Message for THE LORD S DAY EVENING, November 11, 2012 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister Keep On Keeping On II Corinthians 4:7-12 (NKJV) Please turn with me in your Bibles to our scripture text for this evening in II CORINTHIANS chapter four. P R A Y E R 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 (NKJV) 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you. ******************************************************************************************** I N T R O D U C T I O N One of my dearest friends in the ministry was the late Ben James. Ben had a genuine love for God and for God s people. One of Ben s favorite sayings was Keep On Keeping On! And to Ben that saying was more than words, it was a way of life. Never was that more evident than when Ben was dying of cancer. In those difficult and challenging days, Ben was determined to keep on keeping on. And to the day Ben drew his final breath he persevered by faith.
The scripture text we are considering this evening is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. In this passage the apostle Paul reveals three wonderful truths that will help you and me to KEEP ON KEEPING ON regardless of what difficulties we may face in life. ******************************************************** The first truth to remember is this I. We Have The POWER of GOD Within Us (v. 7) 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 1. Paul begins by revealing the basic material with which God works. He describes us as earthen vessels. earthe n vessels 2. Earthen vessels are made of clay. Earthen vessels are weak and fragile. Earthen vessels are easily broken. 3. We all have earthen vessels in our homes; pots..cups. bowls.and vases. What are these vessels used for? They have one basic use and that is to hold something. When nothing is in them they are nothing more than empty vessels. 4. You and I are earthen vessels. God created us to contain something, and that something is the treasure of God Himself. *God has placed the TREASURE OF CHRIST IN US. *God has placed the TREASURE OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT IN US. *God has placed the TREASURE OF THE GOSPEL IN US. *God has placed the TREASURE OF SALVATION IN US. 5. Let s not miss a wonderful truth here. Normally people put their treasures in something strong and sturdy. * We put our money in a BANK VAULT. * We may put our precious jewelry or gun collection in a LOCKED SAFE. * We may put our VALUABLE DOCUMENTS in a safety deposit box.
6. God placed His treasure in earthen vessels, in weak, fragile human beings like you and me. Now the question is why? Paul answers that for us in this SEVENTH VERSE That the excellence of the power may be of GOD and not us. 7. God wants His glory, His power, His love, His wisdom, and His salvation to be revealed to the world through weak, fragile human beings like us so that the world might see GOD, not us! 8. As Paul penned this SEVENTH VERSE he must have been thinking of an incident recorded in JUDGES 7. In that passage we find the account of GIDEON equipping his army with TRUMPETS EMPTY PITCHERS..and LAMPS INSIDE THE PITCHERS. Remember at the appointed signal, Gideon s men were to blow their trumpets and break the pitchers. It was when those CLAY PITCHERS were broken that the light inside shown brilliantly. 9. We must never forget this truth: That in those times we are the weakest.in those times when we are broken by trials and troubles and hardships, that the LIGHT OF GOD S POWER shines most brilliantly in us. And that is why we must KEEP ON KEEPING ON!
The second truth to remember is this.. II. We Have The POWER of GOD Working For Us (vs. 8,9) 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed 1. In these two verses, Paul now shows us how the POWER OF GOD works in the daily trenches of life. (A) First, Paul says, We are HARD - PRESSED on every side, yet not CRUSHED. That word hard-pressed is a military term meaning to be backed into a corner or to be surrounded by the enemy. Paul faced pressures and stresses every day. Later on in this Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives a detailed listing of the afflictions he endured. 2 Corinthians 11:24-28 (NKJV) 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city,in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness 28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.
Paul had troubles and problems coming at him from every direction and yet he said with bold confidence, WE ARE HARD-PRESSED ON EVERY SIDE, YET NOT CRUSHED. It is doubtful that any of us has ever experienced the degree of troubles the apostle Paul experienced, but in our own way all of us knows what it means to feel hard-pressed on every side. The wash machine breaks down..the coffee pot quits working.your aging parent needs someone to take them to their doctor s appointment and to the drug d store to get a prescription filled.a friend drops their pet Chihuahua off at your house for you to baby sit while they re on vacation You get behind a dump truck on your way to work and a piece of gravel cracks your windshield..and in i your rush to get around the dump truck a State Trooper pulls you over for speeding. By that point you are like a boiling Tea Pot ready to let out a shrill whistle.you ARE HARD-PRESSED ON EVERY SIDE, YET YOU ARE NOT CRUSHED! WHY? Because you have THE POWER OF GOD at work in you to keep you from caving under pressure! (B) Secondly, Paul says, We are PERPLEXED,, but not in DESPAIR. Paul often found himself in situations where he didn t quite know what to do. There were times he didn t understand why God was allowing him to go through some of the things he went through. And yet Paul didn t despair. Paul had complete faith that if GOD BROUGHT HIM TO IT, GOD WOULD BRING HIM THROUGH IT.
Likewise you and I often find ourselves in very perplexing situations. Situations for which we have no answers or solutions. Situations that cause us to cry out, Why me? In his book, Knowing God J. I. Packer provides us with some insight as to why God allows perplexing situations to come into our life. Bro. Packer writes: Perplexities are designed to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy and to drive us to cling to God more closely. God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities to ensure that we shall learn to hold Him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time re-iterating that GOD IS A STRONG ROCK A FIRM DEFENSE A SURE REFUGE..AND A HELP FOR THE WEAK is that God spends so much of His time bringing home to us the truth that we are WEAK (vessels) and dare not place our trust in ourselves. Therefore God uses perplexing situations to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in Him and to wait on Him. In light of that WE DO NOT DESPAIR BECAUSE WE ARE NOT WITHOUT HOPE. WE ARE HARD PRESSED ON EVERY SIDE, BUT NOT CRUSHED! WE ARE PERPLEXED, BUT NOT IN DESPAIR. (C) Thirdly, Paul says, We are PERSECUTED but not FORSAKEN! Paul and his traveling companions faced persecution many, many times, but they knew God had not forsaken them. That is how Paul could KEEP ON KEEPING ON! ILLUSTRATION: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German preacher who was imprisoned by the NAZIS for speaking out against Adolph Hitler wrote in his Letters From Prison the following testimony: I believe that GOD can and will bring good out of evil. For that purpose he needs men who make the best use of everything. I believe GOD will give us all the strength we need to resist in all times of distress, but HE never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not HIM alone.
A fellow prisoner described the final hours of Bonhoeffer s life this way: On Sunday, April 8, 1945, Bonhoeffer held a little service for his fellow Christians. He had hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened and two evil-looking men in civilian clothes came in and said, Prisoner Bonhoeffer, get ready to come with us. Those words, come with us for all prisoners had come to mean only one thing----the scaffold. We bid him goodbye. He drew me aside and said, This is the end, but for me it s the beginning of life. The next day he was hanged at Flossenburg. HE WAS PERSECUTED, BUT NOT FORSAKEN. Is persecution in store for us? Perhaps it is much closer than we think. It is obvious that as this country has moved farther away from GOD the hostility towards those of the Christian faith has increased. My personal belief is that should the Lord tarry His coming much longer, we are on the brink of having our faith tested by fire in a way we have never known before. And if that be the case, we must cling to this wonderful truth that WE MAY BE PERSECUTED, BUT NOT FORSAKEN! WE ARE HARD-PRESSED ON EVERY SIDE, YET NOT CRUSHED! WE ARE PERPLEXED, BUT NOT IN DESPAIR! WE ARE PERSECUTED, BUT NOT FORSAKEN! (D) And fourthly, Paul says, We are STRUCK DOWN,, but not DESTROYED. Paul knew what it was to be brought to the very brink of death itself. In ACTS 14 we read the account of Paul being stoned in Lystra. Acts 14:19-20 (NKJV) 19 Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. 20 However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. It appeared as though Paul had been delivered the death blow! He was struck down but not destroyed!
There are many things that can strike a death blow to God s people in this life: a heart attack.cancer. a tragic accident.a stroke.a s natural disaster. and a host of other things. But even though we are not protected from such tragic events, we know none of these things can destroy our eternal life that we have in Jesus Christ. WE HAVE THE POWER OF GOD WITHIN US. WE HAVE THE POWER OF GOD WORKING FOR US. And the third truth to remember is this. III. We Have The POWER of GOD Witnessing Through Us (vs. 8-12) 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you. 1. We often wonder why God allowed Paul to go through so much hardship and trouble. In our human way of thinking, we might tend to believe that Paul could have served the LORD even more efficiently if God had allowed his path to be free of troubles. 2. But this scripture teaches us that the exact opposite is true. God allowed Paul to go through the beatings and stonings and imprisonments and shipwreck so that his earthly vessel might be broken to allow the glory of GOD to shine through Paul.
3. And God allows you and me to go through hardships and troubles for the same reason. It is during our times of sickness, our times of pain, our times of trial, our times of trouble, our times of sorrow, and our times of defeat, that THE GLORY OF GOD SHINES MOST BRILLIANTLY THROUGH THESE EARTHEN VESSELS OF OURS. 4. It is through life s hardships that our WITNESS OF GOD S POWER IN OUR LIVES shouts. I may be HARD-PRESSED on every side, but by the POWER OF GOD I M NOT CRUSHED! I may be PERPLEXED as to why this is happening to me, but by THE POWER OF GOD I m not in DESPAIR! I may be PERSECUTED, but by the POWER OF GOD I know I m NOT forsaken! And I may be STRUCK DOWN, but by THE POWER OF GOD, I M NOT DESTROYED! 5. This is a power the world does not know or understand. But it is through our RESPONSE and our REACTION to life s greatest difficulties, the world can see the POWER OF GOD at work in us. ******************************************************************************** C O N C L U S I O N As we close I want to share with you The Parable of Water Pot. A man in India had two large water pots that he hung on each end of a pole and carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect. Every day when the man went to the well to fill the water pots, he would arrive home with the perfect pot full of water, and the pot with the crack in it only half full.
The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments and boasted how much more water it had carried than the other pot. One day the pot with the crack in it said to the Indian man, I am ashamed of myself. The man asked the pot, Why are you ashamed? The pot said, Every day for the last two years you have brought me to this well to fill me and I only deliver half of the water by the time you get home. As the Indian man walked home that day, he said to the cracked pot, I want you to notice all the beautiful flowers along our path. When he got to the end of the path, the man said to the cracked pot, Did you notice there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot s side? You see, I have always known about your flaw, and I used you as you are. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walked back from the well, you have watered these flowers, and today I will pick them and use them to decorate my master s table. Like that cracked pot you and I have flaws and imperfections. And we wonder how God could possibly use us to make a difference. But He does! WE HAVE THE POWER OF GOD WITHIN US! WE HAVE THE POWER OF GOD WORKING FOR US! AND WE HAVE THE POWER OF GOD WITNESSING THROUGH US! SO LET S KEEP ON KEEPING ON!