When Your Engine is Fried

It is great to be here on a beautiful day. I don't know if you guys saw this, but I just have to show you just a little bit of this story. An amazing story on our local news station, Channel 8, just the other day. A puppy fell from the sky. Safely. Watch this, an amazing story. A two-month-old puppy that was almost a goner after he was picked up by a hawk and, well, sent airborne in Los Vamos. Well, the little guy either had some fight in him or the hawk had some slippery talons. Whatever the case, he now has a new home and an exceptional tale of survival.

Action News reporter, Todd Miller, joins us live from our Salinas newsroom tonight with the story. Aaron, the puppy is now named TJ Heavenly after the boy who found him in the place where he says the puppy came from. The seven-year-old was playing in his backyard when he looks down and he says he sees a puppy at his feet. He just loves you, Taylor. Yes, he loves his daddy now, huh? He's a welcome gift from above who fell into loving arms. The eight-week-old puppy was dropped an estimated 30 feet from the unsteady grip of a hawk's talons.

If you look at him right now, he is so wiggly and his nose, he's such a little bulldozer. I could actually see him wiggling right out of the talons of it. You can actually see a mark here, here, and here. That's where the claw was holding him. He's like one of our families. The puppy was first spotted by seven-year-old Taylor Calloway. Taylor was walking along in his backyard when he looked down and saw a puppy and started yelling out. I said puppy, puppy, and then mommy just said, yeah, right. They're like, what do you mean puppy? He's like, puppy.

The hawk that almost got him lives at the top of a tree on the family's property. Elaine Bouchard says his escape wasn't an accident and it's now her responsibility to raise him. My thought is that when a god drops a puppy from the sky, you keep it. That's a great story, isn't it? How many of you have kids at home? Raise your hand. How many of you hope that they never see that story because they'll be praying for God to drop a puppy from heaven for the rest of their lives, right?

It's a great story, but you know what? God doesn't always send puppies, right? It doesn't always rain cute fuzzy animals. Sometimes it just rains and it rains hard and those are the times we want to talk about this morning. Grab your message notes that look like this. They're right in the middle of the bulletins that you were handed when you came in. Today we're in a series called Fuel, learning about different people in the Bible and what they said about filling your tank when it's empty.

So far we have looked at Elijah, Jesus, Nehemiah, and today we wrap up the series with a look at the Apostle Paul. And I want to look at Paul because so far in this series we've been talking about what you could call kind of garden variety burnout. You know, the kind of burnout that can be cured physically by getting some rest and that's very important. Or spiritual burnout which can be cured by worshiping God and getting into the word and that's huge.

But as your pastor, it has recently come to my attention that there is more than garden variety burnout happening in this church right now. Many of you are getting hammered by life. Excuse me, some of you feel like you might be that puppy hanging on up there in the talons of a predator and it doesn't seem like you could wriggle your way out and even if you do there's a 30-foot drop, like there's no good way out.

I'll be honest with you, I actually changed the topic for my message this weekend based on conversations I've had with my pastor and based on conversations I've had just in the last nine days or so. I was approached by a 13-year-old girl, 13, the exact age as my youngest son and she has cancer riddling her body wrapped around her lungs, wrapped around her heart. She had surgery on Friday and it doesn't look good.

She came in to ask for prayer, asked the pastors to anoint her with oil and pray for her this week, which we gladly did. But I was thinking about her when a woman came up to me after I spoke at my son's junior high school for chapel last week and she said, "Look, Renee, my husband died recently leaving me and my two boys alone and then our company went broke and then I lost my health. What does God think he's doing?"

Some close friends just found out that they have lost their entire savings, all of their life savings, every dollar and all of their retirement. They built up a nice nest egg. It's all gone, zero nada left. I saw an old friend of mine who was a pastor here in town. Thursday night at my son's junior high graduation, it was great to see him again, especially because he's gone through some very tough times in the last couple of years.

He was in the hospital for seven straight months. He was in a coma for 17 days. While he was in the coma, he had two of his sons ended up on the front page of the newspaper because of some bad choices that they made and all the wheels seem to be coming off all at once. He's not here anymore. He's a pastor, assistant pastor of a church down in Southern California. But I asked him, I said, "Well, how is your church up here? How did they support you through all this?"

He says, "For the most part, great." But he kind of smiled and said, "I did get a couple of interesting letters." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Letters that said, 'Well, we're glad that you're going through all of this because God is showing us that you are not a man of faith because if you were a man of faith, this stuff wouldn't be happening to you.'" Maybe you're right there too, like those people. What do you say to people who are going through times like that?

Somebody told me, "Renee, in this series, you've been talking to people who need some gas in their tank." That's great. But what am I supposed to do when my whole engine is fried, right? I'm not drained. I'm destroyed. I could have a full tank, but the whole car's on fire. What am I supposed to do? For this, I love the apostle Paul. Talk about life when your engine is fried.

I'm going to specifically go today to the book of 2 Corinthians. I want to do kind of an overview for you because Paul writes about his life in this little read, underappreciated, very unique book of the Bible. 2 Corinthians is the most autobiographical of all of Paul's books. I mean, he talks about getting beaten up in riots, assassination attempts, stonings, torture, false imprisonment, shipwrecks, poisonous snake bites, disease, despair.

I mean, you know what all this reminds me of? I was reading the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, and of all places, there's this article with the headline, "The Ultimate Obstacle Course." This is a new running fad, and since I'm kind of a weekend runner, I kind of was interested in this. People, it seems, are tired of jogging, tired of mere 10K races, and so these races are popping up all over the country, what they call extreme obstacle courses, and the one that they report on, which is typical, people run a 12-mile course, and as part of the course, they run through barbed wire, hot coals, fire, exposed wires with 10,000 volts of electricity, and at the end, there is a live armed gladiator that they've got to get through.

It says, "There are often injuries, and everybody has to sign a death waiver." Article says, "They're popular with cubicle workers who say they need the stimulation." I don't need that kind of stimulation in my life. Well, I was reading this article, and I thought to myself, "Paul lived that life, and he didn't have to pay extra, right? He lived that life, gladiator included." And so today, what I want to do is an overview of this book, 2 Corinthians.

He starts out with this statement after the greetings, which are standard. He says in verse 8, 8 sentence of the book, "We don't want you to be ignorant, brothers, about the hardships we suffered." He says, "I don't want you to be ignorant about my suffering," and that's the thesis sentence. That's the key to understanding this epistle, because then for the rest of the letter, he details his suffering. And what I want you to do is to make this personal.

I made a bullet point of some of the suffering he talks about. Write there a bullet list on page one of your notes, and I want you to put a little X next to the symptoms you may be feeling. So let's make this interactive. Now, excuse me, this is going to be a little bit like drinking from a firehose as we just shoot through an overview of 2 Corinthians, but I really want to talk about all the stuff that Paul relates to give you an overview of his suffering and so that you can be encouraged.

Watch this. Paul says he felt pressure the rest of verse 8 of chapter 1. "We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure. We despaired even of life. In our hearts, we felt the sentence of death." Apparently, the episode he's talking about is in the book of Acts chapter 19. A huge riot breaks out in Ephesus. It was a threat to the lives of all the Christians. It looks like all Paul had labored on is falling apart, and maybe you're there yourself.

He says he felt like giving up. And maybe you feel in your heart that sentence of death. And he also talks about stress. In chapter 4, he says he felt hard-pressed on every side. And the Greek word picture there is almost like a quarterback getting blitzed from every angle. He says, "I'm getting it from every side." You ever feel like that? Financially, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, from every side, you're just getting blitzed.

And then he talks about confusion. He admits, "I'm perplexed." This is the genius of Apostle Paul. "I'm perplexed." There's a lot of pressure sometimes on Christians to have all the answers, right? Well, sometimes even the great Apostle Paul said, "I don't. I'm confused." And he talks about sickness. "Outwardly, we are wasting away." You know, I hate to break it to you, but outwardly, you are wasting away. You're deteriorate. Every single one of you should be putting an X right next to this one right now because that's true of all of us. Aging, right?

Somebody said, "When we age, we gain weight and lose our minds." Can I hear an amen on that? Exactly the opposite of what you want. I got to try this out. Somebody sent me this one about the 80-year-old who says to his doctor, "Doc, I love to play golf, and I'm in great shape, but my eyesight at 80 years of age is getting so bad I can't see the ball anymore." And so the doctor says, "I've got an idea. I've got another patient who's 90, and he's not a golfer, but he needs activity. He's got the eyes of an eagle still. I'll pair you two up so he can be your spotter."

And so they go out. The 80-year-old whacks the ball, says to the 90-year-old, "Did you see it?" He says, "Yep. Shot all the way." So they start walking, and they keep walking and walking and walking. And finally, the 80-year-old says, "Well, where's the ball? I thought you said you saw where it landed." And the 90-year-old says, "I did, but I can't remember." You know, that's the problem. Wasting away. And Paul's going through disrespect. He says, "We are genuine, yet regarded as imposters, slander." Even though your heart's right, people are saying the opposite about you. Ever had that happen to you?

He's experiencing sadness. He says, "I'm sorrowful." Poverty. He says, "I'm poor, having nothing." Are you in financial straits right now? Paul was there. Rejection. Very touching verse. 2 Corinthians 6:12, he says, "We aren't keeping our affection from you, but you're withholding yours from us." Ever had your heart broken by a child or a spouse who withholds their affection? Check what applies to you. Burnout. He says, "I had no rest, but was harassed at every turn. Conflicts without, fears within." Now, Paul's pretty darn open there, isn't he? Fears within. And for good reason. He was a victim of violence.

He says, "Five times I received the 40 lashes minus one." Now, what's this all about? Well, Jewish law of the time said that for certain offenses, you could be publicly whipped with 40 lashes. But if more than 40 lashes were inflicted, the man who did the whipping had to get 40 lashes because that became cruel and unusual punishment. And so to prevent that, they were careful not to go quite to 40. They made it 39. They called it the 40 minus one. That's why we have this expression here. Now, as incredible as it may seem, the apostle Paul says he endured that how many times? How many? Five times. And he was on three times that was beaten with rods. That was Roman punishment.

So he's like the United Nations of torture methods here. Once stoned, and I always have to interpret that today, especially here in Santa Cruz, that this is rocks, not something else, okay? This is not talking about a Grateful Dead concert. But again, check all that applies. He says, "I was in accidents." Three times shipwrecked. And there's an account in Acts of a shipwreck that the Bible historians, the people who work out Bible chronologies, almost universally say that the shipwreck in Acts probably happened after Paul wrote 2 Corinthians. So probably four times the apostle Paul was shipwrecked. I mean, you gotta wonder that anybody ever went on mission trips with this guy anymore at all. He was like a trouble magnet.

And then Paul talks about physical danger. I've been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger from false brothers. These are in accidents. Paul's got enemies who are out for him. And of course, this leads to physical exhaustion. I have toiled and often gone without sleep. Man, that'll reduce your ability to deal with trouble, right? Without sleep, without food. And that leads to emotional exhaustion. He says, "Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches who is led into sin and I don't inwardly burn."

Now, what's he talking about here? Sometimes it is not easy to be a pastor. So many times people are going through stuff in the church and it's hard for me, it's hard for any pastor to leave it, you know, leave it at work and I'll be out jogging or I'll be out, you know, at Costco looking like I'm shopping or I'll be laying in bed at night. And I'm thinking about stuff that people are going through and did I respond the right way and how can I help that person? And this stuff goes on in your mind over and over and over again and you try to turn those worries into prayers. Well, this is just one church I'm dealing with. Paul had dozens of churches with hundreds or maybe thousands of people in congregations. He founded major stress.

And to top it all off, pain. He says, "I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me." Some early Christian writers within a generation of Paul said that this was an eye disease that was very painful for Paul and caused his eyesight to go bad. And that's based on some other clues in the text as well as historical clues. Others say it was a nagging temptation, maybe a fleshly weakness. But whatever it was, I think the Bible leaves it open so we can all relate because we've all got a thorn in the flesh, don't we? Maybe yours is a weakness for a habit or a sin. Maybe it's cancer. Maybe it's a relative. No, just kidding. But you know what it is.

And there's unanswered prayers or at least prayers not answered the way Paul hopes. He says, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take the thorn in the flesh away from me." And this wasn't just three times like in one prayer. "Lord, please, Lord, please, Lord, please." This is probably after times of prayer and fasting. He's pleading with God, "Take the thorn in the flesh away. Heal me." And the Lord never does. You ever listen to somebody's story and they get the miracle? They get the healing of cancer. They get the obedient children. They get the healed marriage. They get the financial prosperity. And you're wondering, "God, what about me?"

So I want you to, before you turn over to page two, just look at this list on your notes for a second. I mean, that's a lot of stuff that Paul is very candid about. Why did Paul write all this? You know, if you look at first century contemporary autobiographical letters, and this is right around the time that human beings are starting to write their autobiographical details. You can find stuff from the first century by like Julius Caesar and the Jewish historian Josephus, and they're talking about their lives. This is totally different from what anybody else in the first century is writing.

These other autobiographical—they're all available online for free. You can look them up. All the other autobiographical letters that these other guys wrote in the first century, they're the heroes of their story. Basically, their letters are like, "Check me out! This one time I was so clever and I outwitted that guy, and here's another way I advanced in my life, and here's another thing that proves that God chose me to be a hero. They're thumping their chests." Paul basically doesn't talk about any of his successes that we are aware of. He talks about his failures, his weaknesses, all the times things went wrong.

Why did he do that? Why did he say, "I don't want you to be ignorant of my struggles, and here's a list"? He did it because the folk religion back then, and the folk religion now is, "If I'm a good religious person, God will keep me from trouble. If I go to the temple, or in Christian cases go to church, and make kind of like the right offerings, the right sacrifices, kind of get my karma level up, get some positive energy going, then I'm going to have less suffering and maybe achieve a place where I won't have any suffering at all. But the truth is, you and I don't get a vote. You don't get a vote. You don't get a vote about how you'll suffer. You don't get a vote about when you'll suffer. You don't get a vote about how much you'll suffer.

Really, the only thing left to us is how we are going to respond to the suffering that we are going to have in life, and that is the whole point of Paul's revelations here in the book of 2 Corinthians. Look at Paul's response to this, 2 Corinthians 4:8–9, and maybe now that you understand the amazing context of this, you'll be as astounded by this verse as I am. He says, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed," that the implication there is, "but not quite crushed." We're perplexed, but not in despair. We are persecuted, but not abandoned. We are struck down, but not destroyed.

I mean, look at that verse right there. This is not "except Jesus and everything in life will go great," is it? Paul says, "We absolutely are hard pressed. We are perplexed. We are struck down." Sometimes I think we get this idea that for a good Christian, troubles are kind of like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride of Disneyland. How many of you have been on the Pirates of the Caribbean? I'm going to even love that ride, right? You know what I'm talking about. We get this idea that we go through life in our little boats, gliding through all the trouble, and there's pirates, and there's fire, and there's some people firing pistols at us. Whoa, there's cannons. Looks like they're going to get us, but the cannonballs and the bullets always miss, and they splash next to our boats, and we can glide through confident of the fact that we're not going to get hit.

The Bible says, "Uh-uh." Sometimes the cannonballs get you. When the Bible says in Isaiah 54:17, a verse that was quoted in the song that we learned just before the message, "No weapon formed against me shall stand." That's talking about ultimately. It's talking about the promise of the new heaven and the new earth. It's talking about how ultimately no weapon has lasting effect because we do persevere by God's grace, but here in this life, good Christians can get cancer. Good Christians can have financial collapse. Good Christians can go through divorce. Good Christians can have rebellious children. Good Christians can have problems of every kind, and that this is in spite of all they do, in spite of no matter what their walk is like, and truth be told, many of us, you might not want to admit it publicly, but you look at others when they're going through some of these troubles, and you just sort of have this unspoken assumption inside of you that, well, they must not really be walking with the Lord, and that's what people thought in the first century.

So do you see now why Paul says, "I don't want you to be ignorant of my troubles," because you'd look at the Apostle Paul, you could not find somebody who was walking closer to God than him, and yet he's facing all of these struggles and more. Now we can demonstrate a different reaction than anybody else to trouble. I mean, you think of Paul in the midst of all of this, and really partly because of all these troubles, Paul ends up shepherding the first generation of Christians into a growth spurt that has momentum that has lasted two millennia. Amazing good comes out of all of this in the end. The New Testament and zillions of inspirational moments come out of this in the end. Paul doesn't give up in the end. The enemy doesn't win in the end.

But what is Paul's secret? Because while Paul not only survives but thrives through all this trouble, even that response is not automatic. It's possible to grow through trouble, but even that is not automatic. I think it's Elizabeth Elliot that said, "If trouble automatically made you wise, then all the world would be wise," right? It's not automatic. It's learned skills. This is what Paul's trying to teach the Corinthians. So I want to extract five principles from 2 Corinthians that Paul learned about a growth through all of this stuff. I mean, if I'm going to go through trouble anyway, I may as well study the attitudes of the man through who all this stuff has an amazing attitude and still impacted lives, right? How did he do it? What does he try to communicate to the Corinthians?

Well, to grow through this kind of stuff, when my engine's just on fire and fried, the first thing I've got to do, the big point that the Apostle Paul is making, his big example is I need to reveal, not conceal, right? That's what he's doing all throughout this book. Reveal, not conceal. You need to let people know what is going on. Paul errors it out. This is, again, the point when he says, "We don't want you to be uninformed about our hardships, our suffering." Listen, a lot of times Christians feel like it's not spiritual to be struggling, and so they hide it.

But here's the great Apostle Paul saying, "Man, I was afraid." And Paul says, "We've spoken freely to you. We have opened wide our hearts to you." Somebody was talking to me just a few days ago, crying and questioning God after a horrible loss. And then, as often will happen, they apologized to me. And they said, "I'm so sorry I'm not stronger." And I stopped and I said, "Listen, I want you to know something. I never worry about the ones who cry. It's the ones who don't cry. That's who I worry about." You know, Jesus cried in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus sweated those drops of blood. Paul here was saying, "Man, I was afraid." Because let me ask you, how are you going to get help if you always wear a mask?

Paul even says, "Therefore, I'll boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses." This is huge. This is an example he's giving us. Actually, he's doing this in 2 Corinthians. He's boasting all the more gladly about his weaknesses. Why? Because Paul was so capable that—follow me here—people could assume it was his genius that was inspiring the churches. They had to see that Paul was not always a success. If you read further in 2 Corinthians, fascinating book, you see that he talks about all the times—he had disastrous speaking engagements. There was one time in Damascus that he goes in to preach the gospel and the people riot and they want to kill him. They hire assassins and the brothers in the church actually have to help him escape by letting him down in a basket out the city wall so Paul can scamper away in the middle of the night.

Another time in Ephesus, as I mentioned previously, there's this riot. They all want to kill Paul after he speaks there. Another time in Jerusalem, a Roman garrison actually has to protect Paul's life because he starts this little Bible study at the temple and everybody riots and wants to kill him. Now I have had bad speaking engagements, but nothing is ever measured up to Paul's level of bad speaking engagement. But it's interesting he never talks in 2 Corinthians about his successes. He literally glories in his failures because he wants the people to know that the church is growing not because of his genius, but because God is working through all of these tough times. In the end, that's way more inspirational, actually.

One summer about 10 years ago when I was speaking at a Mount Hermon conference, I told the people there for the first time publicly the story that I've told you guys many times since about how I, after about a year of ministry here, had anxiety attacks, ended up in the hospital and so on. I wasn't even planning on sharing it then. I don't know why I shared that then, but you know what? I don't know that I've ever had a bigger response to a conference message and I learned something that day. I learned that this is what we ought to be boasting about, the times we did not look good. You know what? You will find that your lowest moments will become your area of greatest ministry. Your lowest moments will become your area of greatest ministry and so reveal, not conceal.

And then number two, very briefly, I must receive help, not refuse help. Moments of struggle, you know what's hard? Accepting the food, accepting the prayers, accepting the offers of babysitting or rides, but even the great apostle Paul says, "You help us by your prayers." Paul is not too big to be comforted. You have to let people help you. Now, they may do so awkwardly at first because everything new is awkward, but it helps you to be helped and it helps them to help you and that is what we are about as a church.

So how do you grow through trouble? You have to receive help, not refuse help. You have to reveal what you're going through, not conceal it. And then number three, I need to yield to God, not demand from God. Yield to God, not demand from God. Let me explain this. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, just such a great passage. He says, "I pleaded with the Lord to take the thorn in the flesh away." He was honest. Be honest with God. God, I don't want this in my life anymore, but God said to me, and let's all read God's response to Paul together. Let me hear you. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Let me ask you, are you at the point in your life where you can honestly pray the perfect prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, which Paul's really echoing here, where Jesus said, "God, let this cup pass from me, please. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done." Are you at the point where you can let God pull your strings instead of trying to pull God's strings like that ever works? Now, why is this attitude so hard? Well, let me put it this way. How many of you remember this thing that they used to have a lot in malls called glamour shots? Anybody ever remember kind of the glamour shots? Do you remember those? True confession, how many of you had glamour shots done? Can I see this? Yes, good, about 15 of you. Okay, not enough to keep the stores in business apparently, but it's this thing that they had in some malls.

There's, actually, I looked this up, they're still in business, they're all over the country, there's only two glamour shot stores left in California. They're doing great and they're both in Orange County, which tells you something about Orange County, but anyway, they're still all over Texas, all over parts of the South still, but what they do is they take you in, they sit you down, and they give you a nice new haircut based on, you know, some movie stars haircut, and then they do all this makeup and stuff on your face so that's like you're in a big Hollywood photo shoot, and then they do this photo shoot like a fan's blowing and stuff, and then they take the photo and they take it into photoshop and they airbrush out all the blemishes and so on so that the final result, well it looks great, but the problem is it hardly looks like you, you know, that's the problem.

In fact, true story, I actually walked into somebody's house once and, yeah, one of the family members had a glamour shot sitting up on their piano. We were invited over for dinner and I go, "Wow, who's that?" "It's me." "Oh, I can, I can see the resemblance now." "Yes, what do you say then?" In fact, as long as we're revealing and not concealing, I hate to admit it, but well I got caught up in that craze back in the day. I thought my wife would get a kick out of it, and so, well she likes it, but no, just kidding, off, off, okay, now here's the point I'm trying to make with this whole glamour shot thing. A lot of us actually carry around glamour shots in kind of our soul's wallet.

We have a glamour shot with all the blemishes and all the things we don't like, airbrushed out, but you know who it's a glamour shot of? God. We have this mental image of who God is and what God is like, and we take all the Bible verses we like, all the ones that wind up in those, you know, pocket promise books that you can buy at Safeway and so on, and we keep those things, put them in the image, but all the kind of rough stuff about God of the Bible, like in the book of Job where he gives and he takes away, let's just photoshop that little bit out, right?

And so what we end up with is this really cool airbrushed picture of God where he never does anything I don't want him to do, but it's not the God of reality. It's not the God of the Bible. Why is that a bad thing? Well, because when something happens in your life that would completely fit into the actual worldview of the Bible, that would totally fit into the way the Bible portrays God, but it doesn't match your glamour shot, you lose your faith. But it's not really losing your faith in the God of the Bible, it's losing your faith in the God of your glamour shot, God. You see what I'm talking about?

So many of the people that I hear about who have lost their faith, not universally, but so many of them, say, "I lost my faith in God." I read an interview with Ted Turner and he says when he was about 11 years old his brother got cancer and he said, "I prayed and prayed to God for at least two weeks that God would deliver my brother with the cancer and God didn't, and so I realized there wasn't a God." Well, what he realized was his glamour shot was wrong, but it's at least theoretically possible that when God doesn't act like your glamour shot there could still be a God, just a different God than you had in mind.

Sometimes people come up to me and say, "I'm going through this, pastor, and I've become so disillusioned," and I say, "Good!" Because who wants to go through life illusioned, right? God doesn't want you to be illusioned. God's saying this is reality, this is real life. We live in a broken world where bad stuff happens and where we don't always understand God, but He has a plan. God is a God of love, but His plan is so far beyond ours that we need to learn to yield to the God who is and not demand from the God that we imagine.

More about that in just a second, but quickly, number four, I need to focus on God's strength, not my own strength. Focus on God's strength, not my strength. 2 Corinthians 1:9, "This happened," all this trouble he's been talking about, "that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." Again, think of Paul, self-reliant, brilliant mind. He could handle anything until he got into circumstances he couldn't handle, and he learned to rely not on himself, but on God.

And in fact, Paul gets to this point. I love this verse, 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay." Now, stop there for just a second. You and I are just jars of clay, and little clay pottery was ubiquitous in the ancient world, and it wasn't meant to even last a lifetime. Even today, you know, on our trip to Israel, you can walk into archaeological sites, and anybody, you don't have to be an archaeologist, you can just kick a little bit of dirt aside and find pottery shards by the millions from the time of Christ, because these jars of clay were just fragile. They weren't, they were meant for maybe a year or two of use, and then that was their lifespan.

Paul's saying, "That's us. We're little, fragile jars of clay." And that's so important to own, because that means not only are the times of pain fleeting, but so are the times of pleasure and blessing, and that means I need to value those things. Don't, when we've got a beautiful day like this, don't just go rushing through it. Enjoy it, because this day is just as fleeting as the days of trouble, right? Because we're just, we're living these lives, we're jars of clay. But, but we have all surpassing power inside of us that is from God and not from us. As they say, when you get to the end of yourself, you'll find it's only the beginning of God. God wants to teach us over and over, we are powerless in ourselves, we need to turn it all over to His power.

And then finally, I must focus on the unseen, not the seen. We walk by faith and not by sight. I want to show you what I think is one of the most encouraging verses in the whole Bible on the topic of suffering, and I don't understand it entirely, but I claim it, and I love it, and I cling to it. Paul says, "Our light and momentary troubles," light and momentary? How can he say all the stuff that we outlined a few minutes ago is light and momentary? Well, compared to this, he says, "They are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." If you've got a pen or a pencil and are taking notes, I want you to circle, "are achieving for us." I don't think I've ever actually heard just this verse preached on.

Paul links a reward in heaven eternally that will never end, related directly to our temporary struggles now. Our afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory. This has helped me so much. There's a direct tie between our afflictions and future glory. This means God sees every tear, every struggle, every temptation resisted, every abandonment, every cruel word said to you that breaks your heart, and those things not only are not going unnoticed, but they are somehow achieving for you glory and reward in heaven that will never end. And here's what's really important about this, I think, too. He sees it for your loved ones also.

I think of my dad. You know, God took care of me and my little sister and my mom when my dad died at age 36 and we were just little kids, you know. Romans 8:28, definitely proven true in our lives. But what about my dad? How is Romans 8:28 proven in his life? He died at 36. Well, this is how it's proven true. Because his suffering was earning for him an eternal glory that far outweighs all of his affliction. I don't understand it, but I believe it. God is such a God of infinite grace that not only is he gracious enough to take us in our broken world where bad stuff happens and he doesn't have to, but as a gift of his grace he saves us eternally. He is so gracious that on top of that also as a gift of his grace every tear, every hurt, every pain, every wound is achieving for us an eternal glory. God is that good.

And that's why Paul moves on to the next verse. He says, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary." Man, that's for sure. That is for sure, isn't it? But what is unseen is eternal. The promise of God is not that you can somehow find a way to avoid all pain. The promise of God is you will outlast your pain. You will outlast your pain. And God is with you now and he'll be with you in heaven and your afflictions now are earning for you an eternal glory that far outweighs that pain. And that's the promise of God.

I was in the hospital visiting a very sick friend who told me, "Renee, I am starting to love to think about heaven." And we should all be in that spot because heavens are finally destinations. So keep an eye on it. We walk by faith and not by sight. Man, this is so important right now. We're starting a series next weekend verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter as Val mentioned. The book of 1 Peter was written by Peter to a whole group of people who were going through suffering. And it's such a hopeful book. That's why we call it "Living Hope." That's a phrase right out of the book. And I hope you can join us as much as you can this summer as we work through this book and see more principles for living hopefully and positively in the midst of a world that has beautiful blessings and also has sufferings.

How can you own both sides of that equation and still walk through life with hope? That is what the Bible is all about. But back here to 2 Corinthians, look at your notes. All this stuff, is this really true? Is it really possible to live like this? To reveal your weaknesses and not conceal them? To receive help? To keep your eyes on what is unseen, not just what is seen? To glory in your weakness? Make it a part of your ministry? Is it possible to live like this? I know the apostle Paul did, but he was a saint 2,000 years ago. Maybe you're wondering if you can really live like this today.

I saw this amazing documentary just this past week. I want to show you a part of it. It's the story of a young woman named Alyssa. Watch this. Grass is soft, like the angel hair pasta. Grass kind of resembles that, I guess. I don't know. I've been blind since birth. I have a disease called Leber's congenital amaurosis. People often ask me, you know, is it hard being blind? Is it scary? And it's not. It's just a normal way of life for me. There was a time in my life when I was angry about being blind. I was very into makeup and trying to look my best. I really wanted to look in the mirror and see what I looked like, but I couldn't.

The Lord spoke to me and he told me that I am beautiful on the inside and that I don't have to worry about what I look like on the outside and that he is the only one who can tell me what I look like. The mirror can't. Sometimes I feel like I'm a little bit of a burden to people. Sometimes I wish I didn't really need that much help. I wish that I didn't have to rely on them. I'll break too. If I could see, I don't think my faith would be as strong. Because for a blind person, you have to rely on the Lord. It's like your faith becomes more real because you're used to not seeing things. You're used to believing in someone that you can't see.

Like for example, my mom, I can't see her. I may be able to hear her, but even if I couldn't, I can't see her, but I know she's there. So for me, I think it's easier to know and to understand that though I can't see God, he's really there. I think it has a lot to do with walking by faith and not by sight. I have this desire to help people, but I feel like being blind sort of limits me as to what I can do. But the reality is God has given me a gift of singing for him and leading worship. And I feel like that's my way of helping people. And I'm grateful for that.

Can you tell me if I'm beautiful? I cannot see myself. God made me, but I still wonder why I cannot understand. So tell me if I'm beautiful. I have so much joy and so much anticipation because I know that the first face I'm ever going to see is Jesus. And that means the world to me. No, it doesn't always rain puppies. Sometimes it just rains. But you know what? When it does rain, those puppies from heaven enjoy it, dig it, you know? And when it rains and when it hails and thunders, know that God's going to be with you through it all. And he has strong promises for what lies at the end.

Listen, maybe you've come today and you've got circumstances that are causing you to have a lot of questions. I don't mean to answer them all in this message, but I mean to say that for a lot of those questions, there are answers in Scripture. And sometimes we don't have all the answers. In fact, maybe you've come today checking out Christianity or checking out Twin Lakes Church. I'm so glad you're here. But I hope one of the things you've picked up is that Christians aren't the cocky people who say we've got all the answers. There's some things we don't understand either, but we trust in the God who understands.

I was talking before the service with my friend Michelle over here. In her chair, she has a new tattoo on her arm that says, "Only God knows why." And there's a lot of times we go through things in life and only God knows why. We don't have faith because we know why. We have faith because God knows why. And He's the one, therefore, who can lead us through whatever we go through. After all, and let me leave you with this, what is the very symbol of our faith? It's a cross. That's the symbol of our faith. And you know what? Sometimes I wish the symbol of our faith was like a daisy or a smiley face, right? Or a tropical beach with a palm tree, but it's a cross.

Because our perfect Savior went through suffering. And that means He's with you in your suffering. It means He understands your suffering. And it means there is a resurrection promised on the other side of our suffering. Because that symbol of torture has for billions turned into a symbol of hope because of God's power. And that is how you can get fuel, even when it looks like all the wheels are coming off. Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me?

Lord, I know that there are many people here today who are going through struggles and pressures and dangers and trials and our hearts long to cry out to you to deliver us from them, to take them away, to not let us go through them, to heal us. And I do pray that for everybody here in tough times. Let this cup pass from them. But may we all also learn, Lord, that attitude of Jesus, if it be possible, may this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. We yield to you and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. In Jesus' name, amen.