1972: Former pastor of mine stood at airport waiting for an evangelist to arrive. It was Tuesday and the revival had begun the past Sunday morning. The evangelist had been too sick to make the trip but now was arriving. Two flight attendants helped him that the music evangelist and pastor Tom Elliff shared that the music evangelist had been doing his best but the crowds had gotten smaller and smaller and tonight in Tulsa bad weather was expected. Evangelist Manley Beasley responded, ‘We will probably just have in attendance those that God will use to bring change to your church’. SUFFERING STREAMLINES THE CHURCH
We love to be comfortable. Think of all the things that we continually invent that have to do with making life more comfortable for us.
What would you struggle to live without that others around the world regularly do without? Hot water? Nice comfortable bed? Washing machine? Television? Air conditioning? Closet full of clothes? Telephone? Cell phone? Computer? Internet? Car? IT IS POSITIVELY UNAMERICAN TO NOT BE COMFORTABLE! It is what distinguishes us from much of the rest of the world.
Of all of God’s children how near the top of those most ‘spoiled’ would be Christians in USA? What could we take away that would immediately diminish the size of our congregation this coming Sunday? Pads on our pews? Air conditioning/heating? Paved parking? Electricity
What if I told you that for you to suffer and be uncomfortable was an important part of God’s will for your life? The more that we avoid it, build barriers to protect ourselves from it and invent theology to condemn it the more we miss out on becoming usable to God.
Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and begins by telling them how important it is that they understand what suffering in the life of a Christian is all about.
Corinth had been destroyed in 146 B.C. by the Romans and had remained uninhabited for a hundred years, until 44 B.C. when Julius Caesar rebuilt it.
When Paul visited Corinth in A.D. 49–50, it was just over 80 years old with a population of 80k
Yet, during its short history Corinth had become the third most important city of the Roman Empire, behind Alexandria and Rome itself.
A growing metropolis situated on the isthmus river, it was called the “master of harbors.
Corinth became a favorite place for retired Roman soldiers to settle down seeking a better life for their families.
Corinth was also a place of ethnic diversity it was sort of a melting pot – people from all over the Asia wanted to settle there.
Corinth was a sports and entertainment center
The Isthmian games in Corinth (which were second only to the Olympics).
The city’s theater held up to 18,000 and the concert hall some 3,000.
Travel, tourism, sex, and religious Diversity were woven together in Corinth’s new culture. What happened in Corinth stayed in Corinth
So Corinth was the happening place at the time of Paul’s writings
There was actually 4 letters written by Paul to Corinth that we know of.
The 1st we don’t have; the 2nd was 1st Cor.; the 3rd we don’t have (7:7); & this letter was the 4th. 1st Cor. was Practical, 2ndCor. is Personal.
Purpose of this letter - to affirm his ministry, defend his authority as an apostle, refute false teachers. Key word – Comfort (29 x’s in 2 Cor.)
SUFFERING TEACHES US IMPORTANT LESSONS ABOUT GOD: 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 so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
I want you to think about why God would want you to be uncomfortable.
C.S. Lewis writes about the difference between the BEACH and a MAP of the ocean. If all you want is to see the ocean then you can stand on a beach but if you want to go out into the ocean and truly experience where the ocean can take you then you will need to have a map. Many believers have a Christianity that is more about strolls on the beach than they are about discovering the depths and distances that God can take us to.
They prefer COMFORT to COMMITMENT and EASE to EDIFICATION. The want to RELAX in their pew rather than to RUN the good race.
1. GOD IS ALWAYS TO BE UNDERSTOOD AS DOING WHAT IS BEST FOR US: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
Professor Philip Taube was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry. It was not Taube's ability to discover solutions to problems that set him apart, but rather his ability to ask the right questions. Avoiding wrong questions
There are many "Why me? Why now? Why isn't suffering distributed more evenly? ‘
A second group is the "How?" questions: "How can I get God to do what I want him to do? How can I manipulate circumstances so that God will respond to me my way?"
2. WE EXPERIENCE GOD TO A GREATER DEGREE IN OUR DIFFICULTIES THAN IN OUR COMFORTABLE TIMES: who comforts us in all our affliction
comfort – a calling near, summons, (esp. for help); supplication; exhortation, admonition, encouragement; consolation, comfort, solace; that which affords comfort or refreshment. The Holy Spirit is called the "Comforter" (John 14:16).
tribulation – a pressing, pressing together, pressure; metaph. oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits
There is a saying in the middle east: “All sunshine makes a desert.”
Usually the person who has never suffered at all is a shallow individual.
3. GOD IS ABLE TO USE US TO A GREATER DEGREE BECAUSE OF OUR LEARNING TO TRUST HIM IN OUR DIFFICULTIES: so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
The reason that many go through difficult times and are still not usable to God is because they did not learn to trust Him when they were suffering.
a) Many of us know that you can go to school and never learn anything. It is not about going into a building or sitting in a classroom but about trusting the teacher and learning the lessons.
P. T. Forsyth said, “You must live with people to know their problems, and live with God in order to solve them.”
“When hard times come, be a student, not a victim.”
A victim says, “Why did this happen to me?”
A student says, “What can I learn from this?”
A victim believes his hard times have come because God is trying to punish hm.
A student understands that God allows hard times in order to help him grow. A victim believes God has abandoned him.
A student sees God’s hand in everything, including the worst moments of life.
A lesson most of us never learn is that when it comes to our relationship to God there are two words that are put together that we would never have considered doing.
COMFORT and AFFLICTION
a) Ever hear a doctor say before a shot or a dentist before the drill starts, ‘This will make you very comfortable’. Last thing on our mind.
b) The end result should be in those situations that we will be more comfortable.
Our suffering allows us to comfort others. God allows our suffering so that we might be able to enter into others' suffering and offer comfort to them.
God promises to give us comfort in every trial we go through so we can turn around and comfort others.
A mother who lost her son asked an elderly Chinese philosopher how to overcome her grief.
"I can help you, but you must first bring me some mustard seed," said the old wise man.
"But you must get it at a home where there has never been any loss or sorrow."
Eagerly the woman started her search, but in every home she visited was someone who had lost a loved one or had known some heartbreaking loss. Returning without any mustard seed, she exclaimed, "How selfish I have been! Sorrow is common to all."
He said, "you have learned a valuable lesson. Because you know sorrow, you can sympathize with others and comfort them. And when you do, your own sorrow will be lessened."
(www) “God’s comfort is not given; it is loaned, & you are expected to pass it on to others.”
When you suffer, avoid self-pity, because self-pity will turn you into a reservoir instead of a channel. Don’t waste your sufferings!
5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.
The law of flow and overflow! When a cup is filled to overflowing, whatever spills over the edge is the same as what's being poured in.
If suffering is poured into a Christian what spills over is different from what is poured in. Suffering goes in but comfort comes out. Another translation reads, "Just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows" (2 Cor. 1:5)
sufferings – a suffering, misfortune, calamity, evil, affliction; of an inward state, an affliction, passion
abundant – to exceed a fixed number of measure, to be left over and above a certain number or measure; "…is used of a flower going from a bud to full bloom.
As many trials come your way, comfort will come too.
Paul would eventually be using the comfort God was giving him to encourage others.
(John Henry Jowett) “God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters
.
Q: Have you gone through any sufferings? How have you used them?
Paul could see how God was using his own suffering to help others. ‘Sharers’
I rejoice in knowing that... There is no oil without squeezing the olives, No wine without pressing the grapes, No fragrance without crushing the flowers, and No real joy without sorrow.
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; 9 indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; 10 who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us,
C. S. Lewis said, “Nothing that has not died will be resurrected.”
The Christian life is the opposite of life that most people know and the experience of the life that God offers. We live with a SENTENCE OF DEATH WITHIN.
Paul wrote, ‘I DIE DAILY’. We take up our cross daily and die to our own will and agendas and follow Christ into His.
Paul had his hope set that God would continue to deliver him, one way or another.
YOU EVER HAD A REALLY BAD DAY? Nobody had as bad a day as Job had.
While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
While he was still speaking, another also came and said,"Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 19 and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
Job said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (13:15)
He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, 11 you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.
Sufferings are not accidents but divine appointments.
To follow Christ is to follow him into suffering!
What a sad plight when our modern-day preachers, preach a gospel of health & wealth for everyone…what do they do with this?
God forbid their message was true…look how much we’d miss out on via suffering!
Rom.8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
4 Discoveries
#1 We discover God in those times in a deeper way.
#2 Expands our ability to minister to others in need.
#3 Helps put things in focus having the right object of our trust.
#4 We are not alone but we are a part of a bigger family. The family of God.
DAN Munro was a plastic surgeon at the University of Toronto. At one time, he was one of the few doctors in the world who could take apart and then rebuild the skulls of infants who had Crouzon's disease.
The head of a child who suffers from this condition becomes so misshapen that the extreme pressure put on the brain can cause mental retardation.
Dr. Munro devised an operation in which as much as 90 percent of the skull and facial bones are broken in order to reshape the skull.
The motivation behind Dr. Munro's pioneering efforts in this highly specialized field was his own child, who suffered brain damage as a result of Crouzon's disease. A child's suffering created in the father's heart a deep sympathy for others with the same condition.
OUT OF HIS AFFLICTION CAME GREAT COMFORT TO MANY.
Manley Beasley spent 40 days in the hospital ill. While there Jack Taylor and some other men from his church came to visit. While they were there another visitor came. Unexpectedly Corrie Ten Boon walked in the door and spent the day with them. Corrie shared that day how part of the support for her movie ‘The Hiding Place’ had been lost. Her response was that her Father owned the cattle on a thousand hills and that He would just have to sell some cows. The end of the story is that the funds to finish making the movie was provided by a man who sold his ranch to do it. He sold the ranch and all the CATTLE on it.
