Title: Jars of Caring
Text: II Corinthians 1:3-7
Thesis: We are “Jars of Clay” through whom God works.
Introduction
A little boy stopped by the super market and asked the cashier where he could find a box of Tide… he said it was for washing his cat. The lady was quick to tell him that he shouldn’t wash his cat with Tide but she couldn’t change his mind.
The lady said, ‘Well son, I warned you not to wash your cat with Tide detergent.” “Naw,” the boy said, “He didn’t die from the Tide, it was the spin cycle that got him.”
I think this kind of describes life
• That it is the spin cycle that gets most people.
• It is the spin cycle that leaves us twisted in knots and wrung dry.
Last week we spoke about encouraging others
• Today I want to look at how we can comfort people.
• Because We are stewards of the presence of God…
• We exist so that others can see the Glory of God in us
• And see that Glory working through us.
• So this being said We are also stewards of the God’s comfort.
• We exist to share with others our own experiences
• And through these experiences we can give comfort to others who need to be comforted.
Our text today is about how God comforts us
• When we have been spun dry in the spin cycle
• And Because of this how we are able to comfort others who have gone for a bad spin as well.
God Offers Comfort to All 1:Cor 1:3-7
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.
The first thing our text tells us is that
1. God the Father is the ultimate source of our comfort.
• Text says All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.
• The word comfort brings two images together.
• The first is the image of coming alongside someone.
• When we come alongside another person,
• We encourage and strengthen that person.
The Nile River is 4,175 miles long.
• It has two primary tributaries:
• A stream that flows into a larger stream or other body of water
• The White Nile which originates deep in southern Rwanda
• The Blue Nile which originates in Ethiopia.
• These waters come together and flow north until they reach a large delta in Egypt and empty into the Mediterranean Sea.
Everything in life has to have an origin.
• Aristotle once said, “All causes of things are beginnings…”
• We say a cause is something that makes something happen
• And the effect is what happens because of the cause.
• In other words, it doesn’t matter if we are talking about Rivers / Philosophies or Automobiles –
• Everything has an original cause or a beginning.
The bible tells us that God is the God of all comfort
• And that God is the source of every mercy.
• All comfort that comes into our lives originates with God.
Comfort does not originate with Dr. Phil,
• Comfort doesn’t originate with Dear Abby
• Comfort doesn’t originate with people like Winston Churchill
• Even though he encouraged a nation at war
• Comfort doesn’t originate from the Physician with a great bedside manner.
• Comfort does not originate when President Clinton said “I feel your pain.”
• Comfort begins with God as it bubbles up from springs and melts from mountain tops and flows north and south and east and west, down through rivulets, creeks, streams, rivers, and deltas of people to us.
• Now even though it may flow to us,
• Our text reminds us that the comfort of God also flows through us.
2. Caring and comfort is about us… and others.
• 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.
• Here we are introduced to another word that translates as afflictions
• The word trouble means more than just a bump in the road, a snag, or a minor hardship.
• The word refers to something that comes into our lives that feels as though it will literally crush us to death.
A survey conducted by the Associated Press and MTV
• Uncovered a surprising insight into youth culture.
• They found that 73% of young people between the ages of 13 and 24
• Were happiest when they were spending time with their family.
• 29 percent of those surveyed said their mother is their idol
• 21 percent said their father is their idol.
• After spending time with their family,
• Then relationships with friends are the thing most likely to make them happy.
It would seem that it is in our Nature / DNA / Makeup
• For people to want to be with the people we love and care about.
• Our understanding of the teaching of Jesus expands the loving and caring
• To include our neighbors in the Great Commandment:
• “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. And equally important, love your neighbors as yourself.” Matt 22:37-38
• And again in Matthew 7:12, “Do unto others as if you were the others.”
When we understand that as recipients of God’s grace
• That We, as jars of clay,
• Are not content to simply be containers of God’s gifts./ Holders of those gifts
• We do not exist as large terracotta pots,
• Storage container jars of God’s goodness.
• When we receive grace,
• We receive it as a pitcher receives a beverage
• It is used to poured-out to quench the thirst of others.
In July of 1992 a police chief in, Kentucky had to tell the Smiths
• That both their teenage sons were killed in an auto accident.
• Not long after their death Rosemary Smith began a ministry called “Fellow Travelers”
• As a way she could reach out to comfort other parents who had lost a child.
Everyday she reads the newspaper and searches the internet for child obituaries
• Then she either calls the family or sends them packets containing books on loss, a music CD, a three-ring notebook of inspirational messages, and more…
• She receives 50 e-mails a day from people requesting one of her packets.
• She and her husband have assembled and sent out 5,000 packets to grieving parents around the world.
• She says, “We are here to help other people. It gives me great joy just to think that God is using me to help others.”
God comforts us so we can comfort others.
• Interestingly, our ability to comfort another person is linked to our own experiences.
3. Our ability to comfort others is linked to our experience.
• When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. II Corinthians 1:4b
• If you have ever checked into a hospital for surgery Or for the treatment of an illness,
• Among the many things they give you for your comfort is a pair of non-skid sock slippers and a hospital gown.
• These are not fashionable and they are not custom-made for your comfort.
• They are your basic, “one size fits all,” solution to slippers and hospital gowns.
Whenever anyone suggests that one size fits all,
• It just isn’t true. One size does not “fit” all.
• There just aren’t enough one-liners, sayings, or clichés that are suitable for every situation we find ourselves in
• One experience and one expression of comfort does not translate into a universal ability to comfort others.
That is why God works through so many people
• People who are very different but at the same time have had many different kinds of experiences.
• Each of us is uniquely able to offer comfort and encouragement to others,
• Because of our own personal experiences.
• The person who has been wise in managing his money and has never been in debt cannot understand the despair of a person facing bankruptcy,
• But someone who has can.
• Someone who has four healthy children can’t understand what it feels like to not be able to conceive…
• But some who cannot conceive can.
• Someone who is married to Mr. or Mrs. Wonderful cannot imagine what it is like to be married to an abusive spouse,
• But someone who has been abused by a spouse can.
• When others are troubled, we are able to give them the same comfort
• We have received.
• Something powerful happens when people share experiences.
4. There is a spiritual solidarity is sharing stories of suffering and endurance.
• 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.
• 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.
• Solidarity (Unity) is not a new concept.
• Recently we observed a solidarity moment on the eve of the New Hampshire caucus race,
• When Hillary Clinton was talking with a group of women at a coffee shop.
• One of the ladies asked her how she got up every day and hit the campaign trail
• When it’s was so hard for her just to get up, get ready and get out of the house.
• “It’s not easy, ” Clinton said shaking her head.
• Then Her eyes began to get watery
• And she said “I couldn’t do it if I didn’t passionately believe it was the right thing to do…”
• With this the group of women sitting nodded understandingly
• The Washington Post reported, “Within 24 hours, New Hampshire voters -- especially women -- were streaming to the polls to vote for her,
• Shocking everyone, including the candidate.”
It is solidarity when people can relate / understand / care
• Because of common experiences
• Whether it’s freedom, passion for a cause, gender identity issues, or the loss of loved ones.
Two days before he was to graduate from high school,
• Damien ’s father passed away very suddenly.
• He found himself in a place he had never been before.
• The day of the funeral the church was packed.
• He sat in the front pew with his mother and two younger sisters.
• And After the service everyone came forward and filed past them expressing their condolences.
Then he saw Kim.
• Kim was his age and they were in the church youth group together.
• When she got to him she had tears in her eyes, but she didn’t say a word.
• She simply hugged him and walked on.
• He said, “In that moment, Kim knew exactly what it meant to be me.”
• The whole condolence thing was pretty much a blur in him mind,
• But he remembers Kim’s tears and Kim’s hug
• Because it was just a few months earlier that he had walked through the condolence line with all the other well-wishers at Kim’s father’s funeral.
Conclusion:
• So how do we do this comforting thing?
Jess Hinds, a College English professor in Brooklyn,
• Recently lost her father to a painful battle with bone cancer.
• Following his death, she was bothered by the messages of many of the sympathy cards she received…
• She felt that many of the cards were trying to talk her out of the grieving process.
• Some tried to cheer her up or distract her or urge her to keep herself busy.
• She said, what I really wanted people to say was, “I’m sorry for your loss.”
• She didn’t want to hear from a cheery person.
• She suggests that we simply begin with, “I’m sorry for your loss.”
• Then ask the crucial questions: “How are you? How are you feeling?”
“How do we support people in mourning (or whatever)?
• We can learn a lot by looking at the behavior of elephants:
• You see Elephants are known to grieve in groups.
• They loop their trunks to support the one who is grieving.
• Like elephants we should remain connected
• We should remain open to a mourner’s sorrow longer than a two-hour memorial service.
• Grieving is private, but it can be public…
• We need to look each other in the eye and say, ‘I am so sorry.’”
We comfort others when we do three things:
• We comfort others when we come alongside them.
• We comfort others when we acknowledge their sadness and say, “I am sorry.”
• We comfort others when we pray for them.
As earthen vessels As jars of clay,
• We are stewards of God’s comfort.
• God places his comfort in us,
• So that we may in turn comfort others.
