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What’s Right with You – 2 – Shift From Weakness to Strength
**WHAT’S RIGHT WITH YOU Bumper
Welcome to Redemption Church of Plano, TX. My name is Chris Fluitt!
We are in the Good News Business.
What’s right with you (Title)
Not – What’s wrong with you.
Studies show…
People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs and three times more likely to report having an excellent quality of life.
God uniquely created you to be different and to make a difference.
Today – Shift from Weakness to Strength
We must KNOW our strengths…
We must FOCUS on strengths…
See strength.
Not focus on flaws.
Timmy’s Report Card
What subject will we encourage Timmy to focus on?
Science – Timmy almost failed. We must spend more time on science.
English – A little more work and you will raise that to an “A.”
Teachers and parents are focused on the flaws…
Timmy learns to focus on flaws.
What about Timmy’s strengths?
Our education system is not focused on increasing strength, but mitigating weakness.
What about your report card…?
How many of you are focused on your weaknesses?
…feel like you’re just not good enough?
The Weakness Trap – Fix Focus
Our culture – obsessed with fixing what’s broken.
Self-help industry – $10 billion market in the U.S. alone.
Advertisements bombard us – the message, how we need to improve, change, and fix ourselves.
-Cover blemishes with this makeup…
-Wear this automatic AB BUILDER EXTREME belt… turn your gut into extreme abs.
-Hey loser – you have this problem… but our product.
On the job – are you focused on strength or weakness?
Think of your last staff meeting…
It is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease…
The friction is where our attention and resource is focused.
What keeps you up at night? Thinking about weakness or strength?
In the family home – Mom and Dad what was your last conversation about? Probably a problem…
Here’s the thing: Jesus never told us to obsess over our weaknesses.
Matthew 25 “Parable of the Talents.”
Talent (Greek – talanton) – Worth about 20 years of a day laborer’s wage.
A master gives 3 servants talanton – bags of money.
Matthew 25:15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
Why? The master wanted them to invest and increase. Fruitful & multiply.
How did the master decide who to give what?
“Each according to his ability.”
The decision was made according to STRENGTHS… not weakness.
What can we learn from this?
The master (God/Jesus) gave each according to ability.
-EACH: each one of us has received treasure from God.
-God distributes – Not everyone receives the same amount, and that is okay.
-God focuses on your strengths and “hires” you to work your strengths.
-God invests in your strengths and expects increase.
The servant with 5 talent bags of money – doubled the investment. They used their strengths to increase.
The servant with 2 talent bags of money – doubled the investment. They used their strengths to increase.
BUT the servant with 1 talent bag of money – buried the talent bag of money in the ground.
What does God think of us this?
Verse 26: “You wicked and lazy servant!”
God knew the ABILITY of this servant…
The Servant did not use their ability.
The Servant focused on weakness…
Are you using your ability?
Are you burying your strengths?
Are you focused on your weakness?
Strength Shift
God knows your abilities.
He created your abilities.
Your abilities are your God-given design.
Psalm 139:14: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
You are wonderfully made, right now.
NOT…
-when you get stronger.
-when you fix your flaws.
-when you accomplish some metric.
RIGHT NOW!
It is praise to God when you use your God-given strengths.
- Know your God-given strengths.
- Focus time and energy on strengths.
- Operating in weakness buries your gift.
We talked about LEARNED SKILLS last week.
Learned skills are important. But they’re not the same as your innate, God-given abilities.
BE CAREFUL not to let your God-given strengths become buried under learned skills.
Learned skills are you focusing on weakness and becoming better incrementally over time.
Your God-given strengths have more POTENTIAL & FULFILMENT than your learned skills.
Think back to the report card…
Timmy might learn the skills of Science and English and achieve an “A+” one day…
But perhaps Timmy has more potential and fulfilment in Math where he exhibits a gifting.
Focus on what God has placed in you already.
Real-World Examples
Steve Jobs: NOT a coding genius, but had an innate ability to see the big picture and inspire others.
Job focused on his strength, and well, you’re probably holding one of his company’s devices right now.
Mother Teresa: She wasn’t a skilled politician or a wealthy philanthropist. But she had an innate ability to love and care for others. She leaned into that strength and changed countless lives.
Nick Vujicic: Born without limbs, Nick could have focused on his physical limitations. Instead, he discovered his gift for inspiring others and became a world-renowned motivational speaker.
Strength Shift
These world changing people all had weaknesses…
They had learned skills…
But it is their God given abilities that made the difference.
We need a strength shift.
Shift from weakness…
Shift from learned skills…
SHIFT TO WHAT GOD has fearfully and wonderfully created you to do.
What are your strengths?
Don Clifton Strength Finder – 34 themes
Your strength is up here somewhere.
Strategic thinker?
Influencer?
Relationship builder?
Executor?
Here are my top 5 strengths…
-Woo (winning others over)
-Positivity
-Ideation
-Communication
-Strategic
The more I operate here…
Happier
More fulfilled
More honor to God
Better
Less stress
Look at my giftings…
I need the strengths of others to really fulfill my calling.
I really need people who execute.
I need to surround myself…
I need your strengths.
What if your key is not about fixing what’s wrong with you but embracing and developing what’s right with you?
Call to Action
#1 Stop focusing on Flaws.
#2 Identify one strength you haven’t been fully utilizing.
- Use that strength each day.
- Reflect on how it made you feel.
#3 Seek the creator.