Big Idea: Because God Has A Greater Purpose For My Pain, I Do Not Lose Heart When I Experience Suffering
2 Corinthians 4:7-18
When trials come my way, I hold on to these precious truths:
1) God Is Magnified Through My Weakness (V.7-12)
“7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.”
-2 Corinthians 4:7-12
2) I Have Been Promised A Glorious Future (V.13-15)
“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, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 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.”
-2 Corinthians 4:13-15
“Biblical faith is never a kind of wishful thinking or a vague hope that does not have any secure foundation to rest upon. It is rather trust in a person, God himself, based on the fact that we take him at his word and believe what he has said. This trust or dependence on God, when it has an element of assurance or confidence, is genuine biblical faith.”
- Wayne Grudem
3) My Affliction Is Temporary And Preparing Me For Eternity (V.16-18)
“16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self[a] is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 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.”
-2 Corinthians 4:16-18
“This means that the decaying of his body was not meaningless. The pain and pressure and frustration were not happening in vain. They were not vanishing into a black hole of pointless suffering. Instead this suffering was producing for him an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison…when he is hurting he fixes his eyes not on how heavy the hurt is, but on how heavy the glory will be because of the hurt."
-John Piper
"I am with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 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; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[b] in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”
-2 Corinthians 11:23-28