The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
2 Corinthians 1:1-11primary text for the sermon on comfort in 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 grace and peace greeting to a church with no pervasive 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 including stripes, imprisonments, shipwrecks, and concern for the churches
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.
do not lose heart, light and momentary affliction preparing an eternal weight of glory, things seen are transient
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, drawn from 2 Corinthians 1:1-11, was about the comfort God gives His people in suffering and why He gives it: so that those who have received it can carry it to others. Pastor Ray preached it on a particularly heavy Sunday, with two suicide funerals happening that same week, and the weight of that was present throughout.
What was said
Paul opens his letter with "grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," and Pastor Ray spent real time on that greeting before moving anywhere else. The same phrase appears at the front of letter after letter in the New Testament, to churches Paul knew well and to people he had never met, to those being rebuked and to those being encouraged. It is not filler. It is Paul's handshake, his starting posture, and the argument is that if his ministry went the way it did, starting from grace and peace is worth paying attention to.
From the salutation Paul moves immediately into praise, calling God "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." That is where the sermon's central question comes in: have you ever had your feelings hurt, or gone further and felt truly afflicted, or further still, felt that the affliction might actually kill you? Pastor Ray named the spectrum plainly, acknowledged that most people have lived somewhere on it, and said the text is for exactly that.
The phrase "so that" in verse 4 is the hinge. God comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort others in theirs. Pastor Ray pointed out that in Greek this construction, when God is the one acting, carries both purpose and guaranteed result. The comfort is not just something we are supposed to pass along; God has resourced us with the actual power to do it. The word behind "be able" is the same root as dynamite.
Paul's own suffering is not abstract. Pastor Ray read through the list from 2 Corinthians 11: beatings, imprisonments, shipwreck, a night adrift in open water, robbers, hunger, cold, and beyond all of it, daily anxiety for the churches. The point is that Paul and Timothy are not offering comfort from a comfortable place. They have been in the pit.
The sermon directly addressed the common saying that God will not put more on you than you can handle, and set it against the plain text of verse 8: "we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself." That is more than they could handle. The reason God allowed it, Paul says, was "to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." Pastor Ray came back to that line more than once, pairing it with something a friend once said to him in a very dark moment: "It's good from the backside of this. It ain't good right now, but I've been where you are and I know."
The sermon closed at verses 10 and 11, where Paul moves from God's past deliverance to his certain future deliverance, and then turns to ask the Corinthians to help by praying. Pastor Ray made the same ask of the congregation, specifically for the funerals that week, where a crowd unlike any that had gathered before would be together in one room, and where he believed prayer could open doors that tragedy had made.
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Pastor Ray opened with a spectrum of pain, from hurt feelings to affliction to feeling like suffering might actually kill you. Where have you found yourself on that spectrum, and what was it like to be there?
Paul begins nearly every letter with 'grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.' Pastor Ray called this Paul's handshake, not a throwaway line. What difference does it make to approach people, especially people who are hurting, leading with grace and peace rather than with expectations or judgment?
I think you also are you guys are you going through anything? Are you good? I don't think so, but I'm I'm better than. Should I just play a little introduction? Yeah.
Are you guys okay? Yeah. Yeah. I'll just play a little something for two minutes.
Where are sitting there? What are we starting with?
In my heart, the rings, and that would be 502.
Good morning, everybody. How are you? You doing alright? Good. Well, we have a then here they are.
We have a special treat this morning. We're gonna sing we're gonna attempt four part harmony. We would love for you to join us. If you would like to grab a hymnal so you can see your notes rather than just singing off the wall, you're welcome to do that. Grab a part, sing along.
We're gonna try to all reach that little omni mic right there. But would you stand with us? Welcome. Glad you're here. We've already had a good time this morning one time.
We're going have another one right now. Not bad. That's fun. We were thrown together, pick up choir here and the congregation. Since Jesus came into my heart, hymn number five zero three.
Y'all can have a seat. Y'all can just hang right there. I'll hurry the announcements. FBC Church Campout. This is the first Baptist Church Campout.
We've been doing it for years up in Grand Teton but this year, it's gonna be down around Palisades Lake. We've done it once a year. Now, we're doing it twice a year, twice a summer. July 19 through the twenty first and then August 23 through the twenty fifth around Palisades Lake, there won't be any additional traffic for any reason. Brian McCooey and Mike Demetrius have more details.
If you want to know more about it, they will get you signed up and let you know what how that works. First BBQs, this started last year and it is fun. So first BBQ is out on the green space out here between here in the parking lot. We'll have several grills set up and there will be meat and fire and fellowship, food, games. It happens between services.
So if you still want to come to this service for this style of music, then plan on coming early and eating and then coming on in. Amazingly, it it didn't cause any interruption last year to have that party going on outside when we started here at eleven, but it'll be at 10:00 between services trying to keep the church one church that meets at two times instead of two churches. So June 23, July 14, August 18, and September 15 between services. Sound booth volunteers are needed. That is just as common as nursery volunteers are needed.
It's a perpetual thing. Sound booth volunteers. We've got a great guy up in the booth right now, and he and Nick would be willing and available to help you learn how to do that if you feel led to do that. So you can get in touch with that. I'm gonna invite Amy Jordan up here.
Amy Jordan and Philip Jordan, her husband are our team of children's ministry directors, and she has an announcement about VBS.
So VBS is in two weeks. It's kind of wild to think about for me. So tomorrow, we have special time from eleven to three in the fellowship hall. You can bring your families, your kids to help. We're making costumes for all our kids because we're taking a step back into the hometown of Nazareth where Jesus was a kid.
So we'll be just cutting fabric, no sewing involved, and gluing and crafting. So if you wanna come anytime tomorrow to help for that, that would be a huge help. Eleven to three lunches provided. And then also, we are looking for people to sign up to volunteer during that time. It's the '20 June 24 through the twenty seventh.
It's nine to 11:30. Yep. I was trying to think of the time. Thank you. And then also kids, we are still registering kids.
We're registering them up to the day of VBS. So those are just a couple of things about it. We are super excited and thank y'all.
Appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate it. And I was telling them this morning that one of my earliest memories, some of my earliest memories are vacation Bible school, but not just vacation Bible school. It's the time preparing for vacation Bible school ahead of time and that's happening eleven to three tomorrow if you wanna be a part of that.
Come on in. And is there anything else? Yes. Sisters Saved by Grace is the study that meets on Thursday evenings. They've been meeting for quite some time at the fellowship hall but that is a picture of Mike Yockel Park and that's where they're going be meeting 6PM this coming Thursday.
Bring your own food with you this time and they'll be studying Psalms together. Sisters Saved by Grace, Thursday, 6PM at Mike Kochel. It's straight up Kelly until you see green. Okay? Yeah.
Is there anything else? I think that's it. Anybody have one that I've forgotten? There was one more additional one this morning but I don't think so. Would you stand?
And we're going to sing, there is a savior. And on the same page, we're gonna just step down to hymn number five thirty four and we'll sing it three times, twice in one gear and once in another Thank you. Thank you. Y'all can have a seat. The worship through giving time.
It's our operatory time. I'm going invite invite the ushers to come forward and would you pray with us? God, thank you. Thank you for the beauty that surrounds us day after day. Thank you for the comfort and the peace that is offered in Christ.
Thank you lord that we get to be carriers of this comfort and this peace. Lord, as I think about this community at this time of year, you are drawing people to us. You're drawing people to yourself but you're also drawing people to us, lord. The locals who live here that know you. We've got a tremendous responsibility to carry your word to everybody that comes through here.
Lord, would you, would you have your will done in your way by your people? I'm so thankful for the churches in this valley and for the believers in this valley that are willing to place in the plate as an offering their time and their the meditations of their heart and their conversations and their care for individuals. Lord, would you help us to be good stewards of all of the gifts that you have given? Would you help us to serve well and may we be doing your will and your way. God, would you bless this offering to do the kingdom's work?
Amen. Thank you. You. Amen. Amen.
Thank you. That song has been pursuing me all week and then it came up a day or so ago that this was when we might ought to sing together. I'm thankful. Poor way, fair, and stranger. I said, when I said this this morning, I sounded so much like a preacher, it scared me.
Like, I don't usually start like this but it's like, have you ever had your feelings hurt? That sounds so preacherly. Have you ever had your feelings hurt? Well, I've met I imagine so. Now, beyond just getting your feelings hurt or feathers ruffled or feelings hurt from something that's valid, not somebody hurt my feelings and I'm being tooky about it.
Have you ever felt afflicted? Like, I'm talking afflicted like Luther, Martin Luther would call it something that was down to the core of his being or some others have called it the dark night of the soul. Blaise Pascal called it dark night of the soul where you feel that there is a pressure that is on you that is deeper than you can comprehend and it feels afflicted. Have you ever felt like that particular affliction would actually kill you? It's not easy to admit that and it's a difficult time right now.
I'll say, this week, we have two suicide funerals that are happening this week, Tuesday and Saturday and the affliction can get the best of you. Feelings hurt sounds like a light trivial thing. Afflicted is further than that but have you ever felt like that affliction might actually kill you? Not that you took your life but that you might die from the pain, the suffering And then the last one is, have you ever experienced that kind of suffering? So, I think that if if we are honest, most of us have had somewhere on that spectrum of pain.
If you haven't had the next to the last one yet, I pray that that you would be surrounded by people who have already been through it. As I have been. So, why? Why is it that this seems to happen? So, I'm I'm going to go this morning to second Corinthians one verses one through 11 and I want to talk about comfort in the place of suffering and deliverance from suffering.
So, there's comfort in and deliverance from and that's what Paul is talking about here. Comfort in and deliverance from suffering and I want for us as a church, as a body of Christ in this valley, in this world. I want for us as believers to take the comfort that we've been given by God and be able to extend that to other people. That's what the whole sermon really is about. That's what the whole text really is about.
Salutation first. Now, this is the first part of the first chapter of second Corinthians and Paul starts off like this. Paul, an apostle of Christ, one who is sent out by Christ Jesus. By the will of God. Now, if we think about Paul's will, what what was Paul's will before the Damascus Road?
His he was persecuting Christians. He was going after what he considered to be infidels but by the will of God, all of his training, all of his study, all of his zeal, God had a purpose for it and he changed him and he sent him out, apostle of Christ Jesus. Meaning, he was sent out by Christ by the will of God and the other guy who's writing this letter with him is Timothy, our brother. It's to the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of the surrounding area of Achaia. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ and that sounds like a salutation.
This is dear so and so, right? It's just the opening part you might think but I want you to pay attention to what it says. Grace and peace from God our father. Second Corinthians one two, have we heard this before? Now, I've preached to the whole New Testament since I've been here.
Have we heard this before? We have heard this before. Hey, they had heard it before. Corinthians had heard it before. First Corinthians one three.
Now, second Corinthians is probably at least the fourth letter he sent them. It's at least the third, but probably the fourth letter he sent him, and he starts the first one like this, he starts the second one like this, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it a throwaway line? It is not. Grace and peace is important.
Have we heard it before? We heard it in Galatians. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We heard it in Ephesians. Grace to you and peace one three.
We heard it in Philippians. Grace to you and peace. We heard it in Colossians to the saints and the faithful. He's writing to believers. That says something too.
Now, oftentimes, we think of the grace of God as just being good for salvation but that unmerited favor that he's extending is for those who do not know him to come to know him, to come in. That he's offering unmerited favor if we will accept it. That is true but this is to Christians. We need grace every day. We need to know that we are living in the grace of God and his wish for all these different groups is that they would know and experience and live in the grace of God and the peace of God from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ in Thessalonians.
There's no sin mentioned in Thessalonians or not any pervasive sin mentioned in Thessalonians. It says to the church of the Thessalonians in God the father, Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. In second Thessalonians, grace to you and peace. It's a refrain. In Romans, he's never even met these people.
It's not a church he knows anybody. I mean, knows a few people probably but he's never been there. He's writing them a letter. This magnus opus that he's written. All the theology and all the practice, he starts with grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved of God in Rome.
To all of the places that he sent epistles, he started with grace and peace. And if you say, Paul wrote Hebrews, he doesn't start with grace and peace in Hebrews. I won't arm wrestle you over who wrote it, but it doesn't start with grace and peace. Maybe there's one exception to the Pauline epistles. He also uses it in all of his letters to individuals.
I'm lingering over this for a minute because I think it's very important for us to know how important God's grace and his peace is. He has experienced it and he is extending it to other people. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's to Philemon. Philemon, the slave owner, right?
The one who Onesimus ran away from and now Paul sending the letter back with Onesimus and he starts with grace and peace. He wants for that brother to let that other brother go, I think. But he starts with grace and peace. You know, Galatians was a pretty strong rebuke. He started it with Galatian with grace and peace.
Timothy, grace and peace. Timothy's in ministry. He adds mercy. That's fun to me. To Timothy, a true son in the faith.
Grace, mercy, and peace. Grace is when you get something good you don't deserve, unmerited favor. Mercy is when you don't get something bad you do deserve and peace. God's gift of wholeness. From God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ, he said it in first Timothy, said it in second Timothy, grace, mercy, and peace.
Still, there's mercy there and then in Titus also in ministry, true son in our common faith, grace, mercy, and peace. He means it and he means it. This is his handshake. Yes, it's the way he starts off but that doesn't mean it's devoid of meaning. It is his handshake.
So, my freebie number one before you even get to the part about suffering, it really is underlying everything is always start off with grace and peace. Paul did and I think that his ministry, we can say, he did a did a pretty good job, you know? If we go into an argument and we have our arms crossed and we think, well, prove to me that you are worthy of my interaction. That's not grace. That would be looking for merit.
You deserve it. Grace is God's unmerited favor available in Christ and God's shalom or peace. Carl, whenever he's speaking and he hits peace in the New Testament, you're in a whenever he hits peace, he always says that shalom which is God's gift of wholeness. It's not just the absence of war but it is God's gift of wholeness, harmonious living, grace, and peace is what? He starts off.
That's the end of the salutation and he goes immediately into a doxology. A doxology is a study of praise. It's a study of the praise of God and so it's automatic form. Once he said howdy, he then goes into blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies.
His mercies are new every morning and when I read those first four questions at the beginning, I know some of your stories. I don't know all of your stories, right? But I know that some of you are going through and walking through deep mud and you've lost people in your life and you've lost relationships and there's a lot of hurt stuff and Paul had a lot of that kind of stuff going in his life too and how does he lead off? Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He's the author of it.
He's the God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our affliction. But why? So it's an odd thing for a lot of people thinking these days. It it's hard to express the problem of evil to someone that does not know God. Because it looks like comforting someone in their affliction.
Why do they have to be afflicted anyway? Can't they just be on cloud nine all the time? Wouldn't it be better if if it was just easier, if we didn't have all that evil, if we didn't have the sickness, if we didn't have hard stuff? This Paul is saying, he comforts us in all of our afflictions so that and I love a good so that. So, I'm a pastor.
I'm a preacher now, you know, so so that. The Bible tells us over and over and over again why God does what he does. This particular construction in Greek is called a henna clause. Henna is the preposition and it leads off this henna clause starts off what is a purpose clause. Now, in in human interactions, if I was saying, I did that so that such and such, it's a purpose.
That's the reason I did it. But I fell short, I missed the mark, and the result was different than that. Henna can lead a result clause too, a purpose or a result but when God almighty is the one that's doing the action, the so that comes up with the result that he wants. Now, we do have human responsibility. We can push back on that.
We can resist it. We do so at our peril, but he has a purpose clause all over the New Testament. This, just for illustration, this is 10 font and this is all the so that's. I've done this one other time a few years ago. It's a different different sermon.
But look at all those so that's. He tells us why he does what he does. This list is fascinating. He does this and he says right here, so that so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. I'm going pass this off to my front row helpers.
Thank you very much. So that we may be able to help comfort those who are in any affliction. He helps us in all of our affliction. Do you know what it's like for God to rescue you? You know what it's like for God to get you out of a jam?
Do you know what he's like for you to him to remove you from the kingdom of darkness and place you into the kingdom of marvelous light. If you know that, then you are able. You are a carrier that is able to comfort others who are in any affliction. There's nothing outside of the comfort of God. He knows suffering.
We sang in the first service. Jesus is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Now, we comfort them with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God. We say often of the gospel that it's like one beggar telling another beggar where bread can be found. The bread that I found, I'm passing along to you, right?
The comfort that I've found, I'm passing along to you. You've heard, I hear it all the time. Hurt people hurt people. It's just kind of a saying we say that, oh, yeah. Well, she was ugly to you.
I'm sorry. Hurt people hurt people. Trauma produces more trauma if it's not dealt with, it's not resolved, if it's not comforted. Comfort I like better. Comforted people, comfort people.
People who have received the comfort from God have the capacity, have the resources, and can walk through it together. So that and the construction here, so that we ourselves middle. So that we ourselves may be able to comfort. So it's not just we want to, we ought to do that, But the maybe able there is dunamite. And dunamite, what does it sound like?
Dunamite. Yeah. That's a little thing that is able to move mountains. It's a little thing that's able to move tremendous obstacles. Dunamai is to actually have the power so that we may actually have the power there.
It's subjective. So, there is a bit of contingency there. We do have to align our will with God's will to carry it through to someone else but he's given us the comfort so that we might comfort others. To comfort those who are in any affliction, In this church, we have a large percentage of people who have lost family members and kids and it's something that we know the pain of that and I'm convinced that the reason that y'all are as warm as you are is because you've been through deep, dark stuff. And God brought you through it and he got you up from there.
I told a story in the first service too that hadn't planned on but it's it's of a fellow who's walking along and he falls into a pit and it's a pretty deep pit he can't get out of the pit. He's tried and tried and tried and tried and then pastor walks by and he looks down there and says, woah, look at there. You're in a pit. He says, I am. I've been down here forever.
I'm exhausted. I don't know how I'm going ever get out of this. He goes, well, I'll pray for you. Bye. Keeps on walking.
Another guy comes along and says, whoo, you're in a tight spot down there. Gosh, it really stinks to be you right now. I'm glad I'm not you and he keeps on walking. And then there's another fellow who comes up and he looks down in that pit and he just jumps down in there with him. And he goes, no, I got two people in the pit.
How's that helping? He goes, I've been in this pit before and I know the way out. Comfort those who are in any affliction because God has put us through it. God, would you help us to connect with people that will help us in the times. May they be like Christ.
Somebody with skin on em, led by your spirit, humble when we need that. In Jesus name, be with us Tuesday and Saturday this week. Every soul that enters, lord, I pray would be comforted. And would leave changed. Amen.
Grace for the day. Who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. It is a resource that once you have been given it, it is yours to give out. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, this is Paul and Timothy. Had Timothy had Paul and Timothy shared in Christ's sufferings?
Well, I'm going to read a list for you. This from the same book. It's 10 chapters ahead of this but Paul's list in chapter 11 of second Corinthians. I think it's funny. Forgive me.
I think it's funny. I think he's doing it for comedic effect honestly. He says multiple times ahead of time. He says, I'm talking like a madman here. I'm talking like a crazy person.
I'm getting into the mix with you all. You're pointing out these super apostles that say this, but listen, I have been in labors more abundant. I've been in stripes above measure. You Do remember stripes from a switch? Stripes above measure.
In prisons frequently, in deaths often. He had been around a lot of death. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one because 40 would be too many against the law. 39 times five is a lot. Three times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned, you know the goal of stoning is death. You don't just stone somebody to maim, but he made it through it. Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I've been in the deep, not just shipwrecked but awash in the water, treading water, looking for flotsam to hold on to. In journeys often, that one kind of cracks me up too because road trips can be that way. It just says in journeys often.
In perils of waters floods, in perils of robbers. Can you imagine taking a missionary gift from a church and heading back to somewhere and then robbers? In perils of my own countrymen, the Jews on one side, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, friendly fire. In weariness and in toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and in thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, not to mention snake bit. That's up above.
Besides all these other things, what comes upon me daily is my deep concern for all the churches and that's the part that gets me every time. It's like all of that other list and what's concerning him the most is how the church is doing. He has been through it and I didn't go into Timothy but Timothy was circumcised as an adult by Paul. That's plenty of suffering right there. He did so.
He could minister. He didn't have to. He didn't have to and they argued that he didn't have to but he still did because he was willing to go through whatever suffering he had to for the cause of Christ. For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted and they were, we see it and we're in fact, we're going see it in verse seven, eight, and nine here.
Why were we afflicted? If we are afflicted, we're afflicted, it's for your comfort. Now, the you're there is for the Corinthians. He's writing a letter to them. If there's been anything that's been hard in my pathway, it is for your benefit.
It's for comfort and not just comfort, it's for salvation because who would put up with all of this? For somebody that wasn't real. It is for your salvation. I'm carrying the news of the gospel and that does require some suffering. Anybody who undertakes any work for God is likely to encounter opposition.
Internal, external, just like Paul is saying. If we are afflicted, it's for your comfort, it's for your salvation. If we're comforted, it's also for your comfort which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Second Corinthians is a letter after the severe letter. It's a letter to encourage and to comfort and say, this is a part of it but this is how the gospel moves forward.
We're here in the hole with you and we're letting you know that because we know the way through it and out of it which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. So is this redemptive suffering? Jesus ultimately is the redeemer, but the message is carried forward and the suffering that say missionary martyrs go through advances the gospel. It's redemptive suffering. The prayer that you as moms and dads pray for your kids is it is suffering but it is with the goal of redemption in mind, with the purpose of God in mind.
So, yes, I think it is. Our hope for you, and again, hope in the New Testament whenever you see it, hope is an absolute certainty that has not yet come to pass. Our hope for you is unshaken. We know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort and we feel it. When I say that I had a hard time, had a hard hard time.
I did. And I had a buddy who was sitting at the end of my bed, put his hand on my my leg right here and just said, listen Ray, it's good from the backside of this. It ain't good right now. But I've been where you are and it's good from the backside of this and that was the best thing that he could have said to me because I couldn't see it from where I was. I was despairing but he could see it.
It's good from the backside. You will also share in this comfort and we have. This is the part that I read about three or four months ago that I don't think I had read it this way before. You know the saying that, God won't put anything more on you more than you can handle. This is the absolute contrast to that.
For we do not want for y'all to be ignorant brothers. We don't want for y'all to be unaware. Brothers and sisters of the affliction that we experienced in Asia. It's funny. He mentions that and we go to the book of Acts and we see how they were hindered by the Holy Spirit from going into Asia and you could see the northern trajectory and it looks like we're going to go over here and they don't.
They weren't able and then they want to go over here. Now, they're carrying the burning gospel in their hearts, in their lives. They have the scriptures, they have Jesus' mandate and they're going and they want to go into places and they're hindered. It says, in Acts by the Holy Spirit and then here in second Corinthians, it says, we don't want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction that we experienced in Asia. This affliction was so bad Yeah, there's my question again.
Have you ever felt afflicted? It was so bad. It says, for we were so utterly burdened and it was beyond our strength. That is more than you can bear. It was so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
I'm gonna skip forward three chapters here to second Corinthians four. This is Paul's outlook and he's he's building to it. This is just first chapter we're studying on the black slides, but this one he says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay, earthly vessels. We are walking around and showing that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are weak like earthen vessels.
We are afflicted in every way, but we're not crushed. Praise God. We are perplexed. How many of y'all are perplexed? Confused.
Don't know. How could this be in the plan of God? How could this be? Perplexed but we're not driven to despair. I do trust that he does have a plan.
Persecuted but not forsaken. We're struck down but we're not destroyed. We're always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. We're crucified with Christ. When we meet and greet, I mean, meet for the Lord's table.
Paul says, every time we do this, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. We are carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus also might be manifested in our mortal flesh. Victory. So, death is at work in us but it is offering life in you.
Indeed, Paul says, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. So, there's my question. Have you ever felt like that affliction would actually kill you? Feels like a death sentence, what you're walking through. But why?
He gets to the why and I like that as much as I saw that. He tells us why. All of that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. All of that stuff was worth it because it teaches us absolute reliance on God and once you have that message, we can grow in it. We can all grow in it but once you have that message and you're just a step ahead of your neighbor who's going through it, you have the capacity to lead them in the way that brings comfort.
That was all to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. It's good from the backside of this. It is hard. We mourning with you but God is still good and he is bringing you along. So, the wise answer would to make us rely not on ourselves but on God.
That's what we need. Verses ten and eleven and we'll we'll come to a time of communion. 10 is, he delivered us from such a deadly peril and listen to this statement. Should have a capital h right there but and he will deliver us. God will deliver us.
That is absolute faith that Paul has. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and I don't think he just means him and Timothy. I think he's saying for everyone who has put their faith in him, he's delivered us from the kingdom of darkness. He's placed us into kingdom of marvelous light and he will delivers us. Our hope is sure and secure.
On him, we have set our absolute certainty that he will deliver us again. I know my redeemer lives. Now, he turns it around on his the recipients of the letter too and I'm turning it around on you. Now, you, you all, all of y'all also must help us. Help us by prayer so that many will give thanks.
I mentioned at the beginning, the funerals this week and it's going to be a different crowd than has ever been in here. It'll be a different crowd that has ever been gathered around. This will be the only time that that crowd is gathered and I'm praying that y'all would be praying that God would bring many to know who he is through the most tragic circumstances that we can imagine. You also must help us by prayer so that there's another one. Many will give thanks on our behalf on that day for the blessing that was granted us through the prayers prayers of many.
Thank you for thank you for your prayers, for the staff. Thank you for the your prayers for the folks who really lean into bereavement ministry. I'm gonna go again back to chapter four here for a second and then so we do not lose heart. Y'all can be praying for that. The emotional high of Paschal's graduation this week and the depth of the difficulty that these people are facing are so extreme that my emotions are just raw, absolutely raw.
But we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this, I love how Paul calls it this, especially in light of that list in chapter 11. Right? For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look to the things that not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.
The circumstances seem so dire when you're staring at them but when you look beyond them to your hope in Christ, it's good from the backside of it. For the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal. I'm gonna invite ushers to come forward and would you pray with me? God, I thank you. Thank you so much for for this perfect life that Jesus lived.
Tempted in every way just as we're tempted and yet without sin. Lord almighty, tempted in every way just as we're tempted yet without sin and he has a perfect record and rather than just using that perfect record to just be with you for the rest of eternity and letting us all go. His purpose was to trade that perfect record for our imperfect ones. For anyone who would trust him with their sin, Lord God almighty, he's taken it away. As we come to the table right now and we celebrate the life that was perfectly lived in the flesh, we celebrate his body and we celebrate the shedding of his innocent blood on behalf, a ransom for many.
In Jesus name, I pray that you'd bless this little representation of Christ's body. It's a little cracker. Little piece of bread that is representative of the body of Christ. I pray that you'd bless everyone who partakes. It is an open table.
If you have trusted in Christ regardless of denominational affiliation, you're welcome to this open table. Lord God, if anyone has trusted and partakes, I pray a blessing on them, but if there's anybody here who who has never trusted in you before and still knows that they have not and they have to let this pass. I pray, Lord, that in allowing it to pass, you would direct them to someone in their sphere that they trust that has received your comfort. God, I ask your blessing on this time of communion. Amen.
The cause. And when time has surrendered and earth is no more, I'll still cling to that old rugged cross.
I believe believe that the Christ who was slain on that cross has the power to change lives today. For he changed changed me completely. A new life is mine. That is why by the cross I will stay. I believe in a hill called Mount Calvary.
I'll believe whatever the gods. And when time has surrendered
Thank you, the night before, the night that he was betrayed. Lord, thank you. The night that he was betrayed, he took bread after supper, and after he'd given thanks, he broke it and he said to his disciples who are there, his voice rings to us today, this is my body which is given for you, take this, need of it, and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. For that perfect life and perfect record, walked out in submission to the spirit by the will of God, We're thankful. Before the ultimate act of sacrifice that was the only true sacrifice.
Everything else pointed to that and every one else must look back to that. Lord God Almighty, thank you, Jesus, for the voluntary, sacrificial, atoning, shedding of your blood, innocent blood, the perfect on behalf of the imperfect. Lord God almighty, bless this little representation, this grape juice in a plastic cup as we distribute it lord. I pray that you would as we take it in that we would have a more profound sense of the comfort of God available in Christ than we've ever had before. In Jesus blood and in Jesus name, amen.
A lamb of God.
Thank you, Jesus For your precious blood. He said after the bread, he said, with their common cup for them and this little cup for us, he says, this is the new covenant in my blood. That old covenant was very difficult, it was all on them. This is the new covenant in my blood, forecast by Jeremiah, forecast by Joel. They've been looking forward to it for all these years and he sits there in the flesh and says, this is the new covenant in my blood.
Take it in. Drink of it as often as you will and do it in remembrance of me. Lord God, thank you. Thank you. Would you stand?
Do you have a, do we have a closing? Yeah. We do. We're going to sing a closing. Where he leads me.
Perfect. He has walked this path and he is leading Amen. And now, may grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen and amen. Amen.
I
I do have a quick announcement. Before you part, can I can I just say something really, really quick? Many of you know our sweet, sweet Roseanne Welsh. And as a she has now new development. She will be moving away.
So, I trust that we will
we
will be back, but life circumstances, she's going to be
yes. Yeah. It's important to say good goodbyes. So it's important to say good goodbyes. So start saying some of those good goodbyes.
Yes. And another one, unfortunately, is Julia and that's why we have
