GET IT TOGETHER & PRESS ON
Paul's tribulations...
2 Corinthians 11:23, 25-29
"Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?"
The word for you today is, Get It Together. Tell someone, get it together.
If we are really honest with ourselves, each of us live in a very uncomfortable tension. We are acutely aware that we just don’t have it together. There is a gap between what we go through and who we know we can be. There is a gap between me standing before you now and what I go through as a leader. Despite our best efforts to improve ourselves, getting it together seems like an impossible task. Is real transformation unattainable or is there a way of getting it together?
Each week we are before you presenting the living gospel, the good news through praise and worship, dance or by the spoken word and I do not mean poetry. Being in tune with the Holy Trinity. We take time out to be in prayer and fasting. We seek Gods face on what he wants for his children. Where we are to go on this particular day.
But I have to be honest saints, getting to that point of excellence is exhausting, and trying. There are trials and tribulations. Paul said not to be weary in well doing as encouragement to his leaders, but we get weary. We walk this walk by faith not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7
(For we walk by Faith and not by sight:)
1 Timothy 6:12
"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."
But sometimes there is a disconnect.
(video - Sunday Morning)
I watched a video a few months back. The scene shows a family walking into the church, with big smiles on their faces, waving at everyone because everyone has waved at them because they are seen as the perfect family. All eyes on them like a red carpet event at a movie premier. But it then cuts to the what happens 30 minutes before the grand entrance. The background is where it all happens.
The wife & her son in one bed. Alarm goes off, they have overslept. The father in another bed. Differing in opinion of who should get the kids ready. Wife wears the only dress she can find and realizes the zipper is broken. Husband said he will get a safety pin, but as he gets up his son spills coffee accidentally on his shirt. Daughter not standing still so mom can brush her hair. All the while the fathers toast has burnt. On the way, son realizes he has forgotten his shoe. "Honey we've got to turn around," the wife says. Father doesn't turn around...lol. While driving the father shaves. Then his wife screams out, husband slams on the brakes and his shaver goes up into his head clearing a path for a small Cessna plane to land.
But don't be fooled by the smile people. We all go through.
Naturally speaking, this family shows not just the simple hustle and bustle of a Sunday morning, but the chaos we go through to attain the presence of God. This happens because we strive each week to show Hebrews 10:25 true.
Hebrews 10:25
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."
How can you lift each other up in spirit if their is no fellowship. And this is Paul's mission. To ensure the church is growing, give guidance, rebuke if need be, break bread with fellow believers. But in his travels he describes his problems in doing so.
As a minister of the gospel, you will go through. You will have to fight, beatings you will endure, loss will come, and on top of that you have to deal with church folk.
"Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches."
Paul said that even after being shipwrecked, beaten, stoned (nearly dying), stranded, disliked by the brethren, he still pressed towards his mission. The people. But the people (church) are just as bad as those that don't know Jesus. Gossiping about the Pastor and wife, being jealous of other ministers, not taking their office seriously, not fasting and praying like they should.
Yet we still counsel, pray, lend, fast, give our time to the sheep, the flock of God.
After facing so much outside and within the body of Christ, why would he still continue on? Surely this is not what his God intended. The one who love us first, that is why we love him.
What is the driving force that is greater than all the issues of his life?
Let me describe it this way.
Its like a boxing match. Two titans in their respective weight class, clashing toe to toe, beating each other up, bloodied, broken noses, busted eyes, all for one reason, the Prize.
Philippians 3:12-14
12 "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
(PRESS)
Like the woman with the issue of blood, (Matt 9:21) "If I may but touch his garment I shall be whole." She had to press through the crowd.
The man suffering from palsy that was brought through the roof of the house.
When you want something so badly, you have to go through the crowd that brings obstacles, hindrances,
THE PRIZE
(Phil 3:10-11)
"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto this death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
The knowledge of Christ is obtained by experiencing daily problems, needs, ministry and the same power that raised him from the dead. Knowing Christ also means to go through the same growing pains, sufferings. Paul desires this because it brings him into a closer, more meaningful relationship with.
You may say, why do I want to know Jesus so bad. Well you're looking at the situation through you natural eye. But by the spiritual eye, we can see the glory in following his footsteps.
Be encouraged
I Cor 15:31
"I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily"
In order to die daily (to your flesh), to see if you are actually in the world and not of the world, or still roaming around, you have to be tested.
2 Cor 12:9
"And he said unto,me, My grace is sufficient for these: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
Psalms 119:15 "He that dwells in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the almighty."
