WEBVTT 00:00.400 --> 00:04.200 You may be seated. Grace, mercy and peace 00:04.200 --> 00:07.000 be to you from God, our Father and from our Lord, and our Savior Jesus 00:07.000 --> 00:07.700 Christ. 00:10.200 --> 00:14.800 Reading from 2nd Corinthians particularly this sentence. 00:16.000 --> 00:20.900 So we do not lose heart. 00:22.200 --> 00:26.900 A couple weeks ago, I was driving down the interstate and I saw a 00:26.900 --> 00:33.000 billboard. On the billboard was a runner in a crouch. 00:34.800 --> 00:41.200 But one of the legs had one of those springy type devices that makes 00:41.600 --> 00:46.800 possible running and athletic activities for someone who no longer has 00:46.800 --> 00:48.300 that part of the leg. 00:49.500 --> 00:51.200 Four words were on the billboard. 00:51.200 --> 00:56.400 It simply said, lost leg not heart. 00:59.400 --> 01:03.500 Whatever happened to that person's leg, whatever 01:03.800 --> 01:10.300 disability may have happened, whatever physical difficulty occurred. 01:11.600 --> 01:13.000 She did not give up. 01:13.700 --> 01:17.200 She did not become so discouraged that she gave out. 01:17.500 --> 01:23.800 She was not so beaten down that she would give out and lose 01:23.800 --> 01:28.600 hope. She did not lose heart. 01:29.900 --> 01:35.200 The Apostle Paul is telling us the same thing, so we do not lose heart 01:35.300 --> 01:41.400 no matter what may be going on around us with the frailty and ailing 01:41.400 --> 01:46.200 of our own bodies or our mental capacity or our emotions that are 01:46.200 --> 01:47.000 going on. 01:47.100 --> 01:48.600 No matter what's going on. 01:50.900 --> 01:54.600 We do not lose heart. 01:56.100 --> 01:58.900 We don't get so discouraged that we give up. 02:00.000 --> 02:03.500 We're not so worn out that we give in. 02:05.000 --> 02:07.600 We don't give up, we don't lose hope. 02:09.199 --> 02:11.900 So we do not lose heart. 02:15.100 --> 02:16.400 But you may ask Paul 02:16.400 --> 02:18.300 don't you know what's going on? 02:20.800 --> 02:25.300 What's going on around us and in our own lives, weighs us down. 02:26.600 --> 02:27.500 It's heavy. 02:29.400 --> 02:33.400 And even though you may call it light and momentary, it doesn't feel 02:33.400 --> 02:36.500 light, and it does not seem momentary. 02:38.100 --> 02:39.500 What's going on around us? 02:41.100 --> 02:47.000 War in Ukraine with nuclear extinction, looming over us. 02:50.200 --> 02:54.200 The after-effects of covid isolated us 02:55.600 --> 02:57.600 put us at odds with one another. 02:58.900 --> 02:59.800 And we have, 03:00.300 --> 03:03.100 difficulty joining back together again. 03:06.800 --> 03:07.800 Inflation, 03:09.500 --> 03:10.700 perhaps recession. 03:12.400 --> 03:17.500 And now becomes all the more difficult to buy milk and eggs 03:18.600 --> 03:19.800 and gas. 03:24.300 --> 03:29.100 George Floyd and we see racial inequity. 03:30.000 --> 03:34.300 But underneath it also tests our trust 03:35.500 --> 03:37.600 in those who are to help us. 03:39.000 --> 03:44.000 I read somewhere where the question is, if you pick up the phone to 03:44.000 --> 03:48.800 call somebody for help, will anybody answer it? 03:55.100 --> 03:56.300 The list could go on. 03:57.700 --> 04:01.100 But we live in a nonage in an age of uncertainty 04:02.400 --> 04:08.600 and increased anxiety. Where more and more people give up and give out 04:08.600 --> 04:12.400 and lose hope, and our suicide rates are skyrocketing. 04:14.500 --> 04:19.100 That's what's going on around us, but within us, we know our own 04:19.399 --> 04:25.600 frailties and failings and our weaknesses. 04:28.200 --> 04:31.000 As I approach a little bit older age 04:32.100 --> 04:37.200 I can recognize that mental faculties are not quite as sharp. 04:38.700 --> 04:40.400 And then I think about my mother 04:42.200 --> 04:48.800 who died in 1994 from complications of Alzheimer's. And to watch the 04:48.800 --> 04:49.900 last 10 years 04:49.900 --> 04:54.200 of her life lose her ability to remember. 04:57.800 --> 05:02.600 We talk about emotional our mental illness. 05:03.400 --> 05:10.300 I have a daughter who struggles with significant anxiety, so she takes 05:10.300 --> 05:16.000 medication for it, but sometimes she just needs to call Mom and Dad to 05:16.000 --> 05:16.800 call her down. 05:19.800 --> 05:21.200 I have a nephew, 05:22.500 --> 05:26.800 who's been a severe schizophrenic for 30 years. 05:27.900 --> 05:31.300 And the toll that is taken on his parents, my sister and 05:31.300 --> 05:35.700 brother-in-law and his siblings is noticeable. 05:38.600 --> 05:44.500 Perhaps you have family members, or diseases, or cancer or heart 05:44.500 --> 05:50.500 disease or diabetes or Parkinson's, or or you are afraid of a child 05:50.500 --> 05:54.300 who may go astray from family, or faith. Or perhaps 05:54.300 --> 05:59.800 it's now time for you to start taking care of your parents, you 06:00.000 --> 06:02.700 Fill in what's going on within your own life. 06:05.400 --> 06:10.800 And five years ago, our oldest son, Matthew died, suddenly of 06:11.500 --> 06:17.400 pulmonary embolism and five years later, the grief is still there some 06:17.400 --> 06:19.000 days, it is not light. 06:20.700 --> 06:21.600 Some days 06:21.900 --> 06:26.400 well, it will be with us for the rest of our lives. 06:28.200 --> 06:30.300 How Paul can you say all of this 06:30.400 --> 06:34.700 which so weighs heavily upon us, which we can see going on around us 06:34.700 --> 06:35.300 and within us. 06:35.600 --> 06:38.600 How can you say it's light and momentary? 06:38.600 --> 06:43.600 How can you say we do not lose heart, we do not give in or give up to 06:43.600 --> 06:44.000 it? 06:46.900 --> 06:50.400 Well because of what happened to Paul. 06:51.900 --> 06:58.200 Second Corinthians is perhaps where Paul is most vulnerable where he 06:58.200 --> 07:03.200 reveals more about himself, his own emotions what he has gone through. 07:03.400 --> 07:05.500 At the beginning of second Corinthians 07:05.600 --> 07:11.300 he simply says this, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength 07:11.600 --> 07:13.800 that we despaired of life itself. 07:14.600 --> 07:18.900 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. 07:21.500 --> 07:24.500 Utterly burdened, no strength sentence of death. 07:25.200 --> 07:29.000 And right before our words, we heard today he uses words like 07:29.000 --> 07:30.000 perplexed, 07:32.000 --> 07:34.900 struck down, afflicted, 07:36.000 --> 07:37.100 persecuted. 07:39.300 --> 07:45.400 His life was one of ridicule being run out of town, beaten up, whipped 07:46.400 --> 07:50.300 thrown into jail, shipwrecked, bitten by snake. 07:52.600 --> 07:56.800 And he recognizes his own death will be one as a martyr for the faith. 07:59.000 --> 08:01.900 He knows. He knows the weight. 08:02.600 --> 08:07.400 He knows what he sees. He knows what he himself has gone through. 08:09.100 --> 08:14.800 So how can he tell himself, did you catch the beginning? 08:14.800 --> 08:18.800 I believe and so I speak. 08:21.500 --> 08:22.900 How does he not lose hope? 08:23.200 --> 08:24.800 How does he not lose heart? 08:28.600 --> 08:29.900 It's the resurrection. 08:32.299 --> 08:35.700 In that first chapter, listen to a what comes next. 08:38.200 --> 08:41.500 We had received like we had received the sentence of death, but that 08:41.500 --> 08:46.500 was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. 08:49.000 --> 08:50.100 And in our own reading. 08:51.400 --> 08:55.500 So, we also speak knowing that he who raised the Lord, Jesus will 08:55.500 --> 08:59.800 raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 09:01.200 --> 09:03.200 The resurrected Christ 09:05.000 --> 09:06.900 Paul the sees 09:08.800 --> 09:10.300 what's going on around him 09:12.700 --> 09:15.100 but he believes in Christ 09:15.100 --> 09:18.700 Resurrection. He's on the road to Damascus. 09:19.000 --> 09:19.900 He's got the letters. 09:19.900 --> 09:21.000 His name is Saul. 09:21.200 --> 09:23.000 He's going to persecute the Christians. 09:23.000 --> 09:23.900 Throw them in jail. 09:24.100 --> 09:28.500 See that they get put away if not die and then the blinding light 09:28.500 --> 09:30.600 comes the resurrected Christ. 09:30.600 --> 09:32.700 Saul Saul why are you persecuting me? 09:32.700 --> 09:33.700 Well, who are you? 09:34.000 --> 09:35.400 I am Jesus. 09:36.600 --> 09:38.000 And now, he's Paul. 09:39.900 --> 09:48.000 That Resurrection experience is the the basis it energizes 09:48.100 --> 09:53.000 all of what Paul writes in his letters, his whole Ministry, flows out 09:53.000 --> 09:56.700 of Christ's resurrection. And leads him to say, 09:56.900 --> 10:01.100 We do not lose heart because he knows what's coming/ A day 10:01.100 --> 10:05.200 will come a day, will come when Jesus returns and as Christ rose from 10:05.200 --> 10:05.800 the dead. 10:06.000 --> 10:07.400 So we'll Paul. 10:07.400 --> 10:09.200 So will we body 10:09.400 --> 10:14.000 immortal imperishable. No More Tears, no more pain, 10:14.000 --> 10:17.800 no more grief, no more failings or faltering 10:17.800 --> 10:19.900 or frailty, no more. 10:21.800 --> 10:23.200 Resurrected bodies. 10:23.600 --> 10:27.300 And so, he simply says, what's to come the glory of being in the 10:27.300 --> 10:31.600 Christ's presence for eternity far 10:31.600 --> 10:36.100 oOutweighs the light in the momentary. 10:38.900 --> 10:43.800 Paul believes and he speaks Christ 10:43.800 --> 10:44.900 Resurrection 10:47.100 --> 10:48.800 so we do not lose heart. 10:50.600 --> 10:53.900 Those four words I mentioned earlier, listen to what Paul says. 10:55.900 --> 11:01.400 We are afflicted in every way but not crushed perplexed, but not 11:01.400 --> 11:09.100 driven to despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not 11:09.100 --> 11:10.100 destroyed. 11:13.800 --> 11:18.800 So I mentioned second Corinthians, maybe Paul at his more vulnerable 11:18.800 --> 11:22.900 moments as he reveals what's gone on in his own life. 11:24.200 --> 11:30.500 And so taking his cue from Paul, I'll be a bit more vulnerable myself. 11:32.200 --> 11:37.500 So, five years ago, when our son died and my wife and I were 11:37.900 --> 11:42.300 overwhelmed and feeling the weight of that grief and that sorrow 11:42.300 --> 11:44.100 particularly in the first year. 11:45.700 --> 11:52.600 One way I tried to deal with my grief was to write Facebook posts in 11:52.600 --> 11:56.100 which I expressed what was going on inside 11:56.100 --> 11:59.800 of me and my heart physically as the tears came out and the 12:00.000 --> 12:03.400 pain in my stomach, what it did to relationships. 12:04.800 --> 12:11.100 But each Facebook post, I would try to speak what I believed about 12:11.100 --> 12:17.500 Christ. Six weeks after his death, I wrote that the first Facebook 12:17.500 --> 12:18.300 post. 12:20.000 --> 12:21.600 And I'm going to read it for you now. 12:24.800 --> 12:27.600 Thursday's are hardest for me. 12:29.900 --> 12:33.200 Perhaps it was because I was driving back home from North Wisconsin 12:33.200 --> 12:34.400 after Matthew died. 12:36.000 --> 12:37.200 At 2:30 a.m. 12:37.200 --> 12:39.100 I was talking to the transplant company 12:39.100 --> 12:41.700 as Matthew was an organ and tissue donor. 12:42.900 --> 12:44.200 By 4:00 a.m. 12:44.700 --> 12:45.800 I was at our daughter. 12:45.800 --> 12:51.400 Beth's house in Chicago as we cried and hugged each other. 12:52.700 --> 12:54.700 We drove to our house here in St. 12:54.700 --> 12:59.300 Louis together and got there in the afternoon and Sue and I held each 12:59.300 --> 13:00.500 other and we cried. 13:02.200 --> 13:04.000 The rest of the day was a blur. 13:05.700 --> 13:10.600 On another Thursday, I sat in a chair talking to Sue in a flood of 13:10.600 --> 13:15.600 tears regretting, my relationship with him, as his dad wasn't better. 13:17.700 --> 13:21.400 Another Thursday I was away from home and could not sleep alone in a 13:21.400 --> 13:22.500 motel room. 13:24.100 --> 13:27.500 This week, I was taking out the trash, a job, Matthew helped us with, 13:27.500 --> 13:33.200 and wanted to talk to him again. For some reasons, Thursday's have 13:33.200 --> 13:34.900 become the worst days. 13:36.800 --> 13:40.200 But this Friday morning in my devotional reading, I found myself in 13:40.200 --> 13:44.300 First Corinthians 15, the great Resurrection chapter of the Bible. 13:45.700 --> 13:48.800 Near the end of the chapter of the promises that Jesus will one day 13:48.800 --> 13:52.900 return and death will lose its sting. The great enemy called death will 13:52.900 --> 13:54.500 be swallowed up in Christ's Victory. 13:54.500 --> 13:56.000 His victory will be ours. 13:56.200 --> 13:59.500 The Apostle writes, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through 13:59.500 --> 14:01.000 our Lord Jesus Christ. 14:03.100 --> 14:07.100 You know what that means when Jesus comes back on that last victorious 14:07.100 --> 14:07.500 day? 14:10.900 --> 14:12.200 No more Thursdays. 14:15.500 --> 14:16.700 No more Thursdays. 14:19.100 --> 14:20.600 How will you fill in the blank? 14:22.400 --> 14:24.300 No more broken relationships. 14:25.200 --> 14:27.600 No more faltering, abilities. 14:27.800 --> 14:28.900 No, more cancer. 14:29.200 --> 14:32.600 No more diabetes. No more anxiety. 14:34.600 --> 14:35.800 You fill in the blank. 14:37.500 --> 14:42.300 Because Jesus has risen from the dead. Because his promise and pledge 14:42.300 --> 14:46.000 to us is that because he is risen, we too will rise. 14:46.300 --> 14:50.700 And there is a day that is coming a day that is coming. 14:52.200 --> 14:53.900 And so, Paul says to us. 14:55.000 --> 14:59.100 We do not lose heart. 15:01.000 --> 15:01.600 Amen. 15:03.300 --> 15:06.400 Now May the peace of God that surpasses all our understanding, fill 15:06.400 --> 15:12.400 our hearts and our minds from the inside out to refresh us and renew 15:12.400 --> 15:12.900 us. 15:14.300 --> 15:15.600 In Christ's Resurrection. 15:16.500 --> 15:17.100 Amen.