We'll invite you now to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We'll be reading verses 13 through 18. Last week we did focus on 13 through 15 as we reflected on how the resurrection should shape our identity and our thinking. This week we'll focus on verses 16 through 18 and take a closer look at God's work, His current work in us for another reason that Paul gives us why we must not lose heart in the midst of suffering. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. starting at verse 13. 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 is raised to 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 our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for 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. The things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Praise God for his most encouraging word. Let's pray as we prepare to look at these verses together. Lord God, help us to know your ways, teach us your paths, teach us how to think about our life, about our past, about our future, and teach us how to think even in the midst of suffering. Lord, help us to receive and to feed on your words so that we might not lose heart even in the midst of difficulty and suffering. We thank you that you are the God of our salvation and it is for you that we wait all the day long. Through Christ our Lord, amen. Well, to start off this evening, I want to read a quote by science fiction writer David Gerrold, Confession. I don't know who that is, but this quote works really well to introduce this sermon, and we'll come back to it in the conclusion. So someone else maybe, if you know who that is, you can tell us. But here's what he says about life. Life is hard, then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful that it happens in that order. science fiction writer. Well, there's definitely a fatalistic determinism and a hopelessness about that quote. Where's the meaning in life? What about the life to come? Where's the hope of the resurrection? And if that really is it and that's all that happens, then what are we doing here? Well, as Christians, we certainly don't hide from the fact that due to the fall, this life is hard. This life is full of suffering. But we also don't live as those without hope, who thinks that nothing that we do in this life matters or is important. And if we're honest with ourselves, though, even as Christians, we do at times, especially in the midst of great trials and great difficulties, thinking like this and living as if there is no hope. And that looks like, well, we just want it to end. We just want to give up. We just want things to be over. Well, as we get into our passage here, as we've been moving along this theme of hope in the midst of suffering, Paul has been talking about this quite a bit in 2 Corinthians. And we find encouragement and we found encouragement as we saw that Paul taught us that the Lord uses our suffering and in the midst of our weakness, he makes the gospel known to others. That's encouraging to us. Last time, we reflected on how Paul's whole world is centered on the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and how he looked back to Christ's death, what that was done for him in the past, and he looked forward to his future conquering resurrection, and that shaped his thinking in the future, and that brought him strength and brought him comfort, and it brings us strength and comfort. And now, in our verses this evening, He continues to give us reasons why we must not lose hope, and he describes what God is doing in us as believers right now. So what is it that God is doing in every Christian right now? Well, the Spirit of God is transforming all Christians into the glorious image of our resurrected Savior. So Paul explains why we do not lose heart as he describes this continuing work of New Covenant ministry, this work of the life-giving Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, that goes on in the lives of every Christian. And he gives us three comparisons, one in verse 16, 17, and 18, and we'll look at each of these under a separate point this evening. Our three points this evening are the Spirit's work of renewal, the Spirit's work of preparation, and third, the Spirit's work of faith. So the first reason we do not lose hope is in verse 16, where we read, so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. As we get prepared to talk about the Spirit's work of renewal, we just need to understand what Paul means by outer self and inner self. We're gonna tend to think of outer self as these decaying bodies. Well, that's not totally wrong, but it's not complete. It literally, is our outer man and our inner man. And some people will take this and read this to think that, well, our outer man, that's our fleshly body, and our inner man, that's our soul or our spirit, sort of a body-spirit conflict or dualism. And this view of what was popular in the ancient world, it is today that, you know, matter and what we see is somehow visible and inferior and evil, and the spiritual is the invisible, and that's good. But that's not what Paul is teaching here. For Paul, our outer self, it includes this fallen creation body. But even more importantly, we should think of this as our old man. our old man in Adam, a sinner by birth and a sinner by choice. And our new man or our new self is us as we have new life in Jesus Christ, our new creation life, its salvation and being born again kind of life. So a life that we have begun already even now in soul as we have been born again, as we have been regenerated in a life that will continue in the resurrection. So in other words, the contrast that Paul's making here is about our old life combined with this creation life, but our old life before Christ and our new life in Christ. Paul's describing this same work that he mentioned earlier in 2 Corinthians. 318 when he said this, and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So, this work, our old selves are dying to sin and we're being renewed and recreated into the image of our risen Christ. Paul also teaches this is what's happening, God's work in us in Colossians chapter 3, verses 9 and 10, when he says, do not lie to one another, seeing as you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. So this is the work in process, this we are works in process, and we're being renewed day by day continually. Sin no longer reigns and rules over us, but for now it does still remain in us. But we're also being made new, and we're being cleansed, and each and every day we look less and less like who we were in Adam, And we look more and more like our risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Do you believe that the surpassing power of God is at work in you every single day? That every single morning when you wake up, You're more like the Lord Jesus in some way, shape or form than you were the day before. That's hard to believe. On a day-to-day basis, it sure doesn't seem like that, does it? Because we see our own selfishness. We see our own heart. We know that we try to wander away from God constantly. And we know that we keep struggling with that same sin over and over again. So we ask ourselves, how can this be true of me? Because I don't feel like I'm being conformed to the image of Christ. We feel like maybe God has taken a break for a while from conforming me to the image of Christ. Maybe there's a construction delay. Maybe my soul, maybe it's like that long plan for I-80 that I hear will be completed in 2028 or thereabouts. Or maybe God's run out of resources. Or maybe even worse, maybe he's changed his mind. and he's abandoned this renewal and recreation process entirely. Well, sometimes we think like that. But what's the Word of God say? Well, the despair that we feel in these times of discouragement that's from the enemy of our soul, the evil one. He's the father of lies. He wants you to doubt. He wants you to despair. He wants you to focus on your own constant failures. He wants you to feel helpless. He wants you to quit and to give up. Well, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, don't believe the lies of the evil one and even rebuke your own doubting hearts with the truth of the Word of God. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, then His Spirit dwells in you, and you are being renewed day by day into the image of the Son of God. And God never runs out of funding. He never runs out of willpower or resources. God does not change His mind. He will not leave you unfinished. In Philippians 1.6, Paul assures us of this, and I'm sure of this, he says, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So when you feel hopeless, and in despair, and when you have no strength, we do not lose hope, for God is at work in you, He's making you new, and He will finish the job. We do not lose hope because the Almighty Spirit of God is at work in us every single second of every single day, making us brand new and conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ. He never stops and He will not stop until the job is complete on the day of our resurrection. God is at work in you. And in verse 17, we see that one of the tools that God is using to renew and form Christians, forming them into the image of our risen Lord, one of these tools is the sufferings and trials of this life. The second reason Paul gives for not losing hope is found in verse 17. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Paul is teaching us as Christians on how to view the sufferings of this life. First, he describes the sufferings and trials of this life as light and temporary. Something that's light is easy to carry around. A feather is light. Something temporary means it doesn't last very long and that it has an end. Do your sufferings and trials seem light? Do they seem easy to carry? Or are they so heavy that you feel like your spiritual knees are buckling under the pressure? Do they seem temporary? Or do they seem like they're going to go on and on forever with no relief in sight? In the middle of our daily battles with the world, our flesh, and the devil, our trials don't seem light. They don't seem temporary. They seem heavy and crushing and lengthy. So what is Paul doing here? What is he trying to say? This doesn't seem to match our experience. Well, Paul wants us to see our trials from a new vantage point. In the middle of a battle, all can seem hopeless when you're down on the field and all you can see is what's right in front of you. But you think of the commander up high on the hill. He can see where the lines are. He can see that you're closer and nearer to victory. Well, Paul invites you to go up on the hill and take this higher vantage point to see how our trials are viewed from the throne of grace, from heaven itself, from the perspective of God Almighty. And when we can do this, we can see our hardships from God's perspective, we see something amazing. We realize that the Spirit of God is actually using our daily trials in this world to prepare us for the world to come. And every single time we suffer for Christ, we're persecuted, we experience suffering of any kind in this world. The Spirit of God is using these things to make us more and more like Jesus. The trials we undergo in this life are the tools that the Holy Spirit uses to prepare us for our face-to-face meeting with the Lord Jesus. And when we see and we understand that we're being prepared for an eternal weight of glory, then we can start to see the sufferings of this life for what they are. And what are they? They're worth it. That's what they are. They're worth it because we know what is to come. They're worth it because they're preparing us for what is to come. The Spirit of God uses each trial to continually knock off our rough edges, to break us down, to show us our need for a Savior so that we might rely on Him, and He uses these things to make us ready for glory. Kids, when you go on a long road trip, you ever count those mile markers on the side of the road? Probably not, since now we all have Google Maps and whatnot. And so we know exactly how many miles it is to our next destination. But there are these things on the side of the highway, and they're little green signs, and they have numbers on them, and they're marking miles. And if you know how to use them, you can tell how far away you are from your destination, even without the internet. I know, amazing, right? Well, thinking of this and these mile markers, perhaps you've seen them, think of each trial in your life as another mile marker on the interstate that leads to the eternal weight of glory. That's what our trials are as we pass along the inner state of life. Paul refers to the trials of this world as light, as temporary. And when they're seen from that perspective of eternal weight of glory that awaits us, then they do seem light. And we are reminded that they are temporary. Even if they might last our entire life, they will end. We see a comparison in this verse between a light trial and a heavy weight of glory. As Paul does this, this comparison, he's doing something very rabbinic here, very rabbi-like, with light and heavy. In Hebrew, the word for glory means heavy. Paul's saying that we're being prepared for a huge load of glory, or a glory that outweighs everything else, or a glory that exceeds all limits. And when we compare this glory to our current trials, then they do seem light and easy to carry. Paul gives us a new perspective, a new paradigm from which to view our afflictions. We're to view them from this heavenly perspective, the perspective of our union with Jesus Christ. As we are united to Christ, we remember Christ's life. We remember that Christ suffered, and then He was raised to glory. And as we are united to Him, that will be us as well. Suffering, then glory. Christ learned obedience through what He suffered during His earthly life, and so must we. Although that's the first time I sang that second hymn, and that was a pretty high bar to say that our kids should be as obedient as the Lord Jesus as a trial. Kids, I absolve you from that line of the hymn. right now. That was something. But we see the pattern. Pattern of Christ. Suffering then glory. That's our pattern. Now that doesn't mean all of a sudden that we're going to really enjoy suffering. But this truth does definitely strengthen us in the midst of it. We do not lose hope because we know that on Resurrection Day, that's when every single trial will seem as light as a feather, and it will seem quick, and we may not even remember them. And we'll see that through every trial, the Spirit of God will see how he was preparing us to worship and to be face to face with our Lord Jesus. Thinking of these things even makes our hardest trial right now seem just a little bit lighter and we can see it coming to an end. Now as we look Also, verse 18, we're gonna just review. In verse 16, Paul's taught us that we're being renewed or formed into the image of Christ each and every day. In verse 17, he just taught us that one of the tools used in this renovation process is our afflictions and our trials. So it's fair for us to ask Paul a question here. After all, we can see our decay and our sins. We're very well aware of this. But our renovation is invisible. So Paul, how exactly does affliction help to prepare us for glory? I still don't get that. Well, Paul explains how the Spirit is working and using our trials to prepare us for glory in verse 18. He says, we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. Kids, that means temporary. But the things that are unseen are eternal. So the Spirit of God, then, uses the tools of our trials to increase our faith in what is to come. Our trials show us our need for rescue, and they cause us to look beyond any rescue that we can see, to look beyond the situation that we're in, and cause us to look to the unseen, to eternal things, to the throne of God for rescue. In other words, our affliction causes us to cry out to the Lord in faith. Now when I was in Yuma as a part of our liturgy, each and every Lord's Day, we proclaimed a call and response, a section of Psalm 121 that really embodied this confidence. And if you know it, you can say it if you want to. But at the beginning of the service, and you've heard this before, the minister says, I lift my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? And together in unison the congregation says, my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. In our trials we remember this, that the Spirit of God causes us and he calls us to take our eyes off our trials and to lift them up to the Lord who is our strength and our helper. Our trials and afflictions are preparing us for glory because they keep our eyes upon Jesus. And the more we look to Jesus, the more we reflect His glory, and the more we look like Him. Looking to Jesus, that sounds like really good application, but it's kind of hard to understand. What does that mean to look to Jesus in the midst of our trials? Well, Paul tells us it means looking past temporary things to eternal things. It means that when we're losing hope and we're falling into despair, that we cling to the promises of God and we're called to believe what we have received and to believe what awaits us in glory. In the midst of our great trials, then, we meditate on God's promises, promises like these. John 10, 28, I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Or John 14, 2 and following, in my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, Would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." And Revelation 21, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. There are hundreds of promises just like these that God uses to strengthen us, to strengthen the saints in times of trouble, reminding us that Jesus protects us, he prays for us, he prepares a place for us, and he promises to be with us, and so much more. Looking to Jesus means thinking on the promises of God in the midst of our trials. That's what it is to look to eternal things. And the more we look to our Savior, the more we look like Him, and the closer we are to being ready for glory. I want to close in thinking about these things. What does this sound like? I want to go back to that quote by that science fiction writer that probably none of us knows who it is. Once again, his quote was this. Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order. Well, there is a little bit of truth to this quote, but it's missing some things. It's incomplete. Based on our sermon, we might expand this quote and what we know in general. For the one who does not know the Lord Jesus, for one who is not united to Jesus Christ, let's fix this quote. If Jesus is not your Lord and Savior, here is your reality. Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Then on the last day, you will be raised. You'll be judged according to your works. You will be found guilty and you will be cast into eternal hell and fire where that fire never goes out and where the worm never dies. But for the one who trusts in Jesus Christ, it reads this way, life is hard. but all these hardships are preparing you for eternal heavenly glory. And then you will die, but you will be face to face with Jesus. The worms will still eat your body, but on the last day you will be raised from the dead, you will be judged according to Christ's work, and you will be found blameless and holy and righteous, and you will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth for all eternity, praising God. I know whom I have believed. I pray that we all do. As these are our two choices, I do pray that if Jesus is not your hope, that you would confess your sins, that you would believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, and that you would strive from now on by God's grace to live for Him. But for all of us who are in Christ, and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. This is what Paul teaches us, has taught us tonight. The Holy Spirit is renewing us, making us more and more like our risen Lord and Savior each and every day. The Spirit of God uses the hard things in our life to prepare us for glory that's beyond imagination. The glory that awaits us will make these trials look light and easy. The Spirit of God continues to make us ready for heaven by helping us to keep our eyes on our eternal reward, which is dwelling with Christ. This is why Paul can say for himself and to us that we can boldly proclaim in the midst of our afflictions, we do not lose hope. Let's pray. Our God and Father, we hear these words, we do not lose hope, and we think of the wonderful salvation that Christ has accomplished before us, we think of all the blessings that we have in him, we think of your work in us, we think of all these things, and we are encouraged, and yet we still tend to lose hope. Lord, sustain us, sustain all who are suffering, especially those in the midst of repetitive and long trials, Lord. Give them grace and strength and help us all to see these difficulties not as necessary evils But as tools of the Spirit making us ready for glory Until then sustain us and sustain our hope in Jesus name. Amen