You know, I've always loved camping. It got in my blood as a kid, largely because of my dad and then Boy Scouts and then other events throughout my life. I just love the outdoors. It doesn't matter whether it's hot, it's cold, it's wet, it's dry. It's fantastic. It's invigorating. It's enjoyable. You know, when you do a kind of survival-type camping, more basic kind of camping, there is one constant that is always necessary. And that is keeping the fire going. You've got to keep that fire going to have what you need to heat the water, to cook the food, to provide light, to provide warmth. And of course, if you're gathering there with friends or family, it's important for unity. Everybody gathers around the fire and enjoys the times together. Embers, coals are good, but that is not what you need. That isn't enough. You need flames. In the Christian experience, it is flames of fire. that burn in love for God and burn for the people of God and the church of God that is necessary. And that's very much in keeping with the nature of God. Look at the vision of Ezekiel the prophet in Ezekiel chapter 2 when he saw God high and lifted up. And what did he see? A being with flames, legs that were flames of fire and a molten chest. When you go to Revelation chapter 1 and see the Lord Jesus Christ, it says that He had eyes as flames of fire. His feet are as burnished brass or molten brass. It's interesting that Hebrews chapter 13 says, our God is a consuming fire. So there is, in a very real sense, in the Christian experience, in the Christian life, if we're going to be like God and in communion with God, there will be this fire-type quality. Here's a problem. In camping, in life, wherever there is a fire, they burn down. Environment, the elements, neglect can cause the fire to diminish, and even smolder. And so it is and can be true in the fire in our hearts. And our church is a fantastic place. It's an awesome environment. You can get quality instruction here in the classes on the Lord's Day and the Wednesday night groups as they gather. of godly friends where iron sharpens iron, the wonderful example of faithful pastors. There's so much good. But as is true in the physical environment, so in the spiritual environment, the elements and neglect can cause the fire to burn low. We don't intend it in our lives. We don't want it to happen. But it does. Combination of pressure sickness, we just have many things calling for our attention and deadlines weighing in on us, maybe the volume of work that we have and our employment is contributing to this, or at home, the rigor of it, the fact that we become even overwhelmed in the work that we have in ministry here or elsewhere. And then there are family responsibilities. And what's more important than your wife and your children? There is nothing more important. And those responsibilities need to be attended to and paid attention to. They're calling for us. And then add to that just physical fatigue. Be it a lack of sleep or just lots of physical labor. And then there's the problem of distanciation. Say, oh, really, okay, don't have a clue what in the world that's about. You have all kinds of clue about what that's about. It's a fancy word to describe people, for example, who live in a lushly beautiful environment like Hawaii, or at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and they've completely lost sight of the beauty. or children of wealth who have everything at their fingertips, not only their needs met, but beyond their needs met, everything they could possibly want or wish for, and yet they suffer from a spirit of entitlement and what now is called affluenza, or godly men, even pastors I've known over my life. who have a beautiful wife and a lovely family and then tragically they abandon that wife and those children and marry a lady twice divorced whose life is a wreck. It's the development of a contempt for the familiar. It's eyes that once saw that go blind. It's a heart that once was flexible and tender to the voice of God and the heart of God that becomes hardened and different to God's Word, to God's people, to God himself, to God's ministry. It's a fire that burns low. Now, this does not have to happen. Not with any of us, individually and personally, and that's really what I'm addressing this morning, is us individually. How can we prevent this happening? Well, wonderfully, There is fantastic, magnificent encouragement found in the passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 16 to 18 that we can find in order to kindle our hearts daily again afresh so the fire burns for God. This can happen. This should happen. This will happen if we embrace the encouragement of this paragraph in the New Testament. And that just causes my heart to soar. That causes my heart to know great encouragement. This is not something that is perplexing, that is hard to grasp or to get our arms around, so to speak, our thoughts around. No. Here it is. compactly, concisely presented for us, right in this text of Scripture, how we can see or have our hearts kindled. Verse 16 says, therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 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 temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So now, what is the first log that we need to cast or put on the embers of our heart? to cause the flames to start to rise. And I want us to think in terms of daily, every day we do these things to rekindle the fire of our heart, a fire of love for God, a fire of love for people, a fire of love for the people of God in the body. Well, the first thing we do is we throw the log on That's a log that appreciates and understands the value of the gift in Christ of ministry. Look at verse 16 again in the text. Therefore we do not lose heart. Therefore we do not lose heart. For this cause, we do not lose heart. We have to stop and consider what has been given to us. Let it sink in to our souls. We have to consider the quality of the ministry that has been entrusted to us as believing people, as Christian people. If you let your eyes run back in this chapter to the first verse, you'll notice that it says, therefore, since we have this ministry as we've received mercy, we do not lose heart. That sounds familiar, doesn't it, to verse 16? We do not lose heart. Why? Because we have received this ministry. What ministry is that? Then let your eyes just run right up into chapter 3, which is probably right on the same page or across the page, and you'll begin to see the ministry, the opportunity of service that we have been granted as people of God, as the children of God. The scriptures say in verse six, notice it, that we are made ministers, servants of the new covenant, the new agreement on the basis of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. We have this covenant by grace. God is able to make all grace abound unto us, and that having all sufficiency, we may abound unto all good works, every good work. Verse 8 says that it's the ministry of the Spirit of God which is glorious. How will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? The operation of God Himself, God in you. to miraculously transform and strengthen you as a Christian person. And look at verse 9. For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. A ministry that helps us not only find the right path and do the right thing, but allows us to be able to introduce others to the right path and to do the right thing in life. Having received the righteousness that is in Christ and having that credited to us, now we have by the Spirit in us, through the grace of Christ, the ability to do the right thing, to live the right kind of life, and to experience, look at verse 17 and 18, the ministry of transformation. For our light, as you look at that text of Scripture in chapter three, now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, that we all, with unveiled face, beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. A life continually transformed, and a life that is able to actually cause, assist to have caused the transformation of other people. We have a ministry that literally can change the course of other people's lives. We have a ministry that can change the course of the life of this community. We have a ministry that can change the course, literally, as believers as a whole labor and work together for the glory of God, our entire nation. We are chosen to be proclaimers, to be ambassadors, emissaries of the Prince of Life, the King of Kings. We have a power in the good news and the gospel that works, it changes people. You know I know that? You know what's dead on proof of that? I've got several hundred pieces of evidence sitting right in front of me right now. Every one of you. transformed by the grace of God, born into the family of God, if you've had faith in Jesus Christ and in Him alone as your Savior. That is the power of the gospel. It is a new covenant, this ministry. It is glorious by the Spirit. It is a ministry of righteousness. It is a ministry of transformation. But I want you to consider the basis for this ministry that we've been given. And that really just even brings home more powerfully the value of it when you look at chapter four, verse one. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. Every one of us individually. have had the generous kindness of God, who has not given us what we deserved. but has brought us into the family of God as one of His children. And not only brought us into the family of God, but daily pours out upon us what is undeserved in cleansing, in forgiveness, in rich blessing over and over again, and then the opportunity of ministry and service to other people that will be impactful, that will be life transforming, What mercy there is for God! Just consider the depths of that mercy. Just consider you, yourself, as I consider myself each day. And find myself just sitting with my Bible on my knees, shaking my head and saying, I really cannot believe this, that I still have this ministry. that God has favored me with it. And men and women, this is true of every one of us. That we in our weakness as human beings and our frailty would still be people who God mercifully brings into His family and makes co-laborers and co-servants. That is an astounding, astounding reality. So the first log we throw on the fire is to remember, to think about the value of what we've been entrusted with. And not let that become something that we just really are not grasping because we're very familiar with it. And we got a lot of other things distracting us in life and a lot of other things going on. And we all do in life, no doubt. but to have the value diminished so we raise that value, we heighten that value, we take that log and we throw it on the fire. And then what do we do? Well, we take the next log and we put it on the fire, the embers of our hearts to get that fire burning even more. And that log is to trust. the promise of renewal in Christ. Now look at verse 16 with me. Therefore we do not lose heart. even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. This passage is teaching us that in spite of physical decline, which all human beings experience, every one of us, this perishing day by day, the ongoing diminishment that happens in life, That in spite of that, which is extended to all things and not just our physical health, you know this, life is just full of things wearing out and breaking down. I mean, pipes freeze, appliances break, cars stop running. They don't fix themselves. I wish they would. Fatigue rises. Health problems come. And I suppose that one of the most surprising things to me, you know, duh, as I've entered into my maturity, is that stuff happens, you know, physically. And you, you know, when you're younger, you're on this trajectory and everything's healthy and everything's fine, everything works good, no pains, no problems, it's just, and then something happens. It's not going like this anymore. Yeah, and I've got a lot of smiling, nodding people acknowledging, you know, the reality of this, okay? Well, look, this text of Scripture says, and you know, sometimes this happens to people not in maturity in life, but people who are really younger people, people in the prime of life, and then all of a sudden, bam! I mean, something happens, a terrible car accident, an unexpected, very serious malady, a lifelong, chronic, debilitating thing, and I mean, they're only in their 20s. They're only 30. Now that's either going to put a person in a serious nosedive, I mean spiritually speaking, serious nosedive, or the log is going to go on the fire and in spite of physical decline there is going to be a blazing up. of the fire of God in their heart, love for him and love for other people. And notice what the text says, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. And that's saying that there can be internal, daily revitalization in our spirit, in our soul, in spite. of this inevitable, unavoidable, physical challenges, difficulty, and wearing down and wearing out. You can experience this internal daily revitalization. Our inward man, what? Is being renewed day by day. Okay, back to the woods and camping. You know, it's time to make a fire. The sun is setting. You've gathered the wood, cut the wood, like my dad used to always say to me when we went camping, Steve, let's copper our beds, you go gather the wood and chop it, you know. I was so appreciative of the co-working that went on there, you know. So I would go gather the wood and it was time to build the fire in the fire pit. Listen, you gather the wood and you get it in the fire pit and you gather around and you join hands and start singing kumbaya and expect the lightning to strike to light your fire, you might be disappointed. In fact, some people might say that you're an idiot, sort of, to do that kind of thing. We have a promise of daily fire. You sleep, most of you, every day. You eat every day, usually more than once. You bathe. You drink water. You do other things to revive yourself physically. And so it is with God in matters of the soul, in matters of the heart, daily. Our self-sufficiency is a serious, serious problem. It dooms us to coldness of heart, the embers burning very low. As 2 Corinthians 3, 5 says, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. And listen how frequently God says, that we are to daily find our sufficiency in Him who will fuel the fire of our hearts spiritually. As Psalm 1-2 says, the blessed man's delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night. As Luke 18-1 says in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as He spake a parable unto them, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Or as the psalmist says in 83.3, I cry daily unto thee. In Proverbs 8.34, wisdom personified says, blessed is the man that watcheth daily at my gates. Remember Acts 17.17? We learned that the honorable Bereans searched the scriptures daily. Hebrews 3.13 gives us this very sober warning. It says, take heed that there not be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, but encourage one another daily. Christ taught us in Matthew 6.1 in that great pattern of prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. And men and women, I think it really does go beyond physical bread there. The Lord Jesus himself is described as the bread that comes down from heaven. In Matthew 4.4, he said, the Lord Jesus, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And when the Word proceedeth out of the mouth of God, and we are partaking of it daily, and we are communicating and communing with Him daily, we experience The fire of illumination, our eyes being opened to things we haven't seen before. The fire of conviction where suddenly we are reproved of sin or wrong in our life and experience and turn in repentance. The fire that comes from intercession as we lift our voices to God and we're praying to God and there is ignited in us an emotion, an intimacy, a drawing near unto God that we had not known ten minutes before. I cannot tell you. How often I've sat down or knelt down to pray daily and I've literally, I mean, I was just, I didn't really want to pray. I was not, this sounds just terrible, I was not in the mood. I didn't feel any fervency. And I start unto the Lord's pardon and prayer, our Father which art in heaven, my Father, the Absolute One, the object of adoration, the Almighty God, Adonai. And I start praising Him for who He is. I'm not 60 seconds, I'm not 120 seconds into this until the fire flames up. I'm not ten, fifteen minutes into this before now I've got a hot burning fire going on in my communion with God. I'm not kidding. And this is what God does. God ignites us through intercession. The wonderful igniting that occurs from edification and fellowship as we take in the Word of God and we fellowship together. Now, we see the value of this ministry. We trust the promise of this daily renewal that we've received. We need to throw another log on the fire, and that is to rejoice in the reality in Christ about affliction. Affliction is not supposed to be the water that is thrown in the fire that douses the fire. I mean, what does James 1-2 mean when it says, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations? Or what does 1 Peter 4-13 mean when it says, but rejoice inasmuch as ye bear the sufferings of Christ? Well look back to the passage with me now, verse 17, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Do you realize that this thing we call affliction, those difficulties, horrendous pressures of one kind or another, can be completely transformed in our perception. This makes us so different than people who do not know Christ. That's what Paul is saying. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, Is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory? Really, Paul? Have you read 2 Corinthians chapter 11 recently? I mean, this is a man that was pummeled and beaten three times. Multiple, multiple stripes. This is a man who suffered hunger and thirst. This is a man who suffered shipwreck. This is a man who bore all the pressure and all the burden of the churches. I mean, the biography that is listed there is just kind of, it makes you cringe when you think about what this man experienced. And what does he say? Now, he's either telling the truth or he's lying. And there's not really two options there. He's saying, our light affliction, which is but for a moment." I'd say his perception of trouble had gotten transformed, hadn't it? It really had. What seemed to be overwhelmingly weighty and crushing was for him light. And you know the feeling when you're in problems and in difficulty? What's the feeling? Will this never end? I can't ever get out from under the burden of this." What does Paul say? It's but for a moment. Compared to what? Compared to the incredible joy that will come through eternity. And how is it that this transformation occurs? It says in the text of Scripture that it is working for us. What? The affliction that is light and momentary is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Don't we normally look at problems or affliction as interruptions, as the unexpected, unfortunate, dark chapter in our life that really and truly should have never happened, that we really need to escape immediately? You know what Paul is saying? He's saying, look, that very thing that you think will be the end of you, is the very thing that is working for you what? Far more exceeding an eternal weight of glory. In the providence and sovereignty of God, what's happened is God has allotted for you something to bear. something to deal with, something to respond to. I have names popping into my mind right now. I'm thinking of Bobby. I'm thinking of Tim. These guys came to train for the ministry where I serve full-time. And they're today, they are paraplegics, quadriplegics, serving in the ministry, victims of automobile accidents that were not their fault. I'm thinking of Beth. I'm thinking of Terry. I'm thinking of the Ivory Family. I'm thinking of countless men and women who I have known who have endured and are enduring very difficult circumstances in life. And you know what's remarkable is I think of a couple right now who've been friends of Sandy and I for years, Betty and Barry, who had born to them through medical malpractice a son 38 years ago, who had cerebral palsy and extreme brain damage. And it was medical malpractice. And their son, Jeffrey, has lived his entire life unable to stand, unable to walk, unable to clothe himself, unable to feed himself. And he's a pastor, Barry is, and Betty, they've been a pastor and pastor's wife all of his life. He's a pastor today. And we've watched them care for Jeffrey. We've been in their home for multiple days at a time. There is no doubt in my mind that Betty and Barry and people like them, one day at the Bema, will receive an honor and a glory and a reward from the God of heaven, the likes of which we cannot even imagine. And what looked to us to be, and in many ways, is tragic. will end up being for Jeffrey, and for Betty, and for Barry, and all the others I've named, and hundreds of others like them, and many of you. The very thing, the very thing that the Lord Jesus will wait to the end of talking to you about your life and your service. And he'll say, now, let's talk about that physical malady you had for 30 years. Well done. Well done. You see, this can be something that becomes literally, this change of view, a throwing of a log on the fire. rather than the dousing of the fire, rather than the dampening of our life. It becomes even for many a door of ministry and service to other people as they begin to understand because of the comfort wherewith they are comforted and can minister to other people in ways they could not minister otherwise. Well, this paragraph climaxes with a final recommendation about what to put onto the embers of our heart to cause the flames to rise up on a daily basis. Would you look at verse 18? While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary. But the things which are not seen are eternal. We have to embrace really what can only be described as a paradox. Something that in life, as we read it right here in this verse, just even as it's stated, seems to be self-contradictory. We look at the things which are not seen. We're not focusing. on the visible and the temporal, while we look not on the things which are seen. For the things which are seen are temporal." Now, we're physical creatures. We live in a physical world. We have physical houses. We live physical lives. And yet, we are not to be absorbed in the here and now, in the creature comforts. in the mere human achievements and relationships. Christ warned about this in his parable of the soils and the third kind of soil when he said there's a kind of soil, and it appears to be a Christian that soil represents, where weeds grow up and choke out the life of the seed and there is no fruit born. And when you look for an explanation in Luke's gospel and Matthew's gospel what those weeds are, They are riches, they are cares and anxieties about life and other things. How can you tell if you are seeing, absorbed in, focused on the things that are seen? How do you know if that's true of you instead of being a person who really sees the things that are unseen on a daily basis? Well, there's a simple test. When you speak, do you frequently complain about your circumstances in life, your physical human circumstances? Or are you always in spirit, and perhaps you articulate this, but you're always in spirit wanting more? There isn't contentment. There's constant ongoing frustration. So Dr. Hankins, we need to be aggressive people, goal setting people, we need to be ambitious people, we need to be successful people in what we do for the glory of God. Yes, amen, of course. That's not what I'm talking about. And I don't think any of us have a hard time figuring out the difference between those things. when our spirit is one of complaint and dissatisfaction and we never can seem to be happy. We just need more and different and better. I'm sure that there are thousands of Christians like this in Greenville. I'm sure it's possible that there are brothers and sisters in Christ like that here this morning. It's an easy thing to fall into, very easy. It is almost a normal thing. In American culture, it is normal. If you're an American, this is kind of the way you think all the time. But we instead focus on the eternal. But at the things that are not seen, the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul put it this way in Colossians chapter 3 verse 1 and 2. If ye then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. Concentrate on its saying. Focus on things that are above. Now, this is obviously contrasting with the temporal or temporary things that have just been mentioned, the things that are visible and physical. But let's think a little more specifically about that, the things that are above. Who is above? Who sits at the right hand of God the Father? What throne is it that is above? It is the throne of grace that is above. It's God our Father who is above and His Son who is above. and the priorities that they articulate so clearly of an eternal and spiritual nature. For example, the destiny of lost people, the growth of other believers. Think personally now, lost people you know, other believers you know. The health and prosperity of the body of Christ, the church. It is His body, it is Christ's body. your own conformity to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then just drawing nigh to God and knowing God. As Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24 states, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but he that boasts, let him boast in this, that he knows and understands me, that I am the Lord that exercises lovingkindness and justice and righteousness in the earth, and in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Those are things that are eternal, that are above. compared to the things that are temporal. So here we are, this morning, throwing logs onto the fire. The value of the gift of the ministry we received, trusting the promise of daily renewal not only trusting that but rejoicing in the reality about affliction, seeing the unseen, this great paradox. We men and women can and should be like the Emmaus disciples who on the road to Emmaus when the Lord Jesus had appeared to them, they describe later in Luke 24, 32, did not our hearts burn within us? while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures. Now we've seen in one of these things that I've listed here that this is a daily revitalization and renewal that we can trust God about. But I am persuaded that there does need to come a point. Life with God is a daily process, but life with God also is important crisis. What I mean by that is that there comes a moment, there comes a moment when the brother or sister says, I need to be putting logs on this fire. I need to go to a different level this way than I have been on. There needs to be a definite revitalization for me in this time, at this point. I know as I'm listening to this this morning that I'm afraid I'm perilously close. to the Laodicean problem of Revelation 3 where I am not cold and I am not hot. I am not hot for God. I'm not hot for God. I'm just kind of going along. Well then it's time for a crisis. I mean a point in time where you say now, wait a minute, I should not continue this way. There is too much at stake for me personally, for my family, for my church. I wonder if the pianist will come to the piano, please, and just begin playing a couple of stanzas. Let's stand to our feet together with our heads bowed before the Lord. As she begins to play, say, Brother Hankins, I communion with God. I walk with God. I know God. I love God. but I think it's a time, it's an appropriate moment for me, for there to be a bit of a crisis, a stepping up, an increasing of the fire. I think it's time for me. By the Spirit of God's working in my heart, I believe it's time. I'm inviting you. These are stairs, but this is an altar of God. This is a place. Come ahead. You want to seek God? You want to pray to God? You want to ask God to help you? Stir you? Take you to a different level in this regard? Help you by his grace? Go right ahead, instrumentalists. Begin playing. God has spoken to your heart this morning. God has touched your heart. I invite you to this place of prayer, whoever you are, wherever you are. God has dealt with you this morning. Come right ahead. Oh, Lord. I don't want to be lukewarm. I don't want to be casual, laid back and indifferent. I want to go to a different level, someone else to whom God has spoken this morning. It's time for a crisis for me, a crisis of faith, a good crisis, a good time. Lord, I am giving myself to you afresh, anew, to be one with a warm heart. Others, come right ahead as they play. God has touched your heart, touched your life, spoken to you. Yes. Lord, it's time for me to load the logs on the fire. I want to be hot. for God, for the ministry, for our church. Come right ahead. God's spoken to your heart. I invite you to a moment. Others. Others are coming, why don't you come ahead? Lord, this morning, I'm setting down a memorial at this altar at this time for the process to be a daily process, an ongoing process of building the fire in my heart for the glory of God, someone else.