Knocked Down but Not Out: A Message of Resilience and Faith

Okay, if you came this morning wanting to hear a beautiful little Palm Sunday message, sorry.

But there was a message preached a few months ago now, and the title of that

message is, There's a Little Donkey in All of Us.

Go home and have a listen to it. There's a good Palm Sunday message for you.

I've got another message in

mind this morning, but it's all to give glory to God. Okay, is that okay?

All right. Title of my message is this morning, Karen.

Knocked down, but not knocked out. Okay, knocked down, but not knocked out.

Let me read Acts 14 verses 19 to 21 to you.

Acts 14:19–21

It says, Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side.

They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead.

But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into town.

The next day, look at what he did. The next day, he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

After preaching the good news in Derbe and making many disciples,

Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia.

He didn't just get stoned and then got left there. He got up and went and shared

the gospel and won more and more lives to God.

Wow. What a man. What a man. 2 Corinthians 4 verses 7 to 10 says,

2 Corinthians 4:7–10

let's continue on with this.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile

clays containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our power, great power, is from God,

not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed.

We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.

We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down,

but we are not destroyed.

Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that

the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Wow.

Now, who's heard a few of my sermons this year?

Okay. Let me, I want to, I just want to read a couple, the titles of a couple out to you. Okay.

Last week, what's it worth to you? What's it worth to you?

That's where I spoke about the fact that when adversity comes,

we do not turn and run away, but we stand and we fight.

The armor of God is only on the front of us. It's not on the back.

So we stand and we fight for what it's worth to you.

Week before that, can anything good come out of this?

A week before that, I actually, there was a bit of a break because I think Peter

spoke in the meantime, but no man is going to take my crown.

Here's a good one too. Toughen up, toughen up.

You will see it when you believe. Okay, there's another one.

Then I threw in a little miracle one in there, the healing of Bartimaeus,

the Bartimaeus miracle.

And then I did a four-part series. I very rarely do series, but that series

was called The Dangerous Christian. The Dangerous Christian.

Then the beginning of the year, the first sermon of 2025, I titled my sermon,

2025, nothing is going to take my song.

Now, in saying all of that, and then there were ones last year as well,

you know, if it's going to be, it's up to me and unrelenting favor and have

a look at a few of those podcasts.

But when you read that list, I've been giving it to the devil.

I've been trying to give it to the devil. And there is little wonder that on

Friday, on Friday, I got a phone call from my boss, builder saying,

Tim, come in and see me. We need to talk.

And I've gone, okay, that sounds promising. Is it a pay rise?

Unfortunately not. I lost my job on Friday at about 10 a.m.

There's little wonder with those messages that I've been preaching.

There's little wonder that somebody's not happy with me.

Somebody's not happy with God and he's going to give it to us.

So any builders in the house this morning? I know there's one or two.

You know as well as I do that the building industry is tough.

And yet another builder has gone under this week. And as a result,

I've lost my job. But guess what?

I might be down, but I'm not out. I'm here to preach another message and bring glory to God for it.

So, okay. Okay.

Exactly. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So.

That verse again, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7. Let me say this,

2 Corinthians 4:7

since Friday, 10 a.m., when I lost my job, I've had three job offers.

I've got three phone calls to make tomorrow. So God is good.

And devil, you can, yeah, try your hardest.

Okay, so 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7 says, We now have this shining light in our

2 Corinthians 4:7

hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clages containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our great power is from God and not from ourselves.

That verse should ring or sound a note of victory in our spirits because it's God.

It's God. And there's some sister verses to that as well.

It says in 1 John 4 verse 4, But you belong to God, my dear children.

1 John 4:4

You have already won a victory over those people because of the spirit that

lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

And this one, Luke 10, 19, sorry, this one, Philippians 4, 13,

Davis family, Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And Luke 10, 19, behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and

scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means

hurt you. I love that verse.

But to be honest, to be honest, it does perplex me sometimes because sometimes

my experience does not line up with that verse, like Friday, for instance.

And that's where I have my problem, okay?

I know God's word is true. It's true in its entirety.

But he said, nothing shall by any means hurt me.

That's where I question, what does Jesus mean when he says, nothing shall by any means hurt me?

Now, I don't want to be doubtful and I don't want to show any sort of doubt to you.

I'm trying to keep strong and I'm trying to keep my faith. that if I'm being

honest, I've been hurt a few times.

Who can say, yeah, I've been there as well? Yeah, yeah.

First of all, I've been hurt physically. I've got scars on my body,

and I know there's others here who do as well, and there's scars to prove it.

I've also had my heart hurt. I've felt the pain of losing someone close to me,

and as we all have, I think.

So to tell you the truth, I've wrestled with this verse.

Because I know Jesus is right when he says what he says. Okay.

What about Paul and Silas and the beating that they took? What about James who Herod killed?

So here's where I found some solid ground concerning the truth of what Jesus had to say.

The problem comes when we define, when we define for ourselves what Jesus means

when he says, nothing shall by any means hurt you.

It's when we define what he's talking about there.

Our humanity wants to say that it means I'll never be sick. I'll never be rejected.

I'll never get into financial crisis or straits. And I'll never get in situations that cause me pain.

That's when we try and explain what Jesus was talking about there the first

problem with that is it leads people to believe that the Christian life is problem

free who's had a problem free Christian life?

No hands are up and the Bible tells us that clearly that is not true that we

will in fact have problems all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer

persecution says that in the Bible.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of all.

So the problem is not what Jesus said, okay?

It's with our interpretation of what Jesus said.

Jesus never meant that life wouldn't deal us some hard blows and cause us grief and pain.

He meant that it doesn't matter what life throws at us or the devil tries to

do to stop us. it cannot separate us from him.

It cannot separate us. It cannot injure the relationship that we have with him.

If we think that what Jesus said means we'll never experience hurt in our life,

we can just develop a dangerous mentality that looks at people and says,

if you were living, you know, if you were living right, you wouldn't be sick.

It's a dangerous mentality. If you were living right, then you wouldn't be sick.

If you were living right, then you wouldn't have gone through that divorce.

If you were living right, you wouldn't have lost your job.

Then on the other hand, when everything's going good for us,

we can become self-righteous and look at people who are hurting and say,

you must not be living right like me, you know, or you wouldn't be hurting.

That's what Job's comforters came to tell him when he was going through the

depth of his bad, bad run in life.

They said to him in Job 8 verse 6, And if you are pure and live with integrity,

Job 8:6

he will surely rise up and restore your happy home.

In other words, they were telling Job if his heart was right with God,

he wouldn't be having all those problems that he was having.

But in fact, it was because his heart was right with God that he was having all these problems.

Have a look at the introduction, the first verse of Job 1 verse 1,

Job 1:1

where it describes what Job was like. It says this in Job 1.1,

there once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz.

He was blameless, a man of complete integrity.

He feared God and stayed away from evil.

Now, let's look again at this verse in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 7 to 10.

2 Corinthians 4:7–10

It says, we now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are

like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our great power is from God and not from ourselves.

We are pressed in every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.

We are perplexed, but we are not driven to despair. We are hunted down,

but never abandoned by God.

We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

Now, there's a, in Job 14, verse 7 to 9, let's have a look at Job again.

Job 14:7–9

There's actually, in Job, it shows this New Testament truth being revealed or being illustrated.

It says in Job 14, 7 to 9, even a tree has more hope.

If it's cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches.

Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays,

at the scent of water, it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling.

This is speaking about making a comeback, making a comeback.

Although the tree is cut down to the ground and it looks completely dead and

gone, yet though through the scent of water, it will rise again.

Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who you are or how spiritual you are.

At some point, life is going to deal you a blow that will knock you down.

It doesn't matter who you are. I'll refer to it as the potholes of life.

There's an interesting topic to talk about. The potholes of life, unexpected,

undesired situations and problems that catch you off guard and can possibly

send your life into a spin. The potholes of life.

Anyone experienced a pothole of life?

The good news is this, that even though we will at some point encounter these

unexpected, unplanned attacks, problems, and circumstances, and will undoubtedly be knocked down,

if we keep our faith in Jesus and in his word, we will never be knocked out.

Okay? I'll never be knocked out. I'll never be knocked out.

I can't say that I'll never be knocked down.

I can't say that I'll never be caught off guard. I can't say that I'll never

be confused or frustrated or troubled or perplexed.

I wish I could say that, but it wouldn't be true. It wouldn't be true.

I can't say that I'll never be sick.

I can't say that I'll never get bitten by a snake like Paul was or have to walk

through the fiery furnace like the three Hebrew boys.

I can't say I'll never suffer criticism or persecution.

I can't say I'll never make a mistake in my life. I can't say I'll never struggle with my faith.

I have to be honest. I can't say any of those things for sure.

I wish I was spiritual enough and holy enough to say it and I could make it

stick. But I have to be honest.

I don't have that much power.

I'm only human. I fall down sometimes.

I get hit by things sometimes, and sometimes life pushes me down,

and sometimes we hit those potholes on the highway of life, and man,

can they throw things out of whack. They can.

But here's what I can say for sure.

There's something that I can say for sure. I can say, I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it.

I can say nothing shall separate

me from the love of God Which is in Christ Jesus Nothing

And I can say that no weapon formed against

me shall prosper And I can say

that even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear

no evil for he is with me And he is my rod and staff that comfort me And I can

even say that even though I have to walk through the rivers They will not overflow

me and even though I have to walk through the fires,

I will not be burnt. I can say all of that.

So for anyone who has been told by the devil that if they were really serving

God, that they would never get knocked down and they would never be hurt,

I wanna tell you something.

The only person who can be knocked down is the person who has dared to stand up.

And the only person who has never been knocked down is the person who has never tried to stand up.

So today, if you're feeling knocked down, like maybe I am a little bit,

if you're feeling knocked down and had the breath knocked out of you and been thrown off course,

I say, join the crowd,

lift up your voice and say, thank God.

Thank God. I may have been knocked down, but I'm still in the fight and I'm

going to make a great comeback.

I want to help somebody today who's taken a hard hit And it's knocked the breath

out of you And you went down You may even feel to some degree like you're still down,

And still trying to fight your way back up I want to tell you this You're going

to make it You are going to make it You are going to make it Let's return to

our opening verse and have a look at Paul,

Acts 14 verse 19 to 21,

Acts 14:19–21

for some reason I've got the old King James version and there came Viva.

There we go. I'll read this one. Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium

and won the crowds to their side.

They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town thinking he was dead.

But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into town.

And the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

After preaching the good news in Derbe and making many disciples,

Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia.

Okay, we will make it. We will make it. We will make it.

Now I've got to go back to where I was. There we go.

Let me ask you this question about the passage that we've just read.

Do you think it hurt when those stones were

hitting paul yeah i reckon it i reckon it

hurt i reckon it hurt and i

know i'm talking to someone right now and you're taking a pounding yourself

and the truth is it does hurt it does hurt it does and it doesn't make sense

and you don't understand why and i wish i could tell you the pain that the pain

right i wish i could could take that pain away right now.

And I wish I could stop every stone that's been thrown at you,

but I can't do that. But what I can do is this.

You will make it. You will make it. You're going to survive this.

You're going to beat this.

You're going to come out of this wiser and stronger and bolder and more settled

and established in your faith.

You're going to not only make it through this, but you're going to be able to

help somebody else get through this as well.

The people that were stoning Paul literally thought that he was dead.

Boy, they must have been celebrating. Yes, we finally got rid of Paul.

They must have really thrown a party, but the devil always celebrates too early.

He always celebrates too early.

The Bible says, Paul got up. Paul got up.

I feel like shouting right now. I really feel like shouting.

Paul got up. He took a beating. He was hurt.

He was bruised. He was battered and wounded. But Paul got up.

Paul got up. And what did he do? Did he throw a pity party? Did he quit the ministry?

No. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

And when they had preached the gospel in that city and taught many,

they returned again to Lystra, Iconium and those other places.

Paul was knocked down, but he didn't die.

He didn't die Paul was knocked down

But he got back up again Paul was misused and abused But he didn't quit He got

up and he picked up right where he left off Preaching the good news He went

right back to work He went right back to work Preaching the gospel of the kingdom

And tearing down the works of the devil,

I feel a comeback anointing coming today And

I feel a getting up anointing It's time to

get back up again It really is I just want to remind you That all things work

together for good To them that love the Lord And are called according to His

purpose And finally What the devil meant for evil God is going to use for your good.

Let me take a minute and talk about some people who made a comeback.

The first one that really stands out to me is Joseph.

Joseph went from the pit to a prison, to a palace, just like that.

The three Hebrew boys coming through the fiery furnace, Daniel coming through

the lion's den, Lazarus, four days dead, but he got up.

And of course, the greatest comeback in history, Jesus himself.

Jesus himself. In every case, in every case that I've just spoken about,

the individuals were in a sense of knocked down. And every case,

they faced circumstances that were naturally and physically impossible.

But God, but God, I love the buts.

But God, but God, that's what I want to say to you today. You may have been

knocked down, but God says you're not out.

In fact, the Holy Spirit wants you to know your best days are still ahead of you.

God is not through blessing you this morning.

It may seem like it's your midnight hour right now, but the thing that I love

about the midnight hour is this.

It's gone in 60 seconds.

It's gone in 60 seconds. in the time that it takes me to read the next couple

of lines, it's gone, okay?

Like that, it's gone. You could be 60 seconds away from your breakthrough right

now, 60 seconds away from a turnaround and a divine reversal.

60 seconds away from a brand new chapter in your life.

Josh, come on up. I know there's another scripture passage, but you come up

and play and make me sound better.

And I will read Exodus 14, 23 to 26 to you when we talk about what happens in

the morning. What happens in the morning?

Exodus 14, 23 to 26 says, and the Egyptians pursued and went after them into

the midst of the sea. all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen. Talk about down.

Now it came to pass in the morning, it came to pass in the morning that the

Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and

cloud and he troubled the army of the Egyptians.

God troubled the army of the Egyptians and he took off their chariot wheels

so that they drove them with difficulty. Who knows, it's difficult to drive

a chariot with no wheels on it.

And the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel,

for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.

Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the waters

may come back down upon the Egyptians on their chariots and on their horsemen.

I want to tell somebody this morning, Tim, I want to tell you as well,

Well, I wanna tell you that morning comes and joy comes in the morning.

I know that it's dark at midnight. I know that it's dark at midnight and it

seems like it's hopeless and it seems like nothing.

It seems like nothing could ever change this issue or this condition.

But I prophesied to you this morning that God is getting ready to trouble your enemies.

He's watching, he's been observing their pride and their haughtiness.

I love that word, haughtiness.

Haughtiness, and he's getting ready to knock their wheels off.

Let me say it like this. God is getting ready to trouble your trouble.

God is getting ready to trouble your trouble.

Or let me say it like this. Your trouble is in trouble.

You don't even know what trouble is until God troubles you.

Okay. Verse 30 of that scripture in Exodus says, And the children of Israel

saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. It's what they saw the next morning.

All their enemies were dead on the seashore.

Dead, gone, finished, done.

So friends, you may have been knocked down, but you're not out.

And as Kelly said to me earlier, lift up your head, lift up your chin. You are not out.

Your knockdown has been set up for a comeback.

Who receives that this morning? Amen. Let's pray, everyone. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Lord, we have some fun with preaching, Lord God. We have some fun.

But Lord, it's serious stuff.

It is serious stuff that Lord, You provide the answers to each and every one

of us. That is so serious.

And we need to believe that with all of our hearts. You provide answers.

You are providing trouble to our situations, to our problems.

You are troubling our troubles.

And Lord, we praise You and we worship You for that. We thank You,

God, that You are our power and our might.

Lord, we may be knocked down. We may be stoned, lying dead on the ground or

close to death on the ground. We may be ill.

We may have pain. We may have suffering. But Lord, Your promise to us is this.

Even though You go through that, I will never forsake You. I will always be there with You.

And together we will stand up and we will fight back.

And that's what I pray over every person here this morning, regardless of what

you're going through now.

And I care, I care about what you're going through now. But regardless of what

you're going through, you will get up and you will succeed and you will be a

blessing to others through your testimony in Jesus' Name.

Bless you all. Bless you all in your situations.

Bless you all in knowing that even though it could be a bad situation,

that that could be gone just like that and you are getting ready to make a comeback

for the glory of God, for the glory of God in your life in Jesus' Name.

Bless you all with comeback strength.

Bless you all with standing up again abilities in the power of Jesus Christ.

Because it's His Spirit that lives in you and lifts you up and raises you up

and provides hope and an answer and a future that is beyond amazing.

It's beyond amazing. So I pronounce healing over you. I pronounce breakthrough over you.

I pronounce power over you to overcome the battles that come your way,

to overcome and to fight back and to go on with your work and to see success

in your life, to see success and wonders in the Kingdom of God,

miracles happening in this place and breakthrough in Jesus' Name.

In Jesus' Name. Hallelujah.

Bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. Lord, we thank you for that day that you came

and you rode into Jerusalem victorious glorious and you were worshipped and you were praised.

But then you took a little bit of a beating. But you came back from that.

You came back from that, bigger and better than ever, leading the way for us,

Lord God. Let that be our testimony, Lord.

Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, raised from a week of hell, raised from the dead.

Lord, we can do this. I empower everyone around here, by the Spirit of God,

by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that we can overcome and we can be resurrected

and we can make a difference in Jesus'

Name. And you know where we're seated right now?

We're seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Hallelujah. So we thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord, that we may be down, but we're not out.

We may be knocked down, but we are not knocked out.

And Lord, there is a comeback coming in all of our lives, Lord God.

And we bless you. We bless you. In Jesus' name we pray.

Hallelujah. Everyone said, Amen.