We are here to be in the word of God. And it is my genuine privilege to open the Bible with you this morning to hear from God. This text, 2nd Corinthians 4. You can open your Bibles there we were, we are going to finish out this chapter four and it is partially one of the privileges is that this text, these verses, these three verses have been some of the most impactful verses in me and my family's life over the last couple of years. And I look forward to sharing why that is in a bit. But we have been slowing down in this chapter to get a feel in chapter four of what God has for us. What is going on in this chapter that we would miss if we would take have taken one sermon to preach through this chapter. And I'm really glad that we have because we've been able to see a key theme come up again over and over again in this chapter that's been threaded through this letter back to chapter one and out into throughout the rest of the letter. And that theme is the theme of suffering. The theme of suffering, affliction. The letter opened with God being referred to as the God, the Father of mercies, God of all comfort, comforting us in our affliction, in our burdens, in our sufferings. God is there. He is near us, he is with us to comfort us so that we can comfort others. We talked about in that time how we are a people that are either in suffering, we are maybe coming out of suffering, or we are headed into suffering. And just a few weeks ago we looked at chapter four and saw that suffering is a way that God's power is put on display, is shown as amazing and good and powerful. And now we this morning we will get to suffering again. The word affliction will come up to us again. Man, my voice sounds really cool right now. Thank you guys for trying to fix it. We get into affliction again and maybe you are wondering, can we just move on from the topic of suffering? Like this keeps coming up, like what is going on here? And the reality is as though suffering is a common theme in Second Corinthians, it also is a common theme in all of our lives, whether it is personally touching us at this very moment or we just have to look next door or look at the cubicle next to us or look across the road and we see suffering going on in our lives. And while in this letter suffering is coming out of on issues issues coming about when Paul is going through ministry and is preaching the gospel. This the truths from this text also Come to life in all aspects of suffering that you can imagine, whether it be physical, relational, emotional, suffering that just comes about from living in a broken world. Let's think about a few of those categories now. Think about the sleepless nights you've been experiencing. Whether it's from anxiety or coughing, because we're in coughing and flu season. Whether it's the sprained joints and broken bones from youth sports, or maybe not broken bones, but broken spirits from a season not going the way that we wanted it to. Maybe it's the aches and pains of just getting old. My connection group made fun of me. I turned 30 last Monday and I sat in my chair and I went, ugh. And I don't know why I did that because I don't feel old at all. But something's happening to me and that's why that came out. But more seriously, the diagnosis of a life threatening illness and the impact that has on a person physically, or maybe the financial stress that brings, or maybe the family stress, the division that might cause suffering is common. Suffering is common. And it can just feel pointless. It can feel like, what is going on here? And cause us to stop and wonder, God, what is going on? Like, are you good? If you are good, why is this happening? Or God, are you powerful? If you're powerful, why isn't this changing what is going on? And those questions bring up the problem of suffering. One of the most powerful tools that is used to point to God's non existence, to point to the fact that, hey, if suffering exists, then a powerful, almighty, all good God can't exist. And maybe the feeling of pointless suffering has led you to doubt God's goodness and power. And I want you to know I don't blame you for doubting if suffering were pointless. I don't blame you for doubting if suffering were pointless. But if suffering does have a purpose, does have a point, maybe we need to think about this more. Let's think back to sports for a moment. We have some football players in the room, soccer players, cross country runners who just finished out this season. See, think of it this way. Your coaches put you through conditioning drills and that brings up pain, tiredness, suffering, right? Every burpee, every long run, every push up and drill, every down and back. I remember being pushed so hard that I was like throwing up after a conditioning practice. It was the worst. I didn't like that at all. But it was suffering with a purpose. Suffering to develop you as an athlete, to make you faster, to make you more equipped to play the Game. Well, now when we tell our kids, go to practice, it's not go to practice to suffer, right? It's go to practice to train. Training is the scientific process that prepares athletes for a sport by improving their fitness and performance ability. Thank you, Google for that definition. It produces something good in us. There's a point to the suffering and training. And maybe God is doing something through suffering. Maybe there's a point, maybe there's a purpose. He's preparing, producing something in you for you. And maybe if we could see what that is, instead of doubting God's power and goodness, we would worship him for it. So what is God producing through suffering? What is the point of suffering? And how can we embrace it to experience the goodness God could bring from it? Our text this morning reveals to us what God produces through suffering, how we can embrace it. And I believe at the very core of my being. If we can see the beauty of the truths of this text, it will radically impact how we encounter all types of suffering, everyday suffering. And it will enable us to encounter suffering with courage and peace and joy. So let's. Let's dig in. Second Corinthians 4, starting in verse 16 says this. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting our way, our inner self is being renewed day by day. Now, if you've been with us the last several weeks, you know that Paul isn't only bringing up repetitively the theme of suffering, but also this phrase, not losing heart, this reality of remaining confident, courageous, enduring through trials. Earlier in this chapter, in verse one, it was because of the mercy of God that gave him courage, that caused him not to lose heart in his ministry. And now it is because of this revelation of what suffering can produce. So reading this verse, we see a contrast right away. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. There's a contrast between outer self and inner self. The outer self is our bodies, what we can see, what we interact with, our external features. And in the midst of suffering, we feel what this text is talking about, don't we? We feel the wasting away nature of it. And it's frustrating, right? Like our memories are drifting, our bodies are aching, and it doesn't cause us courage, right? When we lose mobility, when we use muscle function, we're not naturally happy about it, courageous about it, we naturally lose heart. But Paul is not discouraged. He does not lose heart because though his outer self is wasting away, something is being renewed, something is coming to life, something is being made better, refined. It's the inner self. It's Paul's soul. Every moment of suffering in ministry for Paul, day by day, was being used to renew him. You can think of it like the grit of sandpaper, right? Sandpaper. It's rough, it's tough. It's not something that you like, lay in bed with that night. It's not that kind of thing. No. You use it to take a worn and weathered wooden table and to bring it to life, to remove the rough edges, to smooth it out, to renew it. And in suffering, God renews our souls. It is painful. It is hard. It feel. It may feel like we're. We're dying in ways like we are being given over to death. But God is bringing something to life. He is doing something through suffering, which is reminiscent of earlier in chapter 4, verse 11. Read that with me when Paul says, 2nd Corinthians 4, verse 11. For we who live are always being given over to death. For Jesus's sake, for Jesus sake. So that the life of Jesus also may be manifested. Manifested, be shown, be made alive, be demonstrated in our mortal flesh. Like the glory of Christ coming through and shining bright through our suffering. You see, Jesus suffered. May we never forget that he suffered. Relational pain of being betrayed by close friends, physical pain of torture, just to name a couple things. He was given over to death that the power of the Father might be revealed through him. For the joy set before Jesus, he endured the suffering of the cross. And so we look at what God has done through Jesus. He has broken the power of suffering and death through Jesus. This brings powerful joy and courage in the face of suffering. Jesus was filled with joy and courage to endure through pain and suffering. Jesus faced suffering with joy and courage because he knew his by his Father's power, by God raising him from the grave. Suffering and death would be dealt with, would be destroyed, would be dismantled. We too can face suffering with joy and courage because of what Jesus has done. Because of what Jesus has done through his suffering. And so through our suffering, God is making us more like Jesus. He is bringing to life the glory of Jesus in us. Think of Romans 8:28. Maybe in the face of suffering, you've run to the refuge of this verse because it is amazing, it is beautiful, it is wonderful. Paul writes there, Romans 8:28. Read it with me. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. What sweet hope. In the face of suffering, all things work together for good. Do you know what's not included in all things, nothing. Right, all things. All things are included. All things work together for good. But how does God work all things together for good? How does this happen? What is he working? What is he producing? What is he renewing? We only read verse 29 to see Romans 8:29. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be brought into likeness to be like Jesus in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. See, all things are worked together for good because all things can be used to make us like Jesus, especially suffering. God is conforming us into the image of His Son through suffering so that the glory of Christ can come through us. So the first purpose of suffering we see is that suffering, it produces something in you. Suffering renews the glory of Christ in you. That's the first thing we see in this text here. Suffering renews, produces glory in you. It renews the glory of Christ in you. Paul did not lose heart and suffering because though his outer self was wasting away, his inner self was being made more like Jesus and same for us, day by day. So in suffering we ask ourselves, God, how are you making me like Jesus? How are you using this suffering to renew me, to refine me so that Jesus would get the glory for my new life in Him? How might he be doing that in you? So God uses suffering to do something in you to produce glory, the glory of Christ, and He also uses suffering for you to produce something for you. 2nd Corinthians 4:17. Read that with me now, for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. This is the other purpose of suffering something for us that God does that leads Paul to have courage and joy. God uses affliction, suffering to prepare, produce, achieve glory for you, to do something for us. But maybe a couple words in this verse jumped out to you as off putting as something unsettling. The words light and momentary. And maybe just reading those words is just like, okay, Paul's not talking to me because what I'm experiencing right now is anything but light and momentary. You're in a spot where suffering feels heavy and unending, and that leads you to discouragement and sadness, whether it's the news that you just got today or this week and it's heavy relationally, financially, physically. And you read the word light and it's like, this ain't light, Paul, I'm not following. Or you've been in a season of suffering that's gone on and on and on for days, months, years, even decades. And you read the word momentary and you're like, this ain't momentary. I'm not following you, Paul. Know this. What Paul wrote here is for anyone here this morning that feels like it's heavy and unending is written for you. What God is saying through this text is for you. Because let's not forget that Paul's suffering, his affliction was not light or momentary. Okay, just a little review. Verse 1 and chapter 1, verse 8. In Second Corinthians, Paul said this. He wanted to let his people know. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experience in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Okay, that is heavy. Right? And then he unpacks his suffering and his ministry more in chapter 11, verses 24 through 28. We're not going to get to that in a while, so I want to read those verses for us this morning now. So read them with me and just picture this. 2nd Corinthians 11, 24, 28. Five times I received at the hand the Jew of the Jews, the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. So that's like nine times that Paul should have died. Let's. Let's just clarify that real quick. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship, though through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me, my anxiety for all the churches. That's heavy, right? Like that's not everybody's Monday. That's heavy. Paul's burden was heavy. Your burden is heavy. What is Paul getting at here when he says light, momentary affliction? He's saying his suffering is light and momentary when compared to the eternal weight of glory God is preparing for him. The word weight here in verse 18 is the same word used in verse 8 of chapter 1 that we saw unpacked in chapter 11, verses 24 through 28. He's saying the weight of glory, eternal glory, is heavier, greater, more impactful than the weight of affliction and suffering. There's no comparison in Paul's eyes. The weight of glory lifts you high while the suffering of this life threatens to crush you. But what is this weight of glory? How is it beyond comparison with our suffering? See, glory here points to God's beautiful, tangible, awesome presence. In chapter three, when we saw that God met with Moses at Mount Sinai. Jesus or Moses then came down the mountain and he was partially lit up with the brightness and glory of God on his face because he just experienced like a taste of God's presence. He was partially in the presence of God and then God, because God's presence was truly on the mountain, but Moses couldn't totally experience it without being destroyed. Then God's presence dwelt in the temple of the Israelites and through the Spirit of God, who lives in every believer, every Christian. God's presence lives in us. But the eternal weight of glory, that's beyond all comparison. That Paul is speaking to is God's presence in eternity, in the new heavens and the new earth. What God will do at the end of this age, bringing in the infinite, unending age of eternity. Let's. Let's just see what this will look like from John's vision in Revelation 21. Picture this reality with me. Revelation 21, verses 1 through 5. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, which is. That's an analogy for the church. The people of God is coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every teacher from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I, this is Jesus speaking, am making all things new. Also he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. Imagine that. That's beautiful. It's amazing. And that's the beginning of the never ending story of God's people who know and love Jesus. God dwelling with his people with a closeness and intimacy. That's a picture where marriage is just like a tiny picture of that. This intimacy, this closeness, this beauty. Where God is dwelling with his people in loving closeness near enough for God to wipe away their tears, for the earth to be restored, for sickness, sadness and death to be gone. All things made new and that being true for months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, forever, forever. Even if we were to experience a hundred years that were fraught with pain and suffering, emotional, relational, whatever it would be that will be redeemed an infinite amount of times over in the new heavens and the new earth, over and over again, there's no comparison. The eternal weight of glory makes any suffering in this light, in this life, light and momentary. There's no comparison. One man I knew would speak to this in good times and hard times. And he would point to the reality, hey, the best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. Always, always. That is the reality of this eternal way of glory. But how is this light, momentary affliction preparing for us? This? What is it doing? How is it producing this for us? Think of every moment of suffering, every pain, every trial serving to reveal the redeeming, loving, restoring, tender love of God. Every single moment magnifying our loving, renewing and awesome God, the ultimate prize of life, who our joy is secure in. We will forever feel close to Him. There will be no separation ever again. So any pain of loneliness, gone and made more God's closeness with us, made more beautiful through it. Every ache, pain, all acne. For those that struggle with acne, gone. Gone. Every abnormality and cancer, gone. Showing that God is a restoring God that brings beauty from ashes and dust. Any relational tension, broken trust, division, insecurity, will only demonstrate how powerful and amazing and unifying our God is. When people from every tribe, nation and tongue, tongue gather around him to glorify him and worship him and praise Him. Nothing else in this world can do that. Every ounce of suffering in this life will point to the overwhelming weight of God's glory in the next life. Because the best is truly yet to come. So in suffering, ask yourself, how is God using this moment of suffering to make eternity with him greater? How is he using this trial that is hard, that does not feel light and momentary, to demonstrate that his eternal weight of glory is so much better, that the best is truly yet to come. We saw that suffering produces glory in us. And now we see that suffering produces the glory of joy with God for you forever. Suffering produces the glory of joy with God forever. That's magnified through our suffering. But as we look to our final verse in our text this morning, we need to recognize that while suffering can produce this, I think we more often experiencing it producing other things, right? Producing bitterness, anxiety, frustration, division, depression, anger. That's the more common production in our world of suffering, no doubt. So what's the difference? How can suffering produce this glory in you and for you? How do we embrace suffering to this end? It's all about where we are looking. It's all about where we are looking. So reread with me all three of our verses this morning and we'll zoom in on verse 18 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. It's another contrast, the seen versus the things that are unseen. The seen things are transient, they're temporal, they're going to fade away. And the unseen, those things are eternal, unfading, unshakable. They will continue on in this life and into the next life. The seen things include everything material in this life, including our outer selves and everything our outer selves interact with, whether it's positive or negative. Think of it as good, physical, good or bad physical health. The positive or negative relationships in our life, the fulfilling or the unfulfilling job, the empty or the full bank account, those are all seen things in our lives and in every moment of suffering, large or small, we're going to choose to either look at those seen things or we're going to choose to look to the unseen. Looking at the scene is looking at the problem on the ground, the stuff that is. Yeah, it's not light and it's not momentary and it's taking all of my focus and all of my brainpower and all that I can think, I can't get my mind off it. And this leads to worry and anxiety and fear. It's like riding a bike. Not because it's something that's easy, that you just pick up after a while. No, because when you ride a bike, if you look off your track, you're going to head into that direction. And so if you keep your eyes fixated on the scene, things that are causing you worry and fear, you will continue to worry and fear. You'll be consumed with the problem on the ground. It's easier to look at the things that are seen because we can see them. Right. It's the things that we interact with on a day to day basis, but the renewing and glory producing that thing. The way that this happens through suffering is as we look to the unseen, which is the prize of God. In heaven, it is the future to come with the new heavens and the new earth, the eternal way of glory we were just talking about. So don't fix your eyes on the things on earth that will fade. Look at God, your prize in heaven. Look at God, your prize in heaven, and then you will worship. Through suffering or success, you will be renewed into the likeness of Jesus day after day. Because whatever happens here won't shake you. Because you're not looking here. You are looking at the eternal. You're not stuck on earth. We can embrace suffering by looking to God, our prize in heaven. He is who you are being prepared for. He is who we will treasure for all eternity. He is producing character and joy and glory for you so that you can enjoy him now and for forever. The training process of suffering is for your joy in him now and forever. So to pull these things that I've been saying together this morning. Looking to God, your prize produces joy through suffering. Looking to God, your prize produces joy through suffering. And so we need to ask ourselves, where are we looking? Day by day? We have two choices. To look at the problem on the ground that will lead to worry, or to look at God, the prize in heaven to worship. But maybe you're stuck looking at the problem on the ground and you just can't get your eyes up. You can't help but focus on the things that are unseen, that are seen. Because at your core, the problem is so huge that you can't imagine that God could bring good from it. That doesn't make any sense. How can we know that God can bring good out of our suffering? And our one true fast way that we can is looking to the cross of Jesus Christ. Because the cross of Jesus Christ is the culmination, the pinnacle of the darkest moment of the darkest day in history, where the perfect Son of God, who had never sinned, never done any wrong, was brutally murdered in a crucifixion that was left for traitors, for the worst of the worst, terrible, the most unjust thing that's ever happened. And the reality of that moment in history is that it was a part of God the Father's plan with Jesus the Son and the Spirit. From the very beginning of time. This was suffering that was planned to be purposeful. The one way to provide freedom from both sin and Satan and also destructive work of suffering in this world. All of our aches and pains, Jesus experienced like he grew up as a teenager. He dealt with relational turmoil. He was hungry, he had to go to sleep at night. He had all These limitations, He suffered like all of us suffer, yet he never sinned. He remained perfect through it all, up to the very point of the cross, all the way to the cross and through the cross for the joy that was set before him, so that he could bring to life a people that could know God and love God for eternity, so that he could bring to life a people that would be free from suffering and to know joy in God forever and give him all the honor and glory. He demonstrated that all suffering, any suffering, can be brought together, can be worked for good. Because the greatest suffering, the worst suffering, was made for good, was used for good, for God's ultimate glory in our greatest good. So how can we experience this in our lives today? We need to ask ourselves, what are we looking at? Are we stuck looking at the problem? Is the burden of suffering just weighing us down? It's impossible not to just at least glance at her, right? But can we hold it to a glance at our suffering and quickly turn and take our brokenness, take our suffering to our loving Father, to Jesus, who has gone before us and suffered ahead of us, to the Father in Heaven who is going to wipe away every tear from our eyes one day? And can we gaze at God, the prize? Can we look to Him? Can we focus on him, eternal and unfading, knowing that the eternal weight of glory is far greater than this light and momentary affliction, that it's worth enduring the training ground of suffering because the best is truly yet to come. And we can gaze at God, the prize in suffering, by looking at what God has done done, looking at what he is doing and looking at what he will do. Look at what God has done through Jesus, his death and his resurrection, the fact that he suffered on our behalf, stepping out of eternity for a time to die so we could join him in eternity through his resurrection. Look at what Jesus has done and look at what God is doing through suffering. He is making you more like Jesus. You can ask yourself, what is God doing in Me through suffering? How is he trying to make me look more like Jesus? And if you struggle to find an answer, if you feel like this is purposeless suffering in the moment, what else is the family of God for than to help you to see what God is doing? Our family is here together to get our eyes off our problems, to care for the practical needs, to be in the middle of it with each other, but ultimately to help our eyes come up, to look at who God is, look at what he is doing and how he, day by day, is doing. Something in us. And then look at what God will do. Remember that this life is truly only the beginning. And for all who know that Jesus is Lord and has risen from the grave, there is a life of eternity that is coming. That is in a perfect restored world where God will right every wrong and we will be in his presence forever. That he will prove himself as our ultimate joy. The best truly is yet to come. And if we as a people do this, we will be a people who are marked by joy and suffering. We will be marked by peace and courage. That God is doing something in me. The best is truly yet to come. And I know this to be true because I've seen it in my family. See, I mentioned that Second Corinthians 4, 16, 18 is some of the most powerful, impactful verses in my family's life because of what we've gone through over the last couple of years. They've. They've come to be family verses for us because two and a half years ago was the beginning of the hardest trial that we've ever experienced. March of 2022, my dad went to the U of I to get tested to get some things figured out because he was experiencing some unusual muscle weakness, which was crazy because the man was working out more than I think he ever had in his life at the time. But he was experiencing this muscle weakness that was just that we couldn't figure out. And he left that appointment with an unofficial diagnosis that was later confirmed by genetic testing that he had Lou Gehrig's disease or als, which if you're familiar with the ice Bucket challenge, that is when you get a bucket of ice water dumped on you. And the freezing cold reaction and tingling feeling afterwards mirrors the symptoms of the tremors that people suffering from ALS experience. But that symptom is the tamest of all of the symptoms because the worst part of the disease is that the brain neurons that connect and speak to the muscles get disconnected and render the muscles unpredictably but consistently useless one at a time. And you never know which it's going to be, what's going to happen next. And so that was horrible to see, as one thing after another was stripped from my dad of the things that he loved. First it was woodworking. He loved to work with his hands, but he rendered that I was unsafe because of his grip. And we all appreciated that he stopped because we didn't want him to hurt himself. First it was woodworking, and then he couldn't pick up his grandkids anymore because he just didn't have the strength, then he couldn't drive. And then eventually walking. And eventually it took my dad's ability to breathe. And I can't think of a more clear picture of the outer self wasting away. It was horrible and incredible at the same time. Because while I saw my dad's outer self wasting away, I also saw God work in him, his inner self truly being renewed day by day. And it was a marvel to behold. It was not light, it did not feel light. It did not feel momentary. But we saw this joy and this contentment and peace that came about in my dad's life and his spirit that we just hadn't seen before. It was amazing. It wasn't light, it wasn't momentary. But for all that heaviness, all that sadness, all that pain that my dad suffered, we saw that in him. He knew is preparing for him something better. That the best truly was yet to come. That God was doing something, was doing something in him that was going to make his joy in heaven that much greater. Even the worst parts in the final moments of his life, every single moment used powerfully to make dad's joy God more amazing. It was a marvel to behold, all preparing him for glory, for joy in God. My dad has become to us a hero in the faith, truly. But were he here with us today, were he not, did he? If he hadn't passed away just a year ago Friday, dad would be pointing all the glory to his risen savior, Jesus, to the Father in heaven that sent Jesus to redeem him by grace, through faith and the spirit that was with him, empowering him day by day, renewing his spirit all the way through his final breath, ushering him into eternity with the Lord, looking to God, your prize truly produces joy through suffering. God is so good, so powerful to do that in us, to do that for us. And there is no other answer for suffering in this life. Suffering truly is pointless without God doing this through Jesus, without God raising Jesus from the grave, conquering sin, suffering and death. So as we transition to worship Jesus through prayer, through taking communion, through song, may we praise him for coming and ransoming us from sin, Satan, death and suffering. Pray. Let's pray. Father, you are good, you are powerful by your spirit. Would you remind us of that? No matter what suffering we are experiencing, whether we feel like it is small or large, Lord, would we remember who you are and what you've done through your son, Jesus. May you fix our eyes on the things that are unseen. May we look to you so that you can produce in us joy and hope and peace that we get to experience in this life and that we get to take into life eternal with you. In your presence, surrounded by your glory, overwhelmed by your goodness and love. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.