“We Faint Not” – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not 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.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 Corinthians 4:16a For which cause we faint not;
I. Live for His and Not Our .
One mistake that churches are at risk of making during times of construction is getting so fixated on the project that we miss out on God’s purpose.
2 Corinthians 4:16a For this cause we faint not;
1 Samuel 17:29b What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
II. See as .
2 Corinthians 11:24-28 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
When we place our hardships against the “eternal weight of glory,” it adds a perspective that allows us to endure.
We will all endure various things during our Christian lives, but as long as we have breath and as long as we have settled that we are living for His glory, those things we encounter will not stop us.
2 Timothy 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:17 While we look not 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.
III. Be to Time with God.
2 Corinthians 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
While the outer man will “perish” in time, the spiritual part of us can be “renewed.”
Matthew 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.