Transcript
This morning, to set the stage for my message, here's a short little video clip featuring
a person you've met before, Nick Vujicic. Please watch this.
Born in Australia without arms or legs, 30-year-old Nick Vujicic has become a symbol of triumph
against all odds. His inspiring YouTube videos have been watched over 100 million times.
But I'll tell you, there are some times in life where you fall down and you feel like
you don't have the strength to get back up. You sort of put a mask on your face when you
come to school and pretend that everything's okay when it's not, and you go home and lay
in your bed when no one's looking at you, when you don't have to impress anybody, and
you're yourself. And fear comes in. You know the fear that you have as soon as you walk
into the doors of your house, maybe there's a broken home. Maybe you have doubt in your
life. Maybe you don't know for sure what's going to be happening in the future and it
scares you. Maybe you're worried about what people think of you, what people say about
you. Just that fear paralyzes you. And I just want to ask you today, do you think you have
hope? Because I tell you, I'm down here, face down, and I have no arms, no legs. It should
be impossible for me to get back up. I mean, you go home and tie the legs and arms of your
brothers and sisters and push them down and see how long it's going to take them to get
back up, you know what I mean? You know, you can tell them that you'll see them tomorrow,
you know what I mean? But this is the thing. It should be impossible for me to get back
up, but it's not. You see, I will try 100 times to get up, and if I fail 100 times,
if I fail and I give up, do you think that I'm ever going to get up? No. But if I fail,
I try again, and again, and again. For as long as I try, there's always that chance
of getting up. Does that make sense? And it's not the end until you've given up. And just
the fact that you're here should persuade you that you have another chance to get back
up. There's still hope. I'm not here today to tell you that I understand your pain. I
don't know how it feels to be abused. I don't know how it feels to feel "fat" and you've
got an eating disorder. I don't know how it feels to have a broken home. I don't know
how it feels. But I know how it feels to have a broken heart, and I know how it feels to
be alone. And I want you to know that I found my strength in Jesus Christ, and you're going
to find your strength in whatever you find it in. But I just want you to know that it's
not the end. It matters how you're going to finish. Are you going to finish strong? And
you will find that strength to get back up like this.
That's Nick Voyachich, born without arms or legs. We'll hear from him again at the end
of the message this morning. But a man who knows what it is to fall down and what it
is to get back up again and again and again. And that's what we want to come back to this
morning, because as I pointed out last week, one of the things that I personally really
admire about the Apostle Paul is his ability to get up after he's been knocked down. Not
only do we see that here in Acts chapter 14 in Lystra when he is stoned, left for dead,
he gets back up and continues his preaching ministry in the next city, but we see that
throughout his life and his ministry, because as I've also pointed out, this falling down,
this persecution here in Lystra is but the beginning of a long road of suffering for
the Apostle Paul. In fact, in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he gives us a detailed list of
what he has gone through. Listen to this. Five times are received from the Jews. The
dirty lash is minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three
times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly
on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my
own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country,
in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled, have
often gone without sleep, I have known hunger and thirst, and have often gone without food.
I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern
for all of the churches, and you thought you had it tough. And what's remarkable about
Paul is that every time again, he knows how to get back up so that by the time he comes
now to the end of his life, he says this in 2 Timothy chapter 4, the verses 6, 7, and
8, he says the time has come for my departure. He knows his life is finished, his ministry
is done. But listen to these words. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the
race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness
which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but
also to all who have longed for his appearing. I don't know about you, but I want to be able
to say that about me when I come to the end of my life. It's not the sprinters that count.
Anybody can do the short haul. What counts biblically is the long haul, and that means
getting up again and again and again until our life's journey is finished. Well, without
repeating everything that we said last week, we looked at three out of four factors that
I believe biblically speaking helped Paul to get up every time he got knocked down.
The first is he had an urgent sense of call on his life. He knew it wasn't just about him.
It was about the Lord Jesus and his mission to proclaim him. Secondly, he knew that his
work was not yet finished. Lystra might not want him. Iconium might not want him. Antioch
might not want him, but there were other places to the ends of the earth that he had a mission
towards. Then, of course, he has a supportive or supporting community around him. He wasn't
on his own. He was always part of a team of people. A twofold cord is not quickly broken.
One can put 1,000 to flight, and two can put 10,000 to flight. That brings us this morning
to still a fourth factor that enabled him to get back up. I briefly introduced it last
week. I want to talk about it with you a bit this morning, and that is the fact that Paul
remained united to Jesus. He drew his strength from the risen and the exalted Christ who
told us in John 15 verse 5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in
me and I in him, he will bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing." The image here
is the familiar image, of course, of a vine plant. I don't really know. It's not really
a tree, but it's not really a bush. But you know the idea. You have the vertical up and
down stem, which is the vine, and then you have the branches reaching out. This is the
way they're grown largely in North America today. If you go through the vineyards in
the county, you'll see wire stretched to hold the branches. Jesus says, "I am the vine,
you are the branches." The idea is he is the source of life, and we draw our life from
him. Because he's not only the Son of God, but because his life has gone through death
and resurrection and ascension, there is nothing that can stop him from doing what the Father
wants him to do. It is that life he shares with us. Paul says, "Ultimately, what enables
me to get back up, despite everything that happens to me, is the fact that Christ lives
in me, and his resurrection power leads me, guides me, inspires me." Here's how he describes
it earlier in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 7 through 10. He says, "We have this treasure in jars
of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed
on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned,
struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body." Notice how the Christian life
is described as a series of paradoxes. Notice again how he puts it. He says, "We are hard
pressed on every side, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. We're persecuted,
but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed." So there's nothing easy about the Christian
life, and there's nothing easy in the Lord's call on Paul's life. There is plenty of trouble
that comes his way. If anybody ever tries to tell you that as a Christian it's going
to be happiness and glory, hallelujah, they haven't read the Bible and they haven't learned
to take up their cross to follow Jesus. But notice that in the midst of the constant downward
pull of life, there is the resurrection life of Christ. And the reason, Paul says, is because
we have a treasure, but it is in a jar of clay. What does he mean? Well, the treasure
is the resurrection life of Christ. Don't ever think that just becoming a Christian
is just learning how to live a different way, and you're going to do it all right. No, no,
the Christian life is an exchange. It is Jesus who died and rose from the dead and now gives
us his Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus who comes within us to
empower us to do things that naturally we cannot do. And if the force of gravity, think
of it as a bird flying, if the force of gravity wants to pull the bird down, then the power
of life in the bird enables it to fly and to surpass the life of gravity. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, and the earthen vessel is our humanity. And sometimes
when you hear people talk about living a Christian life, it's overly spiritual as if there is
no earthen vessel. And so sometimes when people are discouraged or tired or weary or depressed,
you know, good Christian advice is always, "Well, you know, if you really had faith and
if you really were a major Christian, you would never feel that way." Nonsense. We
have a treasure, but it's in earthen vessels. And every so often the earthen vessel really
shines through. But the purpose of having the treasure in the earthen vessel is to show
that the transcendent life, the ability to get back up, as Nick shows so clearly in that
little talk before that high school audience, his ability to get back up is rooted in his
union with the Lord Jesus. It is the power of Christ in me that is the hope of glory.
And while it was important for Paul to have a clear sense of calling, it was important
for him to know that his ministry had open areas where the harvest still had to be brought
in. And while it was important for Paul to be surrounded by people who helped him on
his journey, the fact in life remains that sooner or later none of those alone will help
us to get back up, because you know just as well as I do, that when life gets really tough
and the darkness really settles in your soul, that it's pretty easy to lose your sense of
calling and your sense of destiny. Is it not? Is it not true that sometimes in the life
of believers we are confused, we wonder where God is, we want to throw in the towel? And
that area of ministry, that job, that sense of worth, that sense of I'm here for a purpose,
well you get depressed enough, you wonder what in the world you're doing here because
you don't matter to anybody and you might as well be out of the way. And that's how
people come to suicide. Nick came very close to suicide as a young boy, because of the
merciless teasing that he experienced and the fact that he knew that he was looking
at a life without limbs. How in the world can you live a normal life? And you could
have all kinds of friends, but I'll tell you something, when the chips are down, that's
when you discover who your real friends are. And even the apostle Paul, a godly man as
he was, tells us in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 15, this is when he's close to the end
of his life, he says these tragic words, you know that everyone, imagine this, everyone
in the province of Asia has deserted me. Why? Because Paul is trouble. And hanging around
with Paul is trouble. And when push comes to shove, most people want to save their own
hides, not stand in solidarity, the truth for most people doesn't matter when the chips
are down. But through it all, he knew the presence of Jesus, because notice how towards
the end of 2nd Timothy he describes it, chapter 4 verse 17, "The Lord stood at my side, the
Lord stood at my side, and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully
proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it, and I was delivered from the lion's mouth.
When all the chips were down, everybody abandoned him, he was left all alone. In that hour,
the presence of Christ was enough to keep him faithful so that he could say at the end
of his life, I have run the race, I have finished it, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness.
So here's the question, what does that look like in your life and mine? It's very easy
in spiritual terms to talk about, well, trust the Lord Jesus and he will be with you and
he will raise you up, but what are the specific mechanisms by which he does that in your life
and in my life? In the time that we have, let me try to touch on one of those, there's
a lot more that I want to talk about, don't think we'll have time for that this morning,
but let me put it this way, what are the primary results of being joined to Jesus is that we
are no longer victims of our past. Did you know that? We are no longer victims of our
past. Now there are many, many reasons in life why the rug gets pulled out from underneath
us and why we fall down. Sometimes it's because of the sins and the mistakes that we make
ourselves. Sometimes it's because people do things to us that are unkind, mean, that
certainly was Paul's experience here in the city of Lystra. Sometimes it's because circumstances
compound and things just go badly wrong repeatedly. In fact, if you had opportunity to read my
book Blessings and Curses, in Blessings and Curses I identify three factors that are largely
responsible outside of God's grace for how people's lives turn out. Just very quickly,
the first is the function of genetics. What you're born with, the hand that you are handed
makes a huge difference in how your life turns out. If you're born intelligent, emotionally
stable, if you are gifted, doesn't hurt to be good looking, life goes better generally
speaking. Second element is environment. The kind of household that you're raised in, whether
you are loved, cherished, protected, as opposed to being neglected or abused. Huge consequences
in that. I mean, social scientists can predict with pretty high degree of specificity how
your life will turn out simply by studying your early childhood rules. And again, there
are exceptions. We're talking in generalities. And then of course there are the choices we
make. Genetics don't fully determine our life. The environment that we live in doesn't fully
determine our life. And if you ever hear Nick speak, then you will hear him talk again and
again about choices. But typically it's a combination of genetics, environment and choices
that determine how our life shapes up. Here is the story of Henry. A hypothetical story,
but it combines all these elements. Henry is a young child with a learning disability.
Reading is very difficult for him. Words all run together. Writing is even worse. It's
an unintelligible mess. Because his disorder runs in the family, we can say with a high
degree of probability that it's genetic in origin. He goes to school, but what happens
when he goes to school? Cannot keep up with the rest of the class. What happens when you
don't keep up with the rest of the class? You feel like a failure. As well, socially,
he doesn't fit in very well. He gets teased a lot. That's environmental. As a result,
what happens? Drops out of school, joins a gang, commits crimes, finds himself in jail.
Those are the choices that he makes. So yes, there are many reasons why we fall down in
life, particularly reasons when we fall down in life repeatedly. But here's the thing that
I want us to understand about the times when we fall down in life, whether that's caused
by our own stupidity, whether that's caused by the cruelty of other people, or whether
that is simply caused because, as the world calls it, a streak of bad luck. Things just
go wrong. Falling down, particularly repeatedly, almost inevitably feeds two very destructive
emotions. One is guilt, and the other is shame. Guilt says, "You really blew it. You made
bad mistakes, and if you make those mistakes enough times, it sets in a place that says
you don't deserve anything better because you made your bed, and now you've got to
lie into it. You've got to lie in it." Shame goes deeper than guilt because shame says,
"Not only did I do a bad thing, shame says you are bad. You are a loser. There is no
hope for you." Henry gets to the point where he becomes a loser. How many people don't
you know in life who quit trying to get back up because they know they cannot do it, they
haven't got what it takes, they are just prepared to settle for the life of addiction, for a
life of crime, for wherever it is they find themselves because it's just who they are.
In fact, I know an awful lot of good church-going people whose answer to the challenge of rising
to the righteousness of Jesus is excused by saying, "Well, this is who I am. Don't expect
me to be anything else." Is that true? They are all earthen vessels. They forget about
the treasure. But you see, the biblical balance is we have the treasure in earthen vessels.
Just in me is the hope of glory. So how does Christ do that? How does Christ set me free
from the path that my past failures would normally predicate my life is going to follow?
Well, it does it in two ways. None of this is new to you, but sometimes it's the old
we need to embrace, catch with brand new eyes of revelation, and be determined to live it
out. The first is we experience, guess what? Forgiveness. Colossians 2, 13 and 14. He forgave
us all our sins, having canceled the written code with its regulations that was against
us and that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross. Don't know
how often you think about that, but forgiveness means the debt you couldn't pay has been
canceled. Too many people think, if not about themselves, they certainly think about other
people, that you don't deserve to get blessed because I know what you did last summer, pardon
the movie, and you need to pay until the last farthing has been paid. Isn't that true? How
many of us here this morning haven't badly messed up at some point or another and we've
had to fight the conviction that we really don't deserve any better because, well, we're
just losers. We're just bad people. Can't do it. In Christ, in Christ, there is forgiveness,
and forgiveness means the debt has been paid. It's as if I have never sinned. I don't have
to live with a punishment of that sin. Sometimes I have to live with the consequences, but
even the consequences by Christ in many instances can be redeemed. And so the Bible is full
of people who messed up. Who calls himself the chief of sinners in the New Testament?
The Apostle Paul. What was his life like before he met Christ? Well, he was full of energy
and he was full of zeal. He thought it was for God, but what did he do? He persecuted
Christians. How would you feel walking around with blood on your hands? How would you feel
presenting yourself to the very people that you persecuted trying to justify the fact
that now you're one of them and you and God are on good terms? If that was your kid that
he killed, you'd have a little trouble, wouldn't you? But that's the nature of forgiveness,
people. And forgiveness has to be embraced at the deepest levels of life because it means
we don't have to keep on paying. We can have a brand new start regardless of my past. God
does not hold it against me. But more than that, God not only forgives us, but in Christ
we also become a new creation. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has gone, the new has come. And what that means is that the old structures that
contributed to my demise and decline in life, the ways I think, the forces that drive me,
the experiences that I have had, they are put on Christ on the cross. He died, I died
with him, I am raised with him into newness of life, and his resurrection life now comes
progressively to recreate me from the inside out. I no longer have an excuse. The power
of the risen Christ in me will fuel me with a fire of God producing faith, hope, and love.
That is to say, no matter how down I am, when I'm in union with Christ, there is this little
flame on the inside that says, "You know, I ought to curse God and die like Job's wife
counseled him, but to whom shall I go if not to him? I believe that he's good and that
he loves me even when I think that he has abandoned me." There's Jesus on the cross,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And yet by the time he dies, what does he
say? "I commit my spirit into your hands." That's faith. When you're joined to Jesus,
you are imbued with a faith that is resurrection faith that cannot be squashed by whatever
happens in life. And my experience is that no matter how badly people have been troubled,
if they are, so to speak, the elect of God, you can always find underneath the ashes and
the rubble of their lives, there is always this tiny little flame of faith that says,
"God somehow is going to come through for me." That faith fuels hope. Hope says, "I
don't care how bad it gets, one day it's going to get better. And if not in this life, it's
going to get better in the life to come. And that's why it is worth struggling and fighting
and battling to get back up because nobody who hopes in God is going to hope in him in
vain." Isn't that true? That's what the scripture says. That's what the scripture says. And
you know what happens when you have faith and hope? What's the trilogy that three times
in the New Testament is tied together? Faith, hope, and? Three times in the New Testament,
faith, hope, and love are linked. You know why? Because when you have faith in Christ,
you have hope. And if you have faith and if you have hope, guess what happens? You can
afford to live a life of love. What's the first thing that happens when misery comes
your way? What's the first thing that happens to you physically if your body is led to extremity?
Your body begins to shut down. The blood begins to withdraw from all your limbs for the sake
of preserving your core. That happens physically. You know what happens emotionally? What happens
when you're really down in life? You shut down. The first thing that starts happening
is you are busy with self-preservation. You don't have time for other people. You don't
care about other people's problems. That's why Jesus says before the end comes when things
really get bad, He says the love of many will have grown cold. And again, if you've ever
found yourself in the kind of situation where life is just the pits in that place, caring
for other people goes down the tubes real fast. But you see, the Bible says concerning
Jesus having loved His own, He loved them to the end. And when you're joined to Christ
and He lives in you and He shares His resurrection life with you, He not only gives you the gift
of faith, He not only gives you the gift of hope, but He gives you the gift of love. So
that even when you are in extremity, even when the temptation is to say, "Let me just
worry about myself," He enables you to keep your heart open and His love pouring through
you will bless many other people. Nick had all the reasons in the world to either kill
himself, pity himself, or try to guard the little bit of life that he had. But somewhere
along the line through faith in Jesus, he was able to make a choice. He was able to
make the choice to say, "I'm going to make the best of what I've got. And instead of
grumbling about what I don't have in life, I'm going to thank Him for what I've got."
And you know about all he had was a good mind and this little flipper foot that enabled
him to propel himself through life. And because of that, he has been able to stand before
multitudes of audiences, including a lot of school audiences, giving hope to the hopeless.
And in it all, he discovered in some amazing ways the goodness of God. Nick was born without
arms and legs and growing up, feared he would have to swim through life alone. I definitely
had doubts that I'd ever get married, that I'd ever meet anybody who would ever love
me and spend the rest of their life with me because I'm Prince Charming with a couple
bits and pieces missing. You know, those things were important, you know, and I'd see everybody
else has them. So why could I ever compete with all the other guys and ever, you know,
beside my princess? Now at 29, Nick's not only found his princess, he's married her
and her name is Kanae. To me, it wasn't any different falling in love with Nick. I fell
in love with him the way he is now. And so because I had dated other guys and I had gone
for the physical and you know, but I was tired of that. And the moment I met Nick, I was
looking for other things. And all those things, I found them in him. So that's when I felt
like, wow, you know, he's not only boyfriend material, but he's like, he could be my husband.
Four years ago, Nick was characteristically candid about his desire to find true love
and maybe become a parent. I can't wait to be a father. Well, it was just the two of
us on the beach that day. Now four years on, there's a third. And would you believe it
soon to be a fourth? So we're pregnant. So our son Kiyoshi is on the way. But was there
a worry or a concern from the doctors and a genuine concern from yourselves that perhaps
your little one could be born without limbs? Well, medically speaking, there's an even
smaller chance. The chance that happened, that this happened to me, it'll be even smaller
because it's not genetic or anything like that. Did it cross our minds? Absolutely.
Was I relieved when I saw the 10 fingers and 10 toes? Absolutely. It was just a joy.
you