Mar 29, 2022
When taken at face value, I believe today's passage is rather bold. Let's talk about it.
This is part three in a series on a passage that I really enjoy, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. "Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 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." That's from the New American Standard Bible.
Today, we're looking at verse 18, "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."
I don't believe we can get too much Bible. And this particular passage is challenging and compelling.
We do not lose heart because we remember that our afflictions today, our circumstances today are momentary and light in comparison to the eternal weight of glory that we will experience in heaven. And the way we remember that our afflictions are momentary and light is we look not for things we can see with our eyes, but for things that we cannot see with our eyes. We look for those things that are spiritual, those things that are of Jesus. We can't see those things with our eyes.
But the things that Jesus promises us, the things that were promised in scripture, the things that we experience in life because we follow Jesus, are real. What we see is temporal, it will all burn up. It will all be gone. "The things which are seen are temporal." They're temporary. They won't last forever. The things which are not seen: the Holy Spirit living in us, the way that we bless other people, the service that we provide to people simply because we trust Jesus, our motives and our desires in our relationship to Jesus Christ, these things, which are not seen, they last forever.
Jesus even said that if we give a cup of cold water in his name, we shall not lose our reward. We have to remember that we have rewards that we can't see laid up for us in heaven. Those rewards exist because we follow Jesus and we do what He says. The things which are seen: the world that we see, the money that we have, the situations that we're in, even this crazy attack that the Russian government has made against the people of Ukraine, it's all nuts. But it's all temporal. When I say it's all temporal. I don't mean that it doesn't matter. I'm saying that it will all burn up. It will all eventually be gone. What will be left will be the things that we did because we follow Jesus. Those things which are not seen are eternal.
Today, let's focus on the things which are not seen. Let's trust God. Talk to Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in how you do your job today. And trust that the rewards that you earn, that the things that you do that are not seen can last forever. We have living in us the Holy Spirit, and he can use us for his glory to help him become visible in the world and to be glorified by us and our actions.
Today, let's remember that our circumstances are momentary and light. But the things that we cannot see, those things will last forever. And let's concentrate on those.
Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for remembering that we look for the things that are not seen. Let's be the people who operate according to a different standard today, and bless the people around us simply because we follow Jesus Christ.
That's the job of a full-time minister. We get to help other people move one notch closer to him. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Take a moment and share it with your friends and check us out. Go to https://followerofone.org and take a look at joining our online community as well.