Weakness is the Way | Adam Ogborne

Well, we're uh continuing on our series called Weak Made Strong.

Uh if you could please join with me in turning in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7 through 18.

2 Corinthians 4:7–18

And if you don't have a Bible this morning with you, if you could just uh raise up your hand and the ushers will walk down the aisles and they will be happy to give you a Bible.

And this is our gift to you, so don't feel like you have to return it.

We would it is our joy for you to have a copy of God's word.

Well, as uh maybe some of you know, I am a high school science teacher and I and I do a lot of demonstrations in my classes, and and one of my favorite demonstrations I do is um I use a plastic bag.

Now, and at first I think you guys all would know what would happen if I put a plastic bag over a flame, right?

It melts.

And as kids, it's kind of fun to watch you know the plastic melt in fiery drops of plastic.

But then if I if I use the same, or I guess not that melted bag, but if I use another bag and I hold it and I fill it with water and I hold it over the same flame, well, what happens?

Well, besides my class running away because they think they're gonna get soaked, well, nothing.

Nothing really happens to the bag.

In fact, something incredibly fascinating happens.

You can leave it over the flame long enough that the uh that the water will actually boil, and in fact, some people in the wilderness they can use this to cook food.

Is the bag special?

No, the bag's not special.

And as long as the bag is holding water, the water absorbs the heat.

So, what's the difference between the the two demonstrations?

Well, obviously the water, not the bag, right?

The thing the bag is carrying.

The water sustains life, and without it, it cannot survive.

It nourishes, it refreshes, it gives life, and it can be carried and shared with others.

We're a lot like that plastic bag.

There is nothing inherently impressive about us.

And in fact, scripture would show us that, it shows us that really it's the opposite, right?

We we like to think we're stronger or more important than we really are, but when you strip everything away, we're all just these fragile containers.

We all have different weaknesses, but our value isn't found in ourselves.

It's found in what we carry.

We can carry the living water, the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

People aren't meant to look at the plastic bag and say, wow, what an amazing bag.

No, they marvel and are awe with what happened with the water and why this works.

In the same way, the uh the point of our lives is not that people would be impressed with us, but that they would see Christ in us.

And just as the water protects the bag from the flame, the treasure we carry is what makes all the difference in how we endure this fire.

The glory doesn't belong to the container, it belongs to the thing inside of it.

And God has never been hindered by the weakness of his servants, and they all have their own failures and weaknesses, and weaknesses but by the world standards would have disqualified them from ever being leaders in the first place.

And we look through all of scripture, but let's look at like Moses, he had a speech problem, yet God called him to speak.

Elijah struggled with fear despite, despite facing down 450 prophets of Baal.

Gideon doubted his own ability to lead, yet God used him to deliver Israel.

Peter denied Christ out of fear, yet Christ restored him and used him to lead the early church.

Then we come to Paul, who wrote this uh section that we're gonna get into.

He wrote this because the Corinthians were dismissing him, they were dismissing the container that he was.

He wasn't an impressive speaker.

There was nothing remarkable about his appearance.

And by the world's standards, he was nothing special.

And do you know what Paul says to that?

Yes, I agree.

I am.

And yet, look how God used him.

Right?

Paul, he wrote 13 of the 27 uh books of the New Testament.

Churches were planted because of him, the the gospel spread throughout the whole Roman Empire because of him.

Countless lives are changed and are still being changed to this day because of him.

Can you be like Paul and so readily accept and acknowledge your weakness and your unworthiness that you simply don't care what people think about you?

Can you embrace the posture of weakness, knowing that it is God who receives the glory, and your reputation doesn't matter?

The world wants the strong, it celebrates the strong, it elevates the strong, but God delights to use the weak so that his glory and not ours is seen.

Weakness is the way.

So let's look at uh the passage this morning, 2 Corinthians 4, uh, starting in verse 7 to the end of 18.

Says, uh, but we have this treasure in jars 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 that 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 though our outer self is wasting away, and our inner self is being renewed by day uh day by day, for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look to the thing, 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.

And as we walk through this passage, we'll see three responses to that truth.

In order to be useful, we need to embrace our weakness, we need to evangelize in our weakness, and endure through our weakness.

Because weakness is the way, and when we are weak, that is when we are useful to God.

So, first, in order to be useful, you need to embrace your weakness.

So if you look at the first verse there in seven, it says, But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Paul writes this because the Corinthians were criticizing him.

Later, if you read in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 10, uh, he's talking about these people.

2 Corinthians 10:10

He says uh about himself, his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account.

In other words, Paul wasn't physically impressive.

He wasn't an eloquent speaker.

By the world's standards, he didn't look like someone God could use.

And again, Paul just says, You're right.

He says, We are like these jars of clay.

And maybe you're asking, what are these jars of clay?

That's kind of important if this the whole hinges on this.

He says, Well, they're basically like everyday containers.

You can think of modern day like Ziploc containers, right?

There's nothing really impressive about them.

They hold, uh back in the day, they could hold water, oil, wine, flour, and sometimes valuable things.

But because they were ordinary, fragile, inexpensive, and easy to replace, they had really little value within themselves, just like our ziploc containers that we can just throw out.

The value was never in the jar, it was always in what the jar contained.

And that's exactly Paul's point.

We are ordinary, we are fragile, we are weak, we are replaceable.

Yet God has placed an incredible treasure inside of us.

So what is this treasure?

That should be the next idea.

If we have this treasure, and if you back up two verses in verse five, he says, For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.

And he says, God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The treasure is the gospel.

That's it.

That it is the knowledge of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

God intentionally places his greatest treasure into weak vessels so that no one mistakes where the power comes from.

Right?

The surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

That's the verse.

Our job then is to emphasize the reality of our weakness so that God's power and not ours can be seen.

Weakness is the way.

Weakness is how we become useful.

But weakness only becomes useful when we stop fighting it.

And that's really what humility is, right?

Humility is simply agreeing with God about who we are.

We are common jars of clay.

We are not the treasure.

We are completely dependent upon Him.

So how do we embrace our weakness?

Well, we need to strip away our pride by first recognizing it in our life because pride keeps polishing the jar instead of displaying the treasure.

We need to stop comparing ourselves to other people and instead compare ourselves to the holiness and the greatness of God.

The clearer our view of God becomes, the clearer our view of ourselves becomes, not as worthless, but as completely dependent upon Him.

And church, the more we recognize our dependence upon Him, the more clearly His power is displayed through us.

Humility isn't becoming obsessed with how weak you are.

It's becoming so captivated by Christ that you stop being preoccupied with yourself.

But pride keeps doing the opposite, right?

It keeps pulling our attention back to the jar instead of to the treasure, to ourselves.

And pride infects every one of us.

No one's escapes this.

And the question isn't if we're proud, the question is where is the pride hiding?

Umbe you were like me when we were a kid, because I did I used to do this when I was a kid, maybe a little confession time.

You know, when I hear, when I heard the Bible say the first shall be last and the last shall be first, you know, I became so humble that I would intentionally walk to the back of the line, just hoping the teacher would see me and see how you know amazingly humble I was, and then move me to the front of the line and then shower me with praise because of my awesome humility.

Right?

Maybe I'm alone in this one, but that was definitely me.

Obviously, that isn't humility.

That's inward pride disguised as outward humility.

And the funny thing is, we don't outgrow this.

We just get better at disguising it.

Do any of these situations sound familiar?

You serve because you hope someone notices and thanks you.

You feel disappointed when your acts of service go unnoticed.

You refuse a compliment because you're hoping people will compliment you even more.

You let insecurity keep you focused on yourself so that you stop trusting God and stop and don't step out in faith.

And do you notice the pattern here?

Every one of these keeps the focus on the jar, on ourself, instead of the actual treasure inside it.

Biblical humility doesn't draw attention to the self, uh, to the jar, it draws attention to Christ.

It looks like this instead, in these same scenarios.

Instead of serving to be noticed, you serve because it's an overflow of your love for Christ.

Instead of being discouraged when no one sees your sacrifice, you're content because you know your heavenly Father sees you, and he will reward you for that.

Instead of needing recognition, you're grateful for the encouragement and you can quickly give glory to God.

Instead of trusting your own strength, you trust God's strength in the middle of your weakness.

So biblical humility is laying aside this pursuit of status and recognition to serve others for the sake of Christ.

It puts others first.

Not so the jar gets the attention, but so that Jesus will get the attention, so that the treasure will be noticed.

Now, if you look back in verse 8 through 10, he says, 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 be manifested in our bodies.

Isn't that incredible?

The moment we stop depending on ourselves and begin depending on God, we discover that our strength was never the source of our endurance.

We may be afflicted, but not crushed, struck down, but not destroyed.

Because the life of Christ is being displayed through his weak people.

Then Paul says something maybe uncomfortable for a lot of us.

He says, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

If we carry the treasure of Christ, we shouldn't be surprised if we also share in the sufferings of Christ.

And he told his disciples, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

Some of you may lose friendships, family members because of Christ.

Some of you may be ridiculed at work, some of you may lose opportunities because you refuse to compromise.

And yes, for many believers around the world today, and perhaps one day for some of us, the cost of following Christ is death.

But notice what Paul is saying.

We don't carry around the death of Jesus because God has abandoned us.

We carry around the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be seen in us.

So, in other words, our weakness becomes the stage on which God's power is being displayed.

And that's why we can suffer and not be destroyed.

It's because we are no longer being sustained by our own strength.

We are being sustained by the Creator's strength.

Weakness isn't the obstacle to any one of us.

Weakness is the only way.

Weakness is what makes us useful to God.

Church, embracing weakness begins by admitting it before God.

Before God can use these jars, we gotta stop pretending it's made out of gold.

We're not.

One of the greatest expressions of pride is pretending we're stronger than we really are.

We spend so much time of our lives trying to convince ourselves and everyone else around us that we've got it together, right?

That we're strong.

But God doesn't work through people who think they're self-sufficient.

He works through people who know that they desperately need Him.

So let me ask you a few more questions.

Where are you pretending?

Where are you pretending to have it all together?

Is it at church, here, in your small group?

Is it at home with your family?

Where are you relying on your own strength instead of God's strength?

Is it when you're witnessing?

Parenting?

When you're you're leading, serving, working?

And what weaknesses are you trying to hide?

Exhaustion, chronic health problems, grief, loneliness, despair, depression, fear, a sense that you're just not good enough?

What other weaknesses are you trying to hide?

Uh because you're afraid people will think less of you.

The place is small, group, but first and foremost, where you can express these things.

But church, you need to hear this.

God isn't asking you to become weaker.

You're already weak.

So am I.

He's asking you to stop pretending that you're stronger than you are.

The moment we stop trusting in ourselves is the moment we begin to experience his strength.

Now we should be praying every morning, and every time we go to work and every time we serve, you know, Lord, today don't let people see the jar.

Let people see the treasure inside the jar.

God has never asked you to be impressive.

Amen to that, right?

Like that's so good.

I mean, that's that's good news for me and hopefully a lot of you too, but He's only asked you to faithfully carry the treasure he has placed within you.

Weakness isn't the end of the story, it's the beginning of our mission.

And once we've embraced our weakness and stopped polishing the jar, we won't hide, when we don't hide the treasure, we will carry it into the world.

So that brings us to our second point here.

In order to be useful, we need to evangelize in weakness.

So we start in verse uh 13 here.

So, 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.

And for it is all for your sake, so that grace, as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

Uh Paul here he quotes the psalmist who believed God would ultimately deliver him from his suffering and death.

And because he believed this, he continued to cry out to God and speak about God's promises to people around him.

And just like the psalmist, Paul here, his confidence wasn't rooted in easier circumstances, but in the faithfulness of God.

Paul finds himself in similar situations, right?

He's physically suffering, he's constantly facing death because of the gospel.

Yet he also knows that his eternal future is secure because God has delivered him from sin and from death through Christ and will one day raise him with Christ.

It is with that confidence that uh Paul continues to proclaim the gospel.

And notice what he doesn't say here.

Right?

He doesn't say, When I'm strong and healthy, I will speak.

The resurrection didn't remove his suffering, it gave meaning to it, and it gave courage in the middle of it.

He says, I believe, therefore I spoke.

His faith compelled his proclamation.

His suffering and his weaknesses, it didn't silence his witness.

It became the very context in which he proclaimed Christ.

He was in jail proclaiming Christ.

We would consider that a weakness, an obstacle.

But weakness isn't an obstacle to evangelism.

Is the way to evangelize.

It has always been.

Well, why?

Because when people hear the gospel, we don't want them to see the jar.

We don't want to see this.

We want them to see the treasure inside the jar.

We don't want to stand in the way of people seeing Christ.

The treasure and not the jar is what God uses to save people.

That's why our aim is never to draw attention to ourselves, but to faithfully point people to Christ.

So what does evangelizing and weakness actually look like here?

This passage points us towards three marks of faithful gospel witness.

One, to proclaim Christ, not ourselves, to speak even when you're afraid, and know the message you're proclaiming.

So first, we need to proclaim Christ, not ourselves.

Paul has already told us for back in verse 5 that what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.

Weakness means that you're not trying to impress people with your personality, with your knowledge or your eloquence.

You're trying to make Christ known.

The moment people leave talking more about you than about Jesus, you've missed the point.

In my experience, this is one of the biggest ways people overestimate the strength of the jar.

For example, when I talk to uh non-Christians, they often want to debate creation with me because I'm a you know I'm a science teacher and I'm a Christian.

You know, you can't have that.

But I've learned something over the years, right?

I don't ignore these questions, but I don't let them become the conversation either.

I've also I've often asked people, okay, what if I agreed with you about everything about the old earth and evolution?

Would you be willing to hear more about the Bible?

Right?

Creation matters and is good to debate with other Christians, but creation isn't the gospel.

Don't get sidetracked.

Keep the main thing the main thing.

Every road in all these conversations should eventually lead to our sin, to Christ, and to the cross.

Right?

We we proclaim the message, the gospel, and the Holy Spirit does the convicting.

You are the jar, the gospel is the treasure, don't put more obstacles in the way of the gospel than you need to.

Don't bring people back, sorry, keep bringing people back to Jesus.

Because no one is saved by winning an argument.

They're saved by hearing about Christ.

And that's why Paul ends the verse in verse 15 saying, It is for all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

You know, that's the goal.

Not that people would walk away impressed with the jar, but amazed by the treasure.

And as this as his grace extends, thanksgiving spreads, and God receives the glory.

So keep bringing people back to the real question: What are you gonna do with sin and what are you gonna do with Jesus?

Because it always comes back to Christ and Him crucified.

Always.

So how else can we evangelize in weakness?

So uh, second, so you need to speak even when you're afraid.

Knowing the gospel is essential, but hear me, eventually you will have to open up your mouth and speak.

Paul never said he wasn't afraid.

In fact, he asked the church to pray that he would have boldness.

You know, Paul, one of the greatest evangelists who ever lived, needed prayer for courage.

You know, listen to what he says in Ephesians 6, verse 19.

Ephesians 6:19

He said, And also pray for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

And think about that.

This is the Apostle Paul asking ordinary believers, there's no one ordinary, but ordinary believers, to pray that he would have courage to open his mouth.

If Paul needed prayer for boldness, we can certainly do that too.

You know, faith, our faith doesn't eliminate our fear, it overcomes it.

And it and courage isn't the absence of fear, it's obedience in the middle of our fear.

He says, I believe, therefore I spoke.

The question isn't, are you afraid?

The question is, do you believe?

Because when you truly believe, faith compels us to speak even when we're afraid.

Church, who's God placed in your life right now?

Who has God already put in your path?

Coworker, a neighbor, a family friend, some other friend, someone you've been praying for, someone who keeps coming to your mind every time we preach about evangelism.

Don't keep waiting.

Don't wait until you just know a little bit more, or don't wait until you're just less afraid.

Paul didn't say, I believe, therefore I waited until I knew more.

He said, I believe, therefore I spoke.

His faith compelled him to proclaim Christ because he knew the power wasn't in himself, it was in the gospel.

Hopefully you can see the theme here.

So let me ask you again, who needs you, who needs to hear you speak to them this week?

Don't let another week go by because you're assuming that someone else will tell them.

Not next month, not when you feel ready, this week.

Maybe not now because I'm still preaching.

Maybe it's inviting someone for coffee and asking them about their spiritual life.

Maybe it's sharing your testimony with them.

Maybe it's explaining the gospel to people, and maybe my personal favorite with strangers, it always works, is ask them what they did on the weekend, so then in turn they will ask you what you did on the weekend, and since you went to church, it's a nice, easy inroad there.

You know, you don't have to be the strongest jar in the room.

You just have to be willing to carry the treasure in your weakness.

Because weakness is the way.

The power has never been in the jar, it has always been in the treasure.

God has never asked you to save anyone.

That's his work, that's the Holy Spirit's work.

He's simply asking you to faithfully proclaim Christ and trust him with the results, whatever they may be.

And third, you need to know the message you're proclaiming.

If God gives you an opportunity this week to share the gospel, what are you going to say?

If you're going to proclaim Christ, we first have to know the message we're proclaiming.

Do you know the gospel?

How well do you know it?

The gospel is the good news that although we have sinned against a holy God and deserve his judgment, God in his love and mercy sent his son for us to do what we couldn't do.

Jesus lived a perfect life that we could never live.

He took the punishment for our sins.

And then he rose again from the dead and declaring that his sacrifice was enough and securing the resurrection of all who were to believe in him, and we now have his righteousness.

He offers forgiveness of sins to everybody, to everyone who repents and believes in him, no matter how great you think your sin is.

Church, I wanna I want to challenge you with something maybe a little practical here.

Every Christian should know the gospel so well, so intimately familiar with it, that you should be able to share it within 30 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes, even one minute.

Sometimes you'll have a half hour over coffee and you can go in depth and at length with it.

Sometimes you only have five to ten minutes over a lunch break or a quick meeting.

And sometimes God only gives you a minute.

Can you clearly explain who God is, what sin is, who Jesus is, and what he accomplished on the cross and how someone must respond?

Can you do it in 30 minutes?

It's a long time.

What about five minutes?

What about one minute?

So here's the challenge.

Go home this week and prepare.

Prepare a 30-minute gospel presentation.

A 10-minute, a five-minute, a one-minute.

Don't wait until you're standing in front of someone to figure out what you're going to say.

That's the trick.

You just prepare beforehand.

You don't overcomplicate it either.

The gospel is so simple that a child can believe it and be saved.

Right?

And that same child can turn around and tell one of their friends and they will also be saved.

Does that child fully understand evolution, textual criticism, archaeology, the age of the earth?

Probably not.

I mean, if they did, that's pretty incredible.

That's because the power isn't mastering every objection.

The power is in faithfully proclaiming Christ and the gospel.

So Christ or church, be ready.

Know the gospel so well that whether God gives you 30 minutes or 30 seconds, you're ready to point to people to Christ.

The harsh reality to this is that if we truly live this way, if if weakness is really the way, if we faithfully carry this treasure and we keep pointing people to Christ and refuse to make life about ourselves, it will be costly.

It will wear on us.

Paul knew that.

Maybe you won't face the same persecution that Paul did.

But if you're committed to making Christ known wherever you live, work, and serve, there will be days when you're tired, where you're discouraged, and you're ready to quit.

So how do we keep going?

How do we endure when weakness begins to take its toll?

Paul answers that in uh the final verses of this chapter.

So, third here, in order to be useful, we need to endure through weakness.

So let's read uh verses 16 through 18 here.

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 internal 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.

Church, Paul is telling us that it's going to be hard.

He's not sugarcoating it, and we're going to struggle with accepting our weakness.

We may lose heart along the way.

What are ways, what does this look like?

What are ways we often lose heart?

We lose heart when we pray for years and nothing seems to change?

When we share the gospel and people reject us?

We lose heart when we keep battling the same sin.

We lose heart when our body begins to fail or when our suffering doesn't end.

We lose heart when we look at our ministries and we are discouraged at where it is.

So how do we endure through this?

How do we endure and not lose heart?

Again, Paul doesn't deny that his body isn't uh wearing out.

He doesn't pretend suffering and hardship isn't real.

But while his body is wasting away, God is strengthening his inner man.

And one of the ways God does this is by lifting Paul's eyes off of what is temporary and fixing them on what is eternal.

We need to change our perspective.

Our eyes shouldn't be fixed on the here and now.

They're fixed on Christ and the eternity he has prepared for us.

God strengthens Paul in all these ways.

And notice what Paul does.

He takes every beating, every imprisonment, every hardship, and compares it with what awaits him in Christ.

Think about all that Paul's gone through.

He calls it light, momentary affliction.

And then he compares it to an eternal weight of glory that awaits him.

Again, he doesn't say suffering is meaningless.

He says God is using even his suffering to prepare an eternal weight of glory.

Nothing endured for Christ is wasted.

Light and momentary, eternal and weighty.

Remember the plastic bag from the beginning?

If all you did, if all you looked at was the flame, you would think that the bag would have no chance.

But there was something inside the bag that completely changed how it endured the fire, right?

The water.

Christian, that's how we often look at suffering.

We stare at the flame, and Paul says, stop looking at the flame.

The fire is real, but don't lose heart because it isn't the end of the story.

There's something there inside you to withstand it.

An internal weight of glory is waiting on the other side.

Christ is waiting to welcome his people into the glory he has prepared in heaven.

But here's the question: do you really understand what awaits you in heaven?

I think one of the main reasons uh Christians today, we cling so closely to this world is because we have such a small view of what is in the next.

We don't fully grasp the glory that awaits us, the rewards that Christ has promised us, or in the inheritance he has prepared for us and his people.

If we did, if we just meditated regularly on those truths, the things we chase so desperately here and now would seem so remarkably small by comparison.

And that's Paul's point.

The more clearly we see eternity, the more faithfully we can endure our weakness because our eyes are fixed on heaven.

Today's weakness no longer defines us.

So I just want to spend a minute looking at what God has actually promised us.

Okay?

One of the greatest lies Satan has convinced people of is that heaven is boring.

I still hear people say this today.

I'd rather be with my friends in hell partying with them rather than floating on a cloud in eternity in heaven with a harp and maybe singing, because you don't no one wants to hear me singing either.

We're all alone.

Is that your picture of heaven?

If it is, you've believed a lie.

That isn't heaven.

That's a caricature.

The Bible doesn't describe heaven as sitting on a cloud doing nothing.

That's hell doing nothing.

What the Bible does, it describes a new heaven and a new earth.

We won't be floating around like spirits.

We'll have resurrected bodies, perfect bodies, just like Christ's.

We'll live in a restored creation where there's no more sin, death, pain, and the curses are all gone.

Think about it.

God created Adam and Eve to live on earth.

They worked, they explored, they gardened for all our gardeners.

They enjoyed God's creation.

And this was all before the fall.

Sin ruined all that.

But God, he's making a new creation.

He isn't throwing away his design, he's restoring it.

Will there be work?

Yeah, but without the frustration and the pain.

Will there be feasting?

Absolutely, and that's a good thing.

Will there be exploring and learning and creating, discovering and enjoying God's creation?

I don't see why not.

Right?

We will have an entirely restored creation before us in perfect bodies to enjoy it as God has intended.

Every good thing we enjoy now is only a faint shadow of what is to come.

Church, if you enjoy hiking now, imagine exploring a creation untouched by sin.

If you love music now, imagine hearing it without the effects of the fall.

If you love good food and friendship and laughter and beauty and travel or meaningful work, every one of those finds its fullest expression in heaven with Christ, where everything is beautiful and unspoiled by sin.

But don't miss the greatest part of this.

Heaven is heaven because Christ is there, right?

He is the one who saved us, who loved us, and gave himself for us, and we will be with him forever.

He's omnipresent.

He can be with all of us all at the same time, wherever we are in the new heaven and new earth.

And every other joy in heaven flows from him.

So, Christian, don't lose heart.

This life is not all there is.

The best is yet to come.

What God has prepared for those who love him is beyond anything this fallen world can offer.

And that's a high standard for a lot of us.

And that's why Paul can call our sufferings light and momentary.

Not because they're not real, but because compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us, they simply don't compare.

The more clearly you see Christ in the glory to come, the smaller your present suffering and weakness becomes by comparison.

Church, weakness is the way.

But for the Christian, weakness is never the end of the story.

Christ is.

Glory is.

So lift your eyes, don't fix them on the flame, fix them on Christ, because He is the glory that is coming.

Then you won't lose heart.

As we close here, remember the plastic bag.

There is nothing special about the bag, right?

Left on its own, it would have melted in seconds.

The only reason it endured the fire was because of what it carried.

Church, that's us.

We are fragile, we are ordinary, we are replaceable, but we carry the greatest treasure the world has ever known: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So don't spend your life pretending you are stronger than you are, because in order to be useful, you need to embrace your weakness before God.

You need to evangelize in your weakness to others and endure your weakness because eternity is waiting.

Weakness is in the way.

Weakness is the way.

All right, let's pray.

Father, every time I open up your word, I'm reminded of how weak I am and how great you are.

I ask, Father, that we would stop being discouraged with our weaknesses and failures.

And instead embrace them and faithfully proclaim you and the gospel in the midst of our weaknesses, and not hiding it, but accepting it because we know that it isn't our strength or our eloquence that saves people, but only you, only the Spirit.

Let us rest in our weaknesses, knowing that we are made strong because of you.

Father, when we are discouraged and when we lose heart, remind us of our future promises in heaven so that we can endure the discouragements and the dis and the sufferings, because they are so small compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us.

Lord, let us meditate on these truths daily so that we can be useful vessels until you call us home.

Amen.