What You Wish and What You Will

Children’s Sermon

How do you handle hard? With hope? Stretch armstrong!

Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:7-12 - We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it is crystal clear that the extraordinary power we display comes from God and not from us. We are stressed in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not knocked out; always carrying in our bodies the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes the life that comes from Jesus all the more evident. Death is at work in us, but life is at work in you!

2 Corinthians 4:16 - So we don’t give up. Though our visible nature is wasting away, our invisible inner nature is being renewed day by day.

Engage

We focused last week on Corinthians. This week is more focused on Ephesus but also involves Corinth. This is kind of part 2 of two very connected sermons. The toughest things Paul faces come in Corinth and Ephesus, I believe. I will say I believe I experience some of what Paul experienced on a much smaller scale. Preaching is hard. Emotionally hard. It’s not like preachers are selling cars, or shoes, or fast food. Any preacher who cares can’t just say…oh, well, they chose the chevy instead of the toyota. Or, they wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A today instead of Subway.

No, we’re advocating for THE TRUTH. Salvation and Lordship…not just for later, but for now. What we’re advocating for is the most important thing in the universe, Jesus as Lord. So, when someone turns away, chooses another flashier church with a less truthful message, chooses something temporary and wordly over worship of the eternal…it HURTS. Deeply. Of course, when someone chooses something other than Christ, it hurts Christ too…even more deeply. As we look at Ephesus within the knowledge of Corinth, know that Paul experienced some very deep hurts during this chapter.

Encounter

We talked about Corinth last week. How what happens in Corinth doesn’t stay in Corinth and how walking with Jesus should trample worldly views of wealth and weakness. We looked at Paul writing 2 Corinthians on his way from Ephesus to Corinth…extremely nervous about how he might be received. Through Paul’s anguish, he learns a couple of lessons.

There’s an old platitude I’ve never particularly cared for…God won’t give you more than you can handle. Technically it’s true, but it doesn’t FEEL true. I’d state it this way, in line with what Paul goes through in Ephesus / Corinth, God may not allow more than you WILL handle but God, and others, may allow much more than you WISH to handle.

Talk about our can vs our will…Expanding our can with God and other Christians…Funeral yesterday

So, backtracking a bit, what about Ephesus? Ephesus was another cosmopolitan, important Roman city. It, too, was highly favored by the Roman Empire. Ephesus featured a massive temple, or shrine, to the fertility goddess Artemis that was famous throughout the Empire. People came to Ephesus as tourists just to see and worship this statue of her. There was a significant commercial market around the making and selling of Artemis artifacts in Ephesus. Ephesus was also home to all kinds of magic…dark and powerful arts. Paul worked as a tentmaker there while spreading the gospel. He had, it seems, extraordinary success preaching One God, and Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the Lord of the universe, amidst this polytheistic Roman cult center. Astounding healings took place…people who simply touched something Paul had touched were healed. Demons were exorcised. The Spirit was moving powerfully and Paul must’ve been so blessed to see it all.

Then, the dark forces struck back.

First, a quick but disastrous trip to Corinth. Paul had heard from some who’d come from Corinth that the church was broken up…some followed Paul, some Peter, some Apollos…the world was getting in the way of the word, so to speak. Paul writes them a painful letter (part of 2 Corinthians, we now believe) and makes a short visit…he is not welcome. They basically send him packing…even telling him that he may need new references if he’s to see them again. Painful rejection. I talked about this last week.

Well, you might be thinking, he can at least go back to the wild successes of Ephesus! Yes, but hold on. Corinth alone was likely painful enough but the Ephesian scene was about to change. And, truly, God may not allow more than you WILL handle but Good, and others, may allow much more than you WISH to handle.

As best as we can tell, Paul’s amazing fruitfulness in Ephesus started causing trouble. Economic trouble at first for the magicians (still practicing) and the industry around Artemis artifacts, worship, etc. There’s a riot at some point and then the Jews get involved. On a side note, one of my favorite verses in Scripture is in this riot narrative Luke gives us. Acts 19:32 -

Meanwhile, the assembly was in a state of confusion. Some shouted one thing, others shouted something else, and most of the crowd didn’t know why they had gathered

Anyway, a Jew stands up and tries to tell the crowd that this Paul guy and his gospel have nothing to do with true Judaism…In other words, don’t blame us! But it backfires. They see he’s a Jew and now the comfortable position of the Jews in Ephesus, and the empire, are directly threatened. Add the trickling down of the economic impact of the gospel on lucrative idolatry, and it’s a sticky situation. On the heels of amazing Spirit work, Paul lands in prison. Undoubtedly, even people he thought were friends turned against him. Certainly anyone on the fence…perhaps cordial before even if not converted, went against him. The trial, should it come, would be for his life.

A helpful reminder here is in order. The Romans didn’t care one at all about arguments within Judaism. They DID care, massively, however about keeping the peace. Riots just won’t do.

Add it all together and Paul is in a deep, dark place. The rejection of the Corinthians. The trouble in Ephesus after so many miracles. Not to mention the physical beatings, hunger in prison, etc.

He FELT crushed, at his wits end, abandoned, destroyed, but he looks back and realizes he wasn’t. God had allowed far more than he wished but not more than he handled. He also learned that when he had nothing left in his own strength to fight, Christ was there. That’s what he’s speaking of when he says We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it is crystal clear that the extraordinary power we display comes from God and not from us. He could look back later on this deep, dark, period and see the events within a larger picture of God’s mercy…but he couldn’t at the time.

I think something else helped with all of this, in the mysterious ways of God. The long 13 year delay we looked at a few weeks ago had to have helped. Paul had learned patience. He’d learned that bumps in the road didn’t mean his call was over, or invalid. Even in deep darkness, part of him knew that Christ would see him through to the other side where he’d witness not just gory, but glory.

God has also blessed the world amazingly through Paul’s struggles. Paul wrote prolifically from Ephesus and from prison in Ephesus. We are blessed with at least some of those writings. Out of struggle, God brought beauty in enormously greater measure!

Empower

God may not allow more than you WILL handle but Good, and others, may allow much more than you WISH to handle. As I just referenced, others probably don’t care how much you’re handling and may give you more. It may take every ounce of strength you have to hang on…but you can.

I don’t know if you’re like me, but sometimes after I’ve gone to the store I try and get as many plastic bags as possible in my hands to reduce my trips. I get everything balanced just so and begin going from the car to the house. Then, something shifts. And then chaos ensues!!! It always seems like when that happens, other stuff starts breaking too. That heavy can of corn breaks through the bag and makes a run for it. The bread falls out and then a heavy can falls on top of it…the glass bottle of spaghetti sauce breaks and splatters, that sort of thing.

When times get hard as they do, as they did for Paul, you may end up losing some things you thought you needed! It hurts, of course. But you may learn in time that you didn’t really need what you thought you needed. And, if you happen to be blessed to learn reliance upon Christ and his promises, you’ve gained the best lesson in the universe.

I thought of a story with all of this. Perhaps some of you more seasoned music aficionados have heard of Liu Shih-kun, China’s most famous pianist. As a young man he finished second in an international Tchaikovsky piano competition…second to none other than Van Cliburn. Liu loved Western music and was famous playing it in China. That is, until the cultural revolution of Mao Zedong. A side note here friends…there are a growing number of idiots in our country who praise China, revere Mao, and think we ought to follow in their footsteps. God forbid! I don’t use the term idiots lightly. They are idiots. CNN recently did a praise special on China. Nonsense. The amount of suffering, death, torture, and the like that have come from that wicked regime should horrify anyone. If you’ll pay attention, there are plenty of people who’ve lived there who’ll tell you we want no part of it. Anyway, Liu found himself a target of the purification that came with the cultural revolution. He was turned in by none other than Chariman Mao’s wife, Madame Chiang Ching.

Liu, having refused to renounce the music (MUSIC, folks!) he’d loved since childhood, was part of the purge. He was declared an enemy of the people. He was locked away, beaten mercilessly, even having a bone in his right forearm broken. Six years he languished in that prison cell. No books to read, no piano, no paper to write on. Then, relations with the West warmed a tad under Richard Nixon. Liu was released from jail and requested to perform in Peking with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The request came from none other than the wicked first lady who’d imprisoned him. He played after six years of no practice, and he played well. Then, he was imprisoned again another 18 months. Then he was released to play again, and played brilliantly. How?

For 7.5 years in that tiny prison cell, Liu practiced his beloved music in his vivid, disciplined imagination - on a piano no one else could see! He was never imprisoned again and still lives at the age of 82 today.

In fact, here’s a short video of him playing not that long ago...https://youtu.be/CtncftXCj9A

God may not allow more than you WILL handle but Good, and others, may allow much more than you WISH to handle. But on the other side, there is BEAUTY!

Pray