1. 2 Corinthians 4:13-18 Dr. Lewis Winkler
What are you looking at?
2 Corinthians 4:13-18
Dr. Lewis Winkler

2. Distracted to Death!

3. What are you looking at?
You may need to look at something or someone else.
What you see is what you get.

4. Noticing the Context: Verses 8-12:
AFFLICTED, BUT NOT CRUSHED
PERPLEXED, BUT NOT DESPAIRING
PERSECUTED, BUT NOT FORSAKEN
STRUCK DOWN, BUT NOT DESTROYED
DELIVERED OVER TO DEATH, YET BRINGING LIFE TO OTHERS

5. The Nature of Our Gospel (13-15):
The gospel is worth talking about with everyone who will listen.

6. The Nature of Our Gospel (13-15):
We will be raised to eternal life in God.

7. 1 Corinthians 15:51-55
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

8. The Nature of Our Gospel (13-15):
The gospel is going forth in all of its saving power so that others may know God, thank Him for His grace, and so bring more and more glory to His name.

9. For Personal Reflection:
Do I really live my life in light of the gospel and the confident hope and expectation of being raised to eternal life in Christ?

10. We do not lose heart
Because the gospel is the power of God to bring salvation to all who hear and believe.
Because God will raise us up with Christ to eternal life.
Because we continue to have the right perspective.

11. Studies in Contrast: The Nature of Our Being (16):
OUTER PERSON INNER PERSON
Decaying
Daily Renewed

12. 1 Samuel 16:6-7
“Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

13. 1 Timothy 4:8
“Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

14. Studies in Contrast: The Nature of Our Afflictions (17):
AFFLICTION GLORY
Momentary
Eternal
Light
Weighty

15. C. S. Lewis from “The Weight of Glory”
“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.“

16. Contrasting Visions of the “Good Life”

17. Contrasting Visions of the “Good Life”
“Run in such a way as to get the prize They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
—1 Corinthians 9:24-25

18. C. S. Lewis from “The Weight of Glory”
“I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except insofar as it is related to how He thinks of us. It is written that we shall ‘stand before’ Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God.”

19. For Personal Reflection:
What are you trying to get out of this life? What are you striving for with all of your might?
Do you strive for the glory and praise of God or for the glory and praise of men?

20. Studies in Contrast: The Nature of Our World (18):
SEEN UNSEEN
Temporal
Eternal

21. “Ozymandias” I met a traveler from an antique land
by Percy Shelley
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

22. Psalm 90:10, 12
“The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

23. Conclusion and Application:
What am I looking at right now in my life?
What am I focusing on to find comfort and hope in the midst of life’s challenges?

24. My Own Story: Coleman Hall Student President
Residence Hall Hiring Committee
Fraternity Chaplain and Inter-fraternity Council President
Homecoming Court

25. Psalm 121:1
“I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”