2 Corinthians 4:16–18 // Suffering Prepares Us to Enjoy God // It Is Well With My Soul

this is the fourth lab session on our series five purposes of all human suffering the first purpose we looked at was Luke 13 one two five that God summons everybody to repentance their suffering our own and others then we look in second Corinthians one eight and nine that in our suffering God intends for us to rely on him to raise the dead rather than rely upon ourselves and in Hebrews 2 6 2 11 god's purpose as a disciplining father is that we share his holiness and the peaceful peaceful fruit of righteousness and now we turn to number 4 god's purpose for a reward 2nd Corinthians 4:16 2:18 so father as we look at these few verses I pray that the glory of our eternal weight of glory would grip us and that we would see that the slight momentary afflictions that we must endure here cannot be compared to what you are preparing for us so please take this down deep so that when our afflictions come we will have utter confidence that you know what you're doing in working for us something great the prentiss in Jesus name Amen we do not lose heart that's so crucial this whole unit here is intended to help us not lose heart in the midst of our suffering 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 scene for the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal though our outer self our bodies in other words is wasting away our outer self is wasting away that what that tells us is that the suffering in view in this passage includes everything like losing your eyesight losing your joints getting more stiff being unable to walk being able to hear losing your hair having to take thyroid medicine and all kinds of other pills this is a wasting away and of course the wasting away might be sudden like it was for Paul I'm sure when he suffered so many imprisonments and so many sleepless nights and so many beatings and laceration is this wasting away happened quickly but don't fail to see this is everybody our outer self is wasting away and that's a huge suffering it's a huge trial our inner self our spirits our souls are being renewed every day day by day now it's the ground for that here's why there can be daily renewal in spite of this wasting away for this light momentary affliction really is preparing for us and eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison so now notice light corresponds to weight right light and heavy and momentary corresponds to eternal and affliction corresponds to glory that's what we're supposed to see so this light momentary compares to eternal or weighty eternal and the affliction is going to be replaced by glory and so in all likelihood what Paul has in mind by by momentary is life long you know there's all the process of wasting away and the reason he calls it moment Ares because the Bible views this like as a vapor this life is a vapor the wind passes over it's like a flower the wind passes over it and it is gone and it's momentary in comparison with eternal and its light and you might say oh I don't think so Johnny Erickson tada has been in a wheelchair what for 50 years now and hasn't been able to use her arms and legs in a normal way and and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people with such kind of long and heavy at least from a human standpoint they seem long they seem heavy but Paul is insisting no compared to the weight of glory this this is a light affliction compared to eternity this is a momentary affliction we we must look not to the things that are seen because we look to the things that are seen this is not gonna seem light it's gonna seem heavy this is not gonna seem momentary it's gonna seem 60 70 80 years of decay but we look to the things that are unseen namely the eternal weight of glory now here's here's the main thing that I want us to see the verb connecting the light momentary affliction and the eternal weight of glory is is preparing kot-tair gods oh my god zettai which means produce cause-effect bring about or here prepare this this is a verb that really implies really says that this affliction is bringing about this glory and the eternality and the weight of it is being affected by this affliction so that means this affliction no matter what element of you're wasting away losing your eyesight losing your hearing losing your ability to walk e losing in alzheimer's your ability to think is not just intended to have an effect here to cause us to rely on God and cause us to be righteous and cause us to repent it has an eternal effect and the effect is glory that increases in white and becomes eternal because of this affliction and here's one of the practical effects of that at least for me when I see people who are suffering a hundred times more than I am and Paul is calling a light and calling it momentary and I see it as ten times hundred times more than I have I want to be able to say to them you know what your affliction is really really working really preparing really doing something the quantity of it is doing something it is not meaningless it's not inert it's not the same as mine it is really preparing something weighty and something glorious for you and I will be very good in the age to come to have God pour out something on you to make up for what you have suffered here that I don't receive an experience there and you do because of what you didn't endured here I've wanted to be able to say that I think that's implicit in this light momentary affliction preparing causing bringing about this particular weight of glory that every one of us experiences so I sum up the fourth purpose of all human suffering is reward that if we will have it if anti human being anywhere on the planet would turn to God through Christ all that suffering he would find is meant to bring about for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison [Music]

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 35,008

Rating: 4.9516406 out of 5

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism

Id: BY8__oVL_b0

Length: 9min 45sec (585 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 28 2017