INTRODUCTION:
Life on earth is a test. Sounds familiar? Yes, this is a statement from Rick Warren¡¦s The Purpose Driven Life. ¡§You are always being tested. God constantly watches your response to people, problems, success, conflict, illness, disappointment, and even the weather!¡¨
We must know and understand that life is a test. Why? Rick Warren writes, ¡§When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life.¡¨ With this in mind, you would understand and realize that every day is an important day and every second is a growth opportunity to deepen your character, demonstrate your love, or to depend on God.
But have you ever asked your selves, ¡§Will life be full of tests? Will life be full of problems, conflicts, illnesses, disappointments, etc? When will these tests end?¡¨ I know that we know the answers to these questions but sometimes because of the hardships that we experience in life, we ask these kinds of questions.
ILLUSTRATION:
In A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond tells about the birth of a giraffe: ¡§The first thing to emerge are the baby giraffe¡¦s front hooves and head. A few minutes later the plucky newborn calf is hurled forth, falls ten feet, and lands on its back. Within seconds, he rolls to an upright position with his legs tucked under his body. From this position he considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from his eyes and ears.
¡§The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels.¡¨
¡§When it doesn¡¦t get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts¡KFinally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs. Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again.
Maybe you can somehow relate to the calf. It¡¦s not that you were kicked over and over again by your mother when you were born. ƒº Somehow we can relate ourselves to the calf when it comes to the problems, difficulties, and trials that hit us every now and then. Problems that are sometimes so big that it would send us sprawling head over heels.
Life is full of problems and often times these problems knock us down (golden age, family, work, etc. problems). Mind you, problems or discouragements are no respecter of persons. Whether you are successful or not, rich or poor, beautiful or not so beautiful, ƒº you will experience them. In fact, those who are successful experience many problems than the unsuccessful. But brethren, I would like for us to realize that we may be knocked down, but we are not knocked out. I¡¦ve entitled our message this morning from God¡¦s Word ¡§Knocked Down, Not Knocked Out.¡¨
It is my prayer and desire that after hearing this message from the Word of the Lord that we would realize and understand that every time that we face problems in life, whether big or small, that we¡¦re not knocked out. There is hope in God.
SCRIPTURE READING-PRAYER
One of the key words in Paul¡¦s second letter to the Corinthians is comfort or encouragement. The verb is used eighteen times in this letter and the noun eleven times. If we would study the life of the Apostle Paul and his ministry, we would see that he has experienced a lot of trials and difficulties.
In spite of the all the trials he experienced, Paul was able (by the grace of God) to write a letter saturated with encouragement. Out of his own difficult experience, Paul tells us how we can find encouragement in God. (Wiersbe)
We¡¦ll study 3 reasons this morning why we should have hope in the midst of the trials and difficulties that we are experiencing in life, why we may be knocked down but not knocked out.
I. You Will Experience God¡¦s Comfort ¡§who comforts us¡K¡¨
The first reason why we¡¦re not knocked out is because we or you will experience God¡¦s comfort.
God¡¦s Word is not saying that you might experience God¡¦s comfort or probably you will experience God¡¦s comfort, but according to our text He is the God who comforts us in all our troubles. Who among you here would say that there was once in your life that you had a problem and never experienced God¡¦s comfort? If there is someone, you shouldn¡¦t be here right now because you should have been knocked out.
For us to experience God¡¦s comfort, we must first understand what it means.
A. The Definition of God¡¦s Comfort
What do we mean by comfort? What¡¦s our idea of comfort? Sometimes we have an idea that comfort is taking away the problem or trouble that we are experiencing. For example, we have a toothache. Sometimes our idea of comfort is that we want God to take away the toothache instantly, then that¡¦s time that we would experience comfort. What if God would take away the ache by taking away the tooth?
This is not God¡¦s idea of comfort. If we would look at the original meaning of the word comfort from the Greek (parakaleo: para-to the side of; and kaleo-to call), the word literally means ¡§to come alongside to help.¡¨ Actually the English word comfort comes from two Latin word meaning ¡§with strength.¡¨
When we go through trials, God comes by our side to give us strength. ¡§Paul was writing to the Corinthian church during a time of great distress.¡¨ And the message that Paul would like to tell the believers at Corinth is this: ¡§No matter what difficulties, problems, or trials that you are facing in life, never forget that God is on your side to help you.¡¨
God¡¦s comfort has the idea of conquering rather than convenience. Comfort does not remove our sufferings, our trials but rather it brings us the strength, encouragement and hope to deal with our difficulties.
ILLUSTRATION: A mother overheard her little child praying before going to bed. The prayer goes like this: ¡§Lord, please make Quezon City the capital of the Philippines. Amen.¡¨ The mother was a little bit surprised about her son¡¦s prayer so after her prayer, the mother talked to her son.
¡§Son, why did you pray that Quezon City would be the capital of the Philppines?¡¨ The son replied, ¡§Well mom, because that is what I put down on my exam paper today.¡¨ ƒº
We might laugh at that but sometimes that is our attitude when we pray about our problems. We are asking God to give us convenience instead of giving us comfort. If you pray for convenience, you would never experience God¡¦s comfort. Instead of praying that God would terminate your problems, pray that God would help you thrive in your problems.
The comfort of God means empowering you to face your problems; not eliminating your problems.
B. The Description of God¡¦s Comfort
In the NIV the participle is translated as who comforts us. A literal translation would be the One comforting us. Now this participle is in the present tense and active voice. We can draw two descriptions here concerning God¡¦s comfort.
1. God Comforts You Personally (Active Mood)
As God would speak to us personally, He would also comfort us personally. He may use the encouraging words of a brother or a sister, or He might use the messages of the songs or some preaching to comfort you, but actually it is Him comforting you in a personal way.
2. God Comforts You Perpetually (Present Tense)
Perpetual means continuing forever or unlimited. God would never run out of comfort. As our speaker last Wednesday said, ¡§God is in the business of comforting His people.¡¨ There will never be a time in your life when you will not experience God¡¦s comfort in times of problems. God¡¦s comfort is always available. God will never fail to comfort you.
Will there be a time in your life that you will not experience the comfort of God? I don¡¦t think so. We will always experience God¡¦s comfort. The only problem is that we sometimes don¡¦t sense it. Why? It is because we¡¦re not being sensitive. We¡¦re so much focused on the problem that we tend to insensitive of God¡¦s comfort. Remember, God will not take away your troubles, He will empower you.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9, ¡§But He said to me, ¡¥My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.¡¦¡¨
You are a Recipient of God¡¦s Comfort
II. You Will Extend God¡¦s Comfort to Others ¡§so that we could comfort others¡K¡¨
Another reason why we are not knocked out is because you will extend God¡¦s comfort to others. After receiving God¡¦s comfort, then now you would be used by God to extend His comfort to others. This is also one of the reasons why God allows us to go through certain trials in life.
If you would experience problems and difficulties in life, remember that God would use you to extend His comfort to others who would be going through the same difficulty such as ours. Maybe we could call this the problematic ministry (just kiddinf) Or maybe it would be better if we would call it the Comfort Ministry. ļ
Don¡¦t be sad or be discouraged when you face great tribulations or problems in life, because someday you would be a great encourager. Great encouragers are those who experienced great tribulations. The bigger the tribulations you would have in life, the more God would use to be an encourager to others.
Who could comfort the family of Angelito Nayan better than the family of Angelo dela Cruz and Angelo dela Cruz himself who have experienced the hostage taking? Who could better comfort the parents of Frana Escalante but the parents who also lost a daughter such as Lauro Vizconde.
Well, maybe after hearing you might start asking God for more and bigger trials. ƒº Remember this, as we experience God¡¦s comfort in times of tribulations, we should take note of that because God will use us someday to extend His comfort to others. John Henry Jowett once remarked, ¡§God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.¡¨
ILLUSTRATION:
Sir Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese guide, Tenzing Norgay, were the first people to make the historic climb of Mount Everest in 1953. Coming down from the mountain peak, Sir Edmund suddenly lost his footing. Tenzing held the line taut and kept them both from falling by digging his ax into the ice.
Later Tenzing refused any special credit for saving Sir Edmund Hillary¡¦s life; he considered it a routine part of the job. As he put it, ¡§Mountain climbers always help each other.¡¨
We are to help one another and comfort one another by sharing our experiences. This Wednesday I¡¦m inviting you to attend our Prayer Meeting entitled A Night of Comfort. If you are in distress right now, you are facing a big trial, I invite to come and experience the comfort of God.
For those who have gone through such experiences and have experienced God¡¦s comfort, I challenge you to come and share how you¡¦ve received God¡¦s comfort. Don¡¦t just keep it to yourself. God wants you to share it to others so that they who are in the same circumstances could experience God¡¦s comfort too.
You are an Instrument of God¡¦s Comfort
III. You Will Exalt God for His Comfort ¡§Praise be to the God¡K¡¨
Paul started 2 Corinthians with a doxology. He wrote in verse 3, ¡§Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ¡K¡¨ The word praise means inherently worthy of such praise, and only God is inherently worthy of our praise even in the midst of trials and tribulations.
Remember, the focus is not us nor on how we have overcome the problem. It¡¦s always focused on God, how He has stayed on our side and how He has empowered us and helped us thrive through the problems in life.
When you find yourself discouraged because of difficult circumstances, it is easy to look at yourself and your feelings or to focus on the problems around you. But the first step we must take is to look by faith to the Lord and realize all that God is to us. (Wiersbe) And once our eyes are focused on God, then we could not help but to praise Him.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, ¡§Praise changes things just as much prayer changes things.¡¨ We should not only praise God after our tribulations but we should praise God even in the midst of our tribulations. Actually, if there¡¦s a time that we really need to praise God, it is the time that we are experiencing problems in life.
We may not sing about our circumstances but we may sing about our God who holds and controls all of our circumstances.
You must be a Praiser of God¡¦s Comfort
CONCLUSION:
We have learned this morning three reasons why we are not knocked out. We maybe knocked down by problems but not knocked out. You are R-I-P. You are a recipient of God¡¦s comfort. You will experience God¡¦s comfort. You are also an instrument of God¡¦s comfort-you should extend God¡¦s comfort to others. Lastly, you should be a praiser of God for His comfort-you should exalt God.
Going back to the giraffe story: ¡§Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the world, baby giraffe must be able to get up as quickly as possible in order to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they¡¦d get it, too, if the mother didn¡¦t teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it¡K
¡§I¡¦ve thought about the birth of the giraffe many times. I can see its parallel to my own life. There have been many times when it seemed that I had just stood up after a trial, only to be knocked down again by the next. It was God helping to remember how it was that I got up, urging me always to walk with him, in his shadow, under His care.¡¨
The good news is that God wants you to pass the tests of life, so he never allows the tests you face to be greater than the grace he gives you to handle them. Every time you pass a test, God notices and makes plans to reward you in eternity.
