Service 2025-11-09 - Knowing and embracing your inner strength

Summary

The sermon titled "Service 2025-11-09 - Knowing and embracing your inner strength" explores the idea that inner strength is not a human achievement but a divine gift. Using the analogy of coal transforming into diamonds through pressure and time, the pastor emphasizes that challenges and trials are not obstacles to be feared but processes that can refine and strengthen believers. The message draws from 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 to highlight that God’s power resides within Christians, even in fragile human vessels. It calls for a shift in mindset—from seeing difficulties as crushing burdens to recognizing them as opportunities for growth through the Holy Spirit. The preacher also touches on the importance of community, resilience, and faith in overcoming persecution, failure, and confusion. By embracing the "treasure" of God’s strength, believers can endure life’s pressures and emerge stronger, just as diamonds are formed from coal. The sermon concludes with a reminder that God’s promises are steadfast, and His power can transform even the most broken experiences into something beautiful and enduring.

Sermon transcription

It's good to I always said that let them make noise in the church. Amen. Hallelujah. So are you ready for the word brothers and sisters? Amen. Amen. So I would like to start as always with a question. Who amongst you want to be strong? I everybody but I don't hear anybody saying I want to be strong. Who amongst you want to be strong? Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me. Are you already strong? Do you want to be stronger than where you are today? So brothers and sisters, I would like to talk to you about how we embrace the inner strength that we have inside of us. Many of us today want to be strong, but sometimes we don't know how we want to be stronger. And so this is important for us to focus on how we can strengthen and build the strength that we have today to become even stronger in the coming days to come. Right? And we need this because the challenges these days are different than the challenges that we faced in the past. And this will be even different for the challenges we are going to face in the years to come. And so before in my time growing up growing up we only have a screen of a television of black and white. How many of you still experience that? I don't think many. And still have one or two program on the television. It start really late in the day and also ending up early, right? And so today the challenges of the children are they have too much information before we don't have much information. We just play with what we have. We just go out of the house enjoy and we just use everything we have and play. So the challenges are different, right? And then come the the the season of uh telecommunication telephones. We didn't have telephones in our house for quite some times and then we starting having that. We are amazed and everybody is running when the telephone is ringing and then there was a time of mobile phones right so and uh mobile phones everybody then starting to have mobile phone. In the beginning it was only for rich people and then slowly it becomes cheaper cheaper cheaper and still expensive. So then people are using and you see telephones being something luxurious to have and people start showing off when uh when the phone was ringing they left it for quite some time until everybody knows oh he has a mobile phone right and a very short answer yes I will come just to make sure that uh everybody knows and everybody know now have a mobile phones Right. And then the next generation that actually your with your mobile phone you can use almost you can do almost everything right. You can you can buy things, you can do your banking, you can book your flight, you can everything almost everything you can do with your mobile phone. And the challenge is today brothers and sisters people are very much afraid that they left their phone behind or they lost their phone. That's the new challenge. When I was a child, I never thought of having a mobile phone. It's it's out of my range at that time. Today, if you ask children, they actually ask, "How did you live as a child before? I cannot imagine living without my mobile phone." This is the challenge of the kids today. Now brothers and sisters imagine now AI is coming to to our picture right there are a lot of version of what is going to be and the challenge would be different right so what do we need in order for us to be prepared we need to be knowledgeable on the challenges ahead of us and in order for us to to build the strengths we need to go through a process to know how we going to be ready for the next challenges ahead of us, right? And so today, brothers and sisters, I would like to talk to you about the process of how we become stronger in our spiritual faith. stronger in a way that we will be no matter what happen out there. We know that there is something stronger inside of us that will help us. This is an assurance that each one of us have. This is an assurance that we need to continuously realize that there is something stronger inside of us. So therefore I would like to really remind you again that there is something there is somebody a powerful power inside of you today and we will learn how we going to embrace and uh this inner strength that God has put inside of us. Now brothers and sisters to start this I will start with an analogy. How many of you have or have seen diamond? Wow. So I think many of you if not all of you have diamond at home. No, in a small version of it or a few a few kilograms of it. So for those who have many of those, you know, make sure that you have insurance. So brothers and sisters, you know diamond, diamond is one of the strongest natural material ever known to humankind. Right? So it is of course beautiful when the when it was all polished with all the shape and all other things. But diamond is the strongest material in terms of hardness. This is the top standard of the hardness of a material, right? And so now, how many of you know that actually if you know coal or um or carbon black or your charcoal, if you have your charcoal for your barbecue, diamond and charcoal are composed of the same material, carbon, right? They all the same. They're made of the same materials. Yeah. So they are made of the same materials. The different is the difference is the coal or the carbon if it experiencing very very high pressure very high pressure 50 to 60 time 60,000 times more than the pressure that we are experiencing right now and high temperature right uh close 2,000° C for a very long time and in the nature it could be thousands of years to transform the carbon black into a diamond. Right? So it is a process. The materials are the same but the outcome would be different. Whether you want to be a charcoal or you want to be a diamond, it depends on the process you would like to endure. So if you are now I would like you to imagine you are one of the powder of the charcoal or one of the molecules of carbon right? Do you want to be a charcoal or do you want to be a diamond? It's your choice. But then there is the process that will bring you from where you are to become a diamond. Do you want to endure that pressure and temperature for a period of time in order for you to be the beautiful diamond? Now brothers and sisters, this has been studied significantly in the uh past decades because now we can grow diamond in the lab in the laboratory. What they did is basically another things they need the seats of the diamond small seats of the diamond and what they did is that the the carbon black is actually put in a contain uh container and it will be pressurized very high up to 60,000 if not more of what we experience on this planet Earth. So very very high pressure. Okay. And temperature of 1600° C. 1,600° C for a period of time. And it's not transformation that happen like that. It will grow over time. So the seats of the diamond with the carbon under pressure and temperature will grow the crystal from the seeds and it grow and it grow and it grow and it grow and it grow. is not instant. It's a process. At very high temperature and very high pressure. Less temperature, the longer the time. The less the pressure, the longer the time. The process needs the temperature and the pressure and time. So if they do not have this pressure and time and temperature the diamond will not be produced. So it takes process and it take temperature, it takes pressure and it takes so many things to make a diamond. Not only that once it is formed as a crystal it didn't need to be cut polished until it become the diamond that you have in your rings in your necklace or in any things that you would like to see it and it is being used also to cut several things uh for for for for processes. So now my question to you brothers and sisters if you are one of the car carbon powder we are by the way carbon. So a lot of uh our body brothers and sisters as you know are 70% water right and the rest is uh organic matters. Now brothers and sisters, my question to you is basically, do you want to be a charcoal or do you want to be a diamond? Right? That's the question that I would like you to remember as we as we bring. And one thing that I would like you to remember if anything you forget from this preaching is basically it takes process process process pro. Okay. So could you turn to the people beside you and said it's the process. It's the process. Okay? You need the process for you to become what who you want who God wants you to be. Now, let me start with this uh this quote from Henry Kissingers. Henry Kissingers said, "A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure." Right? A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure. And brothers and sisters, why did I quote this? Because I am sure he's he he probably was inspired by the work and the Bible that we are going to read today. Okay. So here it comes. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10. But we have this treasure in jars of clay. What is jars of clay? This is our life, right? In the Bible, it says we as a jar of clay to show that in all surpassing power is from God. It's coming from God and not from us. Now here it comes. We are hardpressed on every side. Hardpress from every side. Life um left, right, front, back, center, everywhere. But we are not crushed but being transformed to become a diamond. Right? Perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed. in our body. Let's bow down our head and pray. Lord, thank you for these verses that we have just read. Give us Lord the understanding that comes from you as we um continue to ponder on your words oh Lord that you will speak to us in Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. Amen. Brothers and sisters, I love the these verses that is basically started with realizing that there is power inside of us and we should start from that power. And there's so many things we will go through this in life brothers and sisters that if we really don't have enough inside of us is basically will destroy us now. So how many of you ever heard about it's not about the load or the or the burden you have it's about how you carry them. Right? So, how many of you have seen people uh able to lift 50 kilos, 100 kilos? How many of you have seen the the show of the strongest men on earth that they can lift a few hundred kilos that way just up like that? So physically brothers and sisters it's very difficult to think that a person can lift that soul. So so it's not about the load, it's about the strength. Right? So how many of you have heard that there are many people getting um overloaded and burned, right? So there are many people get burned because of the uh ability to cope with the challenges they face. But instead of of course it's important for us to make sure that we are not overloaded. But another the another important thing is to change our resiliency. So just like the strength of this person that can that what that that lift the weight the weight will still be the same strength is different his strength increases so it's not about the challenges brothers and sisters every one of us receive and face challenges in life right sometimes we also Don't try to match what we face with others because sometimes you hear oh what you face is nothing brothers and sisters that's nothing but that nothing for that person is actually the biggest challenges they ever face in life yet right so it's very it's maybe not let's not use that oh it's nothing compared to what I face right it's undermining others and it's sometimes also you are trying to convey your your challenges to others and suddenly that person is taking over said ah don't worry about it somebody else facing much be much much worse than what you have and they overcome it the problem is it's not about the challenge it's about the strength of the person facing the challenges you can't pair the challenges that someone face with somebody else even though The challenges seems to be the same but the ch the problem is the the strength of the person that will determine whether they will carry the load or not. Amen. Now so today we going to exercise how we going to strengthened our faith? How we going to strengthen our inner strength? How are we going to basically see how we as a person be able to overcome the challenges we face now. So today brothers and sisters what I love from these verses is starting from acknowledging that the strength that we are going to have is coming from the inside of us and that is God himself. Amen. So we need to realize that and many of us don't realize that actually there is power inside of you brothers and sisters. This is what verse seven is said but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power. So the power that is inside of you is from God. It's not from us. This is apostle Paul talking to the people in Corinthians. He is trying to say it's not from me that you actually receive the strength is from God. The same brothers and sisters as you will be hearing these messages as you are hearing or reading the the word of God and you receive the strength. It's not your strength. It's God's strength that is growing inside of you. Amen. And it's also said in verse 10, we always carry around the body the death of Jesus in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Christ Jesus Christ may also be revealed in our body. And so this is brothers and sisters the importance of knowing and acknowledging that Christ has risen from the dead. And that's also the sacrament that we have when we have our communion. So last week we were having our communion and you remember the verses that pastor have read to us is that for us to remember his suffering to remember the power of the resurrection to remember the power of his love to us. Amen. So this is the very first thing and this give us enough confidence and assurance in facing this life. And so, brothers and sisters, it also said in Romans 8:11, "And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, this Holy Spirit that is inside of you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal body because of his spirit who lives in you." We need to realize and we need to know and we need to acknowledge and we need to embrace that there is someone more powerful living inside of you. And so I would like to wake up in the morning embracing the power of the Holy Spirit. And I would like to remind each and every one of you, every time you wake up and you basically wanting to start your day, let's acknowledge the power of the Holy Spirit that is living inside of us. Amen. Did we This will change your day, brothers and sisters. This will change your day because then you know you are ready for your day because the power of the Holy Spirit and this is the very first step in the challenges we're going to face. This is the very first step in the strength we are going to build. You remember my story of the synthetic uh diamond. They need the seeds. They need the seats to grow the crystal on. Acknowledging the power of the Holy Spirit is the seats for you to gain the strength. Amen. Acknowledging and embracing and knowing the power of the Holy Spirit every day is the seeds that you need in order for you to build the crystal on and make you the diamond that God wants to see. Amen. So this is then the start the very first start and give you confident for your day and it give you also the opportunity to grow as a person. Now once we have that fundamental part brothers and sisters in the preceding part of the the verses verse 8 to9 there are four pairs of opposites that was said right there are there were four p four pairs of opposite. It said we are hardpressed from every side and this is the pressure right. This is the pressure from every side but not crushed. It not it is not cross but you actually grow from the seeds that you have. You grow the crystal you want to become. Then it's also said perplexed means confused or puzzled. You probably are puzzled with what happening in the world brothers and sisters. You probably puzzled with things that you face but you are not in despair. You don't lose hope because we have hope in God and you probably feel persecuted but not abandoned because God is saying I will help you. You feel that you are struck down. You feel that someone betrayed you. You feel that your closest friend betrayed you. You feel that people don't care about you. Or you feel that you fail in the things that you would like to have, but you're not destroyed because God will pick you up and restart all over again with the new strength that he's given you. Now, let's go and uh talk one by one about this, brothers and sisters. He said we are hardpressed on every side but not crushed. How many of you believe that God will help us in our endeavor and in our journey of life brothers and sisters. And so here in John 16:33 it says I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. That's what John You will have suffered in this world. Be courageous. I have conquered the world. That's what Jesus said. We should be courageous in the challenges and uh that we face because we have power inside of us and he has conquered the world. And in James 1:2 to4 it say consider it a great joy. Brothers and sisters my brothers and sisters whenever you experience various trials because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its full effects so that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing. Uh brothers and sisters, as I said before, how many of you want to be strong? You know, everybody say that. And uh and how many of you have seen those people um I forgot his name. Was it Ellie Hood? Who who run the marathon uh less than two hours? Just a few seconds below two hours. Never in the uh people will conceive that you can run for 42.125 kilometers for just under two hours. Imagine that. under two hours a brothers and sisters and I saw the movie um not the movie the documentary of him and how he prepared for the marathon and it's not himself alone there is a there are teams around him right and and this is also something that they do they they build the endurance endurance. The endurance that he has is not something that he he receive and have just instantly like that. Every morning in their camp they are running for 20 kilometers, right? And then after that they came back, they have the nutrition food and they have physiootherapist. Everything was massaged back to its own shape. Everything everything. So and then in the following afternoon they do another exercise strength exercise and then the following day again the following day again the following day again. So it is not uh something that he received just like that. And by the way brothers and sisters if you notice that when they run as a team there are people in the beginning when they run Elihood is not in the very forefront. He was surrounded by people. So his team members are running in front of him. Why? Because that his team will take all the the resistance from the air and he will not feel the as much resistance to preserve his strength. Right? So the same as in the in the in the bicycle tour of France, they're also going in as a team. the one that's supposed to win is surrounded by people and then the the team will be just going ahead of the person. Yeah. The candidate. Why? Because then all the drag forces will go around and the team will take it for the for the person behind to basically then preserve the strength. The last miles is when they leave the champion to go forward. Now brothers and sisters in this process of life in the challenges we face you might need somebody that is going ahead of you in uh ahead of you so that it will then give you away and give you more resistance less resistance sorry less resistance. So these are the process and therefore it says consider it great joy experiencing trials and testing that produces endurance. So the testing and the challenges that we face produces endurance. Amen. So we are hardpressed challenged from every side but we are not crushed. A second thing it says perplexed, confused, puzzled but not despair. Despair means you lose hope. Why? Because we have eternal hope. That is in Christ Jesus. God is our source of hope. Amen. In James 5:5, it says, "If any of you lack wisdom, so if you do not know what to do, if you do not know what to do, brothers and sisters, God is saying, you should have just asked me. Ask God for wisdom." And God who give generously to all without finding fault is, and this is the beauty of our God. When he asks you, he's not checking how good you have been in the last hour. Nothing you can do, brothers and sisters, to change his love towards you. Isn't that amazing? We as human has another say, you are as good as your last mistake. Have you heard that? Have you heard that? This is how cruel humanity is. Once you make mistake they will remember that and it takes a lot of time to rebuild the trust. However, God here said when you come who give generously without finding faults. He's not checking hey the other hour you are not really good. Why you asking and coming back to me now? Right? This is not the type of God we are having. This is the God who give generously, who will give the wisdom to us if we ask. And so, brothers and sisters, here is another thing. May God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, Lord. This is another things you may be confused. You may be saying that I don't understand what's going on the challenges that you face and I don't know what your challenges are brothers and sisters but God and you knows but it says you may be confused but we have hope in him. Amen. It says again persecuted but not abandoned. So in the Netherlands we probably don't feel this brothers and sisters persecuted of being Christians. You probably don't feel the restriction of coming and going to worship right and also brothers and sisters you don't see that people are trying to limit anybody but they are actually giving freedom to everyone to practice anything as long as it doesn't cause harm to the society. Amen. So now in Indonesia we feel this persecution. It's very difficult to build for instance a church in Indonesia and we need to go through all the process even sometimes we obtain the the permit from the government as we build and sometimes the people around us come the many many thousand thousand of people came to destroy the just rebuilt church the Christians there are persecuted to some extent. Now coming to myself, when I was a child, uh when I was a child, brothers and sisters, I'm the only Christian with all my friends, right? Some of my friends don't want to play with me because they they said that if if for whatever reason my sweat is touching them, especially when we play football in in in Indonesia, it's very warm just like the Philippines. And if you want to play football, you need to take off your clothes, right? Because otherwise you are just sweating, sweating. And of course, there is football, you know, you can you can imagine that could be contact. And some of my friends said if my sweat is actually touching his sweat then uh you know uncleanliness from him will be transferred to me because he is a Christian. That is how much it is. And then and as a child I didn't I don't really understand it and I was just thinking like okay if he don't want to play with me I play with others who want to play with me. Right? So, but the more I think about it, the more we see that there are this persecution happening. You probably seen that probably brothers and sisters when you are with other friends, you know that you take a few seconds to pray for your food before you actually consume your food. And probably sometimes people are knowing that you are Christian, they probably make fun of you somehow. Those are sort of persecution that we sometime face, right? And sometimes they knowing that you are a Christian, they they challenge you with something or have fun about that fact or something else. I don't know. This could be a different type of persecution that we all face. But as a Christian, even though we are persecuted, the Bible said God will not abandon us. Actually in second Timothy it say in fact everyone who wants to live godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It's basically a fact. People will make fun of us if we want to grow as a Christian. They will persecute us. In Romans 5 3-4 not only so but also glory in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance. perseverance character and character hope. Now knowing that all these challenges and the persecution that we face brothers and sisters as we continue the next persecution fa uh we face it will just strengthen us because we know that this is God's strength that is inside of us. In Matthew 5:10 it said blessed are those who are persecuted. Actually when you are persecuted you are blessed. Now this is then the mindset that we have because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In the beginning I thought how could persecution be a blessing? But this is our mindset brothers and sisters. If you think that this is something to destroy you, then it will be crushing you. But if this is something to build you on, then it is a blessing because your strength will be built. And so that is also why people are saying it's not the problem or the challenges you face in life that will pull you down or crush you but it is how you respond to the challenges you face. You see all those words are coming from the Bible. All those wisdom that people say right now, brothers and sisters, was built based on the truth that is in the Bible. And we need to unveil that. We need to show the world that there is something more inside of Christianity in order for us to excel in life. The thing is brothers and sisters, we do not embrace this inner power. We do not realize this power that is inside of us. We always feel that the challenges we face is to destroy us. We always feel that everything we want to step two step forward and then there are challenges ahead of us and we think that it's going to drag us back. But it's actually building our resistance, building our endurance, building our strength. Amen. And so this is then the mindset that we need to change every challenges we face today. Are we going to say, "Oh, this is going to be a disaster." Or we said, "God will give me strength in facing his challenges." Then this is then the mindset that we have a Christian need to have. It's even more than what the world can offer. So all those wisdom that you and I have received from the those words from the world brothers and sisters there is nothing compared to the inner strength that God has given to us. Right? So we need to make sure that we embrace and build on that strong foundation that God has put in us. And I will close with this. Struck down, but not destroy. You may be falling. You may be failing, but you are not destroyed. Get up and do this all over again. Proverb 24:16 he said though a righteous person falls seven times he falls seven times he will get up but the wicked will stumble in ruin. So this is it brothers and sisters. We might fail. We might feel that we are set back. We might feel that there are things that really bring us back or probably stagnant. Maybe we fall several times. But what the proverb said, we will get up. Amen. And if you fail, you try again. Amen. And so, brothers and sisters, these are all coming from the wisdom of the Bible. the words the world brothers and sisters with many thousands and thousands of book being written on on self motivation and the many other things you know brothers and sisters they all bases on the Bible it's not on the challenges it's not about the challenges it's about how you respond to the challenges it's not about the pressure it's about letting the pressure build you up. It's not about the heat, brothers and sisters. Sometime you feel the the heated discussion, right? For those of you in corporate world, you know, the internal politics that might have been there and sometimes the wordings and the things that you feel the heat in the discussion. What if we change our mindset said this is the process to make me stronger? Amen. And if you are facing challenges right now brothers and sisters and I don't know that but God knows what if we change our mindset to say this is a process to make me stronger. Amen. And this is then the essence of saying in my weakness I am strong because then you realize it's not about you but it's about the Holy Spirit that is living in you that give you strength. Amen. So this is then the essence of apostle Paul said in my weakness I am strong. In my weakness I am strong because of the power of the Holy Spirit that is inside of us. Now brothers and sisters, let me close with this and let's go back to 2 Corinthians 4:7 to10 the verses that we have just read and let me bring you to some of the character in the Bible. If I mention Abraham, brothers and sisters, take him so many years to build the faith before his sacrifice. He he was tested. He was asked by God to sacrifice Isaac. From the time he was called, he have faith. God was asking him, "Stand up, pack everything, and go to the land I'm going to tell you." God didn't give the GPS coordinate of where he needs to go. The instruction was step up and start walking. You probably was, for whatever reason, was given a task and you don't know where to go. Get up and start walking. God is going to give us the direction right now. As Abraham was waiting for all the promises, right? The promise of a son take him many years until he is 100 years. These are the process that Abraham need to face before God asked him to sacrifice his son. It takes that years before that faith is being tested. Right. So now when when David was anointed by Samuel to become the the the king from that time on until he become officially the king it take years take years right and now brothers and sisters on all those process do you see failures of these It is recorded right. There are victory. They celebrate it. There are also failures of these people in the process. But they they they get up. They get up and ask for forgiveness and they continue and they become a strong Bible character that everybody throughout centuries until the end of this world will be talking about. Amen. So look at our life today in all this process brothers and sisters. How would people see our life in the end? Right? So I would like us to really see that there is a process that God wants in our life that will make us and change us from a charcoal into a diamond. Amen. Are you ready for that? high temperature and high pressure and a long time. So this is the process that we need to endure. So anytime anytime brothers and I'm not perfect in this. I'm not saying that I'm perfect in this but there is an assurance that has God has given to us. Amen. And let's read it again together again brothers and sisters. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this allsurpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hardpressed on every side but not crushed. Perlex but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Amen. You receive it today. Hallelujah. Let's bow down our head and pray. Lord, thank you for this time that you have given to us. Thank you for the message that you bring to us, oh Lord. And thank you father for reassuring us that there that your power that is living inside of us are the power that will help us to go through all the challenges and difficulties that we face in life. Lord that we may embrace the inner power that you have given to us. The Holy Spirit help us and teach us Lord every day of our life to be able Lord to carry out our activities towards the direction you want us to go. And Lord make us and build us to become stronger every day Lord in our daily life so that we become oh Lord the diamond you want us to be. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord. strengthen all of us and bless each and every one of us. May we all become Lord the diamond that you would like to see us. Oh Lord, shape us and make us into the person you want us to be. Thank you father. Thank you Lord. for the reassurance. Thank you father for your goodness and your grace and your mercy. Thank you Lord for all the things that you have given to us. And today Lord as we hearing your words we are praying for any challenges ahead of us. Any challenges that are my brothers and sisters and what we all are facing oh Lord today. Let we all be reminded that there is a strength that comes from you that is bigger than any obstacles, bigger than any power around the world. That you will help us to overcome our obstacles, to overcome our challenges, to overcome our failure. Lord, that we will wake up and get up and be able to continue because of the strength that comes from you, oh Lord. Father we pray that the failure and the challenges we face is not the end of us oh Lord but this is Lord to show that you are building up strength inside of us. Resilience that you built inside of us oh Lord that we can hang on to the hope that comes from you. The hope that strengthen us every day. Thank you father. Thank you Lord. May each and every one of us today, Lord, receive the power that comes from you even more as we embrace the power of the Holy Spirit that is working in us. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. And thank you, Lord, for the blessing that you have given to us. And Lord, we pray for our uh offering that we are bringing to you. May you bless this offering oh Lord that this will be used for the extension of your kingdom the way we show love to those who are in needs as well oh lord thank you father thank you lord and father we entrust to you once again lord those uh people who are suffering and uh and experiencing fear lord in the Philippines of what is happening that may you bless them as well Lord may the people around the world will be working together to help them as well. Thank you, Father. In this time of offering, we surrender all to you, oh Lord. In Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Take-aways

The inner strength available to Christians is not human in origin but a divine gift from God, who dwells within them through the Holy Spirit.

Challenges in life are not to be feared but seen as processes that transform believers into something stronger, like a diamond formed from coal under pressure and time.

Resilience is built by acknowledging and embracing the power of the Holy Spirit daily, allowing it to shape and strengthen our response to obstacles.

Community plays a vital role in supporting individuals through life’s pressures, much like the approach in competitive sports where teams shield the leader from resistance.

Persecution, failure, and confusion are not the end of the journey but opportunities for growth. Trusting in God’s promises and relying on His strength turns these into blessings that refine character and hope.

Food for thought:

How do you currently interpret the challenges in your life? Are they obstacles to be avoided or processes meant to strengthen you?

What specific moments in your life have been instances of “being struck down but not destroyed”? How did you respond to them?

How might your understanding of “carrying a load” change if you view it as a metaphor for spiritual transformation rather than a burden?

In what ways has your faith in God’s power helped you persevere through situations that would have felt insurmountable otherwise?

What examples from your own community or personal experience mirror the biblical narrative of “struck down but not destroyed”?