PART ONE - http://youtu.be/_0XlDGP8OSY
PART TWO - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8GRUJBohFk
PART THREE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj3kNANuJY8
“When You Reach The End of Your Rope, There is a Basket”
A Sermon By Pastor Mark Taylor
“I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped.”
2 Corinthians 11: 33
In this Chapter of God’s Word (verses 24-33), Paul describes all kinds of problems he encountered while serving the Lord Jesus. He is trying to encourage all of us who are going through rough times and are at the end of our ropes, figuratively speaking. He is telling us that God is still able to deliver us and take care of us. “There has been no difficulty that has taken you that is not common to others: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able to endure; but will with that difficulty also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (I Corinthians 10:13).
Paul was about to be arrested and executed for preaching in Damascus. Christians are not exempt from persecutions and problems. But God had given some people the wisdom and ability to put him in a basket and let him down from a high walled city through a window by a rope. God also has a rope and basket for you as Satan wants to destroy you. The Lord often uses other people to help you in times of trouble.
David was also in a difficult situation when he wrote these words: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident...For in the time of trouble He shall hide me; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock....Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say on the Lord! (Psalm 27). Instead of complaining, he called upon the God of His salvation.
God has delivered and provided for people giving them a basket when they were at the end of their ropes. The mother of Moses saved his life by making him a basket and putting him in it and put him in the river for Pharaoh’s daughter to find him and raise him as her own child. You may be concerned about your children today. God has a basket for you to put them in. It is called prayer. God can help and deliver them through your prayers. (Exodus 2).
When there seemed like there was not enough food to feed the hungry, God used a little boy with only two fish and five small loaves of bread to feed five thousand men and another 10-15 thousand women and children. “And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.” (Matthew 14:20). When you use what you have for God, God will bless it and there will be enough to bless others. On another occasion, Jesus blessed a few small fish and the results were the same: “So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken fish that was left, seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand.” (Mark 8:8-9).
God cares about you so much that he knew all about you physically, mentally, and emotionally before you were born. “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” (Psalms 139:16). And He loves you in spite of all your problems you have acquired since you were born. You were made with such care that even the number of your hairs was not by chance.
God cares for you by preserving you in this evil world. The good news is that God is not just sitting back and watching evil destroy you. In the book of Genesis, evil had become so widespread that God decided to destroy the whole world, but “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8). God wants to spare you from the evil of this world because “He cares for you” (I Peter 5:7). He is helping you fight evil. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
“While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
God cares for you by demonstrating His love to you. “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8).
God cares for you by providing a plan and purpose for your life. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” (Jeremiah 29:11-12). “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Because God cares so much for us, we need to care for others. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7).
Because God cares so much for us, we need to care for God. “I love the LORD, because He has heard My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.” (Psalms 116:1-2).
There will be times when you are at the end of your rope that God will put a basket at the end of it to deliver you. There will be times when you need to provide a basket for someone else who is at the end of their rope. God cares for you by preserving you in this evil world. The good news is that God is not just sitting back and watching evil destroy you. He has a basket for you.
