Good morning to you. I'll try that again. Good morning. That's better.
I am suffering from one of those cold, fluid kind of things that goes around So this will either be a sermon or a devotional depending on how long the Lord allows me to have a voice so Start off. I want to begin first though in thanking the body of believers here for being who God has you be During this current season in the life of our family God has opened the door for me to to preach in different churches to fill pulpits and One of the decisions we made in this season was that I wasn't going to make my family have to travel around from place to place So knowing that they can gather here with you and that they are loved and cared for that the gospel is preached faithfully week after week that They are encouraged is a huge blessing to me as I'm in different places Sunday after Sunday So thank you to the body here. That means a lot I also want to share with you just a testimony of how amazing the Lord is and all the ways that he Reminds us who he is and how he loves and cares for us in our current season One of the things that the Lord has been showing us how he cares for us is in in sometimes very practical means that remind us of how spiritually he cares for us So I want to tell you a little story One day I'm working at the job the Lord's provided for me during the week where I work as a cashier And I'm standing in the at my cash register And I've got a long line of people and it's getting to the latter part of the evening and and all of a sudden I have this couple with a teenager there and I'm ringing through their merchandise and I'm running through all the basic things that You know do you have an IKEA family card paper or plastic those kinds of things and all of a sudden this lady goes you taught at the Christian school And I went yes a long time ago And then she introduced me to her son who was a teenager who had attended at the Christian school for a period of time Not when I was there and I went oh that's good And then and then the husband looks at me and goes and and you used to to preach oh and sackful and I said yes Hoping it wasn't gonna get to an awkward conversation at that moment and they just said thank you for your ministry And off they went and then I dealt with another customer and the next person alive was somebody that I knew well And so we had a little chit chat as I'm running through his merchandise And we decided we were gonna get together for coffee later that week So that was all good and went through the rest of the evening went home didn't think much more about it Then on the day I was supposed to meet my friend for coffee. I showed up and he didn't it was I'm sitting in the restaurant It was Valentine's Day And I made the mistake of saying to the waitress I think I've been stood up and suddenly She was she was so comforting and and everything and saying how bad she felt and maybe they maybe they would just give me my coffee for free And then it clicked and no no no no no no no So this was just a friend meeting a friend that's all it was So later I got a text and my friend had been at a business trip in Toronto and had been snowed in there and had Made me back and he was really apologetic and it's like you know, it's okay.
It happens. It's like we were gonna get a coffee It's not like a summer conference or something and so he kept trying to rearrange it and our schedules weren't meshing now Jump ahead now. It's a week later and we had arranged to meet that morning before I would have to go to work Well at the same time in our household we have a washing machine We bought it second-hand ten years ago. It has been a faithful beast, but it's slowly beginning to die So now in order to make it do most of its functions you have to stand there and watch it It also is beginning to you know lose bladder control from time to time And and every so often to make it spin you just sort of have to hip check it enough times to get it to start to shake And then it'll do its thing so we know that it is not long for this world So that morning it was becoming particularly troublesome as I'm about to head out the door and Samantha says to me She said you're gonna have to go and get us some money because we're gonna have to prepare to replace the washing machine And I said somewhat tongue-in-cheek I said well make this a matter of prayer today because I'm gonna go in her in the princely summer 50 bucks at work today at minimum wage So I went out and I met up with my friend for coffee and he says I have something I have to tell you and something I have to give you he said you remember back the day the evening that I was there in your line You were talking with somebody before you got to me and I said yeah He said well when we took our merchandise out we went out to the parking lot and we went over to our car We're putting stuff in the car and all of a sudden this man and a woman walk up to us in the parking lot And they say do you know that cashier in there?
We saw you talking to him and they said yeah, he's a good friend of ours and And all of a sudden the lady says the spirit has constrained us that we're supposed to give him something and said My I felt it and I mentioned to my husband and she felt it too So then we went in we went up to the head cashier and said would you please give this some of money to that cashier over there? Well that doesn't happen He said no and told them to go so he said we've been standing out here in the parking lot praying wondering what to do And then we saw you walking over to your car So we feel we're supposed to give this to you to give to him and so they did and then my friend said he I got in my car With my wife my wife looks at me and goes okay strangers don't walk up to strangers in parking lots of stores and hand them sums of money for other people and He said no they don't So he said I had this plus we had a little gift We wanted to give you and I wanted to give it to you that day we were gonna meet for coffee And I couldn't believe it when I woke up and I'm just gonna be stuck in Toronto It's like Lord you know I have this I'm supposed to give it to Stephen Why am I stuck in Toronto and I started to laugh and I said because last week I wouldn't know what it was for this morning I know what it's for and that is just one of the little ways that the Lord shows us How he cares for us because in those practical ways those are secondary to the bigger picture of how he cares for us If you have your Bibles with you if you would open up to 2 Corinthians, please 2 Corinthians We're gonna go into the word 2 Corinthians you can begin to look at chapter 1 beginning to read at verse 3 Once you found it, let's go to the Lord in prayer our Lord and our God We come to you today Recognizing that you are all we have sung about and more All we have reflected on as we gather together around the Lord's table this morning Lord we praise you for you are worthy to be praised Lord we praise you for your salvation Purchase with the blood of your own dear son He who knew no sin who became sin for us so we might become the righteousness of God in him Lord we praise you for your spirit the seal of our inheritance in dwelling every believer Lord we praise you for your church Every believer assembled together you Have established it your son is the head of it and it has endured and marched forward for 2,000 years Lord we praise you for your word that we can open this morning which you have preserved for us Lord we pray that your spirit would speak to us through it and as always Lord we ask for eyes to see and ears to hear From minds to understand and most of all for hearts to be changed For your glory and yours alone in Jesus Christ, amen This is where I'll also tell you that what I'm sharing with you this morning is not what I planned to share with you At the beginning of the week at the beginning of the week I was going to share something else and then as the week progressed in my own devotional reading the Lord drew me to These passages that I was reading and I believe the Lord wants to speak to us through them Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles So that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives So also through Christ our comfort overflows if we are distressed It is for your comfort and salvation if we are comforted It is for your comfort which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings We suffer and our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings So also you share in our comfort We do not want you to be uninformed brothers about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life indeed in our hearts We felt the sentence of death But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead He has delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him We have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us As you help us by your prayers that many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many One of the things that strikes me as we look at this epistle is The very great honesty of the writers as they're moved by the Spirit, but also the power of the testimony Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort Who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God When you think of the world in which we live today We live in a world that is overwhelmed with trouble of every kind In the place where I work I see thousands of people come through every day And one of the things that I've come to do just because sometimes it's not overly brain taxing to simply run the scanner Is to look at the faces of the people who come by And you know yesterday was one of our peak days at the store with so many people coming through There were times where I probably could have counted the number of happy-looking people on one hand People who were making great purchases getting all the things that they wanted or needed or even convinced would make their lives better And yet the weariness and the burden and the despair on faces were everywhere and We who know Christ who have experienced the father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us And I love the truth of this and verse 4 who comforts us in all our troubles There are doctrines that will say if you follow God all your troubles are gone That's not what scripture teaches scripture teaches that in the midst of our trials and our tribulations in the midst of our suffering He is present with us as our comfort So we still battle diseases. We still have strife that may come our way We still face these things but the difference is we have the God who comforts us Who can give us peace in the midst of tribulation who can give us joy in the midst of suffering and the world cannot comprehend that? And we may say at times well, why is it that way?
And the apostle expresses it so clearly here when we read in verse 8 when he says we do not want you to be uninformed brothers About the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia He's like saying look just in case you think things have been going pretty smoothly. They've not been We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we Despaired even of life indeed in our hearts. We felt the sentence of death This verse goes against one of those common cliches that are tossed around and sometimes even appear on mugs and cross stitches God won't give you more than you can handle actually God will give you more than you can handle God will give me more than I can handle Why it says right here? But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves But on God who raises the dead He has delivered us from such deadly peril and he will deliver us that their focus was not on their ability They had reached the end of themselves and there they discovered the God who was faithful to carry them The God who was able to give them a testimony and whether he would walk with them and deliver them from the trial or whether he walked with them Through the trial whether the trial brought them even to death itself They were comforted because the God who overcame death was the God who was with them Based on that introduction I'd like you to look a little farther in the epistle I encourage you when you're at home to read it all through and mark it all up like I like to do But turn to chapter four in chapter four We see an interesting passage because this passage is sort of caught between the phrase We do not lose heart and for the rest of the morning Lord willing This is where I'd like us to focus because I believe in this passage that is captulated in chapter four of second Corinthians We see the Lord through the apostle reminding us of how we do not lose our passion our focus our power our faith and our vision So starting at the beginning of chapter four and these headings are not my own Therefore since through God's mercy we have this ministry we do not lose heart Rather we have renounced secret and shameful ways We do not use deception nor do we distort the word of God on the contrary by setting forth the truth plainly We commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God We do not lose our passion our passion which we have because of God's mercy expressed to us through Jesus Christ And we do not lose heart Instead we cast aside all the trappings all the ways of the world and we share the truth of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ one of the things that Burdens me and I noticed no burdens others in our contemporary age is this mindset that we have to properly package the good news of the gospel In order to make it relevant or contemporary in order to make it palatable And yet Paul is telling us that we don't do that.
There is no bait and switch God has a wonderful plan for your life. This is what it is It's speaking the message plainly as I was meditating on this on Friday. I remembered when the first summers I worked at camp One of our kids camps We had a speaker coming in and he was an elderly gentleman and when he arrived he just exuded old And when you're at camp where everything is fast paced and energetic exuding old Seemed a bit concerning I can remember him because he'd be walking along and he kind of was a bit hunched over and So his neck was out and he white hair and sort of walk a little slow as the kids are all zipping by and he was gonna be our speaker And I remember thinking as an 18 year old's going How is this gonna go? Gotta be prepared to do crowd control in chapel because I give him about five minutes and he's gonna lose them The man came in the chapel and it was true at first because he tried to make some jokes They weren't funny and he tried to make a few amusing a few anecdotes and little illustrations and the kids didn't get them Then he opened up the Word of God and he preached the Word faithfully and he preached the Word clearly and he had them He had their attention They were 10 to 12 year olds and they were listening to him Why?
Because it was a spirit doing the work He had opened up the Word of God and he was presenting it faithfully and truthfully and the Spirit Was working through the Word and we saw lives changed and the kids wanted to come back to chapel each time wanted to come back to chapel And I remember being struck by that and the Lord has brought that to me many many times to convict me since to say that it isn't about How the world says well present it this way give it this feel do this and you'll get people in That we're told no our passion is the same gospel to transform us. We share honestly truthfully plain By setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God And even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers So they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ Who is the image of God? So that's our passion our passion is because of what Christ has done for us We in the same open and honest and plain way share the good news of the gospel to those around us And then we have our focus for we do not preach ourselves But Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake We don't preach Northbrook Bible Chapel. We don't preach a particular denomination.
We don't preach a particular ethos We don't preach a particular philosophy. We preach Christ We preach him we preach Christ and then what is our role? What is our focus in that is the recognize that we are his servants to one another? We are his servants to one another.
We remember our passion. We remember our focus For God who said let light shine out of darkness made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory Of God in the face of Christ We could just meditate on that verse for the rest of the morning and how well it ties into those who were around the Lord's table this morning as we look at light For God who said let light shine out of darkness made his light shine in our hearts To give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Think about that for a moment the imagery that's being set up here that the same God who spoke light into existence The beginning of Genesis in the creation of the world left there be light and there was light and imagine what that was illuminating the universe is The same God who through the work of Christ brings light into our lives Transforming us by himself Give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Then we come to the familiar verses verse 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us This helps us remember what our power is our power is not us Our power is not us and that beautiful picture of a jar of clay and as we've often heard that in the ancient world and homes Which didn't have a lot of storage spaces oftentimes they were one room that if you had valuables Maybe you had something that was very important to you that you would either store it in a regular jar or sometimes You'd even take it and in case it with clay and have it baked So it was actually baked into the jar so that thieves wouldn't find it and steal it if you looked at it It wasn't really that pleasant to look at it actually was very plain kind of ugly But the secret was what it held inside it that's us. Sorry don't necessarily stand out humanly speaking may never receive the accolades or the position that Society notices, but that doesn't matter because the power of God at work in and through us Accomplishes his purposes for his glory. It's his power not mine So I don't have to worry about whether I've got it just so Because if the Lord wants to do something through me he is powerful enough to do it through me as one dear brother said if he can Make a donkey talk he can use you too But it's bigger than that all of a sudden the pressure is off me It's independence on him.
He is the power to do his work In and through me in and through us in and through you that's our power So we've had our passion our focus and our power and then he continues We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed Perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not abandoned struck down but not destroyed On all these things because of God's power at work in us Will there be suffering will there be trials? Yes, but God's power will be at work We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake so that his life Maybe we revealed in our mortal body so then death is at work in us, but life is at work in you It is written. I believed therefore I have spoken with that same spirit of faith We also believe and therefore speak We need to not forget our faith What we have put our belief in our belief is not simply in a set of doctrines our belief is in the person of Jesus Christ Our belief is in his finished work upon the cross that has bought our redemption our belief is in the spirit that indwells us And because of what we have our faith in we speak because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead Will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence sometimes I try to grasp the magnitude of that and how freeing it is I remember hearing the testimony once of a gentleman who was in Vietnam and He was a Vietnamese pastor trying to proclaim the gospel and he was constantly being set upon By the authorities by those in the community who did not want him to share the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ now at one point they put him in prison and Did horrendous things to him to humiliate him? And at one point they made him wear clothes that were ill fitting and they told all the other prisoners that he was their clown And he said at first that was very discouraging to him because then in his culture of course honor was important He said then I began to realize that I had a position with Christ said I was accepted into beloved I was a joint heir with Christ.
So what did it matter what I look like? My position was already secure with him and all of a sudden I felt comfortable dressed the way I was I said that didn't go over well And they said they began to to threaten him. They said we will remove all your comforts from you And he said well the Lord is my comfort So that didn't go over well, and then finally they sat him down. He said we are going to take your life And he said and I remembered the one who raised Jesus from the dead had promised to raise me as well And I looked and said you can take it But the Lord will raise me up again to be with him and he said all of a sudden I realized wait a minute They have no power over me at all and he said I began to laugh and was filled with joy because I realized they had no power over me at all There was absolutely nothing really eternally significantly they could do to me Save in this brief season Certainly after that they let him go because he was just getting too annoying Because what do you do with a man that you can't intimidate?
What can you do with a man that you can't manipulate when he is so secure in the finished work of Christ and so secure and what the Lord has promised him That there is no power over him anymore All this verse 15 is for your benefit that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanks giving to overflow To the glory of God therefore and we come to the second part we do not lose heart Though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles Or achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all so we fix our eyes not on what is seen But on what is unseen for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal So we've seen our passion our focus our power our faith and then finally our vision But the Lord fixes our vision our vision is to be set on eternal things Our vision is set on the things that matter to God and how he is working We too easily become distracted and our world is a master at it. I'm trying to focus on spiritual things what there's a new iPhone I must see what this can do. Oh look it does all the same things the old one did but it's bigger. I must study this now Distraction there's a new series of this there's a new channel for that look there's a new thing like that I can remember when the things that blows me away is walking to malls and seeing signs like you deserve this you need this It's pants that already are ripped I must have that And the Lord is saying to us no Fix your eyes on what is not seen at this level see the things that matter glorifying the Lord living out Christ aching for the lost Because all the distractions all simply lead on to destruction But when our vision is set on him then we see when he's working then we see the ways that he is faithful Then we see how he is indeed the God of all comfort how he is our power How we have a passion how our faith is true And we can live it out So that is my encouragement to you today.
I pray the Lord speaks to you through it to remember our passion Since through God's mercy we have a ministry. We do not lose heart Remember our focus that we do not preach ourselves But Jesus Christ is Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake our power That we have this treasure and jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us our faith I believed and therefore I have spoken with that same spirit of faith. We also believe and therefore speak and our vision So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen for what is seen is Temporary but what is unseen is eternal brothers and sisters. I encourage you I pray that you would remember and encourage me in turn That we remember these things in an age in a time where the world is aching when they see a believer Who is walking in the passion of Christ who has the focus of the mission of Christ who is recognizing that it's all the power of Christ at work When our faith is sincere when our vision is set People will come and they will ask the question because I've seen it happen even in my week and frail and shy and inverted ways where Somebody will suddenly come and why do you react this way?
Why do you live this way? Why are you happy? And then you have the opportunity to say let me tell you why because I know the God of all comfort I met him through his son Jesus Christ Who when I was dead in my trespasses and sins he came and he paid the penalty for my sin and then see someone come to Christ As we read in verse 15 all this for your benefit So that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanks giving to overflow to the glory of God And why do we live this out? So more people will come to God Through Christ and with each person who is redeemed the Lord is glorified Which each person is redeemed the Lord is glorified and as glory is magnified on the earth and we can celebrate that Let's pray Father we praise you that we can have a passion that is real and a focus that is true and power That is not limited by us or controlled by us That we can have a faith that is not simply made up that is based on the truth of who you are and what you've accomplished And that we can have a vision guided by your spirit and your word in the midst of all the things we face You are able and working for your glory and for the salvation of souls But Lord I know the distractions that come the doubts and the questions So Lord I pray even now for all of us that your spirit working through your word and for the testimony of believers would encourage us and challenge us in the days ahead For your glory and yours alone for the salvation of souls For the lifting up of the name of Christ we ask in Jesus name amen.
Thank you