Introduction:
What are you going through today? Do you feel like giving up, throwing up your hands and quitting?
Do you struggle with…
· Financial Burdens – Can meet the bills
· Physical Burden’s – Sick or struggling with addiction
· Relational Burden’s – Broken marriage, friendship or other relationship
· Emotional Burden’s – Depressed, Desperate and Broken
· While the promises of God are many, there is never the promise that life will be easy; actually the promise is the opposite. (Mt. 26:11 (Always have the poor), (Mt 10:34 Did not come to bring peace but a sword), (Luke 9:23 take up his cross daily)
o Helen Keller once said – “While the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it!”
o When asked why the righteous suffer, CS Lewis replied – “Why not? They are the only ones who can handle it.”
· None of us will escape life’s pain and suffering, so the question today is – “what keeps us going when things are difficult?” HOPE!!!
Illustration:
GK Chesterton – “Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all… As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be strength.”
Interrogative Question:
Have you lost your hope today?
Proposition:
Today we have a new hope! Our hope is in the full and final redemption of all things.
Orientation:
This redemption is our promise that…
Our Present Sufferings Will Not Last – (v. 18)
Our Promised Future Will Not End – (v. 23)
Our Patient Hope Will Be Our Strength (v. 25)
I. Our Present Sufferings Will Not Last (v. 18, 23-25)
Observation
Paul’s Words –
v. 18 “I consider” –
To consider means to think about in order to make a decision. As such Paul did not just suffer randomly, but rather stopped to think about his suffering.
READ OF Paul’s sufferings – “2 Corinthians 11:23-28”
These are the events Paul was considering and contrasting with God’s promises.
v. 18 “Present sufferings” –
The word present means “NOW.” Paul says that he has considered the sufferings he is facing now.
I love the word present because that is what it is – a gift from God. The present of today…
Present is not the past or the future, it is the now, the present can not last forever.
v. 18 “Not worth comparing” –
Paul’s conclusion as he weighs the sufferings he experienced vs. the eternal reward that was promised is that there is no comparison.
Illustration
I can remember the last day of school as a kid. The halls were filled with excitement as we waited on the bell. It did not matter how hot it got or how much work we were asked to do. We knew that when that final bell rung we were free and our freedom would last for months – irrevocable!
Paul is expressing a similar understanding of this life and it’s present sufferings, that while it may get hot and it may get hard that is not even on your mind, your hope is in the bell that is about to ring. This is proven in the fact that 17 years later, I can remember the wonderful anticipation of the final bell and cannot remember a single assignment… J
Remember the only reason I could continue in the heat of summer on that last day was because I was convinced at 2:06 the bell would ring and it would be over, do you believe the bell will ring?
Application
Like Paul, have you taken time to consider your sufferings? To contrast them with the promises of God?
Do you really believe in the promises of God? (1 Cor. 2:9 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”)
Today God asked me to tell you that things will not always be this way, that no matter what happens there is still hope.
Paul considered being shipwrecked, broke, hungry, beaten and left for dead, homeless and exhausted and persecuted unto death to be nothing in light of the promises of God. (Neh. 8:10 “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”)
WHAT ABOUT YOU? DO YOU HAVE HOPE? YOUR SUFFERINGS ARE PRESENT AND NOT ETERNAL THEY WILL NOT LAST FOREVER!
Transition: So we see that our present struggles will not last…
I. Our Promised Future Will Not End (v. 18, 23-25)
Observation
Read v. 23 –
Paul is describing all of creations longing for the day of the Lord’s restoration. (2 Peter 3:13 “we are looking forward to a new Heaven and a new Earth, the home of righteousness.”)
God is not only interested restoring humanity but all of creation! Humanity happens to be the pinnacle of that creation.
As such all of us are in the same boat, the trees, frogs, birds ect. We all groan for a new beginning, the promised future!
We seek the – “redemption of our bodies” v. 23
What the scriptures say about a future promise:
IT WILL NEVER END:
Everlasting –
2 Cor. 5:1 “we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Psalm 21:4 “He asked life of thee, thou gavest it to him, length of days forever and ever.”
IT WILL BE WONDERFUL:
Full Knowledge - 1 Cor 13:12 – “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.”
Likened to a Banquet – Mt. 22:2 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.”
No More Pain and Suffering – Rev. 21:4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Illustration
A tourist went into a large church to speak with the Priest about eternal life. As he entered the office of the priest he noticed that there were only a few books, a single chair and nothing else. This man asked the Priest – “ why don’t you have more things in your office?” The priest asked – “why don’t you have more things with you?” The man replied – “I am just passing through.” The priest replied – “so am I”.
The reason Paul could consider his sufferings as insignificant in light of the future promise is not only because the future promise is so wonderful, but because it never ends.
Application
The promise of God is that he is going to restore us and this restoration is a permanent one, it is eternal.
The promise of God is that He will give us eternal life WITH HIMSELF.
Have you considered your current problems in light of this promise?
Do you believe this promise?
II. Our Patient Hope Will Be Our Strength (v. 23-25)
Observation
Paul say’s – “we wait for it with patience.”
One of the greatest challenges to our generation is patience.
We want things – “Our way, right away”
We purchase downloads because we can not wait for the mail
We mortgage our lives away so as not to have to wait and save
The greatest struggle during our struggles is to remain hopeful and patient.
Paul’s says – We hope for what we DO NOT SEE
A Large Part of being patient is not seeing results
Not knowing how things will turn out
Not understanding how God can help
This is true patience – There is no patience and hope in what we see and know…
Illustration
Recently I was asked – “what about all those who wait patiently and yet parish? Can’t I admit that things don’t always work out!”
My answer is this – I will not admit that, because I believe for God’s children they do. They do work out, those who suffer greatly in patient hope are rewarded greatly in this life and/or in the life to come. God works all things for the good of those who love Him.
This does not mean great suffering is excluded.
What I wanted to share with this person but did not is that the problem is not with God or His faithfulness to the promise, but rather him and his lack of faith in God.
Application
o We are called to patient endurance as we suffer in this life, but not without hope. We do not suffer in silence but with the hope of an eternal future.
o Paul says that sufferings build perseverance, character and hope and that hope does not fail. (Romans 5:4)
o Remember today, as you suffer to do so patiently without losing hope!
o Also remember that much of your suffering was because of your own actions and yet God still promises to lift you out of the suffering forever.
Conclusion
Have you lost hope today?
Are your sufferings so great that you are ready to check out?
Remember:
Your sufferings will not last forever
Your Promised future will
Until then wait patiently and with hope in the Lord
o Isaiah 40:31 – “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength”
Closing Illustration:
A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, “Twenty to zero, were behind.” “boy”, said the spectator, “I’ll bet your discouraged.” The little boy replied – “why should I be, we haven’t even gotten up to bat yet!”
Never give up on the promises of God, keep the faith, finish the race and look ever forward to the eternal life that is yours in Christ Jesus.
Amen!
