2 Corinthians 4:1-6 – We Do Not Lose Heart
Yesterday we looked at why some don’t respond to the gospel. Why do you respond to the gospel? It is God who has taken away your blindness. It is God who has shone light into your heart so that you know yourself, you know your need. It is God who has granted the gift of faith by His grace so that we respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Why do we not lose heart? We know that God is at work. We know that the Lord is accomplishing His great purpose of saving sinners, that He is glorified by that Gospel message. Over and over again, throughout Scripture, we see God showing how He uses His Word to change lives, how He uses the Son, Jesus Christ, and the proclamation of that Saviour to be the means that He loves to change hearts and minds and to draw people into that precious, saving, face-to-face relationship. Paul says, I didn’t come with persuasive words. I was not a very good preacher or teacher. But God is at work. Jesus Christ, preached and taught, is the means that the Lord uses. And so we preach Jesus, not ourselves, and we do not lose heart.
At the time of the Reformation, individuals looked to these passages to describe a personal commitment to evangelism. And they used preaching in two different ways. They talked about it informally and formally. The informal aspect of preaching is where there is a proclamation of Jesus Christ in the day-to-day settings of your family and of your work. It’s tempting in those situations to think, I wonder if I’m going to be offensive if I tell this person about Jesus Christ. I wonder if I’ll say the right words. I wonder if I can get it out right. And I want to urge you from this passage to see the confidence that we have to speak of Christ boldly, and to let God do the work of conversion. There’s also a formal aspect of preaching. And here again, the Scriptures are full of the confidence that we have that the Lord uses the worship and preaching of Jesus Christ as a means of salvation, that the Lord uses the preaching of His Word, the foolishness of preaching, to draw men and women out of darkness and into light. And so let me encourage you, to tell others about spiritual matters. Let that individual know about Jesus. Tell them about your own blindness and your coming to Christ. Tell them what the Bible says about sin and the Saviour. Tell them about a church that will speak to them about this Jesus. We have received mercy, and so we do not lose heart knowing that God is at work – He who has promised it is faithful.
Question
- Why do we not lose heart?
Prayer Points
- Pray that family and friends will come to worship with you.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.