We're turning in our Bibles this morning, please, to 2 Corinthians 2. What many believe to be the least well-known of the Apostle Paul's epistles, 2 Corinthians, a book that contains wonderful treasures for those who are living in troublesome times, for we have this treasure in earthen vessels. The first seven chapters of this The epistle deals with the theme of Christian endurance, how a Christian grows through trials. Chapters 8 and 9, Christian benevolence, how a Christian would give during trials. And chapters 10 through 12, Christian magnificence, how a Christian glorifies God in trials. We're opening our Bibles this morning to 2 Corinthians, please, the second chapter. And we'll begin our reading in the twelfth verse where we discover The treasure of victory over depression. The treasure of victory over depression that the Christian can know. 2 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 12. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit. Because I found not Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from Thessalonica to Macedonia. Now, thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we're the savor of death unto death, to the other the savor of life unto life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God, but as sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Let's ask the Lord to bless as we look into His Word this morning. Father, the honors of Your name, may we sing them ever. The glory of Your person, may we reflect on it honestly. The joy of the cross, may it be our theme. The victory over the tomb may it be our hope. The power of the Spirit of God may it be our dependence. And this morning, as we open Your Word, may some with a discouraged heart in this room this morning find encouragement. May some who are weary in well-doing lift up the feeble knees and the arms that hang down. May we together find ourselves seeking after the One who sought for us. Lord, I pray that You'd give us Your joy as our strength, Your promises as our hope. And this morning, Lord, for some believer who's been buffeted and finds themselves in the slaw of despond, may Your Word this morning be that sure and faithful, tender, succoring Word of God that brings us back from the pit and puts us on a solid rock and puts a song in our hearts. May we this morning go out from this place saying, truly, it's been good to be in the house of the Lord. Bless your people, Lord, this morning. And for those who may have come here into this place without the sure knowledge of the Savior, may this be the day of salvation for some. And we'll thank you for it in Christ's name. Amen. Matthew Stanford, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, writes, with a likelihood is one out of every four pastors is depressed. Now that's not an announcement this morning, by the way. Does that statistic shock you? It shouldn't. Among the general population, 12% of all men and 26% of all women will at some time in their life experience a major depression. The women who answered this survey of course said, you too would be depressed if you live with my husband. 26% of the women and 12% of the men. Major depression afflicts 14.6 million Americans every year. That's 6.7% of our adult population on an annual basis. And believers are not immune. Great people of faith are not immune. Great Bible heroes were not immune. Jeremiah sounds like a man who was fully depressed when he says in Jeremiah 45 and verse 3, Woe is me for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing and I find no rest. Job in his sorrow said, I cannot eat for sighing. My groans pour out like water. My life flies by. Day after day is hopeless. I hate my life. For God has ground me down. My heart is broken. Elisha certainly sounded like a man depressed when he says in 1 Kings 19 and verse 4, he came and sat down under the juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die, saying, It is enough now, O Lord. Take away my life. For am I better than my father's? David confessed his depression in Psalm 32 in verse four. He said, for day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture was dried up, even like the drought of the summer. Great Christians of every age have battled with blues. In 1527, Martin Luther wrote, for more than a week, I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all of my members. Christ was wholly lost. And Luther's biographer Roland Bainton said, Luther found himself subject to recurrent periods of exaltation and depression. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great prince of the preachers, the minister to the tabernacle in London, England, at the age of 24 wrote, my spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child and yet not know for what I wept. As we open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians 2, we discover the great apostle to the Gentiles battling the blues. In 2 Corinthians 2, we read in verse 12, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, note this, I found no rest in my spirit. In 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 5, Paul is going to confess, when we were in Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. We were troubled on every side. Without were fightings. Within were fears. Nevertheless, the God that comforts the cast down, the depressed, comforted us. Today's text, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, the 12th to the 17th verse divides very easily. In verses 12 and 13, Paul's discouragement is seen. I had no rest in my spirit. In verses 14 to 17, Paul's encouragement. Thanks be to God. which gives us the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today we consider the treasure of victory over depression. I want you to consider the text carefully this morning. If you find yourself discouraged, downtrodden, depressed, if you know someone for whom you have a burden, who is discouraged or downtrodden or battling the blues. Then pay particular attention here to 2 Corinthians chapter 2 this morning. I'd like us to Make an inquiry of the text today, if you don't mind, asking three questions. Why was Paul depressed? We ought to look for the reasons for his sorrow in verses 12 and 13. How did Paul react to his time of depression? Find that in the 13th verse. And then finally, what I want us to look at most this morning, verses 14 to 17, what was God's remedy? What was God's remedy to the Apostles' great time of sorrow and even depression? And so we ask first, what were the reasons for Paul's depression? Of all the epistles that the Apostle Paul ever wrote, none is more autobiographical than 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, the Apostle Paul is going to say, I was in afflictions and necessities and distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, and fastings. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, the Apostle Paul is going to speak of his imprisonments, how he was beaten with rods. He's going to speak about how he was lashed Five times with 39 stripes by his own countrymen, the Jews, how that his body carried on it 395 scars from the whippings that he experienced. Now physical affliction can impact our mental state, can't it? When our body is not working to the best of its ability, we often find ourselves mentally out of sorts. But that's not what Paul is speaking about in 2 Corinthians 2 that seemed to cause his depression. It wasn't the physical abuse and physical trauma that he'd experienced, though those had been profound. He tells us in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 13, I had no rest because I found not Titus my brother. You see, Paul had sent Titus to Corinth. Titus was sent to Corinth by Paul to examine how the church in Corinth was doing. Paul had planted the church in Corinth. He had spent 18 months in the church at Corinth. He loved the people there in the port city of Corinth. These were people dear to him. He had written to them the first epistle to the Corinthians, and boy, he was tough on them. The first four chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians, he spoke to them about their divisions. Some of you say you're of Paul. Some of you say you're of Apollos. Some of you say you're of Cephas. Some of you are more pious to say you're of Christ. He wrote to them of their divisions. He wrote to them of their skirmishes. Dare any of you take a fellow brother to court. He wrote to them about their immorality. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, it's reported commonly that there's fornication among you. Such is not even named among the Gentiles that a man would have his own father's wife. Somebody in the church was in an incestuous relationship and Paul had to tell them, that's like leaven. You let that into the church, it's going to destroy the congregation. He wrote to them about their drunkenness in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and said, some of you are showing up at the Lord's table and you're drunk when you get there. It's not an easy epistle. But that was nothing in comparison to what he wrote when he wrote what's called the severe epistle. We don't have it in our Bible. It's not part of the canon. But in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 4, he's referring to it when he says, I wrote you another letter. Out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears, not that you would be grieved, but that you might know the love that I have more abundantly to you. Scholars call that lost letter the severe epistle. So Paul has sent Titus down to Corinth. He wants Titus to come back and tell him how the people in the church at Corinth have responded to these tough messages that Paul has sent to them. And Titus hasn't come back. Titus hasn't come back and Paul records in verse 13, I had no rest in my spirit because Titus, my brother, wasn't there. Now just prior to what he's writing here, the Apostle Paul, according to Acts chapter 19 and chapter 20, had ministered in a place called Ephesus. And if you remember the story there, as the Apostle Paul spoke and shared in Ephesus, the people in that city were so upset with him that he incited a riot. He left Ephesus going to Troas. He had known challenges and difficulties, but according to Acts 20, he took with him seven friends from Ephesus up to Troas. And so as the Apostle Paul reports about this depression that he's going through, this lack of rest of his spirit according to verse 13, it's not because of loneliness. He had friends there. It's not because of his physical adversities, though there were many. It's not because he had been lazy and fell into the slaw of despond. In fact, it appears there are two primary reasons for Paul's depression. He was facing the possibility of rejection from those that he loved. He had written two tough letters to the Corinthians. I know how he loved the Corinthians. He saw visions of possibilities in the port city of Corinth. And now they were questioning his apostleship. And now they were questioning his character. I got to tell you, for the Apostle Paul, that was tough. He was carrying the responsibility for that church in Corinth and the responsibility for other churches that he planted. So when he catalogs the various crises that he's gone through in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, He talks about the conflicts and the crises and the challenges. Then he says in the 28th verse, and with all this, I'm carrying every day the care of the churches. That weight was burdening him. How were his fellow believers? When we ask the question, what were the reasons for Paul's depression? The answer to our inquiry is really kind of complex. We can't rule out illness. We can't rule out travel sickness. We can't rule out the fact that he was in a new port. We can't rule out his beatings and his lashings and his shipwreckings. All we know is the Spirit of God has allowed him to be transparent enough, this great apostle to the Gentiles to say, when I was in Troas, I was going through a hard time. The truth is there are many reasons we run out of gas. Your reasons might differ from mine. All of us have our breaking point. For Elisha, victory on Mount Carmel. Then the threat that came from Jezebel the queen, and he found himself praying, Lord, just take my life. For Job, the loss of family members, the affliction of his flesh caused him to confess to his depression. I don't know, friend, what will cause you to come to your breaking point, and you don't know what will cause me to come to mine. We all have different emotional capacities, but listen, we are all vulnerable, for there is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. We are all vulnerable. Adoniram Judson sailed out of a snowy harbor in Salem, Massachusetts in February of 1812. He with the Rice family and his wife Anne became America's first foreign missionaries. Their intent to go to India and bring the gospel to India, but as they arrived in India, the British East Indian Company said, you can't stay here, we don't want Americans in India. So after 13 months on board a ship, he still didn't have a permanent home and the Rices turned around and went back to America. Seventeen months after taking off from the harbor in Salem, Massachusetts, Judson finally arrived with his wife in Burma, hoping to work with Felix Carey. But as he arrived in Burma, Felix Carey, William Carey's son, said to Adnan, Judson, I've taken a job in India and I'm not staying here with you. And so Judson and his wife, Anne, found themselves alone in Burma. As they stayed in Burma, God blessed them in 1816 with a little baby boy, Roger Williams Judson. That baby boy was the delight of his mother and his father. Seven years and three months into his life, God took that little baby by death. Adoniram Judson was discouraged, but he plotted on and on and on. And seven years after making port in Burma, he saw the first Burmese convert. In his 12th year in Burma, he was arrested. There was a war going on and people thought perhaps he was siding with one side or the other and so they put him in a terrible prison cell. He would spend 18 months in prison. Conditions such as were so horrid that no one could ever even imagine them. The chains that bound his ankles would lift him up into the air at night and they would hang him by his feet with his head in the vermin and the awful atrocities of that jail cell for him to rest on his shoulders and his head night after night for his sleep. His wife would bring him his food and God blessed the Judsons with a little baby girl while Judson was in that prison. What a blessing it was to meet her and then finally after 18 months of terrible incarceration to be released. But what Judson didn't know was one year after his release from that prison 16 years after having landed in Burma God would take an Hazeltine Judson home to heaven and that an army would not be there when she died. In fact, by the time he came back to his home, not only was she gone, but his two year and three month old baby daughter had died as well. He found the place where they buried his wife and he dug another grave, just a little bit bigger than the size of his body. And he sat by that grave by the hour, praying that God would let him die and fall into it. Folks, we don't know what each other's breaking point will be. I've got a question for you this morning, though. When you know that you're at the breaking point or when you know someone else is there, how do you respond? Buck up, brother! It's all good on the other side. Come on, what's the matter with you? What do you mean you're digging a grave? Turn back with me to chapter 1 of 2 Corinthians. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 14 says we're to support the weak. And the word weak in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 14 means the feeble who have run out of strength. Here is our calling, 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 4. The God who comforts us in all of our tribulations comforts us why? That we might be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. We have a commission given to us by the Spirit of God that when we see a brother or a sister in distress, down and hurting, we're not to prod them along, but we're lovingly to comfort them, to come alongside, to give them encouragement in their distress. Now there's a second question that we need to be asking this morning from the text that we've read. We've looked at the reasons for Paul's depression and we've had to answer honestly, they were diverse. But he's answered, honestly, he was depressed. He was discouraged. His spirit was broken because Titus had not shown up. So we'll believe him in that report. He was not lonely. Seven others were with him in Troas. He was not lazy. He was serving the Lord. In fact, he was not unfruitful. Look what he says in verse 12. When I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, a door was opened unto me of the Lord. The Apostle Paul was always looking for open doors. And as he arrived in Troas, there was a door that was opened to him. People were getting saved and the church in Troas was going forward. It was growing. It was exciting. With these fellow workers, the ministry in Troas was the place to be. The Spirit of God had set down in that place, but the spirit of discontent and depression, the blues, had come to the Apostle. And so he writes, and he says in verse 13, I had no rest in my spirit. I found not Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went to Macedonia. How did Paul react to his depression? I wish that I could say he was valiant. I wish that I could say he was courageous and he was brave. But here's what Paul's saying in a nutshell. He's saying in my discouragement, in my time of affliction, I left the work at Troas, that baby church, that open door that God had given to me. I left my fellow laborers there. I went on the hunt to find Titus because I just had to find out what was going on in the church at Corinth. He knew the route that Titus would be taking. He figured he could track the steps and somehow bump into Titus in the ancient world before Titus would actually get up to Troas. to give the report. He was so burdened over the Corinthian situation that he had no focus to continue forward with the Troas missionary statement. Paul loved open doors. He said in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 when he got to Ephesus, God put before him this tremendous open door. You know, there's something I don't find in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. I don't find any record of the apostles praying about where he should go next. I don't find in 2 Corinthians 2 the Apostle sharing the counselors that he turned to before he left the open door in Troas. I don't find him recording in this passage how it was the Spirit of God that told him to go. I just find him saying, when it comes to my reaction, I left an open door and I went on the lookout for a man that could give me a message about the situation at Corinth. Hey, Elisha left the place of God's power on Mount Carmel and ran into the wilderness. And Peter in his time of discouragement said, I go fishing. Paul forsook the place of fruitfulness. He forsook the place of God's apparent blessing. He resigned and he ran. But I've got good news for you this morning. Proverbs 24 and verse 16 says, The just man falleth seven times, and he rises up again. We're about to find that out. It almost seems like the Apostle Paul is schizophrenic in this passage. He's just confessed his discouragement. But now look at verse 14. Paul reacted poorly to his time of depression, but he found a remedy. What was the remedy? That's our third question, and it's really the final portion of this text this morning. Thanks be to God which always causes us to triumph. Where did that come from? How did he go from no rest in spirit to thanks be to God which causes us always to triumph? These seem to be polar opposites. But God's provided for us, I believe, in this text a reasonable, rational, and repeatable remedy. for those who go through times of depression and discouragement and suffer from the blues. It's a repeatable rational remedy that's found in the pages of God's Word. In fact, I'm going to recommend to you this morning that you write this down if you don't mind. The remedy for Paul's depression has four parts in this passage. They are thought-transforming, mind-altering truths. that are universally applicable in every generation, in every circumstance, to dig us out from the place of depression and put us upon a rock that we can stand. But in order for you to understand what Paul is saying here, there's a little word embedded in the text that I think I need to explain to you. Verse 14, thanks be to God which causes us always this word triumph. He always causes us to triumph in Christ. That word triumph is the Greek word threombos, threombos. That's a really unique word, triumph, in this text. It's only gonna be found twice in the whole New Testament. A Roman threombos was a victory parade, unequaled in the ancient world. When we think about the arts to triumph, the arch through which the triumphant victorious armies would come. Nothing could ever excel the three ombos of the Roman world. Only when specific circumstances were matched would a three ombos be hosted. A general from the Roman army, a field commander, having pacified a region under Roman command where lands had been added where troops were now coming home safely and 5,000 enemy lives had been taken. When that foreign conquering general of the Roman army came back with his troops, carrying with him the foreign dignitaries now in shackles, the foreign kings now enslaved, the foreign soldiers who would soon be offered to their death. When those conditions were met, then there would be pageantry in the Roman streets such as no one had ever imagined. These things might happen once in a lifetime, sometimes once in a century. Paul has that picture in mind. The Spirit of God allows that picture to be embedded in this text. Thanks be to God, which causes us always to triambas, to have this pageant of parade. How would that parade be? The state officials would come first in the parade, and after the state officials, the Senate and all of the dignitaries, then would come the trumpeters. Then on display would be wagonload after wagonload after wagonload of foreign spoils, the gold and the silver and the idols. would be displayed for all the citizens of Rome to see. Then a white bull would follow. The white bull would soon be offered as a sacrifice to the god Jupiter. Then would come the captives in their chains to their death sentence or to their prison cell. And after the captives would come the priests with their censers wafting the air with aroma that would only come during the triambas. The women would garland their homes and throw the garland out in the street as now the soldiers and the conquering general would be coming. And the flowers that were being trampled in the street would mix with the aroma that the priests were putting in the air. And everyone would be yelling, Triambas! Triambas! Triambas! Triumph! Triumph! Triumph! Paul says, I had no rest in spirit, I left Troas. But thanks be to God who causes us always to triumph in Christ. Now in this powerful picture, the Apostle Paul is going to give to us some keys that unlock the cell of depression. Are you ready for them? Write them down this morning. What was it that caused the Apostle Paul to be rescued from despair? First, the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God. What was his remedy? The sovereignty of God. How do I know? Thanks be to God which always... Look at the word. Causes us. Causes us. The Apostle Paul realizes through the power of the Spirit of God that every activity of his life has been sovereignly ordained by the God that he serves. And while Titus hadn't showed up, while he was concerned about what was going on in Corinth, the Spirit of God gives him this remedy. God's in control. God's still on the throne. He causes us to triumph. Friend, your adversity is real. The circumstance and the buffeting hurt. But here's the Christian remedy, the sovereignty of God. God is in control. All things, Romans 8 and verse 28, work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose. Psalm 115 and verse 3, our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. Psalm 135 and verse 6, whatsoever the Lord pleased, that He did in heaven and in earth. God has not abandoned His people. He has not abandoned His creation. Proverbs 16 and verse 9, a man's heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Isaiah 46 and verse 10, my purpose will be established. I will accomplish all my good pleasure. I received Dr. Nell's prayer letter this past week. I very much appreciated what I read. Dr. Nell talked about an orthopedic appointment that didn't go the way she expected. And then she wrote in her letter by way of testimony, I did that which I've counseled for years. These were her words. God has every right and my permission to rearrange my life at any time in any way in order to fulfill His plan for my life and for His glory. That's good. God has every right to rearrange my life in any way at any time in order to accomplish His will for my life to the praise of His glory. There's nothing that conquers the spirit of depression like a good consideration of the reality of the sovereignty of God. God is in control. And when Satan nags and says, you have a right to be discouraged, my, look at what you've gone through. God allowed it. God's working it for good because He loves you. He wants His glory to be revealed through you. Thanks be to God which causes us to triumph. Wow, there's the second reason Paul is going to get by his depression. He's not schizophrenic, he's spirit-filled. God causes us to triumph. That's the certainty of victory. Thanks be to God which always causes us to triumph in Christ. The certainty of victory will get you through any crisis. The certainty of victory. But God, I can't control this. Everything I try to do fails. But thanks be to God which gives us the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that victory is certain. Paul has pictured this grand parade. All the dignitaries, all the spoils, all the foreign soldiers, all the triumphant soldiers, all those, including the conquering general, heading toward the emperor, who is going to vet them at last, and pop in circumstance, announcing to all the Romans the greatness of their campaign. Can you see it, friend? We're part of that parade. Heading home, like we sang about this morning, and Christ, our triumphant King, has triumphed over sin. When in the wilderness alone, He without sin conquered Satan, And He, when He rose from the grave, having borne our sin on the cross of Calvary, came out of that grave alive forevermore. He is the conqueror over death. Sin and death and hell have been conquered by our mighty General Threombas. We have the victory. I did something foolish this past year. I played chess with my six-year-old grandson. My six-year-old grandson is a little bit of a whiz kid. We don't tell him that. Why make him proud? But there's a rule in my family. My boys all know it. You don't beat me unless you beat me. When I play my kids, when they beat me, they have to beat me. My grandson said, hey grandpa, you want to play chess? Sure. Now I hadn't played in 25 or 30 years, but hey, he's six. He didn't tell me he plays it all the time on a computer. And I was kind of distracted. I'll make all kinds of excuse. You should have seen his face when I was checkmated. I had no idea where it was coming from. I still don't. He could probably go back and tell you all the moves that he made to put me in that position. And he smiled. Checkmate, Grandpa. Now when I go visit him, you know what he says? Hey, Grandpa, want to play chess? No. He's got that little smirk that crosses the face of a young person who knows he can win. And in the heart of the believer, There's this abiding hope. We're on the victory side. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. What else caused him to have victory over this depression of spirit? Well, I look at verse 14. Thanks be to God which causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one the savor of death unto death, to the other the savor of life unto life. What's he talking about? He's talking about this. It's the third reason we should move forward even when we're discouraged. The testimony of our lives in the world. the testimony of our lives in the world. It's a savor, he said. It's an unstoppable, undeniable, unmatchable aroma. He's drawing on the aroma that would be enjoyed when those petals would be crushed in the street and that incense would be offered. He's drawing on that picture of that pageantry and he's saying that's the Christian life. You're the light of the world. You're the salt of the earth. And He's not just saying individually. He's saying collectively here. Look at it. He says He makes manifest this aroma of His knowledge by us in every place. Some places where we go, we're the aroma of life unto life, and some places where we go, we're the aroma of death unto death. You see, some in the parade will join with us as souls conquered by our general and parade with us into heaven. Others are the spoils of the battle, destined for the darkness. But in either place, the aroma is undeniable. The testimony of the believer in the world should cause us to realize God's doing the work. It's not just about me. It's about us. It's about being in the army of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. My wife was involved in a ministry recently and a young lady came to her and said, I traveled with an evangelist. The evangelist had a four-year-old son who in a lot of our activities we'd do a little play and he played dying and he always played it very exuberantly. Oh, I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm dying. She said, then this evangelist, four-year-old son, heard about the accident at Colonial Hills Baptist Church and people who really died. And this dear lady said to my wife, that little four-year-old boy was so overwhelmed by the reality of what happened and that death is real that he trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. The evangelist has used that to write a little pamphlet. Linda said, can you get a link to that pamphlet? I'd like to read it. But as my wife told me that, I was reminded of this passage. God puts us through difficulties and allows us to be crushed. that an aroma of His grace to those who are believing would be sensed. Don't give up, folks. You're in a congregation of believers that are sending out a light, salt in the earth, an aroma of life to those who are believing, an aroma of death to those who won't. Oh, but there's one final thing here in this passage that encouraged the heart of the Apostle Paul. He asked the question himself in verse 16, who is sufficient for these things? There's a rhetorical question. And the answer to that question becomes our fourth reason that we can climb out of the place of despondency, and that is the sufficiency of the Spirit. Who is sufficient for all these things, Paul says, for we are not as many who corrupt the Word of God, but in sincerity as of God and the sight of God We speak in Christ. He speaks of the sufficiency of the Spirit of God. As he says, the Spirit of God through the mighty power of the Word of God cannot be quenched. You see, God's Word will never return void. It will prosper and do, according to Isaiah 55, exactly what it's meant to do. And Paul says, so without worldly manipulation, without Madison Avenue techniques, you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to preach Christ. I'm just going to share the Word of God and I'm going to expect that God will give the victory because in reality, when I ask the rhetorical question, who's sufficient? None of us. None of us. But He is. You see, all of us are vulnerable to discouragement. Some of us are susceptible to depression. God wants to provide us an antidote, doesn't He? When we say, I had no rest in spirit, what is it that caused Paul to be able to say, Hey, thanks be to God. He reflected on the sovereignty of God and His circumstance, for He causes us, and He submitted to God's sovereignty. He reflected upon the victory that was certain He was following after His Captain Jesus, who is conqueror over sin and death and hell. He reflected on the testimony of Christ and the impact it was having in the world. And he looked around about and he said, thank God for the believers who are making a difference in Corinth and Troas and all other places. And finally, he reflected upon the sufficiency of the Spirit and God's grace that always enables God's people to do whatever God has called them to do. For we are not sufficient in ourselves, but praise God by the power of the Spirit of God, we can continue even when we're discouraged. Friend, I don't know what you're going through this morning, but I know this. God looks upon the hearts. And the God that we serve wants to renew your joy. The first step to renewing of joy is to bow the knee to God's sovereignty and not reflect upon it and say, oh, if it were different, I'd be happy. Rather to realize that in the circumstance He's given you, He's given you opportunity for His grace to crush through you a fragrance that can reach others. with the promise that His Spirit will give you the power every day to be a testimony in whatever place He places you to the praise of His glory.