Amen. Well, good morning, beloved. A warm welcome to you. A warm welcome to the Harrison Hills family, to our guests, and to our visitors. We are honored to have you with us today as we gather under the banner of Christ and his word. This Sunday is a very special, it is a very Tender Lord's Day for us as a church family. As we lay to rest our dear Harvey Willis this week, a much beloved member and joyous pillar of Harrison Hills, we are all grieving the loss. Not as those who have no hope, but as those with great hope. As those with a living hope. That hope is contained in the person of Jesus Christ. And He's revealed that hope, and He's taught us, and He's shown us that hope, and is inspired, is inerrant, is infallible, is all sufficient word, in which it is our joy to open this morning. Of course, one of our mottos at HHBC is that we preach the next verse, and indeed we do. However, times and events within the body, like the loss of someone much loved, are divine providences. to give us pause in our normal journey through the gospel of Mark as we take time, to hear the whole counsel of God in our lives, giving ear through the events that he brings into our lives. So open your Bibles with me if you would this morning to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, the fourth chapter. This is a dear portion of scripture to me. It's a place I often land in my own time, As we reflect upon the events and the loss and the tears of the week, it is well that we now swim freely, that we bask deeply in the rich truths that Paul is sharing with the much loved and the greatly challenged church at Corinth. Now if one recalls in the ninth chapter of Acts, we saw there a remarkable telling of a man named Ananias. You'll remember that he was a disciple that lived in Damascus where the man then named Saul was coming to arrest and to persecute the Christians that lived there. And of course, famously, it was on this road to Damascus that Saul was confronted by the living Lord, by the risen Savior, and he was struck blind. Having been led to Damascus blind and distraught, Scripture says that Saul didn't eat or drink for three days. And the disciple Ananias was spoken to by the Lord and told to go to the street called Straight and to pray for this Saul that he might regain his vision. And of course, Ananias was like, hang on, I know this guy, Saul, he kills Christians. The Lord tells him to go. He's my chosen instrument. But more than that, Ananias brings another piece of news to Saul. The Lord says it is then that I will show him how many things he must suffer for my sake. Saul, who would of course later become Paul, did suffer. In fact, it's difficult to point to many people in scripture, certainly anyone today, who has suffered more than he did. And Paul was not ashamed to detail those sufferings. In fact, in this very same epistle, in the 11th chapter, Paul really lays it out. That he was with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times, Paul says, I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes, less one, he told the church at Corinth. Three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers and robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger from the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. In toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from the other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for the churches. Well, in this he wrote only about two thirds the way through his ministry. So this is by no means an exhaustive list. And in many ways, the hardest things were still yet to come, if you can believe that. Paul did suffer. And he wanted the church to not only understand it, but to understand why, and what the purpose was, and how we're supposed to live in light of it. How do we not only grapple with it, but more than that, how do we prosper in light of it? How does our spirit soar? in light of it. How does this flame of heaven that now lives in our hearts through the indwelling of Christ and of his spirit, how does that grow stronger against the wind? How do we process these immense challenges of life through the lens of heaven? Paul, of course, lived under the threat of even death almost daily, didn't he? "'We do not want you to be unaware, brethren,' Paul says, "'of our affliction. "'We were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, "'so that we despaired even of life. "'Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves.'" Chapter seven, verse five, Paul declares that, "'Our flesh had no rest. "'We were afflicted on every side, "'conflicts without, and fears within, fears within. For many physical hardships, some of us honestly can bear those easier, can't we? But Paul was under continual assault from those within the church, from those attacking the church, from false teachers. And if you read his pleadings in the epistles, Paul, well, he lived with a perpetually broken heart. He did. The world, even many in the churches, thought he was a fool. They accused him of all sorts of nefarious deeds in his absence. Listen, as Paul describes, to this present hour, we are both hungry and thirsty. We're poorly clothed and are roughly treated. We're homeless. We toil, working with our own hands. We are reviled. When we are reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered, we try to conciliate. We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. He was a man who bore scars on the outside and pain on the inside. He was truly battered for the sake of Christ. Without and within, Paul lived with the scars. of knowing that even Christians died at his hand before Christ saved him. Paul recounts in Acts 26, and I punished them often in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme. meaning renounce Christ, say he's not God, that he's not the Messiah. And in raging fury against them, I persecuted them, even to foreign cities, men and women. I'm sure he saw their faces. He lived knowing that many of his now brothers and sisters in Christ were diaspora, meaning they were scattered because of persecution. He wore the weight of that. To be sojourners in this world is to know loneliness. It's to know hardship, it's to know pain and loss. Our own Savior told us that in this world you will have trouble. Paul told Timothy, indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. How many is all? Well, all in the Greek, beloved, means all. that can take on many stripes, of course. It may be as simple as a mocking from friends or family, all the way to martyrdom, and everything in between. You will be persecuted. Indeed, if you claim Christ as your Lord, and you've walked with him for a number of years, but can't look back and ever see a time where it cost you something, where you stood even mild persecution for your love of Christ. All means all. It's time to examine your walk. What value can we assign a faith that has never cost the bearer anything to walk out? A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted him, they will persecute you. Of course, Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and on throughout the New Testament tell us that this is the default position and the expectation of the Christian. Even Job said that man is born unto trouble. Boy, that sounds pretty dark. Where's the hope in that, pastor? Where's the living hope in that? I'm going to need a different lens if I'm about to grab hold of Paul here. If my heart is to soar with the sounds of heaven, if my nose is to smell the fragrance of heaven, then I'm going to need the lenses of heaven, as Paul did. So with that, beloved, let us look to our text. 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18. 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18. Therefore we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary Light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we approach this text, Lord, with full hearts, with joy unspeakable, Lord, we ask that you would open this text for us in the way that only the Holy Spirit can. Lord, we ask that the God of all comfort, would cause this text to soar in our hearts, Lord, that we might see, Lord, that we might know. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. Well, a few weeks ago, I had to head back to the optometrist to get a new prescription for my eyeglasses. And anyone who's ever had those eye tests, you know that you sit in front of the machine, and they start dropping different lenses in front of your eyes, don't they? And more and more lenses drop until eventually they get those right lenses. And you could see clearly And the first one they try is usually a little clearer, but it's still blurry. And then two or three lenses in, what happens? You're starting to see quite clearly. And that is the hope in our text today. As we visit the heavenly optometrist to be fitted with the lenses of heaven. What is the reason for our hope? How are we able to endure and even thrive amidst the promised pain of life in a fallen world? We have deep oceans to swim in this morning, beloved, so let's dive right into our text, beginning with verse 16, verse 16. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Now pause there. Our regulars at Harrison Hills know exactly why we must pause there. We read the word, therefore. And that's an all stop, isn't it? Therefore, or for, or but, or so simply means that we can't understand fully what Paul is about to say until we examine what he's just said. You don't lose heart, Paul. We'll examine what he means by that, but why don't you lose heart? What's the cause for your therefore, Paul? This is actually a pretty large therefore, meaning there are some minor ones, right? Just meaning to minor ones that perhaps just bring forward the last sentence or the last thought, but others are larger. They're bigger movers. They're bringing forward a whole chapter or a whole paragraph. In fact, we have a therefore in Romans, for example, that splits the entire book in half. It's a pretty big one. So it's bringing forward multiple thoughts here from Paul. And we'll eventually work back to the foundational heartbeat of Paul's therefore. But for now, let's look to the immediate usage, meaning the verses right prior. Why do you not lose heart, Paul? What is this first lens of heaven to drop, to make it a little less blurry? Let's examine that therefore. Let's look at the preceding verses. Look down at your Bibles there down to verses 14 and 15 right before our text today. Paul is 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. Wow. So the first lens to drop from the heavenly optometrist, the very God who raised Jesus from the dead, is going to raise us from the dead and bring us into his presence. How's that for a first lens? See, I can't completely grasp that, Paul. It's almost too much for my finite mind to wrap around, and it's still blurry on the first lens. But it's better than that. Paul keeps telling us why he's not losing heart. You know when the optometrist drops that first lens, whether you're near or you're far-sighted, it's that first one. that at least shifts you in the right direction from the direction that we're failing. Here's our first lens, and it's the broad shift of our thinking to an eternal mindset. Our vision is naturally degraded toward the natural. It's looking to the temporal, it's looking to the physical. Before we refine the vision, let's set the big one straight, meaning raise your gaze, dear Christian. Lift your eyes off of navel gazing and onto the hills where your help comes from. Off of the pain that marks our life and onto the higher truth and the greater reality that there is a resurrection from the dead. Paul's not ignoring the pain. He wrote all about his hardship and loss, but he says there's something greater. But though, back to our text, our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Paul's body was beat to shreds. He bore within his body the scars of Christ, the welts of ministry, the man shown by Jesus how he would suffer for his sake, bore weights that no man in his earthly strength could bear up under. Yet, Paul says, yet, meaning of greater value, of greater importance than my shell of a body that is decaying My inner man is being renewed day by day. And in fact, we see here a somewhat veiled description of sanctification in the life of the Christian. Sanctification is that promised spiritual growth of the Christian in this life. It's a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. It's the school of Christ that every believer goes through, where God burns and refines and molds and shapes you into the image of his son. You know, that's why he saved you. That's why. He didn't save us because we were something so special or unique. He saved us for his own glory, for his own prize and possession. for his overabounding love for his son. And here we see that on display. Paul's saying the older you get, Paul says the more your body decays, what's happening inversely to the inner man? It's growing. It's being renewed. It's getting stronger and stronger. Meaning the dear saint who's walked in the school of Christ all his life, And there lies weak upon his deathbed. He is a roaring lion inside, ready to meet his king and savior. And that's what matters. That's a lens of heaven. That which profits physically, materially, is temporal. And the very one who created time, who defines what reality is, has declared to us that the eternal is to be prized above all else. That the unseen carries greater weight than that which is seen. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Now here, to lose heart, Paul's usage was, it was really a common phrase amongst the Greeks. This phrase didn't originate in the English. And to them it meant never surrender. Take courage. It's a call to arms. It's a battle call. It's a call to stay in it. A call, as Paul told Timothy, to fight the good fight, to run the race with endurance, to finish well. Even now as we prepare our hearts for the memorial service this afternoon for Harvey Willis, that is the phrase that fills my heart for him. He did not lose heart. Amidst physical hardship, he pressed into Christ and he finished well. No surprise. We're gonna see this as we move further into our text that physical affliction produces spiritual strength. That's what it means to not lose heart. Never surrender. Fight the good fight of faith. Run the race with endurance. But we must have clear vision to run. We must. Let us not be as men groping around in the dark with no idea where we're going. Give us the lenses of heaven. So go on for us, Paul. It's coming a bit clear. Give us another lens. Verse 17, verse 17. for our momentary light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Now, hang on. Paul's already described for us the suffering he's endured. He's shown us that the Christian life is not one that hovers above the fray. immune from pain and some sort of elevated state of spirituality. Life is messy. Life is disjointed and even tragic. To be human in a fallen world is to get your hands dirty. It's to be in the mud sometimes. It's to be in the slew of despond. We will experience death. We will experience fallenness. We will watch the groaning of creation that's marred by sin, that will reach out and touch every area of our lives. We will experience affliction as Paul describes it, literally meaning pressure, intense pressure, tribulation, affliction. There is a squeezing, there is a weight that comes with sojourning through a sin-ridden world. And this coming from Paul. whose suffering was so intense that Jesus himself showed him how bad it would be. And yet, that very man, Paul describes his affliction. He describes this affliction and the affliction of all who are in Christ. And he does so in two ways. Here comes more lenses of heaven. He says this affliction is both momentary and light. Saints, we have to pause there. Paul was not just writing to the church at Corinth. The Holy Spirit has written this and preserved this for our instruction and encouragement. This is applied to all believers for all time. Now as difficult as it is, can we ponder for a moment the suffering that followers of Christ have suffered for the last 2,000 years of the church age? Approximately 70 million Christians have been martyred for their faith in that time, often in the most horrific of ways. All have walked paths of sorrows. Oceans could not contain the tears that have been shed from the affliction poured out. And here, what is this lens of heaven, Paul? I can't hardly process it. You say that this affliction, this pain, is momentary, and it's light. First, Paul's dealing with an element of time here, isn't he? Momentary. Of course, James 4 tells us that this life is a vapor, that it appears for a little while, then vanishes away. And that's not written to drive us to some mindset of hopelessness and futility. It's to drive our eyes to eternity. It is momentary. The very worst men can do is take your life. Jesus said as much in Matthew 10, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. That's momentary. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. That's eternal. There's that lens again. It's momentary. That which is coming is eternal. So not only does Paul draw our gaze to heaven's lens of time, how we're supposed to see time, but the weight of it. How is it here, he describes our afflictions as light. Literally translated to mean a weightless trifle. Ask someone who's going through pain or loss if this is a weightless trifle. On the face of it, it's almost mildly insulting, isn't it? What do you mean light? What do you mean a weightless trifle? Perhaps you've filled an ocean with your tears. How can Paul call that light? Understand, beloved, Paul is not saying it's light on its own. Have you ever watched the lost experience, heartache and pain? Loss and hardship, of course they do. And it can be a crushing weight. Life can grind them to a powder until they are a shell of a person. So why does the same affliction crush the unbeliever under that weight, and yet for those in Christ, it is light? Well, newsflash, it's the same weight. Affliction is the same. Pain is pain. The lost feel it just as you do. What's different? There's a real weight coming. Watch Paul's cadence here in verse 17. Momentary, eternal, light, and what? Weight. Our light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. Paul is not saying that the situation or the trial or the pain or the hurt is easy or that it's light, so just suck it up, buttercup. Not at all. He's telling us that the pain of this life, even with its oceans of tears and hurts, is a trifle compared to what is waiting for those who love Christ. That's not insensitive of Paul, that's the glory of heaven. That's the glory of heaven. Yes, the affliction is real. And that same affliction can crush those who don't have the lens of heaven, who are not upheld by his powerful hand. That's how Paul can say just a few verses before that he's afflicted in every way, but he's not crushed. He's perplexed, but he's not driven to despair. He's persecuted, but he's not forsaken. He's struck down, but he's not destroyed. This is light compared to the weight of glory. But look closely at Paul's description. He not only describes the affliction, but another lens drops at the optometrist of heaven. Paul describes what that affliction is doing, what it's accomplishing. Beloved, we don't just plow through the pains of life waiting for it to go away and be over. Paul says to know in this affliction, know that it is doing something. Do we see that? What does Paul say? Affliction is working out for us. Some translations say it is producing in us this eternal weight of glory, meaning what? Well, first, before we ever get to what the actual reward is, What it does mean first is that no suffering for the Christian, no affliction, no pain, no heartache for a Christian is ever wasted, ever. It is heavenly fertilizer. It is growing and enriching our eternal reward. But what exactly is that reward? Well, hang on to your hats here, saints. Paul tells us right here, but it's easy to miss in the English. We read that it's working out for us, it's producing in us an eternal weight of glory. What does that mean exactly? If that's our future reward, if that's what all this affliction is going to produce in our eternal reward, might we want to know what the weight of glory is? Because this is what Paul is telling me I'm pushing through for. What could be so weighty, what could be the weight of glory that a martyr being burned at the stake could proclaim it is a weightless trifle in comparison? The eternal reward of the Christian being produced by affliction is a weight of glory. What does that mean? The weight of glory. is your capacity for praise. It means the greater your weight, the greater your capacity for praise. Hang on if you just missed that. It means that the afflictions in this life of all stripes and varieties are increasing your capacity to praise and glorify God for all eternity. meaning the deeper the hole of affliction has been dug in the heart, the greater the measure, the greater the weight of glory can be poured in. Who lifts their hands in glory and prays more? The one who's experienced a little hardship or the one who has walked through fire? and can raise their hands forevermore to a God who is faithful and worthy to be praised. One of my favorite writers, probably one of the most brilliant theologians of all time, is Puritan author John Owen. Many of you know him. Some have perhaps read some of his works. John entered Oxford at 12, if that gives you a sense of his brilliance. To read his writing is really to soar with the winds of heaven. It's magnificent in its depth and beauty and insight. But was that depth simply wrought and produced in the halls of Oxford amongst learned men? John Owen and his wife had 11 children born to them. 10 died in infancy. Even his only daughter that survived would later die as well. One has to ask, could John Owen have written this way without knowing such affliction? What capacity for praise, what weight of glory was created in him by the holes that dug so deep? Our affliction is producing in us a greater and greater eternal capacity to praise Christ the King. And that is our highest good. Did you know, beloved, that's what heaven's all about? If you didn't like coming to church this morning, or if you don't care much for gathering with believers at all, then I can save you the trip. You won't like heaven at all. You won't like it. There's no floating around on clouds. Heaven is an eternity spent in worship around the throne and in fellowshipping with the redeemed about a mighty God, about the goodness of God who would save a wretch like ourself. And Paul is telling us that the one who will sing the loudest, who will cry out in praise the loudest and the most passionately there, will be the ones who suffered the most affliction here. That's what he's saying. Now whether that is pain suffered because of your faith directly, or merely facing the everyday realities of a fallen world with a submitted heart, it is digging out a depository for a weight of glory, that being your capacity for praise. Saints, grab hold of that and do not let go. Any affliction in this life Whatever it is you are going through or have gone through or will go through is growing and deepening our future capacity to engage in the highest good there is for all eternity. That's amazing. Behold another lens of heaven. Is our vision getting clearer, saints? Finally, verse 18. Look to verse 18. While we look not at the things which are seen, but that the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Dr. MacArthur, he condenses this down in a most helpful way. When talking about our endurance, about the ability of this flame to grow stronger against the winds of adversity and affliction, they are quote, based on a person's ability to look beyond the physical to the spiritual, beyond the present to the future, and beyond the visible to the invisible." Because one is the lens of the world, and the other is the lens of heaven. Look to our text, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. When we talk about that which is seen, it's really encompassing, all-encompassing of the natural, meaning all that's destined to perish. That's not just the material. It means anything that is of the world. We're talking about ideas, accomplishments that will not survive the refining kiln of God's word applied to it. unbiblical worldviews and idolatry, perhaps all that glitters and shines. Whatever is contrary to that which is fashioned for an eternity of worship to Christ. Whatever will not survive the refiner's fire, that is not to consume our attention or our affection. And again, Paul did not speak aloof in this. He walked that talk. He walked that walk. He was highly educated. He had risen to the very top of rabbinical and pharisaical life and education. He would have been very wealthy in his pursuits. He was what you would call today set for life. But he counted it all rubbish that he might gain Christ. The world considered him a fool, such a waste of a fine mind. But if the heavens are going to pass away with the roar, 2 Peter tells us, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed, how then shall we live, saints of God? Where shall we look? Where shall we set our hearts upon? Where should our motivations lie? What draws and controls our affections, which are fleeting, which are here today, gone tomorrow? Christ is all of Christ. If filled up with his affliction, we will be filled with the same affection. Affliction hollows us out. And that's exactly how it feels sometimes. It digs a hole that we might be filled with a weight of glory. Here's a tank of fuel for your praise. to sing forevermore. We look not at the things which are seen, but that the things that are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. If the vision test is complete, if our prescription is printed, the corrective lens of heaven is what? It's the invisible over what is visible. It's the spiritual over the physical. It's the unseen over the seen. It's the future over the present. It's knowing that even our present pain is producing prolific praise in the future. We look past that which is momentary and we gaze upon that which is eternal. What is eternal? Well, not only is it the fullness of the Godhead, not only is it God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, it is the souls of men, the souls of women and children. The soul is eternal. And Paul says that we look upon and we focus upon, we preoccupy ourselves with such things. That's why we as Christians are preoccupied with our own souls and with the souls of others. They are eternal, which we are moving our eyes to. Beloved, every person sitting to your right and to your left this morning is an eternal being. not our outer shell that's wasting away, but who you are, what makes you you, your soul. Your soul thinks, it feels, it remembers, it embodies your personality, it is you, meaning you don't have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body, but you are a soul. and you're going to live forever. The only question is where that eternity will be spent. And scripture tells us that it's appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. And that reality, beloved, is more real than the air you just breathed. In the Old Testament, God gave us the laws. He gave us the Ten Commandments, not simply as a list of rules to keep to earn God's favor. That's a measuring stick. How will we measure up to the perfection of God? Of course, Israel looked at that law and they said, we can never do it. We can never measure up. We will always fall short of that perfect standard, even trying as hard as we can. And God said, exactly. That's the point. And Paul echoed this in Romans, declaring that all have sinned. and fall short of the glory of God, meaning every one of us misses the mark. We fall short of the standard that's been set, and that's a problem. God has declared that he's holy, and he's perfect. That sin cannot live in His presence. If I'm ever to have relationship with my people ever again, if that great gulf and chasm that sin has created between me and my people is ever to be crossed, that sin must be removed. In the Old Testament, God instituted a sacrificial system. the slaying of animals, the shedding of their blood upon the altar. And while it didn't remove their sin, it covered it temporarily until they sinned again and again. And they had to sacrifice that animal, that lamb again and again. And they waited. They waited for that perfect lamb of God that was promised all the way back in Genesis that would come to be the perfect sacrifice for his people. And when he finally came, fulfilling over 400 Messianic prophecies in perfect fulfillment like no other man in history, Israel looked at him, they heard him, they beheld him, they hardened their hearts, and they killed him. And he was perfect in life, having committed no sin. That means he was spotless, pure, unstained. That His death on the cross was the sacrifice to not just cover sin, but to wash it away. Clean, presentable to God. And not because of our good deeds, not because we kept the law, but because Christ has given His perfection to us. He kept the law on our behalf. And imagine that perfection was woven into a beautiful robe. and He's clothed us in it. He's draped His perfect righteousness over us, and we didn't deserve it. But out of His great love, He's done this. That's the living hope of the gospel. Now there are perhaps some listening this morning here or even online that this doesn't make any sense. Why God's only son had to die? Wasn't there another way? It seems extreme. Is my sin really that bad? Well, beloved, just like any problem you might encounter at work or at home, the depth of the problem determines the extent of the solution. I'll say that again. The depth of the problem determines the extent of the solution. Now God sacrificed his only son as the solution. So tell me then, how deep was the problem? So large, so overwhelming and all-consuming that only the perfect blood of Christ could pay such a debt. And Paul, in the very next chapter from our text this morning, would plead with the Corinthians. Keep in mind, Paul is writing to those who are supposedly and outwardly part of the church. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Say, I want to, pastor. How do I do that? Maybe you've occupied a church pew for years, but you don't know Christ in the way you've heard it today. I thought I knew the gospel, but I've never understood it before. I thought I had on some heavenly lenses, but it was all the world. Scripture implores you to come in repentance and faith. meaning we acknowledge our sin before a holy God, that we see our stained life against the backdrop of his pure perfection, and we cry out in mercy. And that tender cry for mercy, beloved, he will never turn away. Those who have put their faith and trust in Christ alone, not casually. Beloved, no one strolls through the narrow way to heaven. You come on your face. And to that one who cling to him and won't let go, he'll give you a new heart, a new mind with new desires. He will make you a new creation. You'll be fit for eternity with him. He will do it. Even then, Paul told the Corinthians, behold now is the favorable time. Today is the day of salvation. And so it is. We ask Heavenly Father this morning for the lenses of heaven that we might see clearly. Let us pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, that we might seek you this morning. Lord, may we not grope around in the dark as those with no light and no hope Lord, we have been given the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which we would do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts. Lord, we ask that you would illuminate our eyes with your glory. Correct our vision, Heavenly Father. Lord, in light of pain, let us rejoice. In light of death, we cling to the author of life. In light of affliction, we thank you for the praise that will ring out of that depository. The weight of glory being worked out in each one. Lord, in perfect measure, as we walk through this life. All this we pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.