Do Not Lose Heart

Introduction

Let me be the 4,000 person to make the observation that we’re living in different times. There’s a lot of negative about the circumstances that we find ourselves in. Those are obvious. But there’s also some positives, as is often the case, positives that we can find in the midst of change and even difficult and hard times. Here’s just a few that I’ve observed. One is that people are getting projects done at home. When I drive between the church building and my house, I see almost every other house has stuff pushed out to the curb. They’re finally getting that spring cleaning done, finally getting rid of some stuff from the basement, from the attic, from the closet. And so we’re getting some projects done at home. Another positive that I see is many of us have learned what that large appliance in the kitchen is, that it’s intended for cooking.

And so we’re having home cooked meals and spending time together with those meals. And some of you, maybe 0.12% are using that as an occasion to eat healthier. The rest of us, not so much.

Maybe too close to your family. But we’re using things that we’ve never used before or are seldom used before. We’re reading books, we’re playing board games and putting puzzles together. Deedra has a table set up in our family room with a puzzle on it, and she’s been working on that puzzle. I started with her, and about two minutes in, I gave up. When that one piece that I held didn’t fit into any of the open places, I quit. I just gave up. And sadly, that’s a part of human nature, isn’t it? Quitting and giving up. In fact, I want you to think about two different scenarios in your past, one positive and one negative. Let’s start with the negative and get it out of the way.

I want you to think about a time that you gave up. A time that you just quit. Whatever pursuit it was, maybe you were running a race and you were unable to finish that race, maybe it was a project at home, maybe it was a puzzle. Just some time in which, because of a lack of patience, of perseverance, because it got too difficult, that you just quit. And as you think about that unpleasant reminder, that unpleasant memory, I want you to think about the motivations behind it. Why did you quit? What were the factors that contributed to you giving up at that time? Now let’s switch to the positive. Think about a time and an endeavor in which you didn’t give up. Maybe there were temptations to quit.

There were difficulties along the way, and it wasn’t maybe an easier task than the task that you gave up on, but you endured. You persevered. And you finished that race. You completed that project. And as you think about that pleasant memory, think about what contributed to your success. Why? What was different in that scenario than in the former scenario? What was it that allowed you to win the race? What contributed to your endurance of not giving up? Obviously, we want to make a spiritual application this morning. You may have in both of those scenarios thought of earthly pursuits. But we could probably all think of spiritual pursuits where both scenarios fit. A time spiritually that I gave up. But I can also remember some times in my spiritual life that I didn’t give up.

That I was successful. And if I allowed myself the introspection, I could think in both cases, failure and success, I could probably identify at least some of the reasons why I failed. And some of the reasons why I succeeded. Our text for this morning is in the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, and I hope that wherever you are, you’ll get a Bible. And turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We want to begin there in our reading in verse 16. And actually we’re going to go all the way through to chapter 5, verse 8, where the Apostle Paul’s advice and encouragement to these Corinthian Christians, which, if you’re a student of the Bible, you know their struggles in their spiritual pursuit. You know their failures, but you also should be aware of their successes.

And Paul’s inspired advice is that they should never give up. In fact, he says, beginning in chapter 4 and in verse 16, therefore we do not lose heart. Do not lose heart is just a fancy way of saying don’t give up. Therefore we do not give up. We do not lose heart, Paul says. The idea of losing heart, we understand that the heart, spoken of in this biblical context, is talking about that inner person. It is the intellect of man, it is the will of man, and it involves the emotions of man. And so Paul says on this intellectual, purposeful, emotional level, we do not give up. We have not lost heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for 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 temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. We’ll continue that reading in a little bit. Let’s make three observations about Paul’s encouragement that we don’t lose heart or we don’t give up, regardless of the circumstances. Now, the first observation I want us to make about Paul’s admonition that we don’t give up, that we don’t lose heart, is that Paul focuses very little upon the circumstances. Paul doesn’t say don’t give up in the easy pursuits. He doesn’t say, don’t give up when you have the moral support of your family and your brethren.

Paul doesn’t say, don’t give up when you’re in the mood, or don’t give up when things are going well for you. His general advice and encouragement for these Christians and for us today is no matter what you’re facing, no matter how long the race, how steep the hill, no matter how difficult the endeavor, don’t lose heart. And Paul says, we have it. He hadn’t lost heart, and he gives three reasons why. A lot of times we talk about this idea don’t give up. Don’t give up. Keep going, keep going. And that’s good kind of cheerleading language, and we need that from time to time. But Paul is much more than a cheerleader here. Paul is much more than just saying, don’t give up, keep going. Paul is an instructor.

1. The Inward Man Is Being Renewed

Paul gives us some real tools to keep us endeavoring. The first one he says, the first reason that we should not lose heart and don’t have to lose heart is that he says that despite what else is going on, our inward man is being renewed. Look at that again in verse 16 of chapter 4. Therefore, we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Paul says we don’t lose heart because the inward man is being renewed. The inward man, inward man is growing and strengthening. Now, Paul is not saying that doesn’t mean bad things are happening. In fact, he acknowledged the bad things. He said the outward man is perishing. But his emphasis is upon the inward man.

We’re going to see that recurring theme throughout this section is that all of this has to do with vision. It has to do what we’re looking at and what we’re focused upon. Paul acknowledges the reality that we are a dual being. We have the outward man and the inward man. And he says, although the outward man is perishing. Now, Paul specifically may be talking about our physical bodies. The physical bodies that are declining with age and will eventually expire. But I think we could expand the application in talking about the outward man and just talk simply about all external circumstances. That no matter what, despite the difficulty of the outward circumstances, that the inward man does not have to track along the same trajectory. In fact, he said that his outward man and his inward man were going in opposite directions.

The outward man was perishing, yet the inward man was being renewed day by day. That’s a powerful and really when applied in our lives, a life-changing philosophy. If you look back at the times in which you gave up, one thing that you might see in every time that you gave up, that you lost the race, is that you allowed the inward man to follow the outward man. You allowed the inward man to follow the same path of the externals around you. But Paul says that we can succeed. We cannot lose heart when we change that focus. That our focus is not upon the outward man, and our encouragement is not found in those external circumstances. Now that’s difficult. It’s easy to look at what’s happening around me and be directly affected by that and to take the exact downward spiral of the national economy.

It’s much easier even to say, take the same downward spiral of my own personal economy. To be affected by be affected mentally and spiritually by my physical health. That’s the easy track. But that’s a track that more often than not will end in failure and in spiritual doom. And so Paul says that though our outward man is a perishing, the inward man can be renewed. The inward man can be on a different path, in fact, the exact opposite path. But again, we’re all about nuts and bolts this morning. We don’t want to just talk about not giving up. We want the scriptures to give us real practical advice of how not to give up. So when I talk about the inward man being renewed and taking an opposite path of the external man and the external circumstances, then the first question that pops to my mind is, well, how?

How is my inward man being renewed? Hold your finger here in 2 Corinthians 4 and go to James chapter 1. If you’ve been watching our daily videos, we’ve been posting, we’ve been studying in the book of James. And I want to look how James starts in James chapter 1. Throughout the book of James, James gives very practical lessons about how we can live this Christian life, and how we can face the struggles that we face in this Christian life. Notice what he says beginning in James chapter 1, verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Now, how does this apply to what we’re talking about of focusing on the inward man and the inward man being renewed day by day?

Well, unfortunately, James is telling us that maybe the inward man is renewed when the outer man is perishing. That not only does the inward man not need to take that same downward spiral, but that downward spiral of life perishing, life falling apart, can actually, when properly viewed and properly applied, can actually boost that inner man. James says there’s some joy to be found in trials because the testing of our faith produces patience. Those trials actually make me better inwardly.

But they make me better spiritually. If properly used, properly viewed, and properly applied, I am a better man. If I’m honest with myself, I’m a better man because of the struggles I’ve had to endure. I hope it has strengthened me in so many different ways. And so the inward man is renewed by the outward man perishing, by the difficulties and the struggles of these trials. But keep reading in James chapter 1, there’s another way. There’s the hard lesson to learn through trials that strengthens the inner man. But there’s another more powerful and divine way in which my inner man can be renewed. Still in James chapter 1, he says in verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Do not, in your mind in your faith, do not limit the power of God. Yes, I can by my own experiences, by my own spiritual struggles and faith, I can strengthen the inner man. But don’t ever forget that God can as well. James says, in the midst of these trials, these trials will make you better as you endure them and strengthen your faith. But he says, if you lack the wisdom, ask of God. And he’ll give that to you. Generously, liberally give that to you. Now I don’t know exactly how all God’s going to do that. Does that mean he’s going to send me more trials so that I can become more patient? I don’t know all the details of how God works in my life and sends me and gives me this wisdom, but I do know and accept by faith that James says, if I ask of God, in faith, not doubting, that if I ask of God for wisdom for my inner man while I’m struggling with these outside temptations and trials, that God said he would answer that prayer.

That he can help my inward man to grow. Turn over with me in the book of Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 3. In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul uses similar language here that he used in the book of 2 Corinthians. Remember in 2 Corinthians, I’m turning to Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14. Remember back in 2 Corinthians, he says, our inward man, though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed. Notice what he says in Ephesians 3, the language that he uses here, verse 14. That we talk about spiritual maturity. He says in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14, for this reason I bow my knees to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the height and the length and the depth and the width to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Again, how is God going to do that? I don’t know that I have all the answers to that. But I do accept by faith that he says that he would grant to me to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. My inner man is renewed by going through the outward perishing. It makes me a better person, if I’ll use it that way. And God is there giving me strength as well.

2. What We Are Facing Is a Light Affliction

Strengthening my inner man through the presence of Jesus in my life, through his spirit in my life, through the wisdom that he can grant to me. It’s an answer to my prayers. So when Paul says, don’t lose heart, he says, here’s how you do it. You let the inward man be renewed. Back to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and talking about this idea of not giving up or not losing heart. He says another reason that he doesn’t give up and that we shouldn’t give up is that what we are facing is actually a light affliction. Now I hear the groans. I hear the objection. Somebody’s saying, now, wait a minute. Light affliction? You don’t know what I’m going through. How dare you say what I’m going through is a light affliction.

It’s not light by any stretch of the imagination. I want to remind you what Paul was going through when he pinned these words. Look with me. Stay in the book of 2 Corinthians. And look at three texts in 2 Corinthians. 1 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8. He said in verse 8, beginning, we are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body. In generic terms, there, Paul introduces us to what he’s been going through. Persecution, crushing, perplexing, bearing in his body the death of Jesus. But now Paul, a couple chapters later, is going to get specific about what he was going through.

Look at now in chapter 6. What did you mean, Paul, when you said hard-pressed and perplexed and persecuted? Chapter 6, verse 4 beginning answers this. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God in much patience and tribulation and needs and distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, and sleeplessness, and in fasting. Paul gets a little bit more specific now in chapter 6, doesn’t he? Of what he was going through. He mentions the imprisonments, the stripes, the sleeplessness, and the fastings. Paul says, that’s what I, as an apostle and a servant of Jesus Christ, that’s what I’m going through. Well, Paul says that’s still a little vague. You still haven’t given me great detail. Well, read on. Now go to chapter 11, still in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11.

This time we’ll begin our reading in verse 23. Now, as we’re reading these three texts of Scripture, where Paul gets increasingly specific about what he was going through, I want you to remember that Paul was calling this a light affliction. In 2 Corinthians 11 now, verse 23, of his detractors, he says, Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews, five times I received forty stripes, minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I’ve been in the deep, in journeys often, in perils of waters, and perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, and in perils of false brethren, in weariness and toil and sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

This is a partial list of what Paul was going through. I don’t want to focus on just a few of those. He says, five times, five times I was beaten thirty nine lashes each. I can’t even fathom what that must have been like. The pain and the anguish may help explain with more specificity what he meant earlier when he says, bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus. This gives context to a statement to his Galatian brethren when he says, I bear in my bodies the marks of Jesus Christ. He says, three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.

One rock. I could still point to the place on my shoulder where he hit me. It still, when the weather changes, I can still feel right there the impact of that stone. And my mind cannot get to the point of what Paul was going through. Of what Paul was going through when he said, again, I take you back to 2 Corinthians 4 in verse 17. When he said, For our light affliction. Now, Paul, what do you mean? How can you say in the same letter where you’ve listed with increasing specificity exactly what you were going through? How can you say that that’s a light affliction? There’s only two options. There’s only two reasonable explanations how Paul could give us that laundry list of persecutions that he had endured and called it a light affliction.

One possibility is one of those stones that hit him in the head, and he wasn’t thinking properly. But the real alternative is that regardless of how oppressive his life was, of how difficult it was, he could view it as a light affliction in comparison to what he called the exceeding and great eternal weight of glory. We recognize everything is relative, don’t we?

Paul has an image here of a scale. Picture that old-fashioned scale, you put something on one side and you put a weight on the other side. Paul says he put all of his afflictions, all of those beatings and stonings and imprisonments and everything else that he listed there, he put it on one side of that scale. And he put an eternity in heaven on the other side of that scale. And Paul said, When I consider that, this is a light affliction. Read again verses 17 and 18 of 2 Corinthians 4. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary.

But the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul said, I can see these things are light afflictions, and not lose heart in spite of what I’m facing because of two things. Number one is in comparison to the eternal weight of glory, this is a light affliction. It’s all relative. And secondly, because this is just momentary. It won’t last. But heaven will.

3. We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight

For this, when compared to the eternal weight of glory, this is but a light affliction. Lastly, Paul said that he did not lose heart. And he gives us the formula for how we can endure. When he says in chapter 5 and in verse 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight. But again, we want specifics. I want real help. What does that mean? That sounds good. We walk by faith and not by sight, but what does that mean? Look at the six verses leading up to that. Chapter 5, verse 1 says, For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, he’s speaking about his physical body, and he describes it as a tent, which is a temporary structure, that this tent is destroyed, we have a building.

That’s a permanent dwelling place. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands. That means not of this creation. This tent that I’m in wasn’t made by hands. But not made by hands in this context means not of this earthly realm. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this, this earthly tent, this earthly body, we groan, he earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. That is bodiless. We have a body here, it’s temporary, it is perishing, but we also have an eternal body that is waiting for us. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Now he who prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that while we’re at home in the body, we’re absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Paul didn’t lose heart. Because he had proper vision. He wasn’t looking at what was right in front of him. The temptations, the struggle, the perishing, the decaying, not even the stonings, the beatings, and the imprisonment, not even the disappointments of this life. Paul said, I’m not looking at that. I’m not focused upon those things. I’m walking, living and focus by faith on that which I cannot even see yet. The eternal weight of glory. Do not lose heart. What does that mean?

Conclusion

How can I accomplish that? In a phrase, by keeping our eye on the goal. Focus upon the eternal reward, not the temporary struggles of life. Do not lose heart. There may be some in our audience who haven’t obeyed the gospel. You’ve never become a Christian. You’ve never even begun the race, much less endured and finished it. Then why not start that race? Why not believe in Jesus Christ? Repent of your sins, confess your faith, and if you’ll reach out to us wherever you are watching us, if you’re in Orlando, reach out to us. We will, practicing social distancing and careful procedures, we will immerse you in water for the remission of your sins. If you’re watching us somewhere else, we can put you in contact with someone who can equally assist you in your obedience to the gospel.

If we can help you spiritually, as you run this race of life, if we can help you in any way, please reach out to us as we seek to run this race. And whatever you do, don’t lose heart.