Testing Our Weakness
Christian discipleship requires us to test our weaknesses, trust in Jesus, and follow Him even in the face of challenges.
Herbert Henry Farmer emphasizes the importance of aspiring to the highest ideals and continually testing ourselves through lofty professions, like Peter stepping out in faith onto the water. He highlights the folly of fearing failure and maintaining a worthless consistency out of egotism, urging instead for a generous impulse to learn through defeat and grow in self-knowledge and knowledge of Christ. Farmer stresses that true conviction in Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life comes from facing life's challenges with Him, beginning with a plunge into Christian discipleship and a grand experiment of trusting Him.
Text
"And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water"
(Matt. 14:28).
None of us knows what his weaknesses and his powers are, nor how exactly life will test them; but it is quite certain that we shall never know what they are, nor will life's tests teach us anything, unless we aspire to the highest that we know, and are continually testing ourselves by the most lofty professions. To shut out ultimate success through fear of interim failures, to maintain a worthless consistency by the miserable expedient of walking always along the mud flats, to fail in nothing because you had promised nothing, that is a folly which is only explicable on the ground that it springs from a narrow and calculating egotism. Far better always is the generous impulse, which, like Peter, says, "I will, I am able," and then goes out to learn through defeat a deeper knowledge of self and a deeper knowledge of Christ. And how can anyone know with fully proved conviction that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, before he has gone through the whole of life in His company and faced all its worst challenges with Him? Christian discipleship always must begin in ignorance; or to put it in another way, it must always begin in a sort of plunge, a grand experiment. Something draws us to Him and we risk our lives upon Him. There is only one way to prove Him trustworthy and that is to trust Him. We do not ask of anyone to do more than make honest experiment of Jesus. Our faith in preaching Him is that, if Jesus is fairly given His chance, He will be able to make triumphant use of it.
Sermon Outline
- The Importance of Testing Our Weakness
- The Generous Impulse
- Proving Christ's Trustworthiness
- We must trust Him and give Him a chance to prove Himself
- Faith in Jesus is the key to His triumphant use of our lives
Key Quotes
“To shut out ultimate success through fear of interim failures, to maintain a worthless consistency by the miserable expedient of walking always along the mud flats, to fail in nothing because you had promised nothing, that is a folly which is only explicable on the ground that it springs from a narrow and calculating egotism.” — Herbert Henry Farmer
“Something draws us to Him and we risk our lives upon Him.” — Herbert Henry Farmer
“There is only one way to prove Him trustworthy and that is to trust Him.” — Herbert Henry Farmer
Application Points
- We must be willing to take risks and trust in God, even if it means facing challenges and uncertainty.
- Faith in Jesus is the key to His triumphant use of our lives, and we must be willing to give Him a chance to prove Himself.
- We must not let fear and self-preservation hold us back from following God's will and pursuing our true potential.