The Witness of Redemption

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

2 Corinthians 4:13–5:1 NLT

13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. 16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.

Hardships and Challenges

Challenges of each generation The generation that lived through the Depression and was able to make do with almost nothing.The generations that served in the first two World Wars learned how to organize an entire world.

2020 Lost Things Job loss Health loss Loved ones loss Loss of relationships Loss of being in public New Things Inability to get regular medical care Rationing Inability to visit family and friends Masking Distancing Old Things with New Significance Zoom meetings Online Church Church on TV Not just technology-related things... Walks in the park Talking with your neighbors How will our generation be remembered?

Not Gen X, Y, Z - but all of us together who have faced these challenges. How will we be remembered as the people who went through these challenging times?

Thesis: God takes our hardships and redeems them into testimonies of His power and love in our lives.

Hardships and Challenges Redeemed

Do you believe or do you falter?

Paul quotes from the psalms here, but we only get half a verse, because they didn’t have verse numbers back in Paul’s day.

Psalm 116 (NLT)

I love the Lord because he hears my voice

and my prayer for mercy.

Because he bends down to listen,

I will pray as long as I have breath!

Death wrapped its ropes around me;

the terrors of the grave overtook me.

I saw only trouble and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the Lord:

“Please, Lord, save me!”

How kind the Lord is! How good he is!

So merciful, this God of ours!

The Lord protects those of childlike faith;

I was facing death, and he saved me.

Let my soul be at rest again,

for the Lord has been good to me.

He has saved me from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling.

And so I walk in the Lord’s presence

as I live here on earth!

I believed in you, so I said,

“I am deeply troubled, Lord.”

In my anxiety I cried out to you,

“These people are all liars!”

What can I offer the Lord

for all he has done for me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation

and praise the Lord’s name for saving me.

I will keep my promises to the Lord

in the presence of all his people.

The Lord cares deeply

when his loved ones die.

O Lord, I am your servant;

yes, I am your servant, born into your household;

you have freed me from my chains.

I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving

and call on the name of the Lord.

I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people—

in the house of the Lord

in the heart of Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

In his faith, the psalmist did not boast of his faith

He cried out to God for help.

The Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years

The generation that saw the Red Sea parted and the 10 plagues of Egypt

The generation that was fed with manna from heaven for 40 years

That is 12,480 occurrences of the exact same miracle that this generation witnessed!

How many times has God repeated the same miracle for you?

All this and they were not remembered as the generation who saw more miracles than any other.

They are remembered as the generation who did not make it into the Promised Land because they gave up. They were too afraid to trust God.

They did not learn from their challenges

More importantly, they did not let God change them through those challenges.

Instead of going to God, they often complained among one another. That allowed the hardships to harden their hearts instead of letting God transform their hearts.

They never saw the Promised Land because they were not satisfied living with a God who gave them miracles every day.

I think Paul saw those early Christians as being in a place similar to the Israelites in the wilderness.

They were facing tough times, and some of the challenges were going to get worse before they got better.

Yet he also saw God working through all of those situations.

Speaking and believing - you speak with your mouth, you show your belief with your actions

Words giving meaning to actions

How will you remember your hardships?

Authentic Witness

What happens when we get it right?

We worked to gether to survive a pandemic without losing our entire older generation. Waleska turned 100 last year in the middle of the pandemic and is set to have another birthday this week. Who would have thought that possible?

We took the challenges we faced, got ourselves stable, and invited more people to serve in ministry than had been serving previously.

And that's just programming

We grew closer together in zoom meetings than we had in 9 months of services because, as challenging as the computers and internet are at times, everyone got to participate.

You've heard the saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”?

That's not what happened. What we experienced was more like God turning water into wine, and here is why:

NCD, Fresh expressions, trying to get people hungry for God.

Young couple who lost their house in a fire and church in a fast food restaurant because we moved men's group. The men were already in Sunday School classes and small groups and were ready for a way to share what God had given them with those outside the church, but they weren't sure how to do it.

More like church than anything they had experienced in years

Not because it was in a different place

Because we were not pretending to be church people

We were being church people

We didn’t go back because we weren’t trying to start programs. We were following Jesus and investing in people.

Never give up

Troubles are small seeds that produce a harvest that will outweigh them all

What we cannot see will last forever

CTA

Today we gather and profess our belief that Jesus is alive and working in our lives.

What hardship is God redeeming into a witness you can share?

Communion