WE MAY BE KNOCHED DOWN, BUT WE DON’T HAVE TO STAY KNOCKED DOWN?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
REMEMEMBER THIS: It is not how big the dog is in the fight! IT IS HOW BIG THE FIGHT IS IN THE DOG!!!
One time the doctor told me I should exercise more? What doctor? I am so tired and weak, I do not feel like exercising. He shot down my excuse real quick, I would do more.... If I felt better. He said Mr. Hughes you do not understand? What? He said: Understand the truth? The more you exercise the BETTER YOU WILL FEEL? You will never feel better in the bed or laying on the couch! I SAID: DOC, CAN I HAVE A SECOND OPINION? He said: Well, I think you are overweight… I am still a little angry for both opinions.
If you cannot change your situations then then the ONLY OTHER OPTION YOU HAVE IS TO CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDES. There is a secret, the people that say I can’t do it, are being passed by people THAT ARE DOING IT.
One time the doctor told me I should exercise more? What doctor? I am so tired and weak, I do not feel like exercising. He shot down my excuse real quick, I would do more.... If I felt better. He said Mr. Hughes you do not understand? What? He said: Understand the truth? The more you exercise the BETTER YOU WILL FEEL? You will never feel better in the bed or laying on the couch! I SAID: DOC, CAN I HAVE A SECOND OPINION? He said: Well, I think you are overweight… I am still a little angry for both opinions.
If you cannot change your situations then then the ONLY OTHER OPTION YOU HAVE IS TO CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDES. There is a secret, the people that say I can’t do it, are being passed by people THAT ARE DOING IT. It is ok to get knocked down as long as we are determined to GET UP and fight again!
TEXT:
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
REMEMBER THE FAMOUS FIGHT BETWEEN SUGAR RAY LLEONARD AND ROBERTO DURAN?
That night the most famous words were: NO MAS! NO MAS? Roberto Duran threw in the towel and quit? His stomach was hurting? ROBERTO THREW IN THE TOWEL AND WILL FOREVER be known as THE QUITTER? What might have been?
WHEN I AM KNOCKED DOWN WHAT HAPPENS TO ME? LOOK AT BEING KNOCKED DOWN? WHO ME: KNOCKED DOWN?
Put butter near the heat on the stove? What happens? (Gets soft? Melts?)
Put a fresh egg in boiling water 15 minutes? What happens? (Gets hard?)
Put ground coffee beans in hot water? What happens? (Brings out the favor?)
WHO IS IN CONTROL OF YOUR EMOTIONS? HOW WILL I REACT TO THIS HOT WATER? WHO IS IT UP TO…?
UBER, WHERE ARE YOU WHEN WE NEED YOU? SEVEN MILES OF TEARS AND HOPELESSNESS…MY DIAMONDS OF HOPE HAVE TURNED INTO DIRT… NOTHING… THE PEARL OF GREAT HOPE has turned to ashes.
COME LET US CONSIDER TWO NEGATIVE MEN --- THEY HAD A DREAM--- THEIR DREAMS WERE CRUSHED ON THE ROCKS OF TIME… THEY THOUGHT THEY HAD FOUND THE ANSWER ONLY TO BE DISAPPOINTED BY CRUSHED, BROKEN HEARTS…
Jesus had preached to thousands and NO HE FINDS HIMSELF MINISTERING TO TWO BROKEN, FALLEN PEOPLE? WHO CARES? Jesus comes with a message to two men… comes with a message of HOPE to two men?
Luke 24:13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. (SEVEN MILES)
TWO MEN ARE TALKING ABOUT THE PAST… Talked what HAD HAPPENED… They had hope? But death crushed their dream and THEY WERE KNOCKED DOWN, THROW IN THE TOWEL?
Luke 24:14 And they talked together of all these things which had HAPPENED.
Happened means in the past… it is over now.
THEY HAD JOY --- BUT THEY WERE KNOCKED DOWN FOR THE COUNT…, DREAMS ARE NOW NIGHTMARES OF HOPLESSNESS. THE JOY OF HOPE FADES QUICKLY INTO SADNESS…
Luke 24:17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
STUPID TALK? MISTER, ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE THAT HASN’T HEARD… WE ARE ALL KNOCKED DOWN for the ten count? WE HAVE BAD NEWS, IT IS OVER!
Luke 24:18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
WE TRUSTED, TRUSTED IS PAST TENSE…, WE USE TO TRUST BUT NOW THEY CRUCIFIED OUR HOPE… It is over, haven’t you heard?
KNOCKED DOWN? TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY? FRIDAY HAS DESTROYED THE HOPE OF ISRAEL.
Luke 21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
WE HEARD, BUT WE REJECTED THEIR FACTS, BECAUSE WE ARE KNOCKED DOWN… certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
Get up boys, you may be disappoint but THE GOOD NEWS IS … YOU ARE WALKING WITH THE DIAMOND, THE PEARL, AND THE ROCK OF AGES…
THERE IS GOOD NEWS BOYS…
ARE YOU FOOLS, GET UP, fools, and slow of heart to believe …
Luke 24:29… But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. 30. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. 32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
OPEN YOUR EYES, YOU MAY HAVE BEEN KNOCKED DOWN, THE COUNT: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9---
WAIT JESUS IS WALKING WITH US--- JESUS IS NOT DEAD, JESUS IS ALIVE AND WELL…
OFTEN WE GET KNOCKED DOWN and OUT IN OUR DAILY LIFE WE GIVE A WORTHLESS OFFERING?
Luke 14:18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
We often begin by “OFFERING EXCUSES?” 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10… GET UP …
IS OUR NEGATIVE MIND SET AND THINKING PATTERN HOLDING US BACK FROM REACHING TOWARD OUR GOD’S PLAN?
Do we ever get knocked down? So what? Do we have PITY PARTIES, GLOOM AND DESPAIR? Do we lay and cry for days? Or are we determined I am going to GET UP AND PRESS FORWARD UNTIL I CAN OCERCOME?
THIS MISUNDERSTANDING? THIS STORM? THIS PROBLEM? THIS TRIAL? CAN REVEAL THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN US… QUIT WORRYING ABOUT EXTERNALS, GET THE HEART RIGHT! Get up!
2 Corinthians 4:8 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.
SURE, WE WILL GET KNOCKED DOWN! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WHEN LIFE KNOCKS US DOWN? PAUL WARNS US PERILOUS TIMES ARE SURE TO COME… BUT HE ALSO TOLD US TO EXPECT HARD TIMES --- HE ALSO TELLS US HE HAS BEEN IN PERILS MANY TIMES AND GOD WAS WITH HIM ALL THE WAY…
2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
I MAY GET KNOCKED DOWN, BUT NEVER COUNT ME OUT! FRIEND, I AM NOT CRUSHED…
PAUL WAS A RARE MAN OF GOD… HE WAS HARD PRESSED--- PAUL HAD TROUBLE ON EVERY SIDE…
2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
WHAT CAN KNOCK ME DOWN? IT IS UP TO ME? IT IS TIME TO GET UP --- YOU ARE THE WINNER EITHER WAY…
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35 (MSG) Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: 36 They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. 37 None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us.
38 I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow,
39 high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
HAVE WE GROWN AND MATURED IN THE LORD’S LEADERSHIP THAT WE UNDERSTAND THESE DARK CLOUDS MAY BRING STORMS THAT KNOCK US DOWN… THIS TRIAL, THIS PROBLEM, THIS DARK FRIDAY NIGHT IS GOING TO BRING US TO SUNDAY… WE ARE NOT PROMISED EVERY BATTLE IS A VICTORY… OUR MINDSET MUST BE WE HAVE TO GET UP EVERYTIME WE ARE KNOCKED DOWN…
DAVID WAS A KNOCKED DOWN, A FALLEN MAN… DAVID IS CALLED A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEARTAND YET ANY CHURCH IN THIS AREA WOULD REMOVE DAVID FROM THE CHURCH ROLL?
David had a sexual failure and sinned. David had Uriah killed in the heat of battle. David had an illegitimate baby?
David’s baby died. David numbered the people after being warned not to…
We would turn David out of the church…
Acts 13:22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
David was faithful…
Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
David had a broken and contrite heart… He honestly changed and repented…
Psalm 34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Psalms 51 the greatest chapter on repentance in the Bible, because David got knocked down, but he got up…
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
David fell but and tried again…
Everyone seems to see A SHEPHERD BOY, GOD SAW A KING IN THAT LAD…LEAVE IT THERE, LEAVE IT THERE, TAKE YOUR BURDEN TO THE LORD AND LEAVE IT HERE… TRUST AND DO NOT DOUBT… GOD CAN BRING YOU OUT.
CONCLUSION: My friend is not about how many times we get knocked down, it is about how many times we get up and try again. Don’t quit! Rest if you must, but never quit. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 --- GET UP… BE A GOOD STUDENT, humble yourself before the Lord. Knocked down, you are in a good crowd if you get up and try again…
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
