Nov. 8th, 2009
"Devastated but not destroyed"
2 Corinthians 4
Destiny Church

People in the world are snapping:
Examples:
- the shooting at the airforce base in Texas (shooter snapped)
- Rhianna and Chris Brown (chris brown snapped)
- the father that ran over his daughter because she was too westernized (father snapped)
- the pastor in Oklahoma that killed himself
- people are losing their jobs, houses and family members
- people are going through divorces and leaving each other

we might be devastated but we cannot be destroyed
We need to live with new covenant which is based on Christ and what He can do not what we can do.
On our worst day there is still good news- the Gospel.
The best is still yet to come.
We still have trials to go through though.

We need to remember that whatever we have or wherever we are going is because of the grace of God. Just because we have trials doesnt mean that we will not triumph.

1. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed.
Regardless of the affliction we experience, God still loves us and cares. Just because we are in a jam doesnt mean that we cant have joy.

Most people think that your marriage is bad if you have trials but the good and honorable thing about marriage is holding your commitment to each other in all the trials of life.
Having joy in trials isnt saying it will be a joyous time for you but that your attitude should be one of joy in the midst of trial.
Knowing God and having faith in the midst of trials should be enough to give us joy in our trials. God is in process of working something out for our good in the midst of the bad.

2. We can be perplexed but not despairing:
meaning that we can be confused- just because we cant figure out what or why God does what he does, doesnt mean we are losers or low in our faith.

3. We are persecuted but not forsaken:
Just bc we are going thru trials, doesnt mean that God doesnt love us.
Romans 8:30-35
Gods relationship with us is like super glue. To seperate the bond of super glue you have to acutally pull off the other side that it is glued to. When God makes a bond with us, it is stronger than any other bond. If God is stuck to us, who can come between us? No one can stop God's plan. Whatever comes our way we may be devastated but we are not ultimately destroyed.

4. We are struck down but not destoyed.
When your a believer in Jesus you cant be knocked down.
Just like the toy we all used to get for Christmas. The toy that cost like $7 that we played with the most despite the multitude of gifts that we got for Christmas. The lil punching bags that u blow up and they have sand in the bottom of them. When your kids go to sleep and u r turning off lights and walking around putting everything away, you see the punching man and u start to hit. No matter how many times u hit that lil blow up punching man you cant knock him down! That is the same way we are with Christ, we can get struck down but no one can knock us down.

BECAUSE OF CHRIST WE ARE DEVASTATED BUT NOT DESTROYED!
weve all felt devastated but God has not hung us our to dry.

?s:
How can we know our purpose in Christ?
The general purpose of all believers is:
1. Worship Him
2. Be apart of the body of Christ (church) and be involved in a ministry
3. Share your faith

The specific purpose for us all comes down to our personality, experiences, ect. We are to just live a holy life and God will bring us the opportunities that we need to fulfill our purpose in Him. We just need to be open and available and live a holy life.
It is okay to not know your specific purpose. It will be revealed to you in time.

Will you go to heaven if you kill yourself?
Yes! Alot of people believe that u cant go to heaven once u kill yourself bc you never had a chance to confess that sin and when Christ died on the cross he died for ALL of our sins. Past, present and future sins! He died before we were ever born and so he died for all of our sins, including the ones we have not committed yet. If we were to die in a car accident right now, there will be some sins that we were not able to confess to too and we will still go to heaven. Same with killing yourself. Christ already died for that sin.