Easter 2022

I started this message with a story, so I think it’s appropriate that I end it with that story. All of us face adversity – dark days, and sometimes that darkness causes us to forget what the Word has told us about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Because we forget, sometimes that adversity (darkness) causes us to become weak and sickly. The strain of always having something thrown at you; of always having to fight to get ahead can take its toll. In the story, consider the carrots. If you take a carrot out of the refrigerator and bite into it, it is hard, solid and crunchy. It takes some strength to cut it with a knife. But when that strong, solid carrot was placed in the boiling water, the boiling water made it soft. The boiling water kept attacking it until the carrot finally gave in. But there is another side to this carrot story. You see, there are many people who are so strong and hard that God cannot use them. They are so powerful that they believe that they do not need God. Yet when they are faced with such adversity that they are forced to call on Him, it is only then that they realize that they do need God. It is at that time that they become soft, more humble and more willing to allow God to use them. Paul records what Jesus said to him when he was complaining about his adversity in Second Corinthians 12:9. It says “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” If our adversity beats us down to the point where we turn to God and rely on His strength versus our own, then it is okay to become like the carrot.

Now when the egg went into the boiling water, its shell protected it against the water, so the water could not seep in. However its shell could not protect it again the heat. There are many people who experience adversities and become hardened by them on the inside. Where before they were loving, kind and willing to help others, after experiencing some adversity, they become hard, bitter and unrelenting. This is not what Christ would have us to become when we face adversity. If you have changed your outlook on life based on the hard times you have experienced and you are not allowing the love of God to flow through you to others, it is not too late. Accept the love that Christ has made available to you; allow Him to provide the healing you need from your past experiences.

Finally we return to the coffee bean. The coffee bean when it went into the boiling water, it embraced it. Its embrace was similar to what we read in James earlier, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience.” The coffee bean embrace of the boiling water was also like Paul saying, “I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” after Jesus told him that His power was perfected in weakness. The coffee bean did not fight against the boiling water; it did not fight against the adversity. The coffee bean embraced it and not only was it changed, but it changed the adversity also. Remember, not only did the boiling water cease to be boiling water, the coffee bean ceased to be a coffee bean. The coffee bean allowed itself to be changed in order to change the adversity (its response to the darkness.) The coffee bean knew that by embracing the boiling water, it would achieve its purpose. Sometimes when adversity comes God can use it to work out something with us. The adversity can change us for the better. When we recognize that through our weakness Christ’s power is perfected, it changes how we see our weaknesses.