main preaching text on comfort in suffering and deliverance from suffering
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.
6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
7 Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.
8 For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.
9 Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,
10 who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;
11 you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift given to us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf.
cited as example of grace and peace to a church with no real sin mentioned
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's list of sufferings: stripes, imprisonments, shipwrecks, stonings, perils of many kinds, cited to show he knew suffering firsthand
1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3 But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different “good news”, which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough.
5 For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
6 But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge?
8 I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
9 When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them that desire an occasion, that in which they boast, they may be found even as we.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
17 That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
18 Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast.
19 For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.
20 For you bear with a man, if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face.
21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.
24 Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me.
33 Through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.
treasure in jars of clay passage: afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, struck down but not destroyed, death at work in us but life in you
7 But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
8 We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair;
9 pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;
10 always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.
closing passage: do not lose heart, light and momentary affliction preparing an eternal weight of glory, looking to things unseen
16 Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;
18 while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message, preached from 2 Corinthians 1:1-11, was about suffering, comfort, and why God allows his people to go through both. Pastor Ray walked through Paul's letter to the Corinthians to show that the comfort God gives in affliction is not just for the one suffering, but is meant to be passed on to others who are in the same darkness.
What was said
Paul opens nearly every letter he writes with the same greeting: grace and peace. Pastor Ray pointed out that this is not a throwaway formality. Grace is unmerited favor, and peace, as Carl puts it, is shalom, God's gift of wholeness. Paul extends this to every church he writes, regardless of whether they are doing well or badly, and he even adds mercy when writing to Timothy and Titus, who are in active ministry. The pattern is worth paying attention to: always begin there.
The doxology that opens 2 Corinthians calls God "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort." Pastor Ray pressed on that phrase, saying there is not any affliction, not even what Martin Luther called the dark night of the soul, that God cannot reach. His mercies are new every morning, and that is not a cliche. It is the ground people in the deepest mud need to stand on.
The key phrase in the passage is the "so that." God comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort others in theirs. The word translated "be able" is the Greek word behind our word dynamite. It is not a polite suggestion that you might comfort others if you feel like it. The comfort God has given you actually empowers you to sit with someone else who is suffering.
Pastor Ray told the story of a man who falls in a hole. A pastor looks over the edge and says he will pray. A friend looks over and says it looks terrible. But a real friend jumps down into the hole and says, I have been here before and I know the way out. That is what comforted people are equipped to do for one another.
Paul's list from 2 Corinthians 11, beatings, shipwrecks, stonings, nights treading water, and more, lands with unexpected force when you realize he wrote it to introduce an encouraging letter. Pastor Ray noted that Paul calls all of it a "light and momentary affliction" compared to the eternal weight of glory being prepared. That is not dismissal of suffering. It is a long view that suffering itself cannot provide, but that God in Christ can.
The verse that hit Pastor Ray hardest in his recent reading was the one explaining why the affliction in Asia came upon Paul and Timothy: "that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." The suffering was not random. It was to drive them off self-reliance and onto God. We are, Pastor Ray said, pitiful saviors at best. But we can be sent, and we can comfort, when we are connected to the one who actually saves.
The service closed with communion. Pastor Ray prayed over the bread and cup as a celebration of the very comfort the sermon described: the body and blood of Christ, who where Adam failed, succeeded, and who offers his perfect record to anyone who places their faith in him. As Paul says, as often as we do this, we proclaim Christ's death until he comes again, and it is that death that breaks the power of sin and is the source of all the comfort the sermon had been describing.
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Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Ray opened by asking whether you have ever felt so afflicted that it seemed like it might kill you. If you are comfortable sharing, what did that season look like, and what did you find yourself leaning on during it?
Paul's greeting of 'grace and peace' appears in nearly every letter he writes. What difference might it make to approach a difficult conversation or relationship by leading with unmerited favor and a desire for the other person's wholeness, before anything else is said?
Yeah. That's what I was talking about. Just like, no. I didn't hear the
first question.
It's it's pretty nice. Wintertime, you can watch people ski down. Hey. Are you? I'm well.
How's life? And how are you? Good. How are you? I'm all doing just fine.
Hey. Good to see you. Good.
Let's see what happens.
Yeah. That's good. That's good.
Y'all on top of the situation. Oh
my goodness. It's celebration after celebration after celebration. They did the graduation thing at the rec center
last night. She was there under that. So yeah. Yeah.
Well, you can grab one of them, and then when Ned gets here, he could probably make it happen. But if you if if worse comes to work, we'll just run it here for you. You know what I mean? But I'd rather not Okay. Yeah.
That makes sense.
It's long. There's a lot there. So probably
you know, trying to make sure. But my technical my technical on the new computer, he's
on the yeah. There's a there is a way to do a video gram.
Okay. Come on through. That's why there's
Good morning, church. I'm glad to see you. Hey. Would you would you stand with me? I'd love to sing together and worship in song.
Here's a an encouraging word from Psalm 55 to lead us in a worship. It says, cast your cares on the Lord, and he will sustain you. He'll never let the righteous be shaken. I'd love to sing of it. Jesus, firm foundation.
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Have a let's see what the announcements are. Carl? Oh, FBC Church Campout.
This is always fun. So it looks like it's set for July 19 through the twenty first and an additional one at August 23 to twenty fifth. Palisades, there won't be any traffic. Sorry. You can call Brian McCooey or Mike Demetrius and they'll tell you more about it.
But July and August, that's great. First be church camp at. That'll be fun. First b b q's are happening too. Games, food and fellowship right out here on the green space.
Those are the dates we have right now. It'll happen between services. So 09:00 service, 11:00 service. Somewhere about 10:00, there'll be meat and food and people, games and food and fun fellowship out there. And amazingly, it does not interrupt the second service.
But if you if you think, you know what? I'm going in and I'm going to that first and coming to the second, do whatever you want to. It's good. We're trying to keep one church instead of two churches that meet in the same place. Sound booth volunteers are needed.
That's kind of a standard no matter where you go to church. Right? We have a really good one up there right now that is taking care of it who would be happy to help train. And Nick would be happy to help train you too. It's nice to have extra people on that.
Alright. Now, is Amy Jordan in the building? There she is. Do you wanna come forward and do this announcement? Grab a microphone there, Blake.
Just meet her meet her up. There you go. That works. Protocol. We do not run on protocol.
But we run it fairly efficiently anyway. Yes.
Well, I'm glad to be here. Took a little bit longer, but I'm glad to be here. VBS is coming up in two weeks. I can't believe it. It's super quick.
Couple of things. Tomorrow, we're kind of having from eleven to three in the fellowship hall. If y'all anyone wants to come and just help cut fabric or glue or craft anything just to get prepared for VBS, we would appreciate it. There will be lunch, so maybe that and kids are invited. You can bring your kids.
It's eleven to three tomorrow. And sign up your kids for VBS. It's the twenty fourth to the twenty seventh from nine to 11:30. It's super fun. And if anyone would like to also volunteer, we have space available.
So let me know. Registration for volunteers and for kids is out in the hall or in the fellowship hall, and it's just a QR code, so it should be pretty easy. And if you have any questions, let me know, let Philip know. We're available and we appreciate it.
Thank you. That's awesome. Some of my earliest memories, I would say are VBS, but they're particularly the setup before VBS. Like I have a lot of really really good memories of that. It's great to be anticipating that.
Sisters Saved by Grace have been meeting here for on Thursday nights for a good long while and they decided Mike Yoko Park sounds like a good idea, which is awesome. So they'll be meeting at 6PM, Mike Yockel Park, studying Psalms together, right up the road here on Kelly, go up until you see a green space. It's Mike Yockel, and they'll be here studying Psalms together, bring your own food. And I think that's the last one. Does anybody have one that I've forgotten?
Cutter, come on up. Do you have a microphone? Did Amy take it back with her?
I'm Connor Fries, and I'm gonna talk about a
charity that I'm raising support for right now. Many of might not know, but
you West Virginia has three times the national average there you go. Fantastic. Three times the national average per capita children in foster care. And it makes sense. Right?
West Virginia has some of the worst education in our nation and some of the highest rates of abuse, domestic abuse and also substance abuse. It's kind of a little bit of a black hole that just sucks people in, and it's very hard to leave sometimes. And the problem with the foster care system in West Virginia is that oftentimes when young men turn 18, they immediately are kicked out of the foster care system because government funding is cut. So these young 18 year old men are out on the street. 40% of young 18 year old men leaving the foster care system are out on the streets in the next year.
And the next year after that, fifty percent of them are already felons. And it's really this just vicious cycle of more abuse and more kids entering the foster care system. And I got the great chance a month or two ago to meet a pastor in Ohio who's doing something about it. He had a thousand acres of land in West Virginia, and he's building a tiny home community. So he's employing these kids aging out of the foster care system.
His son owns a construction company, and on-site, there's a factory for these tiny homes. And he employs these young men to work on homes, build tiny homes also that they can rent to veterans and school teachers and other mentors and create a community. So these young men, instead of being left out in the world and just confused and feeling alone, like I've I've been through treatment myself and I've spent time with young men who didn't grow up with parents. And the psychological traumas and just how dark that world view can be, my heart goes out to them. And it's a beautiful community.
There's a model for it in West in Virginia as well. But it could change it's the little communities that could the grassroots organizations that could really change how our country operates, and giving these young men mentors and community could springboard them forward into actually changing their lives and changing this dark pattern in West Virginia. So I'll be on the lobby afterwards, and you can talk to me about doing it.
Check catch up with Cotter afterwards if you would. Cotter?
Thank you, sir.
Would you stand? We're gonna sing his mercy is more. Thank you, Cotter.
His life was the cause. We stood beneath the dead we could never afford. Can I share a good word from Ephesians? We've just sung it, but I want to share where this is coming from. It's Ephesians two four through six.
And this is so good. But God is so rich in mercy. Let's just pause there for a second. God is so rich in mercy. He doesn't give us what we do deserve.
He's loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, that is what the Bible teaches, that in our sins in our sins, we we will die. But here's the good news. So that's the bad news. The good news is he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. So that as we put our faith and trust in Christ, we pass from life to life because of the work that Jesus has done.
That's a simple gospel message right there. And the good news, Jesus is merciful. God is merciful to us. So merciful. Thank you God for the mercy that you've given that we don't deserve yet.
You give anyway. And thank you Lord that we get to come to the table later in the service today to celebrate that. That what you have done on that cross, that's sufficient. That's enough, that's what we're counting on, that's what we believe, that's what we put our faith and trust in, your work, not our own, and thank you. Thank you.
Amen. Worthy of every song we could ever sing.
Holy there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes and wonder show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me.
And God, we make that our our prayer as well. Lord, you are the source and supply of love, self giving, others focused love. God, would you lead us into that kind of love to the world around us that can see you. In Jesus name, amen. Man of sorrows, lamb of God.
You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a song. Psalm 92, a song to be sung sung on the Sabbath is is what it says. And the words as we'll sing, it's good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise to the most high.
But before we sing, Ray, may I
ask you to pray? Sure. Lord God almighty, as we as we get into your word today, there's a doxology that starts off a praise. You are so good. Blessed be.
Blessed be the Lord. Thank you. God, we are amazed by you. I'm amazed by you right here in this room. I feel like I've already had church.
You show up in the hearts of your people and then you fill us to overflow and lord, that's what we that's what we long for. That's what we want. Lord, if we are ever in a place of timidity or resistance to that, would you would you give us a new boldness, a new refreshing? Lord God almighty, we're so thankful. We ask right now that you would do whatever you will with what goes into these plates, Lord, financially, but also metaphorically.
Whatever it is that your people are offering back to you, the gifts that you have given, the resources that you have given. Whatever they're offering back, lord, I pray that you would multiply that to do your kingdom's work, that you would amplify it, that you would accomplish exactly what it is through your people. We know, lord that this is plan A and there's not a plan B. Would you lift us up from the low places? Would you bring us to bear on the community and the world that is visiting us?
In Jesus name, we pray that you would have your will in your way among us, through us, with us. Amen.
And make music to your name, oh most high. It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name oh most high to proclaim your love in the morning and your
Amen. It is time. Is it time? Yes. Okay.
Good. I missed a week. I missed a week last week. I thought y'all might have cancelled Sunday school. Children's church is downstairs right now.
There they go. And if you're sitting in the back and you wanna come up front, there are lots of holes in the places now that you can fall into. Oh, have you ever had your feelings hurt? I'm starting off like a real preacher. All of a sudden, that sounded so like like a preacher.
Have you ever had your feelings hurt? I I said, yeah. We all have. Have you ever felt afflicted? So this is a little deeper than just having your feelings hurt.
Have you ever felt like there was something upon you? Martin Luther called it. Other theologians have called it the dark night of the soul where they felt afflicted like there was a heaviness or a darkness that was pressing down. Have you ever felt like that affliction would actually kill you? Have you ever experienced suffering?
Yeah. I don't I don't think there's any I I had a I had a very very good childhood foundation, house of love, scripture sermons after sermons after sermons. And I I made it unscathed for a good while actually. But I tell you what, when it comes upon you, it comes upon you. And there's a depth to your feelings, your emotions, and I I have noted this this week because of high emotions.
Graduation. Oh my goodness. Graduation. Cotter, Pascal, the new Shibori twins, Sasha, Mizell, graduated from the classical academy the other night. I got to make a cross country trip with Pascal for another graduation ceremony as weird as that sounds.
And my emotions are really really high right now, but I noticed that wow, I can't get over the the depth of the lows to get to this point. And sometimes, things are intermingled. There's a lot of hard stuff going on all the time, all around us, and yes, we have all had these things happen. If we haven't if we haven't had it yet, it's probably coming. So this is a good one to warn you about what is to come and to give you the hope on the other side of that.
So why? First second Corinthians one one through 11 starts off this and it kind of answers the question of why that is. It's comfort in suffering and it is deliverance from suffering. That's what these few verses are talking about. And I might bounce around the Bible a little bit but I'm gonna stick pretty close to this.
Now, it's a letter from Paul to Corinth and it's probably at least his fourth letter to them. He has shared a little in what we call first Corinthians and then he had a severe letter there somewhere in the middle. He knows that they had had trouble. He knows that there was difficulty in the church from a lot of different areas and he that first Corinthians 13 where it's about love, right? Where it's about the hope of the future is comforting, but then they went through deeper stuff and got to a place where just about all of second Corinthians in some way has to do with comfort in or deliverance from suffering.
So that's what we're gonna we're gonna talk about today. First of all, salutation Paul is pretty typical in his salutation. It's funny to me to see it. Second Corinthians, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. He was sent out by Christ.
Remember that? By the will of God, not his will. His will was to persecute Christians. That's what he was doing when God kinda knocked him off his high horse. Dramatically changed, sent out by Christ and Timothy, our brother to the church of God that's in Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, have we heard that before grace and peace? Grace and peace. Yeah. Actually, we heard it in second Corinthians, grace and peace to you from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Well, have we heard it?
Yes. In first Corinthians, we heard it. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. It's exactly the same thing. Is this just a deer?
We put deer in the front of a letter like it's just because that's what we do. No. This is foundational. This is the starting for everybody that Paul sends a letter. Let's keep on going.
Have we heard it before? Galatians, grace and peace. Ephesians, grace and peace. Philippians, grace to you and peace. Colossians, to the saints and the faithful.
In Christ who are in Colossians, it's not just grace for salvation, it's grace for today. It is God's unmerited favor, it's what he's wishing upon them. That's what he's praying for, that's his goal in the letter even though some of the letters are difficult and severe, some are not. Grace to you and peace from God our father and Lord Jesus Christ, first Thessalonians. No real sin mentioned in first Thessalonians, so it's not about chiding or rebuking.
He's wanting grace for today for every church that he's sending these things to. Grace to you and peace. Second Thessalonians. Some of those things in first Thessalonians were a little confusing, so here you go again. Grace to you and peace.
Romans, had never met these folks. What does he want for them to all who are in Rome, beloved of God? It didn't have to be people he had converted. Right? Because he didn't convert them.
Christ through his spirit converts. To all who are around, beloved God called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our father and Lord Jesus Christ. To all the places that he sent epistles, grace and peace. That's something we ought to pay attention to. You know, when the Bible says something once, we need to pay attention to it.
If it says it that many times, it says it to all of the places. So he also uses it to individuals, Philemon, slave owner Philemon, remember, Onesimus? Grace to you and peace. Let him go. Okay.
Let him go. He's a brother in Christ. Please, let him go. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then for Timothy, he adds mercy.
Timothy is in ministry. To Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace. Anytime that you undertake to do a mighty work for the Lord or or a minor work for the Lord. Anytime that you undertake to do a work for the Lord, you're gonna need his mercy. There will be opposition inside and outside from this is from God, our father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
He says it again in second Timothy, grace, mercy, and peace. Mercy is still in there and for Titus also in ministry, true son in our common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ our savior. And it just feels so good to know that he is the one who does the saving. He is our savior and we can rest in that. So salutation, apostles handshake is over.
It's not just dear blah blah blah. It really he's concentrating on grace and peace. So freebie point number one is this, always start off with grace and peace. If you're upset with them or you're not upset with them, if you're trying to encourage them or you have to rebuke them, always start with grace and peace and grace, so your member is unmerited favor. They don't have to prove themselves before you look favorably upon them.
In fact, they may have proven themselves pretty difficult. Unmerited favor is what Paul's offering to them and what I would like for us all to offer to everyone we encounter whether they're believers or they're not. And peace, I like Carl's definition, the quick definition. Unmerited favor comes out of my mouth almost every time I say grace, and every time Carl says peace, says, Shalom, God's gift of wholeness. It's not just the absence of war, it is wholeness.
So that's the salutation and that's great. Next is the doxology and then we'll get on to just a few verses that that really nail this down for me. Doxology is a praise to God. Usually, it's a short hymn or a short refrain, you know, praise I forgot it again. There we go.
It's so sad. It's not written down. Praise God from whom all blessings flow is the doxology. Right? But there are lots of them in scripture and this is one of, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies.
His mercies are new every morning and some of y'all are walking through some of the deepest mud you've ever walked through in your life and it's the hardest thing, and you feel like it's closing in on you, but God's mercies are new every morning. I'm praying that you will see new light in the morning. He is the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. If you find any real lasting sustained comfort, it will be in God. Our souls are restless till they find their rest in him.
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our affliction. That in there is very important. There is not any affliction that you can be in. Even Luther's or the dark night of the soul or the loss of a dear precious loved one. There's not any affliction that we're going through that God cannot comfort if we will allow him to.
He comforts us in all of our affliction, and then this, because I'm speaking to Christians and Paul speaking to Christians, I'm gonna say, why is it that he does it? And this, if you're a philosopher or if you're somebody who has thought about the problem of evil, the problem of evil has to come back to the problem of free choice, in Spanish. It comes back to free will. It comes back to we have to really have some responsibility in this whole matter. And if we do, all of us do, the likelihood of this many sin natures on this big celestial ball colliding with one another, we're gonna hurt each other's feelings.
We are going to afflict one another. Sadly, it's gonna happen within the church, but the God of all comfort and the God of all mercy can comfort us in all of our afflictions, but why? It says sow that and I love a good sow that. I love a good sow that because I'm trying to say what it says and sometimes if it was enough sow that, I don't know. And I'm trying to figure it out.
So here, this is all the places in the Bible where it says, sow that. Okay? He tells us a lot and that's like 10 font. Okay? That's the henna clause.
I've done that once before, was a different sermon. I just had it on the shelf for years. It's a henna clause. It is most often a purpose clause and it might be a result clause and if you're talking about people, purpose and result, our purposes are not always the results we get, but if you're talking about God, he's almighty and the purposes that he puts out there will result. So this is a purpose clause and Paul tells us, and you know what?
Paul has gotten a bad rap and people are saying, if Jesus didn't say it, I don't pay any attention. I'm a red letter guy only. I'm like, well then you chuck a lot of the Bible. Right? Now Jesus believed it and Jesus sent Paul out.
He sent him with this message and I think that we should pay attention to it. The purpose clause that is opened up right there is so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. Thank you, Justin. Always cleaning up after people. Thank you.
That's the so that he comforts us in all of our affliction. He we have hope in Christ and that hope in Christ gives us a long view and that comes to a place where we we get to do this so that we may be able to comfort those who are in the affliction. Well, if he's almighty God, why don't he just have nobody suffer? Why do you have to suffer so you can help other people? Not everybody thank you, Justin.
He's not not everybody is gonna go with his plan for him. Carl was talking about mercy during one of our songs. We sang about mercy. Our sins there are many. His mercy is more.
The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus, the pardon receives. There is comfort in salvation. There's comfort in Christ. And when we receive that, we can sit with someone and mourn as they mourn. We can rejoice as they rejoice too, but we can sit in the difficult place of not knowing what to say and just cry with.
We may be able to comfort. Actually, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. You've heard that it was said hurt people hurt people. Right? We hear that all the time.
Comforted people comfort people. If you have been comforted from dark deep, not dark night of soul affliction that you felt might kill you, if you have experienced suffering and God has delivered you from that suffering and has given you hope, that hope is on tap to offer to anyone else who has suffered in any way. It's one of the greatest things about being a believer. It's one of the greatest things about having been comforted. So that so that we ourselves may be able to comfort and the may be able there is Dunamai.
You all know what Dunamai? What does it look like? Dynamite. That, it's this big but it has the power to blast. Right?
It is literally saying, so that you actually have the power. Not just you can if you want to. The comfort of God backs that up because he's comforted you, it allows you to comfort other people. So, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, father of mercies, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction and their myriad. In this job, I hear more about more of them than y'all do, I would imagine.
It would be difficult for y'all to hear as many difficult stories, but I praise God because I have been comforted. I praise God that I've walked through a lot with a lot of people, and sometimes I say, this person has experienced exactly what you're going through. There's an old not exactly a joke, but fellas going along, he falls in a hole. Priest comes by, pastor, we'll call it a pastor, comes by, looks over in the hole and says, oh, that's a terrible situation you're in. I'll pray for you that you'll get out of there.
You know? And then somebody else comes along and looks and says, boy, that's that's tough. Gosh, that's awful. Yeah. It really stinks to be you right now.
Boy, I'm gonna think about that all the way home. And then another one comes by, who's a real friend. He comes by and he just jumps down in the hole. He goes, well, now there are two of us stuck in the hole. He goes, yeah, but I've been here before and I know the way out.
Praise God. We've been there before, we know the way out. Remember the sermon a few weeks back about godly sorrow or worldly sorrow? Godly sorrow leads to repentance that can't be regretted. Worldly sorrow only leads to death.
We may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. It really is about tapping into the spirit of God. Tapping into the comfort that he provides. Literally, the name of the Holy Spirit in the in the New Testament is Paraclete. Right?
It is the comforter, the one who comes alongside to comfort. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, can I get a witness? Have Paul and Timothy shared in Christ's sufferings? This is a this is a list. I come to this list fairly regularly because I think it's funny.
I think it's funny that somebody can. It's coming next. I think it's funny that somebody can be through everything he's been through and then still be delighted to be writing them an encouraging letter. This is in second Corinthians 11, so it's 10 chapters ahead and Paul is saying, listen, sound like a crazy person here. I'm just going say it anyway.
I've been in labors more abundant than these other super apostles that are teaching you, right? I've been I know know the past. I've been in labors more abundant. I've been in stripes above measure. Stripes like beaten switches above measure, in prison frequently, in deaths often.
From the Jews five times I received 40 stripes minus one because it was against the law to do 40. There's 39 stripes, that's not against the law. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Stoned usually ends in death, right? Three times I was shipwrecked, a lot of mileage.
A night and a day, have been out in the deep, a night and a day treading water after a shipwreck, in journeys often. That's funny because it's just a journey. Everybody who's ever been on a road trip knows that that's in the list. In perils of waters, floods, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the sea, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the in among false brethren, in perils in the city, skip that one, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, once I was lowered down over a wall, he says, right? That was embarrassing for him that he had to escape town by being lowered over a wall.
Besides all these other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for the churches. I think that's funny. That's quite a list and he says, I'm speaking like a madman here. I think he meant for it to be funny to make the effect that I have been through suffering. I know what it's like and yet I can still say, blessed be the God and father of all mercies.
For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. Amen. I agree with that. If we are afflicted, oh by the way, I mentioned Paul's list, Timothy's list. I'm not going to mention much about Timothy.
I mean, he was in ministry and you could see he's a little trepidatious about getting into it. He was circumcised as an adult. By Paul so that he could minister. That's suffering enough right there. If we're afflicted, were Paul and Timothy afflicted?
I think they were. Why? And it is the why. It is for your comfort, yours Corinthians. The reason that we're willing to go through everything that we have gone through is so that you will know the comfort of God, so that you will know the grace of God, so that you will know not just the comfort but also salvation.
This is a growing message. There's not anybody who doesn't experience suffering. There are some who don't get the cure and we have the cure. We have been comforted, therefore we can with the same resources he's given, give to him. If we are afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation.
If we are comforted, it's for your comfort, amen, Which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings. It's there's not any new news as Mike is fond to say, Mike Demetrius. There's no new news. There's just old news happening to new people. When you experience the sufferings that you're going through and you patiently get through them, I had a guy that sat at the end of my bed when I thought I was gonna die, honestly.
And he sat at the end of my bed and he patted me on the leg, he said, Ray, it's good from the backside of this. I've been here before. It's good from the backside of this, from his Montgomery, Alabama accent. It's good from the backside of this. It ain't good now, but it'll it's good from the backs and I and I can say right now, absolutely, that was true.
So, is this redemptive suffering? I I think that it is. Yes, I think that it is. I think that Paul is saying that there is the fellowship, the sufferings of Christ as Peter would put it, is a part of the Christian life, but it's also the part that offers redemption to people that don't have hope in God. When people see someone who's been through horrible, horrible, traumatic invasion, violation and abuse.
That is okay. When somebody sees that and they're going through it right now, the actual abuse and violation and trouble, and they see somebody who has come through it and come out the other side, and they're able to say, blessed be the Lord and Father of our God. Right? Jesus Christ. Yes.
That draws people into relationship. Our hope for you, hope in the Bible whenever it comes up, it is absolute certainty that has not yet come to pass. Our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that just as you share in our sufferings, you also will share in our comfort. We know what's ahead of us.
Now, this is the part that hit me in the last couple months that I don't think I'd ever seen before. And I know I've preached it before because I preached through the whole New Testament. I know. But this struck me differently this time than ever before. We do not want for y'all to be unaware, brothers and sisters of the affliction that we experienced in Asia.
He's telling his tale. In acts, we see that it says, and the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit hindered them from entering into Asia. It doesn't say anything else about it. We tried multiple times to go in this way and go in that way and it was not happening and it afflicted them. Had they stepped off of God's path?
He uses everything. I don't know, but their affliction and their inability to minister in Asia, and they had to take a left turn and go elsewhere. For we do not want for you all to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. It was affliction. Have you ever felt afflicted?
For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. I'm gonna skip forward three chapters here too. This is second Corinthians four and it's another kind of testimony of Paul that just kind of spills out and we have this treasure in jars of clay, earthen vessels to show the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but we're not crushed. We're perplexed, confused, don't know what's next, don't know the next step, but we're not driven to despair.
We're persecuted. Like he said, from the Jews on one side and the Gentiles on the other, but not forsaken. God has still got us. We're struck down, but we're not destroyed. We're always carrying in the body the death of Christ, remembering that, crucified with Christ as he would say elsewhere.
For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, redemptive suffering, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but it is life in you. Amen. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. That's the question.
Have you ever felt like that affliction would actually kill you? A lot of anxiety in the world these days, and we know more about it than we ever have like from a physiological standpoint and from a brain chemistry, brain imaging standpoint, and there's a lot of anxiety, and there's a lot of difficulty, and it causes all kinds of health issues. When God says, this is my will for you in Christ Jesus, it says a couple things, but this is my will for you in Christ Jesus that you abstain from sexual immorality, but it also says that you're grateful, that you're grateful. You can't according to all the brain studies I'm reading lately, you can't be anxious and grateful at the same time. If you're thinking on the things that are good things and noble things, if you are concentrating on it or if you have somebody there that is with you that can mourn with you and you can be grateful just that you have somebody mourning with you.
That's enough to start pulling people out of that hole. So why? Why is it? And this is the sentence that was worth the whole thing for me, but all of that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. It's to make us trust in him.
Why? To make us rely not on ourselves. We are pitiful saviors. Pitiful at it. Temporary at best.
If we are gonna have any part in the saving work, it's gonna have to be connected to the spirit of God led by the word of God and the spirit of God and the sacrifice and finished work of Christ and the father who loves and who is the father of all comfort and all mercies. It's gonna be his power, not our power. We are not saviors, but we can be apostles, and we can be sent out, and we can be comforters. Ten eleven, here it is, we'll close off with this. Go into communion.
Well, he delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us. Amen. Amen. By the resurrection of Christ, we know that the future is certain and there's no doubt about it. For every martyr that has lost their earthly life, they have a heavenly life that goes on for eternity.
You also, Paul says to the Corinthians, must help us by prayer. Just be praying for us that the opportunities that God has for us, we will meet those. So that many will give thanks on our behalf that we carry the good word to him, right? There'll be many that will be thanking God because we deliver the gospel message. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
All those churches that he had planted. There are lots of people that were praying. I hope a lot of y'all be praying for Carter and for the ministry that he mentioned this morning. Hope that a lot of y'all be praying for the schools in the valley, all of them. For God to do what God does which is comfort, and this is the place where we celebrate the comfort of the actual body that Jesus walked it out and lived a perfect life.
In the flesh, he lived it out. Where Adam had failed, he succeeded. Bam, y'all come back on back on up. Where Adam failed, Christ succeeded and he made the way possible that anybody who puts their faith in him and receives his perfect record, he'll give it to him. He took the death that you owed.
This is another one from Paul. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away and our inner self, it's being renewed day by day. And this is what he calls that list from second Corinthians 11. Shipwreck, snake bit, all the stuff that he went through, you know, for this light and momentary affliction.
This light and momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison. And 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 and passing away but the things that are unseen are eternal and go on forever. Ushers, I'll have the elders come forward and I'll just pray as y'all come forward. God, I pray a blessing on this time of communion.
That you would bless each one who partakes this morning. It is an open table for anyone who places their faith in Christ. Whether that happened eighty five years ago or whether it happened this minute. Lord, it's an open table for anyone who is placing their trust in you. This is the table.
This representation of your body, this little cracker that we're gonna spread out, this little piece of bread. Lord, I pray that it would bless everyone who partakes and if there's anyone here who just can't partake for whatever reason, I pray a blessing on them that you will bring them out of their current suffering situation whether that just be lostness, darkness, difficulty, unforgiveness, whatever it is. I pray that you bring them through to a place where they'd be able to partake. In Jesus name, amen. In comforting his disciples on the night, the very night he was betrayed, he sat him around table after supper.
He broke bread after giving thanks and said to them, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat of it. Do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Lord God almighty, we remember Christ. We remember the life that was so brilliantly brought forth in our gospels that we read.
It was so brilliantly brought forth in that stable in Bethlehem. It was so brilliantly brought forth every day upon waking by Jesus. Thank you for the life that you lived out in the flesh perfectly, for the perfect record offered. But Lord, thank you for the sacrificial death, the shedding of innocent blood. We ask your blessing on this cup, a little plastic cup of grape juice that we're distributing.
Lord, I pray that you'd bless everyone who would partake, that we would feel the depth of comfort provided by the sacrifice that Jesus made. It's in Jesus name that we pray and gather. Amen. In the same way that he'd taken the bread, he also took the cup, a common cup for them, these little individuals for us, but it's representative of what he said to them. He said, this is the new covenant in my blood.
This is the new covenant in my blood. Take of it and drink. Do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Thank you, Lord. Paul says that as often as we do this, we proclaim Christ's death until he comes again and you think, I I hear that and I go, why would it why would it be proclaiming the death?
Because the death breaks the power of canceled sin. It gives comfort. That's what it does. Would you stand with us? We're gonna sing one more song.
Just going to sing a chorus of what we believe. Believe. Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age. And according to the will of God, our father, our God and father to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Amen. She hovers in the back. Yeah. Oh my goodness. She graduated from two high schools.
How do you do that? Yeah. Yeah. Don't know how. Thank you all so much.
Oh, that's so sweet. So sweet. Pascal was just overwhelmed. Yeah. Overwhelmed.
Yeah. Emotional. Unbelievably emotional. I know. Totally.
Totally. Could we start time going backwards now? Yeah. It would be fun for a little while. Yeah.
It's really rude. That's right. It it is. It is. So we've got a couple of trips.
Well, we've got one more trip in the middle well, it's a couple weeks from now. We're going to the beach with my whole family. That's the family she's gonna be living close to. And they go every year to Florida, similar place if not the same place, and they've been doing it since I was a little kid. My grandmother, my youngest cousin, everybody goes.
And when we when I went to the Mission Field, I haven't been back, It's been twenty five years. Twenty five years. Everybody else goes every year. Pascal and Tanya went last year. They they phoned me and said, block the calendar from weddings.
Block it off. I said, I already have one, like, right there just before. But anyway, that was a we did make it work. So I bought my tickets yesterday, and I'll be with them. And then the next month, we're taking it down.
