Overflowing With Joy Series

Donn Moomaw, a football player who became a pastor, was preaching at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. After the service, a lady came up to him and said, “Oh, Reverend Moomaw, I just have to tell you that every sermon you preach is better than your next.”

He thanked her, but when he got home, he had to think that over. “Every sermon you preach is better than your next?” He felt a little deflated, since the statement implied that his sermons were getting worse! (Earl Palmer, “A Durable Hope,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 47; www.Preaching Today.com).

Sometimes, when people try to encourage you, it has the opposite effect.

So, how can you truly encourage the people who minister to you? How can you be a real blessing to those who have blessed you? How can you bring them genuine joy without unintentionally grieving them? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians 7, 2 Corinthians 7, where the Apostle Paul describes how the Corinthian believers caused him to “overflow with joy.”

2 Corinthians 7:2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one (ESV).

The false teachers had accused Paul of doing all these things, trying to turn the hearts of the Corinthians against Paul. But Paul denies their accusations, urging the Corinthians to turn their hearts towards him again.

2 Corinthians 7:3-4 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy (ESV).

Despite the accusations coming from false teachers, despite the hardships of ministry, the Corinthian believers comforted him. Literally, they came along side and helped him. They encouraged him, with the result that he was “overflowing with joy.”

Robert Hicks talks about the time when he was a pastor in Hawaii. His little congregation was near Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station, so he always had a large supply of muscular recruits.

“The young, mostly single marines had great hearts but not much tact,” he said. “When out of uniform and away from their sergeant, they just stood around waiting for someone to tell them what to do next.”

Pastor Hicks says, “At one of our Sunday school complaint sessions, several women teachers described their discipline problems with young boys. They couldn't control them for the hour-long Bible lesson. They had tried everything and were ready to quit.”

Pastor Hicks had a flash of insight. He grabbed a couple of marines and told them to go into those rooms the next Sunday, pile a couple of boys under each arm, “rough them up, and sit on them.”

To the women, that strategy bordered on child abuse, but the boys viewed it as affection! Their discipline problems were solved in one Sunday. In one Sunday, Pastor Hicks said, “I came to realize every pastor needs a ‘few good men!’ (Robert Hicks, quoted in Men of Integrity, July/August 2000; www.PreachingToday.com).

God’s servants, whether in pastoral ministry or any other ministry, can get very discouraged. Ministry gets hard. They sometimes see little progress, and people unfairly criticize them. In those times, however, all they need is “a few good men” or women to come along side and help them.

I urge you, be that kind of man or woman. Come along side and help those who help you. Encourage the people who minister to you and bring them joy.

REFRESH THOSE WHO SERVE YOU.

So, how do you do that? Well, let’s read on and see how the Corinthian believers encouraged Paul.

2 Corinthians 7:5-7 For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more (ESV).

Remember the circumstances surrounding these comments. Someone in the church at Corinth was causing a lot of trouble. So Paul made a quick, “painful visit” (2 Corinthians 2:1) to deal with the troublemaker. He followed that up by sending Titus to them with a letter he wrote “out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:4).

Then, Paul anxiously awaited Titus’ return and found no rest until he met Titus in Macedonia (north of Corinth). There, Titus told Paul how the Corinthians had responded to his letter, by mourning their actions and restoring their longing and zeal for Paul.