When you struggle to speak about Jesus start by reminding yourself of His infinite love poured out for us at the crucifixion.  Then pray for opportunities.  Then explain to people that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Imagine the deacons come and suggest that we turn the spare land at the side of this building into a graveyard, what would you think?  What if Sam located a building in Castletroy for Crossway, and requested some land for burial plots next to it? 

Not many of us want the church to have responsibility for looking after a cemetery, but the tradition of graveyards next to church buildings does have some positives.

To start with it gives people a sense of perspective.  Imagine you are walking into this building every Sunday morning and passing the piece of ground in which you will soon be buried.  It would be a reminder that you are only in this life for a short time and that you are here for a purpose!

Or what about the fact that as we gather for worship we would see reminders of those who have worshipped with us in the past.  There is gravestone of Hazel Oakley, if she were still alive she would be with us this morning!  People have traditionally talked about the church triumphant and the church militant.  The church triumphant are those who have finished the battle and have been called home.  The church militant are those people who are still alive and still in the battle.  A graveyard is a reminder of those who went before us in the battle.  Are you still battling in the power of the Spirit or have you laid down your arms in defeat?

We are studying 2 Corinthians 4.  The chapter began with a call not to lose heart.  We are not to lose heart because in God’s mercy he has called us to be ministers.  We have a great purpose in life.  Now he tells us again not to lose heart because ‘though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day’ (16).

We Speak Because We Are Grateful (12–14)

For many of us the thing we find hardest to do as a Christian is to open our mouth and speak about Jesus.  Keep praying that God gives you opportunities to tell people what God has done for you.  Paul quotes Psalm 116, where David declared, ‘I believed so I spoke.’  David had been delivered from danger and knows he has something to talk about.  Read this book and you will see that we were all blind, hard-hearted and perishing.  Yet the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of the darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ (6).

Not only has Jesus rescued us from the hell our rebellious hearts deserve, we now live as beloved children of our heavenly Father and we have a wonderful future to look forward to.   When Christ returns He will raise our dead bodies and we will be perfect in His presence for ever and ever (14). 

Gratitude speaks.  I don’t need much encouragement to talk about the Munster rugby team.  But what have they really done for me?  I am sure that there have been times where they have said, ‘let’s do this one for our supporters’.  But they don’t know me!  Indeed, when I said ‘hello’ to one of the team he blanked me.  Yet the Son of God loves me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).  Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13).  God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). 

I remember watching a friend trying to hold back tears as he read the following paragraph for Scottish Theologian, Sinclair Ferguson:

‘When we think of Christ dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to Himself.  We should almost think that God loved us more than He loves His son.  We cannot measure His love by any other standard. He is saying to us, “I love you this much.”  The cross is the heart of the gospel; it makes the gospel good news. Christ died for us; He has stood in our place before God’s judgement seat; He has borne our sins.

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