*below are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

 

When Rock Bottom Hits | 2 Corinthians 4:17

 

So, have you ever read something that threw you for a loop?

A letter or a text or an email that rattled you a little bit?

Haddon Robinson shared a letter a college student wrote her parents.

Haddon Robinson

Dear Mom and Dad, I have so much to tell you. Because of the fire in my room set by rioting students, I suffered lung damage and had to go to the hospital.

Haddon Robinson

While there, I fell in love with an orderly. Then I got arrested for my part in the riots.

Haddon Robinson

Anyway, I’m dropping out of school, getting married, and moving to Alaska. Your loving daughter, Buttercup

Haddon Robinson

PS: None of this really happened, but I did flunk a chemistry class, and I wanted you to keep it in perspective.

Keeping things in perspective is incredibly important.

And sometimes keeping things in perspective is incredibly hard.

When?

Perspective is hard at rock bottom.

• When things feel lower than low
• When things feel worse than worse
• When things feel too far gone for help or hope

What we usually say is something like this:

• “After my health problems, I really hit rock bottom.”
• “After I got fired, I really hit rock bottom.”

But that’s not how it always happens, is it?

We don’t always hit rock bottom.

Sometimes rock bottom hits us.

Or as someone once said:

Unknown

Considering how my life has been going lately, it turns out rock bottom has a basement.

So, is there any help or any hope?

Is there any help when things are lower than low?

Is there any help when things are worse than worse?

Is there any hope when you are living in the basement of rock bottom with your Uncle Fester?

Is there any hope when you are losing heart?

Yes.

There is major help and major hope.

How?

Where?

Let’s see if we can find out.

Paul sent a letter to some friends in the ancient city of Corinth.

Listen to what he says to them in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 4:

17 For momentary, light affliction

Hold up!

Let’s just stop right there.

Paul seems to have never been in the basement of rock bottom.

Affliction is not light.

By its very nature, affliction is heavy and hard.

But let’s be sure we are thinking about actual affliction.

Affliction does not mean when your order is wrong at the drive-thru and you have to go inside to get those pickles taken off of your burger because you couldn’t pull them off yourself.

Affliction is not when you get stuck in line at the department store in the mall because the girl at the register is new and doesn’t know how to apply your Groupon for that new set of batman towels for your guest bathroom.

Affliction is not when your doctor has the nerve to go with her husband and her kids out of town on vacation and leave you in the inhumanity of having to see another doctor or PA for your regular scheduled appointment in regards to having your cinnamon pills increased from 20 to 40 milligrams.

Those are inconveniences, not affliction.

Affliction is hardship.

Affliction is when you are being severely pressed or stressed physically, emotionally or spiritually.

Affliction is when you feel like you are losing heart.

Affliction is when someone in your family – a spouse or a child or a parent or a grandparent – sabotages your daily life with anger or apathy or annoyance or arrogance.

Affliction is when someone at work or school – a classmate or a student or a teacher or a boss or a fellow employee – sabotages your daily life with anger or apathy or annoyance or arrogance.

Affliction is when your spouse or your children or your parents keep ignoring God as he daily pursues them with grace and mercy and love and only show up for church on Easter.

Affliction is when a tornado slashes through your neighborhood and levels your house.

Affliction is when you can’t stand up or even talk after your chemo treatments.

And Paul calls affliction “light”.

Straight out of the shoot it sounds like he is living in Cloud Cuckooland and doesn’t have a clue about pain and suffering.

But let me just read a section of Paul’s resume:

• He was beaten with whips
• He was beaten with rods
• He was beaten with stones
• He was beaten with fists
• He was beaten by soldiers
• He was beaten by robbers
• He was beaten by strangers
• He was beaten and left naked in the cold to die
• He spent more than one night treading water in the ocean
• He was abandoned in the dark out in the ocean in the water
• He was hungry and thirsty and starving more than once
• He went hundreds of nights without being able to sleep at all
• He was sick over and over and over again with no medicine
• He was in prison sick and hungry and abandoned many times

And that’s just the stuff we know about.

At the very least, Paul was in the top 3 people in all of history when it comes to physical, emotional and spiritual pain.

From a human standpoint, Paul lived the last 30 years of his life in the basement of rock bottom.

But here’s where things get weird.

In another letter to his friends in a place called Philippi Paul wrote this:

Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always…

Rejoice…always?

Doesn’t he know what “always” means?

Like, rejoice in every situation.

Put that into Paul’s world for a moment:

• Rejoice when you are out of prison
• Rejoice when you are in prison
• Rejoice when you are resting on the beach
• Rejoice when you are beaten with rods
• Rejoice when you are eating a good meal
• Rejoice when you are left for dead on a trash heap

Now let’s put that into our world:

• Rejoice when your salary is good
• Rejoice when you are barely making it
• Rejoice on Thursdays at 5:20 in traffic
• Rejoice on Easter Sunday when you spill coffee on your dress
• Rejoice when you are calm and relaxed
• Rejoice when you are stressed and refluxed
• Rejoice if you have a new car
• Rejoice if you have no car
• Rejoice if you are hot-natured
• Rejoice if you are cold-natured
• Rejoice if you have a good waitress
• Rejoice if you have a snippy waitress

Right now, you might be thinking:

“That is impossible!”

And I totally and completely agree.

It is totally and completely impossible…in your own strength.

But Paul’s ability to rejoice came from outside his strength.

His ability to rejoice came from the same place that his ability to call affliction “light” comes from.

And what place is that?

Stay with me, we are getting there.

Maybe this thing about rejoicing always was just a typo.

Maybe Paul wrote that down wrong.

Maybe he meant to write:

“Rejoice in the Lord, all Wades. If your name is Wade rejoice because you have a good, solid name.”

Nope, it wasn’t a typo for Wades and here’s how we know that:

Listen to what he writes next:

Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

So, the guy who lived in the basement of rock bottom almost all the time meant to say “always”.

And that verse isn’t a one-hit wonder.

Colossians 1:24

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake…

Paul actually rejoiced in his affliction because his affliction was good for you.

• Paul was shipwrecked for your sake
• Paul was thrown in prison for your sake
• Paul was left for dead for your sake

What does that mean?

Paul didn’t want you to die in your sins on Easter Sunday.

Paul didn’t want you to die in your sins on any Sunday – Paul didn’t want you to die in your sins, period!

• He wanted you to hear the gospel
• He wanted you to believe the gospel
• He wanted you to be saved through the gospel

What is the gospel?

Greg Gilbert has taken the truth of what the Bible says about the gospel and put it into some simple questions and answers.

Greg Gilbert

Who made us, and to whom are we accountable? We are accountable to the God who created us.

Greg Gilbert

What is our problem? In other words, are we in trouble and why? Our problem is we have sinned against that God and will be judged.

Greg Gilbert

What is God’s solution to our problem? How has he acted to save us from it? God has acted in Jesus Christ to save us. God’s solution is salvation through Jesus Christ.

Greg Gilbert

How do I – myself, right here, right now – how do I become included in that salvation? What makes this good news for me and not just for someone else? We come to be included in that salvation – we take hold of it – by repentance from sin and faith in Jesus.

Paul suffered and rejoiced in his sufferings so that you could hear those simple truths today.

Paul was afflicted for your sake so that you would repent from sin and put your faith in Jesus Christ.

And what energized Paul to keep being afflicted for people he didn’t even know?

Listen to what he wrote next:

17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory

“Producing” here means that affliction is working for you.

How does your affliction work for you?

It’s producing a weight of glory in your life.

What does that mean?

Well, ultimately it means we have a weight problem.

Now, I’m not talking about having too many hot glazed pastries.

I’m talking about what you are most passionate about.

What you are most passionate about has a control over your heart and mind and soul.

What you are most passionate about controls how you think.

David Guzik

Often, the problem isn’t so much in what we think about our light affliction but in that we think so little of our coming weight of glory.

Paul could rejoice and Paul could look at his affliction as a Christian through the eyes of eternity.

And when he looked through the eyes of eternity all he could see was the glory, the weight, of being with God forever.

Henry Holt is one of at least 6 of our brave friends at Holland Avenue battling cancer right now with radiation and chemo.

And I want to thank him and really thank a sweet friend of his from Virginia too for helping me see and remember this week a simple and powerful thought from Billy Graham.

Billy Graham

I have read the last page of the Bible. It is all going to turn out all right.

If you are in Christ, the reason your affliction is light is because your affliction will not last forever.

And if you are in Christ, your affliction is already producing loads and loads of glory in your life that will last forever.

Thomas Watson was a pastor and author in the 1600’s.

Thomas Watson

Our sufferings may be lasting, not everlasting.

Lasting but not everlasting!

• Our sufferings are real
• Our afflictions are real
• Our pain is real

But to be in Christ means that they can only last for a time.

And that time may be hours or days or weeks or months or years or it could be longer.

But as the old saying goes:

“You don’t see a U-Haul behind a hearse.”

Dear Christian, you cannot, and you will not take your affliction with you when you go.

• No more suffering
• No more affliction
• No more pain

It really is all going to turn out all right.

Does that mean it is going to turn out all right for everyone?

No.

This is what Paul said to the folks in Rome:

Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

And then a few chapters over he says this:

Romans 3:22-23

…there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…

Without Christ, we have no glory.

With Christ, our momentary, light afflictions are producing loads and loads of eternal glory that weighs more than our afflictions.

In light of some of those truths that Paul writes in Romans, David Platt makes this observation:

 

David Platt

If you were to ask me, “David, what happens to the innocent guy in Africa who has never heard the gospel?”

David Platt

My answer to you based on what I believe the Word of God teaches very clearly would be that man undoubtedly goes to heaven. Without question. He will spend eternity in heaven even though he’s never heard the gospel.

David Platt

The only problem is that guy does not exist.

What does he mean that guy doesn’t exist?

• There is no innocent man in Africa
• There is no innocent teenager in Australia
• There is no innocent millennial in Austria
• There is no innocent senior adult in America

We all fall short of the glory of God.

Someone might be thinking:

“Okay, okay, this sounds like the same old thing – we all die and good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell, but what am I supposed to do with all of this right now on Easter morning?”

The Apostle Paul must have known that you would ask that question because listen to what he says next:

17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,

What you can do with all of this stuff this morning is to step into the compare and contrast photo booth.

Where are you in this conversation and what does your picture look like?

The only way you can know is by comparing the true picture of your life next to the true pictures of what it means to be in Christ which reveals the reality of:

• Eternity with God
• Eternity without God

Let’s look at both of those pictures for a moment.

Thomas Brooks was a pastor and author in the 1600’s and he gives this description of eternity without God.

Thomas Brooks

What are your present afflictions and troubles – compared to the torments of the damned…

Who are the damned?

Those who continue to reject Christ until it is too late.

What are the torments of the damned like?

Thomas Brooks

…without intermission, without mitigation, numberless, bottomless, remediless, and endless!

Thomas Brooks

Who have…weeping served for the first course, and gnashing of teeth for the second course, and the gnawing worm for the third course, and intolerable pain for the fourth course!

Thomas Brooks

Yet the pain of the body is least part of pain. The very soul of sorrow and pain – is the soul's sorrow and pain! The everlasting alienation and separation from God is served for the fifth course!

Thomas Brooks

Your sins have been far greater than many of those who are now in hell, and your great afflictions are but a flea-bite compared to theirs!

Octavius Winslow was a minister in England in the 1800’s and he gives these pictures of the difference between light affliction and loads of glory:

Octavius Winslow

What comparison has the weight of the cross with the weight of the crown?

Octavius Winslow

Place in the scales the present "light affliction" and the future “exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” which is the lightest? Are they worthy to be compared?

Octavius Winslow

Oh, no! One second of glory will extinguish a life-time of suffering.

Octavius Winslow

What were long years of toil, of sickness, of battle with poverty, persecution, and sorrow in every form, and closing even with a martyr's death,

Octavius Winslow

weighted with one draught of the river of pleasure at Christ's right hand – with one breath of Paradise – with one wave of heaven's glory – with one embrace of Jesus – with one sight of God?

One sight of God!

One sight of God!

Which picture is yours?

Geoff Thomas

Do you think that Paul will be tucked away in a corner under the stairs of the mansion Christ has gone to prepare for him?

Geoff Thomas

Will there not be millions who will seek him out, wanting to bow their head in respect and say, “Thank you, Paul, for all you did and what you wrote. It kept me going and gave me a reason for my life!”

I will be one of those millions for even this past week.

Back to our question:

What is this place that gives Paul the passion to look at his afflictions and call them “light”?

What is this place that helps him rejoice always and keep singing, “Because he lives, I can face tomorrow!”

What is this place that pulls him out of the basement of rock bottom over and over again?

Well, he kept looking up from rock bottom at another rock.

And every time he looked up at that rock it was still rolled away!

• It was that rock that kept him going!
• It was that rock that kept giving him a reason for living!
• It was that rock that kept helping him rejoice!
• It was that rock that kept helping him see the weight of glory!
• It was that rock that kept giving him hope!

Trevin Wax tells the story of a preschooler standing at the door of the sanctuary on Palm Sunday.

In class that morning the preschool teacher had told the group about Jesus coming into Jerusalem and about how he died on the cross for our sins.

But then she went on to tell them that the story was not over and that next week they would be celebrating Easter, when Jesus was raised from the dead.

The little girl was in awe of the voices coming from inside the sanctuary worshipping the Risen King together.

She looked up at her teacher and said:

“Is this where Easter lives?”

Dear Christian, let us not lose heart because the stone is still rolled away, proving our Savior is risen and proving he will return!

Yes, this is where Easter lives!

Dow Welsh | April 21, 2019 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.gospelproject.com/a-resurrected-people/

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=will+everyone+hear+the+gospel+before+they+die&&view=detail&mid=811958BAE96376EA164A811958BAE96376EA164A&rvsmid=993BE94B4CDE06F92451993BE94B4CDE06F92451&FORM=VDQVAP

 

 

So have you ever read something that through you for a loop. You know, just just confused you a little bit. Maybe a letter or a text or an email, and it just kind of rattled you a little Had Robinson shears letter that a college student's at home to her parents. Dear Mom and Dad, I have so much to tell you. Because of the fire in my room set by rioting students, I suffered lung damage and I had to go to the hospital while there I fell in love with an orderly. Then I got arrested for my part in the riots. Anyway, I'm dropping out of school, getting married and moving to Alaska. Your loving daughter, Buttercup. It wasn't really Buttercup. I just added that P s. None of this really happened. But I did like a chemistry class, and I wanted you to keep it in perspective. Keeping things in perspective is kind of a big deal. That's something that we really do have to do Sometimes. It's incredibly hard to keep perspective, though, right? And when is it incredibly hard? Well, it's incredibly hard at rock bottom. It's incredibly hard when things are lower than low when they're worse than worse. When when there's this overwhelming feeling that you're too far gone for help. Too far gone for hope, The way we say it is like this. After my health problems, I really hit rock bottom or after I lost my job. I really hit rock bottom. But that's not always how it goes. It's not always that we hit rock bottom. Sometimes rock bottom hits us. We feel the pain. We feel that punch. As someone once said, considering how my life has been going lately, it turns out rock bottom has a basement. You may be there today, so is there any help? I mean, is there any hope? Is there any help when things were lower than lower? Because they help when things are worse than worse? Is there any help when you're living in the basement of rock bottom with your uncle Fester, you know, Is there any help for that? Is there any hope when you feel like you are losing heart? Yes, there is. There is a major help, and there is major hope. Where how? Well, let's see if we can find out. Pass appall is riding to some of his friends in the ancient city of court, and he said to them in second Corinthians, Chapter four over seventeen, these words for momentary light affliction. Let's just stop right there. Because Paul seems to have never been in the basement of rock bottom with that statement. Affliction is not light. Affliction is heavy and affliction is hard. So we have to be sure that we're understanding what what affliction really is. Affliction is not when your order is wrong in the drive through, and you have to pull over on the side and get out and walk back in and have them take the pickles off of your hamburger that you didn't order because you can do it yourself in the car. Now this is about the fourth Sunday offset the pickle thing. Let me tell you why every single week I have been in this moment in a restaurant where someone lost their minds over Biggles. I mean, absolutely lost their mind. It happened yesterday. Pickles, you know, just did you take him off with the fun back on? It's You can do it Super. It's a little personal stories. So yesterday I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with with on ly mayonnaise. Man, It's just great, Chandler, You know what I mean? I'm on Lee, only mayonnaise. So I got it and I started walking back over the table. And the Lady Holland, she goes, sir sirs, there they didn't do it right. And I was like, That's okay. So I sit down and open it up, and there was not even mayonnaise on there, you know? It was lettuce and tomato and some kind of salt. I don't know what it is. And you know what I did? You know what I did? I'll tell you what. I sat right there and I ate it. Affliction is not when you get stuck in line at the department store because the girl the registers knew and she didn't know how to use your thirteen percent off coupon on those Batman towels that you were buying for the guest room. You know, you are. I was on the outside a store. I saw you buying them, but that's not affliction. Affliction is not when your doctor has the nerve to go with her husband and her children to see her parents in Wisconsin and to leave you in the inhumanity of having to see another doctor or, God forbid, a p A. To talk to them about increasing your cinnamon pills from twenty to forty milligrams. I don't even tell there are cinnamon pills. There should be because I loved him, but that that's not affliction. But those air inconveniences affliction is hardship. Affliction is when you are being severely pressed and severely stressed physically, emotionally or spiritually. Affliction is when you feel like you're losing heart. Affliction is when someone in your family the spouse of a parent child, a grand parents, afflictions when that person daily sabotage is your life with anger or apathy or annoyance or arrogance. Affliction is when somebody at work at school, maybe a boss or a teacher or student or an employee when they sabotage your life on most days with anger or apathy or annoyance or arrogance. Affliction is when God keeps coming over and over and over again every day to that spouse or that parent or that child with trace and love and mercy, the grace and love and mercy that that person needs and that your family needs, and they reject that grace and they reject that mercy day after day after day. But then they come to church on Christmas. Easter? Yes. Sorry, I I just went there that this grace that God has for your soul it is for your affliction. And it is for your family. And it is for your neighbors. And it is for this world. Do not reject this grace. Embrace it. Take Holder that it is for you. Affliction is when a tornado slashes through your neighborhood and your houses leveled. Affliction is when you cannot stand up and sometimes can't even talk after taking chemo. Afflictions is hardship, and Paul calls Affliction light completely confusing. It's like he's living in cloud cuckoo land. And he has no clue what suffering is his new clue. What hardship? Iss light. But let me just read just a little bit of Paul's resume. He was beaten with whips. He was beaten with rods. He was beaten with stones. He was beaten with fist. He was beaten by soldiers. He was beaten by robbers. He was beaten by strangers. He spent more than one night treading water in the ocean. Own that for a second in the dark in the middle of the ocean more than once. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He was starving more than once. He went hundreds of nights without being able to sleep at all. He was sick over and over again, without medicine. He was in prison. He was abandoned. It was left out in the cold, naked to die. And that's just the stuff we know about. There's a whole other host of things. So the very least we could say Paul's and the Let's just say, top three of people who have suffered the most in their life from a human standpoint, at least for the last thirty years of his life. Paul lived in the basement of rock bottom. He lived in constant affliction, and this's where things get weird. He was writing a letter to some other friends in a place called Philip. I mean, this is what he said. Philippines for four. Rejoice in the Lord, always to this palm with word always means, like rejoice in every situation in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord in every situation. Okay, let's just put that into into Paul's life for a moment, okay? Let's put it into his world rejoice when you're out of prison. Rejoice when you're in prison. Rejoice when you're sitting out on the beach resting. Rejoice when you're being beaten with rods. Rejoice when you're sitting and having a great meal and rejoice when you're left for dead on a trash heap. Pulse is rejoice, always rejoice in all of those situation. He's not saying rejoice in this situation. King, he says, rejoice in the Lord. That's important. You know, this isn't a rocky Clubber Lang thing where Paul gets beaten because come on, hit me again. Come on, hit me again. That's not what's happening, he's saying. Rejoice in the Lord, not not rejoice in this situation. Situation is hard but rejoice and Lord, always, always. Why do you have to put that word in there? So let's put that in our world. Rejoice when your salary's good. Rejoice when you're barely making it. Rejoice on Thursday at five twenty and traffic on twenty six and rejoice on Easter Sunday when you spill coffee on your dress on the way to church. No show of hands. If that happened to you this morning, Sorry, I didn't know about it. Rejoice when you're calm and relaxed and rejoice when you are stressed and reflux. Rejoice. If you have a new car, rejoice. If you have no car, rejoice. If you're hot natured. Rejoice if you're cold. Nature's rejoice. If you have a great waitress, rejoice. If you have a snippy waiters now, somewhere in your mind you're also going to do this. That's impossible, and I completely agree it's impossible. It's impossible to rejoice in the Lord. Always in your own strength. You can't do it. I can't do it. But see Paul's writing about rejoicing from a strength outside of himself that's actually inside of himself. It's It's a strength that comes from another place. And what is that place but will stay with me? We're going to get there. But first, let's just look at this always again. Maybe it was a typo. Maybe maybe Paul didn't mean to put always in there. Maybe what he meant to say is Rejoice in the Lord. All weights, your name's Wade. Rejoice in the Lord, you got to get solid name. Maybe that's what he meant to put, and some I just wrote it down wrong. Now, Unfortunately, that's not true. And here's how we never listened to what he says Next, Rejoice and Lord always again. I will say Rejoice that he meant to put it in there. The guy living in the basement of rock bottom. At least for the last thirty years of his life, he meant to say, Rejoice all the time in the Lord. It's not a one hit wonder either. But somebody said cautions one twenty four. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you're sick. Paul rejoiced in his affliction because his affliction was good for you. Paul was shipwrecked. For your sake. Paul was beaten. For your sake, Paul was afflicted. For your sake. What does that mean? It means that Paul did not want you to die in your sins on Easter Sunday. It means that the party wants you to die in your sins on any Sunday. Paul didn't want you to die in your sins, period. So he rejoiced in his afflictions and his sufferings because he knew that that was one way that you would hear the gospel. So what is the gospel? Apollo be afflicted for the gospel? He'd suffer for the Gospels. What's the gossip? Greg Gilbert has taken all that the Bible says from cover to cover and kind of condensed a. A few questions that describe the gospel First one goes like this, Who made us? And to whom are we accountable? And the answer. We are cannibal accountable to the God who created us. We're accountable to God. Second section, what is our problem? In other words, are we in trouble and why answer? Our problem is we have sinned against that God and we'LL be judged third section. What is God's solution to our problem? How has God acted to save us from it? Answer. God has acted in Jesus Christ to save us. God's solution is salvation through Jesus Christ and in this last sections gigantically and boarded. How do I myself right here, right now? How do I become included in that salvation? What makes this good news for me and not just for someone else? Answer. We come to be included in that salvation. We take hold of it by repentance from sin and faith and Jesus Paula's afflicted. He suffered. He rejoiced in all of that because he wanted you to hear those questions. He wanted you to hear those answers. He he wants you to hear the Gospel about Jesus. He made sure it would happen. Paul was afflicted so that you would repent and put your faith in Christ. But what was this energy for this? I mean, you know, thiss had to get exhausting, right? How could How could Paul wake up every morning and just keep going? You know what? I'm ready to be afflicted again so that people will hear the gossip. Look what he says next for seventeen for momentary light afflictions is producing for us an eternal weight of glory. Producing here means that affliction is working for you. Affliction in your life is actually working for you. When the world does that mean Well, basically put, it's it's kind of a weight problem. I'm not talking about having too many hot glaze pastries either. I different kind of weight problem. It's a weight problem that's connected to your passions. What are you most passionate about? You know how anybody in this room will know. What you're most passionate about is if we see you this week and talk to you to see what you're most passion about, you talk about it kind of controls your thinking it controls your calendar. It controls your schedule. It controls your free time, your your passions, air seeing and how you live and your passion, your greatest passion. It controls how you think David Music says this often. The problem isn't so much and what we think about our light affliction. But in that we think so little of our coming wait of glory Paul could could see. And he could rejoice in his afflictions because he was looking at them through the goggles of eternity. And when he looked through those goggles when he looked through the eyes of eternity, he saw his afflictions. They were riel. But he also saw the glory, the wait of what it meant to be with God forever and ever and ever. Henry's not with us this morning, but Henry Hold is one of a tte least six people in our church family that are bravely fighting cancer with chemo and radiation. Another medicine. And I'm so thankful for Henry this week because he showed me something. A little book acts. I'm really thankful for his friend in Virginia who sent him the book, but they showed me something that I could really latched onto this week, something that I've seen and heard before. But there's something I needed to see in here this week, and it's something very simple that Billy Graham said. That's what he said. I've read the last page of the Bible. It is all going to turn out all right if you are in Christ. The reason your affliction is light is because your affliction is not forever. If you are in Christ, your affliction is producing loads and loads of glory right now in your life, because your affliction is actually helping you enjoy what it means to be with God forever. Thomas Watson was a pastor and author in the sixteen hundreds. He said This our sufferings may be lasting, not everlasting, lasting, but not everlasting. This suffering is really the affliction is really the pain is real and that affliction and that suffering that pain will last. But it only last for a time, and that time, maybe a few hours, and that time, maybe a few days that time, maybe a few weeks, that time, maybe a few months that Tom could be longer. But as the old saying goes, you you don't see a U Haul about hers. See it as a believer. What it means to be in Christ is affliction will not go with you. No, we're suffering. No more pain, no more hardship, no more stress, no more anxiety. No more fear. No more worry. It's impossible for those who were in Christ. Why? Because in Christ everything really is going to be all right. Why? Because he's risen. That's why Now will it be right for everybody? Is everything going to be all right for everybody? No, not one. This is what Paul said Romans, Chapter one for since the creation of the World, God's invisible attributes his eternal power, his divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse All of creation screams the existence of God. But then a little later in that same letter pulse Is this from its three twenty two twenty three There is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Oh, see, without Christ, we have no glory. We have no loads of glory. But but with Christ, we have momentary light afflictions. These things that we deal with every day. They are producing loads of glory because they keep helping the sea and know what it means to be with God forever. But everybody will not have that experience. Listen to a sermon this week by David Platt, who's making reference to these passages that I just read to you. And then he just he said something that just really grabbed my attention. This if you ask me David, what happens to the innocent God, Africa, who's never heard the Gospel? We've asked that question before making a different format. And so he said, My answer to you, based on what I believe the word of God teaches very clearly would be that that man undoubtedly goes to have it. Without question, he will spend eternity in heaven, even though he's never heard the gossip. Get shoot two on that for a sec. Okay, because he just gave a bit of a pause. And then he said, the only problem is that God does not exist. See, all fall short of the glory of kind. There's not an innocent man in Africa. There's not an innocent teenager in Australia. There's not an innocent married person in Austria. There's not an innocent senior adult in America, a faII short, all no, no. One's innocent. And so thank God. But Paul was afflicted so that the gospel would leave Jerusalem and Good Africa and Good Australia and Goto Austria and come to America. Praise God that Paul was willing to wake up in the morning and be beaten and left for dead so that we could on Easter Sunday here for the first time or for the millionth time, The gospel, The good news of Jesus Christ. Here's the thing. It's not just posed to stay Dear God, still calling us to make sure that the gospel goes all of those places Because how will they hear if no one tells? No, someone might be thinking at this point. Okay. Easter Sunday. Doing the church thing. I've heard it before. You know, everybody's going don. Good people go to heaven. Bad people go to hell. But what do I do with this today? What am I supposed to do with all of this today? You're interesting. I'm pretty sure Paul knew you were going to ask that question in your mind this morning. Because of what he says. Next last part of her seventeen for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all compares to what you can do with all of this stuff today is that you can take it and you can get in the compare and contrast phone booth. Two questions. Where you in this conversation? What? What is your picture look like? The only way you can know is by comparing the true picture of your life next to the true picture of what it means to be in Christ. In other words, the difference between eternity with God and eternity without God. So let's just look at those pictures for a second. Thomas Brooks was another pastor and author in the sixteen hundreds. Hey, get this description of eternity without God. What are your present afflictions and troubles? Compared to the torments of the damned who were the tam? They're the ones that day after day, keep rejecting the gospel and keep rejecting the grace of God. They're the ones who have rejected God, who are rejecting God or will reject God. And they'LL keep rejecting God until it's too late. And he says they have torments. What are their torments like they are without intermission without mitigation, numberless bottomless. I knew I was going to say this word wrong. Forget it without remedy and endless, I tell myself, Just take it out endless and no remedy for the torments. They never stop. There's no intermission. They're bottomless, their endless their continual. Then he goes on, who have weeping, sir, for the first course and gnashing of teeth for the second course and the nine worm for the third course and intolerable pain for the fourth course. Yet the pain of the body is leased part of pain. The very soul of sorrow and pain is the sole sorrow and pain. The everlasting alienation and separation from God is served for the fifth course, and he says this. Your sins have been far greater than many of those who are now in hell. And your great afflictions today are but a flea bite compared to theirs. Steiner. It's not a happy Easter Christmas card there, but what is the truth? So what about the other picture? What about with God for eternity? Octavius Winslow was a minister in England. The eighteen hundreds, you know I'm quoting dead guys because they are living in this truth today. It wasn't just a sermon for them. It is their life today. This is what wins. Listen, what comparison has the way to the cross with the weight of a crown place in the scales, the present light affliction and the future exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And which is the lightest? Are they even worthy to be compared? Thanks is this. Oh, no. One second of glory will extinguish a lifetime of suffering. What were long years of toil, of sickness, of battle, with poverty, persecution and sorrow and every form and closing even with a martyr's death. When weighted with one draft of the river of Pleasure at Christ's right hand with one breath of paradise with one wave of heaven's glory with one embrace of Jesus with one sight Oh, God, just one site. Oh, God! Print. There is no comparison that draft that breath that embrace that wave. That site? Yes, the greatest. It weighs more. Which picture is yours? With or without? Jeff Thomas said something really interesting that I just kind of love, he said, Do you think that Paul be tucked away in a corner under the stairs of the mansion. Christ has gone to repair for him or he says, Well, they're not being millions who will seek him out, wanting to bow their head and respect and say Thank you, Paul, for all you did on what you wrote. It kept me going and gave me a reason for my life. I'Ll be one of those millions Just from this past week. I'll be one of those means Thank you for being afflicted so that I could see the gospel again. So back to our question from earlier. Where's this place that gives Paul this energy? Where Where is this place? That that helps Paul look at his affliction and say, This is momentary in light. Where is this place that helps Paul say? I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. Always in the worst moments of my life, I'm going to keep rejoicing. Look, where is this place that helps him from rock bottom who don't miss this? Every day Paul woke up in rock bottom. He was there almost all day long and he woke up the next morning, he was in there again. But here's what he did from Rock. But Paul kept looking up at another rock, and he kept seen every morning and all day long that that rock was still rolled away and that rock gave him help. And that rock helped him to rejoice. Always that rot gave him purpose for living. That rock pulled him up from rock bottom over and over again. That rock gave him hope, the rock that rolled away and reminded him all day long that Jesus is alive. That rock gave him hope. Trevor Max tells a story of a preschool class walking by the sanctuary one Sunday morning worship service that already started, and everybody was singing joyful that morning and their little class, the preschoolers that already talked about about Jesus coming in. It was Palm Sunday, and so the teacher told him at Jesus, coming in and shouting, Hosanna! Teacher told him about days later, Jesus being crucified. But then she said, Next Sunday, we're going to come back and it's going to Easter. We're going to celebrate, right? Jesus Rose from the grave and this one little girl, she was just kind of standing right outside the door, and she was listening with a look of all on her face it at what was coming from the other side of that door that the people of God worshiping the risen saviour. And she looked up at her teacher and she said, Is that where Easter lips is that where Easter Oops to Christian. Let us not lose heart. Because even at rock bottom, we can keep looking up and see that the stone is still rolled away. We can keep looking up and knowing that that stone being rolled away is a reminder that our savior is alive and that our savior is returning. So yes, in this room and yes, in your car. And yes, in your home. If your heart has been resurrected with Jesus Christ, then yes, Easter lifts here. Easter lives here.