DOWN BUT NOT OUT
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…"
Introduction: Many are going through difficult times and struggling with major issues. For some it is health, or finances, besetting sins, family matters, or a myriad of other battles. Last week we talked about the necessity of guarding your heart. Today I want to encourage you to "Not Lose Heart".
I. Life’s Onslaught
A. Hard Pressed on every side…
1. Thlibo – to press (as grapes), to compress, contract, crush
2. Matthew 7:14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
3. All he could see which ever way he turned was trouble, temptations, trials, and pain. There was nothing good that surrounded him.
4. 2 Corinthians 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
5. Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length,
Pressed so intently, it seems beyond strength,
Pressed in the body, and pressed in the soul,
Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll,
Pressure by foes, and a pressure by friends,
Pressure on pressure till life nearly ends.
B. Perplexed
1. To be without resources, to be in straits, not to know which way to turn, to be completely at a loss with one’s self, be in doubt, not to know how to decide or what to do
2. In spite of all his efforts to escape from trouble, Paul couldn’t find a way out. He was trapped.
3. 2 Corinthians 4:8 (NLB) …We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do...
4. When you look in every direction and all you see is trouble you don’t know which way to go.
5. i.e. The children of Israel – the sea in front of them and Pharaoh’s army behind - Exodus 14:10 - 12 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”
6. A minister asked his staff to tell him what people wrestle and struggle with. They came up with the following: • relationships with families, loved ones, in-laws • economics • finances • gas prices • medical care• too much information, too fast • time balance • sex • secularization • searching for something and not knowing what it is • loss, loss of relationships • change • world issues• job satisfaction • poverty • crime level • aging self and aging parents. The point is that there is always something to struggle with. (Adapted from Dr. Tom Pace, Destined to Struggle.”)
7. Romans, Chapter 7: 15-19, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. I have the desire to do what is good; but I can’t carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”
C. Persecuted
1. Hunted down, put to flight, drive away, mistreat and harassed
2. 2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
3. One young man expressed the despair of the devil’s harassment. “I became very depressed and was in agonizing pain and fear. I fasted, regularly prayed, read the Bible, and went to Church, but the agony and fear did not go away; it was lacerating my soul so that it was even hard for me to walk and to talk. Every movement required so much strength. It felt like someone was dragging me down and hindering my movements. I was constantly harassed by the devil who was telling me that I was a total loser and a failure.” - copied
D. Pummeled – Struck Down
1. Thrown to the ground
2. Paul was tired, sick, hurting, and humanly speaking, he was all alone.
3. It was a dark and dreary day in 1916, a day well suited to the most brutally devastating rout in all of football history. One look at the two teams showed trouble ahead. On the Georgia Tech side were semi-human monsters, gorilla-like behemoths trained by John Heisman, the man football’s highest award was later named after. Heisman was a fanatic. He would not let his Yellow Jackets use soap or water because he considered them debilitating. Nor could they eat pastry, pork, veal, hot bread, nuts, apples, or coffee. His reason? "They don’t agree with me," he growled, "so they’d better not agree with you." The Yellow Jackets, with eight All-Southern players, were intent on building their reputation. They’d lured lowly Cumberland to the game with a $500 guarantee. The Cumberland team had several players who had never played football before. The official who accepted the offer had long since graduated and left the team in the hands of the team manager. Even the trip to Atlanta had been a disaster: Cumberland arrived with only 16 players. Three were lost at a rest stop in Nashville. The game began. Georgia Tech scored 63 points in the first quarter, averaging touchdowns at one-minute-and-twenty-second intervals. Even after such a lopsided start, the rest of the game was filled with tension and drama! No one questioned who would win, of course. But could Cumberland players be convinced to finish the game? The manager, George Allen, paced the sidelines, exhorting the team to "hang in there for Cumberland’s $500." They did, and with it collected the honor of the worst loss in college football history: 222-0. Cumberland also left posterity one of its most memorable football plays. A Cumberland kickoff returnee fumbled, probably from sheer weariness. He yelled to a teammate, "Pick up the ball!" Replied his teammate, "Pick it up yourself! You dropped it!"
4. "I’ve fallen and can’t get up."
II. Life’s Hope
A. A three letter word - "BUT"
B. Pressed BUT NOT distressed – not crushed not compressed.
1. Pressed into knowing no helper but God,
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod,
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings,
Pressed into faith for impossible things,
Pressed into living a life in the Lord,
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured. – Selected
2. There are two ways of handling pressure. One is illustrated by a bathysphere, the miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in places so deep that the water pressure would crush a conventional submarine like an aluminum can. Bathyspheres compensate with plate steel several inches thick, which keeps the water out but also makes them heavy and hard to maneuver. Inside they’re not alone. When their lights are turned on and you look through the tiny, thick plate-glass windows, what do you see? Fish! These fish cope with extreme pressure in an entirely different way. They don’t build thick skins; they remain supple and free. They compensate for the outside pressure through equal and opposite pressure inside themselves. Christians, likewise, don’t have to be hard and thick-skinned--as long as they appropriate God’s power within to equal the pressure without. – Jay Kesler
C. Perplexed BUT NOT in Despair – not utterly hopeless, not lost
1. Romans 5:1 – 5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
2. Christians should not live in despair, because God has a design for their lives.
3. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
D. Persecuted BUT NOT Forsaken – not totally abandoned, not utterly forsaken
1. Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
2. Romans 8:37 - 39 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
E. Pummeled (cast down) BUT NOT Destroyed – not dead, not rendered useless.
1. Proverbs 24:16 For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.
2. "Cast down, but not destroyed", is the shout of a victor.
3. While Jack Crabtree was a pastor at Peninsula Bible Church in 1976 his two-year-old son, John David, swallowed an almond one day and choked to death. But, as the words that Jack spoke at the memorial service for John David demonstrated, though he and Jody were "struck down", they were not destroyed. Here is what he said: John David was more than a son, he was a miniature man who was our constant companion, a really, really good friend. We are going to miss him. But the incredible thing to both Jody and me, I think--I just stand first, unbelieving that it happened; I’m kind of numb and disbelieving--but the incredible thing is our whole reaction to this. There are times when we experience... joy at what a magnificent, merciful, loving thing God has done, when I think about what a fat assignment my son got from the Lord, to come into the world and spend two years having nothing but utter joy...and then being taken home. I feel privileged to have had a son with that kind of an assignment. To be able to serve the Lord and go home to him as a full-grown and mature son now in his glory and to have missed a lot of the process that we have to go through--I’m privileged by that; what a merciful thing. Jody and I are both convinced that God has the right to take our son and that he has exercised that right; he has not done evil of John David, he has done good. But furthermore, he has not done evil of us, because John David is not our god, the Lord is our God. He is our life, he is the bread on which we feed, and he is the one on whom we are going to depend and find our fulfillment in the future. All mankind is formed out of the dust. We are all "jars of clay," and as such we face afflictions, perplexities, persecutions and trauma, both physically and emotionally. When we become Christians we are not suddenly lifted above the normal and abnormal circumstances of life. We are the same "jars of clay", only now we contain the treasure of the life and the power of the resurrected Christ within us. As such we have strength to cope with all the realities which God brings into our lives. We no longer feel crushed, despairing, abandoned or destroyed if we choose to allow the Lord to live through us. We are enabled to see how God uses all these circumstances to his honor and glory, to bring us to spiritual reliance on him and also bring us into spiritual maturity. - How Can We Find Strength To Cope? by Ron R. Ritchie
III. Life’s Victory
A. 2 Corinthians 4:16 - 18 Therefore we DO NOT LOSE HEART. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
B. The Outward Man Perishes while The Inward Man Renews with an eye on the goal.
C. Hebrews 12:1-2 "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."
Disclaimer: Source material for this sermon has been gleaned from many different sources. I have attempted to acknowledge these sources whenever possible. Please feel free to use this message as God’s Holy Spirit directs your heart.
