How to pass even though you feel like you are failing
2 Corinthians 4: 6 – 12
Main Focus is 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9
I know this title of this sermon doesn’t really make sense to a lot of people on this morning, I know that they will have questions that will pop up in people head like, what do you mean by passing while failing How do you pass when you fail? How do I complete something successfully when I stop trying to complete it, because I know I going to fail at it? I don’t under stand how do you pass even though you feel like you are failing?
I believe my sermon today would be called an oxymoron In Webster eyes, due to its contradictory context. However a lot of people on today, fell’s like they are failures in there own eyesight if the truth be told. They fell that they failed one way or another, if a person is not where they want to be in life right now, then they fell that they are a failure, if a person career is not on a certain level that they planned from childhood, then they consider themselves failures, if a person marriage is not on a certain level or if there children don’t act or speak a certain way, then they consider there life one big failure. If a person fails one thing after another that tends to make that person start believing that they really can’t succeed at nothing at all. From that belief, they then shape there mentality by speaking failure into there own life, failure in there spouse life, failure in there children life, also failure in there friends and co-workers lives. Afterwards they start believing that they are nothing but a big fat “F” on the report card of life.
Yet from there negative thinking, they then start making oxymoron statements. These Contradictory statements are created due to there false illusion and conception of there current situation. (it shape there mentally and response to the situations at hand from the lack of spiritual influence)
That’s why we say things like:
1. I don’t know how much more of this I can take
2. I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this
3. This here is just getting on my nerves, and I’m about to just quit
4. I just can’t do it no more, I’m about to walk away and don’t look back
5. Why are people dong this to me
6. Why are they treating me this way, why is God allowing this to happen to me
7. I have been keeping my prayer life up, I been reading, I been obedient to God, so why is this happening to me?
We allow our situation to dictate to us our attitude
At various stages of our lives we will all experience different kinds of failures one way or another, some failures are out of our control. Some failures are cause from us being careless, some failures are a lesson to mold us to become better Christians, Some failures are punishment for our own disobedience to God, but you have to keep trying even though you don’t feel like it , and when you understand the fight then you can fight a good fight (read Ephesians 6:10 – 14)
I don’t know about you, but when I try something that doesn’t work, I choose to look at the experience from an optimistic point of view, I don’t look at my failures as me not succeeding in life, but rather I look at my failures as things just didn’t work out for me, maybe it just wasn’t for me, so now I have to try something new that might work. you have to get up, dust your self off, and keep moving,
But, if I look at my failures from a pestimestic point of view. I would get so overwhelm in midst of all my failure, in the midst of all the things I didn’t succeed at, in the midst of all my situation that trying to stress me out, that it would make me so depress that I try to find an outlet for my anger.
I rather be happy in try it again if I fail, rather then being depress looking at my situation negative like I fail, I can’t do nothing right, I hate my self, I lost everything, I have nothing, which in the end shapes my mentally and attitude to belief that everything I touch, I going to mess up and that’s depressing to me,
How you handle failure, how you handle set backs in your life, will shape you for the future. A common truth is that everyone experiences some kind of failure, the failure is not the focus but the change is. But we make the failure to be our focus.
To God the most important thing is how you respond to the failure and what you do to change, so you want fail again. Failure is a blessing if it pushes you to humble yourself before the Lord and begin to live in the light of eternity and wisdom.
But how a person handles failure can mean the difference between living a victorious life or living a life filled with bitterness, hostility, solitary, and anger.
They have someone today consider themselves to be a failure due to there instability of employment, but watch this, on the other hand they might have a child that feel like he or she is a failure, because in New Orleans they was on honor roll, but here they are barely making a “b” average. You not a failure but things are going to be different than what you use to we are not the same so our problems are not going to be the same
I really think that sometimes we are mislead to believe, that the people in the Bible days was some sort of superheroes, but if we look closer at the word of God, it will reveal to us that they were human like us, and that they experienced much of the same things in life as we do today. They felt what we felt, they hurt like we hurt, they were stress out like we are stress out, but the way that they handle there situation was different, even though they were failing in the world eye sight, they were passing in God’s kingdom.
For example let us take a quick look at the Author of today’s text Paul. He is one of those people who the world would consider a failure but he pass while he was failing. What you mean by passing while he was failing, Paul refuse to get caught up and give in to the world instead he flowed with God.
Let’s look at the text and Go home (read 2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
Paul starts off with a series of oxymoron statements, the first thing he says is “I am troubled on every side yet not distressed”, the word troubled means “to crowd”. Paul experienced troubles and trials to the point to where it all was closing in on him. I think he was being crowed with troubles, if I’m not mistaken we refer to this condition as being stressed out in today’s terminology. So basically Paul was saying look I’m going thru all type of hell in my life right now I’m stress out yet I still got a hold of things, I’m still in my right mind, I believe that he was referring to 2 Corinthians 1:8-9
He then says he is perplexed meaning “having no way out”. So there was time in this great man of God life when he literally felt at a loss, he felt that his situation was going to overtake him, he felt that he was in a deep hole with no way out, but he then turn around and says he is not in despair he still have not lost hope nor have he gave up his faith, (1 Peter 3:15 -17)
He then turns around and says in verse 9 he was oppress, harassed, and especially persecuted because of my belief, because of my downfalls, because of my failures in the past but in the midst of them all he says but I was not forsaken (2 Corinthians 7:7 – 10)
But if we go down a little further in our text we see Paul giving the answer to the question of how do you pass when you fell like you are failing (2 Corinthians 4:17 – 18)
He tells us inside the text that the way that you pass when you feel like you are failing is look not at the things which are seen, for the things that are seen is temporal or temporary, so that means that your failures are temporary, your set back is temporary, your infirmities are temporary, your finance situation is temporary, your housing situation is temporary, your light bill situation is temporary, your transportation and gas situation are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So when you going thru you see the situations but you don’t see your faith in the midst of the situations. Watch this, it’s your faith that is eternal, it’s your faith that allows God to move in the spirit and manifest some things in the physical for you. It’s your faith that’s going to get you into heaven not the situations, the only thing you have to do is to keep the faith in the midst of your failing, the world might consider it failing, but in the spirit realm so long you keep the faith you passing!
