The Will of God

Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. You're probably in a good place, but if your life is accustomed to saying, my will, I'll do my thing, I'm going to do what I want, and you're not in a good place. It's the will of the Lord.

All right. I'd like you to turn back to 2 Corinthians 4, verse number 13 through 18 this morning. There's been a theme that's been running through this passage here, and we're going to continue that theme.

We talked some about the new covenant and how it exceeds the old covenant. It's a glorious covenant. It's a covenant that's an inside-out covenant.

That which is starting in the inside, cleansing first that which is within the cup. I did not write the law on tables of stone like I did in the Old Testament, but on tables of the heart. I'm going to do an inside-out work, and that's where the Spirit of God is working, from the inside out.

And so the Lord gives us His Spirit, and here in verse number 7 of chapter 4, I just want to remind us here by way of review, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We have a treasure in earthen vessels, and you and I are the earthen vessel, and the treasure is the Spirit of the living God in our earthen vessels. Now I brought this vessel here, don't be upset ladies, I only paid $2 for it at the thrift store.

If anybody wants it, I'll give it to you now. I'm going to break it here in just a minute, but it's a vessel, and I'd like you to imagine it would be nice if we had a darkness here, we could do this in darkness, it would be much more dramatic perhaps, but I could take a light, some sort of a candle or any light and sit down in that vessel and put the lid on that vessel, just like you and I here, we have a physical body, we have a desire, a will, we have our person, and we have also the Spirit of God in us, that flame that we talked about, that glory, that Shekinah glory down in each one of us, and as I look around I see a lot of vessels here, and all of us are just like this vessel, and we all have a light in us if you're born again, if you're born of the Spirit of God, you have a bright and shining light within you. The problem is this, that many of us sit here and we're oftentimes self-willed, basically life is about what I want to accomplish, what I want to achieve, what I want to lust after, and so even though the Spirit of God may be in us, we are not, we're closed up, just like this vessel, and I can have a beautiful light inside this vessel and you not see any of it, you can't see any of it, as a matter of fact Jesus said if the light that is in you be darkness, what's the next phrase, how great is that darkness, it's one thing to be a child of the devil and have darkness in your heart, it's another thing to be a child of light and hold that light inside the vessel, and if the light that is in you is darkness, my how great is that darkness, and so we've been talking about the need here, if we had a light, pretty tough bass here, maybe I better get one of these young boys to come here and help me out, I put some clear tape around this vessel so don't think it's gonna, yeah I hope, so as this vessel here is broken, and I'm gonna show you here in a little bit some of the things that, oh there we go, some of the things that God is using here to break this vessel, is Marie here, she's cleaning the church, she's gonna have, now you notice here as I start to break this vessel down, notice what starts to happen, and as I break this vessel, if we were in a dark room, all of a sudden you would begin to see light coming out of that vessel, in places like this, this light would shoot out, and in other places where it's cracked here the light would begin to shoot out of that vessel and that is the picture of us, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it die, it brings forth much fruit, and the same principle with nature, that corn of wheat, it has to have its shell rotted, that outward shell needs to rot before the life can come out of it, and so if you notice here in verse 7 it says, we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us, you see the power is not in this vessel, it's not in you at all, the power is in what's inside the vessel, the spirit of the living God, and as that vessel is broken, and as that vessel is humbled, and the bible talks about a broken and contrite heart, light, and if it were dark in here it would be a much more beautiful thing, the light would come bursting out of there, and you know people would say, I see light, and I shared with you a few weeks ago the greatest comment you can have as a Christian is, I see Jesus coming out of you, I see Jesus, and that's something I would desire in my own personal life, that people would see Jesus, but if that vessel is not broken, they're not going to see Him at all in our life.

Notice here in verse 10, and this is a little bit of review, always bearing about in the body the dying, here's the dying of the Lord Jesus, a broken, not my will but thine be done, Lord that's a hard saying, but Lord it's not about me, it's about you, I'll submit, Lord you're asking me to go to the garden of Gethsemane, you're asking me to go to the cross, Lord that's hard, Father that's hard, but I'll submit, not my will but thine be done, and the more we give ourselves over to Him, and submit our will, the more the light comes out, verse 10 always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body, the light might come out, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, and so it's not about this pot here trying to be a Christian, it's about this pot here breaking, and letting Jesus who is in them come out, and to take control of that life, and so Jesus desires to manifest Himself in us, and we've been talking some about that, and God has provided a hammer, and I think some of us are avoiding the hammer here, because the Lord does want to break us, He has a hammer, and that hammer is mentioned right here in the context, verse 8, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed, we are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about, you see this world here, this world here is a hammer, and in many ways this world can bring us to the place where we can be broken, we're reproached, we're persecuted, we're cast down, that's okay, Jesus was that, wasn't He? And He humbled Himself, so we've been talking some about this, so we're going to move on here now, and starting in verse number 12, I'm going to go down through verse number 18, in that light, in that context, we remember verse number 12, it says, so then death worketh in us, but life in you, now what happens here with this vase is death works in us, and we begin to break before the Lord, and we say Lord it's up to you, whatever you want, and all of a sudden, that life, that heart, that attitude begins to produce life elsewhere, light elsewhere, in other people, in people around you, you begin to have an influence in other people's lives, and so as death works in you, it works life in others, and so Jesus came and He died, He submitted His will to the Father, He said not my will, and He produced life out of that, through His death, came life, and so let's read here in verse 12, so then death worketh in us, but life in you, verse 13, we having the same spirit of faith, I want to talk about that, the same spirit of faith, this whole thing, this whole thing of dying like this, this whole thing of being broken, is a step of faith, and I think this gets down to the very essence of what faith is, we talk a lot about faith, you know we sang a song here this morning about faith, but faith in its very essence, is this very thing right here, I am willing, here's what faith is, I am willing to lay down this life, I don't even see it, I see this one, I look in the mirror, I see myself, I eat, I drink, I sleep, I can embrace this life, but I cannot see the other life that's in the future, I can only read about in the word of God, I can only hear God say, and I'm wanting that city, and at the very essence of what faith is, faith is simply saying to the Lord, I am going to surrender my life, in this world, believe me, what you have prepared for me, in the future, we are willing to die here, because we have faith in a future life, that's why we die, we die here, and we're broken here, because we believe that someday the Lord is going to raise us up, and give us eternal life, look at verse number 14, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you, this idea of faith, I believe that if I die, and lay down my life here in this world, not only will, but he will give me eternal and everlasting life, so faith is this, if you see someone losing their life in this world for Jesus' sake, that's faith, if you see people holding on to life, holding on to life, that's not faith, if you don't believe God's record of the future life of heaven and eternity, why would you lay down your life in this world, be a foolish decision, if I didn't believe that there was an eternity, I would go out, as Paul said, and eat, drink, and be merry, I would go out and pursue everything I can in this life, and enjoy this life, because this life is all I have, I'm going to die, but if I actually believe in an eternity, then I'm willing to say, I'm going to lay this life down, and I'm going to lay it down and give it to the Lord, and that's what Jesus meant when he said, he that hates his life shall keep it unto life eternal, look with me a few pages back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this chapter is about the resurrection, and Paul actually addresses this whole subject here in two different places, in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 29, he's talking about the resurrection, he says this, else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, that's what happens at baptism, buried in the likeness of his death, baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead, and why stand we in jeopardy every hour, I'm always, Paul says, in jeopardy in my life, why do I do this, verse 31, I protest by a rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily, if after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, these are people, strong powerful people, what advantages it me if the dead rise not, why am I doing this, why do I do this, if there is no resurrection, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die, even Paul had this attitude, if I don't believe in an eternal life, if I don't believe in the cross, why am I bowing up and down to the sea for three days and nights, why am I being proposed to, if there is no life in front of us, let's just eat, drink and be merry, that's the way the world lives, eat, drink and be merry, get all that you can, and live it up, now here's a verse that many people have misinterpreted, look at 1st Corinthians 15, and verse number 19, 1st Corinthians 15, verse 19, he says this, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, if in this life we have hope in Christ, in other words, if there is no heaven out there, and our only hope is in Christ, is in this life, we are of all men most miserable, I hear people say, hey, even if there were no heaven, I'd be a Christian, oh, Paul doesn't believe that, he doesn't believe that at all, he says, if in this life, if in this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, all that we're going through and enduring here, if all we have is this life, that's miserable, you know what it tells us a little bit is that Paul lived a different life than many of us do, because so many of us, we hold on to this life, we like this life, and yes, it's tough, it's tough, and if this is my hope, this is my hope, these six or 70 years of suffering and being persecuted, and being chased everywhere, and being stoned, and being threatened, if this is what it's all about, we're most miserable people, and so this is a theme that we have been following here in 2nd Corinthians, if in my suffering, there is no life after, I'm a most miserable person, maybe if you're not suffering for Jesus, maybe you're living for yourself in this life, maybe it's too good, maybe that's one of the reasons why we don't have the same attitude of Paul, I would desire to be absent from this life, from this body, and be present with the Lord, I was imprisoned, and beaten, and stoned, and let me out of here, but oftentimes, we're having it too good, I don't want to go, I've got all these things here, it's like brother was sharing, if the Lord comes, I've got to grab all my things, I've got to take them with me, so, our lesson here starts out in 2nd Corinthians 4, 12 and 13 here, that we by faith choose to deny ourselves, and to take upon ourselves this broken vessel, and take up a cross, and follow Him, now you don't have to turn there, I'd like to read to you, we're going to turn in another place here in just a minute, but in the faith chapter in Hebrews 11, there's some good examples of this, one of my favorites is Moses, let me read to you the story of Moses here, by faith, Moses, by faith, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, now think about this, he's in the palace, he's in the richest place he can be, he's got all the food he wants, all the pleasures he wants, he's privileged, he's honored, he's the son of the king, and my, what a great life, could have been, but he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, and I love that, he sat there one day, he probably mulled over this thing, he said, you know what, I would rather have them go down, way down, and hang with the slaves, the people of God, now, how many of us would do that, we're the son of Pharaoh, we're probably going to be taking over the kingdom, we get all the wealth we ever wanted, we get all the ease and comfort, we can marry the best individuals, we can do whatever we want, and we say, we're the children of God, oh, now he did it by faith, you know why, because he knew there was something coming in the future, as a matter of fact, we keep reading here, it says this, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches and the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward, he understood the reward by faith, this is a classic example of someone who chose a direction in life, that was a low, broken way, I'm going to be one of those slaves, and you know what, God used him in a mighty way, didn't he? How many of you think God would have used him in a mighty way if he had stayed in Pharaoh's palace in Egypt? How many of you think he would have seen Moses take his people to the Red Sea, and all the miracles when he came back to Pharaoh, how many of those things would have happened if he had stayed, and he chose the easy life? None of them. I think Noah is another example of faith, Noah is a man that chose to live his whole life building a boat, I mean he could have done a lot of things, he could have probably been a great house builder, or he could have done construction and made a lot of money, but he chose to give his life to build this monstrosity of a boat. For what purpose? He has faith, he says I'm building it, I'm putting it all into the future, God says there's a judgment coming, and I'm living my life for that day, and I'm being laughed at, I'm being ridiculed, but I have faith, and I believe God.

And there's many examples here in the book of Hebrews of people who had faith, they believed that there is a life coming, and I'll just ask you this morning, what is life about to you? Is life about faith? That you're living life for eternity, and not for the here and now. That's what faith is. Well verse 13 says, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak.

Now faith produces something, and yes the book of James says faith without works is dead, and I agree with that, I agree that if you say you have faith in Jesus Christ and he is in you, that ought to produce a life that is changed, that ought to produce a life of works. But also, faith without speech is dead. Faith without speech is dead also.

Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If faith is in your heart in abundance, the mouth is going to speak. So I believe therefore have I spoken.

I don't know that we can be secret, closed, closet disciples of Jesus. You know there's closet homosexuals, there's closet this and closet that. I don't know about closet Christians.

I believe that there's an eternity, I believe in the Lord Jesus, I believe he died and was buried and was raised again for the forgiveness of my sins, but I don't say anything about it. Paul says I believe therefore have I spoken. Faith and speaking are tied together in the Bible numerous times.

Romans 10 says, but what sayeth it? Faith, the word of faith which we preach. Let me read it to you, I don't have it memorized here. Romans chapter 10, but what sayeth it? The word is nigh to even in thy mouth and in thy heart.

That is the word of faith which we preach, that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead. And thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Those heart and mouth go together.

I believe therefore I speak. And if you're sitting here this morning and you believe on the Lord Jesus in your heart and you know that the Lord Jesus died and he was buried and he rose again from the dead, why don't you just believe? I believe. And follow that with baptism and move on in your Christian experience.

Be willing to, if you believe it, to speak it. I like what Paul said to Timothy, you've given a good profession before many witnesses. That's good.

Verse 14 says, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you. And I like verse 15, for all things are for your sakes. All things are for your sakes.

That's a beautiful verse there. God has made man the center. I know this kind of sounds maybe strange, we've talked about this before.

All things are for your sakes. God has done all of this for humanity. I think of the psalmist who said, what is man that thou art mindful of him over and above the angelic world? Why have you done this incredible thing for man? Man has become the center of the universe.

And think about it this way, God did not become an angel. God is doing what he's doing for our sake. I shared this with you a while back, but in Revelation 22, one thing I think that the church in large in mass is missing is the idea that you're not going to live in heaven forever.

You're going to live here forever. And that God is going to actually, if you read Revelation 22, he is coming down, New Jerusalem is coming down from God out of heaven. And he will dwell with us, it says, forever here in a new heaven and a new earth.

And some of you remember the pale blue dot I shared about a year or two ago, that spacecraft that went out six billion miles out. I mean, it's a long way, six billion miles. And before it lost touch with everything, the scientists wanted to have that spacecraft turn around and take one last picture of the earth, six billion miles away.

And it did. And Carl Sagan, an atheist scientist and philosopher, he made a big deal out of that. I remember probably 15, 10, 15 years ago, they had posters there at Walmart and they called it the pale blue dot.

It was a big thing. And Carl Sagan made a big deal out of that. Look at that little tiny spot in the midst of all of this.

And why do you think that we are an insignificant nobody in the middle of this vast universe? And he made a big deal out of it. We're nothing. We're an accident.

And yet to think that God is going to make that little speck the focus of everything when he's coming in all his glory and his power. So the scripture says here that for all things are for your sakes. Think about that here this morning.

The death, burial, and the resurrection of Jesus was for your sake. Him giving the spirit of God to you is for your sake. Him blessing you with every good and perfect gift coming down from heaven is for your sake.

All these things are for your sake. I thought about Romans 8, 31, which says, If God before us who can be against us, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Wow, that's pretty good. He gave his son.

That's a pretty big sacrifice there. He'll give us all things. For all things, it says here in verse 15, are for your sakes, that the abundant grace which God has given you might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

All that God has done is for a purpose. That you and I, and by the way, if you're broken like this, you're going to be a thankful individual. Amen.

As a matter of fact, John mentioned this morning, one of the things that caused John to give up on people, they didn't recognize who gave them everything they had. They didn't recognize who did all this for their sake. And they became unthankful.

But here, all these things, and the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many. You know, I think it's important for us to stop and ask this question. Is our life a life of thankfulness? It's not a thanksgiving day once a year.

It ought to be an everyday thankfulness. Really, to be thankful. Do you find yourself just thanking God for everything? You get up in the morning, get to my age, you know, you get out of bed, put your feet on the ground, and stop and say, Lord, thank you.

You can thank God for everything. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. Be thankful people.

So God has done all this, that we would turn around and give him thanksgiving, and that would redound or abound to the glory of God. That God would be glorified. In all these things.

Verse 16, for which cause we faint not. Boy, he got all this going for you. God before you.

And he gave you his son. And with his son he gave you all things. And he has given you eternal life.

And you have a wonderful hope in front of you. If you have all these things, for which cause, verse 16, we faint not. We talked about fainting last time.

We don't give up. We don't quit. Any fainters here? Yeah, fainting.

Just your body just kind of collapses. We don't faint. Because the Lord is for us.

Because he has given us so much. We should take advantage of this. For which cause? We have everything by his grace.

A wonderful future before us. Why would you want to faint? You know, this vessel here that I have. My body is getting older.

And it's a little more difficult because you get older. You get a little more tired. A little more aggravated.

Children frustrate you. Noise gets to you a lot more. And sometimes it's maybe easier to faint.

But look what it says here in verse 16. For which cause? We faint not. But though our outward man perish.

That's me right there. Yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Do you know that the Holy Spirit that came into me in 1978, He came on the last day of that month.

He came here today. And he grew older. I do.

I grew older. And this outward man is perishing day by day. But the inward man is just as young and as excited as he was the day I was born again.

Amen. And that's why some of you old folks here. Some of us old folks here.

The day of Pentecost he said your old men shall dream dreams. Amen. And yes, I realize your outward man is perishing.

Yet the Bible says your inward man is renewed day by day. And I don't think we ought to put the older people into rest homes. I think we ought to encourage them to be like Caleb.

You know, I want that mountain. And if you have the grace of God in you and the strength of the Lord in you. I often said, you know, when I was in college in Kansas, I was 35, 40 years old.

Wouldn't be to God, He'd let me live. Some old men, old gray-haired men, still have some fire in them. Preaching the Lord Jesus.

And so we think not. Why? Because we have the strength in us that's being renewed day by day. Yes, I understand you can quench it.

You can grieve the Spirit of God. But you don't have to do that. We ought to all still have fire.

I don't think it's a good excuse. Oh, I'm getting too old. Can't do that, I'm getting too old.

I'm sure there's some limitations. But you have something inside of you that's being renewed. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 41.

This is a verse that you probably have memorized. But it's a good verse for this subject here. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 28 says this.

Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not? Praise God for that. He doesn't faint, neither is He weary. There is no searching of His understanding.

He giveth power to the faint. And to them that have no might, He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary.

Those who are out there in their own strength. These young people that are... Here's this 78-year-old man that is being renewed day by day. He actually got to spoke one time.

Brother David and I met with him and had lunch with him. I don't know how old he was, 80, Brother David? 85? But he was just on fire. I just like to be around him.

Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings of eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. Now, I think there's a time in life to run. And I've had times in my life where I've ran and not be weary.

But there are also times in life, praise God for this, that they shall walk. And you can walk. You know, there's great long distance runners that they run many miles.

I used to run cross country. Sometimes they walk. And you can walk for a while and then start running again.

Just don't give up. Just don't faint and say, I'm done. And so notice it's the Lord.

The Lord is the one who gives strength. And I think if we stay on our faces every day and we confess our sins and open up our hearts every day and we stay in the Word of God and we meditate and we love the Word of God, we'll have all kinds of strength spiritually. We're going to see that here in just a little bit.

But there's no reason to faint. There's too much that God has done for you and given you that you would give up. Verse 17, for our light affliction.

I'm sorry, we're back in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 here. 2 Corinthians 4, 17, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Now notice here there's some comparisons here between our light affliction and an eternal weight of glory.

Light and weight. A light affliction. By the way, that's the Apostle Paul saying that.

He's writing that. Can you imagine? Our light affliction. It's contrasted with an eternal weight of glory.

I'd like to look at those two here for a minute. Why is affliction light to Paul? Why is it light? Well, notice what he says in verse 17. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment.

How many of you can endure difficulty if it's just for a moment? I can. I go to the dentist. Get out and out.

Ah, I hate it. You know, I've been back and forth. It's a whole mountain of shit.

Nowadays they have these drills that go so fast you can hardly feel. But you know, I go up that stairs at the doctor. What was his name? Oh, I just didn't like that guy.

Go up those stairs, you know, it's time to go to the dentist. He just knew it's only an hour. And he'll give me a little toy or some treat.

And I can go on my way with this numb mouth for another hour or two. But here Paul says our light affliction which is but for a moment. That word moment means a short period of time in comparison to eternal.

Eternal things or eternity. You know there are people, and thank God I'm not one, but there were people who grew up and were born into this world. They were sickly people.

You see them, you know. Young kids even. Maybe have cancer or have real issues in their life.

They carry these sicknesses on. You know, can you imagine thinking that life is all I have. This life is all I have and I've got to endure this life with this sickness.

Or this poverty or whatever affliction. That would be dreadful. Because it's my whole life.

But if your mind is that I have my life in eternity, I can endure this light affliction because it's only for a moment. It's only for a moment. I don't know what your affliction is here.

But I do know this. It's only for a moment when you compare it to eternity. And if you have faith and you believe that God has eternity out in front of you, then this affliction that I have is only for a moment.

And some of us who are older realize how fast from age 20 to 65 it does go. I know some of you are sitting here like I was when I was 20, 25, thinking I'll never get there. I'll never get there.

You know, I used to think back in my early 30s, Social Security is not going to be even around. It's never going to be here when I get to be 65. Praise God, Donald Trump won last week.

And some of you young people, you're going to be 65 before you know it. I know you don't believe that now, but I'm telling you it's the truth. So here we have this.

I'm going to draw this on the board here. Right here is your life. When God looks at life, that's your life.

And then here is eternity. And I'm not even scratching the surface, but I'm going to do that. So from the Lord's perspective, who wrote the Bible, is this your life affliction working for you a far more exceeding way of eternal glory? And that's the way that you can go through difficulty, realizing that this is a temporary affliction, weeping and tears for a night, but joy will come in the morning.

An eternal weight of glory, it says here. You know, things weigh a lot in heaven when you can keep them forever. It's one thing to say I'll give you a thousand ounces of gold.

And you can keep them for 60 years. It's another thing to say I'll give you a thousand ounces of gold and you can keep forever. Eternal weight of glory.

I want you to go with me to Luke chapter 19. This is the story of the rich man in hell. And we all, excuse me, Luke 16.

We all understand this eternal weight and this temporal life. But here on the flip side is a man who learned this, or two men who learned this idea of the eternal weight of things and the temporal weight of things. In Luke 16 verse 19 it says there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.

Ah, what a good life. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. He was in affliction.

Affliction. Tough life, eating out of the garbage cans. That's a tough life.

He's afflicted. He was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. And the dogs came and licked his sores.

So you have someone who has got it all and someone who is afflicted. And then it came to pass, verse 22, the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.

And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, to see if Abraham was far off and Lazarus in his bosom. Now this is what happens about the weight. The weight here.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus. You know, how long is this going to last? A couple of weeks? That he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in his flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things.

But now he is comforted and thou art tormented. Ah, there you go. You know, at that time Lazarus said to my wife, But now I have a good place.

I have a good place. And not only for a couple of years. And here's this rich man who had everything easy, who had a rich, a prosperous life.

It says he fared sumptuously every day. And now he feels the eternal weight of damnation. I'm here forever.

Even God goes on to say, There's a great gall fixed so that you cannot pass out of here. And you're here forever. You talk about an eternal weight.

I think of David. You know, David, the psalmist. He looked out at the rich and he said, Boy, these are people, they got it all.

And he was covetous of them, he said. Man, they got everything. Look at their cars they drive.

Look at the houses they live in. Look at the money they have and the pleasures they're involved in. Then he said, I went to the house of the Lord.

And I heard the truth about eternity. And I didn't covet that anymore. I wasn't jealous of them anymore.

Your light affliction, which is but for a moment, will work for you an eternal weight of glory. So be encouraged. I don't know what your light affliction is.

I know this world ought to hate us. And I know it's difficult. We have a devil.

We have the flesh. We have this world. And unbelievers, they live after the flesh.

They worship the devil and they live according to the world. And they fear sumptuously every day, many of them do. And you say, well, my life is an affliction.

Well, it's just a temporal affliction if you're a child of God. Look at verse 18 here of 2 Corinthians. And this is in the context of what we're talking about here.

I'll go back to verse 17. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look. By the way, there's a semicolon there.

This is all one sentence. 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.

Those things that are seen are those light things. Those light afflictions. The light things.

You know, if you focus on those light things, that's what you're looking at. It can't be discouraging. The Bible says don't look at those temporal things, those light things.

Look at those things which are eternal. Gaze upon them. You know, one example I've shared with you before when those disciples were scurred and beaten on the back.

If you walk away like, Boy, I'm hurt. Boy, I'm bleeding. You know, this is all.

What are you looking at? That's what you need to see. But if you walk away like, Do you realize Jesus said, If you graze your worn head, do you realize how the eternal weight of it? Take one way or the other. It's perspective.

It's faith. I believe that. Well, that rich man in Luke 16, he was looking to the light things.

In life, the poor man to the weighty. What do you look to in life? Are you looking, as it says here, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen? I'm looking at eternity and the reward involved with what's going on here. I'm not looking at somebody mock me, somebody spit on me, somebody hates me because I'm a Christian and I'm having to be poor and I'm having to go through difficulty.

No, I don't look at that stuff. My mind is outside there. I have a mind of faith.

Let me read this verse and then we'll close here in Hebrews chapter 11 again. What did Moses look at? Look at what Moses looked at here. It says, Moses, he left Pharaoh's house, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Now, do you think he was looking at all the things he was having to give up and all the pleasures of sin? It says this, he esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had a respect under the recompense of the reward. In other words, his mind was, you know what? If I leave this kingdom here and this place of ease and go down there and suffer, I'm going to get rewarded for that. I understand what's going on.

I'm going to go down there and suffer with those people because I believe that God is going to reward me greatly for doing so. And that's what drove his decision. It says that in Hebrews.

And so as you look at life, young people, as you look at life, what are you going to do? What choices are you going to make? I can have it easy. I can have all these things. I can pursue this and this and this and I can have a good life and an easy life.

Or I can choose rather to take a narrow road, a road not often traveled. And that road maybe will be a road of affliction. People won't like me, may break me.

And that'll be good because when they break me, Jesus can shine out of my life. And so you have a choice. And some of us are older.

We make choices every day. Every day is another day of saying, Lord, it's yours or Lord, it's mine. And you're laying up treasures in heaven or you're going to be impoverished in the life to come.

So let's not look at the things which can be seen, but at the things which are not seen or the things which are seen or temporal. And by the way, if you faint in the way, if you faint and give up, it's because your life has been observing the things which are seen or temporal. But if your mind is outside of this world and you're looking to the eternal reward, hey, I can do it.

Our light affliction is but for a moment. So God has taken our vessels right here and each one of us. He's put a beautiful burning light inside of it.

And he's also given us some opportunities to allow him to break it so that the life of Jesus can come forth and manifest out of each one of our lives. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts. So let's let that light shine and let's be men and women of faith.

Just to give you a little illustration, you young people here, I was 22, 23 years old and I go back to this very time where I looked at life and said, either I'm going to go and pursue what I want and I was a college graduate making money, good money down in Houston, Texas and had a career ahead of me or I'm going to give my life to serve him, the Lord. I made a choice, just like most, I made a choice. I'm going to go this route.

I didn't know what it meant back then, I was 23 years old, but in my heart, and I told someone this, in my heart, I said, if God wants me to be a janitor in a church, I'll clean toilets the rest of my life for him. It doesn't matter. I just want to serve him.

I want an eternal weight of glory and I hope you do too. So let's look at the things that you're not seeing and let's focus on those. Don't get caught up with all the things that are going on in this world and be discouraged and faint, but lift up your eyes, keep your eyes up.

There's a lot of good things ahead of us, a lot of things that should motivate us. He's given us all these things, richly to enjoy. All right, let's close with a word of prayer.

Maybe today, we haven't done this for a while. And then I'll close this with prayer. We need a sound prayer this morning.