Benjamin Hatch brings a message on 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 as part of our series "God's Power in Our Weakness," a series in the book of 2 Corinthians. There is a brief gap about 8 minutes into the sermon. Sorry.
Redeemer Bible Church of Fort Bend
We Do Not Lose Heart (2 Corinthians 4:7-18)
(soft piano music) - You're listening to a podcast by Redeemer Bible Church. Come visit us Sunday mornings at 10.30 a.m. or visit our website at redeemerfortbend.org for more information. Thanks and enjoy. (soft piano music) And 908, if you're using one of the seatback Bibles. Second Corinthians chapter four. This morning, we're gonna read verses seven through 18. Seven through 18, it's a little bit of a long passage. I'm not gonna ask you to stand, but do listen carefully and follow along with your Bible as we now read beginning of verse seven. Actually, I'll start in verse six. For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness "has shown in our hearts to give the light "of the knowledge of the glory of God "in the face of Jesus Christ." But we have this treasure in "Jors of Clay." To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke, we also believe. And so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord, Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake. So that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. This is God's word, all God's people said. Amen, let us pray. "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight of God, our rock, and redeemer." We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Life is suffering, says the first noble truth of Buddhism, which means suffering is inescapable. In sharp contrast, the sect known as Christian science, which is neither Christian nor scientific, says that suffering is an illusion. And between these two extremes lie the claims of dozens of other religions and philosophies, each with their own shallow understanding of the reality, causes, and responses to suffering. There are many such perspectives out there in the world today. And that's because suffering is so common. Some of you who are very young may not have tasted that truth yet, but many of us understand it all too well, because you've gone perhaps through financial hardship, or job loss, or bankruptcy, relationship pain, divorce, the disintegration of your family, death of a spouse, or children, or parents, chronic illness, chronic pain, chronic disappointment. Friends life is hard, and if you live long enough, you will certainly face at least some of these things, and you'll know other people that will face the rest of them, or other things like them. Suffering is common, and death is certain. How should believers in Jesus respond to these realities? Well, the wisdom of this world cannot tell us what we need to know. The religions and philosophies of this world lack truth and power, because we saw last week they're all just deceptions from the evil one. Believing friends, what we need is the wisdom of the living God. And thankfully, he has spoken. He has spoken in his son Jesus, and he has spoken in his inspired word, the Holy Bible. And today, as we continue our series in the biblical book of 2 Corinthians, which we've been in now for several weeks, we will see that the apostle Paul tells us some vital truths about the suffering of believers. And today in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 7 through 18, we're going to ask two questions. First, why do believers suffer? And second, how should we respond to suffering? We begin with our first point, why do believers suffer? You might remember Paul is writing here to the Corinthian church, which is a church that he had founded, and which later drifted into sin. And this led to conflict, because Paul wasn't just going to let them go off. He told them, you guys need to repent, and he kept telling them that, but the Corinthians refused. And they tried to deflect Paul's arguments by asking questions, oh, Paul, are you really an apostle? Can you really speak into our lives? And this went on for years. But finally, after Paul issued a really stern rebuke, most of the Corinthians repented. But there were still some lingering questions about Paul's legitimacy. And so for the first four chapters of this book, Paul has been setting the record straight. He has been answering these questions once and for all. And today, in many ways, we come to the conclusion of the first section of this book, in which Paul is defending himself. And here, Paul revisits the charge that he answered back at the very start of the book. A challenge rooted in the Corinthian's false prosperity theology. The Corinthians were saying something like this. If Paul really represented God, he would be a healthy and wealthy man. But he sure seems to suffer a lot. Maybe he doesn't really know God. Now Paul answers this false charge once more. And his point is that suffering does not disprove his ministry, no suffering is a normal part of the Christian experience. But why must that be? Why is that? Well, Paul now provides four reasons why believers in Jesus suffer. You've got a lot of points today to try and help you follow along. The four points why believers suffer. Number one, God allows us to suffer because when we are at our weakest, then it's very clear that our strength comes from God. Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 7, Paul says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Now what's the treasure Paul's talking about? Well, he just talked about it in the previous verse, verse 6. God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." God has shined the bright light of the glory of the gospel into the hearts of believers. And that's what Paul means when he speaks here about us having a treasure, something not everybody has we talked about last week. Many people languish in spiritual darkness, but God has allowed believers to see the truth, to understand the gospel and value it rightly into believe. And we need to know that when God shines his light into our darkened hearts, he is giving us more than just intellectual knowledge. Now Paul describes it here as surpassing power. Friends, the gospel is the power of God. And the only way we can be made right with the Father. That is Paul's message. And friends, suffering is central to that message. Jesus' suffering produced great good for us. Amen? Jesus suffered and died to save us. But of course, now Jesus has ascended back into heaven. And we cannot just visibly inspect his wounds or converse with him about his sufferings. So how can God visibly show people the truth of the depths of Jesus' suffering? But Paul says what God did was allow Paul to suffer in a similar way. Now be really clear here. Paul did not die a substitutionary death for anybody. Paul's death didn't save anybody. Nobody's sins are forgiven because of what Paul went through. But as Paul lived and served Christ slowly but surely, his life began to more closely resemble the life of Jesus. And Jesus suffered a lot. So Paul did too. The humiliation and abuse that Jesus experienced, Paul experienced something quite like them. The kinds of physical suffering Jesus endured, Paul began to see in his life. Paul's life began to resemble his message. He became a visible depiction of the truths he preached. And Paul tells us a little bit more here about what his suffering entailed. There was psychological pain. That's what we see in this word translated perplexed. You know, Paul administered churches and things were going well and then he'd leave town. And then he'd get a letter. Oh, that church I left that was doing great has been taken over by false teachers. And that would be stressful. That would be confusing. That happened to Paul all the time. And he says he experienced the pain of persecution, rejection and mockery and imprisonment and beatings and attempted murders. Paul suffered a lot. Paul says he was knocked down and he summarizes all of this by saying he was afflicted in every way. Pain came in many forms to Paul. And he says that he was always being given over to death. Paul's pain came all the time in all these forms. So God willed that Paul should live an increasingly cruciform life, a life that increasingly reflected the death of Christ. But at the same time, Paul also says that his suffering was something God used to publicly display the power of the resurrection life of Jesus simultaneously. You know, as Paul suffered more and more, he didn't curl into a little ball and go in the corner waiting to die. He didn't resign his ministry. He didn't quit the faith. Yes, he was persecuted, but he knew he hadn't been forsaken by God. So he didn't despair and said, you know what he did? He made sure his persecutors knew that God hadn't forsaken him also. Where did that kind of strength come from? Where did that awareness of God's presence come from? It wasn't from Paul. Paul's just a jar of clay. It came from God. Yes, Paul was stressed and perplexed, but he didn't have a psychological breakdown and stop being useful. He had the toughness to endure. Where did that come from? Did Paul just pull himself up by his bootstraps like, you know, an American from the old West? No, it came from God. Yes, Paul was knocked down, but he wasn't destroyed. Yes, he was afflicted, but he wasn't crushed. He persevered because God enabled him to. Yes, the agony of Paul's life displayed the death of Christ visibly, but despite all the suffering he went through, think of what Paul accomplished for the Lord. The gospel was boldly preached all over the Mediterranean world. Churches were planted, believers were discipled, leaders were raised up, a huge chunk of the New Testament was written. God used Paul in the midst of his suffering to accomplish so very much that was a visual demonstration of the reality of Paul's message too. That pointing not to the death of Jesus, but to the power of his resurrection, to his empowerment, to his sending his spirit who transforms and gives life to his people Paul's life showed that too. And as Paul was comforted by God and energized by God in this way, what did he do with it? Well, he told us back in chapter one, verse four. God comforts us in all of our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. Paul shared in Christ's sufferings and God comforted him and helped him. And he used that to help the Corinthians to preach to them and minister among them, to lead to their help, their comfort and their strengthening and their salvation. And so God let Paul suffer to display the truths of the death and resurrection of Jesus, to minister the gospel of the Corinthians and many other people. Number three. God allows us to suffer because our suffering causes us to anticipate our resurrection hope. Look at verse 13. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke. We also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. Now Paul here quotes from Psalm 116, which we read earlier in the service. And in that psalm, the psalmist talks about his suffering. Psalm 116, he says, "I believed even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. "The snares of death encompassed me. "The pangs of the grave laid hold on me. "I suffered distress and anguish "that I called on the name of the Lord. "Oh Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. "And in the midst of this trial, "as he trusts God and calls out to him, "God answers him." Psalm 116, again, you have delivered my soul from death. My eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. The psalmist is saved from his fear of death and he's given a new lease on life and he erupts with praise because of this deliverance God has performed for him. Now Paul says, that's just like me. Just like the psalmist, I trust God. Just like the psalmist, I cry out to God, believing, being strong in faith. And just like the psalmist, Paul is delivered by God. Now that might seem strange to us because if you know anything about Paul's life, you might say, well, Paul's life doesn't look like he was ever really rescued by God from his hardship. You know, Paul went on suffering for the rest of his life and he wound up being executed in an unjust act of murder. But the psalmist was delivered from his near death experience. How is Paul like the psalmist? Well, here's the answer. The psalmist was indeed delivered from one deadly experience but Paul anticipates a greater deliverance. He will be delivered from death itself because Paul understands that the gospel of Jesus offers the greatest deliverance of all. The promise of resurrection from death. Of victory over death. Of walking in the land of the living. Meaning not just continuing in this world of misery but living forever in the new creation, the home of eternal life. And so Paul has faith in God despite his sufferings and he knows that God has the solution to his sufferings. And friends, that solution is this. One day God will raise his people from the dead and free us from pain and sorrow. And on that day, Paul won't be alone. His experience will be shared by the Corinthian believers and all who trust in Christ. That's where the life giving power of the gospel leads to the glorious promise of the resurrection from the dead. That one day God will reconstitute the bodies of all of his people and glorify us beyond all decay and death and summon us to live in the bliss of his presence forever. All right, finally now, number four. God allows us to suffer because all that God does in our suffering ultimately leads to his glory. Look at verse 15. For it is all for your sake. So that his grace extends to more and more people that may increase thanks giving to the glory of God. Why does Paul suffer for the Corinthians benefit? Why does Paul preach for the Corinthians benefit? Why does God help Paul for the Corinthians benefit? All God is doing through Paul is to help the Corinthians because God is gracious, because God is kind. Man, the Corinthians didn't deserve God's kindness anymore than we did. God gave him his kindness anyway. So God used Paul suffering to benefit them and all the other churches Paul worked with. And as Paul went from city to city preaching and suffering and being empowered by God to continue, what was the result? The salvation of many souls. Many people turned to God with gratitude and said, thank you God for all that's available in the gospel. And as more and more people turned to God with gratitude in their hearts, God gets more and more glory. And friends, that's ultimately what Paul suffering was all about. And that's what Paul's ministry was all about. And friends, really, that's what our lives and our hardships and in fact, all creation is really about. God being glorified. And God is glorified as we point others to Christ so that they may be saved. So that they will thank God and glorify him that more and more glory might be attributed to him. That is what history is about. Friends, it's not about us. It's about giving God glory. Galatians 1.16 says, all things were created through him and for him. Friends, that's a reality check. We want everything to be about us, right? Even our suffering, we think, well, it's supremely about us. I'm a victim, I shouldn't be going through this. This is so mean. No friends, actually our suffering is part of God's plan to save many people so that he might make his name known and glorified. So to recap, in this first point, we've seen that we suffer because our weakness shows that the strength we have comes from God. It displays the death and resurrection of Jesus. It makes us long for eternity and it furthers God's eternal plan which ultimately brings him glory. Now let me offer a few applications. Number one, Paul is an example of what we should expect. Now listen, Paul was an apostle. The apostles had a unique role in the history of the church. They suffered much, much more than we are likely ever to suffer. So my point here is not that we're gonna suffer just like Paul did, no. But believing friends, we all will still suffer to some degree. Maybe to a large degree, Paul tells us in Acts 14, through many tribulations, we enter the kingdom of God. So if you're a believer, don't expect an easy life. Know that the road to glory is marked by suffering. Number two, don't be frustrated by your suffering and weakness and don't try to hide it. Friends, we are jars of clay, we are frail. That's what we are. And as we hurt, as we age, as we break down, it's easy to lash out or wanna hide so that nobody sees us. But God's plan is that people should see us in our state of weakness. So that they might perceive the life of God that is within us and recognize that there is a power in us that comes from Him, that they might give Him glory. So please don't just come to church when you're in a good mood, we're able to put on a convincing smile. Don't only talk about Jesus with your friends when you're having good times. God intends His people to be seen in our state of weakness. Number three, not only should we be seen, but we should be serving in our state of weakness. Now, some of us will be able to serve more than others in visible ways in the church. Some of us, because of advanced age or illness, the best thing you can do is pray. And man, that's a meaningful service in the church. We need brothers and sisters praying for members of the church. And friends, it should cause us to glorify God when we see an agent or sick believer who is committed to prayer. But for others who are able to do more, do what you can. Get involved here, evangelize the lost, be a faithful spouse or parent at home, even when you're hurting, even when it doesn't feel like you want to, because that displays God's glory in the midst of your weakness. And it glorifies Him. Application for cry out to God. Suffering's awful. And though it may produce many redemptive and glorifying things, there's nothing wrong with following this almost example and begging God for His mercy and deliverance from our trials. And friends, God often answers those prayers in the affirmative. He often rescues us. But sometimes He gives the answer that He gave Paul later in this book, the second Corinthians 12-9. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And friends, if that is the answer to the prayer that we get when we seek God, then let us be like Paul in this passage and long for the deliverance that will come to us in eternity in the resurrection of the body when all of our sorrows and pains will be gone forever. And it is this longing for the resurrection that transitions us now to our second point, which is how should we face our suffering? Paul suffered a lot, but look what he says in verse 16. So we do not lose heart. We saw the same phrase back in verse one a few weeks ago, and we said that literally this means we do not respond inappropriately. Well, as Paul considers his frailty, his pain and his confusion and his persecution, his response is not inappropriate. He is not overcome by these hardships. He has not been crushed or driven to despair or destroyed. He knows he has not been forsaken by God. If Paul let his pain drive him to extreme misery, to the point where he wanted to quit his ministry or walk away from the faith, that would indeed be a terrible and inappropriate response. But Paul says here, I haven't responded like that. The translators properly render this, we don't lose heart. Paul isn't so devastatingly discouraged by his hardships that he just gives up. And we need to know that is not because Paul found some neat trick to letting things just roll off his back. Paul did not find some mystical, zen-like experience that let him undergo hard things outwardly but inwardly remain untouched by pain or sorrow. The Paul really hurt physically and emotionally and psychologically. But as Paul suffered, he recognized that more was happening in his life than just suffering. Yes, the suffering was there, but it wasn't ultimate because Paul was confident even as he suffered that other, better things were happening in his life at the same time. And that confidence caused him gladness and hope in the midst of his pain. And Paul tells us about that now in verse 16. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. In a visible sense, Paul is wasting away. He just talked about how the death of Jesus was obvious when you looked at him that he was suffering so much. Anybody that saw Paul knew he was suffering. And yet while that's true, something else was happening invisibly. Paul is also being changed for the better. He talked about this back in chapter three, verse 18. We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. As Paul suffers outwardly, as he wastes away, invisibly the Holy Spirit is at work inside Paul, making him new, making him ever more like Christ. But how does this happen? These are some of the most important verses in the whole Bible, look at verse 17. Paul says for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. These words are crucial in helping us understand how we should navigate suffering in this life. I want to highlight three truths we see in these verses. Truth one is this, believers must understand that our suffering is relativized. Yes, our pain is real. Yes, it is terrible. No, it is not absolute. Paul suffered way more than any of us will ever suffer. Later in this book, this is how he talks about his sufferings in chapter 11, verse 23. That he underwent countless beatings and being often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes less one. That's he got whipped 39 times. That happened to him five times. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, he's not talking about getting high, he's talking about people hit him with rocks to try to kill him. Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, he was floating on the water. On frequent journeys in danger from rivers, from robbers, from my own people, from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And then he says, apart from these other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Friends, that's a life of stress and pain and hardship. And after Paul wrote that, it didn't get any better for him, he wound up in a dungeon in Rome. That was so cold, he wrote Second Timothy in part to tell Timothy, "Bring the cloak. I'm cold." And there he talks about some of those ministry partners we read about in the New Testament, and he says, "All deserted me." There at the end, Paul is betrayed, alone, freezing, awaiting an unjust death. And yet, as Paul considers the many horrible things that he went through in his Christian life, here in verse 17, what does he call those things? This light, momentary affliction. Being whipped is not a light thing. Neither is being hit with a bunch of rocks and left for dead. Being adrift at sea isn't momentary. Neither is languishing in prison for months. But Paul calls all this and more light and momentary affliction, not because it was easy. It wasn't. Not because it didn't really hurt. It did. Now, Paul calls his suffering light and momentary because he takes a longer view. He is comparing what he suffers now with what awaits him in eternity, which is glory. Now, what's the glory that Paul has in mind? He'll tell us in next week's passage in chapter 5, as he speaks about that which is mortal being swallowed up by life. He's talking about resurrection existence. In existence, he described like this in 1 Corinthians 15. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. Our jars of clay, our frail, dying bodies aren't much to get excited about, even if you're in the gym all the time. Because, friends, in the end, we all go into the ground like a kernel of wheat. Decaying, dishonored, but believing friends, we will all be changed. And we will rise in a new body characterized by power and immortality and glory. And what that existence will be stands in total contrast to the miseries and sufferings of this life. Paul says that eternal glory will be weighty. Now, that comes from his Jewish background. Because in Hebrew, the word for glory is kabod, which means heaviness. Nobody's more glorious than God. And when we think about God's glory, we tend to think of his brightness. But there is also an aspect of weightiness, of gravity, of awesome seriousness to God. That is his glory. And friends, God means to make his people share in that glory. He means to give us a weight of glory, too. Not like his. I mean, nobody can be as glorious as God. But those who know Christ will be glorified. And it will be weighty. And that weighty glory relativizes what we face in this life. It makes our troubles and hardships as awful as they are, merely light in comparison to the weight of the glory that awaits us. But that's not all. Because the glory that awaits us is also eternal. And that eternality also relativizes what we face in this life now. We all suffer sometimes. Some of us suffer for long periods of time. A season, maybe years. Some may suffer for their whole lives facing pain or physical illness or mental illness. There's also hurt as we care for those who suffer for long periods of time. Or we suffer through hard relationships at home or with extended family. And sometimes we may look at our hardship and say, my suffering will never end. It's hopeless. This is the rest of my life. And friends, it might be the rest of your life. That's true. But you will live forever. And if you know Christ, you will exist in the glorious reality of the resurrection, which never ends. And that means our troubles and hardships, even the longest lasting ones, are merely momentary in comparison to the eternal duration of the glory that awaits us. Because what is a year compared to forever? Or two years? Or five years? Or 50 years? Our lives are of no meaningful duration compared to eternity. That the awful hardships of this life are therefore momentary when compared to the eternal glory that awaits. In fact, so great is the glory that is going to be revealed. That Paul says it is beyond all comparison. And friends, that is a really a soft translation of the Greek here. The glory that is coming is wander upon, wander upon, wander forever. Nothing in this world even comes close to comparing to it. And believing friends, we are in a collision course with this reality. Ephesians 2.7 says, in the coming ages, he will show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Think about the best things in your life. Has God not been good to you friends? You ain't seen nothing yet. The kindness of God will be lavished upon his people, his goodness, his glory, and all the wonders of the world to come that Paul says are immeasurable and they will be poured upon us moment by moment, day after day, age after age, world without end, in the presence of Christ. Prince, that is a great promise. And Paul says, if we really think about that, that will relativize our hardships. That will put our suffering in perspective. Romans 8.19, he says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed. Number two, we need to understand that our suffering produces our reward. I'm not advocating a masochistic understanding of salvation, that if you suffer enough, God will save you, or if your life is too easy, you'd better go find some hardship. I'm not saying that. But what Paul does say here is there is a causal relationship between our suffering and the glory that is coming. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us, the glory. That's taught elsewhere in the New Testament. James chapter one, he says, count it all joy, my brothers. When you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Paul tells us to rejoice in our hardships, not because they're fun, but because through them, God is it working our lives, bringing us to completion, readying us for eternity. And so it is the believer's experience of suffering that leads to our transformation that readys us for glory. But to be clear, that only happens if we respond appropriately to our trials. If our hardships make us lose heart, if they make us want to quit the faith, or reduce us to grumbling glass femurs, our hardships aren't going to be any benefit to us. They won't be preparing any glory for us. But Romans 5 says, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. If you respond friend to the hardship in your life with endurance and steadfastness and trust in God, that will produce hope and glory for you that will last forever. Suffering is the means God has ordained to prepare you for glory, and to prepare the glory that will be yours for you. Now number three, this, and most importantly, this passage teaches us as believers how to respond to suffering in the way that God intends. As Paul says, we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. If you don't hear me on anything else today, hear me on this. The Bible's really clear. What we behold shapes who we become. And they put you in the most extreme example of the second thing of. In verse John three, the apostle speaks of the return of Christ, and listen to what he says. We are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Here's what he says. When Jesus returns, when believers look at him, and behold him in that very moment, as we look at him, we will be changed. And John says that is because we will see him as he is. Seeing leads to transformation. That shouldn't surprise us. We saw that earlier in this book, in chapter three. We're told that the Holy Spirit transforms us into Christ's likeness as we behold the glory of the Lord. As we look upon Christ, we are changed, gradually and increasingly made more like Jesus. And I'm not talking about seeing Jesus in a vision or a mystical experience. Second Corinthians five says we walk by faith, not by sight. So this is not about putting our eyeballs on Jesus in this life. This is about putting our minds on Jesus in this life, thinking about Jesus, contemplating Jesus. As we look to Jesus with the eyes of faith, we will be transformed by the work of the Spirit. And we will be ready to endure hardship and more convinced of the reality of the glory that is to come and more prepared for it. And Paul says that is where our minds need to be when we suffer. Because verse 18, the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Only Christ and the things that pertain to Christ will endure forever. Everything else is going up in smoke. And so our attention needs to be on what's gonna endure. What's gonna ready us for eternity? What's gonna make us more like Christ? And as we devote our minds to those things, we will see our hardships more and more in the light of eternity and be readier for New Jerusalem. Now what should we take from this last point? Let me offer three applications. Number one friends, reject the world's wisdom about prosperity, theology. There's not a hint in this passage that godliness leads to earthly wealth or health. Jesus suffered, Paul suffered, the apostles suffered, and they tell us you will suffer if you follow Christ. We need to know that any system of theology that equates godliness with worldly acquisition of wealth does not come from God. It comes from the false God of this world who we said last week is Satan. Prosperity theology is a doctrine of demons. Don't be deceived by it. Number two, don't be your trials. Don't run from trials, endure to the end. Suffering is horrible, but by it God readies us for glory. And as we suffer and endure it in a God-honoring way, that eternal weight of glory is being generated for us. And that should change the way we think about hardship. Some people encounter hardship and they say, "Ah, God, you didn't come through for me, I'm out." Don't think like that, friend. True faith perseveres to the end. False faith falls away. Hebrews 3, 14 says, "We have come to share in Christ if we hold our original confidence firm to the end." Now maybe when you encounter hardship, you say, "I want an immediate escape." And that's not wrong, that's what the soul must pray for. But friends, if God wills that we should face long-standing hardship, don't crumble, don't quit the faith. Understand, this is the necessary path that leads to your glorification. Ponder the wonders of eternity. Keep your mind on the things of God. Pray for God's help to endure. And know and believe that God is at work in you, ready in you for eternity. But finally, I don't want to leave you with this. Where are you putting your mind? It's really hard to stay focused on eternal and visible things, especially when we suffer. It's easy to think about eternity on a nice morning like this where we sung some songs and all that. But it's a lot harder when you're about to have surgery or you're having trouble paying your bills. What kinds of things distract you when you face suffering? What kinds of things might we choose to put our mind on? Many people try to numb themselves to hardship by drink or drugs or sexual sin, thinking that these things will give us a reprieve from our pain. But actually when we go down that road, we jump from the frying pan into the fire because what we behold transforms us. And so if we fix our minds on what is evil, we will be transformed not into holiness, but into worldliness. And the Bible warns us where that path leads, Romans 8, 6, to set the mind on the flesh is death. Now maybe for us, the temptation is not to run after that which is overtly evil, but we run after the comforts of the world. Oh, if I get some money that'll make it all feel better, or we throw ourselves into work or a hobby to find a reprieve where we consume vast amounts of news or entertainment. But friends, all of these things belong to this world which is passing away. Now make no mistake, I'm not saying these things are bad, but they are transient, they are not eternal. And if we conform ourselves and our affections to that which is passing away, we are not being ready for eternity. Now I'm not saying that we should be ill-informed or abstained from all entertainment, and I'm not saying that we should shirk the earthly responsibilities that have been entrusted to us. We must not, but we must not allow earthly things to be ultimate in our minds, to dominate our hearts and our desires because none of these things will last. But maybe, and I would venture this is probably most of us, when we face hard times we're most tempted to fix our eyes on our circumstances, on the hardship and the pain. And friends, that will paralyze you. You know, in Matthew 14, the disciples were on a boat in the middle of a storm. And as they panicked, they looked up and they saw Jesus walking to them on the water. And Jesus enabled Peter to get out of the boat and walk on the water. And Peter took a few steps as he looked towards Jesus. But then we read that when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me." And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying, "Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Friends, when we look to Jesus, our faith will be strong. Peter's was, to the point he could walk on water. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, down he went. As he looked to his circumstances that seemed so scary, he was overwhelmed. Friends, every hardship we encounter in life can envelop and overcome us if we just keep staring at it. Thinking about how terrible it is and how helpless we seem. Because friends, we are helpless in the face of many of our hardships. We are frail, we are jars of clay. And so just gazing into seemingly impossible circumstances is a surefire way to despair. It's not the right way to respond to hardship. Friends, Paul writes this in Romans 12-2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." That's what we need. We need to get our mind where it's supposed to be and that is on the things of Christ. And how do we do that? By each day, trying to intentionally redirect our focus from the visible things of this world to the invisible things that pertain to eternity. Colossians 3 says, "Set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Let us spend more time in prayer and in the scripture and in singing worship songs. Let us spend more time just pondering the glory of eternity." And friends, we see the supreme example of this as we think of Jesus. Hebrews 12 says, "Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." How did Jesus endure the cross? He wasn't daunted by the humiliation. He despised it. He didn't run from the pain. He endured it. But what Hebrews 12 tells us is he fixed his mind on that which was invisible at Calvary, but which he perceived very clearly. He looked beyond the circumstances to the joy that was set before him, that he would soon be in heaven glorified in the position that was rightfully his, that he would be seated at the right hand of the Father and that he would bring many sons and daughters to glory. That's where Jesus' mind was on the cross, not fixed on his circumstances. Friends, let us follow Jesus' example. When we suffer, let us not gaze on our circumstances and consider their impossibility. We're trying to numb ourselves by attachment to the things of this world. Let us look beyond the hardship to the truth, that there is an eternal weight of glory that awaits believers. So to sum up, hardships are real and painful, but they're not ultimate. Now, if you're here today and you're not a believer, I can't give you any encouragement. At this moment, you are without hope. You are without the prospect of glory. You face hardship in this life, and I've got to tell you, you are about to face eternal hardship, eternity of suffering under the wrath of God. This is the most horrific tree. And if that's you today, if you know you don't trust Christ, repent and believe the gospel. God's grace is available. He will forgive you. He will give you help and hope and this glory hereafter, trust in Christ. But friends, if you do know Jesus, then when you face trial, don't lose heart. Instead, remember that eternal weight and glory that keeps us in perspective. Remember that responding well to suffering prepares us for glory. And let us fix our minds on eternal things, looking to Christ and the gospel and the glory that will soon be ours. Let's pray.