Light and Momentary Affliction | 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 | 03/15/26

This morning I want to talk to you about

heaven. Do you think about heaven much?

All the teachings in the Bible about

heaven can essentially be put into five

categories.

We don't know a ton about heaven from

the Bible, but we do know these five

basic categories. First, we will be with

God in heaven.

Second, we will be like him.

Third,

we will in some sense be feasting or

wedded.

Fourth, we will have some sort of

official position in heaven, reigning

over cities or ruling over angels.

And fifth,

we will have glory.

Now, there are many different verses

that speak about heaven, but those are

the five basic categories of all of the

verses. And we're going to do a series

on heaven this fall. And I'm really

excited about that. We're going to

unpack all of those a lot more. But

today, we're going to focus on that last

statement that in heaven we will have

glory. When we started the book of 2

Corinthians back in chapter 1, Paul

began to talk about the mystery of

suffering. And he began laying out clues

for us in order to help Christians

understand why we face suffering in this

life. And if you can remember from a few

months ago, I gave an illustration about

of how Paul is explaining our suffering.

I said that it seems like Paul has in

his mind a scale. A scale where you

balance weights. You know those old

school scales where you set weights on

one side and goods on another side and

you see what the goods are worth based

on the scales. And I want you to imagine

a scale. And if you put all of your

suffering that you've ever experienced

on one side of the scale, for many of

you, it just clanks to the bottom. It

just grounds out because it's so much

suffering. It's so heavy.

Put all of your suffering on one side.

Your poor health, your chronic pain,

your hard marriage, the betrayal, the

heartache, the heartbreak, the ridicule,

the abuse, the loss, all the pain on one

side and it comes smashing down.

It's so much weight. It's so heavy.

And then on the other side of the scale,

you get to stack on there all of God's

purposes in your suffering. All the good

that he says he's doing in your

suffering. And the idea is to see if

God's plan for your suffering, all of

the good stuff that he's doing, all of

his purposes, if that can outweigh,

start to lift your suffering and make it

worth it

to see if it's worth what you have lost

for what you're going to gain or what

you are gaining because that's what a

scale does, right? It determines worth.

It determines value.

Is this worth that?

And so in the beginning of 2

Corinthians, Paul started giving us some

weight to add to the other side of this

otherwise very lopsided scale.

But now in chapter 4,

he's going to drop a school bus on this

side of the scale.

The thing that far outweighs anything

that can ever be placed on the suffering

side of the scale is going to be placed

on the purpose side of the scale this

morning.

In our text this morning, Paul is going

to introduce to you the weight of glory.

Our text this morning, if you've got

your Bibles, is 2 Corinthians chapter 4,

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

16-1 17, sorry, 16- 18. Go ahead and

turn in your Bibles if you've got them.

Second Corinthians chapter 4 starting in

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

verse 16

Paul writes,

"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.

In these verses, Paul makes three

comparisons between what is temporary

and what is eternal, between what is

earthly and what is heavenly. First, he

compares the inner self and the outer

self.

Second, he compares suffering and glory.

And third, he compares the seen with the

unseen. So, we're going to tackle those

one at a time. First, the outer self

versus the inner self. Now, back in

verse 14 of this chapter, a verse that

we covered last week, Paul was just

talking about the resurrection.

He said, "He who raised the Lord Jesus

will raise us also with Jesus and bring

us with you into his presence." So,

that's the context for our text this

morning.

Paul says in our text in verse 16, "So

we do not lose heart."

Though our outer self is wasting away,

our inner self is be being renewed day

by day. Do you hear the continuity

between last week and this week? Last

week we are jars of clay. We're fragile.

We we crack. We break down. But there's

a resurrection coming this week. So we

don't lose heart

because there's a resurrection coming.

Because this life is not all that there

is.

This fallen world, this broken body,

this sinful flesh, this is not all that

there is. When we die, something

happens. Real life starts. The truer and

better reality that we cannot even begin

to imagine begins at the resurrection.

So that is why we do not lose heart.

But what does s Paul say next in verse

16? We do not lose heart though our

outer self is wasting away. What does

that mean? What does it mean that your

outer self is wasting away? Paul uses a

Greek word here in the original language

which means something like ruined or

slowly destroyed through corrosion. So

this is like what rust does to iron,

right? That's kind of what's happening

to our bodies and to the universe. Some

corrosive effect is is taking place.

Isn't that how aging feels?

I got a lot of nods there. I know I'm a

lot older than a lot of you, but I'm

also a lot younger than a lot of you.

And anytime I complain about a physical

ailment, all of the people who are older

than me just say, "Wait till you're my

age."

>> And that's right, and that's normal

because I do the same thing to

20-year-olds. I'm like, "Hey, when

you're my age, you can't eat that."

That's like a I'm duty bound to tell

skinny 20-year-old guys that you can't

keep eating this way. And like you never

would have thought that when you're 25

that standing up too fast has

consequences,

but it does.

And that's the kind the funnier side of

of aging.

But there are ways in which we are

wasting away that are not funny. Cancer

is not funny. Car accidents are not

funny. Strokes are not funny. And we all

feel

or we one day will feel

that our outer selves are wasting away

and those that we love are wasting away.

But there's more to wasting away than

just our physical bodies. There's more

that's being corroded than just your

body. Our entire life feels like this.

Everything that you can see with your

eyes is wasting away.

We see wars in this world. We see

shootings in schools. We see earthquakes

that devastate entire countries. We see

tyrannical governments come in and

commit genocide against their own

people. This whole created order is

groaning.

The entire cosmos is waiting for

something. What's it waiting for?

It's waiting to be remade.

Remade by the same creator, but this

time with no sin. this time with no

decay, no corrosion, no wasting away.

We see this even more clearly in Paul's

letter to the Romans. In Romans 8:es 19-

21, Paul says, "For the creation waits

with eager longing for the revealing of

the sons of God. For the creation was

subjected to futility, not willingly,

but because of him who subjected it, in

hope that the creation itself will be

set free from its bondage to corruption

and obtain the freedom of the glory of

the children of God. You see what Paul

is saying there in Romans? He's saying

that the earth, the universe, and

everything in it are all longing for a

day when it will be set free and receive

a similar kind of glory that Christians

will receive.

So when Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:16

2 Corinthians 4:16

that the outer self is wasting away. He

has more in his scope than just our

bodies.

But everything about this life,

everything about this world, everything

that you can see with your eyes, it's

all crumbling. It's all falling apart.

And yet he says we do not lose heart.

Why not? Tell us, Jason, why we don't

lose heart? Because this is the most

depressing sermon I've ever heard.

We don't lose heart because of how Paul

finishes verse 16.

Though our outer self is wasting away,

our inner self is being renewed day by

day.

Paul is saying that even though the

world around him has fallen, that even

though his own countrymen have rejected

Christ and seek to kill him, that the

churches that he started have turned

against him, that his government seeks

to arrest him at every turn,

even though the rest of creation is

groaning.

For Paul and his companions, everything

outside is corroding, but inside in his

soul, the opposite is happening. Now,

what's the opposite of corrosion?

Something that is moving in the opposite

direction of decay

is renewal. It's being renewed. This

means that each and every day as Paul is

aging, as he is discouraged, as Jews

stone him within an inch of his life, as

Romans beat him within an inch of his

life, as impostor leaders in Corenth lie

about him, as everything outside of him,

everything that is visible and

everything that is tangible is failing,

yet something is happening to another

part of him. The inner self is being

renewed. His soul is being strengthened.

His faith is growing. His mind is being

refreshed.

How is that renewal happening?

How is that renewal happening for Paul?

How is his soul moving in the opposite

direction as the rest of the universe?

Let me show you how that can happen to

Paul and to you in the second comparison

of our text. Suffering versus glory.

Notice in verse 17, see this first word

for. This is how we know that Paul's

renewal in verse 16 is explained in

verse 17. Our inner self is being

renewed day by day for or because

because this light momentary affliction

is preparing for us an eternal weight of

glory beyond all comparison.

This is one of my favorite verses in the

entire Bible. It has gotten me through

the darkest nights of my soul many

times. So, I'm just going to geek out

about it for a while here. And you're, I

guess, just going to listen.

Paul gives two adjectives to describe

our affliction,

our suffering. Do you see what those two

words are? He calls them light and

momentary.

Now, that's almost insulting.

You walk up to somebody in profound

suffering and you say, "That's a light

thing.

That's light. That's not that heavy.

Sorry your wife died, but that's

momentary. Sorry about your chronic

pain. That's that's light."

What kind of pastor is Paul to talk like

this to his people?

Let me defend him for a second because

he's not saying that our afflictions,

our sufferings are objectively light.

Paul knows that you, your suffering is

profoundly heavy to you. That's really,

really heavy. His sufferings were

profoundly heavy to him. But watch this.

Let me show you what he means by calling

them light. Look at the last three words

in verse 17.

Paul says, "Our afflictions are

preparing for us an eternal weight of

glory beyond all comparison." Those are

very important words. Something that is

actually heavy to us can reasonably be

called light if it's compared to

something

far heavier.

You can actually call something light if

it's compared to something that is far

heavier to it. He's saying our

sufferings in this life when compared to

the heaviness of the glory that's being

stored up for you

is actually light.

He uses even more extreme language in

Romans 8:22. He says, "For I consider

Romans 8:22

that the sufferings of this present time

are not worth comparing with the glory

that is to be revealed to us." Do you

see what he's saying?

Like if you pick up a bowling ball, most

of us think this is this is heavy. But

then if you say, "Well, compare it to a

wrecking ball." Oh, no. It's now it's

light in comparison to the wrecking

ball.

So you're tracking with Paul's logic

here. He says, "All of our suffering,

all of our affliction, it's all light."

But then he says, "It's momentary."

That's the second adjective he uses.

It's momentary.

What does that mean?

Well, simply put, all of your suffering

in this life will come to an end. It

will stop hurting one day

when we die. On that day, if you love

Christ, if you're Christians, you will

enter into the presence of your beloved

king. And then this will happen to your

suffering. Revelation 21:4.

Revelation 21:4

He will wipe away every tear from their

eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor

crying, nor pain anymore. For the former

things, that's everything on the

suffering side of your scale. The former

things have passed away. It's gone. All

of it. It's temporary. On that day, it's

not the good stuff that decays anymore

like it does right now. It's not the

good stuff that corrods, that breaks

down, and wastes away like it does now.

No, the good stuff will be remade. It's

the bad stuff, the suffering, the

cancer, the sin, the wars, the

accidents, the pain. All of that will

cease to exist in the presence of God.

It will all cease to exist.

And again, Paul is not saying that your

suffering is short to you. It's not

objectively short.

You might suffer for 80 years.

You might suffer your entire life. You

might have suffering that follows you to

the grave. But it cannot follow you

after the grave.

And then again, in comparison with

eternity, your suffering will have been

a blip on the timeline.

In 10,000 years, your 80 years of

suffering will have been a millisecond

to you. That's how you'll see it. And

that's why Paul can call your suffering

momentary

because it will not last forever. you.

You're eternal. You last forever.

But at some point, your suffering will

fall off of you. It will not follow you.

It will not haunt you. And it will not

hurt you anymore.

And this is why Paul can call your

suffering momentary because it's

temporary. Think of the most painful

injury you've ever sustained in your

life. Something that you've healed from.

Does it still hurt? No, it doesn't.

You've healed from it. You recovered. It

was temporary.

All of your pain, all of your suffering

will be healed better than that when you

stand before Christ.

Okay? So, think back to our scale

analogy. We began with suffering

clanking to the bottom, but then Paul

started to add weights to the the

purpose side of the scale.

Weights of purpose like this one. Well,

when you suffer, you'll be able to

experience the comfort of God. Or this

one, when you suffer, you'll learn to

depend more on God. Or this one, when

you suffer, you will be able to be a

comforter to other people who suffer in

the same way that you have suffered.

That's how Paul started out in second

Corinthians by stacking those those

smaller weights. And for some of us,

that that balanced things out. That was

like, okay, that's enough for me. I I my

suffering is now outweighed by the

purposes of God. I I can move through

life now balanced out or even rejoicing

in the purposes of the suffering that

God has put me through.

But for some of you,

still doesn't feel worth it.

You're like, "Nope, the suffering side

of the scale is still firmly planted at

the bottom. It hasn't budged with with

the weights that Paul has put on this so

far. It has not moved. I'd rather have

my suffering gone than all of the

purposes of God in my suffering.

But then Paul drops this purpose on the

scale.

Your light momentary affliction is

preparing

an eternal weight of glory. It's

preparing it.

It's like Paul is saying, "I know that

your suffering is extremely hard, but

your suffering is doing something.

It's purposeful. It's accomplishing

something. It's preparing something for

you that you will receive one day." Paul

is taking the purposes of your suffering

and saying, "It's not really about this

life.

the other purposes, comfort, dependence,

comforting others. Those things are

about this life. That's that's where you

find some purpose here and now. But this

this new purpose that Paul is dropping

on the scale is about the next life.

It's being prepared. It's not here yet.

You don't have this glory yet. This

eternal weight of glory, it's not in

your possession right now. It's being

made ready for you. You don't have

access to it yet.

It's being stored up in heaven for you.

You don't have it yet. Now, most of you

in here are pretty wise. If somebody

came to you today and said, "Hey, I'm

going to give you a $100 today or in a

hundred days from now, I'll give you a

million dollars." You have to choose

one. You're all going to choose the

million dollars a 100 days from now.

That's just a way that far outweighs the

$100 today.

What you lose today is not worth

comparing to what you will receive one

day.

Losing the $100 is nothing. It's you

will you will rejoice to not get that

$100 in order to get a million dollars a

hundred days from now. That's what Paul

is saying. It's it's not here yet.

You're missing out on something right

now in this life, but it is coming and

it is far, far better.

Let me just paraphrase verse 17 as

simply as I can. Paul is saying, every

time you suffer, every time life hurts,

that suffering is building up glory.

It's building up glory in heaven for

you.

And so by comparison that heavy and

eternal glory

has made your sufferings very light and

momentary.

Now we need to unpack this concept of

glory

because we need to know what the reward

of the suffering is in order to evaluate

if this is going to be worth it. Like if

I were just gonna say to you, I'll give

you a $100 today and then I'll give you

something else or I'll give you

something else a hundred days from now.

You're like, I don't know if that's a

fair trade because I don't know what the

thing is. If we don't understand what

glory is, we don't know if this is a

fair trade. We don't know if this is

worth it. So, we really need to

understand what this weight of glory is

that we're waiting for.

In one sense, in one sense, and I say

this with all the sensitivity I can, in

one sense, it doesn't matter what the

weight of glory is. We should just

believe, God, that it's better.

That would be a a perfectly pure heart

would be like, I don't care. I don't

know what it is, but

but I trust you, God. I trust you that

it's going to be better, that it's going

to be worth it.

We should just believe him. But for the

sake of our skeptical minds, I think we

can unpack this.

God isn't hiding what this is.

We have clues in the Bible that I think

will be helpful for us who wonder if our

suffering will really be worth it.

And glory sounds so nebulous, doesn't

it? Like that word glory, what even is

that?

And can't we all agree that abstract

theological concepts don't usually help

us in like the reality in the moments of

our our real suffering?

Throwing out words like glory doesn't

help. So we got to understand what this

is.

Paul says your your suffering is going

to be worth it because you're going to

get glory. Well great. What is that

glory Paul?

When we think about somebody who wants

glory, maybe I'm just speaking for

myself. When I think about somebody

who's after glory, I think this person

wants to be famous, that's the word that

I'm associating with with glory is fame

or the desire for fame. Or we might

think of the imagery that Paul has been

using in second Corinthians of Moses

encountering the glory of God. His face

is shining. We might think of an

illuminating, you know, light bulbaced

person. Like those are kind of the two

images we get in our mind when we think

about glory. Somebody who's after fame

or a light bulb face. Those are and I

don't know about you, but neither of

those are very appealing to me. I'm not

like itching to get to heaven and glow

or be famous. Those aren't those aren't

great things to me and probably not to

you either.

If you're asking me if I want one of

those two, I'm probably like, "No, thank

you.

If you're asking me to suffer hardship

during my lifetime on earth, and if

you're telling me that the loss of loved

ones and the disease, the heartbreak,

the betrayal, all of it will be worth it

because you're going to get a shining

face,

I'll pass. And you will too.

So then, what is this glory supposed to

be that outweighs all of our suffering?

What is this glory that's being prepared

for us by our suffering? Now, I

struggled with this very important

question for a very long time. It's been

hard for me to wrap my head around what

is this glory? Because I think that I am

prone and probably most of us are prone

to overthink and over complicate what

glory is. We make it more abstract and

intangible than it actually is. We tend

to overthink it. And I was really helped

by two dead scholars about this subject.

I was helped by Thomas Aquinus and CS

Lewis. And I'm going to share what they

taught me about the weight of glory. And

I think it will be helpful for you.

800 years ago, Thomas Aquinus wrote

this.

Man's happiness cannot consist in human

fame or glory. For glory consists in

being well known and praised.

Rather man's beatitude that means man's

happiness depends on the glory which he

has with God.

Let me just explain that. Aquinus goes

on to explain how glory does in fact

mean fame. But it doesn't mean fame with

the other people in heaven. It's not

like wow you know Bob is the most famous

person in heaven among all the other.

No, it doesn't mean that. It means

you're famous with God.

You're known by God. Not just that he

knows you, but that he appreciates you,

that he's proud of you, that you're

accepted and cherished by God.

Now, that's great, Aquinus. But is that

in the Bible?

It is.

Let me give you three verses quickly to

show you that this is a noble and

biblical aspiration to be famous with

God, to be known by God.

This commenation we are taught this

commenation is something that every

Christian longs to hear. Matthew 25:21.

Matthew 25:21

At the end of our earthly life and at

the beginning of our eternal life, we

want to hear these words of God over

you. Well done, good and faithful

servant. You have been faithful over a

little. I will set you over much. Enter

into the joy of your master.

Enter into the joy of your master.

1 Corinthians 13:12.

1 Corinthians 13:12

Paul says, "For now we see in a mirror

dimly, but then face to face. Now I know

in part. Then I shall know fully even as

I have been fully known."

Fully known by God. And then we're also

given the most severe warning in Matthew

Matthew 7:23

7:23 when Jesus will say to those who

are not his children, to those who are

not Christians, depart from me. I never

knew you. I never knew you.

So clearly in scripture to be known by

God is to be sought after.

It's a noble aspiration. In fact, that

is salvation.

Aquinus helped me to see that the weight

of glory is fame, but it's fame with

God, being known by God. And I started

to see that this is all over the New

Testament.

That we are to live our lives in a way

that are pleasing to God. Colossians

Colossians 1:10

1:10. We are to live lives that are

acceptable to God. 1 Peter 2:5.

1 Peter 2:5

So, we are supposed to live our lives.

Is this what I'm saying? Are we supposed

to live our lives for a pat on the back

from God? That feels weird, right?

But CS Lewis helped me further in

unpacking that kind of weird feeling.

He said, "No one can enter heaven

except as a child.

And nothing is so obvious in a child,

not in a conceited child, but in a good

child, as its great and undisguised

pleasure in being praised,

not only in a child either, but even in

a dog or a horse. the most childlike,

the most creaturerly of pleasures. Nay,

the specific pleasure of the inferior,

the pleasure of a beast before men, a

child before its father, a pupil before

its teacher, a creature before its

creator.

And that is enough to raise our thoughts

to what may happen when the redeemed

soul beyond all hope and nearly beyond

belief learns that she has pleased him

whom she was created to please.

That's what it's like to be a child in

the kingdom of God. It's like a child

with their father.

When a father says, "I'm proud of you,

son." That makes a child's day.

When a child feels famous before his

father or before her father,

that is the greatest reward you can give

a child.

That's better than a million dollars.

It's childlike to want God to be proud

of you, to accept you, to bring you in.

And Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, "Truly I

Matthew 18:3

say to you, unless you turn and become

like children, you will never enter the

kingdom of heaven."

If Aquinas and Lewis are right, and the

evidence of the New Testament suggests

that they are, the glory that is being

stored up for you in heaven, the weight

that will far outweigh your suffering in

this life is the pleasure of God for

you.

It's the acceptance of God. It's the

well done. I'm so proud of you. And so

according to Paul, your suffering in

this life, this light momentary

suffering is light when it's compared to

the accumulation of God's delight in

you, his complete joy and satisfaction

with you.

Now, wait a second. I thought we were

supposed to live for God's glory. This

sounds like we're living for our glory

now.

Yes and no. We are supposed to live for

the glory of God. And yet Jesus himself

says in his high priestly prayer, his

last prayer before he is crucified,

he says in John 17:22 and 23, the glory

John 17:22

that you have given me, I have given to

them that they may be one even as we are

one. I in them and you in me. that they

may become perfectly one so that the

world may know that you sent me and love

them even as you loved me. You see what

Jesus is asking? He's asking for the

father to give us glory.

It's not to the exclusion of the glory

of God.

It's not that only one of us can have

glory. No, we will know God and he will

know us. And that's what it means for us

to be glorified.

We will praise God and he will be

pleased with us.

We will love God and he will love us.

Here's another one. Psalm 90 15-17

says, "Make us glad for as many days as

you have afflicted us and for as many

years as we have seen evil. Let your

work be shown to your servants and your

glorious power to their children. Let

the favor, the Hebrew word is pride. Let

the pride of the Lord our God, be upon

us. Show your glorious works to your

children and then be proud of us. Those

two things are not mutually exclusive.

The point is

you should be living for the glory of

God and you should be eagerly desiring

the pleasure of God, the delight of God,

the joy of God in you. You should

eagerly aspire to enter the joy of your

master.

But bringing it back to 2 Corinthians,

when Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17

2 Corinthians 4:17

that our suffering is preparing this

weight of glory, what he means is this,

that the face of a proud God who is

pleased with you, who accepts you, who

adores you, not because you suffered so

graciously, not because you were so

awesome on earth, that your deeds were

so impressive to him that he was just

blown away,

not because your faith was unwavering.

ing and you never doubted. Not because

you were so tough in your afflictions

and your sufferings. No, the weight of

your glory is the fact that God loves

you because you're his child.

Just because you're his child

because you accepted the free gift of

his salvation. Because you loved his son

and so he loves you. Because you didn't

slap away his hand when he offered you

mercy and forgiveness. because you clung

to him desperately in tri in trials. He

loves you because you're childish and

you're his child.

He loves you and that's your glory. That

love, that affection, that pleasure with

you, that pride over you, that's what's

being stored up for you. That and

everything else will belong to you. The

entire universe is going to be something

that Christians get to reign over with

Christ. So, it's all coming. But the

pride of God, the love of the father for

you, that's the weightiest part of the

glory that's coming.

That alone will outweigh all of your

suffering.

That face, that look on his face will

make it all worth it. to see God face to

face. The look of your father, the look

in his eyes, the pride, the adoration,

the joy, and the delight for his child

who has suffered so much and has finally

made it home.

That weight of glory will send the

purpose side of the scale slamming down.

And it will be worth it.

Okay, we've got another verse to cover

and this will be really fast. This will

be really fast.

We've looked at Paul's first two

comparisons, the outer self and the

inner self. And then we saw suffering

versus glory. Now let's look at our last

comparison briefly. The seen versus the

unseen. This is Paul's application.

This is Paul saying, look, I know all of

you have to go to work tomorrow. A lot

of you have school tomorrow.

So thinking about something that is so

far in the future, how does that help on

Monday morning?

What do you do today about the glory

that won't be revealed until the day you

meet your king? Look at verse 18.

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.

Now, this is Paul's application

to the theology of verses 16 and 17. He

told us about the future day. This day

when all of our suffering will cease.

When we will be rewarded with the weight

of glory. But what do we do now? We

look. We look at something. Do you see

that in verse 18? As we look, which

means while we wait, we should be

looking for something. Meanwhile, while

the weight of glory is stacking up,

while it's being prepared, we do

something. We look.

What do we look at?

Not the things that are seen.

the things that are unseen. Now, there's

an oxymoron here. How can you look at

something you can't see?

You can't.

He's not talking about looking with your

the eyes in your head. He's talking

about looking with eyes of faith.

You can't see the unseen.

He's saying, don't look at the things

that you see. Everything that you see is

things that you can see, right? Don't

pay attention. Don't don't look at that.

That's not where your where your focus

should be. This visible world,

everything that's wasting away is not

where your primary attention should be.

Where should your primary attention be?

Things that you cannot see.

Let your mind be occupied. Let your

attention be given to the things that

you cannot see. Don't focus on your

sufferings here and now. focus on the

purpose of your sufferings.

And I know that when you're suffering,

that is the most real thing. That's like

the most raw feeling in the world. You

can't really focus on a different

reality when you're in the middle of a

trial.

It's so hard to lift your eyes above

your circumstances, beyond the pain, to

something further away. But that is

Paul's application in this text.

And so, what do you do when you're in

that moment? When you're suffering and

you're like, "This is so hard. Heaven

seems so far away. Glory, that weight is

just far. What can I do in the meantime?

Paul is saying that our primary

orientation is towards the spiritual

realm over the physical

because the things that you can see are

all temporary. They're all passing away.

It's all going to end. But the things

that you cannot see are eternal.

He's saying that the spiritual realities

of this world deserve more of our

attention.

than the physical realities, than the

visible realities.

So for Christians, what do you do when

you're suffering or when you're

overwhelmed in life? What do you do when

the pain just won't ease up? What do you

do when the heartache won't leave?

You preach the truth to yourself. You

preach the truth to yourself. You take

every thought of yours captive and you

make it do what the truth says to do.

You say this is all temporary. This by

comparison to the weight of glory that

is being prepared for me is light and it

is momentary.

You remind your thoughts what you

believe.

Remind your thoughts what is true.

Now, if you're not a Christian,

you too should also be focused on what

you cannot see

because the face of God will one day be

revealed to every single person.

Whether you're his children or his

you're his enemies and I want to leave

you with one more thought from Lewis. He

wrote this.

In the end, that face which is the

delight or the terror of the universe

must be turned upon each of us either

with one expression or the other. Either

conferring glory inexpressable or

inflicting shame that can never be

cured.

Make sure God knows you. That's my plea

to you. If you're not a Christian, make

sure God knows you.

You never want to hear the words from

Christ, I never knew you.

Put your faith in Christ right now, this

morning. Don't wait another minute. All

that means to put your faith in Christ,

it simply means to believe in Jesus,

that he exists, that he is alive, that

he died on the cross for your sins, and

that because he wants to be with you, he

forgives your sins.

believe that he rose from the dead to

prove that all humans will live forever

in in heaven or in hell.

If you can believe this, then you can be

known by God and you can be loved by

God. You will be his child.

The main thing I want us to take away

from this sermon today is this. If you

don't remember anything else, remember

this.

All of the suffering that you endure in

this life will be far outweighed by the

weight of glory that is being stored up

for you in heaven. Can I say that again?

All the suffering that you endure in

this life will be far outweighed by the

weight of glory that is being stored up

for you in heaven.

It will all be worth it when you finally

meet him face to face. Let's pray.