The God of Comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3-6
Isaiah 40:1-3
As I listened to Dr Ron Hawkins on the Counseling Ministry DVD’s he said his dad who was a pastor told him after he had retired, “If I had it to do over I would preach more messages of comfort. People have so much pain in their lives.” It reminded me of the many times God would bring this text to my mind “Comfort My People” when I was a young pastor in Kentucky. God reminded me I had not done that for a while and I needed to do so. I wanted to see how other preachers had approached the subject, and sadly it looks like we only think of God comforting at death and funerals. They were almost all funeral messages. This text shows God actually comforts us in all our troubles. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter.
CHIPPIE
Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
The problems began when Chippie’s owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum
cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She’d barely said "hello" when "ssssopp!" Chippie got sucked in.
The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned.
Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.
Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.
A few days after the trauma, the reporter who’d initially written about the event contacted Chippie’s owner to see how the bird was recovering. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore -- he just sits and stares."
It’s hard not to see why. Sucked in, washed up, and blown over . . . That’s enough to steal the song from the stoutest heart.
Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm, Word Publishing, 1991, p. 11.
2 Corinthians 1:3-6
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer
1. One Source of all comfort (ultimately)
The Greek word means "called to one’s side to help." The verb is used eighteen times in this letter, and the noun eleven times. In spite of all the trials he experienced, Paul was able (by the grace of God) to write a letter saturated with encouragement." (Wiersbe) He starts his encouragement by pointing us to God.
Little Johnny was playing with his father’s wallet when he accidently swallowed a quarter. He went crying to him mom, choking on the quarter. They took him to a doctor, who said that the quarter was impossible to remove without surgery, they consulted a specialist who was of the same opinion. Then came a man who said he could get the money out in a jiffy. He turned little Johnny upside down and patted him with great precision on the back of neck and, sure enough, the quarter rolled out. Everyone was amazed, the father said “You must be an expert!” The man replied, “No sir I’m just a tax collector.”
Let me put it to you another way. If your car needed to be repaired, would you go to your repair man or to your pastor to get it fixed. but I wouldn’t know what in the world was wrong with your car unless it was tires or battery., You would take out to Glen’s Garage who is a mechanic, wouldn’t you?
Here’s the hope for the hurting this morning: when you are hurting, and you need comfort, you need to go to the source. There’s only one source, and that is God.
2. For all of our troubles
Joni Eareckson Tada, who was paralyzed from the neck down while still a teenager, wrote, "You don’t have to be alone in your hurt! Comfort is yours. Joy is an option. And it’s all been made possible by your Savior. He went without comfort so you might have it. He postponed joy so you might share in it. He willingly chose isolation so you might never be alone in your hurt and sorrow.
-- Joni Eareckson Tada, Christian Reader, Vol. 32, no.
3. So we can comfort others with what we have received
A little girl was sent on an errand by her mother. She took much too long in coming back. Her Mother asked for an explanation when she finally did return. The little girl explained that on her way she had met a little friend who was crying because she had broken her doll. "Oh," said the mother, "then you stopped to help her fix her doll?" "Oh, no," replied the little girl. "I stopped to help her cry."
How does he comfort us? I went back to the text and Isaiah and read the chapters following to find out how.
I Through Other Believers Isaiah 40:1
1. God is calling the prophet to comfort his people.
-How is he specifically to do it. 1. With the Message to follow in chapters 40-43
2. And with the way he delivers it (tenderly)
2. Remember back in 2 Corinthians 1:3-6
-We are comforted by God so we can comfort others
-But if we don’t learn how to receive comfort from God we can’t give it to others.
In Booker T. Washington’s autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington recalled a beautiful incident of an older brother’s love. He said the shirts worn on his plantation by the slaves were made of a rough, bristly, inexpensive flax fiber. As a young boy, the garment was so abrasive to his tender, sensitive skin that it caused him a great deal of pain and discomfort. His older brother, moved by his brother’s suffering, would wear Booker’s new shirts, until they were broken in and smoother to the touch. Booker said it was one of the most striking acts of kindness he had experienced among his fellow slaves.
What a beautiful illustration of "bearing one another’s burdens," which we are admonished to do in Galatians 6:20.
Then there are the times when our own experiences, as Paul notes in verse 4,can be used by God to bring comfort to others undergoing similar things:
I got a picture in my mind from the Lord on the way back from preaching this at McLuney. As believers we have in our hands either healing salve or a bottle of rubbing alcohol. And as we interact with hurting people we either comfort them with salve, or we throw alcohol on their wounds. One makes it feel better, and the other makes it worse. Which are you carrying in your hands? Healing salve or Rubbing alcohol?
II God comforts us by forgiving our sins. 40:1-2
a. Sin is the cause of all lives pain
1. Original Sin in the Fall Cursed the whole earth
2. Personal sin brings painful consequences
3. Others sin brings pain to many.
God forgives personal sin now.
God comforts us through the pain of the other two until the New Heaven and earth does away with them forever. (Hope of a better future)
III God comforts by reminding us of the Endurance of his Word revealed to us. V8
1. There is not much we can count on in this world to bring us comfort.
2. People die, move, divorce, hurt, and betray you,
3. Money and things, jobs can be lost at the drop of a hat.
4. Public opinion may turn against you.
5. The Word of God remains and all the promises it contains
IV God comforts us by reminding us of the Return of Christ v9-10
1. “Your God is Coming with awesome power”
2. He is coming to rule the world
3. He will bring rewards with him (We all like rewards)
V God comforts us by showing us an image of his care v11
1. This is a different image than the consuming fire to his enemies
2. His gentle care as a shepherd
3. Many only see God as a judge to be feared and avoided at all cost
4. His tender care and concern for his people seen here. Meditate on it.
5. Jesus uses this same imagery in John 10 to speak of his ministry to his people.
VI God comforts us by reminding us of the Greatness of the God we serve. V12-26 (Read through)
Pain and sorrow has a way of making our image of God smaller. God comforts us by reminding us of how much greater he is than our problem.
VII God comforts us by correcting our faulty thinking v27-31
1. They believed false facts. They believed their feelings. They believed what they saw.
2. They concluded The Lord does not see or know about our troubles.
3. He won’t answer our prayers (hear our case)
4. Or if he sees than he must be powerless to act, because he hasn’t
v28 the answer
5. He has and gives power to those who wait on him.
Tonight we will discover more about how God corrects our false beliefs with the Truth.
Closing Illustration: From Rustle of Angels p88
In the book Rustle of Angels Jeanette Gable tells her experience. She was very fearful about her upcoming surgery. She told the doctor, but he didn’t give her any medication for her anxiety. As she was in the holding area awaiting surgery she began to literally shake with fear. A nurse thought she was just cold and got her a blanket. Jeanette cried out in prayer as she shook violently, “Lord, I can accept any thing you have in store for me. Just please give me peace and calmness.” Over and over she repeated this prayer for peace.
Then she felt a hand pressing into the hollow between here front shoulder and collar bone. It was a firm reassuring touch, but no one was there! She looked around and only one woman was in a bed across the room. No human could have touched her. It was then she realized her prayer had been answered because all her shaking stopped. A wonderful, warm reassuring peace filled her from her toes to the top of her head and she was completely relaxed. When the doctor came in she was at peace, and the surgery went well. God comforted his child as he said he would.
Conclusion: Let us sing “Tell it to Jesus”
