Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Special Services / Easter Season 2001

Palm Sunday 2001

Introduction: "We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." There is something in our text this morning that no one here wants and something every one here wants.

     I would bet that no one here this morning wants to lose heart. I would venture to say that no one came to church thinking  "I sure hope we sing some songs and hear a sermon that really makes me depressed. I really want to be depressed this morning." No one really wants to be discouraged or depressed. No one wants to feel like the battle for sanity in life is lost. Neither did Paul.
     On the other hand, I bet there isn't a person here this morning who doesn't want their life to be renewed and made fresh every day. The mercies of God are new every morning and we desperately want to experience that. Often for many of us, the feelings of strength, hope, and courage only last for a little while and then fade away under the pressure of everyday life...if we can call what we struggle through living.
     If we are going to be strong on the inside and have hope, joy and the desire and ability to love, we are going to have to be renewed day by day. We know that. And we desperately long for it.

Explanation: Christians face trial after trial. Many of you are up to here in trial and it seems that there is no good way out of it. Many of you are tired and weary of trying to fight whatever the battle is you are now experiencing.  If there is a secret to being made strong, hopeful, joyful and loving, day by day, I know you're interested.  I believe our text reveals this secret.

    God sustains! In Christ, there is victory over your circumstances. He has already defeated anything that may attempt to break you, to crush you. Our victory is a sure thing, a done deal, in Christ. Let me illustrate.

ILL: At the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics several years ago, eight hundred special athletes came to participate in games designed just for them. These young men and women made their way into the sports stadium, marching around the track, banners held high and flags waving. Some of them limped, some had braces on their legs and used crutches to walk. Others had arms that dangled uselessly by their sides. Some were in wheelchairs and had to be pushed but they were all filled with the excitement of the games.
    When all the athletes were in place, everyone waited for the entry of the Olympic torch. A young teenager named Joel entered the stadium and began to run around the track with the torch held high. The farther Joel went, the faster he ran until finally he was running as hard as he could go. The people in the stands began to catch the excitement of this young man and his run to the platform.
    They stood and began to applaud, then to yell, and finally to cheer. Young Joel came down before the stands, ran up to the platform, and in true Rocky fashion, jumping up and down waving his arms, he thrust the torch in the air as high as it would go.
    As the spectacle unfolded, one word came to mind – victory. Victory – they had already won it! Before the games started, before the first race was won, before any one of them grew too weak and tired to finish that race, before anyone finished last, victory had already been won.
    Victory was in the air; it was on their faces; it was in their voices; in truth, it was in their hearts. Eight hundred special athletes,  maimed, and crippled, and yet they stood and cheered young Joel. Why? Because, regardless of the outcome of the games, they had already won.

     This should be the spirit of the Christian life. For all who are in Christ, before the game of life begins, before the contest of hard knocks ever gets underway, we have already won the victory.

 We have already won ,

even before we loose that job,
even before we had the heart attack,
even before we go to counseling for that deteriorating     marriage,
even before the grief and sorrow we feel over the loss of   a loved one,
even before those feelings of desperation, loniless,
even before we think will we never know peace again. before any of that, the faith in our hearts cries out
                                                        ...OUR VICTORY IS IN CHRIST!!!!

Transition: 'How can I know for sure Pastor? You don't know how bad my situation is. I really need to know that God will be with me.' I believe Paul felt the same way. Paul, in our text, was saying, If you want to know how to find peace in the storms of life understand that it is God who will sustain you. And he will do it four ways.

I. God, in Christ, is your true treasure (vs. 7)
Read: 2 Cor. 4:7

     What is the treasure that we have? It is Christ himself. We see this in vs. 6.
Read: 2 Cor. 4:6

     How does God sustain us through the hard times in life? By placing Christ in us, through His Holy Spirit. Intimacy, with Christ sustains us. By saying that this treasure, Christ, is placed in earthen vessels, Paul is acknowledging that we are prone to hardship as Believers. Earthenware was very common in Paul's day. It was very brittle and cracked and broke easily under  pressure and if not handled carefully.

    Paul by using the illustration of earthenware was saying that there is nothing inherent in our being that makes us worthy of such a great treasure.Earthenware was cheap, commonplace. It had little intrinsic value. When broken it was just thrown away.

Application: Paul wants to encourage and comfort you by saying that in the midst of difficult times, it is natural for you to feel useless, broken and unworthy of God's attention. BUT, God has chosen to place His greatest treasure, Jesus Christ, in you, so that you will acknowledge your weakness and God's power over whatever situation you may find yourself in. Therefore, we do not lose heart because God sustains us through hard times when his power is exalted in our weakness.

Transition: Next, Paul assures us that God sustains us in difficult times because...

II. God will not allow more than you can handle (vs 8-12)
Read: 2 Cor. 4:8-12

     When we come to this text, it is natural to hear only the bad things that happened to Paul. Afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted, carrying in him the dying of Jesus.  But, we need to go back and concentrate on the other part of what Paul said...
        BUT not crushed,
             BUT not despairing,
                  BUT not forsaken,
                       BUT not destroyed,
                                that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body.

     I have seen many of you endure very difficult situations, some of which you are still fighting. I have seen some of you stand up to almost unbelievable amounts of stress and still have the assurance that you will not be abandoned by God.

Read: 2 Cor. 4:8-12 again

     Hear the hint of celebration in his voice? Yes, life is hard, it is extremely hard and sometimes it even seems not to be fair. And many of us live there and concentrate there..like Lee and Peg said last week in the Adult SS Class. Do we concentrate on the circumstances, on Satan or on God? Where we focus will determine how we live...defeated or suspicious or victorious?

     Paul says, choose victory. In Christ, you are stronger than you think because God sustains you by His power in you and he will never allow you to go through more than you...Christ and you, can handle.

    Therefore, we do not lose heart, because God sustains us through hard times by never allowing us to be defeated.

Transition: Paul tells us how God sustains us through the hard circumstances of life.

III. God renews your spirit when circumstances get you down         (vs. 13-16)
Read: 2 Cor. 4:13-16

     In these 4 verses we see 3 ways God renews your spirit.
        Faith
         Christians are called Believers because of their great faith in Christ. Christians believe, have faith in the promises of God as found in His holy Word, the Bible.   We not only stand upon the promises of God as the Hymn says, we place our very lives, as hard and complicated as they may be on them. We have faith.

        We have faith in Rom. 8:28 that says 'And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according  to His purpose.'

        We have faith in Rom. 8:31 that says 'What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us."

        We have faith in Rom. 8:37-39 that says 'But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities not things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created things shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

         God sustains us through hard times by deepening our faith, our trust in Him and in His Word.

    Hope
         Paul also says we are sustained by God because of the hope he has placed in us through the resurrection of His Son, Jesus. We will all die one day. Jesus did. But Jesus was raised from the dead and we have the promise of God that because we are in Christ, we too shall be resurrected from the dead.

         The Christian lives life with the resurrection in mind. They long for it. It is a consuming passion of the heart, to be with Jesus, resurrected and forever in His presence.

         God sustains us through hard times by exciting our hope in our resurrection from the dead.

    Love
         Finally, Paul tells us that God sustains us by of our love for one another. This one is perhaps the hardest to see...and believe. You may not be going through your crises for your own benefit...but for the benefit of others.

         Because of the love God has poured out n our hearts, because of the churches call to be a community united by love, the believers refuses to be defeated because people around them need to see the manifold grace of God worked out in the seemingly impossible circumstances of their lives. When others see Christ in you, especially in the hard times, they will glorify God.

         Therefore, we do not lose heart, because God sustains us through hard times by the faith, hope and love that are ours in Christ.

Trans: Lastly...

IV. God encourages you with the 'Big Picture' (vs 17-18)
Read: 2 Cor. 4:17-18

     Paul was able to put the 'moment' of his crises in the context of eternity. Often when we get discouraged about what is happening in our lives, it helps if we step back to get a broader perspective. As a people we have become spiritually nearsighted and live in a world of instant everything. Because of this we have lost our perspective of time. Time has a way of reversing the pain of our circumstances and of telling us what really was valuable and permanent and what was  useless and temporary. Paul says, God will encourages us in the midst of our troubles by showing us the big picture.

 What is the Big Picture?
    1. The troubles you are going through are only temporary.
         Your difficulty will end, it will not have the last word in my life.

    2. The troubles you are going through are light.
         This does not mean they are easy or painless. It means compared to what is awaiting you in heaven, it has no weight.

    3. The troubles you are going through are producing for you a  heavy weight of glory in heaven.
         Believers, listen. Not one moment of pain, not one tear is shed that is not producing rewards in heaven.

Conclusion
     As I close, I want to ask you to be honest with yourself. Do you qualify as one who has some complaints about your life and the circumstances that are hindering your living it to it's fullest?

     Do you feel afflicted in every way, perplexed, confused, even struck down?
 Well, you are in good company. Paul, and perhaps almost everyone here this morning can say they qualify.

     I want you to commit to memory 2 Cor. 4:16

'Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.'

     Though we suffer, though we are weak, though our bodies are shutting down, though we are treated horribly by others around us, God will sustain us because we live by His power in this earthen vessel.

ILL: Martin Luther sometimes succumbed to depression. During a time when he was passing through a "fiery trial" his wife, Cathy, dressed in black and entered his study. She said "God is dead!" "Nonsense, woman, God is alive!" answered Luther. Then she replied, "If you believe that God is living, act like it! Live like it!"

     There is victory in Christ. Trust this promise. Claim it as your own. When life gets hard, seemingly impossible, when you are hurt and wounded, when things don't work out as you like ...know that you are still not defeated. The final victory has already been won in Christ...and if you are in Christ you share in His victory.

    We live in a world that has gotten used to defeat. Too many people make peace with despair as if it is their only choice..It isn't! We know it isn't.  And as we enter into a time of communion around the Lord's Supper, we will not only remember his death....we must celebrate his life. It is because of his life in us that we have the assurance that God will sustain us.

Say it with me... Therefore, we do not lose heart!