Comfort Of God

Comfort of God

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Introduction

Prayer-

Good morning, we have been looking at how we can encounter God’s presence.

We have looked at the worship side and those times we enter into God’s presence by praise and worship.

We looked last week at encountering God by prayer and realizing that even though we do not always see God working He is working.

Cornelius, Acts chapter 10 praying and seeking God and Apostle Paul praying and understanding that God was opening up salvation to all not just the Jews and he had to put proud aside and God used both men to accomplish this task.

This morning looking to scripture to show us what God desires for the seeking heart and the servant of God.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Apostle Paul records his prayer for comfort for the people of Corinth who are spreading the gospel and are discouraged his desire is to see them accomplish God’s will in their live as well as continue reaching others for Christ.

Paul’s plan… was to come to them both on his way to Macedonia and on his way back, but his plans were changed by circumstances.

Anyone have plans changed by circumstances?

Ever have things happen that were out of your control?

He brings them instructions and offers them encouragement knowing full well they live in fallen world and there will be times we go through tough times.

As a mentor and leader he wanted to take it away from them but knew that they would have to go through these things but was praying for God to not only intervene but help them through.

The Corinthian church could not understand why he didn’t return- why he didn’t do what he had intended or what they had planned.

1:23-“I call God as my witness- and I stake my life on it- that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.”

He tells the Corinthian church that they must keep a tender heart and not lose track of why they do what they do and lose sight of the gospel.

You must learn to forgive those who harm you, those who wreck plans and circumstances and you must happily preach the word of God.

He is not taking at a church board meeting, he is talking to the whole church of God.

To bring the saving word of God to those he came in contact with knowing full well that it brings some victories and some heartaches and grief.

(15) “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life.”

As we look to the text this morning,

it is my prayer that for those that feel right now that they are being crushed by circumstances and events that are out of their control, they sense instead His encouragement and His comfort.

2 Corinthians 4:1-18 Read from Bible

This is Paul speaking to the church of God admitting we have weakness in ourselves but strength in Christ.

It is Paul saying to the church that though we are pressured we are not to cave in to the world and its ways but let the light of Christ shine in the darkness to make a difference.

This verse is hope for those of us that are getting older and the bones and muscles do not operate as well as they use too. For those of us that not only need a soul lift but maybe a face lift or a tummy tuck.

“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

They say you know that you are getting older when…

You and your teeth don’t sleep together.

You try to straighten out the wrinkles in your socks and discover you are not wearing any.

It takes twice as long to look half as good.

Outwardly these old bodies are fading, but Paul tells us that God continually wants to renew us from inside out.

Society today spends a lot of time and a lot of money preserving the outside but spends very little time renewing the inside. Repeat.

Quick tans

Procedures to make you look younger, bigger, smaller, taller.

Don’t like a part of the body you were born with… that the good Lord gave you. We can change it.

Some celebrities preserve so well, I cannot believe their age. Then there are others… their skin is so tight they look like they have been put in a vice. If Phyllis Diller is the look they were going for, they accomplished it.

Some of you will have to Google Phyllis Diller to see what I mean.