What Pains Here Bring Greater Reward in Heaven?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | Brian writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, I was very encouraged by your message at the Legacy Conference on 2 Corinthians 4, 16-18.
00:00:13.000 | My question is about light momentary affliction. Does this affliction include my own sinfulness or only the sins done against me?
00:00:21.000 | The sin in my life that tears me down and hurts others, is that affliction that is preparing for me an eternal weight of glory?
00:00:27.000 | Also, what about less noble things, like my team losing a football game?
00:00:32.000 | If my heart feels sad that we lost, is that an affliction that is producing for me an eternal weight of glory?"
00:00:39.000 | You know, I have to say, Tony, at the beginning of this question, I am so thankful I get to do this.
00:00:44.000 | Because that's a real question.
00:00:47.000 | I mean, it may make us laugh at first that somebody would ask about the loss of a ball game and the affliction that works in eternal way.
00:00:55.000 | But that's exactly where we live. That's exactly the kind of question that people have.
00:01:00.000 | And I'm nothing, I just love that question, frankly.
00:01:03.000 | So let me try to tackle it in two halves.
00:01:07.000 | First, the sin question, and then the loss of the ball game.
00:01:15.000 | Do my sins and their consequences become a part of the affliction that works an eternal weight of glory for me, according to 2 Corinthians?
00:01:27.000 | Three observations. Number one, God may use our sins to bring us to the end of ourselves and make us despair of anything but Him.
00:01:42.000 | Just like in 2 Corinthians 1.8, it's not talking about Paul's sin, but it's the way God works.
00:01:50.000 | We were so burdened beyond strength. We despaired of life itself.
00:01:55.000 | We felt we had received the sentence of death.
00:01:58.000 | That was to make us rely on, not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
00:02:03.000 | So afflictions work glory for us by knocking props out from under us and making us fall on God alone.
00:02:14.000 | And I'm saying, yes, our sin can bring us to the end of ourselves.
00:02:20.000 | God, in His mercy, can make our sin stink to high heaven to us so that we cry out, "I'm hopeless! I'm hopeless!
00:02:30.000 | Oh God, if there's any grace!" And we throw ourselves on the mercy of God.
00:02:36.000 | So sin can bring us to the point where we will inherit a weight of glory.
00:02:41.000 | Second, caution. Be careful.
00:02:44.000 | It would be terribly misleading to say that sins work for us an eternal weight of glory.
00:02:51.000 | In fact, sin in the Christian life is precisely what diminishes the weight of glory for the believer.
00:02:59.000 | It says we must all face a judgment and receive our rewards or not, according to the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
00:03:08.000 | Second Corinthians 5.10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body,
00:03:19.000 | whether good or evil.
00:03:21.000 | And I think the best explanation for that is 1 Corinthians 3.
00:03:26.000 | If anyone has built on the foundation wood, hay, and stubble, it's going to be burned up.
00:03:33.000 | And if he's burned with gold and silver and precious stones, it will be saved.
00:03:39.000 | So if we go on sinning, that's like building with wood, hay, and stubble.
00:03:46.000 | It's not going to become a weight of glory for us.
00:03:49.000 | It's going to diminish our weight of glory.
00:03:55.000 | Our cup of joy, using the analogy of Edwards, is made smaller by sinning,
00:04:02.000 | and the cup of our joy is made bigger by suffering with patience and meekness and purity.
00:04:09.000 | Blessed are the meek. They're going to inherit the earth.
00:04:11.000 | Blessed are the pure. They're going to see God.
00:04:14.000 | So my second observation is, no, your sinning is not adding to your weight of glory.
00:04:24.000 | It's diminishing the weight of glory.
00:04:27.000 | And the third observation on the sin half of the question is, there is collateral damage when we sin that can last a lifetime.
00:04:40.000 | David's child died because of his sin. He lost his child, and that was a loss that lasted him a lifetime.
00:04:49.000 | You might have a car wreck when you're going 60 miles an hour in a 45 mile an hour zone.
00:04:54.000 | That's sin. And you'd be paralyzed the rest of your life because you broke your neck.
00:04:58.000 | Sinning. You broke your neck sinning.
00:05:00.000 | Now, will that affliction caused by sin function to bring you to a greater weight of glory?
00:05:10.000 | And my answer is, it can indeed. It can indeed.
00:05:14.000 | The collateral damage of sin is not sin.
00:05:19.000 | Not all the effects of sin are sin.
00:05:22.000 | God can use them to make you rely more on him.
00:05:26.000 | And that's how affliction works glory for us.
00:05:29.000 | It makes us rely more on God.
00:05:32.000 | Now, let me turn to the last part of the question.
00:05:35.000 | What about losing a ballgame?
00:05:37.000 | Is that part of our afflictions that work for us in eternal weight of glory?
00:05:42.000 | You just lost your ballgame, missed your field goal, and you were the kicker.
00:05:47.000 | Or you miss an airplane, and you're going on vacation. You miss your flight.
00:05:52.000 | Or it's prom night, and you wake up, you got a pimple right in the middle of your forehead.
00:05:56.000 | Do those qualify for afflictions?
00:05:59.000 | Suffered for Christ and working for an eternal weight of glory?
00:06:03.000 | And before we laugh, think of it this way.
00:06:06.000 | All our troubles, all of them, are on a continuum from easy to horrible.
00:06:12.000 | Where would you draw the line?
00:06:14.000 | These qualify for working out our glory, and these don't qualify.
00:06:19.000 | All our troubles, from the smallest to the greatest, have a potential to make us sin by grumbling.
00:06:26.000 | And not trusting the goodness and wisdom of God.
00:06:29.000 | Whether it's a pimple on prom night, or whether it's the loss of a child.
00:06:34.000 | That moment, that little or huge trouble, can make you sin or not.
00:06:41.000 | And so it can become an occasion for casting yourself on Christ.
00:06:46.000 | So my answer is, any trouble, from the smallest hiccup to the greatest horror.
00:06:53.000 | I've always worried about having hiccups before I preach. Isn't that something?
00:06:57.000 | It never happened. I was never kept out of the pulpit with hiccups.
00:07:01.000 | And yet I've had hiccups, and I've been panicky almost.
00:07:04.000 | Well anyway, you don't need to hear more of that.
00:07:06.000 | From the smallest hiccup to the greatest horror.
00:07:10.000 | If we endure these in the path of obedience to Jesus, they have the potential for working for us in eternal weight of glory.
00:07:20.000 | Because the issue is, does it throw us on God as our help and our treasure and our joy?
00:07:26.000 | The girl that laughs at her pimple the night of the prom, and sees it as a small thing compared to her belonging to the King of the universe.
00:07:36.000 | And the boy who springs back quickly after the high school football loss, because his identity and his joy is in Jesus.
00:07:45.000 | She and he have just experienced tiny afflictions that have produced big fruit of holiness, and that will be part of their reward.
00:07:57.000 | Thank you Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:08:01.000 | Feel free to share this episode with any Minnesota Vikings fans in your life.
00:08:04.000 | You can email all your football questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:08:09.000 | You can visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.
00:08:15.000 | I'm your host Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.
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