Slugfest
Pt. 3 - You Have a Cut Man!
I. Introduction
Ali, Tyson, Lennox, Mayweather, Gracie, Liddell and Silva. You don't even have to be a boxing or mix martial arts fan to know the names. These are fighters who have left a mark on their sport. But what if I said the names Chuck Bodak, Al Gavin, Rafael Garcia, Jacob "Stitch" Duran? Would you recognize those names? Probably not. But these men are indispensable and undeniably responsible for much of the success of the names you did recognize. These are the "cut men" that worked the most important bouts in history. Al Gavin, considered the best of all time, worked over 110 title fights and never had a fighter lose a fight on cuts in over his 40 years career as a cut man. These are the guys that you see prep the fighters to go into the ring by placing Vaseline on the fighters faces before the first round to help them deflect a direct blow from their opponent! These are the guys you see in between rounds working with gauze, q-tips and ice in order to keep swelling down and to keep cuts closed so that the fighter can continue in the match, go more rounds than expected and keep them competitive even though their opponent has marked them. All of the training, prep, meal planning, running, fight planning, strategy, film study can be wasted and lost with a single punch or head butt that produces a cut that impairs the fighter’s vision or causes a doctor to step in and stop the fight early. The cut man is the unsung hero in the corner. Every great fighter needs a great cut man!
Today I want to draw your attention to two great fighters. One in the Old Testament and one in the New. If you will permit me, may I simply reference some of their greatest title bouts.
In Judges 14, our Old Testament Champion kills a young lion with his bare hands. He kills 30 Philistine combatants. In Judges 15, with an improvised weapon from the skull of a dead donkey, our champion single handedly kills 1,000 armed and dangerous Philistine warriors. In Judges 16, our champion visits an enemy city and walks to their gates and rips the gates, posts and bar out of the ground and carries them off on his shoulders.
Our New Testament Champion was perhaps the most accomplished missionary of the early church. Since I have an intimate knowledge of what it takes to start a church from scratch the fact that our champion started close to 20 churches is mind boggling. He mentored ministers. He impacted the entire Roman Empire with his preaching. He left a lasting legacy by authoring 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament. This champion is a real sense responsible for you being able to sit here today because it was his teachings that lead to the Protestant Reformation without which we would all still be Catholic and have little to no access to the Word of God.
Samson and Paul . . . great champions, incredible fighters, heroes! However, this morning I would like to read a couple of passages of Scripture that maybe show us these greats in a different stage of their bout.
TEXT: Judges 16:19-21(TLB)
She lulled him to sleep with his head in her lap, and they brought in a barber and cut off his hair. Delilah began to hit him, but she could see that his strength was leaving him. Then she screamed, “The Philistines are here to capture you, Samson!” And he woke up and thought, “I will do as before; I’ll just shake myself free.” (Don't have time but to many of us who are used to winning rest on our laurels! We won when we were close to God and think . . .) But he didn’t realize that the Lord had left him. So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes and took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and made to grind grain in the prison.
2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (MSG)
I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.
(He forgot to mention - snake bit).
This is not how we like to see our champions. We would rather see them standing over their fallen foe. We prefer to see them with hands raised in victory! We want our champions to pose with the title belt. All contenders dispatched. All challengers smashed into submission. However, the truth is even champions get hit! Even champions get touched up. Even champions get knocked down.
Over the last two weeks, I have been trying to get you back in the fight. To bow up again. To war again. To take territory again. To resist again. To oppose again. To raise the level of your worship again. To believe again. I have been trying to remind you that you are more than a contender. You are more than a conqueror. I have been trying to convince you that you are more than a challenger. You are a title holder. Because of what Christ has done in you He can now do through you even greater works than He did! You are belted! Around your waist, as a joint heir with Christ Jesus, hangs the belt of a champion.
However, I am not naive and you shouldn't be either. The day is coming when you won't see the punch coming. Your vision will be impaired. Your reflexes will be a little slow. You will miss the signs that the attack is coming. The enemy will sneak up on you. And although you are belted you can and will get belted! Like it or not he will land a punch. He may even catch you square. It may cause your knees to buckle and your world to spin. It may rock you and force you to cover up and survive until the bell. Worse yet, he may catch you with such a flush blow that it does damage. It causes swelling. It causes the wind to be knocked out of you. It cuts you to the bone. It lays you bare. Ever been there? There now?
A death. It is a punch that marks us. A bill. It is a punch that produces worry. A doctor's report. A punch that produces crippling fear. A teacher's conference. A punch that produces pain. A call to the boss's office. A punch that produces anger. A letter from the IRS. A hit that steals our sleep. A letter from a lawyer. A punch that causes our faith to wobble. The exit of a friend. A punch that drops us to the canvas. The exit of a lover. Punches that cut.
To stay in the fight, you have to let the cut man work.
You have to trust Him with your injury. You have to let Him heal. You have to let Him soothe. You have to let Him touch you! Having the greatest cut man does no good if you won't allow Him to have access to your cut, your injury, or your pain.
Too many of us will let Him handle our blessings, but won't let Him handle our bleeding.
I know it hurts when He tries to touch your wound. I recognize that healing hurts sometimes. If you don't believe that pour the cleansing alcohol into an open cut. I know it is hard to talk about. It is hard to admit. It is hard to remember. It is hard to revisit. But If you don't heal from what hurt you, then you will bleed on people who didn't cut you. Some of you are bleeding all over people simply because you won't let Jesus near your cut. There are new battles that need to be fought, but you haven't let Him heal you from the old battle and so you are unable to step back into the ring.
Cuts are inevitable! Defeat doesn’t have to be!
I just came by to remind you that the greatest, the tested and tried, the best cut man that has ever worked a fight is in your corner. He can keep you in the fight. He can keep you going longer than you thought possible. He can cause the cut to close with no scar and no infection (Balm of Gilead). He can take what you thought would paralyze you and handicap you and actually turn it into a weapon in your hands. He can turn what could have been a fight ending, career ending, hope ending, joy ending, peace ending blow into the platform and launching pad to a counter punch that will destroy the enemy. We have a cut man in our corner.
Isaiah 53:5 - But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
It was our pains He carried. Our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought He brought it on Himself, that God was punishing him for His own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to Him, that ripped and tore and crushed Him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through His bruises we get healed. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on Him, on Him.
Hebrew 4:15 - For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
What sets us apart is not that we don’t get cut, but that we have a cut man who can heal us once we have been tagged. I am excited this morning because even though I know I am going to take some unexpected shots I also know that I have somebody in my corner than can heal me. He knows how to keep in the fight longer. He knows how to keep me propped up. He knows how to get me into another round! Cuts are going to be inflicted but I don't have to be defeated! I have a Cut Man!
I have it on the testimony of a woman with the issue of blood that our Cut Man can handle our bleeding. We can stumble, bloody, beaten, bruised back into our corner and let Jesus go to work. And our Cut Man can restore, He can turn it around, He can heal, He can deliver, He can set free if and only if we will let Him work!
Just because You are wounded doesn’t mean you can’t still be a warrior! Your cuts don't have to disqualify you!
Let's revisit our champions who have been cut deeply. See Samson again in . . .
Judges 16:28-30
Then Samson prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord Jehovah, remember me again—please strengthen me one more time, so that I may pay back the Philistines for the loss of at least one of my eyes.” Then Samson pushed against the pillars with all his might. “Let me die with the Philistines,” he prayed. And the temple crashed down upon the Philistine leaders and all the people. So those he killed at the moment of his death were more than those he had killed during his entire lifetime.
See Paul again in . . .
2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Paul after begging for his handicap to be removed gets a word from the Cut Man ...
My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
Samson just needed a visit with the Cut Man. Paul just needed a visit with Cut Man. The Cut Man gets them back in the fight. I am here to tell those of you who are up against the ropes, about to throw in the towel, about to go down for the count, are losing blood that The Cut Man can get you back in the fight this morning! What you have endured. What you have gone through isn't a death sentence. It doesn't have to disqualify you. All you need is a touch. All you need is to visit the Cut Man!
