6-9-19 Sermon Notes
“Death Sentence = Life Sentence” – 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 and Luke 9:23-24
Introduction
Last week, we began our 13-week series with a discussion of verses 1-7 in chapter 1 relating to suffering and comfort. This week we will dive into what it means to ‘die to self.’
Read 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
2 Corinthians 1:8-11 New International Version (NIV)
8 “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”
Message
Introduction –
Where Do We Find Hope When We Are Struggling?
1. Hardships are not unusual.
– 2 Corinthians 1:8
– There can be resentment in our relationship with God when hard times come. “Doesn’t God love me?” “Why is God allowing this?” It can lead us to question God.
– This is particularly true if we’ve been led to believe that God desires to make our lives easy. Too many believe that God’s job is that of a helicopter parent – ever attentive to remove the obstacles and nuisances. It’s not.
– Hardships are part and parcel of the human experience. Becoming a Christian does not exempt us from that, although it does provide us with additional resources with which to face them.
– So we should not give in to that thought that God has somehow let us down or disappointed us just because we have a struggle to deal with.
2. “The sentence of death”
– This is a crucial point. Paul says that he and his followers had received a death sentence. What does he mean by that statement? Simply put, he is saying that he had died to himself to the point that he had to totally rely on God and not on himself. See the next section for further clarification.
– 2 Corinthians 1:9a
3. God grows us in our struggles.
– 2 Corinthians 1:9b.
– This is another crucial point. There are a number of ways that God can grow us through struggles, but let’s focus on the one that’s mentioned in this passage. Paul tells the Corinthians that the substantial struggles that he went through served to “not rely on ourselves but on God.”
– How does that happen? Far too often we rely on ourselves to handle the obstacles of life. We look first and primarily to our ideas, our resources, our answers. Sometimes it’s only when we get to the absolute end of our rope when we have nowhere else to look to, that we reluctantly cry out to God and His answers. Of course, it shouldn’t be this way, but it is, even for Christians.
– How exactly does He grow us?
a. It might be through realizing our need for Him.
b. It might be through learning to depend on prayer.
c. It might be practicing how to wait on Him.
d. It might be expecting Him to do things bigger than we can.
– He wants us to become people with great spiritual power. Prayer warriors, believers of incredible faith, spiritual victors. So often victory comes by faith. And for us to have that kind of faith, it has to be built. That requires us to have to go through struggles and trust God to come through for us in those struggles.
4. We serve a God of impossibilities.
– 2 Corinthians 1:9c.
– Paul mentions an essential fact about this God we are to rely on: He “raises the dead.”
– There was no doubt to the people who saw Jesus die that it was game over. He didn’t just die – He was tortured and pierced. As the disciples mourned the loss of their teacher, there were a thousand things going through their minds. “What do we do now?” “Are the religious authorities going to arrest us too?” “How did Jesus do those miracles if He wasn’t the Messiah?” One question that didn’t go through their minds, though, was “Do you think His death might just be temporary?” Why didn’t they think that? They didn’t understand the teaching about the resurrection that Jesus had given to them and death is something that you know is permanent. Dead people stay dead.
– But God’s power was greater than they expected or dreamed. God the Father raised the dead!
– When we know we serve a heavenly Father who can raise the dead, it makes our problems look pretty ordinary by comparison. We serve a God who can do what we consider impossible, so that should give us great hope when we take our struggles to Him.
5. God has promised to stick with us.
– 2 Corinthians 1:10.
– Paul tells us that God has been faithful in the past to deliver. That gives him confidence that God will deliver in the future.
– One of the most powerful tools we have to increase our confidence in God’s faithfulness to deliver us is the knowledge we have of the ways that God has delivered us in the past. Have we “found Him faithful”? Because we can answer with a resounding “yes,” that gives us confidence for the uncertain future.
– This is why we can “set our hope” on God. Our hope is not in our resources, our intelligence, our friends, our church, our resourcefulness, or our family. Our hope is in God.
– Many things fail us.
– Our friends can be there for a season but then get distracted by their own lives. Sometimes they’re not there when we need them the most.
– Our family can disappoint us.
– Our money can fail us.
– Our church can underwhelm.
– But God will never leave us or forsake us.
5. We all get to rejoice together after the deliverance.
– 2 Corinthians 1:11.
– It’s a wonderful thing when God’s deliverance comes through. And when we experience that, we get to share the joy that we feel with those who have prayed for us.
Concluding Remarks and Application
Let’s focus on Paul’s statement in verse 9 – “Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.” On an application level, we should ask, “What is in us that has to die?’ “How do we get to the point that we totally trust God and not ourselves?’
As previously mentioned:
a. It might be through realizing our need for Him.
b. It might be through learning to depend on prayer.
c. It might be practicing how to wait on Him.
d. It might be expecting Him to do things bigger than we can.
Realizing our need for Him is the starting point! Without that, we will be unable to get to the prayer, patience and expectation growth points.
Sometimes, we struggle with the ‘total reliance’ aspect. We wake up the next day and fall back into the ‘I can do this myself’ mode. Jesus said in Luke 9:23 and 24 – “…If anyone would come after Me, he must deny (die to self) himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will save it.” Understanding that ‘dying to oneself’ is a daily exercise and is possible through the power of the Holy Spirit should give us great hope of an eternal “Life Sentence.”