Scarred 2

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2Co 11:23  Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can't believe I'm saying these things. It's crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I'm going to finish.) I've worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death's door time after time. 

2Co 11:24  I've been flogged five times with the Jews' thirty-nine lashes, 

2Co 11:25  beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I've been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. 

2Co 11:26  In hard traveling year in and year out, I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. 

2Co 11:27  I've known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. 

2Co 11:28  And that's not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. 

2Co 11:29  When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut. 

2Co 11:30  If I have to "brag" about myself, I'll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. 

2Co 11:31  The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I'm not lying. 

2Co 11:32  Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? 

2Co 11:33  I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life. 

 

I was visiting a man from our congregation in the hospital a few weeks ago… I felt like God told me to tell him he was called to ministry and ask him if he wanted to ask Christ into his life and live for him.  He was and  he did, it was awesome – 

BUT THE POINT IS… CAN YOU RELATE?  

 

 

****Do you have stories like this one?  Can we sit around and share great times and memories about how we have both seen God used?  

 

 

 

1. Challenges make us more like Jesus.  Paul said his humiliations made him more like Christ.  

 

Christ was humiliated as a God/Man on the Cross.  It was unbelievably shameful way to die.  Your beaten, stripped, punched, spit on, cursed and nailed to a cross.  Why was this humiliating?  Because of who he was and what he could have done.  

 

 

TO BE TESTED IS GOOD.  THE CHALLENGED LIFE IS THE BEST THERAPIST.

 

 

I have a couple boys in my past youth group who can tell stories of witnessing to hundreds of people.  The one even stood before a packed theatre and shared his testimony.

I have stories of serving God that cost me money, time, pain, friends, and I have stories of great times where God showed up and answered prayer… but it all starts with being willing to follow God wherever he takes you.

 

 

PAULS BEST STORIES WERE BASED ON OBEDIENCE! 

- Paul cant tell a story about being stranded at sea or shipwrecked unless he follows God onto that ship.

- Paul can’t tell a story about being beaten with Rods unless he was willing to stand up to the Jews and tell them they must accept Jesus

- Paul can’t tell about being stoned unless he firsts listens to God’s voice to go to the city and preach the gospel.

- Paul can’t tell stories of being whipped unless he is willing to tell people they are going to hell if they do not turn from sin.

 

What stories can you tell?

What scars do you have for Jesus?

How far are you willing to go in order to serve Jesus?

 

 

I honestly believe in my heart of hearts that people who know the truth and don’t serve God don’t do it because they want to sin or because they want to rebel – but rather because they are afraid and do not see the reward!

 

What is the reward?  Becoming more like Christ!  

 

 

In 1901 Earnest Shakelton 

1901 National Antarctic Expedition

 

Shackleton participated in the National Antarctic Expedition, which was organized by the Royal Geographical Society in 1901, and led by Robert Falcon Scott. This expedition is also called the "Discovery Expedition", as its ship was called Discovery. The expedition was the first to penetrate the Ross Sea and reach the Ross Ice Shelf. He may have placed what has become one of the world's most famous advertisements in the Times of London in December 1901: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”

 

THE NEXT DAY HIS OFFICE HAD A LINE OF A 100 PLUS MEN…

They were tired of a meaningless existence…

 

May we be willing to follow Christ - earn our scars and tell stories of faith 

FOR THE MASTER!