2 Corinthians 4:7-18
This Week’s Main Idea:
Christians maintain fervency internally even when things are hard externally.
Icebreaker:
You know our world has a lot of problems. In the face of so much pain and suffering, how is the Christian to maintain a fervency of spirit?
Introduction:
The enemy loves to attack believers with pain and suffering. We all know someone who has lost heart after experiencing a difficult season of life. The icebreaker questions calls our attention to difficulties in our world. This kind of suffering is the least personal. We know it exists, but it most likely wouldn’t cause us to personally loose heart. Personal hardships can cause kind of pain and suffering that is the most painful because it hits so close to home. This is the stuff that causes many to lose heart. The passage we are going to look at today is going to show us how we as Christians can be fervent in spirit even through hardship. It doesn’t mean we won’t experience sorrow or loss, but it does mean we can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, remain fervent.
Read 2 Corinthians 4:7
1. Why do you think our bodies are described as “jars of clay?” What are some similarities between a jar of clay and the human body?
2. What is the “treasure” that we have in these jars of clay?
Read 2 Corinthians 4:8-12
3. What external things are happening to the believers?
4. As these things come against the believer, what is being revealed about the spirit of the Christian?
Read 2 Corinthians 4:13-15
5. How does the eternal perspective of our resurrection give us strength and perspective today?
6. As we maintain fervency and heart through difficulty, what is the desired effect?
7. Does it comfort you to know that the pain and suffering that we face as believers is for a great and eternal purpose?
8. Share a time when you felt the spreading of God’s grace over your life. How did His grace imparted to you internally encourage or alter the external reality?
Read 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
9. What is the difference between the inner man and the outer man in this passage?
10. How are you feeling the decaying effects of your inner man? How do you strengthen, or renew, your inner man?
11. In what ways are you looking to the things seen and neglecting that which cannot be seen?
12. When has there been a time in the recent past where you were tempted to lose heart? How did you turn to God to sustain you?
13. What would it look like for you to encourage those around you who have lost heart?
Suggested prayer request:
Lord, please help us. Holy Spirit, stir our hearts with affection for the treasure Who resides within us. Help us to stay in the fight with our renewed hearts and our strong spirits.
Other Scriptures to Engage with this week:
Psalm 34, Psalm 22, Psalm 119:49-56, Psalm 73, Psalm 23