In this short sermon, the speaker warns listeners that while the physical body (the "outer man") inevitably ages and weakens, the spiritual core (the "inner man") is meant to be continually renewed and strengthened. Citing Solomon’s observation that a wounded spirit cannot sustain infirmity and Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that the outward self perishes while the inner self is renewed daily, the speaker diagnoses a common modern condition: people feel a deep, unrelieved fatigue that physical rest cannot fix. This fatigue stems from a neglected or wounded spirit. The speaker urges the audience to "feed" their spirit, recognizing that the inner man should grow stronger even as the outer man declines, and calls for an immediate, unflinching acceptance of this diagnosis.
Chapters
Man cannot live by physical bread alone. When God has you on his mind. Solomon said, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit, who can bear it? Hear that carefully. Your spirit is the thing that carries you when your body fails. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity. But what happens when the spirit itself is wounded? What happens when the load-bearing wall is the thing that is cracking or is cracked? You must feed. This is why so many of us are tired in a way that sleep does not fix it. We are not body tired. The personality, the part of you the world sees, And there is the inner man, the spirit, that part of you that God breathed out and breathed into dust. In Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16, Paul says, though our outward man— listen to this— he said, though our outward man perish, yet the inner man is renewed Day by day. The outer man is going down. He is diminishing. He is aging. I know that many of us don't like the word wrinkle, but he is aging. That is not a tragedy, not at all. There's nothing wrong with aging. Renewed is the word that Paul uses. Strengthened, getting fuller while the outer gets thinner, is gaining strength, muscle. And here is the diagnosis I want you to receive this morning without flinching: both men are going down at the same time, or women are going down at the same time. The outer is perishing, Pastor Keith. The outer man is perishing, and that was never the plan. The inner man was Was supposed to be the one thing in you that gets stronger as everything else gets weaker.
