that I'd like to focus on is there beginning in verse number 15, where the Bible reads
in this confidence, I was minded to come unto you before that you might have a second benefit
and to pass by you into Macedonia and to come again out of Macedonia unto you and
of you to be brought on my way toward Judea. When I therefore was thus minded
that I use lightness or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the
flesh that with me there should be yea, yea and nay, nay? But as God is true, our work toward
you is not yea and nay, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea,
for all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen unto the glory of God by
us. Now what I want to preach on this morning is this subject, Yea and Amen, that's
the title of my sermon. And we see here from the context, let me just kind of break
this down to you so you can understand what Paul is saying. He's talking about earlier
in the chapter a lot of the tribulations and troubles that he's been through in his
life and how he was actually almost at the point of death. And of course we read the
book of Acts, we see that there were times when Paul was beaten, he was shipwrecked,
he was stoned and they thought he was dead, but he actually got up and walked back
into town and he was able to be nursed back to health. So he'd been through all this
and he's talking about some of his future plans now and he's saying, you know, this
is my confidence. He said, I decided that I was going to come to you and then I was
going to go into Macedonia to preach the Gospel and then I was going to come back
out of Macedonia and preach the Gospel in Corinth and then I was going to go to
Judea and he said, when I therefore was thus minded, we're in verse number 17, did
I use lightness or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh
that with me there should be yea, yea and nay, nay? Basically what he's saying is,
I'm not just casually going through my life, just lightly saying, oh, I think I'll go over
here and I might do this or I might try to do this or, you know, I'm going to give
it a shot. He said, no, I am going to do it. I'm going to succeed. I'm not doing
this in the flesh. God is with me and it's not going to be yes and no. He said,
it's just all yes. That's what he's saying. He says, yea and nay. Those are just
old words for yes and no. He said, it's yea. He said, if God is with me, if I'm in the
will of God, if I'm not walking in the flesh, we're walking in the spirit. It's not
yea and nay, it's just yea and amen. And that's what I want to preach about
this morning. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 2. You're in chapter 1. Go to chapter 2,
it says in verse 14, now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph
in Christ. Did you get that? He said, thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph
in Christ. Not most of the time, not yes and no, but he said no. All the time we
are going to triumph in Christ and he says, and make it manifest the savor of his knowledge
by us in every place. He's talking about preaching God's word, preaching the knowledge
of God in every place. And he says, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ
in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of death
unto death and to the other the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for
these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity,
but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ. Paul says, look, everywhere
I go preaching the gospel, he said, I'm always triumphing. He said, in some places
I go and I preach and people want to hear the truth and they believe on Jesus Christ
and they get saved. And he said, to them it's the savor of life unto life. He said,
other people reject the gospel and it's just a warning to them of the fact that they're
going to die and go to hell and it's a bad taste in their mouth. He said, either
way I'm triumphing. Either way I'm on the winning side because I'm doing
the work of God and preaching the word of God. You see, when you're doing God's
work, when you're doing God's will, you're always successful. You're always winning.
It's always yay. It's always amen. And you see, when I go out soul winning, I might go
out soul winning and no one gets saved, but you know what? I'm still on the winning
side. I'm still on the victory side. And you know, if people don't come to church
and maybe they don't want to believe on Christ and get saved, or maybe they do get
saved but they don't come to church, it's not really our loss. It's their loss.
You know, we're in God's house. We're doing the work of God. We're triumphing
in Jesus Christ. And even if we go out and we're rejected by the world when we preach
his word, we're still triumphing. We're still winning. And that's what he's explaining
here. But also I think what he's explaining here is the way that we live our lives.
We need a purpose to do things and not have a yay-nay attitude, a mixed attitude
where we're double-minded. The Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his
ways. The Bible says we should ask in faith, nothing wavering. And so when we decide
to do something, we just need to decide to do it and get all the way in and succeed.
Look at Philippians chapter 4. You're in 2 Corinthians. Just go a few pages to the
right in your Bible. You see, God is not the God of yay and may. He's the God
of yay-yay. He's the God of yay and amen. And so he says in Philippians chapter
4, a famous verse, Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ which strengthen
me. And this is Paul's attitude in 2 Corinthians 1. He's saying, I'm not maybe going to
go preach the Gospel in Macedonia. I'm going to Macedonia. I didn't purpose that
lightly. I didn't just lightly have that goal. He said, I'm going to do it.
God is with me. I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me.
Go to Philippians 1, 6. You're in chapter 4. Just go back a few pages to chapter 1.
He says in Philippians 1, 6, same word again, being confident of this very thing, that
he which had begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Go to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter number 8. You see, I think about this in my own
life. A little over five years ago when I came to Phoenix, Arizona, I didn't say,
hey, I'm going to go try and start a church. Well, I'm going to give it a shot.
Well, I'm going to do my best. No, I said, I'm going there. I'm going to preach God's
Word. I'm going to knock every door and God will build that church. I'm on the winning
side. I'm going to triumph in Jesus Christ and I believe that God will build this church.
That's why I came here, not with a yea and nay attitude, not with an attitude
that said maybe, but an attitude that said, hey, I'm not doing this in the flesh.
I'm in the will of God. I'm following God's Word. I will succeed. I can do all things
through Christ who has strengthened me. And of course, God has built this church
and continues to build this church. Our goal in this church, just so you know, is
to knock every single door in this whole county, which represents four million people.
And we have that map up there. And a while back, several years ago, that probably
just seemed like a crazy idea or just a pipe dream. But if you look at that map,
we've already done a huge portion of it. We've already done a fifth of it. We've
already knocked the doors of about three quarter of a million people. Why? Because
we can do all things through Christ who has strengthened us. And if God be for
us, who can be against us? There are naysayers, but God is the ultimate yeasayer
of our church and we will succeed and win the battle. You see, that map out there
represents a dream, a vision, okay, that was in my mind years and years ago
that at the time seemed impossible. And for one man, it is impossible. Even if
I spent my entire life here, it would be impossible for me to preach the
gospel to every preacher in this massive megacity that we live in in Phoenix,
Arizona. But you know what? With this church right here, with this group
right here, it is possible. And we're already doing it. We're already knocking
the door. We've already accomplished so much. And we can succeed. We can win
because God is with us. We're not doing it in the flesh. We're not just
lightly saying we're going to try. We're not going to try. We're going to do it.
We're going to get it done. And we're already proving that.
Where did I turn? Look at Romans chapter 8. It says in Romans 8
28, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God. Did you hear that? All things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to
his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also
called. And whom he called, then he also justified. And whom he justified,
then he also glorified. This ties in with the verse that we just looked at when he said,
hey, he which has begun a good work in you will perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ. God's not going to start something and then not finish it.
God is saying here that your life,
if you love God, because he said to them that love God,
all things work together for good. He said God is working in your life.
If you love him and you're serving him, you're going to triumph.
You're going to be conformed to the image of his son. He not only called you,
but he justified you. He's going to glorify you. He will
finish the work in your life. If you'll stay in the battle
and you'll keep on serving God, you will triumph.
You will win. And that's what he's saying. Not a yea and nay, but he just said
amen. Now what does the word amen mean?
Well the word amen is used a lot in the Bible. In fact, I don't know if you know this,
but in the New Testament there are 27 books. 24 of those books
end with the word amen. All throughout the Old Testament you'll see
the word amen over and over again. And the word amen
just basically means so be it. Let it be so.
Another word that could be translated as amen is our word
verily. Verily or truly. And so that's why when sometimes
you'll hear someone preaching, others will say amen. They're basically
saying yes. Yea. They're saying so be it.
It's true what you're saying. Let it be even so.
And the Bible uses the word amen a lot to mean
let it come to pass. Let it be so. Let those words be
established. Like when the Bible says even so come Lord Jesus. He said amen.
Now did you know that God actually calls himself
the amen? You don't have to turn there, but in Revelation chapter 3 18
when he's talking to the Church of the Lay of the Seans, he says unto the angel
of the Church of the Lay of the Seans write thus saith the amen.
And it's Jesus Christ talking. And he calls himself
the amen. Because when God purposes
something, it comes to pass. All the way back to Genesis 1.
You'll see the phrase over and over again. And God said let there be light.
And it was so. God said let there be a ferment. And it was
so. God said let the dry land
appear. And it was so. And you'll see over and over that pattern. And God said
and it was so. Because what God says
truly comes to pass. And that's what the word amen means. And God
always keeps good on his promises. He always keeps good
on his word. The Bible says as God is true, he says all the
promises of God in him are yea and in him
amen unto the glory of God. So God's never going to let us down.
This is basically what the bottom line is. And if we're serving him, we're
always on the winning side. He always causes us to triumph.
And here he says that all things work together for good to them that love God.
Because whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son. It says in verse 31, what shall we
say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justified. Who is he that condemned it? It is Christ
that died, yea rather than is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, nay,
in all these things. We are more than conquerors through him
that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's going to be opposition
in our life. There are going to be bad things that happen. Our church has faced opposition.
I've faced opposition and setbacks in my personal life.
Lately everybody's been really sick, and I was very sick.
I was asking myself, God, I was saying to God, God why are
you allowing me to be this sick? Because I couldn't understand it.
Sometimes I've been sick, and I can see how it
worked out for good. Because sometimes I was just going a little bit too fast in life
and sometimes I would get sick and it would kind of force me to sit down and read my Bible
and pray and just kind of take it easy
and just relax a little bit. And I said, oh,
I can see why I got sick. But this sickness that I had recently was
so bad I couldn't even read my Bible. I couldn't even quote a
verse. I was so sick. I was just miserable laying there. And I felt
like I just lost a whole week of my life. And I was thinking, man, I wish
I could be out soul winning or I wish I could at least be out making some money or providing
for my family or doing something. And I was just completely sick. And you know, things like
that happen in our life that are just bad things that just mess us up and they might
mess up our finances and just mess up our plans. And that's how
this sickness was. And I know a lot of you went through a lot of sickness. And of course that messes up your
job. That messes up a lot of things. You know, we just have to believe that if we love God,
you know, God's going to use these things in our life to work together for
good. And we're going to go through bad times, but we're still on the winning side.
We're still more than conquerors. He said, in all these things, verse 37,
nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. In what kind of things? Well, in verse 35 he
says, in tribulation, in distress, in persecution,
in famine, in nakedness, in peril, in sorrow. He
said, we're more than conquerors. Even through these bad times, even
through the setbacks, we are going to win. We
are going to succeed. Just don't quit. Now turn, if you
would, to 2 Kings chapter 6. 2 Kings chapter 6.
It's easy to get discouraged and down
when things aren't going your way. And maybe your finances are going bad
or sickness or whatever the case.
But you know, the Bible's clear that God is saying
yay and amen. I mean, we are on the winning side
and we will succeed as a church. We will succeed as individuals
if we're serving God, if we love God. Now this is
one of my favorite stories in 2 Kings chapter 6. Let me just tell you
what's going on in this story and then I'll read it to you. But in 2 Kings chapter 6,
basically Elisha is a prophet
and Elisha has been given these revelations by God
where he's basically warning the children of Israel about the
Syrians who keep coming to attack them. So Elisha
is able to give them a warning and the Syrians are not able to surprise them
and attack them. So look what it says in verse number 11. This is the king of Syria.
He thinks that there's some kind of a spy that's been giving away all his secrets.
It says in 2 Kings 6, Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore
troubled for this thing, and he called for his servants and seven of them.
Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? So he's saying look,
one of us is a spy here. One of us is for the enemy.
And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha
the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel
the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. So basically he's explaining
to him, this prophet Elisha, God's revealing stuff to him that you've said in
private. And basically he hears that and he wants to go apprehend
Elisha. So it says in verse number 13, and he said, Go and spy
where he is, that I may send infection. And it was told him
saying, Behold, he's in Dothan. So he says, Go figure out where he is, we need to arrest
him. So they figure out where Elisha is. He sends his spies and they say
okay, he's in Dothan. So he's going to send his whole army there to
stop Elisha. Now look, think about the odds here.
One guy, one old man, okay,
and he's being faced with an entire army just sent
to stop one man. Okay, one man Elisha. And so
basically it says in verse number 14, Therefore send ye together horses
and chariots and a great host. I guess one guy, this huge army,
one bald old man, Elisha. The Bible tells us he was bald.
And enough of that has anything to do with it. But anyway, I'm just
saying, he's just this, he's an old timer, you know.
But it says in verse number 14, Therefore send ye
together horses and chariots and a great host. And they came by night,
you know, because they got to sneak up on him and compass the city
about. So they basically surrounded the whole city. Now put yourself in this position.
Because it's easy just to read the story without thinking about it. Think about this,
you're in bed at night. Let's say you're a bald guy.
You're in bed at night, you're laying in your house, and all of a sudden
there's just an entire army, okay. I mean with
weapons, horses, chariots, just an entire army surrounding
your whole neighborhood. Just completely surrounded. You're going to think
that you're pretty much done, right? There's no way out. You've lost.
Look what the Bible says here.
It says, and when the servant of the man of God, this is Elisha's young servant,
was risen early and gone forth, behold
a host compassed the city. Compass means surrounded.
Compassed the city both with horses and chariots, and his servant said
to them, alas my master, how shall we do?
He's saying, what are we going to do? You know, we're dead. And watch
this, and he answered, fear not, for they would be with us,
or more than they would be with them. Now that surprises
him, because he's telling them, well we actually have more on our side than what
they have. And Elisha prayed, it says in verse
17, and Elisha prayed, it said, Lord I pray thee,
open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire
round about Elisha. Isn't that amazing? So right there,
they feel totally outnumbered. They can't see what's going
on, and you know, we can't see all the spiritual things that are going on. Obviously the Bible
teaches that there really are angels and
people watching over us as believers, and the Bible says the angel
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. Okay, that's
the Bible doctrine. And so here, this young man is totally afraid
because he's surrounded by this army, and yet Elisha just
says, well there's more that are with us than with them. And I don't even know if Elisha
even necessarily physically saw that army. But he didn't have to
see it. He knew it was there, because he knew that if God be for us,
who can be against us, as it says in Romans 8. He knew that God
is on his side, and he said, you know, I'd rather just be here with me and my scared
servant and God. That is more powerful than a huge
army. And so that's the attitude that we should have, understanding
that if God is for us, who can be against us? Not to be
afraid or fearful of enemies or
opponents and trials and tribulations that we go through. So it
says that he showed the young man, God just kind of opened
his eyes. This is an amazing miracle. God actually just allowed him to kind of see the
spiritual realm for a few moments, and to actually see the hosts of
angels that were surrounding Elisha with fire chariots and weapons
and so forth. It says, and when they came down to him,
Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said, smite this people
I pray thee with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
And Elisha said to them, this is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow
me and I'll bring you to the man whom you seek. But he led them to Samaria. Now I don't
I've read over this over and over again, and I don't think that he
necessarily made them just completely blind to where they couldn't even see, like just
completely blind. I think he blinded them as to where they were and
to who he was. Basically, kind of like the Bible says that those that are not
saved, the God of this world has blinded them. They're blinded as
in they can't perceive the truth. So basically God performs this
miracle where they get there and they don't recognize Elisha.
So Elisha walks up to him and says, you guys are in completely the wrong city.
And I'm not, you know, he said, let me take you
to the man you're looking for. I know how to find Elisha, let me take you over
there. So he guides them to Samaria, which is the capital city
of Israel. So he brings the army within
Samaria, so now they're surrounded by the armies of Israel
in Samaria. He takes them there to Samaria, and then
in verse 20 it says, it came to pass when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha
said, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. And the Lord
opened their eyes and they saw them. Behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
So now they're scared. It says in verse 21,
the king of Israel said unto Elisha when he saw him, my father,
shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? So the king of Israel says, what do you want me to do?
Just kill them? Thanks for bringing them here. And he answered, thou
shall not smite them. Wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive
with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and
drink and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them, and
when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master.
So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. Okay, so basically
he just says, no, don't kill them. Just feed them and send them home. You know, just basically
send them back to the king. And basically when he sent them back to the king, they told
the king, hey, we're not going to go to Israel anymore. We're tired of fighting with
Israel. We're just going to invade a completely different country because, you know,
we don't know what's going on. It's really weird down there. And so the bottom line is
here, it doesn't matter. Go to John 15.
What you have to realize about your life is that
it doesn't matter what kind of opposition you're faced with. Even if it's just
a whole army against one man, you're still
on the winning side. Whenever you're standing for what's
right, whenever you're preaching what's right, or whenever you're
doing what's right, you are going to win.
It's not a maybe, it's not, well, I hope things will work out.
Whether things go good or whether things go bad,
it's in God's will for your life when you're doing the right thing.
If you're doing what's right, you know, financial catastrophe may
happen, physical illness may come to pass,
persecution from other people may come, but
if you're doing what's right, if you love God, if you're
serving Him, you are winning.
Even if it seems like you're failing in this life, you are a winner
when you're standing for what's right. And it doesn't matter what the odds are,
it doesn't matter what happens, God will allow bad things to happen to you
if you're living in His will. But the only bad things
that can happen to you when you're in God's will are the things that He allows to happen.
Because He can do anything, even here, it wasn't
God's will for Elisha to be taken down, He wanted Elisha to
continue preaching and doing what he was doing, so a nation could send a whole army
with horses and chariots and couldn't even defeat that one man. Because
God was not allowing them to defeat Him. There were other prophets
in the Bible who were slain, who were martyred, who were killed. You look at
Stephen, he was stoned. God could have protected Stephen. God
could have pulled Stephen out of there just like He protected Paul. I mean, Paul was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion, Paul was delivered from all the tribulations,
all the beatings, all the stonings, he survived it all. I believe
that Paul died of natural causes. From reading 2 Timothy 4,
he said, I was delivered from all of man's attacks. And he said,
basically, I fought a good fight, I'm ready for my departure, I believe
that he died of natural causes after sitting for two years in the prison
in Rome and preaching the word of God until his last day, no man forbidding
him. And you know what? God can protect, and God can keep us from
getting sick. God can keep us from having financial problems, but you know what?
That's not always God's will. Because for Stephen, God allowed
him to be stoned to death and martyred at a very young age, a man who was doing
everything right, a man who was filled with the Spirit, who was preaching
right, who was doing great things for God, God allowed him to be killed
by his enemies. Why? Why did he do it?
He spared Paul, but he allowed Stephen to be killed. He spared the
apostle John, and allowed him to live to a very old age.
Even though many people tried to kill John, he spared him and allowed him to
live to a very old age. Whereas other people like James,
John's brother, were killed right away in the book of Acts, very
early on, they were killed by the authorities. Why?
God has a different plan for every person's life. If you're not
serving God, you're not even in that plan. You're just going freestyle,
you're on your own, buddy. But if you love God, and if you're serving
God, and if you're living your life according to God's word, you
are in the steps that God has for you, because the Bible says the steps
of a good man are ordered by the Lord. He didn't say every man's
steps are ordered by the Lord, but he said the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
And when you're loving God, and serving God, and in His plan,
He may allow bad things to happen to you, but you're still triumphant.
Look at Stephen. Yes, he was stoned to death, but he was triumphant.
He was a hero. He died for the cause of
Jesus Christ. He's exalted for all eternity. He's remembered
and preached today as a great hero of the faith, and while Stephen
was being stoned to death, there was a young man in the audience named Saul
who was holding the coats of those who killed Stephen,
and that young man watched and saw Stephen as he was dying
with his last breath, saying, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. Into thy hands I commend my spirit, to die
bravely and triumphantly for the cause of Christ. And that young man
Saul, who was later known as Paul, spent decades
preaching the word of God, spent decades serving God, and you wonder what kind of
impact that had on Paul's life. Because the Bible
is so clear to tell us that while Stephen was being killed, Saul
was right there, the young man Saul, witnessing the whole thing.
And that made an impact in his life. And so we look at it as, man, why does
that have to happen to Stephen? But then we look at the life of the apostle Paul,
who probably preached the gospel to more people than anyone in the history of mankind,
you know, you see him going and doing the great works that he did for decades,
and you can see that God had a plan. God had
a purpose in all of it. And so, as Paul said in
2 Corinthians 1 and 2, he said, thanks be unto God which always
causeeth us to triumph. He said, to some
people, we're a saver of life unto life. Some people
when we preach the word to them, they love it. It's refreshing.
The Bible says, you know, the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved is the power
of God. And when we go out and knock a door and preach the gospel,
to some, we are bringing the greatest news that they've ever heard.
The greatest news. The news that Jesus
paid it all, that if they just believe on Jesus Christ, all their sins
will be forgiven. They'll live forever in heaven in a perfect place.
That is a good message. And to those who believe on Christ, to those who
receive the gospel, we are the bearers of the best news in the world.
But to others, we're a saver of death.
Because we bring to them the message of condemnation, of an eternity
in hell that they is an unbelievable thing. To some people, it's a warning.
You know, we speak the truth in love, but still it's
the truth. And to some people, it's a dire warning.
To some people, it's a bad message. But unto those that are
saved, it's the power of God. To those that are saved, it's the best news they've ever heard.
I mean, the gospel is great news if you believe on Christ,
but the gospel is bad news if you don't believe on Christ because it means that you're
going to hell. And that's a pretty bad message right there. And so the bottom
line is, some people are going to love it, some people are going to hate it, but you know what?
God always causes us to triumph.
Don't leave your life with lightness. Let's go back, let's just close the sermon back
where we started in 2 Corinthians 1.
I'm not going to preach long this morning because my throat is still
inflamed from all the sickness. But back in
2 Corinthians 1 where we started, and I'll be honest with you, I think 2 Corinthians
is one of the toughest books in the Bible to understand. You probably picked that up just as
I was reading that chapter at the beginning of the sermon. And I'm working on memorizing
the book of 2 Corinthians right now. I've got three chapters done, but
as I'm memorizing 2 Corinthians, it's a tough book.
But that's why you come to church to hear preaching to expound it to you a little bit.
Some parts of the Bible are easier than others. And as it says in
the book of 2 Peter 3,
Peter said that in Paul's epistles there are a lot of things that are difficult to be understood,
and that's very true. And this is kind of a tough book, but if you slow
down and really break it down, you can see what this is saying in 2 Corinthians 1 where we started.
We're going to read it again so you can get the picture here.
And remember earlier in the chapter he was talking a lot about trials and tribulations.
He said in verse 8, we'll just look at verse 8
only, he said, For we would not rather have you ignorant of our trouble
which came to us in Asia. He says, look, I'm not going to lie to you.
We had some serious trouble in Asia.
And he says that we were pressed out of measure
above strength. Above strength meaning it was more than we had
the strength to handle. We were pressed out of measure above strength. He said
we were persecuted to an extreme. We were pressed
out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired
even of life. Basically he's saying we didn't even want to live anymore.
It was that bad. He said, but we had the sentence of death
in ourselves. That doesn't sound good. That we should
not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.
He's saying the reason that we went through that was that we might
learn not to trust in ourselves. It was to humble us. It was to make us rely
on God. The reason that we had the sentence of death in ourselves was that we might
not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.
Who delivered us from so great a death? And don't deliver. In whom
we trust that he will yet deliver us. Ye also help me together
by prayer for us. And he goes on just to talk about how people have been praying for him
and he's been going through some really bad times. And he said
in verse number 15, and in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before
that you might have a second benefit and to pass by you into Macedonia
and to come again out of Macedonia unto you and of
you to be brought on my way toward Judea. So these are his plans for traveling, preaching
the gospel everywhere he goes. He's a traveling, evangelist, preacher,
missionary, whatever you want to call him. He says in verse 17,
When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness?
Or the things that I purposed, do I purpose according to the flesh?
That with me there should be yea, yea, and nay day?
He said I'm not just floating through life lightly here.
He said I am purposed to go and to preach God's word.
I'm on a mission. And he said because of that,
because I'm following God's word here, he said it's not yea, yea, and nay day.
Verse 18, But as God is true, our work toward you is not
yea and nay. For the Son of God Jesus Christ who is preached among you
by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay.
But in him was yea. For all the promises of God
in him are yea. And in him, Amen.
The glory of God by us. And then in chapter 2,
where we were earlier, I'll read that for you one more time. He said in verse 14,
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us
to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the saviour of his knowledge
by us in every place. That's an encouraging passage because he's
saying God's promises are always yea and amen.
God's always going to come through. God's always going to cause us to triumph.
God is always going to be on our side. Let the heathen rage.
Let people say what they want. And people that
hate us or hate you or hate the Bible or hate God's word,
they can rage and do what they want. They can send a physical
army. They can use the sword of their mouth to try to
destroy you or destroy people that you love. Sickness can come.
Tribulation can come. The sword can come. Financial
distress can come. Famine can come. Starbase can come. But he says
if God be for us, who can be against us? God
always causes us to triumph. Now you say, Pastor
Anderson, do you really think that you're going to knock every door in this city
with the gospel? No, I don't. I know we're
going to knock every door. Amen. It's not yea and nay.
It's not, well, I hope I can give it a shot. I hope so.
No. I didn't come here to try. I came to
Phoenix, Arizona to do it. And that's the attitude that we need to have
as believers because we don't have to wonder, well, I just don't know if I'm up to the challenge.
Hey, I know I'm not up to the challenge. I'm not purposing this according to the flesh
though. You see, if God is with me, that's
where I know I'm going to succeed. That's where I know I'm going to win. That's where I know
that God will see us through and answer our prayer and guide us and direct
us and help us to win the victory because it's
not in the flesh. If it was based upon me, I would say, well, I don't know.
I don't think I can do it. But
if God's for us who can be against us, He always causes us to triumph.
And even if we're a failure in the eyes of the people around us,
like Steven, they probably looked at him, well, what an idiot.
I bet a lot of people looked at him and said, you know what, he just blew off his mouth a little
too much. He should have just toned down his preaching a little bit and he wouldn't end up getting
stoned. Because if you remember that sermon that Steven preached,
it was really only the last three verses that got him trouble.
All the way up through verse 50. So I think the first verse
he's not talking. So I think it was like 49 verses of preaching that
Steven did. Everybody liked his message for the first 49 verses.
Three verses got him killed. The last three things that he
said is what got him killed. And a lot of people could have sat back and said,
oh man, what an idiot. He could have had a great long ministry
if he would have just left off that last point of his sermon. Could have been
a happy sermon. Everybody would have liked it. But you know what? I say Steven
triumphed. I say that by
not compromising, by not backing down from what he believed
in, by not watering down the message, that's what
made him triumph. And he's a triumphing and will be considered
a hero and a victor throughout all of eternity. The failure
is the one who may succeed in this life but without Christ.
Succeeding in this life without following God's will. Succeeding as
a pastor without being filled with the Spirit of God. That's
the failure, my friend. Because God will cause us to triumph
if we love Him and are filled with the Spirit and don't
live according to the flesh but live a
life relying on God. You can start
a church and pastor a church relying on the flesh and succeed
in man's world. Or you can rely upon God. You can live your
Christian life following man's advice and man's wisdom.
Or you can follow the Word of God. And
if you follow the Word of God, it doesn't matter what comes your way,
you win every time. It's always yay. It's always
yes. It's always amen. It's always
it will be so. It will come to pass. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
God, I thank you so much, just as Paul thanked you
when he said, thank you for causing us always to triumph.
Thank you that we are more than conquerors, dear God.
Help us never to try to lean on our own wisdom and our
own understanding and think that we know better than your Word. Help us to
just follow your Word and live according to your ways
and let the chips fall where they may because that's the only way that we know we're always
going to be a winner is if we are following your Word. We thank you so much for loving
us and dying for our sins, dear God, and giving us salvation. That is the best news that anyone
ever heard. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.