Depressed? Open window in your soul

Here's another good ending to a sermon, this one from 2011 and entitled "Getting All Things Right." I will post tomorrow the one I referred to yesterday.

II Corinthians 7: [5] For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.

Paul says, “I got all this turmoil because I found not Titus my brother.” Did you know your absence can have that kind of effect on people?

If Paul had understood why Titus wasn’t there look at all the stuff he could have got over. You say, “Well, he just should have trusted God and got over it anyway.” Yeah, c’mon, how you do with that? You know, there’s shoulda, woulda, coulda and “I didn’t,” says Richard Jordan.

Before you get all mad at Paul, what this is in your Bible for is the Bible tells you the truth about people and you know what? He wasn’t any different than you are. And he’s your pattern; he’s the example that God says we follow.

When he said, “You’ve fully known my manner of life, not just my doctrine,” Timothy knew these things about Paul, but Paul isn’t dwelling on it because of the defeat in it. He’s dwelling on it because it’s the context of II Corinthians 2:14.

Verse 13: [13] I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.

Notice what he did. Paul got so disturbed that he literally left that church planting (the evangelism, the edification, the ministry) and went looking for Titus. When I read that I think, “Now that’s a guy who’s really in turmoil.”

Paul’s heart desire and prayer to God was seeing a church like that planted. He says that in Romans 10. His whole being was in seeing people get saved and the saints be edified and the work of the ministry be established, and yet there was something that disturbed him to the place where he couldn’t sleep at night. No rest, and it actually motivated him to leave the ministry there and go seek Titus.

Now, how do you get out of that? That’s what came before verse 14: [14] Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

I like that. He wasn’t triumphing in his circumstances. He didn’t have any emotional victory in the moment, but he had LEARNED that whether he was abounding or abasing, that he could do all things in Christ who strengthens him.

The way that came into his life was, “Now thanks be unto God.” You know how you get rid of depression? You know how you get rid of the darkness in your soul? You open the window and let in the light.

You know how you open the window in your soul and let the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ come in? “Thanks be unto God.” It’s just a simple thanksgiving.

The passage goes on: [15] For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
[16] To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

When you realize the catastrophically devastating power of the gospel--that message is death and life. I love that passage in Deuteronomy 30 where Moses stands before Israel and says, “I set before you today life and death. Choose life!” Good idea. They chose death.

Elijah’s on Carmel and he tells Israel, “If Baal is God, serve him. If Jehovah is God, serve him.” Get off the dime and get on one side or the other. So who’s God? Well, Carmel’s God demonstrated he was God. So get on with it. There’s a choice to make.

[17] 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.

You see, when he asked that question, he knew we are sufficient for these things.

Drop down to II Corinthians 3: [4] And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
[5] Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
[6] Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Aren’t you glad of that? You are sufficient. Why? Because you’re complete in Him. Whatever the circumstance, you have complete, total sufficiency. “I can do all things through Christ.” Every circumstance I’m in, I can function there because my sufficiency is who I am in Christ, not in my resources.

Verse 6 says, “Who hath made us able,” and that’s the word in that verse you want to circle.

He’s made us “able ministers of the new testament.” It’s interesting that he doesn’t say new covenant. It’s important to know the difference.

Hebrews 9: [16] For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
[17] For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
[18] Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.

You can have a covenant (that’s a contract) and death doesn’t enter into it. You buy an automobile and you have a sales contract. That contract does not envision your death.

A testament is something that envisions death. In fact, it doesn’t come into effect until after you die. You know the phrase “last will and testament.” Your testament spells out the inheritance of your heirs.

Verse 17 is an important verse dispensationally. That verse means that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, is not in the New Testament. Why? Because a testament is a force AFTER the death of the testator and when did Jesus Christ die? At the end of those books. Not at the beginning and not through almost all of the ministries in those books.

You can’t read that verse and not rightly divide the scriptures. You see, the Bible FORCES you to be a dispensationalist. It’s religion that keeps that away from you.

So when you’re reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the instructions and ministry there, you need to remember you’re still in the Old Testament. The Old Testament did not begin in Genesis; it began in Exodus when God gave it to Moses.

When it says He’s made us able ministers of the New Testament, that’s talking about the fact that you and I have been given a part in the inheritance.

Ephesians 1: [11] In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
[12] That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

You and I, as members of the Body of Christ, do not have an inheritance in what Jesus Christ won at Calvary through a covenant. God covenanted with the nation Israel to give those benefits to Israel.

He’s included us in the benefits of the crosswork, not by covenant but by His grace. Not by covenant but by His death and resurrection. Grace is all that God is able to do for us through the finished work of Calvary.

You get in by God’s grace. You get in because before the foundation of the world, before He ever made the covenant with Abraham, He’d already planned to include you in the benefits of the DEATH of His Son, He just didn’t tell anybody. But now we know.

There’s only one Cross, there’s only one resurrection. There’s only one Holy Spirit and it’s the blood of Jesus Christ that gains everything Israel ever has from God. It’s the basis for where we get everything from God, so He has made us, not because He had a covenant, but because He chose to include us by His grace in a secret fashion. But He’s made us able, and that’s what I love in that verse.