We are in second Corinthians chapter four verses seven through 18. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together?
Second Corinthians four seven through 18. But we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we, which live, are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you, for all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory.
While we look not on things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For things which are seen are temporal, but things which are not seen are eternal.
Father, thank you again for your holy word. Thank you for for a biblical perspective, reality, the truth, that we as Christians are called to suffer, that you've called us.
You've appointed us under suffering, that we might fill up the sufferings of Christ, that we're not weird, we're not different, we're not strange, we're not condemned.
When are the circumstances of our life are against us, when there's pressure against us, when we become a target of evil, wicked and evil people, wicked and evil principalities and powers that seem to wanna torment us and get us to quit.
Lord, that's the normal Christian life in the first century church.
And Lord, I don't know how, we ever reached a point where, people would think that responding to the gospel means their best life now. But Lord, there's so many that are approached in that way. The gospel being sold in such a way.
So Lord, I pray for a reality check today, that as we see how you suffered, how the apostle Paul and the disciples suffered, and how you turned it around to a triumph, you turned it around to glory, that it's not an evil thing, in and of itself.
But, God, you're able to be glorified. You're able to use these things in our lives and to reach many people with the glorious good news of your coming kingdom.
So strengthen us from within. Give us the faith, the courage, the substance, Lord, that we can feast upon you today.
We don't want the cotton candy. We need you. We need you to be our strength today, Lord. So help equip the saints. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please be seated?
Paul is combating the accusations of the false prophets. The false prophets are taking teeing off and taking hits against him. They're contending to, the church of Corinth with the apostle Paul spent eighteen months planting.
But, these false prophets come on through there and they begin to say, well, you know, Paul, he's always in trouble. He's in jail. He's getting beaten. He's ugly. He's weak. He's poor.
He just doesn't look like a winner to me. And, why is all this happening? If your gospel is so great, if your good news is so great, what kind of good news is that? And so is suffering really God's will? What good news is suffering?
So Paul responds by showing the Christians a Christian is destined to suffer in the Christian life and that, although our outward man is perishing, our inward man is being renewed day by day as he's gonna finish up here.
And so he says it's a light affliction. Well, if you look at Paul's list, where he lists the types of suffering he's gone through, it's not a light affliction, you know.
Being stoned, being beaten with rods, imprisoned five times, you know, beatings by robbers, bandits and all. Just constantly, you know, in trouble.
And the Lord appeared to Paul in Acts chapter 18 and said, Paul, I've got many people in this city. The church of Corinth was a vicious city, ungodly city. He just had a huge amount of difficulty fighting with beasts in Ephesus.
Three Years he spent planting the church in Ephesus, and they're all into great as Diana of the Ephesians. Ultimately, later, Stephen, who he had passed the church onto, would be beaten to death in the city of Ephesus.
So it wasn't a real, you know, fun place to be, and yet there was great fruit, great amounts of people coming to Christ in the courage of that.
You know, this is a guy that could be stoned at Lystra, be left for dead, and the people standing around him in a circle. And when he wakes up, he doesn't he doesn't put his thumb in his mouth and say, you know, I want my best life now.
He gets back up and he walks into Derby, Lystra, Iconium, preaching the gospel. So he's probably got a lot of swelling in his face and disfigurement, possibly.
And he doesn't quit. He goes right back in. And then he gives him a promise, letting him know the reality, the cost of being a Christian, that we, through much affliction, we through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.
That's the reality around the world today in places like Iran and China and other places that are antagonistic toward the gospel.
The danger we have in America here is being indifferent, insipid, lukewarm, and lacking power, lacking the, power of the Holy Spirit that actually transforms and changes lives. That's the danger we have.
It's just an insipid, lukewarm, lay of the sea and people rule kind of an existence. And, we will do anything and everything we can to avoid suffering. We won't even open our mouth because we're afraid somebody might laugh at us.
If I share the gospel with this family member with these people, oh, they might laugh at me. So So you're gonna be silenced because a guy at work or somewhere might mock you and laugh at you.
Now many of you are very, very courageous, and I hear your stories of how you open your mouth and how you share the gospel. And you go away rejoicing that you were counted worthy to suffer, you know, for his namesake and such.
And that's how we see the early church rejoicing, understanding the privilege of, being a target of the wicked one, because we fight not against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities of the air.
And if they can use people to mock and ridicule I mean, peer pressure, the likes on Facebook and all that sort of thing is very, very powerful. Most of us want to be liked. We want to be, we want to have friends.
We don't want to be the enemy or or made out to be the weirdo, the one person at work that everybody whispers about and such. And why they whisper? Because you go out to your car and read your Bible.
You go in the break room and read your Bible. You don't like their dirty jokes. You you try to, you know, share the good news of Jesus, the prophecy and the excitement of what God's doing with Israel and all.
And, you know, you have a very small audience in many cases, people avoiding you, ostracizing you, making you the the weird one.
So Paul demonstrates that the Christian life is a triumph, not a defeat. Suffering only sets the stage for God to reveal the supremacy of this treasure.
This treasure that we have in earthen vessels. These bodies, God fashioned Adam from the dust of the ground. And these bodies are likened to clay pots. And this clay pot is filled. Clay pot intrinsically is worth nothing, this pot.
Absolutely nothing. There's no value. And that's how the world that's how the devil looks at you, valueless. You have no value. You're just worthless eaters, Klaus Schwab would say, or Noah Yuval Harari. You know?
And we gotta get rid of you useless eaters. You know? We're gonna use the Department of Government Efficiency to reduce the population as as much as we can because it's too much load on the system to continue to provide for everybody.
That's their objective. That's a demonic thesis. That's a demonic vision, if you will. And, Jesus doesn't look at you that way. Although your intrinsic value is out of dust of the ground, the dirt of the ground, you're not gold.
You're not silver. You're not lithium. You're just clay. Just clay. Very common mineral, you know, very common dirt everywhere. But in the hand of the potter, if he fashions you and makes you into something, you could be very valuable.
Right? But if if the devil comes along and whoops on you and breaks you and cracks you and you're nothing but a cracked pot, you know, and that cracked pot the cracked pot, they take and they throw over into the potter's field.
The potter's field that was purchased with the precious blood of Jesus.
Right? 30 pieces of silver, that's all they valued him at. And Judas came and betrayed Jesus. And, for 30 of silver, the price of a slave, of a gourd slave is all they valued him.
And Judas thought, man, I can force Jesus to overthrow the Romans and all that. I can force him. I can put him in such a situation that he's gonna demonstrate his power and overthrow them and all.
And in the Garden Of Gethsemane, we see that the Lord, although he's the target and he took the abuse, the disciples were protected in that way.
But ultimately, Judas realized, as Jesus said, betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss, friend?
Really, Judas? And he came to his senses and he went back and with the 30 pieces of silver and he threw it at the feet of the religious leaders.
And they said, what is that to us? In Matthew 27, what is that to us? You know, we don't care. And they took the money back, and they said, we can't put it back in the treasury, because they're real righteous dudes, you know.
They're gonna plot to kill Jesus, assassinate them, but they're such righteous dudes that they can't put that 30 back in the treasury.
So we're going to buy the Field Of Achaldama, the field of, you know, of a cursing to bury strangers in. Strange people. And so what they bought was the potter's field.
So the pottery, the guys that would fashion clay pots, if they had a crack, if they could get away with it, they'd take a little bit of wax and try to cover the crack, and then be able to take it in a very dark room and sell this vase to somebody and get a buck out of it.
But if it's a big crack, then they're gonna have to just take it and throw it over in that field. So there's shards and shards and shards of broken clay pots in this field, A worthless field.
Right? You can't plow it. You know, you can't grow food there or whatever. So it's just a worthless field. Well, we'll buy that worthless field with these worthless lives over there.
That's how they viewed Pot. I can put your life back together. I can, I can, I can make you valuable because I'm going to live and dwell within you? And And now your valuable, you know, is your price, your value is is off the charts.
And so this treasure, how do we triumph over trials and reveal this treasure? Number one, by yielding to the power of God. We don't have the power. We don't have the strength.
A lot of us are being broken and broken and broken throughout our lives. We have little seasons where everything's working, but then there's a season coming. You know, you just get out of one, you go into another.
Whether it's your kids, or your marriage, or your job, or your health, life's tough. It's difficult. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
This word treasure, what's the treasure? It's verse six. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
God wants to shine forth from you. God wants you to reveal his face, to reveal who he is to those who are living in darkness, to those who are cast aside as being worthless.
And the devil's thumping on them. The devil uses people, and then when he's done with them, he throws them away.
He tries to destroy their minds, to destroy their homes. He's come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. In contrast to that, Jesus said, but I've come that you might have life, that you might have it more abundantly.
The life of the spirit, the life of the holy spirit living and dwelling within us, and leading and guiding us into the intimacy of knowing God, of knowing Jesus, and walking in the power of the holy spirit.
So our lives become a revelation of who Jesus is. Jesus lives and dwells in the life of the believer. The believer's life serves to reveal Christ.
So you remember last week, we talked about the Greeks that came to Philip, sir, we would see Jesus. Where is this treasure found? In earthen vessels, clay pots, jars of clay? Why would you secure something very valuable in a piggy bank?
You go to Mexico, and my mom used to go down there and she used to get all these clay pots, tons of them. And, she used to decorate oh, excuse me. She used to decorate all around the house with these plants and everything.
And, beautiful, beautiful clay pots everywhere, outside, inside, everywhere. And, one tragic story is when I came home one night, these clay pots were all out in the street, and except one spot.
There was a spot there where my dad's truck was. And, she must have really went off on him, because she started taking clay pots, throwing it at his truck.
So these broken clay pots were all out front there and and, just a little story. But, we have broken homes, broken relationships, all sorts of brokenness in our lives.
And, what's what's God gonna do? How is he gonna put Humpty Dumpty back together again, you know? And you come to Christ, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are passed away.
All things are become new. And now there's value. Now there's purpose. Now I know who I am. I know why he's made me. He's made me that I might know him. That I might know him and enjoy him for all eternity. You know?
I don't know where I fit in within the body of Christ, but I soon discover, you know, what it is to worship, to lift my heart in song unto him, to study his word. And then the desire wells up in my heart that I wanna serve the Lord.
How can I serve you, Lord? How can I how can I be used of you? You know, and you begin to pray about that and and look for ways to serve and serve your family and serve others around you and all.
And, and there's there's such a sense of fulfillment in, being filled with the Holy Spirit and allowing your life to be a conduit that the Lord fills and overflows into the lives of others.
And you become addicted to it. You just love serving Jesus. You love, that he's there, that you're not an orphan, that you're not having to go it alone anymore.
That, you know you've got your your quirks, you've got your problems, you've got your cracks, you've got your difficulties, but, the Lord has begun a good work in you.
And as you yield to him, glorified in and through you with your attitude.
You're not a whiner and complainer anymore. You're not entitlements and all that. You're just blown away that he would save you. Why me? Why would you save me? And so our lives become a reflection of gratitude, of thankfulness.
And, and this treasure, as we said, in a just a just a clay pot, why would you entrust that sort of a of an investment, that sort of a treasure, you know, into a clay pot, a worthless jar, a fragile breakable.
But God uses the paradox of something worthless to reveal the valuable. Something weak to reveal the powerful.
Why? Why would he do that? So no man could glory in his sight. What do you have but that which has already given you of God? Now we tend, as Christians in the church today, to want to make celebrities out of these pots.
We've got these pots that we want to exalt to make stars out of. And we think that, oh boy, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, you know. And the one secret they all don't want you to know is that they're just like you.
They're crackpots. Bunch of crackpots. They've got sores. They've got inabilities. They've got problems. They've got problem children. They've got all sorts of things of the flesh that they wrestle with.
But their best face is on Sunday morning. Their best persona is out there in the public eye. And they don't want you to know what they're really like. If you wanna know what they're really like, just ask their wife.
No. Not really. Kathy wouldn't say a word, you know. So transparency, humility, just being one of the guys, just being who you are, knowing that what do you have but that which is already given you of God.
So where's the boasting? Who who can boast? There shouldn't be any boasting. There shouldn't be any celebrity. There shouldn't be, hey, look at my pot. My pot's prettier than your pot, you know?
Well, what makes it valuable is Jesus. Jesus in that pot. Jesus is the one we should be focused on exalting. And you should be saying something more along the lines of, I can't believe that God can use him.
Because you know what a cracked potty is. How can this be? It doesn't add up. There's nothing genius. There's nothing noble. There's nothing great. Well, the Bible says that.
Paul says that. Not many mighty, not many noble, not even the the nobility of this world. But God uses the foolish things to confound the wise, the base things, the things that are not, the things that are, you know, weak.
And the apostle Paul, when he was caught up to the third heaven, I believe when he was stoned there at Lystra, he said he he knows a man, whether you're in the body or out of the body, caught up in the third heaven, in second Corinthians 12.
And he said that he saw things that it was unlawful, unspeakable.
You couldn't even describe what he saw. Unless he would be exalted above measure with his see these false prophets are trying to boast of their doctorates, their credentials.
They're really slick suits, you know, and how they look and polished and the Botox and the hair and all that.
Paul's ugly. He's ugly. He's a hook nose and weak in appearance and contemptible and his breath stinks and all that other stuff.
Paul says, you know what? If I'm gonna boast, I'm gonna boast in what I suffered because it shows sincerity. I'm gonna boast about my sufferings. But I knew a man, whether in the body or not in the body, I couldn't tell.
But caught up in the third heaven, things he saw was just unbelievable. And Paul's saying, unless I'd be exalted above measure. Think of the books you could write today. I was stoned and caught up to the third heaven.
I wanna write a book of what heaven looks like. Everybody's doing that today. Really? How do I know your vision of heaven's legit? Or your son, your kid went up there and then you find out later it wasn't true.
It's all and people look drawn to that. He said, a messenger of Satan was given me. So unless you be exalted above measure, the Lord afflicts you. A messenger of Satan to buffet him.
So a tent stake through his temple of migraine headaches possibly from malaria. He had ophthalmology. His eyes were oozing. And that's why the false prophet said, this guy you you look at this guy, the pus coming out of his eyes.
I can't even look at him. He's no celebrity. And Paul that's why Paul had to travel with a doctor. Doctor Luke had to travel with him just to keep him going. When Paul went to prison five times, it was recuperation.
It was to recuperate for a while where he wouldn't be beaten by everybody, you know? Where he get three square meals a day and where he could write the new testament. Right? He's chained to a soldier, but the soldiers would get saved.
The people in the palace would get saved. Everyone around him would get saved. But I mean, is that a life that you want, that we want? Is that the life that's promoted by the preaching of the gospel today?
Come to Jesus and suffer with Jesus, take your cross up with Jesus, and follow him daily? No. We don't want the we don't want the cross. We want the crown. We want the crown now. We want it all.
Jesus is there to bless me. I wanna be in the bless me club. How do I get in the bless me club? How can I stay in the bless me club? And Paul is saying, no. It's the opposite. It's as a clay pot. It's as a being buffeted by Satan.
You pray and you ask the Lord to remove this. And And you think about prayer. You think about name it and claim it. Blab it and grab it. You think about an amount of faith. You just gotta have enough faith. Enough faith.
Enough faith. Do you think Paul had enough faith to ask God to remove that trial, to remove that messenger of Satan that was buffeted him? And the Lord said, no. He answered his prayer. He said, No. Well, I better rephrase that.
Maybe he didn't hear me right. Maybe I better say it this way and face Costa Mecca and bow or whatever, you know. Maybe I better get the formula down. And he asked a second a time and he answers the prayer and he says, No.
So you can ask him a third time. Jesus prayed three times in the Garden Of Gethsemane. Here at his father say, no. You know, not my will but thy will be done, Jesus says.
If you're willing to remove this cup from me, but nevertheless not as I will, but thy will be done. And Paul heard the Lord say, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is perfected in weakness.
And it's in that weakness, in the weakness of that clay pot that the power of God is able to operate in through your life. Because the detriment, the way that you'd be put on the shelf and not used, you wouldn't be a vessel of honor.
A vessel of dishonor, a castaway, is if you took his glory under yourself. As if you became puffed up and prideful. Look at me.
I'm the cutest little pot, cracked pot there ever was, you know? And, you're just a pot, man. You're just a pot. Without Jesus, you're you're just you're just a spittoon. You're you're a toilet, you know. You're nothing without Jesus.
A vessel of honor and dishonor. The only honor comes with Christ filling us and using us. And all the warts, and all the cracks, and all the brokenness, over and over again during your life is the way that Jesus shines forth.
Because people are marveling. They're looking like, how on earth can that person have that sort of an attitude?
That sort of perspective? How can they be singing now? How can they attend church now? Why are they here? Why wouldn't they just curl up into a ball and never get out of bed again?
You know? How's that work? Where do they get the courage? How do they keep going? What security does a clay pot provide? Just vessels that God works through to show his power.
In Acts nine fifteen, he is a chosen vessel unto me, Jesus said to Paul, of Saul of Tarsus, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him what things he must suffer for my namesake.
You got the wrong guy, Lord. I didn't sign up for suffering. I never heard any pastor say I would suffer. I heard them say, You'll get me out of the drugs and the alcohol.
Make my marriage great. Give me a better job. Make me rich and famous. That's what I heard said. And if it doesn't happen quickly, I just gotta get more faith. How do I get more faith?
I gotta blab it and grab it, man. I gotta name it and claim it. I could be a part of the prosperity gospel. So Paul now describes the outliving of this calling. He says, verse eight. Here's reality. Here's reality, church.
If you're considering being a Christian, in America today, we don't even have any concept of what this is like except, you know, the the pressure, the mental pressure and stuff that many of us come under the the insipidness of life, a life that doesn't bring fulfillment.
The things don't fill. The things don't satisfy. And we come to the conclusion, I can't get no satisfaction. But Jesus has been there all along, and we've made idols of the blessings, and we've neglected the blessor.
Fall in love with the blessor day by day. He said, we are troubled. That word trouble speaks of pressure. It speaks of adverse circumstances. We are troubled. It speaks of people subverting, undermining his ministry.
Everywhere he would go would be Judaizers, legalists, Jews that would stir up the Gentiles and get them stoned or thrown in prison or riots would break out, beaten him and others that were with him.
We're troubled on every side, yet not distressed. That word distressed speaks that we're troubled, but we're not crushed. We triumph. He says, we are perplexed, but not in despair.
So there's no way out and yet we are not lost. We triumph. We may not have the answers, but we know who does. He is our peace. In second Chronicles 20, there's the King Jehoshaphat and the Moabites.
And the Amalekites and others were coming after him, and he got word that they were just amassing, a huge army amassing to come and and afflict him and his his kingdom there and the people.
And, he says down in verse 12, as he's as he's watching and he's evaluating what's coming, this innumerable multitude like grasshoppers.
They're they're camels and the armament of three different armies coming against him. And he and he says to the lord, lord, we don't have the power. You ever been in a situation like that circumstantially, you don't have the power?
You're problem solving, but you don't have the power. The enemy is insurmountable. They're like grasshoppers. Militarily, strategy wise, I I don't know what to do.
And so he says, Lord, we don't have the power. And then he says, Neither know we what to do. Now, wives, has your husband ever admitted that? Neither know we what to do. Are you married to a problem solver?
Neither know we what to do. At that point, he's gonna have to trust in God, isn't he? And you're gonna have to support him in walking by faith like a child. And then he says, but our eyes are on you, Jehoshaphat.
Too big of an army. We don't have the power. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon you. And then the prophet comes and lets Jehoshaphat know the battle isn't yours, Jehoshaphat.
The battle belongs to the Lord. The same lesson that David learned in fighting Goliath that he tried to convey to his brothers and family members and and cons you know, other soldiers, men of Saul and all of them.
The battle belongs to the Lord. It belongs to the Lord. Let the Lord fight for us.
And so the Lord instructs Jehoshaphat through the prophet to just come on out the next morning, and they begin to sing praises. And As they begin to worship God, this military force that's against them begins to slay them each other.
They begin to fight and destroy each other. Three days Jehoshaphat and the people are there grabbing hold of the treasure, the the spoil of all these soldiers that had died.
They're over there. Three days it took them to go and get the spoil. So they put the Lord first. The Lord fought for them. Since God is for us, who can be against us? But they were they weren't powerful enough.
They didn't have the strength. They didn't have the knowledge. But they knew God. They had a relationship with the true living God. And as they turned to him and as they began to worship is that what you do?
When you're backed into a corner, do you begin to worship God? Or do you begin to whine and cry and call up every person you can think of that might have some money for you or a solution or something, you know.
When you exhaust all that, then you're forced to trust in God, aren't you? And your faith grows, and then there's a testimony of how you triumphed. We were perplexed, but not in despair.
There's no way out, but we're not lost. We may not have the answers, but we know who does. He's our peace. And you experience this peace that surpasses all understanding that guards your hearts and mind through Christ Jesus.
You're not overwhelmed with anxiety and depression, despair because you're already dead. It's Christ living through you. And if he chooses to take you home, you're ready to go.
If he chooses to rescue you, then you've got another day you get to serve him. Your life's not your own. You've been bought with a price. Therefore, you're to glorify God in your body, which is his.
He's the temple. You're the temple of the Holy Spirit. We're just vessels that God works through to show his power. He says, verse nine, persecuted but not forsaken. He reminds me of the scars of how he was treated.
Sometimes you feel all alone and and you think for a minute, well, wait a minute. How was Jesus treated? I'm having trouble paying the bills. Well, where did Jesus live? How did he roll around?
What did he do? Well, I gotta pay my taxes, you know. He just went fishing. They pulled a coin out. I can't do that. I've I've caught a lot of fish, but I never able to pull a coin out of its mouth to pay my taxes, you know.
But Jesus could. He could help you walk on water like Peter did. Keep your eyes on him. Right? Don't get your eyes on the circumstances, the wind, the waves, or you're gonna sink.
But at least Peter stepped out of the boat. At least Peter took a risk to a step of faith, you know. People could mock you and and laugh and ridicule, but hey, at least I stepped out of the comfort zone.
At least I took a risk. At least I trusted God and took him at his word. He said, come. And Peter stepped out. Do you like stepping out in faith? How was Jesus treated?
In Isaiah 53, it says, he was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. Foxes have holes, birds there have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
He's homeless. That's Jesus. Can you relate to Jesus? The homeless can relate to Jesus. You may not be able to relate to Herod the Great or Pontius Pilate or the greats of today, the celebrities of today, the stars of today.
Be reminded of the scars that Jesus bore for you. That his face was the beard was pulled out of his face. What kind of skin would come with the pulling of your beard?
He was beaten beyond the recognition of a man. Isaiah 53 says, his visage, his face was so marred, more than any man, more than the sons of men. John in Revelation five saw him as a lamb that had been slain.
He's pierced the pericardium with a centurion spear, a cat of nine tails, deep grooves, furrows along his back, loss of blood, loss of energy, loss of of strength physiologically.
Needed help carrying that cross the rest of the way. Simon the Cyrene, the privilege and blessing of helping in that burden of carrying that cross to the place of crucifixion of Mariah of Calvary.
He's pierced between his hands and his feet. He's nailed to the tree. And we hid as our as it were our faces from him. The Shepherd Smith and the Sheep all scattered, didn't they?
They're getting away from him. And Paul's saying, hey, we've been abandoned. We know what it is. We're troubled on every side and yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair.
There's no way out, and yet we're not lost. We're persecuted, but not forsaken. We're with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We watch Veggie Tales. We know that that fourth person in that fiery trial is Jesus.
We're not gonna fear. We see Paul in second Timothy four at the end of his race, at the end of the fight. By the time he's writing this, he's been twenty years as a Christian. He's been through a lot. He's gonna continue to suffer.
It's not over yet. And he said in in, second Timothy four verse 16, that the Lord stood with him. He said, all have forsaken me. Everybody's bailed. I fought a good fight. I finished my course, But the Lord stood with me.
Just like Stephen, we studied last week. Stephen, the Lord stood. He's seated at the right hand of the father, but the Lord stood and gave Stephen a standing ovation. So too the Lord did not forsake Paul.
The Lord was with Paul in prison. The Lord was with Paul before Nero. The Lord was with Paul right before execution. When Nero would send his his guys to cut his head off and such, The Lord never abandoned him.
He says, Lord, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age, church. He's never going to leave you nor forsake you. People come. People go. And we're thankful for the time we have with them.
We ask the Lord to bless them as they go. But typically, at crunch time, when things are really rough, when the newspaper writes articles lying, people begin to lie and slander. People bail. They take off. They believe the lies.
They're inclined to believe the lies. Yet there's a few people that stay to encourage you to continue to fight the good fight, to continue to run your course, to run the race, just stay in your lane and do what God's called you to do.
And Paul says, There is now, therefore, left for me a crown.
A crown of not only for me, but all those who love is appearing. He's gonna give you an incorruptible crown that fades not away. If you die as a martyr, he's gonna give you the martyr's crown, the crown of life.
If you go through a time of great heartache, he's gonna give you a crown of rejoicing. If you go through a time of great humility, he's gonna give you a a crown of glory.
You go through a time of being beat and unjustly treated. People condemning you. He's gonna give you a crown of righteousness. There's crowns awaiting. There's rewards awaiting.
He's not abandoned you. He'll never abandon you. He's there with you in those trials. And in those trials, you're getting to know him better because he's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That's who he is.
Paul said that I might know him in Philippians three ten. That's the gist of this. I wanna know him. I spent so many years persecuting Christians. I spent so many years as a Pharisee thinking I was doing God's service, but I was blind.
I was proud. I was arrogant. I was a blasphemer. And now that he's revealed himself unto me, all I wanna do is say thank you with the rest of the breasts that I have to breathe with.
I want them to be expressions of worship, expressions of thankfulness that he would save me, that he would wanna use my life, that there's a place within the body for me.
He's never gonna forsake us. How are slaves treated? How are the disciples treated? When you're mistreated, when you're slandered? The word slander in the Greek is diabolos.
It's really the devil condemning through a person's mouth. They think they do God's service. In John fifteen twenty, Jesus said, remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they've persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. How were the disciples treated? When you're persecuted for righteousness sake, you know you're in good company.
You know the devil is targeting you because he he's gonna try and silence you. He's gonna try and discourage you. One of the things that pastors deal with on Mondays is discouragement.
Discouragement is one of the greatest things that cause pastors to leave the ministry and their wives and family. They have high hopes. They have ideals. They have dreams.
They they compare with other ministries and churches and think that too will be, you know, their destiny. And things don't always work as planned. And you're there on Sunday and, man, you're you're you're it's just it didn't work out.
Didn't happen. Somebody's unhappy. Somebody's leaving the church. Why are you leaving the church? And you go through all the different things and all that and and it can be very devastating.
And then you have to put your eyes back on the Lord. Trust in him. He knows what he's doing. It's his church. You have to take your hands off it. It's not my church.
It's your church, Lord. You said, upon this rock, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell won't prevail. And then the Lord ministers to you. What have I called you to do? To be faithful. Just be faithful. Let God work the rest out.
They departed from his presence of the council rejoicing that they're accounted worthy to suffer shame for his name. In x five forty one, they were threatened and beaten and told, don't speak in his name anymore.
When they were released from the prison, where were they? They found them in the temple. You couldn't shut these people up. They're gluttons for punishment.
We rejoice. We're to obey God rather than men. You guys decide, but we're gonna obey God. They're cast down but not destroyed. This cast down means thrown to the ground, cast to the ground, thrown to the ground.
And we would say in in our vernacular, they never tapped out. They never quit. No matter how many times they're thrown to the ground, they never ever quit.
They knew it was jujitsu. So they're beaten to the ground, but not destroyed. At Lister, they're stoned. They're left for dead. And he goes back in. Unstoppable.
Focus upon the martyr's crown. Verse 10, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. So yeah, Paul is going through an inordinate amount of suffering.
He's actually displaying it upon his body, the beatings, the black eyes, the pneumonias, the malaria, the all the different things that grab hold of sleepless nights and adverse weather and no place to sleep and work and just working till to the when it speaks to the word work in the Greek, it's working to the point of exhaustion, is what it was like for him, and many of them in the day.
Warren Wiersbe says, the test of true ministry is not stars, but scars.
And that's one of the ways that I evaluate, pastors and ministries. I haven't been one to get caught up in the celebrity, because I am a pastor and I know what a fallacy it is.
Been there, done that. I've met them. But what does catch my attention is how have they suffered? I don't care how big their church is.
How have they suffered? How do they remind me of the sufferings of Jesus? If they're making $500,006,700,000 a year, then as my dad reminded me, one of the qualifications of being a pastor is you're not greedy or filthy lucre.
I don't care what CEO you think you are and the millions of dollars you're amassing that you give out.
Are you kidding me? You think you're worth $500,000 a year? That's obscene. But hey, the people love it so. The people wanna be just like them.
It means that God will bless my life too. Look at the jets they have. Hey, that jet's not big enough. Good. I need a bigger jet and the people love it. They'll get them a bigger jet because it's a false gospel.
What scars do you have? How have you suffered for Jesus? I've told you this multiple times, but the church in China doesn't consider you to be a pastor until you've spent time in prison. They know they can trust you then.
Because there's a whole lot of government pastors infiltrating the churches in China and Iran and other places that squeal on you, tell on you, snitch on you, and your whole bible study, your whole home gets invaded.
You know? So who can they trust? Well, somebody that's been beaten. Somebody that's paid the price.
So when I see a pastor that has suffered loss, sometimes sometimes there's a pastor that loses a wife or a daughter or a son or to cancer or one pastor, his daughter's boyfriend shoved her out of the car and she died.
Another pastor's daughter was driving and got in a car accident.
She died. Her wife died the same way. When you hear about that, how do you continue? How do you keep going? Some of them have an inordinate amount of demonic struggles and activity.
And others are like a Teflon pan. Nothing sticks. Nothing hits them. Everything's just like and when they do finally have something in their life like you and I experience, they're astounded.
It's just like, it's such a surprise. How could this happen to me? Don't you know who I am? And it's just it's radical to them, you know?
And yet it's common place in early church. It's common place in persecuted parts of the world. For we which live are always delivered unto death. Always? Delivered unto death? Death to self? On the verge of dying?
For Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So the suffering reveals the weakness of man and the power of God. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. Delivered unto death, the pot must be broken.
The pot must be broken for the light to shine. Maybe Paul was thinking of Judges chapter seven with Gideon, my grandson Gideon, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And Gideon was a guy that didn't think that he had it.
He he's you got the wrong guy. I'm the least of my father's house. My father's house is the least of everyone, you know. You got the wrong guy. And that's the kind of people that the Lord uses.
And so Gideon, the enemies coming against Gideon, the Ammonites, Moabites, the Amalekites are coming against them. And, Gideon isn't sure what to do. So he says, Lord, I'm a put a fleece out there.
You ever tried to discern the Lord's will for your lives by putting a fleece out there? Lord, if you want me to go into the ministry, if you want me to go to school and serve you, I'm gonna need to be able to fund this thing.
And Lord, my house is worth $700,000, and, I only owe two. So Lord, if I'm gonna put it in the market for a million, if you give me that million, I'll go in the ministry.
Boy, what a big step of faith you're taking. Wow. Giant of faith. So you begin to play these games with God. And when I was in school of ministry, bunch of the guys were doing that. Had 20 guys that signed up.
Ten ten, 10 of us graduated, I think, or 15. 30 signed up. 15 graduated. But the guys, as they're thinking about going out, leaving Costa Rica, and heading out there Interestingly, most of them stayed in the general vicinity.
Nobody was crazy enough to come up to Washington. And I know how it got here, but I'm here. And, and pastor Ray Snook, he says, hey guys, I know what you're doing. You're listing your house for sale, and, they're not selling.
Let me tell you how to sell that. Lower the price $10 every week. It'll sell. But they didn't wanna do that. They had this equity. And the only way they're gonna go was to kind of offset the risk, and to have something to invest.
Kathy and I went to Oregon before we got here with a thousand bucks. That's it. No job, nothing. So it's been a walk of faith. I always felt that, hey, if I lose, if I fail, if if it doesn't work, I can always go back.
Start over. But I had a wife that was willing to go. And I asked her, Hey. When we're in school, when I was struggling financially in the school, the only time I ever struggled was when I moved in the direction of serving the Lord.
If I wasn't serving the Lord, the devil blessed my business and we could make as much money as we wanted.
Pretty much. You just work harder and buy a second truck, third truck, just keep going. But as soon as I move in the direction and sign up for school, man, all hell breaks loose.
Start losing all kinds of counts and weird things happen. It's just a huge spiritual battle. And I said to Kathy, I said, It was the second time I went to school. The first time I did quit and had to get back to work.
The second time, the school ministry, I said, Honey, in the second year, it's getting pretty brutal. And, I said, hey, you want me to quit and get, you know, back to work and fix all this? Because you know, I'm a man.
I'm a fixer. Right? And she said, no, we've come too far to quit now. I needed to hear that. She's the most faithful Christian to Jesus I've ever met. And I've been there close by to see every step of the way.
And so Gideon puts his fleece out there. In case you don't know what fleece is, it's the lamb's skin. And he says, alright, Lord. If you want me to go, then you cause the fleece to get wet and all the ground to be dry.
Allow the dew to fall from heaven, and then I'll discern whether I should or not. So he wakes up in the morning and that fleece is wet, the ground's dry, and he rings it out, a bucket of water and all.
But that wasn't good enough. He's alright. Just so I make sure I'm not misinterpreting this, caused the caused the caused the, ground to be wet with dew and the fleece to be dry, this next one.
And sure it was. And so the Lord's encouraging Gideon. And Gideon amasses his army. He's got 32,000 soldiers. Now, the other armies coming against him are innumerable. Overwhelming odds, just like with Josh Fett.
And the Lord says, Gideon, there's too many guys. If I give you guys the victory, you're all gonna boast and talk about how great of warriors you are. So let anybody know that's fearful that they get to go back home.
So 22,000 went home. Now Gideon's got 10,000. 10 thousand. God says, Gideon, that's still too many. Still too many, bro. He says, Alright. Now, let them come near the brook here and drink some water.
And those that went down and stuck their face in the water to drink the water like a dog, God sent home. The ones that took the water on one knee watching and brought the water to their mouth were 300 of them.
God said, that'll do. 300. Now, a very unorthodox means of of military is gonna be used of Gideon. He doesn't have drones or satellite stuff or any of that kind of thing. Nothing sophisticated.
He's got a pitcher. A pitcher, a clay pot in the left hand. A trumpet in the right hand. And within that pitcher, a lamp. And what's the strategy? We're gonna divide the 300 in groups of 100, three different groups.
And we're gonna surround the camp of these guys. We're gonna go at night time. And then when you hear me blow the trumpet, you blow your trumpet and shout, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
And at that moment, break that pot in your left hand and let that light shine. What a strategy. Now you and I are that cracked pot in the left hand.
And that lamp is the lamp of the glorious gospel going forth. The power of God to reach people in darkness. And the powers of darkness began to fight against each other and slaughtered they slaughtered all themselves.
And, Gideon had the joy and the blessing of not leaning on his own understanding, of walking by faith and doing something that seems so ridiculous.
But taking the word of the Lord, and one little part I left out is the Lord allowed Gideon and a guy named Pashur to go near the camp. And when they got near the camp, they could hear one of the enemies say, I just had a dream.
And that dream was of a barley cake. A barley cake, a cream puff rolling down and hitting us and wiping us out. And the other guy says, that's Gideon.
He's the barley cake. You know, he's the cream puff that's gonna roll down and wipe us out. So it gave great confidence to Gideon to go the next step, which was in the battle. And the the Lord is so gracious and merciful to us.
He doesn't expect you and I to be spiritual giants from the very beginning. He grows our faith little by little through obedience. Whatever it is the Lord's asking you presently, just obey.
And as you obey, there'll be a progressive revelation of what's next. And then you obey and he gives you the next step, a little bit here and there. Most of us, we want 10 steps. We want the 10 next things of the future, Lord.
And I've got to evaluate it and take it to my attorney, and we need to do a risk evaluation if this is what's best for me or not, you know. My financial advisor needs to review this because we could wind up broke, you know.
Amazing now. How very few people that think that way ever go into the ministry. Delivered unto death for Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Verse 12.
So then death works in us, but life in you. The life of Jesus revealed through us in suffering brings encouragement to you that you too would be willing to yield. So as you want somebody, go do something that you're afraid to do.
And when Kathy and I were first leaving, California to go plant a church, it made people around us, we didn't understand it, but family members and people at church especially, it made them very uneasy.
And they began to kind of mock and undermine what we were going to do and tell us how crazy we're and weird we were and all that.
Because it was very, very exciting to go out and plant a church. People dream of doing things like that. People dream of serving the Lord. But man, once you start to do it, they get nervous for you.
And they start to see all the ways that you're gonna fail, and all the things that could go wrong. And then after all that's done, then you go over and have dinner at your mother in law's house, and you hear it all over again, you know?
And you keep hearing it. And they're just concerned about you. They love you. But who has an automatic thing?
Who has a 100% solid means of formula or a strategy to go plant a church with no trials? With no adversity, with everything always going your way. Boy, everybody do it then, right? You could sell packages.
Hey, at the third month, you're gonna go on a Christian cruise and then after that Christian cruise, you're gonna come back, your church is gonna be 300 people, and then after that, you're gonna have a building fund.
Somebody's gonna donate and give you a building, you know, and then after that, you know, and who wouldn't do that?
But we walk by faith, don't we? Not by sight. The privilege of taking up your cross and following him daily, that of the Calvary living.
Our suffering is an extension of his suffering. If you look at it that way, it's very important. When you go through suffering, the devil's gonna say, you see?
God's mad at you. He's mad at you. And you're suffering because you did something wrong. Now the devil will use the letter of the law to condemn you. All of us do things wrong.
If the Lord were to mark iniquities, who could stand? None of us are used of God because we reach a place of spiritual perfection, holiness. Not this not this side of of seeing him face to face when we get our new glorified bodies.
But the devil will use these accusations as the accuser of the brethren to try and stymie your confidence in God, your reliance upon his grace, and his mercies are new each morning, and you disqualify yourself in many cases.
When in actuality, the devil, what he doesn't want you to know is you're suffering because you're doing something right. And it's the devil that's bringing about that that whooping to get you to stop.
He'll leave he'll leave so many other ministries and places alone that have no power, that aren't a threat to the kingdom of darkness, that don't teach the word of God, that don't evangelize, that don't teach prophecy.
He'll leave them alone because the people are anesthetized.
The people are asleep. They're they're just going through the motions, but their lives aren't bearing fruit. But your life, as you step out, as you take a risk, you're gonna meet opposition.
And in that opposition, we need to learn to rejoice. To rejoice that we're counted worthy to suffer for Jesus name's sake. That we're a threat to the kingdom of God.
Or you could be like the seven sons of Sceva and try to go out and do ministry to cast some demons out. And the demons begin to speak to the seven sons of Sceva. Jesus, we know. Paul, we know. But who are you guys?
We don't know who you are. And they grab a hold of him and beat him and tear their clothes off him and all. When you serve the Lord, the devil knows your address. And he's gonna look for the weakest link in the chain of your life.
It could be your daughter. It could be your husband. It could be your son. It could be at work. He's gonna try to capitalize an area of your life that'll neutralize you.
He may not be able to get at you, get at your wife, But he says, if I attack this area of their life, if I attack this, if I allow his little one to get sick, he'll pack it up and leave.
He'll quit. That'll be too much for him. Always strategizing. And there's nothing allowed into your life that doesn't first go through the providential filter of almighty God.
If he allows it, you have a promise that all things are working together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. You are called according to his purpose.
And it's a sick false doctrine that would say you are suffering, your daughter's sick, your son, whatever, your husband, you got cancer because you didn't have enough faith. That's a demonic doctrine.
How do we triumph over trials and reveal this treasure? Number one, by yielding to the power of God. Secondly, by yielding to the purpose of God. Verse 13, we have the same spirit of faith according as is written.
I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak. So he's quoting Psalm a 16 verse 10. It's an attitude of faith. Without faith, we're nothing. Without faith, we can't please God.
We've got to have faith. We've got to continue. We started it with faith. We got to continue by faith. Just because you've been a Christian thirty years, doesn't mean that you don't continue to walk with childlike faith.
The times are getting more and more difficult. We need to exercise this faith that God's given us, this gift of faith. It's faith in him that's gonna get us through. Not faith in faith, faith in him.
Trusting him. Proverbs three five and six, your life verse. Trust the Lord with all your heart. Lean not in your own understanding, you fixers. In all your ways acknowledge him and he'll direct your paths.
Put a fleece out there. No. You can just pray. You don't need to put a fleece out there. He'll direct your paths. You don't need to cast lots. You don't need to test God. You walk by faith. You cultivate your relationship with him.
And as you study his word, he's gonna speak to your heart with a still small voice. He's gonna give you ears to hear churches in the book of Revelation. He that has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches.
Can we hear what the spirit is saying to the church in the last days? Do we have ears to hear? What does Paul believe? Who does he believe in? Any guarantee of no suffering? Can we bring forth the prosperity gospel?
Will it work in Iran? Will it work in China? Will it work in Syria? As Syria was recently destabilized, the Christians are under attack. Will it work in Gaza? As Gaza is being destabilized, many Arab Christians in Gaza.
We want Gaza. The Bless Me Club. He says verse 14, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Until a person is prepared to die, he's not prepared to live.
This is a rapture clause here. Look at the presentation. When are you presented? It's resurrection and rapture, baby. At the resurrection, you're presented. At the rapture, you're presented.
You see his face face to face. The dead in Christ rise first and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so shall we ever be with the Lord.
And so Paul is saying, also by Jesus and shall present us with you, us with you. Why are you alive? What is your purpose? Why did God save you? And it's not deeds without creeds.
We're not morphing the Protestant church into the Catholic church and substituting bible study and getting to know God through the study of his word, where the church becomes biblically illiterate and tries to shore up that guilt, if you will, by doing good deeds, by feeding the homeless or drilling wells or whatever it may be.
No faith without works is dead. It's faith first, it's creeds, it's study of the word.
And then, as you study the word and get to know God, you're gonna wanna drill wells. You're gonna wanna provide water for people that need water. You're going to want to feed the homeless.
You're going to want to do whatever you can do with the abundance God's given you to alleviate suffering in the lives of others and to proclaim the most important thing, the glorious good news of Jesus.
Because you can give them water to drink and they can still go to hell.
Many relief ministries today, when they got caught up in the purpose driven, you know, deeds, not creeds, Rick Warren says, you don't need to study prophecy. They don't study prophecy.
The return of Jesus, none of your business, he told them all. So they don't care. So there's the emphasis upon works of doing rather than trusting, rather than believing. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
So as you're feeding the homeless, share the gospel. As you're drilling the wells in that community, share the gospel, share the good news of Jesus Christ. You don't go look for the Hindu spiritual leader there and morph into Hinduism.
You share the gospel knowing you might be crucified for it. The three legged stool, the purpose driven life all over the globe, he says, you just look for the spiritual leader.
Who who's ever it could be Islam, it could be Hinduism, it could be anything. No. You're going with Christianity in these foreign lands and you're preaching Christ and him crucified for the mission of sins. It may cost you.
But you don't water it down. You don't you look at the model of the Catholics, they'll they'll morph it into whatever the culture is around them. If the people are in the idolatry, all of a sudden people see visions of Mary.
Ties in with their belief system. We don't do that. He says, he saved you to present you. For all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound may redound to the glory of God.
So Paul gives two purposes for his own suffering. Number one, all things are for your sake. Paul is saying, I'm willing to spend and be spent for you. I'm willing to suffer for you. I'm your father in the faith.
And as a father, I'm willing to lay my life down for my family. I'm willing to, take the hit. I heard a father say the other day that that, his son was concerned his little son was concerned that he's just too young to go out work yet.
Boy, we agree. Don't we? Don't we want our kids to remain kids and to enjoy being a child for as long as they can?
And so we sacrifice. We lay our life down. We take the hits so that so that they have time to, to grow and to be nurtured and cared for and be solidified as a family and all.
There's seasons of life. Then there's a season where we help them get their first job. My first job was revolutionary. It was amazing. My mom was on welfare at the time, recently divorced.
And man, it was tough. But that job, man, gave me they should have sent the Department of Government Efficiency because I had lots of money. I worked as a bus boy and I had $5 a night tips.
It was $19. 76. I bought a car for $600 lickety split. And I'd go work from ten to two at night. Excuse me. Two to ten. Not every day, but several days. And the waitresses would give me $5 of tips. I'd live off that.
Gasoline was 49ยข a gallon. Car was paid for. And I'd go to the beach each morning and I'd surf my brains out and then I'd roll in there at 01:30 and park the car in the back of of, in La Mesa, California, Anthony's Fish Grotto.
My grandma got me the job. Awesome. I got to be a busboy and wait the tables and stuff and so much money. I went from $2 a week to unbelievable amount of money. Discretionary income, all for me.
And then you get married, you get responsibilities, and you're just trying to keep up with it, you know. But you do that because you love your family. You're willing to spend and be spent and give your body sacrifice your body.
A lot of you guys that do construction, you sacrifice your bodies. At midlife point, you're you've got a sciatic problem, a neck problem, a shoulder problem. You got all these different problems with your body.
You sacrificed it. You fell off ladders. You fell off roofs. You you, you know, twisted your knees. All those kind of things. And now you're inspectors, you know? Now you tell other people how to do it.
Just amazing. The hours you guys work up at 03:30 in the morning, you know, all week long. You hit the wall come Thursday, Friday. You get a day off. You know, you got projects around the house. You do that for forty years.
Why? Because of love. Greater love has no man than this, that man lay down his life for his family, for his friends. And Paul is saying, that's what I'm doing. I'm laying my life down for you. I'm willing to spend and be spent.
I'm willing to spend it all. It's for your sakes. John Henry Jow said, Ministry that cost nothing accomplishes nothing. Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit, Jesus said.
Soul saved. Secondly, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. So the first reason I'm doing this willing to suffer is to see you be saved.
I want to spend and be spent to lay my life down so that you know my love for you is sincere. That I'm not marketing. I'm not a con man. I don't want anything from you. I'm willing to spend and be spent. Freely, we've received.
Freely, we give. And secondly, the second reason I'm willing to suffer is that as you get saved and as you begin to worship the Lord, that this redounding this thanksgiving that you express toward God would redound to his glory.
We do it for God's glory, that God would be glorified.
He's willing to spend and be spent for the glory of God. Paul was willing to be broken over and over again that this treasure within would shine ever brighter, redounding to the glory of God.
Lukewarm, Laodicean selfish profession Christians bring only shame to God. The fornication, the adultery, the drugs, the alcohol, the carnality of living like the world brings only shame under God, no matter how big that church is.
When they go on wine tasting trips and everybody's sleeping with each other, that brings shame unto God. Nathan the prophet looked at David and said, David, you've given great occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blasphemous name.
When we sin willfully, without repentance, without turning from that sin, we bring shame unto God into his name.
And people want nothing to do with our Jesus because we're no better than the world. No. Not right now. Not right now. Thank you. How do we triumph over the trials and reveal the treasure? Number one, by yielding to the power of God.
Secondly, by yielding to the purposes of God. Thirdly, by gaining perspective from God. Verse 16, for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day. So no fainting, only triumph.
The outward man, the clay pot is really getting hammered, but the inward man is renewed day by day. Notice day by day. Give us our bread, our daily bread in Matthew chapter six, as Jesus is teaching the church how to pray.
The heathens worried about what am I gonna eat, what am I gonna drink, what am I gonna wear. And Jesus teaching us to pray, give us this day our daily bread.
On a daily basis, walking by faith, God's gonna provide for us. So day by day by day by day, no fainting. You can make it through this day. You look back, you can fall, you can be overwhelmed looking back at your failures.
But if you approach this day and you know that his mercies are new every morning, and you know that he's faithful, and that he's called you, that he's gonna complete that work he's begun in you, you can deal with this day.
If you start to worry about tomorrow, tomorrow has enough evil in itself to worry about itself.
Don't worry about tomorrow. Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.
And the peace of God that surpass all understanding can then guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. And so we don't wanna be overwhelmed with anxiety about tomorrow. We walk day by day by faith, trusting in him.
So the outward man, the clay pot is really getting hammered, but the inward man's renewed day by day. God gives us the strength, the capacity to face another day. We're becoming more like Jesus, being changed from glory to glory.
Verse 17. For our light affliction and look at that. How could this be construed as light if we look at what Paul's went through, what Jesus went through, what the disciples have gone through?
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us, not against us, a far more and exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So Paul gained perspective here in the midst of suffering. How?
By looking beyond himself. If you're looking within, you're gonna be overwhelmed. But if you're looking beyond yourself, unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith, you know that he's gonna complete that work that he's begun.
He's the author and the finisher. By looking beyond this world and under heaven, like Abraham and Sarah, they were looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
No matter what they went through, they weren't they weren't satisfied with this world, with what the world had to offer.
And so as Paul said to the church of Philippi in Philippians three twenty, Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we look for our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're looking for Jesus as we're pilgrims and sojourners just passing through this worldly system. Or like, in Hebrews eleven ten, like Moses, excuse me, eleven twenty five, looking beyond the life unto eternity.
So beyond your life unto eternity, Moses could have been the next pharaoh possibly. But, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
So the devil sizes you up and the devil asks you, what's your price? What do I need to give you to neutralize you during your lifetime?
During your seventy years or eighty years upon this planet, what can I do to neutralize you for the kingdom of God? And many of us, we sell our souls. We sell ourselves out for a crust of bread.
So Paul says, no. This light affliction, it's but for a moment, it's momentary. So I'm not gonna change, I'm not gonna exchange the temporal pleasures, these pleasures of sin for a season, for an eternity of suffering in hell.
So so when the devil takes Jesus up to a mountain and shows him all the kings of the of the world, he shows you that you can have the crown without the cross, if you just sell your soul for rock and roll.
If you bow down and worship me, the devil tells Jesus, I'll give you all these kingdoms of the world.
I'll give you a shortcut. And Jesus said, it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shall thou serve begone Satan.
So you're willing to suffer for just a short period of time in comparison to eternity. Estiming the reproach of Christ as greater riches than all the treasure of Egypt, for he had respect on the recompense of the rewards.
Speaking of Moses. He's 80 years old. It's the last forty of his life that he's used of the Lord to deliver the children of Israel. And a bunch of them are a bunch of murmurs. So the Lord finally took him home.
Right? We see him in the Mount Of Transfiguration. Verse 18. While we look not at the things which are seen, but things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
So we gain perspective. Perspective is gained by differentiating between the temporal versus the eternal. So in your portfolio, as you prepared for retirement, as you prepared worked your whole life, have you prepared for eternity?
Where's your portfolio? What's it look like that you prepared for eternity? Jesus said, store not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust can corrupt, where thieves break through and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where thieves and moth and rust can't corrupt, and it's waiting for you there.
You can't out give God your time, your talent, your treasure. As you invest in the kingdom of God, the Lord says, I'm going to reward you for it.
But if you're only living for the moment, living for now, everything you have is going to perish at the point of dying when you die. You don't take anything with you. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. And so so let your life Paul says to the writer of Hebrews says, let your life be without covetousness for it's certain that you're not gonna be able to take it with you.
So send it on ahead. Send it on ahead with an eternal portfolio where God rewards you for investing in his kingdom, investing the lives of people who are perishing.
You don't take the gifts that God's given, the time, the talent, the treasure, which all belongs to him, and bury it.
You reinvest in the lives of others. That's an eternal perspective. A person can go through enormous suffering when they yield to the power of God, when they yield to the purpose of God, when they gain perspective from God.
How are you doing with the suffering God has allowed in your life? The unique areas of suffering that God has privileged you to bear. What badge are you carrying?
What scars are you bearing? What things have you gone through that the devil would use to condemn you? But the Lord says, no, This is a badge of honor. You suffered for my namesake. You went through this for me.
Is Jesus shining through your life, through your clay pot? If not, will you let him break you? Are you playing it so safe that you don't want to be broken? Are you willing to lift your arms in faith and say, here am I Lord, use me?
And he says, Rick, Kathy, church family, the way up is down. The way up is brokenness. I have to break you. A. W. Tozer says, before God will use a man or a woman greatly, he must hurt him deeply.
It's that brokenness deep within that emptiness empties us of self and our self confidence, and the only one we can rely upon is Jesus. That he might be glorified through us. That others would see this treasure in an earthen vessel.
Jesus said, you are the light of the world. A city that set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. Jesus wants to shine through your broken life.
Well, I'm broken. He can't use me. He can't use you unless you're broken. That's the only way he can use you. The life he purchased with his own blood. The potter's field is covered with broken shards.
And Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like a man that saw this treasure in a field that treasures you. The field of broken pots, broken lives, lives that have been cast away by the devil, Thrown away.
That the religious leaders think is worthless and nothing. Jesus said, I'm gonna purchase that field and not with 30 pieces of silver because we weren't redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with his precious blood.
And so it says that he went and he sold all that he had that he could purchase that field.
And that field's the Potter's Field. The place where Jesus met you. The place where Jesus poured out his blood, spent his blood to redeem you. He didn't need another field.
He didn't need another planet. He's the creator of the universe. The value that he placed upon that field was you. You're the one in that field that he wants. The devil wants to destroy you for all eternity.
And Jesus said, I'm gonna purchase you with my blood. How valuable. You weren't redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, a treasure in a field.
He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom. His life's the ransom price your blood bought.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you. And Lord, as we come to the cross this morning, as we look to the cross, Lord, we're just reminded of your love. We're reminded of the sacrifice that you made on our behalf.
We're reminded, Lord, of the huge, huge blessing it is to not be slaves, to not be orphans, to, not belong. But Lord, we do belong. That we're joint heirs with you. That Lord, we don't need to fear man.
We don't need to fear the devil. We don't need to fear the future. But Lord, it's glorious. A wonderful future. We're more than conquerors through him that loved us. And Lord, help us to walk in that newness of life.
Help us to walk in that victory, not with pompous pride, but with a brokenness and a humility, a confidence in you. That you've spoiled all principalities and powers, that you've triumphed over them, that you are our victory.
The battle belongs to the Lord. Don't let the devil psych us out and cause us to measure ourselves, compare ourselves with other men, with other women, other ministries.
But Lord, just stay in our lane. Be who we are. Yield to the Holy Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit to transform and change and to use us just as we are. Help us to find that place that we fit in with the body.
Lord, help us to be used of you to rescue people who are being destroyed by the devil, who are psyched out, who are living lives of condemnation, of of defeat. Help us to show them you, Lord, that you're our champion.
That you'll fight for them. That you love them with an everlasting love. Anyone here this morning, you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, but you want to. The Holy Spirit's tugging on your heart.
The Holy Spirit is revealing himself unto you. Jesus said, no man can come unto me except the father which has sent me draw him and I'll raise him up in the last day and whosoever comes to me I'll no wise cast out.
As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. You need to exercise your free will, even now. Free will in receiving Christ into your heart and life. Saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We wanna lead you in prayer. We don't want you to leave here with a false sense of security, trusting in your own self righteousness or religiousness or whatever it may.
Nor nor do we want you to go away from here thinking you're far too broken. There's no way God could put my life back together. That's a life from the pit of hell. Anyone here this morning, you want eternal life.
You're turning from your sins. You're crying out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner. Anyone here this morning? Anyone on Facebook, you can pray that prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, please come into my life.
Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So father, thank you once again. Thank you that we can walk away from here assured, confident, comforted in knowing that no one's gonna be able to pluck us out of your hand.
That nothing's gonna ever, ever, ever be able to separate us from your love. That Lord, you're the author and the finisher of our faith, Lord.
That you're gonna complete that good work that you've begun. Lord, we pray that you'd use our lives, however broken we may be, that you'd shine brighter and brighter, Lord, as people would say, we wanna see Jesus.
We wanna know your Jesus. What's he like? Who is he? Lord, give us the words. Give us the countenance. Let your light shine through us, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.