The Daily Exchange

One verse I want to start with from 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. For this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. A problem that almost every one of us has is that our grasp of spiritual truth with our heads is way, way, way beyond that which we have turned into substance in our lives.

You know, we have the insight, we grasp the theology, we understand all kinds of marvelous things, and we can mouth them, we can explain them, but we're not living them. For instance, we can talk about the joy of the Lord, we can write books about it, read books about it, and even taste it when the assembly gathers together like this from time to time. But it's quite another thing to have the joy of the Lord as a constant burning flame in our hearts when we get up for another rainy day and when our husband or our wife has disappointed us again.

When our best friend keeps letting us down, our house was broken into again, somebody messed around with our car again, it broke down, something went wrong, or we have to work at a job where there's corruption on every side of us. And still to have for all that in our hearts the joy of the Lord. Then we have something.

There were no doubt a lot of people in the Apostle Paul's day who had just as much insight as Paul did, and who had a grasp of Scripture which was as good, if not better, than his. But there was one thing that Paul had which made him effective when many other people failed, and that was that Paul somehow managed to translate his insights into living so that he was the living embodiment of everything he taught. And you ask, how did he do it? Because when you're frank with yourself you realize that it's not so easy.

And I believe the beginning of the whole thing is found in that verse. For which cause we faint not, we don't give up, we don't wear out, we don't succumb to temptation, for though our outward man is wasting away, our inward man is being renewed every day. So Paul's body is getting older, and he's being hassled on all sides by all kinds of problems, and he has aches and pains, yet every day this man comes up, the inner man of Paul, fresh and new and unsullied and clean and bright.

You can't get that man down. His outer man is looked upon as an imposter, but his inner man is true. His outer man is unknown by the world.

His inner man is well known by God. His outer man is dying. His inner man is always alive.

His outer man is being punished. His inner man never passes out. His outer man is sorrow, and his inner man is always rejoicing.

His outer man is poor. His inner man is making many rich. His outer man has nothing.

His inner man possesses all things. And when Paul talks about being renewed day by day, I believe he's talking about something specific. It's not like just getting up and, okay, I'm all set again.

But this is something in which he has to cooperate. I believe that when Paul talks about being renewed day by day, he's talking about something which is going on in his relationship with Jesus, in which his will is active, so that every day he brings himself to the place, every day where he breaks conformity with this world again, and is renewed in the spirit of his mind. And one of the best ways to describe this renewal going on in Paul, or in you, or in me, is to think of it as an exchange in which we bring our old man to him, the old Adam, and lay him at the foot of the cross, at the foot of the throne, and in exchange for it we get the new.

And one of the places in the Bible where this is best described, what Jesus will do for each one of us, even as he did it for Paul, is the passage which begins at Isaiah 61.1. I'm just going to read a few verses here. And we usually, when we read this passage, because Jesus quotes it in Luke, and elsewhere, I guess, but in Luke for sure, Luke 4, I believe, 5, we think of it as a description of our ministry, and it is that. But we can't begin to minister like we're going to read here to other people until this becomes daily Jesus' ministry to us.

And so, first of all, let's think of it as his ministry to us. The Spirit of the Lord God, Jesus is speaking now in Isaiah 61, through the Spirit, is upon me, because the Lord God has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

And they shall build the old ways, and they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities and the desolations of many generations. First of all, this is something I'm convinced, which Jesus has to do for me every day, and for each of us. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon my Lord, you know, to give to me, to us, good news, to bind up our wounds, to preach deliverance to us, and set us free from our captivity, and comfort us for our mourning.

And then when he begins to do this, then the exchange takes place. And he gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness, so that we might be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that we might be able to go forth and build the old ways, and raise up the former desolations, and repair the waste cities, the desolation of many generations. And see, that can't be a more accurate description of the situation in which every single one of us here finds himself or herself.

Because this city, this wasted city, and its wasted suburbs, are the result, are the desolation of generations of evil that are now beginning to bear fruit. This is not something that's just happening, and it's not just happening in one place. It's happening all over the place.

And if we are going to live in the midst of this death, and survive, spiritually as well as physically, and bring in some healing, and do some building, and bring something positive instead of divisive and destructive, the only way we're going to do this is if we are renewed ourselves every single day, by God. And this renewal, which we need, is best described as this exchange in which we bring the old man, all the evil that is in us, and in exchange for it we are given something fresh and new from God, every day. It starts out this way.

To a point to them that mourn in Zion. Now, I don't see, I do not see how we can look out over this town, the metro area of Detroit, the whole thing, suburbs, city, everything, and begin to see what really is taking place in human hearts, and not mourn. And I can't see how we can look into our own hearts, and face the truth about the ugly, evil, twisted, weird thoughts that go through our heads, and not mourn.

And when we begin to see with the eyes that God gives us, we no longer go around forever criticizing everybody else, but we find ourselves unable to do anything but mourn. We begin to weep. And it is with this frame of mind that is weeping that we have to approach the throne of our God every single day.

Come to Him weeping, to give unto them beauty for ashes. And that's what we bring, first of all, ashes. The ashes of our self-lust, the ashes of our self-righteousness, the ashes of our good intentions which so seldom materialize, the ashes of our own bigotry, our deceitfulness, our bitterness, our compromise.

And we take the ashes and we lay them at His feet. And only when we are willing to lay ashes at His feet, instead of what we think to be our own righteousness, is He able then to give us beauty, and He does. Gives us His beauty, the beauty of His presence, of His holiness which is clean and pure and unsullied and unfailing.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. And if I don't see the beauty of the Lord every single day in His temple, my vision is warped. Pretty soon all I see is ugliness everywhere I look.

And I'm overwhelmed by that ugliness, but that's not necessary. There's no reason why we shouldn't have this beauty of the Lord refreshing our vision every single day. Don't be content until in your prayer light, and you won't survive without one, don't be content until in your prayer light you are bringing those ashes and laying them down at the feet of the Lord every day, and receiving for those ashes the beauty of His presence, so that with His own hands Jesus begins to clothe your mind and your spirit with His beauty.

And you may not still be dancing for joy yet, but at least you will know now that you have, this much you have for your ashes, the beauty of the Lord coming into your heart. The oil of joy for mourning. Don't be afraid to mourn before the Lord.

Don't be afraid to bring your weeping to Him. What's been going on in many of our lives, if not all of them, is that most of our crying and weeping has been done in total secret. Nobody has any idea how much mourning has been going on in your heart while your face has been smiling.

See, but now we bring this to the Lord, and He transforms our mourning, our crying of self-pity into the mourning of repentance. And now I begin to weep, not because everybody's let me down, but seeing now with the eyes God has given me, I start to weep because I have let people down all over the place, and particularly God. And I begin to weep because I see that I am part of this unclean city and its unclean suburbs.

Oh God, I'm a man of unclean lips, says Isaiah, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And as I bring my mourning to Him, my weeping, He takes my weeping of repentance into His heart, and it's gone. And in its place, He puts into my heart His joy, anoints me with the oil of joy.

Now there's no reason why this cannot be our portion every day. The only reason we don't experience this kind of thing every single day is because of our half-bakedness, our unbelief, our lukewarmness. If this is our desire, we can have it.

It's only because we're satisfied, we settle for walking day after day under a cloud of gloom, satisfied to be all the time bummed out. But if I will bring my weeping to Him, He'll transform it into joy. If I will go to Him in the morning, or whenever it is that you get time to pray, and say, Lord, I will not be able to get through this day and do one constructive, worthwhile, sensible, useful thing, unless my heart is filled with Your joy instead of my tears.

He'll do it. He absolutely will do it. He's only waiting for you and me to ask Him.

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Now notice, we are not being told that we are to pretend to praise God when our hearts are heavy, as so many people today are telling us to do. As if we are supposed to go through the motions of praise while our hearts are breaking.

That's not what we're being told to do here. Such things, as far as I'm concerned, are false. What we are being told to do here is to bring our spirit of heaviness to Him.

To admit that it's there. Don't pretend anything. Don't be jumping for joy and saying, praise the Lord, trying to work yourself up into something.

Bring to Him what's really in your heart. And if it's the spirit of heaviness, that's what you bring Him. And when you bring the spirit of heaviness before Him, He reaches down, Jesus, with His own hand, and clothes you in the garment of praise.

Why should I be walking around pretending to be full of praises when my heart is heavy as lead? When I can have the real thing. I can bring to Him my heavy heart, and my gloomy spirit, and have it replaced with His own hand, with a garment of praise. How important it is for us to be honest with Him, but to do this.

And don't be saddled, but don't be satisfied with that spirit of heaviness. Take it to Him, name it before Him, weep before Him, whatever it is. And pretty soon, He, by His Spirit, will have you with all the company of heaven, with angels and archangels, with all the company of heaven, lauded, praised, magnified in His glory.

Then you're ready to go out and minister. That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, and the desolations of many generations.

And oh how this town, the whole metro area, is in need of people who can heal, and who can build. But nobody is going to rebuild the waste city, and raise up the former desolations, who has not first learned daily to be renewed by God. And those who try, without getting that daily renewal, are sure to succumb to despair, or to be sidetracked with temptation of one kind or another.

But if we will first learn to come to Him every day, He will give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. And should there be people in this gathering right now who have never actually experienced this, it's not too much to promise you in the name of the Lord that you can have this, a taste of this, today before you leave this place. Bring to Him this day your ashes.

As we go to prayer, and as we come up here to receive the body and blood of Jesus, bring Him ashes, and He will give you His beauty. Bring Him your weeping and your mourning, the anguish of your heart, and He will fill you with His joy. Bring Him that heaviness that is weighed down upon your spirit, and He will clothe you and send you forth from the doors of this building, clothed in the garment of praise, and equipped to rebuild the waste places, and raise up the former desolations, and do something that will last forever, in the name of Jesus.

Let's pray. Everybody and his brother, Lord God, has an answer for all the problems that we see. And it seems with every answer come more problems.

And we believe, oh God, that your Son Jesus is the only answer there is, the only answer. But Heavenly Father, we don't want to just mouth this. We want to demonstrate it.

And so we ask that this day you would help us all to learn how to be renewed, day by day, in the inner man, that we might be able to produce fruit that will never, never be destroyed. That we might be able to go forth and bring joy to those hearts that are so down, and rebuild the desolations of many generations. Lord God, anoint your children here assembled.

Confirm your word to every one of our hearts before we leave this place today. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.