, especially, and women too, we need good friends who can help us understand ourselves, who can draw the things out of us, out of those deep waters, and help us process our thoughts and our emotions and our feelings. And until we can get a good look at something, what is that thing that I'm so worried about? Until we can get a good sense of what that is, what's holding us back, we can't really answer the question, "Are we enough?" Or whether we have what it takes because we don't even know what we're fighting against.

Let's look at an example in the Bible of someone who I think at this time in his life was pretty clueless. And that's Matthew 26:31-33. This is an example of Peter and an exchange that Peter had with Jesus Christ where Peter really just didn't know himself. And he didn't know what was going to actually happen. And let's look at this.

Matthew 26:31 "Then Jesus said to them," this is all His disciples, "All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night for it is written," and now He's going to quote scripture, "I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have been raised," verse 32, "I will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered and said to Him” in verse 33, "Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble." I will never be made to stumble. I have what it takes. I will not stumble. Did Peter have what it takes to follow through on his commitment? No way. He was in stunning self-denial. He was stunningly clueless about what he was capable of. He was going to be the perfect one. He was going to not make the terrible mistake that Christ was talking about.

And over the years, I've had a chance to work with business leaders in technology. And I have found one thing, whether it's CEOs or board members or venture capitalists, one thing, they don't suffer fools. They don't suffer fools. If Peter had been in that context, if he'd been at Intel or HP, they would've just asked him to leave the room. They don't have time for that. "Just please leave. We need to move on with things." But thankfully, God the Father doesn't work with us like that, right? Because we can be very, very foolish sometimes. And He is very, very patient with us. And so in verse 34, we see Jesus Christ's patience with Peter.

Matthew 26:34 "Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you that this night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." Christ knew in advance Peter was going to make mistakes. Why was Peter not enough? Why was Peter not enough? Because he contradicted God. He contradicted the scripture. Don't contradict God. That's a problem that is going to cause you to not have what it takes to be successful. Peter was relying on his own view, his own power. He was denying the inside of his boss here. He wasn't listening. He wasn't examining himself. He contradicted God.

How do we contradict God sometimes? Well, we contradict God when we think we can't make mistakes in life. Christ said all have sinned. None are good. Not a single one of us. Even after Jesus graciously tells him the truth about what's going to happen that very night, Peter continues to assert his own view and his own capabilities.

Matthew 26:35 “Peter said to Him, even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You." And then, you know, he's kind of rousing everybody else, and everybody else said the same thing.

Now, I talked about the guys a little bit, I'm going to talk about the women for just a moment. How many women walk around feeling like they have no value and yet we know that the all-powerful creator of the universe allowed His son to die that we might have life? When we think we have no value, we are contradicting God. Yet, I've talked to so many women, young and old, who spend most of their lives feeling worthless, unloved, or even worse, unlovable. God has bestowed. He has bestowed value on us. It doesn't mean we're perfect, doesn't mean we're not going to make mistakes. Peter's making a pretty big mistake here. It doesn't mean that we can't take the time to examine ourselves, but God has bestowed value. And it's for us to look to Him to unlock that value, that incredible human potential, which is a phrase that we used to use both now and in God's kingdom, know thyself, know thyself.

The fourth tool that I want to share, the final tool I want to share here is: be willing to be vulnerable and admit your mistakes. Be willing to be vulnerable and admit your mistakes. Now, I've shared before an insight that came during a discussion with a young adults' group in the San Francisco, Bay Area. And during this discussion, a woman spoke up and she shared something that I will never forget. She said, "I wish when a minister gave a sermon, that he would share his stories of success and failure." And as I was looking at her, you know, kind of like imagining like, "You want me to tell people my mistakes in a sermon that's recorded and put on the internet? That's what you want me to do?" Right? And she's like reading my face, and as she's kind of reading my face, she says, "Because for my generation, vulnerability is strength. But for your generation, vulnerability is weakness."

And, you know, I kind of could relate to that because, yeah, I don't want to tell you all my mistakes. You're going to think, "Well, he was pretty dumb. He's probably still dumb." I mean, that's what we think, right? Well, you know, learned behavior and so forth. Sharing a failure, sharing a pain, sharing a lesson learned is scary for anybody to do. "What will people think of me? Am I really going to, you know, come across like I've changed, or are they going to still think that I'm still that way?" That's vulnerability. And that's scary for just about anybody I know. But that was the young woman's point. This is a good thing. Vulnerability is strength, not weakness.

Let's see the Apostle Paul discuss this in 2 Corinthians 12 because I think he hits this point very powerfully. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul opens up to the Corinthians. Now, imagine, he wrote this letter, I don't know, to 100 people. I don't know. We have to see how many people were in Corinth. And it was read by thousands because these letters were circulated, and then eventually by millions and now by billions. There's like two billion Christians, people calling themselves Christian. So imagine he's sharing this openly.

2 Corinthians 12:7 "And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. Lest I should be exalted above measure." Paul is basically saying he would've had a pride problem, which is kind of like saying he has a pride problem.

That's vulnerable. He's saying, "I would have a pride problem because I've been given so much and it would go to my head." And so there is this thing that I prayed about, and we see here in continuing in verse 8.

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 "Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me, three times. And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'" The JB Phillips paraphrase, I think, captures this part very well. He translates the Greek here, this last part, "Where there is weakness, my power, that is God's power, is shown the more completely."

God showed His power through the tiny army of Gideon. God showed His power through the stuttering of Moses, and God showed His power through the physical weakness of Paul. It was God who was doing it, not Paul. And look what he says in the second part of verse 9.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 "Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches," and there's a list here. So we can't skip over this. This is a big list. "Therefore, I take power," excuse me, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Not only was Paul willing to admit his error. He embraced his physical weakness as a means of focusing his attention on his elder brother, Jesus Christ. This is an example for us. What if I could embrace my mental and physical infirmities saying that, "Because I have this problem, I'm going to engage and move forward?" Not in spite of it, but because of it, because I have this problem, I'm going to move forward and engage. And that's the reason I'm going to step up." It's not an excuse for not doing it, it's a reason for doing it. You know, when we read the scripture about Peter, I wonder what it would've been like if he would've said instead, "Oh, Lord, I had no idea that this was going to happen to me. All of us are going to abandon You? Oh, God, help me through this trial." Now, that would've been vulnerable. That would've been, "I'm capable of abandoning my God." That's vulnerable.

Instead, when Jesus spoke the truth about the sad state of affairs that were going to happen, and Jesus had invested in these people for three and a half years, and He was telling them now they were going to abandon Him, they were almost indignant. "Nah, not us," because vulnerability is weakness for them in that case. Having what it takes means seeking and hearing the truth about our skills and competencies, and that's scary. It's scary to have somebody tell us where we've messed up, where we don't get it, where we don't have the competencies we need. Learning from our mistakes means getting input, listening carefully, being vulnerable, having an honest assessment of our talents and capabilities.

And don't be deceived into thinking you don't have talents because you do, you have those talents. But that doesn't mean they're fully formed. That doesn't mean you're ready for prime time. It just means that they're there and they can be developed. Regardless of the leader, learning from our mistakes, having a mentor, and constantly seeking input are markers of people who have what it takes. And you will be enough. You will be loved. You are worthy of it, and you will love others, and you will serve God in powerful ways. This is about a changed heart. This is about who we're going to become. Peter wasn't listening to the input, wasn't receiving that guidance from his master. He wasn't assessing his own capabilities honestly. And he apparently had not learned from his previous mistakes, and he wasn't making himself vulnerable.

You know, it took me 15 years working in my field before I landed my first chief financial officer role. That's the top finance role in a company. It was for a medium-sized private company. We had about 5,000 employees. We had revenues of about $50 million a year. And in the first six months of my new job, I had one of the lowest moments of my career. The previous CFO had been involved in the creation of a hedging instrument. Now, that's a little complicated. That's basically something that allows you to make sure you don't lose money when you're working in foreign currencies. And we had to manage the dollar and the Philippine peso and so forth. It was a large client contract. And the contract was, not necessarily flawed, but it was incomplete. And I had been involved with it, and he had been involved with it. And so, you know, we had both sort of not really caught this.

And when he left and I took the job, I didn't catch it. And the error required us to pay $5 million in hedge losses. Literally, write a check for $5 million. Now, that's not something you want on your first big job to make a mistake like that. Hey, that's called a career-ending move. That's bad. And we had the angel investor in Google on our board of directors. Now, an angel investor is somebody who if...they're called an angel because they're going to invest in a company knowing that they may never get anything out of it, or they may end up being highly successful with it. So it's very binary. Either they're going to lose everything, and most of the time they do, and once in a while, they're going to hit it big like Google.

So he was the angel investor in Google, and he was on our board of directors. And that year, he had been named to the Forbes top 400 billionaires list. So this guy is a billionaire. He's one of the kings of the earth here. And I was attempting to explain...I'm in a board room, and I'm attempting to explain this error, which is a little bit complicated because it's into hedge accounting, and that's even hard for accountants. And he is in his office somewhere, and he's on the phone, and he's listening, and I'm going through, and I'm attempting my best to explain this. And he just stopped me, and he just yelled through the speaker phone, "Tim, how could you have allowed this to happen?"

Now, when that happened, I just wanted to crawl under a rock and die. I got a billionaire yelling at me because I'm an idiot. That's bad. So I wanted to go home. I mean, really, I wanted to just walk out, I wanted to go home, I wanted to be with my wife, I wanted to be with my kids. I want to pretend this is not happening. So I did what I learned in the church. Even though I felt at that moment like I didn't have what it took, I did what I learned in the church. I told the truth. I admitted my mistake. That's called repentance in religious terms. This wasn't repentance, but, you know, I was in secular terms, and I took personal responsibility to fix the problem. And I said simply, "I take full responsibility for this error, and we will get it fixed." The CEO declined my resignation. And over the course of the next three months, we corrected the error, including getting a bank loan because we really didn't have the $5 million to use for that. So we got a bank loan for it.

And what I want to share with you from that story is that being vulnerable means you are ready to hear the worst criticism of your biggest insecurity at the worst possible time and just move on, and accept it and move forward and knowing that you can put yourself in God's hands, and you can still be in the safest place. See, I wanted to go home and be with my wife because that's a safe place. But you can be in God's hands. That's the safest place. You're in God's hands. And if you can take that and move through it and be vulnerable in that moment, you have what it takes. You have what it takes because God's hand is not shortened. God's hand is not shortened. Be vulnerable and be ready to admit your mistakes.

Self-esteem can be misunderstood and so misapplied. And the next time you need to confront self-doubt and insecurity, I hope you can reach for one of these tools, invoke the power of God's name, take our insecurities to God and step up to the plate, know yourself and be willing to be vulnerable, and admit our mistakes. Each of us can make a breakthrough. Each of us can make a breakthrough and move forward with godly confidence. God has given us His name. He's given us talents to use in His service. He's given us the power of His Holy Spirit and an intercessor, Jesus Christ, to intercede on our behalf. Do you have what it takes? Are you enough? The question now is for you to answer.