The God of comfort and compassion
2 Corinthians 1:1-1:11
Introduction-
2 Corinthians 1:1-1:11
This is the apostle Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament to the church at Corinth.
He is bringing a message of hope to people who need to be encouraged.
Anyone this morning needing some encouragement. We all do!
On May 21st, The 911 Museum will open in New York.
It will list the names of 2963 people that lost their lives in that tragic event.
It is a tribute of remembrance to all those involved in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, Shanksville Pa. plane crash, the Pentagon, and the six people in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993.
How could God allow these things to happen?
We are dealing with that in our Bible study on Tuesday nights if you want to explore that more.
Apostle Paul
Understood pain
He understands injustice
He understood that the world is a painful place to live, but he also understood that God cares for and responds to His people.
Illustration-
A 73 year old women in England was getting a traffic ticket for driving south on a northbound lane of highway. She remarked to the policemen: I thought something was wrong. The traffic seemed to be coming the wrong way. Anyone else thinking that at times- the world seems to be going the wrong way
Someone else put it this way- “About the time you think we have everything in the bag, the bag burst.”
All of us experience ups and downs in life… the rich, the poor, the famous, the average, the Christians and the non-Christians.
We all experience the pains of life, but it is the Christians, the followers of Christ that have some promises that no other people have that they can hold unto.
Paul tells us that through our Lord Jesus Christ, that we have a heavenly Father of compassion and comfort.
(4) “Who comforts us in all of our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
Don’t race through this verse or you will miss the character of God.
God comforts and has compassion and we are to give comfort to those we come in contact with.
Most when they go through a hard time hide from God, or mad at God, they cheat God out of money and time.
Isolate themselves from God’s people for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is there mad at God for allowing whatever happened to them.
God is a giver and we are to be givers!
God offers comfort and compassion and so are God’s people.
Comfort flows to believers when they suffer for Jesus sake and it equips them to comfort others who are in trouble. (repeat)
(5) “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”
These are the words of God to us!
Being a Christian (believer) is hard, we cannot do it ourselves, but we expect others to do it for us.
We have no time or give little but expect other believers to help us. You talk about hypocrisy.
Apostle Paul tells us here that in ourselves it is impossible.
We need the help of the Holy Spirit of God working in our lives so we can accomplish what God wants.
Suffering for Jesus produces patience, and patience produces hope.
Things happen in our lives that should lead us to trust God (repeat)
There is something supernatural about suffering for Jesus that produces peace and comfort.
Don’t believe it?
How could Stephen have peace while being stoned to death for Jesus?
How could the disciples risk all and give their lives if it was not supernatural?
You cannot live for Jesus when you are living life in your own strength. It cannot be done, that is why so many struggle in their relationship with God.
Hard is not an excuse when Christ offers peace and comfort and the power of the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives.
Listen,
We are comforted to be a comfort- God comforts us in our troubles, especially when we suffer for Jesus and His kingdom.
It is much easier to look to earthly things for comfort-
Money, alcohol, drugs, recreation, toys, other people.
These things are escapes, not true comfort.
God is the only source of security that will never run dry.
If we are to have the power of God working in our lives, that comfort must flow from us to others. It is not only for our benefit.
God comfort also gives us responsibility- to comfort others.
We must look for opportunities to comfort others.
I. God’s purpose for suffering- Trust God
Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Look to me, trust me, lean on me, I will help you.
All those times that Paul must not have had the answers- and the words of the Lord;
2 Corinthians 12:9-
“Three times I begged the Lord to take it away, each time he said, “My grace is all you need, my power works best in weakness.” (New Living Translation)
Apostle Paul had the thorn in the flesh- we have situations in our lives that seem not to have answers. The text makes it clear we are to stay humble, trust God in spite of the things we are going through.
God’s grace is not given just to save us, God wants to enable us to live no matter what we are going through in life.
II. God’s purpose for failure- Turn back to God
We all fail at times, but that does not make us a failure.
Many of the mistakes I made in life have turned out to be opportunities because of God’s goodness.
God often allows failure to point us to a critical truth- lead us back to Him and remind us that we cannot do this without Him or God’s people.
(8-9) “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardship we suffered in the Province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, our hearts felt the sentence of death, but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but God.”
The other side of failure is when God gives us clear direction and we reject it, ignore it, think we know better. We will have problems. We can blame God all we want, but we know the truth.
Illustration
Smokey Robinson the singer was interviewed on Entertainment tonight of his struggle with marijuana and cocaine use. He lost weight, suffered physically, mentally, and emotionally. It was a very dark time in his life. Smokey Robinson has been clean since May 1986, when by his own testimony, he walked into a church a drug addict and came out a believer clean from addiction. He said that salvation experience changed his life forever.
He didn’t need doctors, hospitals, or rehab- it was supernatural!
Sandy Patti, a gospel singer who rose to fame in 1986. She had 33 Dove awards, 5 Grammy awards, 23 Platinum, 5 Gold albums, and yet had a dark secret. She admitted to being unfaithful to her husband and was ostracized by the Christian community. She has since repented and God has brought her through her tough times and rebuilt her life.
God can turn failure into success.
You can stay broken or you can allow God‘s grace to rebuild.
III. God’s purpose for brokenness- to give us newness of life.
We were born sinners and broken, and in Christ we are made alive and new. Amen.
Ephesians 2:10-
“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
God doesn’t want to leave you broken, He desires for us to become what he created us to be.
It is supernatural, God loves us too much to leave us the way we are, and wants to make us new in Christ.
Ephesians 2:4-
“But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”
Ephesians 3:20-
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever, and ever, amen.”
Once we understand that brokenness in Christ is not a bad thing, we allow God to do some amazing things in our life. Newness in Christ begins as our old nature dies out, and we allow Christ to change us into the image of Christ.
Talking about Christ changing us, talking about God’s Holy Spirit leading our lives is not talked about enough because we are constantly trying to do things in our strength and wisdom.
God allows things in our life to draw us toward him and away from selfish living.
Purpose of suffering- to Trust Him and not ourselves.
Purpose of failure- to draw us toward Him.
Purpose of brokenness- to bring us to newness- something supernatural that comes from God.
As I close, look again at this verse.
We want God’s comfort and compassion.
He wants to give it to us. We cannot keep it to ourselves.
It must become part of our life to share it with others.
“Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
God is a giver and we are to be givers to those around us.
Comforted to be a comfort. Amen.
