NO PAIN, NO GAIN

2 Corinthians 4:12–18 NLT

12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. 13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. 16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

The Point: Jesus guarantees, designs, and gives us hope for our suffering, so we do not give up!!!!

The Guarantee of Suffering

2 Corinthians 4:16 NLT

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

We were never meant to waste away.

The Design of Suffering

2 Corinthians 4:12 ESV

12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

2 Corinthians 4:14 ESV

14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

Professionally accepted a different path. You go through a career death when you do it for the right reasons.

Illustration:You might not get the promotion, but there are a lot of people who are impacted through your sacrifice.

That’s how Jesus works everytime. He doesn’t run around the cross, redemption is through the cross.

He turns the worst thing that is happened in history to the best thing that is happened in history. His horrible execution means people never have to suffer again.

The Hope of Suffering

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self 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.

For the person without Christ — Suffering is evil and is to be avoided at all costs.

For the person with Christ, it’s what God uses to make us our highest and best selves.

Illustration: Acorn needs to be pressed, pushed, buried, and die in order that It can produce a whole forest of oak trees. The human soul is bigger and grander than the oak tree.

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We do not give up, because we are looking forward to what we can’t see yet. We are focused on the future. We have faith that our LATER will be GREATER.

“No suffering, no glory” doesn’t make sense and is not real unless God shows the way.

And he did!!!

“I believe all suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidian mind of man.

That in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass, it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed, that this thing will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify everything that’s happened.”