How to Spiritually Endur

Pastor Mike will be speaking on How to Spiritually Endur. He will be reading out of 2nd Corinthians 4:16-18.

You will want to quit, but you must come every day knowing that as I am dealing with my afflictions, God is working something special in me, and God is doing something special for me, even through these afflictions.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders with Hope Worth Having radio broadcast reminding you that there is hope in Jesus Christ. And today we’re going to be back in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We’re going to be studying verses 16 through 18.

When you come to 2 Corinthians, you’re reminded that it’s one of the most personal letters that the apostle ever wrote to the church. And today he wants to teach us how to spiritually endure. It’s not easy to keep going, but God does have a plan.

So let’s get into 2 Corinthians and learn about that plan to endure. So this morning I want to teach how to spiritually endure, how to spiritually endure. And as one author put three heavenly reasons for earthly endurance.

And that is so good because this is what God is giving you and I today. Three important ways that we can spiritually endure for the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want you to take notes this morning. Point number one or principle number one is that we must value the spiritual over the physical.

If we’re going to spiritually endure for Christ, we must value the spiritual over the physical. So we come to our text and we look at verse 16. Again, the apostle says, therefore we do not lose 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. 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.” So we are called to value what is spiritual over the physical.

That’s hard for us because we are humans and all we do is see the physical all around us. But the Bible is teaching us that in true endurance comes when we focus on what is spiritual. And here what the contrast in our text is simply this, at the outset in verse 16.

You might underscore it in your Bible. You see the contrast of the outward man, which is perishing, and the inward man, which is being renewed. This is the contrast. The Bible teaches us in Romans 5 .12 that just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sin.

Now when we think in terms of sin most of the times we think of certain actions or attitudes that people have or that we might be dealing with in our own hearts. And that is true but I want you to understand it on a bigger scale if you will that sin has entered into the world and that means we live in a world that is perishing that we live in a world that is susceptible to diseases and it is susceptible to all the flaws of mankind.

And so when the Bible says that one man sin entered into the world that is through Adam sin entered into the world it is not only personal but it’s universal it is universal in that we have a perishing world that we live in and thus death through sin and thus death spread to all men and that is that God out of great love did not want us to be stuck in these sinful bodies but rather he cast Adam and Eve out of the garden and they would have to live in a world where there was death they would have to live in the world where the outward body would perish they would have to live in a world where there was constant decaying.

Now sometimes young people don’t understand it but when they get older they’ll start to understand that your body is not as good as it used to be and you face some of these challenges every day and things that maybe you used to easily do now it takes even more effort we work so hard at trying to keep our bodies from decaying you can get a new shoulder you can get a new hip you can get a new knee no matter what they replace your body with, it’s still gonna decay.

So here’s the bottom line, is the outer man is deteriorating. And it’s sometimes hard to come to grips with that. Not that we don’t see it and feel it in our life, but to come to the reality of it, to come to the acknowledgement of it.

But as we understand in the text, what he wants us to do is to value the spiritual over the physical. We live in a world that is always trying to impress from the outward, but never the inward. Always trying to renew something on the outside, trying to make it better on the outside.

But from God’s perspective, his focus for our hearts is to be on the inner man, the inner person. So today, even though our outward body is decaying, we can still be encouraged because the inner man, has the potential to go through the process of spiritual renewal.

Listen to Colossians 3 .10. Again, we are commanded to put on the new man who is renewed in the knowledge according to the image of him who created him. So God has designed for us that even though our outward body is decaying, he wants our spirit and our mind to be renewed in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And so as we come to God’s word, as we study the Bible, the inward man is being renewed. And that is something that has to keep happening every day. It’s not just that, hey, I read the Bible once, or hey, I go to church once a week, and therefore I’m good spiritually.

No friends. Every day, just like every day your body is decaying, you need to recognize that every day you need spiritual renewal, and this can happen in spite of our circumstances. No matter what we are dealing with in our bodies, no matter what we are dealing with physically, there can still be a great spiritual renewal in our life.

Ephesians 3 .16. The apostle was praying for the church at Ephesus that he was praying that God would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.

Now I always tell people as you’re trying to figure out how to pray, the best models are the prayers of the apostle and of course our savior. And note that the apostle was not praying that people would physically do better.

He is not praying that somehow they would improve physically, but what his passion is that God would grant them according to his riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.

This is where we fail in our prayer lives. We pray too much for the outward. We pray too much for the sick. And I know you might disagree with me, but listen, what’s more important that as we pray for the sick, that we pray that the inner person would be renewed day by day by the power of the Spirit of God, that as we pray for our family, we pray that the Spirit of God and the Word of God would continue to renew the inner man within each heart.

Should you pray for the sick? Absolutely, the Bible tells us to pray for the sick. I’m not in any way saying don’t pray for the sick. I’m just saying that seems to always be the only focus. I don’t hear a lot of prayers for the inner man.

This is what we should be striving. And as we are praying and we come to God, even with our ailments and our struggles and our challenges physically, that we should be praying that God would strengthen the inner man within us.

And I am convinced as we humbly seek God and His word that we can be changed and we can be brought more and more into the newness of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4 .23, again, the apostle says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

People put a lid on their life. Spiritually speaking, I’m saying, they put a lid on their life because their mind is not renewed, because their spirit is not renewed. They think they know enough of the Bible.

They think they know enough about God. They think, listen, I don’t need to continue to grow. I’ve been at this mic for 30, 40, 50 years. But what I’m just saying is this, what you really should strive is not how long that you have been in the church or been a Christian, but that you’re a growing Christian, that you’re being renewed day by day.

This ought to be the value in your heart that you desire, that the physical is not what you’re trying to impress others with, but that you want to please God through the spiritual in your life. Again, we understand that the outer man is deteriorating, but the encouraging reality is that my inner man can be renewed.

So I want you to take your Bible this morning, and I want you to go to the book of Isaiah, chapter 40, and I want you to go to verse 28. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.

His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to who, church? The faint, the weak. And to those who have no might, he increases strength. Even the you shall faint and be weary. And the you shall faint and be weary.

young men shall utterly fall, but those who,” what church? Wait, it’s a tough word isn’t it? Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

And of course he is not saying that all of a sudden that you’re gonna be able to do all this physical exercise. That’s not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about spiritually as you wait in the presence of God, as you wait for the plan of God, as you trust the purpose of God, as you are walking with Christ and you are living in his presence day by day that there is a renewal that is happening in your life and this renewal, no matter what your body is facing, no matter what you are dealing with physically, this renewal is a work of Christ in your life, in that God is changing you and he is helping you to spiritually progress and even though you may not have all the physical strength you used to have, you have great inner strength and spiritual strength because you are waiting on the Lord.

Now listen church, there are no quick fixes for all of our problems. There is no popping in the microwave and tomorrow everything will be fine in America. Do you understand that? And whatever you’re facing, whatever you’re dealing with, whatever your family is dealing with, I want you to know there are no quick solutions and I know we want that, we want that good formula, we want that quick fix, we want something that’s gonna somehow relieve the pain, the agony, the frustration that we feel but that’s not always true and I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you that truth, okay?

That all the problems of this world are not gonna be fixed and so what is it that we are called to do over and over in the scripture? It is to endure, endure through the suffering, endure through the problem, endure through what you are facing and so it is not so much what is happening around you that is your priority but what God is doing in you that should be your priority.

And the way that you endure is to strengthen and renew the inner man. It is to strengthen and renew the spiritual in your life and as you do that, God will do an effective work in your life. Now the second principle that I want you to know is that not only should we value the spiritual over the physical but we value the future over the present.

We value the future over the present so now I’m back in my text, second Corinthians chapter four and again I come to verse 17. And the Bible says our light afflictions, which is but for a moment is working for us as far more exceeding an eternal weight of glory.

Now, in these verses, the apostle was constantly contrasting. You must, to be a good student of the word, see these contrasts. We saw the contrast of the outward man in verse 16 and the inward man. But now we see the contrast of the light affliction.

And then you might underscore it in your Bible, the weight of glory, the heaviness of what the glory of God is, and what waits for the believer, the heaviness of what waits for the believer. So you have the light affliction.

He describes it as a moment. He describes the weight of glory as eternal. Did you see that in the text? The light affliction is but for a moment. But God is working at far more exceeding an eternal weight of glory.

And so this perspective that we have, that not only the spiritual is far more important than the physical in my life, but the future is far more important than the present in my life. Because we understand the brevity of life.

James teaches us that when he says, as for what is your life, it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. That’s your life. You are born, you live, and then you die. And you say, Mike, can you be any more encouraging?

Certainly, we wanna be. But it is the brevity of life that brings a soberness to our heart and helps us to understand that the future must be more important than the present. The future is far more important than the present.

And that’s what I mean. What’s more important for your children and your grandchildren is not what famous university they went to. And I yet see parents working hard to make sure their kids go to the greatest colleges and the best of universities, only to turn out to be a liberal and tell their parents that they’re all messed up.

Amen? I mean, you spend all this money and they come back and tell you, you’re all messed up. And you got more wisdom in your pinky than they got in their entire body. But my point is this, won’t spend a dime to make sure that they know Jesus Christ.

Won’t spend a dime to make sure that they have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s what I’m trying to say is that where our children and grandchildren spend eternity is more important than anything in this present world.

Where you spend eternity, where I spend eternity is more important than anything in this world. This is what the apostle is trying to tell us, that the future is most important, where people spend eternity.

and that not only in light of their salvation, but in light of what they are dealing with. He is helping us to understand that all that you’re dealing with in the present life, all that you are facing in this world today, all that you have to confront and process in your heart is light compared to the weight of the glories that lie ahead.

And so I don’t want you to feel that somehow the apostle is saying all your problems are trivial because that’s not what he’s saying. He’s just helping you and I to value the future over the present, that all that we have to encounter is nothing compared to what God has for us in heaven.

Romans 8, 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. You see, the more you study about heaven, You know what? You just realize, man, all that we’ve got to face here on this earth is nothing compared to what God has for us in the future.

And it’s going to be so grand, it’s going to be so glorious, it’s going to be so majestic, it’s going to be very meaningful to us as we enter into the pearly gates. I want you to know that all of our loved ones that have gone on before us, they are enjoying the rewards of what God has blessed them with for being a child of God and faithfully serving God.

The psalmist said to us, he teaches us that in thy presence is fullness of joy. Here we have moments of joy. We have moments of fullness because we deal with the depravity of man. We deal with the struggles of life.

But in his presence, the fullness of joy is constant. It is consistent throughout our time as we are worshiping God. In thy presence is fullness of joy. And at thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.

There is nothing on this earth that can compare to all that God has for you in heaven. All the high moments in your life are nothing like the high moments you’ll have in heaven every day. And so as you walk this journey of faith and you deal with the sufferings, remember that our sufferings are light when compared to the weight of the glory of God that he has stored for those who love him.

Now I want you to notice another phrase in verse 17 as he says to us that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, he says is working for us. Now I want you to just underscore that, bring your attention to that, that the light affliction that is temporary, the light affliction that is just for a moment in light of the scope of eternity, I mean, it’s just a small space and time.

But what is so glorious that even though it’s a light affliction, and even though it is temporary, it’s just for a moment, God is using these afflictions because he is using it to work for us. Temporal problems, temporal difficulties are working for us.

They are working for us, giving us a heavenly perspective on affliction. And I have shared this with you before church and I remind you again on this Lord’s day, if you do not see a bigger picture in your afflictions and your trials, if you do not see, though you may not understand the details, but if you do not see a full purpose of God working in you and through you, you will become easily discouraged in your trials.

You will want to quit, but you must come every day knowing that as I am dealing with my afflictions, that my perspective, is that God is working for me. God is working something special in me and God is doing something special for me even through these afflictions.

Now, we don’t like it. I don’t like it, you don’t like it. But yet God has chosen and he has called us to suffer for him. And so as we deal with this, we face all of our problems with a view from heaven.

We look at the long term, we look at the big picture and we say God is up to something. Now again, as I told you last week, I don’t have the answer to every problem and suffering in this world. I can’t explain every challenge that someone goes through.

I do know this, that God wants to use our trials in our lives to enlarge us spiritually to have the capacity to make a difference for him. And it may be that others are just simply watching our life and they are seeing how we suffer and that we continue to endure, we continue to be faithful to God, we continue to take each day as God gives us his daily bread.

And we understand that somehow, some way God is gonna use this. We don’t know, but that’s in his hands. And who knows that the apostle says in chapter one of 2 Corinthians, if our afflictions might bring about the salvation of others and if our afflictions might bring about the comfort to others.

For as people watch our life and they see that our God is real and they see our God is faithful, that is a compelling message that brings hope to a world that sees so many values and so many things that are fleeting from them and that the things that they use to anchor their hearts and their lives in are slipping away just like that.

And they are gone. But you and I have an anchor that never, ever leaves us, amen? And we have a solid foundation, and we are building our lives on the rock of Jesus Christ. And friends, even though we suffer, and even though we deal with so much each day, we know God is using our trials is working for us.

Now let’s talk about the third and final principle this morning. And that is that we must value the eternal over the temporal. We must value the eternal over the temporal. Look at verse 18. 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. Many believers waste their afflictions by focusing on the things which are seen. They look at their affliction through the physical.

that they look at their affliction through the present and the temporal, and thus they miss out on how God wants to work in them and work for them. And so it is that we must choose to see things differently.

The things which we see all around us, they are only temporal. If you are troubled what’s happening in America, I want to encourage you, it is temporal. Now I love America and I pledge allegiance to America.

And I believe that this country was founded on Judeo -Christian principles. But I want you to know that America will go like all other nations of this world. It will pass away. The only kingdom that will last forever is the kingdom of God.

That’s why I pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ. Because we understand that all that we see around us, church, will pass away. First Corinthians seven, verse 31, the present form of this world is passing away.

Please remember that, keep perspective. Don’t nail down your furniture in this world. Don’t get emotionally attached to this world. Keep your focus on eternity. Because the Bible says, we walk by faith, not by sight, right?

We walk by faith, not by sight. Now our eternal focus requires effort. We go back to the beginning of verse 18, which he says, we do not look at the things which are seen. We do not look at the things which are seen.

That takes a choice. That takes an effort. If you’re going to quit looking at the temporal and get your focus on the eternal, it must take an effort on your part. It must take an effort on your part.

And so how is it that we can make sure that we keep an eternal focus? Very simple, very practical. things but always remember a daily time with Jesus. A daily time with Christ every day is important to you church.

You can’t neglect this. It doesn’t matter how long you live for Jesus. Every day you need to open the Bible and you need to study it and you need to get that eternal focus. You need to get realigned with God because the world’s pulling you.

The world is distracting you. The world wants you to keep your focus on it but God says no don’t look at the things which are seen and what he’s saying is that not that you can’t you know look at things in the sense of you know everyday life but he’s saying that your focus has to be upon the eternal.

So a daily walk with Jesus is important and when I talk about a daily walk I’m talking about being in your Bible. I’m talking about spending time in prayer. I’m talking about making that a priority in your life.

And if you have failed at that, if you’ve gotten away from that, look, don’t beat yourself down, quit and give up. Just again, renew your heart. Renew your heart to God, renew your commitment. And you just have to build these habits in your life.

It takes time, church. It takes time because we’re human. But we’re not gonna quit, we’re not gonna give up. I mean, if you go out and play basketball, if you miss a shot, do you quit shooting? No, you keep trying.

And that’s what I’m saying about your spiritual walk with God. Keep trying, keep taking that step forward. Take advantage, there’s so many wonderful tools out there. Now, there’s no excuses for us. We have many opportunities.

But I think if we’re going to keep an eye on the eternal and make sure that our focus is on Christ and not the world, I think we need to stay in fellowship with God’s people. Because Jesus said, we’re two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst of them, amen?

I wanna say, if I’m going to be eternally focused, I need to actively serve Christ. Now, I know that everything I do is worship to God, but I need to have a task, I need to have a job, I need to have an assignment, something I’m doing for the Lord, something that I’m gonna say, hey, I’m gonna do this for Christ.

This is about him, not me, it’s not about money. It’s not about things. It’s not about people being impressed with me. It’s just about the kingdom of Christ. It can be as simple as serving in the nursery.

It can be as simple serving as a greeter. We still need people to get involved. This helps us keep an eternal focus. And finally, don’t stop sharing Jesus with others. Don’t stop telling other people about Christ.

Don’t be afraid to put some great positive posts that are about pointing people to Christ and encouraging them to keep their eyes on Christ. Don’t be afraid to write a letter to family and make sure that they know Christ.

Christ! Now look, when your family gets together, see, the great thing about getting older is that you can be bolder, and they’ll just blame it on you being old. You can be bold about your faith in Jesus.

But make sure that everybody knows and has a relationship with Christ. This helps us to keep that eternal perspective, church. Be encouraged. Keep enduring. And as we endure, we will focus on the spiritual and the future and the eternal in our life, and God will infuse us with the grace that we will find to be more than sufficient that we might move forward and press on for Jesus Christ.

You may be walking through a valley today, going through some very tough times. It’s hard for you to see beyond it. My friend, keep enduring for Jesus Christ. Stay at it. Do not quit. Do not give up.

God has a purpose and He is effectively working in your heart and drawing you to Him. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.