By Michael A. Milton
Hard pressed . . . but not crushed; Perplexed . . . but not in despair; Persecuted . . . but not forsaken . . . struck down but not destroyed. . . v. 8-9
I am certain that Coach Rodney Allison and his staff have a game plan for dealing with the adversities on the football field this fall, but I want you to see that, in this passage, all of us here have been given a Divine Game Plan to persevere, to make it all the way through the Fourth Quarter in our lives. I draw your attention to the 3 points in the Game Plan from 2 Corinthians 4:1, and 5-18:
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The Apostle Paul lived the fourth quarter for his entire ministry. There was no easy quarter. There was no coasting for Paul. God called him, and from day one his message of God's grace encountered resistance from within the Church and from without. Here, Paul not only recounted these hardships, but also the faith that is needed to see one through such trials. He shows us what to expect.
1. Hard hitting
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair . . . — 2 Corinthians 4:8
Paul said he had been hard pressed, yet not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair. The words are a series of vivid phrases that describe Paul's ministerial career. In verse 8, Paul used a word that is used for crushing grapes: he is pressed down. But then he uses a word that means, "Straightened out." He is pressed down like grapes but he is not laid out flat, we might say. Some of you UTC running backs know what it is like to have about a thousand pounds of linebackers on top of you. But you are conditioned and you bounce back up — most of the time. Well, Paul was saying that standing up for Jesus Christ, living the Christian life is like being squeezed like grapes, rubbed into the dirt by 300 pound defensive ends, but he said even that would not stop him.
Paul also says in verse eight that he was perplexed but not in despair. Not only did Paul admit that the adversity he dealt with crushed him in body, but it also crushed him in mind and spirit. Paul was perplexed, dazed by the hard hits of life as a believer. You see, living the Christian life takes it out of you, body and soul.
I used to have this one person in a former church that had the gift of discouragement. And he would share that gift with me all the time. He seemed to prefer sharing discouraging news with me right before I went out to preach, so I had to ask him to hold off and hit me after I preached.