[00:00:09] Welcome to Gracious Words.
[00:00:11] Gracious Words is taken from the weekly women's Bible study taught by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
[00:00:28] Timothy struggled with fear and insecurities.
[00:00:42] On today's program, we'll see how Paul encourages him to rise up and be the leader God was calling him to be.
[00:00:49] Now here is Part 1 of Cheryl's message titled, Enabling for Leadership.
[00:01:19] So when it comes to being called by God to lead, do you ever feel daunted?
[00:01:28] The task is too overwhelming.
[00:01:31] Now remember, this is how Timothy was feeling.
[00:01:33] The obstacles are too great or the enemies are too strong and the enemies are too vocal.
[00:01:42] Do we let the enemy disqualify us?
[00:01:45] Do we let the devil say what we can and can't do?
[00:01:49] Do we let the voices of those who hate us limit us in what God is calling us to do?
[00:01:58] Do you ever feel inadequate?
[00:02:02] Not educated enough?
[00:02:04] Like, Lord, this is not where my education was to lead me.
[00:02:07] My education was for children to be a teacher.
[00:02:12] Or I'm not experienced enough.
[00:02:14] I'm not strong enough.
[00:02:15] I'm not eloquent enough.
[00:02:17] I really, I use the wrong words.
[00:02:22] Not tough enough.
[00:02:24] Lord, I don't have that hide of a rhino.
[00:02:28] Have you ever felt like asking God to get someone else?
[00:02:33] Father, can you just, she looks really good.
[00:02:37] When we were in Vista, when the call would get kind of hard as a pastor's wife, remember,
[00:02:42] I'm like 23 years old.
[00:02:44] I'm doing Bible studies.
[00:02:45] And Brian got a couple of letters of complaint.
[00:02:48] I will say that they were from a girl who wanted to be his wahini instead of me.
[00:02:55] But I remember saying, you know, Father, if she'd be a better fit, you can take my life.
[00:03:01] If she's the right one, because she said she was, and I'm the wrong one for him.
[00:03:07] And I said, Brian, I prayed.
[00:03:08] He goes, do not pray that.
[00:03:10] I don't want her.
[00:03:12] I want you.
[00:03:13] I'm like, why?
[00:03:14] I mean, she even said she's better.
[00:03:16] She put it in a five-page letter.
[00:03:19] I mean, this woman literally had five reasons why I should not be Brian's wife or the pastor's
[00:03:25] wife of the church.
[00:03:26] Five reasons.
[00:03:27] They were pretty good as I read over them.
[00:03:33] Have you ever thought, Lord, you could find someone so much better than me.
[00:03:42] You could find someone who is more righteous, stronger, less baggage, right?
[00:03:51] More talented, more personable.
[00:03:56] Oh, I see those personable people, and I want to be personable so bad.
[00:04:02] But I'd just rather watch the personable people.
[00:04:06] Smarter?
[00:04:07] Definitely.
[00:04:08] More gregarious?
[00:04:10] You know, it's so funny.
[00:04:11] My mother-in-law will call me, and she'll say, hello, Cheryl.
[00:04:15] I wish I could be more gregarious.
[00:04:17] And I said, Carol, I wish I could be calmer.
[00:04:22] More organized, more eloquent, younger, older, less busy, more experienced, professional.
[00:04:37] Moses had a similar issue when God called him.
[00:04:41] You can read about it in Exodus chapter 3 and 4.
[00:04:46] When God began to call Moses, Moses hadn't even been in Egypt and among the people of God
[00:04:55] for 40 years.
[00:04:56] Like, I haven't seen them in 40 years.
[00:05:00] They don't even know me anymore.
[00:05:02] I'm out of touch.
[00:05:04] I'm so irrelevant.
[00:05:07] He hadn't been under the burden that they were feeling.
[00:05:11] He'd been working for his father-in-law.
[00:05:15] Now, that seems like a disqualifier right there.
[00:05:18] Working for his father-in-law for 40 years.
[00:05:21] He didn't have his own company.
[00:05:22] He didn't have his own job.
[00:05:24] He was just relying on what his father-in-law gave him to do.
[00:05:29] He was married with children.
[00:05:32] He was settled in, and he was settled down.
[00:05:36] His occupation was a shepherd, which was considered an abomination to the Egyptians.
[00:05:44] Like, Lord, I'm a shepherd.
[00:05:48] Maybe you said that.
[00:05:49] Lord, I'm a mother.
[00:05:51] Not even a good one, but I'm a mother.
[00:05:54] Especially, I'm a mother of teenagers.
[00:05:57] They don't like me.
[00:06:01] He had been on the backside of the desert.
[00:06:04] When God called him by name, Moses, Moses.
[00:06:10] You think about it.
[00:06:12] Have you ever thought somebody was calling your name?
[00:06:14] And you wait for that second one, right?
[00:06:16] Like, did I hear my name?
[00:06:18] And then you're like, no.
[00:06:20] And then they say it again.
[00:06:22] The other day, I'm like in the mall, and I hear somebody like saying, Cheryl.
[00:06:27] And I'm like, no, I did not hear that.
[00:06:30] Cheryl.
[00:06:31] And I'm thinking, no.
[00:06:34] And I walk out, and this guy follows me out.
[00:06:37] And I probably would have turned around, but he looked a little scary.
[00:06:40] So I just pretended I wasn't Cheryl.
[00:06:43] But two times points to the certainty.
[00:06:47] It's definitely you, Moses.
[00:06:49] And then the Lord said, Moses, take off your shoes.
[00:06:55] This is holy ground.
[00:06:57] The call of God is holy.
[00:07:02] We can't do it in our own sandals.
[00:07:05] We can't do it with anything between us and God.
[00:07:13] It's holy ground.
[00:07:15] God identified himself with all those that Moses esteemed.
[00:07:19] Think about it.
[00:07:20] I mean, here are these heroes, the patriarchs of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
[00:07:28] And God says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
[00:07:36] And God told Moses what he had seen, the oppression of Israel, that he had seen it and that he had heard it.
[00:07:43] And he's saying, Moses, I want to show you what I see.
[00:07:48] And I want you to hear what I hear.
[00:07:52] And I want you to feel about these things, what I feel.
[00:07:57] Then God promised to be with Moses.
[00:08:00] I will be with you.
[00:08:02] And God gave Moses his plan of action.
[00:08:05] I'm going to send you to Pharaoh.
[00:08:07] I'm going to plague the land.
[00:08:09] I'm going to lead you out with the whole company of Israel to a land flowing with milk and honey.
[00:08:15] Here's God's call to Moses.
[00:08:17] And in chapter four, we get Moses' answer.
[00:08:21] God, that's a great plan.
[00:08:24] Choose somebody else.
[00:08:26] Because maybe you don't realize I'm nobody.
[00:08:30] I'm a desert dweller.
[00:08:32] I don't know anybody.
[00:08:34] I don't have a name among those people.
[00:08:38] Why me?
[00:08:40] I have no credibility or authority with these people.
[00:08:44] In fact, I've been canceled.
[00:08:46] I'm not eloquent.
[00:08:49] And I've never been eloquent.
[00:08:50] I'm a very slow speaker.
[00:08:54] I've never been accused of that.
[00:08:56] I think my problem would be, I'm a very fast speaker.
[00:09:00] Please send somebody else.
[00:09:02] And God's answer to Moses was, I made your mouth.
[00:09:05] And I will put my words in it.
[00:09:08] I just need a mouth.
[00:09:10] I just need a mouth.
[00:09:13] I'll do everything else.
[00:09:14] I'll move it.
[00:09:15] I'll speak through it.
[00:09:17] And again, God says, I will be with you.
[00:09:20] But I'm going to send your brother with you.
[00:09:23] I think we've all struggled with feelings of inadequacy.
[00:09:30] Those things that disqualify us.
[00:09:35] But disqualifications or inadequacy are no reason.
[00:09:40] To decline the call of God to leadership.
[00:09:44] Because it's not about you.
[00:09:49] As much as it's about God wanting someone to use.
[00:09:54] It's about God having a work to do.
[00:09:59] And calling you into it.
[00:10:02] In 1 Timothy 1, 12 through 20, Paul encourages Timothy to answer the call to leadership by,
[00:10:10] first, proclaiming again to Timothy the enabling power of God for leadership.
[00:10:18] Secondly, by restating God's prerequisites for leadership.
[00:10:26] Thirdly, by Paul citing his own disqualifications.
[00:10:31] And how God turned it around to use it for glory.
[00:10:36] Fourthly, the power of God who is the one who is called.
[00:10:41] Fifthly, the prophecies are words of God spoken to Timothy and over Timothy.
[00:10:48] And finally, the purpose and need of leadership.
[00:10:54] Reminding him of that.
[00:10:56] I don't know about you, but sometimes in response to the call of leadership,
[00:11:02] I feel like those used items in Amazon.
[00:11:08] You know that?
[00:11:09] Like when you don't want to pay full price for an item,
[00:11:11] it will show you like others that are used.
[00:11:14] And it will say like acceptable, you know, pages are torn or it's missing some pages
[00:11:22] or no cover on the book or gently used or has some wear and tear,
[00:11:31] some scuff marks, but works fine, readable.
[00:11:39] The Lord has purchased us just as we are, not for what we bring to the table,
[00:11:46] but to showcase his marvelous grace through us.
[00:11:51] The more wear and tear, the more disqualified,
[00:11:55] the more people are forced to see Jesus in us.
[00:12:00] As Paul remarks in 2 Corinthians 4, 7,
[00:12:04] that they have to see that God has put his treasure in earthen vessels
[00:12:09] so that he gets all the glory.
[00:12:13] Honestly, I think the Lord chose my dad for that reason.
[00:12:17] My dad honestly did not have a cool bone in his body.
[00:12:22] It was not like you'd see Pastor Chuck and go, he's so cool.
[00:12:26] You just wouldn't.
[00:12:28] He actually did not surf on a surfboard when he would say, you know,
[00:12:32] Pastor Chuck surfs.
[00:12:33] He surfed with fins on an inflatable raft.
[00:12:37] I remember when he was going to take me surfing and I was so excited
[00:12:40] and we went down to Huntington Pier and we rented those rafts.
[00:12:45] Remember those rafts that were made out of fabric?
[00:12:47] That's what he did.
[00:12:49] He did those fabric rafts.
[00:12:51] But when boogie boards came out, he became the boogie board guy.
[00:13:00] My dad never cared about being cool.
[00:13:03] He just didn't care.
[00:13:05] He had a chipped front tooth until he had to get all caps
[00:13:09] because all of his teeth were bad.
[00:13:11] All of them.
[00:13:12] He didn't even eat that much sugar.
[00:13:13] He didn't chew bubble gum.
[00:13:15] But he just did not have strong enamel.
[00:13:21] And talk about not being cool.
[00:13:23] He was raised in a thoroughly Pentecostal, Bible-believing,
[00:13:28] evolution-rejected, unabashedly Christian home.
[00:13:33] And that was his whole environment was church.
[00:13:38] They were the family that was at church every time the doors were open.
[00:13:42] They were the family that invited the guest speaker over to their house
[00:13:47] for a roast on Sunday afternoon.
[00:13:51] They were the type.
[00:13:53] My grandmother taught Sunday school.
[00:13:55] My grandpa was, in whatever church play was going on,
[00:13:59] my grandpa was one of the main characters.
[00:14:02] He was one of the magi.
[00:14:04] He played Herod.
[00:14:06] He was the innkeeper.
[00:14:08] Just this was his specialty.
[00:14:11] They were a thoroughly Christian, almost isolated, insulated home.
[00:14:20] My dad knew very little about the world or worldliness.
[00:14:26] He even went to a Christian college.
[00:14:29] He didn't understand hippies at all.
[00:14:32] He didn't get them.
[00:14:33] Like, why would you not want to work?
[00:14:36] My dad loved to work.
[00:14:37] He would work two to three jobs.
[00:14:39] He thought work was wonderful.
[00:14:43] He had no regard for guitars.
[00:14:46] He didn't even like the way they sounded.
[00:14:48] He's like, can't you pick it or make it more melodic?
[00:14:52] He played the piano, and he could only play one song,
[00:14:56] which was Autumn Leaves on the piano.
[00:14:58] And he could do the front part of Joy to the World.
[00:15:00] He was like, look, Cheryl, joy to the world.
[00:15:03] He could do Joy to the World.
[00:15:05] He could do that part.
[00:15:05] He was a good old boy from a good old family.
[00:15:13] He never took a drug, not even aspirin, in his whole life.
[00:15:19] He never had wine.
[00:15:21] In fact, if he smelled it at communion, he didn't drink it.
[00:15:25] Or any type of liquor.
[00:15:27] He never even went to the movies.
[00:15:29] I was with my dad at his first movie experience, and he felt guilt.
[00:15:35] We went to see The Bible with George C. Scott.
[00:15:39] And then emboldened by that movie, we saw Ben-Hur.
[00:15:43] Yet when the call of God came to him, he said yes.
[00:15:48] He said yes.
[00:15:50] The call was 40 years in the making.
[00:15:53] Before that time, he was transferred from one church to another.
[00:15:58] When I was in kindergarten, and I went to two different kindergartners,
[00:16:02] one kindergarten, something like that, classes.
[00:16:06] One was in Corona, and then one was in Newport Beach because we moved.
[00:16:11] By the time I was five years old, we had moved six times.
[00:16:14] I had lived in six or seven different houses.
[00:16:18] By the time I was five years old, because my dad kept being transferred from church to church.
[00:16:25] He usually had to work two jobs other than the pastorate to feed his family.
[00:16:30] He worked construction, boat cleaning, mobile home cleaning, butcher, gardener.
[00:16:36] In fact, the country club golf course on Santa Ana Avenue,
[00:16:42] I don't know how many of you know where that is,
[00:16:44] that huge golf course between Santa Ana and Newport Boulevard.
[00:16:47] He used to mow it with a hand mower.
[00:16:50] He was the man out there mowing the lawn.
[00:16:55] He didn't even golf.
[00:16:57] Somebody gave him a set of golf clubs.
[00:17:00] He never even golfed.
[00:17:05] This was who he was.
[00:17:09] And he didn't even really want his kids mixed up with hippies.
[00:17:12] But when God said yes, he said, all right, Lord, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:17:22] He didn't even know who the Beatles were.
[00:17:25] Even when my brother said, these are the Beatles, he's like, Bucks?
[00:17:30] I mean, he did not know the Beatles.
[00:17:34] He never even listened to a Beatles song in his entire life.
[00:17:39] He wouldn't have even recognized one if he heard it.
[00:17:42] But this thing he did, he said, yes.
[00:17:47] Yes, whatever, Lord.
[00:17:49] I'm yours.
[00:17:50] Do whatever you want.
[00:17:53] See, the call is about what God wants to do.
[00:17:56] And it is a call to partnership with God, to simply be used and enabled by God to serve
[00:18:03] with God.
[00:18:05] It is not our work, but his.
[00:18:11] So we begin in verse 12 with God's enabling grace.
[00:18:15] I love this scripture.
[00:18:16] And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful,
[00:18:27] putting me in the ministry.
[00:18:29] Who enabled Paul?
[00:18:31] The Lord.
[00:18:32] How was Paul able to be in the ministry?
[00:18:35] The Lord.
[00:18:36] What qualification did he bring?
[00:18:39] Faithful, holding on to the Lord.
[00:18:42] Ultimately, leadership is all about the call of God.
[00:18:45] What God wants to do.
[00:18:47] And simply saying yes and then following orders.
[00:18:51] Jesus does the rest.
[00:18:53] Those who refuse the call of God, know, find someone else, will never feel or sense the power
[00:19:03] of enabling grace.
[00:19:05] There is nothing like doing something by enabling grace.
[00:19:12] Nothing like it.
[00:19:14] I still remember the thrill of having my training wheels taken off my bike.
[00:19:20] Because I had never ridden on two wheels before.
[00:19:23] It had always been those four.
[00:19:25] As they call them in England, stabilizers.
[00:19:28] And I remember my dad was holding, because it was banana seat.
[00:19:31] Remember the banana seats with the bars in the back?
[00:19:34] He was holding on to it.
[00:19:35] He was running along with me.
[00:19:36] He said, you're doing so good.
[00:19:37] You're doing so good.
[00:19:38] And I'm like, am I still doing good, Dad?
[00:19:40] Am I still doing good, Dad?
[00:19:44] And I hear this voice, way to go.
[00:19:47] And I'm like, and it dawned on me, I don't know how to ride a bike.
[00:19:53] And that's when I crashed into the telephone pole.
[00:19:56] But there was that elation of doing it.
[00:20:00] Like, I'm actually peddling, and I'm not falling over.
[00:20:04] Again, tell the telephone pole.
[00:20:07] But there is this ecstasy, this divinity that is poured into us that is the power of God.
[00:20:18] In 1 Corinthians, the very last chapter, Paul said, you're always looking for evidence that God is working in your midst.
[00:20:28] But I'm telling you that God wants to be mighty in you.
[00:20:34] You see, we're always looking like, is God working?
[00:20:37] Is he working?
[00:20:38] And God says, I want to work.
[00:20:40] I want to make you the miracle.
[00:20:43] I want to work through you so you can say it's not me.
[00:20:49] It's God's enabling grace.
[00:20:51] And you can testify to other people, you can do this.
[00:20:54] Because it's what God does, not what I'm conjuring up.
[00:20:59] There are those who will always live in their comforts and their expertise and only what comes naturally.
[00:21:08] But God is calling us way beyond ourselves, way beyond what we feel comfortable doing,
[00:21:15] to a place that we can only do what we do by the enabling grace of God.
[00:21:24] This is the grace that God talked about in 2 Corinthians 12, 9.
[00:21:28] That grace that is sufficient for all things and even manifested in our weakness.
[00:21:36] It gets stronger the weaker we are.
[00:21:40] It gets better the worse that we are.
[00:21:46] There is nothing like God's enabling grace.
[00:21:50] I asked you to pray at the conference, for the conference I spoke at, the Ablaze conference,
[00:21:56] the one that was like with all of the music from the Jesus movement.
[00:22:03] I asked you to pray.
[00:22:05] I didn't want to speak at it.
[00:22:07] I kept praying for COVID, even though I've been inoculated.
[00:22:10] Just a really good excuse not to go.
[00:22:13] I told God all the reasons that I wasn't the right person to speak at this.
[00:22:19] Greg Laurie went before me.
[00:22:21] He is polished.
[00:22:22] He's professional.
[00:22:24] He's packaged.
[00:22:26] And me?
[00:22:27] He had notes.
[00:22:28] He's so good.
[00:22:30] Oh, give me.
[00:22:31] He's so dynamic.
[00:22:32] And I'm sitting there and all I'm getting is more and more intimidated.
[00:22:36] Like, why?
[00:22:37] Why me?
[00:22:37] And I'm asking God for something.
[00:22:40] Like, Father, give me anything.
[00:22:43] I got one phrase.
[00:22:45] Hong Kong flu.
[00:22:47] That's all I got.
[00:22:49] I'm like, show me.
[00:22:51] Is there a story I can tell?
[00:22:53] Father, it's going to be me.
[00:22:55] Give me something.
[00:22:57] Hong Kong flu.
[00:22:58] It's like, seriously?
[00:23:01] Give me something.
[00:23:03] Hong Kong flu.
[00:23:06] Next thing I knew, this girl said, I get up there.
[00:23:11] And this man's introducing me.
[00:23:13] And he's like, I've heard that you do a podcast.
[00:23:19] I'm like, yeah.
[00:23:21] I heard that you.
[00:23:23] And, you know, I'm supposed to say something like, yes, it's on.
[00:23:26] And I'm like, yeah.
[00:23:28] Up in front of everyone.
[00:23:29] Yeah.
[00:23:30] I heard you read your Bible every day.
[00:23:32] Yeah.
[00:23:34] Heard you do a women's Bible study.
[00:23:36] I'm like, I'm smiling.
[00:23:38] Because that's what I do when I'm nervous.
[00:23:42] Yeah.
[00:23:43] And he goes, and you have something to share.
[00:23:47] Yes.
[00:23:51] You know what?
[00:23:53] During the 60s, we didn't have COVID.
[00:23:56] We had a Hong Kong flu.
[00:23:58] We didn't have global warming.
[00:24:00] We had the ozone.
[00:24:02] We didn't have Afghanistan.
[00:24:04] We had Vietnam.
[00:24:06] Oh, my goodness.
[00:24:07] All of a sudden, it just started flowing.
[00:24:09] And like in the 60s, they were so scary.
[00:24:11] We have people hijacking.
[00:24:13] Now we have terrorists hijacking.
[00:24:15] We had the same thing.
[00:24:16] But God broke through.
[00:24:17] And he began to speak and meet people and give us these wonderful, transforming testimonies.
[00:24:23] And I was mesmerized by what Jesus could do.
[00:24:27] Timothy was like a son to Paul.
[00:24:35] So Paul wanted to encourage him to embrace the call of God upon his life.
[00:24:40] Paul used the testimony of his own life as an example.
[00:24:44] Often the call that God puts before us is uncomfortable or way beyond what we think we can do.
[00:24:49] It's so important to remember that it is a partnership with God.
[00:24:54] And our part is to say yes.
[00:24:56] As we obey, we allow God's grace to enable us and to do the work through us.
[00:25:02] We hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study.
[00:25:05] For more information about the Gracious Words radio program and the teaching ministry of Cheryl Broderson,
[00:25:10] please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:13] Coming up next time on the Gracious Words program, we'll look at God's enabling for leadership
[00:25:18] as we continue our series, Letters to Lead, Live, and Love By,
[00:25:23] in the first epistle to Timothy with Cheryl Broderson.
[00:25:26] We do hope you make plans to join us.
[00:25:28] Again, for more information, please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:40] We will fall and surrender.
[00:25:48] We surrender.
[00:25:52] This program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
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