What we're reading here is the apostolic prescription for how you don't lose heart when life is really, really, really hard.

And it was for Paul most of the time.

So how do we keep from losing heart? John Piper turns to 2 Corinthians 416 to 510 to answer that question on this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached

at Bethlehem Baptist Church on July 18th, 1993.

Now there are a lot of reasons for this series and I'll mention four. They're not all but they are four.

Number one, the possibilities of joy or misery are trillions of times greater after death than before.

The Bible describes this life as a vapors breath.

James 415.

It is like walking outside on the winter morning speaking a word and seeing your breath appear

and it's gone. It's gone. That's the way the Bible views this life. Most people don't view it that way. They don't feel that way about their life.

We feel like this is substantial and lasting and this is it. The Bible says it's just like a vapor, like two seconds maybe. And then the Bible describes

what's on the other side of the grave with this phrase, ages of ages.

ages. Not just two or three ages of thousands of years,

but ages of ages, of ages, thousands of thousands of years.

That's the way of expressing eternity.

So my first reason is simply, this message is about reality.

Reality is if you're more interested in what lasts a trillion years than what lasts two seconds.

If you're only interested today in what lasts two seconds and not what lasts a trillion years, shut it down because

I'm not talking your language.

Reason number two, this theme forces the question about the authenticity of faith.

Is your faith real, substantial, biblical faith in objective external reality, God, or is your faith simply a subjective internal

...