ISDAMan
04-13-01, 02:37 AM
Friday Night Sermon -- Online Bible Study
From: www.NailScarred.net (http://www.NailScarred.net?sciforums.com)
Getting Down To Action
Part 14 Of A Study In 2 Corinthians
KJV
Book: 2 Corinthians
Chapter: 4 ,Verses: 8-18
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
NLT
Book: 2 Corinthians
Chapter: 4 ,Verses: 8-18
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don't give up and quit.
9 We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.
10 Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying bodies.
12 So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you.
13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed in God, and so I speak."
14 We know that the same God who raised our Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself along with you.
15 All of these things are for your benefit. And as God's grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
17 For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever!
18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.
It's hard to know how much more I should rightly say here. I'm pained to think of all of the lazy Christians and whole denominations that are not prepared to take up the fight and are making no forward progression at all. There are too many that are more willing not to be beaten or under attack or ridicule so, they buckle to every last whim that comes along. They are spineless. We are supposed to be crack troops and the best of the best. The God of all creation indwells us and we dare fear the power of mere men?!?!?! Of course we all do have our own individual sins and struggles and we are to help one another in these matters. What's worse is the wholesale slaughter of God's troops before we ever even reach the battlefield to fight for lost souls. We belive verses 14 and 15 bust we dare not live verse 13!
"In this day and age, you can't win the world by preaching. Never mind the fact that God chose the foolishness of preaching. Today, all we need is to love and accept everyone in a warm ecumenical bliss that doesn't step on anyone's toes and never divides." That's basically the schmeel.
That's a bunch of CRAP!!! We were never saved so that we could all feel good! This is combat! Your feelings are irrelevant! The enemy will not stop attacking because you don't feel good. Every single time one of us fails to do what we are supposed to on this battlefield, someone else suffers the consequences. We can feel good when we get to Heaven! Today, we FIGHT for the souls of the lost!
We're so cushie and comfortable that there's everything else in the world to do but Serve God. I know how it is for you. I face these distractions as well. That is no excuse for us though. I'm sick and tired of the "Don't make waves" Christians I meet. Again, I'm aware that we all have sin in our lives that we do battle but, I have seen some professing Christians routinely buckle to do every kind of ungodly thing rather than stand up and trust God in the midst of confrontation. Remember that catchy faze, "Never say Die! Never Cheat or Lie!"? It's far too often that we give up and shortly thereafter, we throw out our moral standings. That's why we, today, are faced with a confused church that wants to take in anyone under the banner of "Christian" so long as they want to be there. Mormons, Catholics, and Baptists On My! It really has gotten almost comical. Today, we have such adulteration as to have Muslims, Christian, Jew, and Buddhist conforming and even conjoining services. Now, I'm sure that a good part of the professing Christians in the sweeping ecumenical movement are just fakers and will have their part in the lake of fire. What of the rest though? What of the confused ones that simply don't know any better than to think that the Mormon's and the Muslims are serving the same God we are? Why don't they know the truth? It's partly because there's a worse kind of Christian yet. It's the kind that says, "In order not to be confrontational, I'm not going to talk about Christ or other religions. My special testimony is the life I live."
Boy, doesn't that just sound all warm and fuzzy? "I'll be a person of action and few words."
Let me tell you something, God didn't conjure, form, construct, or mould the world into existence. He SPOKE it! His actions henceforth have always followed His Word. God is His Word and we are to be conformed to His image. So as we speak, we should be. Hypocrites are known because their words do not match their deeds. A Christian should be easily spotted by drawing a straight line from word to deed. Any Christian that refuses to speak of God simply does not want to be held to the standard of God. How dare we try to relegate the lost and confused to acts of experience alone and set aside the spoken truth that needs to be ingested with the experience. If we don't feed the truth with the experience, Satan will invent a lie and pervert the experience. Rampant homosexuality and teen promiscuity are just two of the results of Christians keeping silent about the truth of experience. If you're going to walk the walk, you'd better talk the talk. Other people's lives are depending upon it! Less mature Christians are stumbling without it! Cults are thriving on the lack of it!
We must remember that we are the only example of God that many people will ever see or hear. They look at us to know whether or not God is real. Even more, they look at us to know whether or not God is trustworthy.
Christian, keep looking beyond today's battle. See the victory God has in store. I know it's hard. I live on the same planet you do. Every chance you get, regroup (get into you prayer closet), rearm (commune with God and pray), return (get back to whatever it is that God has you doing).
Just so you know, if you found my words to be too hard when I said that your feelings are irrelevant, I'll tell you how to reconcile that. If your personal feelings weight upon you so heavily that you cannot function properly for God when not feeling good, welcome to humanity. If they mean that much and they are that important, cast your cares upon God. That includes your feelings. Let your feelings be His problem to deal with. Who could possibly do a better job? I dare you to see if God is up to it.
Christian website of the week: WORLD VISION (http://www.worldvision.org)
God Bless Us All! Share Christ!,
ISDAMan
From: www.NailScarred.net (http://www.NailScarred.net?sciforums.com)
Getting Down To Action
Part 14 Of A Study In 2 Corinthians
KJV
Book: 2 Corinthians
Chapter: 4 ,Verses: 8-18
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
NLT
Book: 2 Corinthians
Chapter: 4 ,Verses: 8-18
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don't give up and quit.
9 We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.
10 Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying bodies.
12 So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you.
13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed in God, and so I speak."
14 We know that the same God who raised our Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself along with you.
15 All of these things are for your benefit. And as God's grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
17 For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever!
18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.
It's hard to know how much more I should rightly say here. I'm pained to think of all of the lazy Christians and whole denominations that are not prepared to take up the fight and are making no forward progression at all. There are too many that are more willing not to be beaten or under attack or ridicule so, they buckle to every last whim that comes along. They are spineless. We are supposed to be crack troops and the best of the best. The God of all creation indwells us and we dare fear the power of mere men?!?!?! Of course we all do have our own individual sins and struggles and we are to help one another in these matters. What's worse is the wholesale slaughter of God's troops before we ever even reach the battlefield to fight for lost souls. We belive verses 14 and 15 bust we dare not live verse 13!
"In this day and age, you can't win the world by preaching. Never mind the fact that God chose the foolishness of preaching. Today, all we need is to love and accept everyone in a warm ecumenical bliss that doesn't step on anyone's toes and never divides." That's basically the schmeel.
That's a bunch of CRAP!!! We were never saved so that we could all feel good! This is combat! Your feelings are irrelevant! The enemy will not stop attacking because you don't feel good. Every single time one of us fails to do what we are supposed to on this battlefield, someone else suffers the consequences. We can feel good when we get to Heaven! Today, we FIGHT for the souls of the lost!
We're so cushie and comfortable that there's everything else in the world to do but Serve God. I know how it is for you. I face these distractions as well. That is no excuse for us though. I'm sick and tired of the "Don't make waves" Christians I meet. Again, I'm aware that we all have sin in our lives that we do battle but, I have seen some professing Christians routinely buckle to do every kind of ungodly thing rather than stand up and trust God in the midst of confrontation. Remember that catchy faze, "Never say Die! Never Cheat or Lie!"? It's far too often that we give up and shortly thereafter, we throw out our moral standings. That's why we, today, are faced with a confused church that wants to take in anyone under the banner of "Christian" so long as they want to be there. Mormons, Catholics, and Baptists On My! It really has gotten almost comical. Today, we have such adulteration as to have Muslims, Christian, Jew, and Buddhist conforming and even conjoining services. Now, I'm sure that a good part of the professing Christians in the sweeping ecumenical movement are just fakers and will have their part in the lake of fire. What of the rest though? What of the confused ones that simply don't know any better than to think that the Mormon's and the Muslims are serving the same God we are? Why don't they know the truth? It's partly because there's a worse kind of Christian yet. It's the kind that says, "In order not to be confrontational, I'm not going to talk about Christ or other religions. My special testimony is the life I live."
Boy, doesn't that just sound all warm and fuzzy? "I'll be a person of action and few words."
Let me tell you something, God didn't conjure, form, construct, or mould the world into existence. He SPOKE it! His actions henceforth have always followed His Word. God is His Word and we are to be conformed to His image. So as we speak, we should be. Hypocrites are known because their words do not match their deeds. A Christian should be easily spotted by drawing a straight line from word to deed. Any Christian that refuses to speak of God simply does not want to be held to the standard of God. How dare we try to relegate the lost and confused to acts of experience alone and set aside the spoken truth that needs to be ingested with the experience. If we don't feed the truth with the experience, Satan will invent a lie and pervert the experience. Rampant homosexuality and teen promiscuity are just two of the results of Christians keeping silent about the truth of experience. If you're going to walk the walk, you'd better talk the talk. Other people's lives are depending upon it! Less mature Christians are stumbling without it! Cults are thriving on the lack of it!
We must remember that we are the only example of God that many people will ever see or hear. They look at us to know whether or not God is real. Even more, they look at us to know whether or not God is trustworthy.
Christian, keep looking beyond today's battle. See the victory God has in store. I know it's hard. I live on the same planet you do. Every chance you get, regroup (get into you prayer closet), rearm (commune with God and pray), return (get back to whatever it is that God has you doing).
Just so you know, if you found my words to be too hard when I said that your feelings are irrelevant, I'll tell you how to reconcile that. If your personal feelings weight upon you so heavily that you cannot function properly for God when not feeling good, welcome to humanity. If they mean that much and they are that important, cast your cares upon God. That includes your feelings. Let your feelings be His problem to deal with. Who could possibly do a better job? I dare you to see if God is up to it.
Christian website of the week: WORLD VISION (http://www.worldvision.org)
God Bless Us All! Share Christ!,
ISDAMan