Thirst for Daily Renewal
Tom Shrader concludes his 11-part series 'How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World' by examining 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. He teaches that Christians can persevere through life's difficulties by maintaining three key attitudes: not losing heart because we know and trust God, being renewed day by day through continual spiritual growth, and maintaining an eternal perspective that sees temporary afflictions as producing eternal glory.
“You were not created to ultimately be content with people, places or things.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World (2001)
Recorded: April 05, 2001
Duration: 41 min
Themes: perseverance, hope, renewal, perspective, authority, discouragement, growth, endurance, facing trials, feeling discouraged, new believer, struggling christian, pastor, bible teacher, going through hardship, seeking guidance
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Philippians 4:9, Philippians 1:6, Romans 12:2, Matthew 5:14, Matthew 7:13, Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9, 1 Corinthians 4, Matthew 18, Hebrews 9:27
Theological Themes: biblical authority, sanctification, spiritual growth, eternal perspective, scripture, christian maturity, perseverance of saints, daily renewal
Full Transcript
Today is session 11, which happens to be the last session of this series. I am thrilled with the way this series went. Knowing that we developed it ourselves and worked it through, it seems to me that it has a really good sense of logical progression. I would guess that there are very few people in this room, or in the other studies, or people who listen to the tapes, who would have been at all 11 of the sessions. So I want to take probably 10 or 15 minutes to review it, and the reason is I want you to see the progression here. Then we'll introduce to you the 11th and the last point that really ties all of these things together.
Establishing the Foundation: The Bible as Final Authority
What we're doing is a series titled "How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World," and the premise is that there's a world that's losing its moral compass. How do we stay focused in that? We said the first week what we had to do was establish the Bible as the final authority in our life, and that becomes really the most important thing for us in this sense.
We now have the textbook by which we can make all of the subsequent decisions and determinations that we have to make about our life and life in general. It is the final authority in our life. When the Bible speaks, that settles it. If it speaks directly to an issue and it says do it, you do it. If it says avoid it, you avoid it. Whatever the situation is, if there are principles that we can get that will guide us in our decision-making process, the Bible becomes that authority for us.
Sessions 2 through 10 you could probably rearrange somewhat, I guess, or maybe even argue if they ought to be there, but we can't waver on that first one. Here's what we said: the Bible doesn't contain the Word of God, the Bible is the Word of God.
The Importance of Proper Setup
If I want to figure out—I played golf Monday, the worst round of golf I've had in perhaps years, well, no, for sure years, decades perhaps, and I was on the putting green with the ranger. You know you're in trouble when the ranger's giving you a lesson, where the ranger says you're set up open on your putts, that's why they're all going left. You know that, don't you? And I said, yeah, I'm just experimenting with bad putting.
But the point was significant, and that was, Jack Nicklaus once made the comment that 90% of all bad golf shots occur before the club moves away from the ball. In other words, if my grip is correct, if my setup is correct, then all I've got to do is swing the club. The same thing is true for us. The basics of our Christian faith is to understand that the Bible's the final authority in our life.
A quick reminder: all of this series is predicated on the fact that you're a Christian. If you're not a Christian, these things are nothing more than helpful to you living a less congested and aggravated life, but at the end of that life, you still are separated from God. There are a lot of people, by the way, I hope you understand that, who read the Bible and perhaps even believe some of what the Bible says, but are in hell. I assume you understand that. We're talking about people who understand who Jesus is.
Committing to Lifelong Learning
The second thing we talked about was committing ourselves to a lifelong process of learning. Some of you thought I chose an odd verse for that, which I thought was a great verse, Philippians 4:9: "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice." The reason that I chose that particular verse is that it encompassed what I would think is lifestyle learning. It's not just what you've learned in teaching or reading, but it's what you've seen. It's what you observe.
So now my life is changed by my contact with you. It's the old adage: values are caught, not taught. But what I see in you is going to affect how I evaluate what you say and how I follow you. And that's a lifelong process.
I watched an interview a few years ago with Steven Spielberg, and he was talking about Schindler's List. Apparently, I did not see the movie, but so many people said just a great movie. He was talking about the fact that he had the rights to that movie over 10 years before he actually directed the movie. They asked him why he waited 10 years, and his answer was this: I wasn't old enough to make that movie 10 years ago. What he's saying is, in the last 10 years, I've been learning. That's exactly the point.
Making Godly Decisions
We said, after the Bible is the final authority of your life, and you've established that, and after you've developed this idea of learning, then the third thing is to make godly decisions or good decisions. We deal, through Promise Land to a small extent, but at church to a larger extent, with people who are in difficult times in their lives. Almost always, it's because of a stupid decision they made. The decision wasn't just a bad decision logistically, it was a violation of God's principles.
I don't know how many times we have to talk about this, but if you're a Christian and you marry a non-Christian, you ought to assume you're going to have a very troubled, hard marriage. If it's not troubled, it just simply won't have the joy and the zest that you begin to see in other couples around you. That's because you violated the law of God. He doesn't want you to marry a non-believer. Then we end up trying to sit down, and you try to figure out a way to manipulate your husband or your wife into becoming a Christian, which you can't do. All of this flows back to you saying, well, I know what God says, but I've got a better idea. I've got a better way of doing it.
Living Life Confidently
Then we said you live life confidently. Philippians chapter 1, verse 6: "Be confident of this, that He, that would be God, who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus." If you're a Christian today, and that verse is very important, if you're a Christian today, it's because God moved. If you're a Christian today, it's not because you made a decision.
for Christ, or because you checked a box at a breakfast, or you walked an aisle at a crusade, that's not why you're a Christian. You are a Christian because God came in, gave you a new heart, drew you to Himself, selected you for salvation, caused you to be saved, and gave you the gift of faith. Going to this breakfast and checking a box doesn't make you a Christian. The only reason you would even be drawn to what this man has to say is because God's already done the work in your life. That guy can't convince you of anything that God hasn't already put in your heart. So He who began a good work will continue it.
Susan gave me a great gift for Christmas this year. She cleaned my office, and we've talked over the years about my office, but on my desk, I have a very large desk. I just gave it away as a matter of fact. It's a huge desk, and on top of it, at least this high, solid, was stacked stuff. We found all sorts of stuff in there. If anybody needs a 1993 State Farm calendar, I have two of them. I've got to keep one, but I gave one away.
There were probably, I would say, 18 to 20 books that were either laid open half-read or with a marker in them at a third or two-thirds. I have more half-read books than completed books. If you go around our house, there's a lot of half-finished projects. Susan can't seem to get anything done. She just gets them half-done.
God's Certainty in Our Lives
When I come to God, there's no half-done project. There may be a project in progress, but there's no half-done project. That's what that verse says. He who began a good work in you will continue it with certainty. You're absolutely certain of it.
He said, then, we have to take our faith. This was our fifth point. Take our faith and integrate it into our faith. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed. Don't copy the behavior of this world. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. Those are all variations of Romans chapter 12, verse 2.
So I cannot say I'm a Christian, but it doesn't affect how I live. Part of what I know Diane and Pam want to talk about on a regular basis on this radio show is, how does my faith move into my life? That's a huge question. Whether you participate in that show as a guest or calling in, that's not the issue as much as to be able to listen to that and make certain that you use those times as a barometer to examine your own life.
Making the Invisible God Visible
Number six, make the invisible God visible. There ought to be a difference in the way you live. And I go so far as to say, I ought to be able to see it.
Years ago, I was waiting for Jeopardy! to come on and Donahue was on, and I had it muted. He was doing one of the forerunners of these reunion shows, and he was bringing together two brothers that had had some problem in the past and hadn't seen each other for years and years and years. The one brother comes out, so I'm watching, half-checking, moving around, not listening. The one brother comes out, and I look at him and I said, there's something that's way different about this guy.
He sat down, I took the mute button off, he talked for about ten seconds, I said to Susan, I said, this guy's got to be a Christian. And about two minutes into this, he said, how could I hold a grudge against my brother when I understand how much God has forgiven me through Christ Jesus? I'm telling you, you can see it. There ought to be a visible difference, just in the way you conduct yourself.
We're at the mall last Christmas season, and we're going through, and Susan said, you know, now that we're here, I've got to get a new battery for my watch. I said, you know, they don't want to be messing around with batteries in there. It's Christmas time. They don't have time to mess around with batteries. She said, well, let me see what they do. So they come, and she said, it's going to be about a half hour. I said, hey, we're at the happiest place on earth. We're at Fashion Square. We're not going to get any better than this. Let's just wait and see how this unfolds.
So we go back, and she said, I'm going to go get my watch. She comes back, and she's just laughing and laughing, and I said, what's so funny? She said, the gal in there said that I am the only nice person that's come into her store all day today, and she gave me the battery for free. I said, well, that's really cool. You should have told her you were there for that Rolex thing. If they're giving out free stuff to nice people, I ought to head over there. I'll own the whole thing before it's over. But see, that's just a difference.
Speaking Truth Boldly
So I make the invisible God visible, and then I speak the truth boldly. Now, what we said is evangelism. John MacArthur makes this point. It's a pretty good one. He says, as Christians, everything that we do in our life as it relates to our Christian faith, everything we do in our life, we'll do better in heaven except for evangelism. It's an interesting thought. Everything you do in our life, we'll do better in heaven except for evangelism. So evangelism obviously becomes a key component of our life.
If evangelism is a key component of your life, here's what I'm saying to you. And this is a huge deal. You cannot separate making the invisible God visible from speaking the truth boldly. They're inseparable. If you make the invisible God visible and do not speak the truth boldly, you're a coward. If you speak the truth boldly, but you haven't made the invisible God visible, you're a hypocrite.
If you're one of those people, and I just tell you this, I warn you about this. If you're one of these people that have a big old honking Bible, and it's right there in your desk in the office, or on a credenza, or it's over there prominently displayed somewhere, or you're inviting people to Good Friday breakfast and listen to talk shows and come to this study. And then you live a life ethically and morally as a lost person, I'm telling you, you're a hypocrite. And there's
One person universally despised in a society is a hypocrite. You have to make the invisible God visible to speak the truth boldly. Then we said, now we rejoice in the freedom of the cross. That means the freedom from sin and the consequences of sin. If you're a Christian, you know that heaven is your home. The wage of sin is death, but that's not an issue for you.
Freed from the consequence of sin, you're free to do good. Matthew 5:14 says, let your good works be displayed before men in such a way that they see those good works and praise and honor and glorify your Father who's in heaven. In other words, there ought to be a difference in the way you live. You're free from the consequence of sin. You are free to do good works.
The third thing we said was you are free to be the person God created you to be. God made you in a very unique and different way. God's given you a unique background—some of it a very sordid background, some of it a background of success. Some comes out of not necessarily business success, but life success. Some of it comes out of hardship, whatever it is. God wired you differently. It would be a great mistake for you to say, "What I want to do is be you, Tom," or for me to say, "I want to be you," or for us to look around and say, "That's what I want to do." What I want to be is the person God created me to be and gifted me to be.
Learning Contentment
Then we said, you've got to learn to be content. I don't know how many of you saw it on Sunday. CBS did an hour and a half special on Pistol Pete Maravich. It was really about Pete in his role of achievement. Pete had set an NCAA record, averaging 44 points a game without a three-point line, along with all sorts of different things. But it was talking about Pete's search—into UFOs, health food, Zen, anything—because there's no contentment in his life. There's something missing. Probably the first high-paid player, with all that goes with it, and there's an emptiness there.
The reason is, you were not created to ultimately be content with people, places, or things. It's in the midst of this that God finds Pete Maravich and he becomes a Christian—not just Pete, but his dad. Somewhere at home, I have a tape of Pistol Pete doing his dad's funeral, and it was a great moment.
Learn to be content. Learn to be content with the stuff God's given you. Learn to be content with the spouse God's given you, or learn to be content with the spouse God hasn't given you. Learn to be content with your kids, or learn to be content with other gifts, whatever it is.
Expecting Suffering
Last week we said: expect suffering and grow from it. Here's what we said: you're going to have hardship and you're going to have difficulties in your life. Just expect it. Understand it. Consider it joy. Embrace those, because we know the testing of your faith through suffering and trials. The testing of your faith produces endurance.
The Christian life is about going the distance. We were at Forrest's home a couple of weeks ago and Bob Craning was there—some of you would know Bob because he speaks regularly at Scottsdale Bible Church. Bob's 67 and was our host that day. We were having breakfast and talking about a variety of things. He said, "I really want to finish strong. I don't want to blow out and burn up like so many guys do." The Christian life goes all the way to the end, and that endurance flows from an understanding of trials and tribulation and suffering.
Point 11: Thirst for Daily Renewal
Here's point 11—it's a new point for us today, and I think it's a great bow around this package: Thirst for daily renewal. Second Corinthians chapter 4, verses 16, 17, and 18: "Therefore, we do not lose heart, though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison. So our eyes are fixed not on what is seen, but what is unseen. The things that are seen are temporal. The things that are unseen are eternal."
Paul writes those words to a church that's really a bad, struggling church. He says, "Here's some motivation for you." A.W. Tozer offers this insight in a very simple sentence: "Paul is the most successful Christian that's ever lived." Now, we can argue with that. We could say, "Well, Tozer doesn't know every Christian that's ever lived. And what is successful?" I understand all that, but I don't have time or energy or desire to debate that. Let's just take that statement as true for a second.
Clearly, in terms of influence, we know it's true. Apart from the Lord Jesus Himself, no one has more influence in the Christian world than the Apostle Paul. We know it's true when he says, "Be an imitator of me." Many of you are Sunday school teachers and you're always looking for a lesson to do—there's a great one. Take the statement of Tozer: "Paul is the most successful Christian that's ever lived." Then take Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 4, "Be an imitator of me," and now begin to develop a series around what is it in Paul's life that you ought to imitate. That would be a great series for you to do.
Learning from Paul's Example
As we look at the Apostle Paul, we can learn so much from Him. In this passage, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, there are three things that allow us to begin to live this life that God's called us to do.
Here's the first thing Paul says: "We do not lose heart." There's a story about during the most critical time of World War II, Winston Churchill being invited to speak at a commencement occasion for an all boys school in Britain. They were introducing Him, saying this isn't just the prime minister—this is arguably the greatest orator in the history of the English language. The schoolmaster said...
boys, I want you to listen to every word the prime minister has for you today. And the story goes that Churchill came to the podium and said, many of you have heard this, never give up. Never, never, never give up. And then sat down. How do you do that? How do you have that attitude that says, I'll never stop? Paul says, we do not lose heart.
I see it and there's something about it to me that just wrenches your heart when you see somebody that won't quit. When you see somebody in a triathlon and everybody has gone home, showered and eaten, and there's still this one poor guy who's in this last part of this struggling through. Or you see a boxer and you see him and he's just losing everywhere. He's just throwing punches wildly. And all of a sudden you see him connect. Or you see a team that's down 22 points at half and they come fighting back.
The Greatest Comeback in Football History
Every time I think of this, I think it was 1995. It was the Texas State football finals playoff. And John Tyler was playing Plano East. And at the time, this was on all of the ESPN Highlight Sports Center, this incredible comeback. But I'd never seen the game. One night I turned on ESPN and they're showing the game and I got there for the last five minutes.
So I'm watching it and John Tyler scores and with like four minutes left, John Tyler's ahead 34 to 17. Plano gets the ball, they drive down, they're on their way in, they fumble, the ball goes in the air. John Tyler catches it and they go the other way about 93 yards, touchdown. John Tyler leads with like three and a half minutes left. John Tyler leads 41-17.
And the announcers are the local announcers from Plano. They're just two guys that are there in the booth calling the game. And they're saying, boy, it's been a great year. We didn't expect much. Here we are in the finals. It's been a great year. We're so proud of our boys. It's just been a terrific year. And this guy's just talking. He said, our boys have done well.
And Tyler kicks off and Plano gets the ball. And they have a series of plays, nothing special. But after about a minute, they score. And he said, oh, there's those, our boys just don't quit. They go for two, they miss it. So they're behind 41-23.
About that time, the color guy, the guy that was doing the color comes in. And he said, where'd you go? And he said, well, I got beeped. So I just called home to see what was going on. This is just a local broadcast. And he said, everything's all right. And he said, what happened? And he said, well, we were going in, we fumbled, and now we've scored. And he said, boy, it's been a great year. Nice fan. It's been a great year.
So Plano onside kicks. They recover. A couple of plays later, they score. They go for two and they make it. They're now behind 41-31. A couple of minutes left.
Onside kick again. Plano recovers. They run around and they're running some plays and pretty soon they score. And now they're behind 41-38. But time's running out.
Plano onside kick again, recovers again. They're literally out of gas. The quarterback drops back to pass. He literally, it looks like a punch drunk boxer. He's staggering around. He's dead tired. He's about to go down. He pitches it. This guy goes around the end. Two guys hit him at the same time, which keeps him up. He runs about another 30, 40 yards. They tackle him on about the five or six and he's just down there out of gas. There's about 30 seconds left.
Plano scores. The guy in the radio said, okay, listen, if all you people left with four minutes left and you got your radio on, turn them off. You don't deserve to hear this. If you left that way, you shouldn't hear. I don't have the right to listen to the end of this game. And I said, what a comeback. There's been nothing like this in the history of football. They're at 44 to 41. There's no time left. Six seconds, seven seconds left.
Plano kicks off. It goes to John Tyler. John Tyler just running around. Nothing's happening. All of a sudden you see a wall form and John Tyler goes 90 yards. And as you see this wall form, you hear these Plano announcers saying, God bless these boys, God bless these boys. Oh my, oh my. Oh, and for 30 seconds. Oh my, oh my. The one guy that got beeped said, I'm going to throw up. I'm going to throw up. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in the history of sport.
The Secret to Never Giving Up
But how do you get that? I'll tell you how. Paul says, I think I know God and can trust Him. Therefore I don't lose heart. See, the reason that somebody keeps going is they know something. And we can look at the athlete and say, that's really incredible. How do they do that? Well, they really believe in themselves. Well, that's only going to take you so far. There's got to be something that you know that's bigger than that.
When Life Devastates Your World
What do you do when you have a pregnancy and the pregnancy is perfect and you go in the day before and you have your checkup and everything is perfect and the baby's perfect. And now there's a time for the birth. And all of a sudden there's not a heartbeat. And that baby is there and stillborn. I've been there where you hold this perfectly formed baby who has everything but breath. How do you do that? How do you do that?
When you got this incredible, beautiful mother of four who goes in for a doctor's appointment, she's been feeling a little tired and they said, listen, you've got something, there's nothing we can do. It's going to be a matter of months and you will be dead. Or you've got a guy that's doing nothing but his duty. He's just fighting a fire and he goes in and boom, he's dead.
What do you do in those situations? What do you do when you've done all your due diligence? You've done all your planning. You've done everything right. And some guy on the other side of the world invents a widget that makes your new discovery outdated and you're lost.
See, in those moments, all you can do is go to the God that you know and you trust. Jared Packer, in his classic work, Knowing
God writes this sentence: "Once you understand your main purpose on earth is to know God, life's problems seem to fall in perspective of their own accord." What he's saying is here comes life. The problems don't go away. But all of a sudden, now I have perspective.
I remember Danny Manning calling his wife to tell her that he'd blown out a knee. She answers the phone and she says, "Oh, no. Oh, no. How did it happen? Oh, no." The young child is there and the young child said, "Did Daddy die?" Manning said, "All of a sudden, I got pretty good perspective on my knee." See, there's some basic things.
A Dangerous Advertisement
Here's an article somebody gave me this last week. This is from the Arizona Republic from March 31st. So last week. And this is the Northeast. So this would be the Republic that was used up in this area. On the back, there's a religion section. On the back is an ad for a church. It's a new church. In fact, it's called the New Church.
Let me read you this ad. Then we'll talk about it just a little bit. The headline says "Searching." "I'd like to address those of you who are searching for spiritual path. As you are well aware, there are many religions in the world with so many choices. It can be a bit overwhelming to find a church that fits. I want to share with you a few ideas about the New Church of Phoenix (Christian) so that you can make an informed decision."
Now he's going to give you three things. These are the three things that if you're going to go to the New Church of Phoenix, these are the three things he wants you to know about the church.
False Teaching About Salvation
First: "We are not a Christian church in the traditional sense of the word. We do worship Jesus Christ as God, but we don't think you're going to hell if you don't. We believe all people of all faiths are on a path to heaven if they live earnestly by what their chosen faith teaches. It's not what's in your head, but what's in your heart that matters to God."
So here's the first piece of heresy that this guy brings out for the New Church of Phoenix. Here's what he says: "It doesn't really matter. Just pick it. We believe this, but all these paths lead to God." Is that what Jesus said?
Let me read to you Matthew 7:13. Every year about this time, this kind of goofy stuff pops up. Start heading toward Easter. People start thinking about church. And the false teachers thrive on this. This is false teaching. This isn't even good heresy. This is just blatantly false teaching.
You don't think you're going to hell? Hey, what Jesus said is there's two ways. A broad way and a narrow way. Let me help you out in light of what we're reading here. Both paths to a human being look like the road to heaven. There's a broad, easy way. You want to know what it is? It's the New Church of Phoenix. It's a broad, easy way that says, "Hey, come on. It doesn't really matter. Yeah, we believe this, but it really doesn't matter."
Scripture's Clear Teaching
Is that what Peter said? Acts 4:12: "There's salvation in no one else for there's salvation in no other name under heaven that's been given to man by which he may be saved." Here's what Paul writes. I need to stay on this because this relates so much to what we'll hit now at Easter. Romans 10:9: Paul writes this: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you'll be saved."
Among people who say they're Christians, there's a big debate that will rage this time of the year. And it is: did Jesus really rise from the dead? And does it really matter? Is it really just not a picture of spring and everything coming to life?
Let me read you the verse again. And then you tell me if the resurrection matters. "If you confess Jesus with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." We know that verse is true because it's in this book. Then it would seem to me, if I don't believe in the physical resurrection of Christ, I'm not saved. That's what this says.
Attacking Scripture's Authority
Here's the second thing this guy wants you to know: "Secondly, we believe the Bible is not just a literal document. It was written and given to us because it contains a deeper spiritual sense that is really about each one of us. Each story is a parable that mirrors a spiritual challenge or reality we face on our path." I don't even know what it means.
This is the infallible, inerrant word of God. It's not just some story. We don't look at Adam and Eve and go, "Well, that's a beautiful story of how creation could have happened." We know that's how creation started.
I remember studying in Exodus the nation of Israel leaving Egypt under Moses' leadership and reading the different commentaries that tried to explain it away. One of them said this: that they really didn't cross the Red Sea, they crossed the Reed Sea. The Reed Sea is a little body of water about a foot and a half deep. That's the miracle. They just got across the Reed Sea. Here's the problem: there's chariots and drivers drowned in a foot and a half of water.
The Ultimate Heresy
Here's the fourth thing they want you to know. There's a natural progression to heresy and it always leads you to this. "Third, God never judges anyone. God is pure mercy and love itself. We judge ourselves by the choices we make every day in freedom. We are creating a heaven or hell within us right now by what we love and pursue in our lives. Hell is a place where selfishness and hate reign and heaven is a place where mutual love and kindness reign. We simply continue living after death in the way we've chosen here, but more completely."
There's always a choice. Again, if you're interested in this church, let me just help you out. It's the New Church of Phoenix, newchurch.org.phoenix.
What's the Bible say? It's appointed to man once to die and then judgment. But this guy says, "Wait, God doesn't judge." It's amazing. People who know almost no Bible know this: "We're not supposed to judge one another unless we be judged."
Here's what God's Word says. We don't want to go around judging people on preferential issues. I may judge you harshly for the way you look or the way you talk or the way you act or what you drive or what you don't drive or where you live. We may judge, and He's saying, "Knock it off. Don't be judging that."
Biblical Judgment vs. Personal Preference
But when Paul writes to a church at Corinth about sin that's in the congregation, here's what he said: "I've already judged and I'm not even there." Jesus looks at the scribes and Pharisees and says, "You hypocrites." Jesus is judging all the time. And Jesus tells us - that's what Matthew 18's about - how do we deal with a brother in sin? Well, how do we begin to deal with it if we don't first judge the sin?
What a tragedy for people to think that they're going to skate through life and at the other end, there's no judgment. There's a hell - an awful place called hell. Paul says don't lose heart, and the way that I don't lose heart is I know God and who He really is.
There's no strength in this: "I'm creating my own heaven." What is that? Do the best I can. Here you go: "We believe all people of all faiths are on a path to heaven if they earnestly live the faith they've chosen." What do you mean earnestly? How earnestly? How much? Be good. How much?
The Process of Daily Renewal
Here's hope. Here's the second thing Paul says. Paul says I don't lose heart - I'm being renewed day by day. The Christian life is a process and there's a progression.
If you come into our house, there's a little room in the back that was a sewing room. It's now a computer room. And if you close the door, on the back of the wall, there's just a bunch of scribbling. But if you look closely, there's the dates and the scribble that you see is a line and a date. It'll be the hardest thing to leave behind in this house because it's their physical growth chart - the dates and where they were when they were four or five, the date and how tall they were.
Something interesting about that. Until they reach this point of maturity that they're at right now, we ought to start marking them this way because we're all done with this one. But until you reach there, you're done. There was never - listen closely - never a time where we came in and the line was there and six months later it was in exactly the same spot. Never. There was never a time when the line was there and six months later it was there. There was always a progression. Sometimes they'd grow this much, sometimes they'd grow this much. It's a process.
Spiritual Growth and Maturity
For us, maturity is glorification - that's heaven. Until then, every time you measure, if you were there before, you ought to be there now. If you were there before and you're here now, something is seriously wrong. It's not just one of these: "Well, I haven't really had my time." Men and women, you're in serious shape here. Spiritually, you ought to be growing.
And we know how it is. Sometimes it's like this. Generally, the growth from here to here is when there's really hard times in your life. That's when you grow best. Day by day. How does God give me grace to live? Day by day.
I remember reading and thinking "daily bread" - God, just give it to me all at once. Give it to me now. Two things would happen if He did. Number one, I'd blow it. Number two, I wouldn't need Him. By being renewed day by day, I have to come back to Him every day. I'm not sure what the day's got, but I know this: You've got enough grace to give me to get through it and to thrive in the midst of this thing.
Eternal Perspective on Suffering
Paul says, here you go: "We don't lose heart. We're being renewed day by day. Momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. We don't look at the things that are seen - those are temporal. We look at the things that are unseen - they're eternal."
You take all of the suffering, pain, hardship, difficulty in this world and put it on this side of the scale. And you put heaven on this side of the scale. The scale just goes like this.
A Passion for Heaven
A little book - and really a good little book, I think - it's called "In Light of Eternity" by Randy Alcorn about heaven. Alcorn writes this, and we'll close:
"Like a bride's dream of sharing a home with her groom, our love for heaven should be overflowing and contagious just as our love for God should be. Our passion for God and our passion for heaven should be inseparable. The more I learn about God, the more excited I get about heaven. The more I learn about heaven, the more excited I get about God."
What's your attitude toward heaven? Your theology of heaven? Does it contain joy and excitement? How much thought do you give to heaven? How often do you and your church and family talk about heaven?
A couple paragraphs: "If you lack a passion for heaven, I can almost guarantee it's because you have a weak, deficient, distorted theology of heaven. A robust, accurate, biblical, energized view of heaven will bring you new spiritual passion."
Where We Place Our Passion
"Our problem isn't that we lack passion in general. We all have it. Look at the way we stand and cheer at a sporting event. We get most passionate about things that don't ultimately matter: the perfect season, the perfect house, the perfect lawn, the perfect car. None of these are bad. Notice I didn't list pornography, adultery, fornication, theft, and hatred. Our problem is that the good things fueling our passion are only secondary, while we lack passion for what is primary."
"To derail us, what we need to do is maximize our passion for two things: God, and the place of God."
A.W. Tozer writes, "Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays on the doctrine..."
How is it that I make the invisible God visible? How do I live contentedly? How do I speak the truth boldly? How do I experience suffering and grow from it? How do I continue to learn? I don't lose heart. I'm renewed day by day.
I have a perspective in this world that says no matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. What's really important are not the things that we see, because they're all passing away, but the things that we don't see. That's what life is really all about. It is the real world.
How do you stay straight in this world? I think all 11 of those things are really helpful tips. You can add to that list. It doesn't have to be determined, but hopefully it will be good.
Father, help us see this truth. We pray especially for places like the New Church of Phoenix and all of the false places that seem to hang around, that think what they have to do is water down the word and change orthodoxy so that us poor lost people will get it. God, this is about You and Your work, the work that You do.
Please convict the people that are here that if they don't believe Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, that they will spend eternity in a place called hell because God will judge them. God, help us see that. We pray it to You in Christ's name. Amen.