Perseverance

The passage we’re going to look at today is about:

Perseverance

Just the word perseverance causes certain images to come to mind.

The first image that came to mind was a marathon runner reaching for that last bit of strength to make through mile 26.

That’s an image of perseverance.

The next picture that came to mind was a single mom or single dad, sitting at a kitchen table littered with unopened mail, unpaid bills and the children’s unfinished homework.

That single parent is praying a desperate prayer for help because they’re doing their absolute best to provide for the financial, physical, emotional and spiritual needs of their family and it doesn’t seem to be enough.

That’s a picture of perseverance.

A third picture that came to mind was a follower of Jesus trying to live a Christ-centered life at work.

There are moments throughout the day when they wonder if honesty, integrity and purity are worth the hassle.

Everyone else seems to be playing by different rules… and they seem to be winning.

Perseverance is needed in those kinds of situations.

The last image that came to mind was some of you at Blue Oaks who grew up in situations that left you struggling with the image of God as a loving, heavenly Father.

As we’ve spent some time worshipping today, you’ve been struggling. You continue to show up. Sometimes you sing. You listen. You hope.

You’re hoping that some day there will be a breakthrough in your spiritual life. You’re hoping someday you’ll be able to relate to God as your heavenly father.

That’s perseverance.

When the writers of Scripture use the word perseverance, that word literally means —

Perseverance — to remain under pressure without being crushed.

Although Paul never uses the word perseverance in 2 Corinthians 4, the chapter is all about perseverance.

It’s about remaining under pressure and continuing to do something in spite of difficulties and obstacles.

So today I want to give some insights and practical principles that will help us to grow in perseverance.

If you want to follow along we’ll be in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4.

Paul starts with:

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

Paul starts with ‘therefore,’ so that can’t be our starting point. The passage before is what helps us understand what he’s talking about.

When he says, “Since through God’s mercy we have this ministry,” we have to ask ourselves what ministry is he talking about?

The answer lies in chapter 3 starting at verse 6.

Paul says:

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant.

The ministry Paul is referring to here in 2 Corinthians 4:1 is the ministry of the new covenant — the ministry that promotes a face to face relationship with God.

Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 4:1:

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

That little phrase “we do not lose heart” literally means “we do not burn out.”

Do you know what leads to burnout?

When I rely on my competence.
When I rely on my plan.
When I constantly have to perpetuate an image of perfection.

That’s what leads to burnout.

The other option is:

I rely on God’s competence.
I live under God’s plan.
And I celebrate my weaknesses… because that’s when God’s strength is made perfect in me.

That’s when we do not lose heart.
That’s when we have a foundation for perseverance.
That’s what Paul is getting at in 2 Corinthians 4:1.

Verse 2 starts with the word “rather.”

He’s contrasting.

“Rather than losing heart, rather than burning out, here’s the opposite side; here’s how to stay healthy and full of life… so that we persevere.

Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

In that one verse, we find

4 elements that will help us persevere:

Let me list them for you.

1. Purity

Purity will keep us persevering.

Paul said, we have renounced secret and shameful ways;

He’s saying, “We have taken a hard, long look at the dark, musty corners of our lives, and we have dealt with anything and everything that might have shamed us or God… even those things that no one else knew about. We’ve renounced those things.”

You see, nothing decreases spiritual power and increases mental and emotional stress more than hidden junk in our lives.

The writers of Scripture teach that unconfessed sin hinders our ability to pray. It causes us to be timid and reluctant to approach God.

I know what that feels like. I’m sure you do too.

When we’re struggling with a sin… we have a tough time connecting with God.

We feel blocked by whatever that sin is.

Impurity leads to burn out.

And there’s power to persevere in purity.

Paul also points out in verse 2 a second element that keeps us persevering. And that is:

2. Integrity

Paul refers to two kinds of integrity.

He refers first of all to relational integrity. He says — we do not use deception,

The word ‘deception’ refers to a willingness to say anything or do anything to get what you want or gain an advantage over someone else.

Do you know anyone who does that kind of thing — says whatever, does whatever so that they can get their way? They use deception.

Well, that’s not having relational integrity.

Having relational integrity means being straightforward with people, not tricking them or manipulating them.

People who lack relational integrity soon burn out in their faith because so much energy goes into trying to keep the deception straight.

Be careful of that. Be careful of not having relational integrity.

Paul goes on to a second form. He says that not only should you have relational integrity, but you should have biblical integrity.

He says:

we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.

Distorting the Word of God means twisting God’s Word to make it say what you want it to say. Twisting it is reading it to support what you want to believe.

There’s an intentional way of doing this and an unintentional way.

There are those who twist God’s Word to support what they believe. They choose certain verses that seem to support their presuppositions. They ignore or downplay other verses that might contradict what they want to promote.

Those people are intentionally distorting the truth.

They’re out there, and you need to be careful of them.

Far more prevalent, I think, is the unintentional distortion of the truth, where we mix together something we’ve read with something we once heard with something we feel.

We stir that all together and come up with our interpretation… which may be a major distortion or just a minor distortion.

Be careful of this. Be careful of picking and choosing verses to support what you want to believe.

Paul says to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

We need to be careful to handle the word of truth accurately.

If you don’t know how, a great book for you would be:

How to read the Bible for all its worth by Gordon Fee.

You see, if you’re not reading the Word accurately, you’re probably not gaining the strength you need to persevere.

So you’re going to need purity and integrity — both relational and biblical integrity — to persevere.

A third element that keeps us persevering is

3. Consistency

Paul says:

On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

The phrase here “on the contrary” is contrasting an earlier phrase, where he talked about renouncing secret and shameful ways.

What Paul is saying in this verse is, “Rather than having a life where things are hidden, where things are secret, I want to live in such a way where the truth is plainly displayed in my life and through my life.”

Paul strived for consistency between what he believed, what he taught and how he lived.

He wanted his walk to be consistent with his talk.

That sounds easy, but it’s not, is it?

It’s difficult to keep our walk and our talk matched up, to keep it in sync… especially when you have teenagers… who are watching carefully.

It’s so easy to become inconsistent.

I remember playing the board game Life with my kids when they were younger.… and they were winning.

I was coaching them the whole game about the importance of being honest.

I’d say—

“Make sure you count your money accurately.”
“Be sure to follow the rules.”
“Don’t purposely deceive your younger sibling to get ahead.”

We were having fun, but my youngest son was winning.

The whole game… I’m emphasizing the importance of being honest, even if it costs you some money.

Toward the end of the game I rolled a number that would have cost me the game.

Do you know what I did?

I counted in such a way that I landed on the space right after the space that would have cost me the game.

And none of them noticed. I was going to get away with it.

Here I was being inconsistent, because I hated to lose to my kids.

Before my son picked up the dice for his turn — he was oblivious to what just happened — I thought to myself, “I can’t be encouraging my kids to be honest if I’m dishonest.”

So I said, “Ezra… Hurry up. Roll the dice. It’s your turn.”

No, I didn’t say that.

I moved my piece to the right space and played my turn correctly.

You see, I couldn’t encourage my kids to be honest if I’m dishonest. Inconsistency would have discredited me.

And that’s true for all of us.

Alright, a fourth element that keeps us persevering is —

4. Accountability

Paul said

we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

It’s the rare person who is disciplined enough and committed enough to walk the narrow road of following Christ by themselves.

God didn’t wire us to follow Christ by ourselves.

We need to regularly gather with a group of trusted friends and ask them to keep us accountable to follow God with our whole hearts.

We need to commend ourselves to other people’s consciences… so that we can continue to follow Christ as we desire to.

We’ve got to be accountable to other people.

You see, all of this helps me to persevere.

In verses 3 through 6, Paul highlights four elements that will lead to burn out.

And I want to look at these with you so that you can have something to watch out for.

Look at verses 3 and 4:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

This seems like a strange shift in this passage, doesn’t it?

Paul communicates to us that despite all of his efforts, there are still some people who don’t understand the Gospel that he’s talking about.

And the sense of verses 3 and 4 is that Paul doesn’t seem to be all bent out of shape about that fact.

If some of us were writing this letter, we might be feeling like we should increase our efforts. Or maybe that we should sit down and rethink the strategy that we’re using to share the gospel.

Maybe we would even beat ourselves up, thinking that we didn’t do a very good job and are bad Christians or something like that.

In the process, we’re slowly burning out.

So I want to give you

4 elements that lead to burn out:

What is it that’s burning you out?

1. Trying to do God’s job for him.

In verse 3, Paul mentions the Gospel being veiled.

2 Corinthians 3:14-16

But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

You see, Paul understood something that some of us forget. Paul understood there are certain things he could do, and other things only God could do.

Burnout occurs when we try to do what God should be doing, when we try to do God’s job for him.

Paul understood that only God can take the veil away from someone’s heart, only God could open up someone’s heart to the Gospel, and only God could change a person’s attitude, only God could change circumstances.

When we try to do those kinds of things, when we try to do God’s job, we burn out.

This tendency is often referred to as the messiah complex.

You’re trying to save people, instead of letting the Jesus save them.

Do you know someone who suffers from that?

When we try to do God’s job for him, it leads to burn out.

In Isaiah 40:31, the prophet says:

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Who is they? They who hope in the Lord.

The King James Bible says, “Those who wait on the Lord…”

Those who stop and wait for God to move ahead of them, as opposed to them running ahead of God… those are the ones who will renew their strength.

I think the opposite is true as well.

They will burn out who try to do God’s job for him.

The antidote to that is you need to stop in your efforts, pray and wait for God to lead.

Paul wasn’t all bent out of shape that God wasn’t ripping the veil away at that point. He was waiting for God’s lead and was willing to follow behind it.

You see, if you don’t do that, you’re going to burn out.

A second element that can lead to burnout that we see in verse 4 is:

2. Overlooking Satan’s involvement in our lives.

In verse 4, Paul says:

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

When we’re ignorant of Satan’s involvement in the world and in our lives, then we become susceptible to burnout.

Paul tells us that Satan is actively involved in blinding the minds of unbelievers.

The writers of Scripture also tell us that Satan can mess with us, if we give him a foothold in our lives.

You may remember 2 Corinthians 2:11, where Paul says, ”Do not to be ignorant of Satan’s schemes.”

In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us that we’re in a spiritual war against the elements of darkness.

The writers of Scripture call him — “the deceiver, the accuser, the destroyer.”

He’s very much alive.
He’s very much at work.
If you overlook his involvement, you’re going to fall.

1 Peter 5:8-9 from the Living Bible says:

Be careful. Watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for some victim to tear apart. Stand firm, when he attacks. Trust the Lord and remember that other Christians all around the world are going through the same suffering.

I’m not saying here Satan can pull you around on a string and you’re going to be this spiritual victim.

We’re victorious in Christ — “Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.”

We have victory through Christ.

But if we allow Satan’s footholds in our lives, if there is anger going unresolved, if there are relationships that are broken up, if forgiveness and reconciliation issues aren’t being addressed, and if there is sin that is being harbored in our lives, the writers of Scripture say that gives Satan access to mess with us.

When we’re trying to reach out to others and we’re wondering why it doesn’t seem to be clicking, maybe we’re not understanding that Satan may be involved in blinding their eyes.

In fact, Paul says he is.

So what do we need to do there?

We need to pray. Again, we need to let God do his work. We need to encourage and lift those people up in prayer.

It will lead to burnout, if we overlook Satan’s involvement.

A third thing that leads to burnout is

3. Promoting yourself.

If your goal is to promote yourself, it’s going to burn you out.

In verse 5, Paul says:

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

Some of you might be on the edge of burnout because you’re trying to be a star rather than a servant.

I had lunch with the director of one of the elite soccer academies in our area. My son played for them when he was younger.

He was telling me about the culture he’s creating with his teams — one of servants, not stars.

Do you know what he looks for when he’s recruiting players?

The player who sprints as hard to high-five someone on his team who scored as he does when he scores. The player who makes everyone else better.

He’s looking for servants, not stars.

As followers of Jesus, He needs to be the star. He’s the one we need to promote.

Our roles are to be servants for his sake.

I might add, which image is easier to maintain, being a servant or being a star?

Stars always have to work on their image.
They have to work on gaining other people’s attention and being recognized.
They need to make sure that they’re perfect.
That takes a lot of effort.
And it leads to burnout.

All a servant has to do is serve. Stars seek to impress, and servants serve.

Promoting yourself leads to burnout.

There’s a last element we can see in this passage that leads to burnout.

4. Focusing on doing rather than becoming.

When you focus on doing within Christianity rather than becoming, you’re going to burn out.

In verse 6, Paul says:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Paul is drawing a parallel between what God did during the creation of the world, where he called light out of darkness, and what he did in our lives when he made his light shine in what was once darkened hearts.

God gave us the light of a relationship with Christ, and light is what we are.

Jesus said, “You are the’ — what? — ‘light of the world.”

We have become light because of Christ.

Look at Matthew 6. Jesus here talks about light within us. In Matthew 6:22, Jesus says:

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Jesus is stressing the importance of staying focused on the right thing.

If you begin focusing on something other than the light, your life will begin to become dark.

You see, when we’re focusing on Christ and focusing on becoming more like him, our lives will grow increasingly full of light.

If we lose our focus on Christ in order to focus on something else — even something as valuable as doing ministry for Christ — our lives will begin to dim. The relationship that we have with Christ will begin to dry up.

What we will be left with is a duty-driven religion rather than a love-inspired relationship.

I see this happen all the time.

I’ve seen this happen with guys I went to graduate school with.

They stopped focusing on that relationship with Christ and began to focus entirely upon doing things for Christ. Eventually, their heart shriveled up, they became religious-duty doers and walked away. They burned out.

Be careful of this. When you focus on doing rather than becoming, it will burn you out.

These are things that are going to lead to burnout.

Do you see yourself in any one of these four things?

Trying to do God’s job for him.
Overlooking Satan’s involvement.
Promoting yourself.
Or focusing on doing rather than becoming.

If you do, then you have some work to do.

You know, we all face pressure in life that can lead to burnout.

It’s our perspective on that pressure that determines whether or not we grow… or lose heart.

In Romans 5:3, Paul is writing and says:

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

When I see that there is some purpose to this thing, that there is some light at the end of the tunnel, that this stuff I’m going through is actually producing something good in my life, then I can remain under pressure without quitting.

Again, the word ‘perseverance,’ means to remain under pressure without being crushed.

The last part of this passage is all about what pressure produces in our lives.

But before we look at it, I’d like you to do something — bring to mind a situation right now that is pressuring you.

It might be a relationship that’s not clicking on all cylinders.
It might be your job.
It might be your finances.
It might be your health.
It might be your family.

Bring that to mind and keep it there as we walk through what pressure produces.

2 Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

In these two verses, Paul points out the first thing that pressure does in your life and in my life.

Pressure allows God to demonstrate his power in my life.

Paul starts off with the observation that we have a treasure contained in an ordinary jar of clay.

You say, “Well, what’s the treasure?”

We see that in the previous verse —

God made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

The treasure is Christ living within us. Jesus Christ is the treasure.

He says that this treasure is in jars of clay.

What do the jars of clay refer to?

They refer to our lives.

Paul likens our lives to ordinary, clay containers, which in Paul’s day were fragile and sometimes flawed.

Paul says that God has chosen to place his treasure into these ordinary jars of clay. He has chosen to put the treasure of Christ into flawed and fragile containers.

Why?

He says very clearly in verse 7 —

to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

In other words, Christ lives in people like you and me, because God loves to take ordinary, fragile, flawed containers and demonstrate his extraordinary power through them.

He doesn’t want anyone to be confused about where that power came from.
He loves to take weak containers and show strength through them.
He likes to take broken containers and show his strength through them.
He likes to take containers that others discarded and show his strength through them, so that others will marvel and say, “What happened to this person?”

The answer is Christ.

Sometimes, we forget we’re jars of clay.

We get lulled into thinking that we’re titanium containers. We think we’re strong.

We’re going our way. Then God allows a certain level of pressure to surround us and pressure us. Once again, we’re reminded of our limited power and God’s limitless power.

Pressure allows God to demonstrate his power in our lives.

Notice Paul says, “We’re hard pressed on every side.”

Literally, that means we feel pressured by all kinds of circumstances.

Can you relate?

“We are perplexed” literally means we feel pressured because of confusion and not knowing what to do.

“We are persecuted” means we feel pressured by other people who mock us and take advantage of us.

“We are struck down” means that we feel pressured because of dead ends that we’re encountering.

You see, any ordinary jar would be crushed by these pressures.

Because of God’s strength, Paul can say, “We’re hard pressed on every side — we feel pressured by circumstances —but we’re not crushed. We’re perplexed, but we’re not in despair. We’re struck down, but we’re not destroyed. We’re persecuted, but we’re not abandoned.”

God allows us to go through problems and pressures in life, because when the pressure increases, we become conscious of our limitations. We cry out for God to demonstrate his power in our lives.

You see, God loves to demonstrate his power through cracked, chipped, flawed and broken containers.

That’s good news to me. I trust it might be good news to many of you.

There’s more.

A second thing pressure does is

Pressure allows Christ to display his presence in my life.

In verses 10 through 12, Paul says:

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Those can be confusing verses.

What you have to keep in mind is it’s the continuation of the thought that was started in verse 7 about treasure in jars of clay.

Paul is building on that and highlighting that the results of Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross for our sins is always present with us.

His death resides in us, in that the forgiveness of our sins that was bought by his death is constantly being applied to us. We’ve been cleansed. Our lives are now fit for Christ the Son of God and his Spirit to dwell within us. Not just to dwell in us, but to be revealed through us.

That’s what Paul is saying. His death is in us, but also his life is being revealed through us —

For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.

When is Christ’s presence most vividly revealed?

It’s when we’re in pressure-filled situations, and even in life-threatening situations like Paul was. That’s when Christ’s presence shines through our lives the best.

The greater the pressure that is being applied to a person’s life, the greater the opportunity to display Christ’s presence in their life.

It seems that as the pressure increases, the strength of God and the presence of Christ increases as well.

Pressure does wonderful things for us.

Oswald Chambers once wrote that the blessings we pray for from God often become the things that draw our hearts away from God, while the trials that we try to get out of are the things that draw us into intimacy with God.

Isn’t that true?

When do you feel most close to God?

Usually, it’s in a time of brokenness. It’s in a time where you’re experiencing pressure.

Pressure produces things in our life that cannot be produced in any other way.

It allows God to demonstrate his power in my life.
It allows Christ to display his presence in my life.

A third thing that pressure does is

Pressure teaches me to trust God.

Pressure is like an instructor. It’s like a class that teaches me to trust God, as he works in my life.

When we go through times of pressure and problems.
When we see God’s power demonstrated in our lives.
When we have a heightened experience of Christ’s presence.

What we’re doing is building this foundation upon which we can continue to grow in faith and in trust toward God in the future.

That’s what Paul is getting at here in verses 13 and following. He says:

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Paul starts with, “It is written: ‘I believed, therefore I have spoken.”

Paul is quoting Psalm 116:10, where the Psalmist is recounting all the times in the past when the Lord helped him in the midst of problems and pressures.

All of those times form a foundation of faith for the future.

That’s what Paul has in mind, as he’s expressing his continued trust in God’s plan for his life, even if that plan means he’s going to be martyred.

Paul had grown in his ability to trust God to the point where he could say:

“Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, if worse came to worse, he’ll do the same for me. But in the meantime, we’re trusting that whatever pressures we’re experiencing are pressures that God is allowing. Under God’s control and under his guidance, they’re going to work out for the best.”

If someone wants to know — “How can I strengthen my faith?”

There seems to me to be only one way to have a growing faith, and that is to experience pressures and problems and experience God’s faithfulness in the midst of those pressures and problems.

His faithfulness is demonstrated time and time again, and we have this growing sense of trust for the future.

In fact, when you think about it, if we never experienced God’s involvement in bringing us through pressures and problems in the past, we’d have a real hard time trusting him in the present and in the future.

Last thing

Pressure teaches me is to develop an eternal perspective for my life.

In light of all that we’ve talked about up to this point, Paul ends with:

Therefore we do not lose heart.

That’s the same thing Paul started this passage with — we do not lose heart.

Again, it means we do not burn out. We do not give up. We persevere.

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Paul is saying that though the jar is getting beat up — it’s not looking as sharp as it used to be — the treasure is continuing to strengthen me. It’s shining increasingly through my life.

Paul says, “We’ve taken on a new view of these pressures and problems in our lives and call them light and momentary troubles.”

Why would he call them “light and momentary troubles”?

Compared to eternity and the glory that is to come, these pressures and problems are light and momentary.

Pressures and problems, according to this passage, should cause me to focus my attention on those things that will outlast me.

What are those things?

Let me give you a short list. There are three things that last into eternity.

God
God’s Word
People

It’s a short list. Those are the only three things that last into eternity.

If you are focused on those three things, you are living with an eternal perspective.

You are fixing your eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. You are living your life, in order to achieve that eternal glory that far outweighs the present.

Pressure teaches me to develop an eternal perspective.

Let me close with this:

Do you know what needlepoint is?

It’s a stitching thing where you can make these enormous, elaborate pictures.

Have you seen these?

I want to show you a few needlepoint pieces of work.

Have you ever seen the backside of those needlepoint things?

It’s a mess.

There are knots.
There are loose ends.
There are strings that seem to go nowhere.
The backside is a mess.

On the front, every stitch is right. Every stitch is where it needs to be. Together, all of the stitches create this beautiful work of art.

It often feels like my life is the backside of one of those needlepoint pictures.

Pressure seems to cause knots, tangles and loose strings that seem to go nowhere.

Can you relate to that?

Today’s passage shows us what’s happening on the front.

I look at my life and see all of these things that don’t seem to make sense — all of these pressures that are making me do certain things and causing other things to happen. I don’t know what will come of it.

This passage shows us what is being formed in the front.

The back may look like a mess, but the front shows an increasing and developing picture of God’s power, of Christ’s presence, of a growing trust in God and a yearning to live with eternity clearly in my sights.

I don’t know about you, but if I can just get a glimpse of that front side every once in a while and see what all that mess in the back is producing on the front, then I can keep going, then I can persevere.

I would bet for many of you that would be true as well.

Alright, let me pray for us as the worship team comes to lead us in a closing song.