The Paradox of Our Predicament- Dr. Maurice Watson

robertson pastor William Robinson my friend so many of you Oh Jose good to see you too them second Corinthians chapter 4 verses 7 through 12 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses 7 through 12 really from the New King James Bible if you found this passage can you indicate as such by saying Amen 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 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body for we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus's sake that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh so then death is working in us but life in you we have this treasure in earthen vessels I want to talk tonight about the paradox of our predicament you may be seated the paradox of our predicament homs sachs in his book mass of loving life tells the story of two brothers the younger brother had a fear of opened doors the older brother became impatient and wanted to break him of it and so he threatened him by saying one of these days i'm going to lock you up in a room with all the doors open for those of us who have been a part of the gospel ministry and christian service for any length of time sometimes it seems that we feel like we are locked in a room with open doors the truth of the matter is that we can choose to leave the ministry any time we want to no one holds a gun to our heads daring us not to quit but most of us feel compelled and obligated to tread on in christian ministry despite the problems of pressures and pain that comes with it yes it seems brothers and sisters that on one hand we are captured by a calling that we cannot escape but on the other hand we're free to leave it at any time it seems brothers and sisters that we are locked in a room with open doors that we are residents in what p proles in his autobiography appropriately called my prison without bars locked in a room with open doors residents of a prison without bars captured by a calling that we are free to leave these are such paradoxical notions are they not brothers and sisters reign they seem so nonsensical they seem if you will so so of absurd if you will that we're captured by a calling that we could leave at any moment why do we put up with the headaches and heartaches that we go through in christian ministry and service is if the money i would say perhaps for some but most ministers are underpaid and many have the skills to enjoy a more lucrative lifestyle doing something else or is it the power that and prestige it comes with a title no perhaps for some but i think many of us have long gotten beyond that ego need or is it that we are masochist and enjoy pain no I would give the few among us who have the greatest need to be a victim more credit than that but does it not have to do with the paradoxical nature of the Christian ministry and no one brothers and sisters more understood the paradoxical nature of Christianity than the Apostle Paul listened Paul has over and over again he employs this rhetorical tool of language in which he juxtaposes apparently two seemingly contradictory notions in order to make a spiritual point he would say if you will to the Galatians that we had to walk in freedom and then tell them we are to serve same word for slavery one another but that's a paradox he would tell the Romans that we're to be living sacrifices paradox he would say if you will to the Corinthians when I'm weak then I'm strong paradox he told the Ephesians that we're to walk in wisdom and then turned around and told the Corinthians I'm a fool for Christ how can we find balance in Christian ministry when we are called to live such a contradictory lifestyle brothers and sisters here again in this passage Paul is using this rhetorical tool of language as he defends his apostolate Authority he was the founding pastor of a difficult church in Corinth and many of the people were challenging the authenticity of his Apostleship if you think you have a difficult ministry assignment imagine pastoring a church where the rumor was circulating in the church that you served for your own aggrandizement and imagine writing the church a letter indicating your intent to pay them a visit but they write back to you and say they you not come and imagine pastoring the church where some of the members were saying he's a good writer but he came free and imagine pastoring the church where some of the members didn't want you to be the pastor because you didn't have an impressive physical appearance why did not Paul walk away from a church like that but instead of walking away he stays and defends the authenticity of his Apostleship and even the way that he defends himself is rather paradoxical he does not defend himself by extolling his strengths but rather he defends himself by exposing his weaknesses he does not build a case for himself on the basis of his theological prowess his extensive traveling and and in his knowledge of obstruction no he defends himself not by showing his strength but by showing his weaknesses oh I watch a lot of a lot of educational television of animal channels and sometimes when a smaller animal is being chased by a larger animal when it's backed in the corner that small animal will spread out its arms and puff up his chest to make itself as big as it possibly can it's trying to say to the bigger animal I'm too big for you to eat if I were pastoring this church and they were attacking me I would have maximized myself and I would have said don't you know who I am and who I know downtown and where I went to school but Paul rather defends himself not by maximizing himself but rather by minimizing himself he has a healthy self understanding of who he was in the scheme of God's program and the question then is are you secure enough in your walk with God to minimize your own sense of greatness because at the end of the day you realize that it's not about you and so just for a moment if you will let let me share with you what Paul has to say regarding the paradoxical nature of Christian ministry I just want you to look at the paradoxes here here they are here's the first paradox Paul says in the first place that we are powerful weaklings we are powerful weaklings after highlighting the fact that the glorious gospel that he preached was greater than than the glory that Moses received when he went up on the mountain to receive the law he says that we preach a glorious gospel that he described as the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ we preach a glorious gospel that has more glory than Moses his shining face when he came back down from the mountain but we have discretion in earthen vessels earthen vessels clay jars common clay pots that can be found all over Jerusalem not exquisite fine china but just common clay pots wood cracks and chips and holes in it the contrast he draws is between the expensiveness of the treasure and the inexpensiveness of the container it is between if you will the indispensable treasure and a dispensable container and the paradox about it all is that God would put something so powerful something so precious something so valuable in something so weak think about those things that we value in life we do everything that we can to keep them safe I value my family so I provide a safe home environment my money I value my money so I keep it in a bank in a safe place important papers are kept in in in a fireproof safe to keep them safe nuclear weapons are kept in hardened containers because it would be irresponsible to place something that powerful in a weak container but look at the absurdity of God he places his most precious possession the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ he places that in a weak cracked pot just crack pots with chips and holds it rip the reality is and whatever your title is perhaps you are too - aided repin crackpot doctor crackpot hassle crackpot bishop crackpot that's how wanna what a paradise but it places something so powerful in something so weak I was drinking some water the other day dr. Edwards then I noticed the glass had a crack in it and without even thinking I threw it away because we throw away things that are cracked and chipped and damaged but God on the other hand seems to be looking for people or cracked chipped wheat and damaged we talked a lot about how we trust God but this text by implication suggests that God trusts us because he placed his most precious possession the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ any cracked we we are powerful weaklings powerful because of the gospel we preach but weak because of the human situation we preach to other people and they get delivered from the very thing that we struggle with we preach to other people and their family gets delivered and and and reconciled and we go home and have a divorce we preach to other people and they have delivered from the black night of the soul and we go home and struggle with depression we preach to others and they get delivered from bondage and we struggle sometimes with that same bondage we are powerful but weak because of the gospel that we preach but weak because of the human situation but he tells us why God would put something so powerful something so valuable something so precious in something so weak verse 7 he says so that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us don't make any mistake about it if you have we have any power it is not power that derives from ourselves rather it is a power that God gave it to us God had our gift in eternity he stepped out of eternity into time and placed our gifts in us and step back in to eternity and trust his own sovereignty that he that we are going to use the gift that he has given to us Oh brothers and sisters there it is we are powerful Paul says we are powerful weakness but wait there's another paradox in this passage he tells us secondly here's our condition we are wounded survivors wounded survivors in a telling series of antitheses Paul gives insights of his own self-evaluation he highlights or illness gifts are an illustration to show how powerful the gospel is have we preached and yet how weak we are because of the human situation keep in mind now he's under attack he's being attacked by enemies who are challenging the authenticity of his Apostleship and yet Paul does not build a case for himself by highlighting his accomplishments but rather he peels a case by highlighting his afflictions he suggests that part of the proof that his Apostleship was real was because he did not quit when the going got tough he said here's why you can know that my Apostleship is genuine because I didn't quit I didn't give up I didn't Punk out when life got tough all brothers and sisters in an interesting and interesting certificate istic so the dated a dated statistic from Focus on the Family suggests that fifteen hundred pastors are leaving the ministry every month fifteen hundred a month because of burnout because of moral failure or because of confusion in the congregation for all is not under any he's not in denial about the the trouble that we face daily endure trials and struggles we face daily in ministry no but in an intentional fashion he shouts out what happens to us and then he shouts back what didn't happen to us but the inference is that what didn't happen should have happened are you in today and it stays in his case he uses the conjunction yet or but strong but in the Greek to express the fact that while we are wounded we also survivors listen to Paul as he gives an antiphonal report of our predicament he he shouts out if you will on the left side of the but that we are wounded but he moves to the right side of the button and he shouts back but we are survivors on the left side of the but he says we are hard pressed on every side but he moves to the right side and shouts back yet not crushed on the left side of the but he says we are perplexed sometime we don't know what to do but on the right side but he shouts back but not in this manner on the left side the puppy says we apasa cuted but he moves to the right side and shouts back but not forsaken on the left side of the book he said will struck down but on the right side he shoves back and says but we have not destroyed and dependent on which side of the butt that you live on will determine whether you can make it am I talking to somebody tonight that's step on the left side of but you can't get over the fact that your leaders are fighting you like they are they won't follow you there they work against everything you try to do in the church sometimes it gets discouraging you want to quit you want to throw in the towel struck on the left side a button but it is my prayer that this little message will push somebody's faith from the left side of book to the right side of butt well you can say I'm wounded but I'm still a survivor Charles Spurgeon was at the height of his preaching career when on march 19th 1856 he decided to rid out the Surrey gardens Music Hall to have an indoor revival 12,000 people were there 1856 12,000 people it was considered then the largest indoor audience that ever gathered to hear sermon up until that point indoor Spurgeon was under attack he was under attack if you will by the cavernous he was under attack by the state Church the Anglican Church the press were attacking him they had made a curricular out of him a cartoon out of him because he had the unmitigated gall to hold a religious service in a secular vendor venue and there they were 12,000 people strong in the sûreté Gardens Music Hall and all of a sudden some sick wacko person yelled out fire fire the balcony is falling and in the impending stampede seven people were trampled to death Spurgeon went into a deep depression locked himself behind the doors of a room his elders thought he had lost his mind he thought he'd never come out I submit to you today he was on the left side a but but had he quit he would have been a footnote in history had he quit that would be no for this no notes to the four thousand sermons are due 26 volumes of sermon had he quit that would be no Metropolitan Tabernacle head he quit that would be no spurgeon college had he quipped that would be no more furnaces for the children but somehow Spurgeon's faith moved him from the left side of book to the right side and the rest is history I want to tell somebody today you can survive whatever life throws at you if you learn to live on the right side of but Tim's on what kind of faith you have if you have one way faith one way faith says I'm in hell I'm catching hell but I'm here to tell you you ought to have round-trip faith round-trip space says I've been to hell but I'm back you remember when we were little children we used to have a little toy call mr. weevil you remember weebles wobble but he don't fold that you can hit mr. weevil as hard as you want to and the harder you hit him the father he leaves but something along the inside stands him back up that's round tripping we are powerful weakness there it is we are wounded survivors but there's one more true Furman and I'm in my seat we are dying life givers I said dying life givers in a strange paradox posh signifies that there is a union between the suffering that we endure for the gospel and the suffering that Christ endured on the cross he juxtaposes two diametrically opposite terms death and life in order to highlight the fact that we are dying like givers so he says in verse 10 that we are always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies there it is he said we are always carrying about the dying of the Lord Jesus it is a participle which means that we are continually in the process of dying for the Lord Jesus he said we care it about in our bodies the dying of Allah that bishop that's funeral home language it's almost like he's saying that we appalled bearers for Christ the will care about the dying of the Lord Jesus so that the life of the Lord may be manifested in you all brothers and sisters Eugene Peterson in his message Bible paraphrase is it like this he says while we are going through the worst you're getting in on the best verse 12 he says so then death is working in us but life didn't you in other words what's killing us is giving life to them are y'all with me here today what's killing us is giving life to others let me get out of here this way friend of mine said he passes in in Tennessee and said that one day at the end of his service he had just finished preaching church was full and he was seven note saying that his daughter had been rushed to the hospital she was 12 years old at the time it was a rare case comeback case of the scarlet fever and so he said pastor you need to leave right now we got to get you to the hospital because your daughter is very ill and so they were telling the public you don't make a hole so that the pastor can leave they announced that the pastor's daughter was sick and he needed to get him they needed to get him to the hospital and on his way through the crowd he said a woman stopped him one of his members and said pastor my son is strung out on drugs and I just want to know do you have a word for me it is he's trying to get to the hospital to sleep out his own child but all they wanted to know is do you have a word for me let me tell you something with all that we go through people do not want to know and in some cases do they care to know what the pastor is going through all people want to know is when they come home Sunday do you have a word for me [Applause] what's killing us is giving life to them here we are there is our predicament we are powerful weaklings here we are that is our predicament we are wounded survivors here we are that is our predicament we are dying like givers the reality is pal child of God that ministry is difficult sometimes ministry drives us to the point that we want sometimes we feel like giving up sometimes we feel like throwing in the towel sometimes we feel like quitting child of God it was Peter and China that they told not to preach nor teach anymore in in the name of Jesus but but Peter but Peter said say I'm sorry but we cannot help but Speak the things that that we've seen and heard in other words we've got to keep reaching he said because we have seen too much we were eyewitnesses of Jesus's ministry we saw him 20 heal the sick we saw him 20 raised today we saw 20 unsub their heads we saw ever pretty raise up a man's daughter from a deathbed we've got to keep reaching he said because we have seen too much we keep reaching because we oh ye that labor will give you rest we have when you said take my yoke upon you and learn of me we heard when it said I am the way the truth and the life we've gotta keep reaching because we've seen too much because we felt it was [Music] [Music] because we [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: New Hope Baptist Church

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Length: 29min 56sec (1796 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 17 2018