2 Corinthians 4:16-18 - How is Your Endurance

alright let's open our Bibles this morning to second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16 you know I think life in a fallen world is always difficult there there's always a mixture of joy followed by sorrow or blessing that then somehow turns into suffering or triumph that then finds tragedy and that's true of everyone whether you know the Lord or not every relationship and happy time and future hope is always mitigated by the fact that there's a lot of suffering in the world due to sin and that certainly doesn't exempt us from it whether it is you know a sinful world or growing older or sickness or dying those are all common to man and they're ones that all of us are experiencing but but we have an even greater challenge and we have a greater blessing on the one hand God has promised to us that every occurrence in our life whether they are naturally caused like those things or not God will use for good so that we have an assurance that if we you know lose a job or under financial pressure maybe have a health you know challenge that God has promised to use those things for the greater good in our lives that all things work together for good he doesn't promise that to the world because the world doesn't look to him but he promises it to you but but there's a another side as well and that is if you read about suffering in the Bible and especially in this book where Paul just personally lays out the kind of difficult life that he's had and you should know that all of that suffering is directly attached to his serving God this isn't Paul suffering because he's getting older losing his hair you know or losing some vitality this is this isn't Paul suffering because he got a bad deal at the car dealership or he got a bag shake at work this is Paul suffering because he opens his mouth for Christ this is Paul's bleeding because he he takes a stand for the gospel this is Paul sacrificing his life so that Jesus his name would be proclaimed and that's the kind of suffering Paul's talking about you know so often we'll hear Church people say oh man I'm really going through it what's going on man he had to work three days last week overtime Oh again believe yeah that's not the kind of suffering the Bible talks about oh my goodness if I only knew how hard you had it Paul hurt because he put Jesus first and to the extent that you and I are willing to to go to the world that is Anti Christ and preach the gospel we're gonna hurt - no easy way to get through that oh you think there's a way to escape here's how Paul could have escaped it you could have just kept his mouth shut say nothing he gets saved because well I'm going to heaven you figure it out and he'd have been fine but he didn't do that and neither should we so James you know on the one hand he tells us that every disappointment and grief and and tragedy and persecution and the any unexpected turns in life that God oversees them you take joy and everything right you can rejoice in all things when you fall into these various trials because God promises to use them but on the reverse side if you're gonna go out and serve God trust that you're gonna hurt over it that it isn't gonna be an easy road to follow in the world you'll have tribulation jesus said but I've overcome the world their only hope is I've overcome the world when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians his first letter he said you know everywhere I go amongst the Churches of God I boast about you and your faith and your patience how through all the persecution and tribulation you've been able to endure in faith that's the kind of suffering that Paul is talking about and it's not the kind of suffering the Western Church wants to hear about we want God to bless us and to extend our vacation and make sure it doesn't rain and oh man such nonsense by comparison so Paul he writes here in this chapter about in verse 1 in verse 1 and then what we are gonna finish the verse 16 17 18 this morning he writes I don't lose ha though I'm being beaten and persecuted and cast down and and and and struck down carrying in my body always the marks of Jesus but I'm not gonna lose heart but but understand that he was speaking specifically about how he in serving the Lord he had paid a great price so there's a paradox here you you you live on the edge of death every morning moment for Jesus and as a result you become even more and more fruitful when Paul wrote to Timothy he said Timothy be strong and the grace that Jesus has given you he said in the same letter endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus he said towards the end of the letter endure afflictions so that you can fulfill your ministry Paul in in in writing in the early on in chapter 4 and I think this is our third week in in this chapter but Paul said you know I can hang I can handle all this persecution because I had grace and mercy given to me he looked at the people that were given him trouble and grief in sharing with them and he said you know that's how I used to be and then I found God's mercy and so I know they can be changed he mentioned that he realized that there was a warfare for the souls of men that if nothing else that some of the responses he got and the anger and the difficulty were a direct result to the fact that there was a warfare for souls and he realized that the Lord's word and his power and his spirit would overcome the enemy and so he stuck with it and he continued to share he realized that the Lord alone can change a darkened heart so I'm not gonna lose hope this morning we start in verse 16 with the words therefore before all that we've studied and Paul ended last week as we talked about the privilege of carrying this message of God's saving grace through his son in these clay pots that were you know we called ourselves crackpots last week that's pretty good we're his vessels God God chose to bring the the saving knowledge of his son through the lives of us crackpots I think the angels would have done a much better job I think the Lord Himself could have done it a much better job this is his choice we are his choice but understand that that the the battered life that Paul led what was was was caused because he was devoted to the precious fruit of seeing souls saved that's what drove him and that's what kept him going and that's why he's able to say through all this I'm not gonna lose heart so this morning we read in verse 16 this therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing the inward man being renewed day by day our light affliction which is just for a moment is working in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal I think if you look at Paul's life in the Gospels and you hear him say these words I'm not gonna lose heart and then he says of his life these are just light afflictions I want to know what he knows because it seems to me that anyone that could suffer as much as he did and and and under such serious kind of hostility all of his life if he says to me this is just a light deal and I'm encouraged he's got a secret he has to share with me if you just personally cursorily I'm pretty sure that's a word and it's an adverb I know that because of the ly I learned that in school but if you just curser airily look over Paul's life in the book of Acts we just finished it you're spending 17 months on it and on Wednesday nights I'm glad you were all there you come away with the understanding that Paul didn't have a moment's rest I mean when he got saved in outside the the city of Damascus there in acts 9 he went in and he wanted to share that Jesus was for real at the synagogue and it made people so mad early on that they had to at night let him down the wall through a basket he bare escaped with his life that's how his life started with the Lord in Acts chapter 13 when he was in Antioch in Pisidia he began to preach the gospel and some began to be saved but most folks didn't they were envious they were blasphemous they stirred up all of the devout and and prominent women and chief people of the city and they expelled him from town don't you ever come back here they threw him out of Dodge imagine not for being a nice guy who made good tents but for opening his mouth for Jesus in a very hostile world when he went to Iconium and in Acts chapter 14 there was this violent attempt to stone him he he had to run for his life right ran down the road another 30 miles to lystra and derbe where as he was preaching a man crippled from birth sat in the front row and God said this Paul pray for this man and he didn't the Lord healed him and the people of town were worshipping false God said well this is the gods come down from heaven they tried to worship Paul man I'm not a God I'm a man I worship God they were so embarrassed they dragged him outside of town they stole him and left him for dead in Philippi affilaite I started the first church in Europe it was pretty humble beginnings a lady at a at a river a demon-possessed girl that was delivered but it led to his arrest and his beating they eventually drove him out of town from Philip I as well he went to Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17 he upset the Jews there there was a mob that attacked the place where he was residing there was a riot in town and at but under cover of night they packed Paul off and they rent him off to Berea how'd you like to be in ministry in Berea there was a little time of without opposition until the people in testing law and I could find out the paul was there and they sent their goons there and Paul had to run it for his life again this is all for preaching he got to Corinth in Acts chapter 18 he was so discouraged he was he vowed never to preach again I can't do this anymore it took the Lord showing up and saying to Paul Paul I've got a lot of people in this city I'm gonna protect you no one's gonna hurt you and it took that for Paul to continue and for 18 months God protected Paul but I'll tell you what there was great history 'tried even from the Jews that gives Paul he finally said well your blood be on your own head I'm gonna go to the Gentiles and though he wasn't chased out of town he was certainly hated in town he goes to Ephesus spends three years planning a church before there's a riot led by the unionized Idol makers who are so angry with Paul that people have gotten saved so much they were not buying the idols in the streets who Paul tried to go into the into the big square to to defend themselves in the church folks said they'll kill you buddy by then Paul had quit caring about getting kill you just want to fight back but they pushed him on down the road he gets to Jerusalem in chapter 21 of Acts he's accused falsely of breaking religious rules there's a riot in town they grabbed him nearly beat him to death in the streets the Romans come and save them when they dragged him to safety after talking with him they threatened to beat him to get to the bottom of Paul has to say I'm a Roman let or he'd gotten beat up again the next day he was forced to meet with the Sanhedrin by the Roman authorities and again there was a riot in the streets the day after 70 people swore an oath together that they wouldn't eat until they killed Paul two years in jail in Caesarea two more years of jail in Rome a deadly trip that almost cost him his life having to stand before Nero he finally got out and and was cleared spent the next two years out of prison before he was really and beheaded this is not a an easy life but I'm telling you he could have escaped all of it had he just shut his mouth and so can you you can sit in church today and all the Lord bless me bless me please keep it warm for the weekend but it's hardly what God cares about he cares about souls he entrusted you with that mission and if you're gonna follow and share your faith with others it's gonna cost you for Paul it was 15 years of struggling so that people could hear he would write of his life who can separate me from the love of God tribulation can't distress can't persecution won't famine can't do it nakedness in peril and the sword we die all of the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter but were more than conquerors through him that loved us it's a different kind of suffering that you you encounter in the scriptures not the kind so often that we we take to heart or we think is is our lot in life for Paul he kept his eyes on the Lord pain and isolation and abandonment and disappointment and hurt and persecution and physical abuse national disaster betrayals beatings stonings imprisonment that was pretty much his resume but he kept his eyes on Jesus so he was able to say I'm not losing heart and then he says in verse 16 or 17 this is just light affliction really are you nuts why affliction is that I need a second shot before they pull my tooth I talked to a man a couple of weeks ago that I've known for a long time and he was sharing about how he was gonna retire he'd been working 27 years two jobs just to provide for his family never made much money but just he worked 16 hours a day five days a week for 27 years and so what kept you going he said I love my family Paul what keeps you going I love Jesus I love him enough to give it all and he did and if you could find a church like that today and the people of God like that that we're willing to do that then I think our country stands a chance because they're going to hear it from us in these last three verses Paul gives us three heavenly reasons for earthly endurance and I'll give them to you earlier in case you have to leave number one you should value the spiritual strength you are given over this physical strength that you have second of all you should value the future over the present and thirdly you should value eternal realities over temporal ones verse 16 spiritual strength over physical tricks ranks he says this even though our outward man is perishing the inward man is being renewed day by day that's why we don't lose heart outwardly Paul's body was decaying in fact the way he lived his life and what we read I'm sure he looked a hundred though he died in his 60s our flesh let's face it the minute you're born it starts to rot always like please the Aussies Chapter twelve were where Solomon is getting ready to say here's that here's what you do with your life fear God and keep his Commandments that's really all you need in your life but early on in Chapter 12 maybe oh eight or ten verses he he starts to say remember your Creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come before the years are coming when you say of those years I have no pleasure in them while the Sun and the light and the moon and the stars are still out when clouds don't follow the rain in other words that time in your life when everything is just easy but there's coming a day when the keepers of the house tremble speaking about your legs and when strongmen bowed down and when grinder grinders teeth fail because there's few of them and he goes on and he describes this time when you're afraid of heights and there's terror in every way and you wake up at the sound of a bird when life isn't so easy remember then your Creator because you're going back to the dirt back to the dust your spirits going back to God from which it came Paul was physically battered I mean when some of us says I carry about in my body the marks of Jesus I'm thinking that guy look like a washed out boxer a guy who who who fought in the cage but never won I mean he was Owen 40 you know and I'm sure that for him the aging process of you know teeth and eyes that don't work and hair in fact there's no mention of hair in Ecclesiastes 12 I don't know why they left that out it should have been in there Paul was an amazing guy through the sleeplessness through the illnesses through the hunger through the cold and through the arduous travel and then the beatings I mean this guy was racked here's what he said I'm not losing heart because though I'm perishing outwardly spiritually I couldn't be doing better through all that I went through I am now better off spiritually than I've ever been my inward man is being renewed day by day I think Paul and he sends it in most of his epistles but to the Colossians he said put on the new man that man is being renewed every day according to the knowledge of him who created him or if you will Paul was able to stay with it because though outwardly he suffered plenty he saw that even the suffering inwardly made him stronger or if you will the suffering strengthened him I suspect that your greatest spiritual lessons were learned when things were hard when you had a need I doubt many of you learned anything running downhill we really I don't know life could be so easy there's no way to learn but have who's a job lose a child start to loss and all of a sudden God help me and I find that his strength now solidifies my heart and so in the hardest of times I learned that he's good but you see if I'm not out there sharing my faith there's no suffering that comes into my life other than what everyone goes through and I don't learn to trust God it's the spiritual strength I get is far better than the sprinkler the physical strength if you will that I'm losing Paul was physically weak he was a little short guy with a crooked nose and bulging eyes and a bent back he wasn't very scary well maybe scary looking but not much of a threat and yet he says of himself inwardly God is doing this great work he said in Chapter I think it's in Chapter 12 of this book I will gladly take pleasure in my infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and in my distress for Christ's sake and there it is again because I'm serving the Lord because when I'm weak then I'm strong you you grow the most when you're under pressure you're under pressure when you step out in this world to serve the Lord when Isaiah when the Lord spoke through Isaiah there in chapter 40 he said have you not heard and have you not seen don't you know that the everlasting God the Lord the creator of all of the ends of the earth he never faints he doesn't grow weary his understanding is unsearchable he'll give power to the weak and to those who have no mind he will increase their strength even though the youth will be fainting and weary and the young men will fall those that way to the Lord will renew their strength they'll mount up with wings as eagles they'll run and not grow weary they'll walk they won't think you see it is when I'm walking with God and serving God even though there is a price to pay there's also a great benefit that comes to my life they may wear out your flesh but they can't wear out your heart Paul said so to Timothy he said you know at my first defense no one stood with me all forsake me but the Lord stood by me he strengthened me so the message through me might be preached and the Gentiles might hear and even delivered me out of the mouth of a lion if you value the spiritual strength that God brings over the physical strength that you might be losing in the process it is a decision worth noting and then you won't lose heart because the best time in your spiritual relationship with the Lord is usually when you're under pressure which is why we try to avoid that because it means I have to spiritually grow second of all verse 17 value the future over the present for our light affliction which is just for a moment is working us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory I mean Paul towered over his enemies in terms of trouble but he instead of harming him it just excuse secured for him a greater heavenly reward I love the comparison notice of comparison light affliction on the one hand a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory on the other the word light means momentary or it means insignificant Paul would write to the room as I think in chapter 8 for the for the I would consider the pressure present suffering to be not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us in other words the correlation between glory and suffering to him was was out of balance I know well I shared the Lord with them and now I got fired or now they won't talk to me or how they won't even consider me Oh but compared to what is waiting for you in heaven Paul Peter wrote his first epistle rejoiced to the extent that you have been made a partaker of Christ's suffering so that when his glory is revealed in other words one Lord comes you may have gladness with exceeding joy I'll tell you what on the day that you stand before the Lord you will never regret putting yourself out there for him but you may very well regret not doing that at all oh you got by but is is the goal of the Christian to get by or to win and gain fruit Jesus was our ultimate example right he humbled himself it became obedient to the point of death and because that a name has given him above every name for Paul the radical difference between what he was going through here for serving the Lord and the glory that was coming is way out of balance in fact the words far more exceeding is the Greek word for our English word hyperbole and hyperbole by definition means exaggeration right out of balance that the glory will be so much greater than the affliction that we will suffering Moses knew that Abraham knew that what is that Hebrews 12 11 verse where it talks about by faith Moses when he came of age refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt he had it right and I think if our mindset in living in this world as a Christian just you know God bless me bless me we were missing the boat this isn't your home you don't want to live here forever this is a place that God has sent you to serve but it is only the suffering of the consequences of serving the Lord that the promises attach to in this place and everywhere in the scriptures you know Trials seem endless here sometimes but I'll tell you what's endless eternally is endless and if you will serve the Lord and you resolve to do that the glory that awaits you will be out for Portia of the suffering they've asked been asked to endure so don't lose heart finally verse 18 we should value the eternal over the temporary Paul said to the Corinthians and first I think first Corinthians 7 the world is passing away he writes here in verse 18 we should look out of the things which are seen but we should look at the things which we can't see because the things which we see are there are temporary and yet the things the eternal things that we can't see those are the eternal ones you ever thought to yourself everything you see in this life is not gonna last everything everything except for the soul of man this is all gonna burn it's not gonna last Paul said the same thing to the Philippians he said the same thing to the Colossians set your mind on the things above this is you know our citizenship is in heaven we eat girlie look for the coming of our Savior he's gonna change our bodies into a glorious one like his but get your eyes off the world get your eyes on the things of God and if you'll do that you won't lose heart now you should know at least from a biblical standpoint that keeping your eyes on the eternal is not an automatic function in other words that doesn't just happen in fact the other just happens you'll get locked into the world and stay locked into the world that's where your focus will be I gotta have that I want one of these and and then whatever's are going on around you you will be consciously locked in to everything that you see but if you make a conscious effort to get your eyes off of it and look up the illumines of the world it seemed to be a very little interest to Paul with all the D rights and he certainly the guy that is most exposed in the New Testament he never once says I want to make a fortune or I want a bigger house or a bigger car you don't find Paul Araya writing or addressing anything that that you could see I don't want a prominent career his attitude towards worldly things made him in the world a colossal failure but not in God's eyes because he was focused on something that the world couldn't see he was focusing on what God has said how focused well verse 8 of the next chapter Paul will say this I know one day I'm going to heaven and then he won't , in fact I'd rather be here there than with you Paul you will find in Chapter five decides three things in order of importance number one I hope I'm around till the rapture number two if not I just want to hang around here as little as possible and finally if that doesn't work I guess I'll stay for your benefit those were his three attitudes I hope the Lord comes we all go if the Lord is not coming I don't want to be here any longer to have to if I could rather be there and third of all if he leaves me here oh I'll sir that was his desire looking at the things which are not seeing his passion for the soul of men though was the reason that he continued to go through it he said to Timothy his last letter before they killed him for this reason I endure for the sake of the elect so that they might obtain salvation through Jesus Christ with eternal glory look the only reason I'm going through all I have is so that people could get saved if you can say that of your own life this morning you're gonna be an amazing tool in God's hands if that really is the the motivating factor for the way you live and what you do if that is way down your list like people getting saved is the last thing that is concerned to you you haven't talked to anybody about the Lord in years then you're wasting your time and not only that the promises of God to come for you are really not designed for you there's iron for people like Paul who put themselves out there and then light affection and eternal glory will come into the equation Paul sought to cultivate a spiritual strength in the inner man he didn't want to be blinded by the the present he wanted to look forward to the future and he want to set his heart on the eternal realities not just on the temporal ones for him eternity hung in the balance everyone you know when you walk out that door is either going to heaven or hell based on whether they what they do with Jesus and you know how to get them out you owe them the explanation and what if they turn on me yeah then they turn on you but you're just a clay pot anyway and if they're gonna get saved God will do the work you're just a delivery service nobody else at the postman for bringing the bills or they shouldn't if the soul is worth it to you the price will be great and so will the reward or you can just hang around till we go home you'll get there you'll get there but is that all you want to do or you want to have an impact as well father we thank you this morning for your goodness to us and how how powerful are these words from Paul how how convicting they are that our endurance would be found in the understanding that we have that Lord we you've put this treasure in us that you've called us to be lights and dark places to to be mouthpieces to speak for you to be ambassadors for Christ that we would be delivering the mail delivering good news and Lord we realized that in the world if we if we're gonna if we're gonna if we're gonna be fruitful we're gonna stir things up we're gonna suffer we're gonna we're gonna suffer but how little compared to what's waiting for us when we get to you and how much were you willing to suffer so that we could sit here this morning with a smile on our face and an assurance in our art and knowing our name is written in glory and one day we're gonna hear well done good and faithful servant we're gonna enter into the joy of the Lord made these years here be dominated Lord with our hearts driven to seek the lost to bring the news of Jesus his great sacrifice to bear and may we be willing Lord to to suffer if need be to make sure that that message gets heard thank you Lord for the work you've begun in this may may you stir us up so that we don't lose heart we'll be strengthened from with it our minds will be on the future our hunger will be for the eternal deliver us Lord from anything that keeps us from those things we ask shall we stand

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Length: 33min 57sec (2037 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2019