Inner Renewal 1977

From 2nd Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 16 through 18. So, we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Because we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

To follow Jesus, in this realm of flesh and blood, is to live all the time in the middle of a discrepancy. Something that's really out of joint. So, on the one side of this discrepancy is this blinding vision of God, which has hit us, or most of us, at one point or another in our lives.

A God who is utterly good. And a kingdom of God, where there are no tears, no pain, no sickness, no death. A Jesus who heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind, forgives the sinner, gives people a new start, changes lives.

Surely it was this vision which opened the door for us into a new life. We have in some way seen the mercy of God, and having seen God in his mercy, we can never be the same again. But on the other hand, every one of us has to live every day of our lives in a world that utterly repudiates that vision.

In a world where the basic reality is tragedy and evil. Where on every side, if we have our eyes open, we see weeping, pain, sickness, death, injustice, trouble, deceit, and lies. A world that does not receive our gospel.

And even when it does, all too often, no change seems to come about in people's lives. The man does not quit drinking, the woman does not stop hating her husband. A world where the nations are preparing for inevitable war.

We just feel it in our bones, we know that it will not be long before all hell is going to break loose over this earth. Where we'll be looking back with nostalgia on those days when the worst thing that could happen would be a bad snowstorm. So alongside we have our vision of God.

And over here we have the anti-God reality of the world in which we have to live. And the trick is to keep the vision of God alive. And to keep our feet on the ground in this anti-God world where we live, and still to keep our sanity.

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. And there will be false Christs who will say, I am the Christ.

And will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Do not be alarmed.

But now consider the way many believers try to handle this living in the tension between their vision of God and the anti-God reality of this world. It's like being pulled by two giants, one on each arm. And so you think your arms are going to come out of their sockets, you're going to be torn apart.

And so the natural tendency is to try to worm loose from one of them, if not both. And so there are those who try to eliminate this tension in their lives by cutting down their vision of God. Scaling it down to size.

You know, I can't live in a world that's unmerciful by the way of God's mercy. How can I serve a God who is all the time giving in a world that's all the time taking and cheating and stealing and hurting me? And so we lower the vision of God down to a God who's very mild and very weak. Down to a Jesus who seems to content himself with nothing more than patting children on the head and posing for religious pictures.

See, but when you cut down your vision of God, you end up with a lukewarm life. And that's exactly what happens to multitudes of believers who started out as burning and shining lights and after a while settle down to a life where all they seem to be interested in doing is occasionally church, occasionally some prayer, you know, and a life where there is no risk, no pain, no danger, no strain, and no joy. Then there are those who try to eliminate, let go of the vision of God completely.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you are not alarmed, because when believers become alarmed, they have a tendency to totally abandon their vision of God. They panic. And they say, wait a minute, I made a mistake.

That must have been my imagination. See, but when I abandon my vision of God, what happens is that my mind is then engulfed with despair. And the whole anti-God atmosphere of the world sweeps in.

And I find myself sinking to the bottom of an ocean of cynicism. And there I lie like a sunken ship the rest of my life. And the ocean is full of those.

Then there are those believers who try to preserve their vision of God by withdrawing from the world. It doesn't make any difference whether we find a cabin on a lake a hundred miles from the nearest town, or whether we bury our heads in Christian sand, you know, so that we only listen to Christian radio, if you can stand it, Christian TV, Christian books, and you only talk to Christians at the plant. Maybe one or two red-hot prospects, but only believers in the main, which isn't helping.

And what happens to your vision of God, instead of it becoming stronger, it starts to shrivel like a plum turning into a prune. And you end up serving a God who is no more real, and at least as demonic as all the idols of Babylon. I pray not, Jesus says in his prayer in John 17, that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.

As thou didst send me into the world, so have I sent them into the world. But praise God, there are people who continue to hold their vision of God bright, and continue to live, in fact, in the world. They go to what they have to do every day, and they hold on to that vision of God, and they live in the middle of the tension and all the hassles, and instead of the vision of God becoming duller, it becomes brighter all the time.

And how does this happen? It happens because they are inwardly being renewed all the time. These people have found the Sabbath rest of the people of God in the midst of their hassles and pain. They found the rest that is in Jesus.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's what he's talking about, inward rest, inward renewal, living water that keeps refreshing you for the battle. Not so that you can sit with your feet up and just forevermore recline, but so that you can get things done.

We cannot afford to give up our vision of God or compromise it in any way. It's the one precious thing we have. It is a precious thing when the heart is fixed, said the choir.

We can't afford to let go of that. It's the one thing that matters. Nor can we afford to withdraw from the world, because God put us in the world.

Jesus sends us explicitly out into this ocean of troubled humanity to call people into his kingdom, to proclaim his gospel. So we have to stay in the world with our eyes open and our hearts on fire. But in order to stay in the world and keep the vision alive, we have to be all the time renewed by God himself.

And he promises to do that. He will do it. God will give us a renewal.

First of all, inwardly. So we do not lose heart, though our outer nature is wasting away. Our inner nature is being renewed, obviously by God.

And Paul writes these words when he himself, no doubt, is experiencing the symptoms of aging in his body, which is common to the whole human race. And those who are 21, if they live to the time when they're 75, will know what it is. Nobody escapes that.

But Paul doesn't get all frustrated by the fact that he's getting older. My outer man is wasting away, but my inner man's being renewed. He's younger all the time in here.

And he teaches us much about that. That according to the riches of his glory, you might be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ might dwell in your heart by faith. That you might be filled inwardly with all the fullness of God.

Behold, I desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part that will make me to know wisdom, creating me a clean heart, in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. An inner thing, cleanse the inside of the cup. Renewal from God is an interior thing.

Don't worry about the exterior of your life. If the interior is opened up to God, the exterior will take care of itself. Secondly, God will renew us daily.

Daily. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. This is not a revival that we need once a year or something that happens has to happen to us once a week.

But just as surely as our bodies are renewed daily through sleep, our strength renewed daily through food, our vision of God needs to be renewed daily by him. But we have to make the time and place for it. That we have to do.

You know, if I expect God to renew me inwardly daily as I walk down the boulevard or drive my car on the freeway or move among people or whatever it may be, I believe that it's necessary for me to somehow get to the place where daily I hold still before him. If this was necessary for Jesus, the son of God, we said it a thousand times. How can it be less necessary for us? If it was necessary for the apostles? How can we get away without this? And see this holding still before God that we might be renewed in here.

It's not a luxury that some lucky people can indulge in, nor is it a heavy religious duty. But it's a wonderful necessity like breathing. What healthy person hates to breathe? You know, you're in bad shape if you do.

Or hates to eat or hates to drink a cool glass of water. That's a joy, it's a pleasure. And the most blessed and pleasurable time of the day is when he renews us within.

Thirdly, God will renew our minds. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The mind, this place where we decide, consider, meditate, whatever it is, the mind is the place.

Uh, brother Phil, brother Bill, both of you, please. Thank God. The mind is a place where if it is not occupied by God, it will be occupied by Satan.

It will be flooded with lies. See, if it isn't constantly renewed by God, the mind becomes the habitation of all kinds of weird thoughts, fantasies, lusts, suspicions, which are characteristic of the world. So God makes it possible if we allow him.

Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. He puts his word in the mind. His light, his life gives us thoughts to think that edify us, gives us mental visions to see that cleanse us so that we can keep going into the battle without being warped and twisted.

And finally, God will renew all our powers, all of them. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even you shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted.

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall not up on wings as the eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. How many times we go to prayer physically exhausted and weary and weak and come out strong. How many times we lie down at night so drained of our strength that we don't even have the power to even think about this obstacle we're going to face tomorrow.

Even the thought of it makes us feel nauseous. We wake up in the morning refreshed by sleep indeed, but by a sleep in which God has renewed us on every fright. Now we have brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world.

I'm thinking of ones in prison camps who know this better than we do who are surrounded by people with much more stamina yet they keep going and the others fall and faint. They don't just survive they burn and shine with the glory of God, but even we in situations that are still safe if our eyes are open at all are going to be so drained by the needs that press against us that we also will collapse unless we're continuously renewed. So that gets to the point where we find that the most important function of our life the most important function of our life is not eating or sleeping or even ministering to the world but ministering to God.

Inwardly coming before him all the time and being renewed worshiping him inwardly waiting upon him. As the hour of the end approaches the tension between our vision of God and the anti-God reality of the world around us that tension is going to increase and as the tension increases the lamps of many will flicker out. If there has ever been an hour where we need to be renewed by God inwardly daily, it's now.

The life that is filled with refreshment and joy and unspeakable power beyond what we have ever expected really is closer than we may imagine. God help us to receive it and to live it that we may mount up on wings as the eagle that we may run and not be weary and walk and not faint. Let's wait upon him now in prayer.

Anybody who feels a need to join Bob down here come and do so. Lord we're just asking that that you'll confirm your word to us and that you'll show us our own need of renewal from you. And where we're apathetic or where we're you know cluttered or where we're mentally weary or spiritually dull or where we're so wrapped up in in criticism of others around us that we can't even see the shape we're in.

Deal with us Lord God that we may just come alive again in your mercy. And that we may be an encouragement and a strength to those among whom you've placed us Father God. So many needs crying to us and and so little to give.

Father we just pray that you would strengthen us and increase in us your redemptive power and your wisdom and your vision. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.