The David Alliance TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com Garth Heckman Have you ever had a bad day? Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận (Vietnam) was a Catholic archbishop held by the communist government for 13 years, nine of them in solitary confinement. - choosing God rather than God's works. - He refused to wait for release. He wrote that he would not wait, but would live each present moment and fill it with love. Empathy fatigue - you just can’t care for what everyone else wants you to care about… you just run out of emotional energy. Saving the planet Saving the starving animals - Sara Mcgloughlin song… Save the starving children Help the kids in the hospital… its just in you anymore. Help the elderly Drill wells in Africa Inner city school programs burnout and isolation — absorbing grief, crisis, and pain week after week which does not fall into line with your values or gifting. depression centers on (Anne-HE-Donia) anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure, a kind of flattening across the board), NINE INCH NAILS - HURT - I hurt myself today to see if I still feel, I focus on the pain the only thing that’s real. demoralization - which centers on subjective incompetence — the felt sense that "I cannot cope with this, and nothing I do will change the outcome." You can be demoralized without being clinically depressed — someone can still feel things, still care, and still be capable, but have concluded that this particular fight is unwinnable, which is exactly the "give up on what's important". THIS COULD SUM UP PAULS LIFE Betrayal Trauma Trauma inflicted on you by someone or a group that you built trust with. *Here is what is interesting. The brain treats physical trauma and Betrayal Trauma as the same. - Same intensity - Same pain - Same trauma ***BUT BETRAYAL TRAUMA IS WORSE BECAUSE YOU RELIVE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. HOW ARE YOU AT HANDLING PAIN? BETRAYAL? DISSAPOINTMENT… ALL THIS AND MORE CONTINUALLY!!!! 2 Cor. 11: The Apostle PAUL WRITES 23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— 28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? How do you process suffering? Does your theology change? MY QUESTION IS - HOW DO YOU NOT WALK AWAY GIVE UP THROW IN THE TOWEL I am enamored by not giving up. By people not giving up. Navy Seal training - or BUDS **The core finding: physical fitness doesn't predict who survives psychological, mental, and identity traits are better predictors of success than physical strength or fitness scores. What specifically separates the two groups 1 Identity, not willpower. Candidates who quickly adopt a self-concept as "someone who finishes what he starts" — “I am more than a conqueror” Romans 8:37 2. How they interpret stress itself - this will make me stronger. “This will make me more like X, greater intimacy. Romans 5:3-5 3. Chunking the suffering into pieces. Multiple graduates describe mentally breaking Hell Week's 120+ continuous hours into small segments — "just get to the next meal," MATTHEW 6:34 FOCUS JUST ON TODAY Just get to my next quiet time Just get to my next Sunday Just get to my next Bible study 4. A genuinely surprising finding on when people quit. Not during the fight, the test or the trial…. but the moment there's a lull, the mind gets room to reconsider, negotiate, and rationalize quitting. The danger isn't always the hardest moment. Sometimes it's the first quiet moment after it. KING DAVID **Stay in the fight Spiritually A SIDE NOTE ABOUT THOSE WHO PASS - 6. Humor, oddly, shows up repeatedly. Several accounts and informal profiles built by SEAL instructors note that candidates who maintain some capacity for humor — even dark, gallows humor — in the middle of extreme misery tend to fare better than those who go completely grim. It seems to function as a release valve that keeps the stress from fully consuming their cognitive bandwidth. **THE JOY OF THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH Neh. 8:10 HOW MANY BEATINGS CAN A PERSON TAKE BEFORE GIVING UP? Paul *Do you understand what a scourge is, a whipping? IT WAS NOT A Cat of nine tails… 3 long leather braided strips… Each one has a collection of brutal accessories Bone chips Metal balls Big shards of glass Pieces of sharp metal Frayed leather at the end… 39 - not 40 why? Paul was whipped 5 times 39 lashes! 195 times whipped… *Look I have had 22 surgeries Broken neck with a halo vest, 3 cancers, cracked skull, brain tumor, enlarged heart, two shoulder replacements ***But special note: none of which because I was taking a stand for Jesus HOW did HE do IT? 2 Cor. 4:8-12 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (clay pots), that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you. Earthen vessels - clay pots, trays, bowls… Clay vessels were the cheapest, most common containers in the Roman world, used for water, oil, wine, grain, cooking, and lamps. They were disposable and easily replaced. Paul's point is the contrast between a priceless "treasure" (the gospel, the knowledge of God's glory in Christ, v. 6) and a worthless container. When a pot would crack they would use the shards to write with… interesting as Paul was a cracked pot… he was used to write the most books of the bible! **God can write his story with your seemingly broken parts of your life. Key Greek Insights 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 — four antithetical pairs, each using military/wrestling imagery: thlibomenoi (pressed, hard-pressed) but not stenochōroumenoi (hemmed in, crushed, with no room to move) — the image is of being pressed in a tight space but not trapped. aporoumenoi (perplexed, at a loss) but not exaporoumenoi (utterly without a way out) — note the compound: the second word is the first word intensified with ex- ("out from"). Paul's wordplay is: "I'm at a loss, but not utterly at a loss." He admits real confusion without admitting despair. diōkomenoi (pursued, persecuted) but not enkataleipomenoi (abandoned, forsaken) — this is covenant language; it echoes God's promise never to forsake His people (cf. Hebrews 13:5, Deuteronomy 31:6). kataballomenoi (struck down, thrown down) but not apollymenoi (destroyed, utterly ruined) — athletic/wrestling imagery; thrown to the ground but not pinned permanently. This is worth building a whole sermon point on: every pair shows the same structure — real affliction, acknowledged honestly, followed by a limit God places on it. Paul doesn't claim the suffering wasn't real. He claims it wasn't final. THE MINDSET IS CLEAR : ITS TOUGH, BUT THE BEST IS YET TO COME. 2 Corinthians 4:16 — the renewal verse itself: anakainoutai ("is being renewed") — present passive indicative. it's present tense (ongoing, not a one-time event), it's passive voice (something being done to Paul, not something he's generating himself — renewal is received, not self-manufactured), and the word itself (ana = "again/up," kainos = "new," so literally "made new again") appears in the New Testament only here and in Colossians 3:10, both times describing God's ongoing transformation of a believer. ***TRANSFORMATION THROUGH TRIAL - I’ve learned my best lessons from those who are not loyal. - Paul infers this in his writing.
