Torn Up Tents

Just grab our bibles. Thanks, bro.

Just grab our bibles and turn to Second Corinthians. Second Corinthians.

We're gonna be in chapter four Versus sixteen and following

this morning, Second Corinthians four. And if you don't have

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help you understand how to take those steps.

You might be like, you know, I'm not a Christian.

I'm here this morning, and I'm not sure what all

of the things that you sang about or talked about meant.

I don't know what it means to place my faith

in Jesus and follow him. Well, we want to have

that conversation. In fact, tonight over at my house dinner

six to eight if you want to have the conversation.

But what does it mean to place my faith in

Christ and follow him? We're doing that over at my house.

So just meet me at the Step one table. I'll

give you my address, come over for dinner, and we'll

we'll have that conversation. We do that every week almost

and it's always a really good time. And the food

is always good because my wife cooks it.

Hi.

Hi, honey, she's home right now because I got a

little one that's six, so she told me she'd tune in.

It's always good.

Second Corinthians chapter four. I'm going to read I think

verse seven all the way through verse ten of chapter

five for the larger context of our verses this morning.

But my preaching text is going to be just those

four verses sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and then maybe the first

verse of chapter five there, and that's kind of where

we'll focus this morning in this text. But if you

would just read along as I read aloud from Second

Corinthians four, starting in seven, Paul writes this, but we

have this treasure in jars of clay to show that

the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed

but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsake, and

struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body

the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus

may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who

live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake,

so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested

in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us,

but life in you. And since we have the same

spirit of faith, according to what was written, I believed

and so I spoke, we also believe, And so we

also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus

will raise us also with Jesus, and bring us with

you into his presence. For it is all for your sake,

so that as grace extends to more and more people,

it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

And here's our preaching text. So we do not lose heart.

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self

is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary

affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory

beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things

that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen or transient, but the

things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that

if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed,

we have a building from God, a house not made

with hands, eternal in the heavens.

And I'll continue on for a few more verses yet, for.

In this tent we grown longing to put on our

heavenly dwelling, if indeed, by putting it on, we may

be not found naked. For while we're still in this tent,

we grown being burdened, not that we would be unclothed,

but that we would be further clothed, so that what

is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who

has prepared us for this very thing, as God, who

has given us the spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always of good courage.

We know that while we are at home in the body,

we're away from the Lord, for we walk by faith,

not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and

we would rather be away from the body and at

home with the Lord. So whether we're at home or away,

we make it our aim to please Him. For we

must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so

that each one may receive what is due for what

he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

This is the word of the Lord. I I almost

put our family's tent out of its misery this past week.

I was cleaning the garage. I am very proud of

the work that I did in the garage.

I even installed some lighting.

And then when I did, I saw what a mess

we had, and I started cleaning up.

I mean this. I set some spring break.

Time aside for this and I had clean it up

and get it out fever, you know, and the tent.

I thought.

This is enough.

But this thing, I mean, I bought this thing when

Karen I first got married.

I don't know why. I thought we were gonna be

a camping family. Did not happen.

I could count on my fingers the number of times

this thing has gotten set up. Last time was in

the backyard. Turns out my nine year old also not

a camper. And I thought we would throw it out,

but Kara's like, nah, keep it, you know, and will

never use it again. Why should we throw it away?

You know how that is? And the thing about this

tent is it is sad.

It is sad.

One of the poles is just duct taped together so

it doesn't slide through the sleeve like it's supposed to.

It smells funny. I'm sure the rainfly is gone. I

found a rain fly, but I don't think it goes

with that tent. The seams of the tent are all

leaky now, so when there's dew, it just like it

just drips in the thing. It is falling apart. It

is wasting away. It is a torn up tent. And

I only bring that up because this is the metaphor

that Paul uses in verse one of chapter five.

For our bodies.

Wearing out.

Until eventually.

Thrown out.

Happens to us all, every single one of us, no

no matter how fine your tent might be, falls apart,

including turns out.

This week.

We lost Chuck Norris. I mean, I'm serious, like he

passed away this week. It's a it's a meeting death

has been dreading for a long time. I did not

pick this tent, this preaching text because Chuck Norris died.

But it's just sit there.

So for twenty one verses, Paul just circles this idea

of death, of death, of suffering and wearing out until death.

But here's the thing.

Across these twenty one verses, Paul also continues to repeat this,

So we are of good courage, so we do not

lose heart. We live courageous about death. That's what he says.

Do you do you live courageously about death?

Most of us don't.

Live courageously about death so much as we live like

an ostrich about death. Right, and stick my head in

the sand. If I can't see it, it can't see me.

And don't think about it. And if you're here this

morning as a non Christian thrilled the you're here, I

do wonder how much you consider what the Bible calls

the way of all flesh.

That we are all on our way.

To death.

And if you are here as a Christian, I wonder

how skilled, how skilled are you in living courageously about death?

Because Paul gives us in this passage these four verses

here three ways that they overlap quite a bit, but

there's some slight shifts in emphasis about these ways to

live courageously regarding death, and we'll jump into it. So

what ways are Christians courageous about death? Here's the first way. First,

we're courageous. We are called to courage even as you

watch the wasting. That would be our first way. You

can jot that in your notes if you like. Even

as we watch the wasting, be courageous, he says in

verse sixteen, right, so we do not lose heart, right,

And that so points back.

To verse fourteen, right.

He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also

raise us. Yet that also points forward to this. We're

courageous even though our outer self is wasting away and

our inner self is being renewed day by day. One's

going down, one's going up.

And what strikes me.

Is just how matter of fact it stated. Our outer

self is wasting away. It is wasting away. Maybe maybe

you're young here this morning and you're like, I don't know,

it doesn't seem like I'm wasting away. It speeds up.

It is. It is a fact. I was at the doctor.

A couple of weeks ago and the fact was just

on display.

I was there in the waiting room kind of first

thing in the morning. The waiting room was packed, and

I was just looking around, just observing all of the

patients in this waiting room, and at about two thirds

of us, our skin was pink.

And some energy, some weight, maybe too much weight to us.

Call that group A.

But another third of the folks that were in the

waiting room Group B.

Their skin was.

Seemed brittle, yellowed, not as much weight, not as much energy.

I mean, some of us were there for preventative reasons.

And then group B they were there looking for a

cure for something. And at first I thought, man, how

do I stay in group A? And then I realized,

you don't. Nobody stays in group A. Everyone graduates to

Group B. Everyone, unless you're taken suddenly in an accident

in some way or another, every single one of us,

at some point in this life will graduate from Group

A to Group B. It's inevitable. The outer self is

wasting away. And if you're if you're not trusting in

crime who has promised eternal life to those who would

place their life in his hands, I wonder if you

are considering carefully the inevitability of what the Bible says

here is the wasting away of the outer self.

It is coming.

And then you.

Appear before him, it says later in chapter five, and

then appear before him this one that maybe you've been resisting,

Maybe you've been resisting his work.

Maybe he you've been resisting.

His call and his promise and his what he has

offered to you is as this outer self wastes away,

what I have for you is eternal, it's renewal, it's

life in me, it's forgiveness. It is granted to you,

not on your merit, but on mine. And if you're

a Christian this morning, I also wonder whether or not

you are grasping the inevitability of this outer wasting away.

It's coming, it accelerates, and then you will appear before him,

this Christ who has been renewing you day by day.

You are sooner than you think you are going to

appear before him, and you will appear before him.

As one who has been renewed by Him in the

ongoing repentance that we so often resist, and the ongoing

sacrifice that he continues to call you forward in, and

the ongoing obedience that he calls you in, in those

steps of grace and recommitment that we that we struggle,

but yet he calls us forward growth, step by growth, step,

renewing us day by day in some ways that we

quit our teeth about.

I know.

One day we will stand before him and his work

will be on display, and that unwrapping will.

Happen sooner than you think that.

That is how we live courageously about death, even as

we watch the wasting, because we know that we are

being renewed internally by Jesus, and He even now is

welcoming us.

Home on a law long journey, not as long for

all of.

Us, into his presence. Even as we watch the wasting,

we realize the renewing and the welcome of Christ. That's

how we live courageous about death.

There's another way.

That Paul gives us.

It's very similar, but that the emphasis shifts slightly. It's

not just as we watch the wasting. Even though we

watch the wasting, there's also this we're courageous about death

as we lean into the comparing and the preparing. That's

the second way you could jot that down. If you're

taking notes, as we lean in to the comparing and

the preparing, see what's wasting away and what's being renewed,

they are not of similar value. What we're losing hardly

compares to what we're winning. This is what he says

in verse seventeen. For this light momentary affliction is preparing

for us an eternal weight of glory, beyond all comparison,

beyond all comparison. He says, it's beyond all comparison. But

of course what he's doing is comparing, right, He's comparing

the incomparable.

Light momentary weighty eternal, and he's.

Comparing these two, and he calls us that's what he's doing.

He's calling us.

To compare, to lean in to the comparing between this

affliction now.

And that glory. Then how does it compare.

How does it compare?

Well, I think about my tent. My tent.

It's like ten pounds, which I know some of you

are like backpackers. You're like ten pounds. That's really heavy.

I've never carried this thing. It belongs in the car.

It's a car camping tent. It's the taj Mahal. It's amazing.

You can put all my kids in it, which has

never happened. But it's ten pounds. I mean I could.

I could lift it up and put it up on

the very top shelf of the storage you know, shelves

in my garage, which is exactly what I did, never

to be seen again, and not hard to put up there.

Ten pounds. I did the math, thanks cha, GPT. I

did the math for how much my house weighs. We're

thinking six hundred thousand pounds brick house, concrete slab. Six

hundred thousand pounds is how much my house weighs. And

I'm thinking this is a pretty good analogy between light

and weighty. This is the analogy actually that Paul is

using the difference between a tabernacle and a temple. That's

the difference between a tent and a house. That's the

difference between the lightness of the affliction that we are

going through. And we are going through it, no doubt

about it. We feel it, and he says, but what

I want you to realize is the comparison between the

affliction and the glory is that between a tent and

a house. It's weight. It's beyond comparison. It's beyond comparison,

and it's eternal. If you want to compare timelines, just

think of your life.

Think of your life as like.

Five or six sheets of paper. Right, consider them chapters.

Let me go chapter one. We'll take these chapters in

fifteen year increments. Right, we got five or six sheets

of paper sitting on the desk. Chapter one, ages zero

through fifteen, childhood, ages fifteen through thirty, okay, youth, Chapter three,

ages thirty through forty five, adulthood. We're halfway done, Ages

forty five through sixty. Call that maturity. That's chapter four.

Chapter five, age sixty through seventy five. Call that finishing.

Maybe you have chapter six, seventy five and forward.

Call that bonus. Five or six sheets.

That's it, just.

Hardly perceptible on the table, and eternity.

Is pages to the sky pages to the sky.

It's incomparable the lightness of our affliction and the momentary

nature of our affliction compared to the weightiness and the

eternity of our glory. The way of courage while your

tent is falling apart is recognizing that you're moving into

a house.

The way of.

Courage while your tent is falling apart is recognizing you're

moving into a house. Lean in to the comparing, and

he says, and the preparing, he says, this black, momentary

affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory.

And part of this preparing is just knowing the renewal

of Christ. Christ is at work in all of our

afflictions in every way, and it is preparing for us.

He is preparing for.

Us an eternal weight of glory.

But also a big part of this is that he

knows how he's investing his afflictions.

Right.

He is persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.

He knows how he's investing his afflictions. He's not just

letting them run, He's not just limping along. He's taking

all of his affliction as the throwing them into the

work that Christ has given us. Church, Let's invest our afflictions.

Let's lean into our preparation. There's something to be done

with our afflictions that actually helps us to live with

courage about death. We're investing them. Lean into the preparing,

lean into the comparing. That's how you are courageous about death.

You lean into those things even as you watch the wasting.

You lean into the comparing and the preparing, and you

live courageously about death. That's what God has given to us.

Here's the third way. Here's the third way.

You're courageous.

As you point your sight, as you point your sight,

as you direct your gaze, as you consider your vision.

This is how puts it exactly in verse eighteen. As

we look not to the things that are seen, but

to the things that are unseen. For the things that

are seen or transient, but the things that are unseen

are eternal. So he says, we look, there's something that

we don't look to right, not this, but that, And

there's a reason transient versus eternal.

In other words, we're.

Not focused on the tent poles that are snapping, and

the cords that are fraying, and the pegs that are

going missing. We're focused on our solid home. We're focused

on being with the people in our home, like it

says in verse two of chapter five, like we've grown

to be home. That's how I camp, groaning to be home,

not focus on the fact that this thing is leaking,

but actually directing my gaze, pointing my vision.

Home.

I think that's actually the value of camping for a

person like me.

Is a greater appreciation for my home and the people

in it.

That's what I told a friend of mine.

This past week.

Pastor friend of mine was visiting from Mexico City. We

were driving down the road, had a little time, a

little windshield time to kill, and we're just kind of

catching up with each other and.

My friend from Mexico City.

I'm sure there was some cultural things that neither he

nor I appreciated, because he just came right out and

said it. He's like forty, right, and so he looks

over at me, He's like, so, fifty two, what's that like?

And I said, what it's like is that some part

of this tent is always breaking. Now this scene is

becoming more obviously transient. I should have also said that

now at fifty two I'm more convinced than ever that

Christ is not going to give up on me. I've

just we've been together for a while, and he has

held me every step of the way, and He has

continued to renew me day by day, calling me forward

in repentance and obedience and re commitment and growth and affection.

And he does it.

Man, he doesn't give up on me. But also some

part of this tent is always breaking. And Paul says

to that we don't look at those things. We might

maybe make glance at those things, but we gaze at

the eternal right, we look not to the scene. And

what does it mean to look not to the scene?

Because I think this has been used out of context

at some points, like to look not to the scene

does not mean don't enjoy anything in this world because

you can see it.

Don't look at it.

That's not what Paul is saying. We enjoy these blessings

with real gratitude.

We enjoy these.

Blessings with real generosity and with worship, even if we

don't don't fix our affection on the things of this world.

It's actually the point is worship the blessings that God

has given us. Just become the context in which to

actually enjoy our relationship with him.

That's what it's for.

Just like playing a game with your kids is just

a context in which to enjoy your relationship with them.

It's not about the game, right, You're not dunking on

your six year old daughter and talking trash and then

you go inside and she's.

Crying, and your wife's like, I.

Think you miss the point of basketball with your six

year old girl. It's not the point. The game is

not the point. The relationship is the point. The same

thing is true of the earthly blessings that God has

given us. They're not the point. They're the context in

which we enjoy our relationship with him.

Enjoying the food, food, or the lake.

Or the stars, it's just the setting for enjoying the

creator of the food and the lake and the stars.

So when we look not to the scene, we look

not to the scene, it's not that we don't enjoy anything.

When Paul says we look not to the scene, what's

on his mind here is actually not blessings. It's suffering

and sacrifice and death. What's on his mind is a

torn up tent. And he says these things don't have

our gaze. They don't have our vision. They don't have

our fixed sight. What has our fixed sight is a

solid home and the Lord in it. This is an intentional,

willful step, he says.

We look not to this.

We point our vision this way because the scene draws

our attention so easily, especially when it hurts. It draws

our attention. He says, we look not to the scene,

We look to the unseen. The way of courage while

your tent is falling apart, is recognizing you're moving in

that house.

That's the way of courage.

This is what gives us courage and heart because we see.

We see without seeing, we see reward. We see without seeing,

we are going to live with sinlessness. We see that

Christ is welcoming, welcoming us into this home with without

our merit, with his merit, that his arms are open wide,

not because of what we have done, but because of

what he has done.

And then he rewards.

Us based on what we've done in him.

That's how we live courageously.

We might glance at what's being torn up, but we

gaze at what's eternal. We might glance at declining health.

We might glance at declining wealth because of even gospel

choices that we're making. But we gaze at Christ home,

home with him.