2 Corinthians 12:7-10 

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

If there is one thing that people try to avoid its pain. Our typical response to pain is to run because instead of seeing pain as productive we seem to only see it as a problem. We rebel at the suggestion of it, recoil at the sight of it, and reject any notion that it might be beneficial. Yet the truth is that the lessons of life are almost always taught in the classroom of calamity. Yet few of us are willing to be a student in the classroom of suffering. When it comes to pain, here in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul provides us with a proper perspective. First Paul reminds us that pain is:

• Part of life 

From a logical point of view, one would think that God would be gracious and reward those who do good with less pain. Especially when it comes to those who are sold out to serving Him, but I want you to notice that even preachers like Paul don’t get a free pass when it comes to pain. In fact the opposite is true, as Paul passionately pursued God’s plan of proclaiming peace to all people he seemed to endure an incredible amount of pain. His “resume of suffering” appears in the previous chapter, in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, and includes multiple imprisonments, beatings, floggings, canings, life-threatening experiences, as well as stoning and shipwrecks where he spent a night and a day stuck floating in the open sea. There were times of torment and trials when he didn’t had enough food, clothing, sleep, or friends. He was chased by bandits and infuriated religious leaders, and he carried the pain of being betrayed by false friends. Paul also battled temptation and experienced anxiety over the young churches that he started. So when we come to this passage we need to remember that Paul is not being flippant about pain, for he was a regular student in the school of suffering. Paul refers to this pain as his “thorn in the flesh.” How bad was this particular pain, well the passage tells us that it was a hurt straight from hell, it was a “messenger from Satan,” sent to torment him. Paul didn’t just put up with this pain he prayed and asked God to remove the pain. Not only because pain is not fun but also because from a human perspective Paul could have done more without the pain. He could have planted more churches, written more letters, won more converts for Christ. Paul didn’t just petition God once, he persisted in prayer asking again and again. On three separate occasions Paul pleaded with God to remove his pain, yet this passage makes it clear that God didn’t take away His thorn of suffering. When it comes to pain we need to remember that our Savior walked the streets of suffering. He understood the pain of loss as He wept at Lazarus tomb or the pain of God’s people as he wept over unrepentant Jerusalem. He experienced the agony of both the physical pain of the cross, as well as the personal pain of betrayal. He suffered the pain of scourging as well as the pain of disappointment and discouragement. He was ridiculed and rejected so that we could be redeemed. Jesus walked the path of pain and so will we. Look life often starts with pain as the doctor slaps the baby’s bottom, and in some aspects, goes downhill from there. The truth is we already know that pain is a part of life the real question is are we looking for the positives in our pain or are we just going to complain?

Matthew 6:19-24

19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. 22 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! 24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

We tend to think that serving is a choice and it’s something we will do if we feel like it, but in reality serving is already a forgone conclusion, we all serve it’s not a choice. The choice becomes who or what we serve, the real issue that we have to wrestle with is who will be our master?  In order to delve deeper into the question of who our master will be we have to wrestle with the word “treasures.” We all have things that we treasure and our hearts are directly tied to what we treasure. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be, the heart follows the treasure! The natural response to treasure is to try and store it up and Jesus doesn’t reject this response to accumulate, He simply wants to give it direction. Because where our treasure is, our heart will be also. What do you treasure? Where we store up our treasure has a large part to do with what our treasure is. If it’s earthly, we store it here, if it’s heavenly, we store it there. Answering what our treasure is not only helps us see where we will store it but also who our master will be. Serving is really about investing and investing is all about the future, what we do today affects tomorrow. There are inherent risks when we decide to invest, we could easily lose all or part of our investment. There are many factors that go into investing but when it is all said and done, the main thing that we are looking for is a return on our investment. 

One of the investment options is the world (v 19)

This option is one that our investment broker Jesus encourages us not to make. He says don’t invest your lives in the things of this world, He knows we will be tempted to try. Scripture doesn’t tell us to stop doing things unless we are prone to doing them and it doesn’t tell us to do things we are prone to do but rather the things we are not. The reason Jesus gives us to not invest in the world is because there are silent destroyers, things that will eat and carry away the investment making it unprofitable. Earthly investments are subject to being eaten by moths and rust, one consumes the other corrodes. Jesus also says that if we put or investment into the world it will be subject to being stolen. All of these are the silent destroyers that quietly eat and take away the investment. 

The other investment option is heaven (v 20)

This is where we are commanded to store our treasure because this is a secure option where there are no silent destroyers. Some questions that we have to ask ourselves when it comes to serving are who are you serving, who is really your master? What is your treasure and where are you storing it? What are you really living for, the temporary or the permanent? Are you securely investing or sloppily stuffing it into this world? Do you need to move your accounts from the bank down the street to the bank up stairs, from an earthly realm to a heavenly one?