Sermon

Ep 388 | Eternal Weight of Glory - Frank Brancato 3-21-21

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. It certainly is wonderful to be here with all of you today.

  2. As you can see, on the screen, the title of our lesson is an

  3. eternal weight of Glory. You might remember back in 2018,

  4. about three years or so. I preached this sermon in your

  5. hearing. Since that time, I've modified

  6. it a little bit and I've tried to preach it.

  7. Most of the places where I travel and hold gospel meetings.

  8. It is passages that are perhaps some of the most encouraging

  9. things to the child of God. I really know of no other

  10. passage that is more encouraging than this.

  11. So the reason for such a sermon today, I realize in 2020 we had

  12. a year, unlike any other year that we have ever witnessed in

  13. our lifetime. I can't go back and reflect on

  14. things that I was not alive for. But in 2020 in my lifetime,

  15. there are things that have happened that I had never seen

  16. before. We have a global pandemic.

  17. Have all manner of things. We have sorrows and regrets and

  18. things that happen in our life. And sometimes pain and sorrow,

  19. maybe perhaps of the loss of a loved one, may be literally or

  20. even spiritually. So I realized that life is

  21. filled with sometimes challenges and sometimes great pain.

  22. So what I thought is today, I'd like to preach a sermon that is

  23. an encouragement. I'd like to look to the word of

  24. God today and perhaps less Study what Paul said.

  25. And maybe just maybe we might have a different perception

  26. about the life that we are living.

  27. And all the circumstances that are found there in our passage

  28. is taken from the book of second Corinthians chapter 4 and

    2 Corinthians 4 chapter mention

  29. beginning. In verse 16, these are the words

  30. of the great Apostle Paul. Therefore we do not lose heart.

  31. Even though our outward man is perishing yet our inward man is

  32. being renewed day by day. For our light Affliction, which

  33. is. But for a moment is working for

  34. us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory.

  35. Which we do not look at the things which are seen, But at

  36. the things that are not seen for the things, which are seen are

  37. temporary, but the things which are not seen are Eternal, you

  38. know, I think that I am, I consider myself a positive

  39. person, but I'm not positive all the time.

  40. I don't think anybody can be if somebody is positive all the

  41. time and every thought and every word and everything, the

  42. probably a little bit fake in that regard because sometimes

  43. there's negative things in life. So I don't know how you would

  44. Define it Optimist or a pessimist.

  45. But I think somewhere in between perhaps, there is a realist and

  46. maybe that's where we stand. We're positive, we choose to be

  47. positive but sometimes there are negative circumstances.

  48. Sometimes there are things in our life that cause Us to change

  49. our perspective, but I'll tell you this, we can't have the

  50. mentality, that Chicken Little Skies falling, everything is

  51. bad. We can't have that mentality.

  52. We just can't, if we want to survive life, you can't choose

  53. to be that guy. Now, I'm going to tell you, I

  54. realized like our brother parade.

  55. He is right. We have things that are around

  56. our young people today, our children and we understand too

  57. that perhaps it's harder for them maybe than any other time

  58. of any other young people, I don't know, maybe it's harder on

  59. them than it's ever been before and maybe that's true.

  60. We have to be very careful to on how we speak about the future.

  61. I want to tell you, share something that a young person

  62. shared with me within the last couple of years and sometimes it

  63. kind of made me reflect is, sometimes we that are older and

  64. I'm now one of those that are older, I'm older now, okay?

  65. So those of us that are older, sometimes, look from a negative

  66. or pessimistic standpoint the view of the future.

  67. This young person said to me this, I get it.

  68. But remember, you got to encourage us, we have to live in

  69. it. We have to continue to live in

  70. this life. So when you talk about Glory

  71. Days of a church of old and how great things were and how bad

  72. things are be careful about that.

  73. First of all, it's not true, it's not true.

  74. Sometimes people say the world is worse than it's ever been.

  75. That is not true. I know for a fact, it's not as

  76. bad as Genesis chapter 6. Which the Bible says that the

    Genesis 6 chapter mention

  77. thoughts of man's heart wherever evil, continually and God

  78. destroyed the world with a flood.

  79. It's not that bad yet, so maybe we can just change our

  80. perception a little bit and be encouraging about the future.

  81. I think there's a lot of wonderful people in this world.

  82. I really believe that. Wonderful people.

  83. I was a recipient of wonderful people in my lifetime and I

  84. don't even know who some of these people are.

  85. You've heard me tell this this little illustration but when I

  86. had cancer, somebody rang the doorbell and I got to the door

  87. and opened it up and there was an envelope filled with six

  88. hundred dollars cash in a little note that says here's hoping

  89. that this little bit could help you and your family.

  90. I to this day, 11 years later have no idea who put the money

  91. there. There's wonderful people in the

  92. world. Folks, we need to focus on that

  93. and the world. Is still standing today because

  94. God knows those good hearts and perhaps we still can take the

  95. gospel and save those that are lost.

  96. Let's change our perspective, just a little and this view

  97. things a little bit differently. So there's wonderful people in

  98. the world. Yes, that's true, but it doesn't

  99. mean they're necessarily saved. So all that being said, we do

  100. have trouble and that job spoke of.

  101. That job said, man is born unto trouble.

  102. Jesus said so we shouldn't be alarm.

  103. He said in this world what are you going to have trouble?

  104. James said, we fall into various trials.

  105. Here's my question. How can we endure the Pains of

  106. Life, the great disappointments in life?

  107. How can we handle all of that in the face of adversity?

  108. How we going to do that? We go back to verse 8 of second

    2 Corinthians 4 chapter mention

  109. Corinthians chapter 4 and this is what Paul said, an amazing

  110. passage. We are hard pressed on every

  111. side yet not crushed. We are perplexed.

  112. Flex, but not in despair persecuted, but not forsaken,

  113. struck down, but not destroyed an amazing passage.

  114. What I want to know is, how can we be hard pressed on every side

  115. and not crushed how we gonna do that?

  116. How are we going to be perplexed and not in despair?

  117. How about persecuted? But not forsaken, how about

  118. struck down? But not destroyed.

  119. I want to figure out how to do that, don't you?

  120. That's great stuff. How do we live like that?

  121. How can we be afflicted? And not crushed and have all

  122. those things in our life and yet it will not change us.

  123. Well, let's talk about the Apostle Paul, who gave us some

  124. secrets for enduring and I'll just say this too.

  125. I'm going to say two things that I think are true.

  126. Number one, sometimes we say nobody can possibly understand

  127. what I'm going through. And sometimes our mindset is

  128. that nobody's ever gone through. Anything that is as difficult as

  129. I'm going through right now. You know what I've learned in my

  130. 54 short years of life. Number one, somebody does know.

  131. Jesus knows if nobody else knows Jesus.

  132. Does, he was in all points tempted like as we are yet

  133. without sin. So if you think nobody can

  134. understand how you feel, Jesus knows how you feel.

  135. Number two, Usually when we're going through something that's

  136. difficult, we look at our circumstance and we think

  137. nobody's had it worse than us. I have learned this whatever.

  138. I was going through in life, whatever negative thing, or bad

  139. thing. If I was honest with myself, and

  140. my eyes were really open, I found there was somebody who had

  141. it worse than me every time. Somebody had it worse than I

  142. had. Somebody does have things worse.

  143. All these things are common to man, but notice what Paul said,

  144. because this is what Paul had to endure.

  145. Now, if Paul can do it, I guarantee it, we can too, and

  146. we're going to find this passage in verse 9.

  147. For, I think that God has displayed us.

  148. That's the apostles last as man, condemned to death.

  149. For we have been made a spectacle to the world, both the

  150. angels, and to men what an amazing thing is, what Paul went

  151. through and yet he said, this is where we are and yet he gave the

  152. encouragement for perseverance. First of all, any Emser says the

  153. word spectacle is from the Greek word theatron.

  154. And failure defines it as a public show, a man who is

  155. exhibited to be gazed on and made sport of.

  156. Here's the illustration, it's by the way, it's where we get the

  157. word theater and it's in reference to the open theaters

  158. that went on in that time that we get all the way down to the

  159. end and it would be the final act.

  160. It was called the climax, it was called the spectacle and what

  161. they would do is they would bring people and they would

  162. strip them free of their clothing and they bring him.

  163. Down to the battle floor. They The Arena floor and they

  164. would release the beast, and the Beast, would eat them in the

  165. presence of the people for their entertainment.

  166. That was called the spectacle. You want to what Paul had in his

  167. mind of what he had coming. The apostles, he said, were the

  168. spectacle and if you look to the life of all the apostles, except

  169. John, they all died a violent death.

  170. We are last. We are the ones that are

  171. condemned in that regard, not lost, souls condemned, but we

  172. are going to have such great sufferings.

  173. So I think we can understand if we can that there's a deep

  174. awareness in the heart of Paul that made him.

  175. Door. Everything he gave Heavenly

  176. reasons for Earthly endurance. And so we go back to our passage

  177. now in second Corinthians chapter 4, beginning in verse

    2 Corinthians 4 chapter mention

  178. 16. But before we go into these

  179. verses, I want to notice there are three Heavenly reasons for

  180. Earthly endurance. There's one in each verse, and

  181. before we look at those reasons, let me comment on endurance for

  182. just a moment. Second Corinthians chapter 4, I

    2 Corinthians 4 chapter mention

  183. love this in the very first part.

  184. Paul Begins by saying this, we do not lose.

  185. Heart. That's the first thing.

  186. And we already said all the horrible things, he knew he had

  187. to go through, but he always said, you know, we don't do, we

  188. don't lose heart. You know what?

  189. I means to lose heart. It literally means we don't give

  190. up. We don't get discouraged.

  191. We don't quit. We're not going to be

  192. faint-hearted. We're not going to let go.

  193. That's how it begins. We're not going to do that.

  194. We're not going to become weary and quit.

  195. We're going to decide that no matter what happens in my life.

  196. I'm not going to be unfaithful. I won't lose my boldness.

  197. My bravery or my courage. How you going to do that?

  198. Number one, you will endure when you value spiritual strength

  199. over the physical. So this is how it begins, we

  200. don't lose heart. Even though now this Better

  201. constructed in the Greek with the word since in other words,

  202. when Paul says the word, even though he's saying since and

  203. when you use that word since or what it means you're saying, I'm

  204. going to talk about something that is understood and known.

  205. You get this, you understand this we don't lose heart.

  206. Why? Since our own outward man is

  207. perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed.

  208. Day by day now. I've changed how I think about

  209. age. When I was 24.

  210. You've probably heard me say this, you know, me 30 years.

  211. But when Darryl would Gene Brewer, my father-in-law turned

  212. 50, there was a there was a party at the park or something.

  213. He's wearing this t-shirt says, I'm not old.

  214. I'm a recycled teenager and it was for his 50th birthday.

  215. And the picture that I saw was standing next to David Mackey at

  216. by tree. You know, I thought that 24 man,

  217. 50 he is as old as Methuselah 50 is horribly old.

  218. I mean that's one Graven, one foot in the grave.

  219. Another on a banana peel, right? I don't think that way now.

  220. I'm 54 I've already surpassed that by four years so I don't

  221. say that. Same thing.

  222. What I'm talking about is the outward, man?

  223. What is the outward, man? It starts to, it's our bodies.

  224. It's our physical characteristics.

  225. It's even get this. It's the function of our brain

  226. takes. What he was saying is I don't

  227. lose heart, why? Since the outward man is

  228. perishing but I looked To the inward man and that's being

  229. renewed day by day. What a powerful thing.

  230. And by the way, there's also age that is accelerated by

  231. experience. Have you ever known someone that

  232. perhaps lived a very hard life? And maybe they've really had a

  233. hard time in life and you look to them and man they look really

  234. old but they look way older than they really are.

  235. And then you find out how young they really are your surprised.

  236. You know why? That's age that's accelerated by

  237. experience. Sometimes people can go through

  238. that, you see somebody that's very sick and they age quickly,

  239. we say that sometimes. Well, they've really age this

  240. last year. Not chronologically, not anymore

  241. than everybody else. But because of experience all

  242. these things from the Physical Realm are wearing out.

  243. But from a spiritual perspective, our inner man is

  244. being renewed day by day. Do you remember when Paul said

  245. this, I bear in my body, the marks of the Lord, Jesus,

  246. incidentally, that's why he wrote to Philemon about the

  247. runaway slave onesimus and he called himself.

  248. Paul the agent. They were probably both 60 years

  249. of age, but he Saying that I bear in my body, the marks, Lord

  250. Jesus, therefore I'm calling you.

  251. I'm writing to you as Paul the agent, okay?

  252. I want to talk about the scars that Paul had.

  253. He was beaten. He was persecuted.

  254. He had to endure great suffering and when he said as they stoned

  255. him and they thought they left him for dead, they thought he

  256. was dead and as they scourged him and whipped him and beat

  257. him, he had literal scars on his body.

  258. And when he said, I bear in my body, the marks of the Lord

  259. Jesus, he meant literal marks. So what about us because nobody

  260. beats us like that. Nobody beats on this like that.

  261. What about us? Do we have scars?

  262. How about this? When you suffer for doing,

  263. what's right? When you are a young person and

  264. your friends want to do something that is wrong and

  265. sinful and you know, that and you stand opposed to that action

  266. and you refuse to give in to it. And you do what's right?

  267. And your made fun of that's a scar.

  268. When you have a job and you don't get a promotion because

  269. you refuse to forsake the assembly, on the Lord's Day

  270. morning because you have an appointment with your Lord that

  271. day. And you're persecuted for that,

  272. you don't get the raise, maybe you get fired.

  273. That's a scar every time you do. What's right?

  274. And you're made fun of and your criticized.

  275. It's a scar. so, I thought this, when I wrote this sermon about

  276. scars, What if one day? As life is over with and I have

  277. a conversation with the Lord. What if the Lord said to me?

  278. Let me see your scars. Would I have any?

  279. And then I got to thinking, you know, if I live my entire life

  280. and from a spiritual perspective, I have no scars at

  281. all. Could it be that?

  282. I've stood for nothing and lived a life of compromise at every

  283. turn? When you stand for something,

  284. the Bible says those that will live Godly will suffer

  285. persecution. Is this the way that it is?

  286. Paul says, I don't care about all that.

  287. You know why? Because God's work on the

  288. inside. God made him a man of endurance.

  289. What's the inner man, though? The inner man is the heart.

  290. It's the soul. That's the real self.

  291. And, by the way, that's why. When we go to a funeral, And we

  292. stand there and we reflect on the life of an individual who is

  293. in a casket somewhere and all that is the casket is just the

  294. how it is a container housing, the outward shell, that's not

  295. the person. And by the way, that's why we

  296. say that that person is still as alive today as they ever had

  297. been, they're just not here. Why?

  298. That's the N word self? That's the inner man, that's the

  299. soul. That's the real self.

  300. That is you? Paul said, I'm not concerned

  301. about what happens to me, physically.

  302. I'm concerned about what happens to me, spiritually.

  303. And when I'm physically weak, I am spiritually, strong.

  304. Do you know why that is? Do you know why?

  305. When we go through physical weakness?

  306. That is our time that we can be the greatest strength in our

  307. life. Of all the years of our life, we

  308. can become stronger than because the pains in life and the

  309. troubles and trials contribute to our inner strength and do you

  310. know why they drive us to God? See, it's not our own personal

  311. strengths. That's from God.

  312. Okay. Little side note here, remember

  313. 911. I had a private bible study this

  314. last week and this came up. Studying with the family, this

  315. came up about 911. And the whole idea came up about

  316. 9/11 when our country has such a horrible thing happen.

  317. Terrible thing, terrible tragedy awful, terrorist attacks,

  318. terrible stuff. People started talking about

  319. God, even people that didn't profess to be any particular

  320. religious affiliation. They started talking about God,

  321. people started trying to pray to God and talking to God.

  322. You know, what else people actually became Kinder and nicer

  323. to each other. Unfortunately, it's only a

  324. matter of time that people forget and then they drift back

  325. to their old ways and old behaviors and so forth.

  326. But you know what, in the midst of trial in the midst of

  327. suffering, in the midst of hard times, that's a time that people

  328. are drawn to God and God can strengthen us and only he can.

  329. So you will endure. Paul is saying when you value

  330. the inner man over the outer when you value spiritual

  331. strength over the physical but also this Another secret of

  332. endurance is. A second Heavenly reality is

  333. looking at trials. Paul said this you will endure

  334. not only when you value the spiritual over the physical but

  335. when you endure the value of the future over the present, I love

  336. with Chris parade today. He talked about things in the

  337. present. And there's a difference between

  338. things that are in the present and things that are coming in

  339. the future. That's what Paul said.

  340. He said, it's just for the present and this is what he

  341. calls it. By the way, he calls it, our

  342. light Affliction, it's for a moment.

  343. What else is it doing? It's working for us a far more

  344. exceeding and eternal weight of Glory.

  345. So first of all, he Towers over his troubles because all of his

  346. troubles are making him spiritually strong but also

  347. they're gaining for him. A greater weight of eternal

  348. glory. In other words, the more

  349. sufferings he endures. The great, the greater the

  350. weight of Glory becomes notice. I thought this was, I found this

  351. and I thought, man, it's the point I want to make this

  352. represents the sufferings in life.

  353. That's what Paul saying, the greater the sufferings in life

  354. and man they're piled on us. But you know what?

  355. He calls it, he calls it, light Affliction, the man that born

  356. his body, the marks of the Lord Jesus he got it was light

  357. Affliction. Okay, this right here is all the

  358. sufferings in life that you endure as a Christian as a child

  359. of God, all the pain. The more you got it over here in

  360. the more you endure over here, the greater, your Eternal weight

  361. of Glory. This is heavier than the trials

  362. that you will have in your life. And the sufferings you will have

  363. in your life, amazing on this. It's swings the scale for him.

  364. Paul said, Romans 8, and chapters, 18:17 listen to this.

  365. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified

  366. together. One more passage Romans chapter

    Romans 8 chapter mention

  367. 8 and verse 18, for I consider the sufferings of this present

  368. time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, which

  369. shall be revealed in u.s. Okay.

  370. Couple things. This is obviously talking about

  371. the reward part, okay? And it's true that in Revelation

  372. 2, and verse 10 writing to the persecuted church called Smyrna,

  373. the Lord said this you're going to have tribulation ten days

  374. short amount of time, but be faithful unto death and I will

  375. give you a crown of life. So it is true that when we

  376. endure and we patiently endure to the end, it is true.

  377. We're going to have eternal life.

  378. The reward part. And I used to think that this

  379. passage that is under consideration for us today was

  380. just simply meaning that about this eternal weight of Glory.

  381. That it was just talking about our reward but it's so much more

  382. than that. Paul said, our sufferings

  383. contribute to eternal glory. So the question is this, then

  384. what is it? What is eternal glory?

  385. Eternal glory is our capacity to serve praise and glorify God in

  386. heaven. Okay, that's the Eternal part.

  387. We got more to say about that though, hang on.

  388. But right now look, that's what it means.

  389. The greater Your Capacity to get to the greater capacity to serve

  390. and glorify, God is proportionate to your

  391. willingness to suffer as a Christian for him.

  392. The heavier, the sufferings, the greater, the Eternal weight of

  393. Glory. So this is it.

  394. It's about glorifying God in heaven and we increase our

  395. capacity to do that. That's the Eternal part, more in

  396. a minute. So, it is our return.

  397. Our eternal glory is measured out in relationship, to our

  398. willingness to suffer. And, you know, really that goes

  399. against our grain, right? Nobody wants to suffer.

  400. Little Point here because I do it too.

  401. Man, we all do it. If we have something that's hard

  402. for us you don't we do we beg God to take it away.

  403. I do it too. And I'm not saying you shouldn't

  404. ask God to take it away, not saying that at all.

  405. I'm saying that if God says no and will not take it away, then

  406. maybe we should spend more time saying if not then give me the

  407. strength and the courage to endure.

  408. It give me the strength to endure.

  409. That's really the point. I think in our life, give us the

  410. strength to endure. all that will live Godly will suffer

  411. persecution 2nd Timothy chapter 3 in verse 12 in First Peter

    1 Peter 1 chapter mention

  412. chapter 1, notice this In this, you greatly Rejoice that for now

  413. in a little while, if for now a little while, if need be, you

  414. have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of

  415. your faith being much more precious than gold, that

  416. perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise

  417. honor and Glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

  418. An amazing passage or what Peter saying, they're the genuineness

  419. of our faith is demonstrated or shown by our ability to endure.

  420. And persevere no matter what. And when are you going to get

  421. the reward at the appearing of Jesus Christ?

  422. That's heaven. When the Lord comes back.

  423. That's that part, right? So there's a relationship though

  424. between suffering and glory and that's exactly what Paul looked

  425. at. I don't want to minimize pain, I

  426. don't want to do that. I don't want to minimize

  427. suffering. I don't want to do that either

  428. because I guarantee I'm a human too.

  429. And, you know, when you think you can your bulletproof and you

  430. can handle anything, you know, when that is in your life, when

  431. you're about 18, Maybe early 20s.

  432. Sometimes we go a little longer with our immaturity and we think

  433. that we're bulletproof, and we're all he can't.

  434. I even said things, I was a kid with this is the dumbest thing

  435. ever can't hurt Steel. No, you pour water on it.

  436. Make it rust though. Sometimes in our mindset, we

  437. have that mindset, but we are all week before the Lord.

  438. And when we're physically weak and we were weak that way we can

  439. approach God, and God can give us the strength.

  440. So pain is pain and it's real Christian Science.

  441. Is not true to its name in the Christian Scientist religion,

  442. they say this, they say there's no such thing as real pain and

  443. real suffering. There's only the perception of

  444. pain. How in the world?

  445. Could you ever believe that pain is pain?

  446. Pain is real. You know, Christian Science is

  447. not true to its name and any Christian ain't science.

  448. It's kind of like Grape-Nuts, right?

  449. And grapes and any nuts and it tastes like wood.

  450. Not true to its name. Yeah, pain is real, folks.

  451. Please understand. I'm saying that the scars of

  452. scar. Defamation of character is

  453. defamation of character. It's real.

  454. You know, what Paul is saying? He's not saying it doesn't

  455. exist. He's saying it doesn't matter.

  456. He's saying it's doesn't matter, it's momentary.

  457. He called it as a light affliction.

  458. It's a big deal but it doesn't matter.

  459. It's producing for us an eternal weight of Glory, has a positive

  460. effect. The more that I suffer the

  461. greater my eternal glory. That's right, there are

  462. connected and it's producing an eternal weight of Glory.

  463. Now it tips the scale in our favor.

  464. So, What does it mean? Eternal, glory means this.

  465. We have a greater capacity to pray serve and glorify God.

  466. Now I want to say this though. About the very fact that

  467. enlarges our capacity, I want to say this though about our

  468. reward. Our reward is not different.

  469. Don't ever think that if you had to endure tough stuff that

  470. you're going to get a greater reward in heaven because you are

  471. not, Jesus said in the parable of the vineyard, everybody's

  472. going to get a penny. A Denarius.

  473. A day's wages, not that you've earned it, but it is by Grace

  474. given and whether you served in the vineyard all of your life or

  475. came in at the 11th Hour, you're still going to get the same

  476. penny. So the idea is that you're going

  477. to have a greater reward in heaven because of the things

  478. that you endured here. It just means this it enlarges

  479. our capacity to serve God and it happens even in this life.

  480. Years ago. I knew of a man that had some

  481. terrible things happen to him, and I had to witness all of

  482. that. And I remember as a young person

  483. thinking how awful that was and you really feel sorry for the

  484. person that's enduring such a thing, right?

  485. Because that's a human being, that we are as human standpoint.

  486. And somebody said this and I never had thought of this.

  487. I was in my twenties at the time but somebody said this he said I

  488. can't wait. To see the man that he will be

  489. on the other end of this trial. I never looked at it like that

  490. he was he was looking at like this.

  491. Even in this life it'll increase your capacity to serve God and

  492. make you even better right now. Because of what you endure right

  493. now. And by the way, it's not

  494. something you get rid of, it's something you take all the way

  495. to heaven and increases your capacity in that way. so, What's

  496. the difference between trials and suffering?

  497. What's the difference? Okay?

  498. In James chapter 1, verses 3 and 4 my brethren count, it all joy,

    James 1:3

  499. when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing

  500. of your faith. Produces patience but let

  501. patience have. It's perfect work that ye may be

  502. perfect and complete lacking, nothing.

  503. What's the difference? Then.

  504. The difference is this trials, increase our ability to

  505. persevere. Suffering increases our capacity

  506. to serve God. When I talk about suffering

  507. though, I'm not talking about suffering the consequences of my

  508. bad choices. I'm not talking about that

  509. because you know what, if I make a bad choice and I suffer the

  510. ramifications of that, bad choice, That's just the

  511. consequences of my bad choice. I have that coming.

  512. That's not what Paul is talking about.

  513. That's not what the Lord ever talked about.

  514. What I'm talking about is I'm talking about things, that

  515. glorify God. We understand that suffering as

  516. a Christian things, you go through in this life, all of

  517. that stuff. That's true.

  518. Okay, but there's something else, and please get this

  519. because I think this is very important.

  520. It also includes when something bad happens to you.

  521. You don't give up, you don't chicken out.

  522. You don't say I quit. You still put your faith and

  523. trust in God. You still honor his son, you

  524. still worship. God, you don't give up.

  525. You don't quit, you don't walk away.

  526. When you do that, you take what was a scar and now you move

  527. forward and it's become a greater Eternal weight of Glory.

  528. You have it forever. Paul tells us and it was

  529. secretive endurance. You will endure when the u-value

  530. Eternal realities over temporal. Second Corinthians chapter 4.

    2 Corinthians 4 chapter mention

  531. Okay. Now, notice this in summary,

  532. we're almost finished. We don't lose heart.

  533. Why don't we lose heart Paul? Why?

  534. Because our outward man is perishing.

  535. We know that yet the inward man is being renewed, day by day.

  536. We know that that's the reason. What else these light Affliction

  537. is there? No big deal because of what's

  538. coming there? Just for a moment.

  539. It's working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of

  540. Glory. While we do not look at the

  541. things which are seen, But at the things which are not seen

  542. for the things which are seen are temporary but the things

  543. which are not seen are eternal. What an amazing.

  544. Amazing Passage. Sometimes people today.

  545. And I really do believe this, I really do believe that there's

  546. more people looking for a church.

  547. Than looking for the truth. And the reason for it is they're

  548. looking for a religious organization.

  549. That makes them feel better. I think there's a lot of people

  550. that are looking at what they get.

  551. But in Christianity, in Christ, it's not about what you get,

  552. it's about what you give. So we might not have an easy

  553. life and it may be difficult. That's okay.

  554. It increases our capacity to serve praise and honor God in

  555. this life. As we live we could become a

  556. better servant and after this life too.

  557. In heaven. Now in this last phrase here, it

  558. says while you the opposite while we do not look, the

  559. opposite is while we do. Look, I think it's so important

  560. that we focus our minds and let our and let our eyes be single.

  561. You know, it you have to stop doing something just to do

  562. something else. It's opposite.

  563. You got to do that. What is he saying?

  564. We don't look at the things that are are not seen.

  565. So, you know, we got to look at, we don't look at the things

  566. which are seen. We have to look at the things

  567. which are not seen. You've heard that little phrase

  568. that I used as a coach Clear Eyes.

  569. Full Hearts can't lose. If you have clear eyes, and

  570. you're focused eyes, and your eyes are single and you're

  571. focused on that you're focused on that goal, that's what Paul

  572. is saying. My focus is on that which is not

  573. seen. That is eternal.

  574. I'm looking past all this stuff. That's number one, number two,

  575. if I got a full heart, you know, that means I read my heart of

  576. all the bitterness hatred, all the negativity, all of that

  577. stuff. I get rid of it and I fill it

  578. with a love for all that's good. If I do that, and I got Clear

  579. Eyes and a full heart, I cannot lose because I've done all that.

  580. I possibly can do. I become the greatest version of

  581. me? And that's all that any of us

  582. could ever do. Folks, I'm going to tell you,

  583. I'm going to tell you that, in our life, we're going to have

  584. hard times. We really are.

  585. And sometimes we just need to encourage each other to stay in

  586. the fight. It will be worth it.

  587. And when Paul wrote to those Smyrna, I mean Jesus wrote to

  588. those Smyrna, he said be faithful unto death.

  589. That means this be faithful. Even if it takes your life, even

  590. if it cost you your life. I'm going to tell you one day,

  591. one day, it'll be worth it all. And I guarantee you this to

  592. anybody that's ever passed away and there in Paradise right now

  593. they know where they are. And as much as we may miss them,

  594. they wouldn't come back if they could.

  595. They made it. And they're just waiting for the

  596. Lord to come back to get the home in Hammond.

  597. We can make it. It's going to take all of us.

  598. Let's be better than we've been. That's be all that we can be for

  599. the cause of Christ. I'm through this morning.

  600. Thank you so much for your kind listening.

  601. And I hope in this little sermon.

  602. This was a way to encourage all of us.

  603. To persevere and endure until the end and it will be worth it

  604. all. Increase our capacity to serve

  605. God, we thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

  606. Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

  607. would like any additional information or you would like to

  608. receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.

  609. Please email us at info at True Church of Christ.

  610. Bakersfield.com. Our service times are Sundays at

  611. 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. please

  612. make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

  613. honored guest