Toolbox of Faith series
The God of peace and comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3-11
Prayer-
Father today, would you do something amazing in our lives? We need to sense your presence. We need to sense your peace and your comfort. Take hurting hearts and touch them with your love. Take a heart today that is anxious and give them the peace that only you could give to them.
Introduction-
We have been in a series looking at the tools in our faith toolbox. I believe I will wrap it up and look at the peace and comfort of God. Wrapped up in our faith in Christ, we can have and God desires for us to have His peace and His comfort.
Peace and comfort of God- Who would not want that?
You would be surprised who wants peace and comfort but does not want God in their life.
Peace-
“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18
Some like the drama, but most want to live at peace.
The older we get, the less we want drama-
Comfort- (part of our text)-
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
Think about these statements-
The trap set by the devil is that we compare our worth by the standards set by someone else.
We base our experience with God by how good we think God is to us- when things are going good, we love God but truth be told, we often forget about Him.
When things are tough, we think God is mad at us. We ask Him questions like where are you?
When we are going through hard times, we feel like God has let us down.
Is that the peace and comfort God is talking about for us? Where everything goes our way and we have no troubles or struggles in this life?
2 Corinthians 1:3-11
I have had people in the past praying with me, coming to see my family during rough times, and they would end the conversation with “I know how you feel”
I remember thinking- you don’t know how I feel!
I don’t want to “hang in there”! I feel like I am hanging.
I can’t “just get over it”
I remember being about 11 years old, and I made a diving play at third base with no shirt on at a family picnic and getting that fine grit dirt ground into my stomach- having my mom lovingly get the dirt out and crying. I was trying to be tough but it hurt! And someone said “Stop your crying” like I could just turn it off.
I look back and I realize that they meant no harm- they were just trying to be kind and in an odd way of compassion I guess- but I could not just get over it and felt that they did not know how I feel.
I try not to say that as an adult- “I know how you feel”- even if I feel like I went through the same thing- because each one of us deals with things different.
The only one who knows how you feel is the God of all comfort Jesus Christ!
Let’s take this passage in context-
The Corinthian church struggled to be separate from the secular people around them.
There were unity issues in the Corinthian Church.
You had some following Paul, some following Apollos, and some following Jesus.
Paul was seeking reconciliation and a desire to be lead by the Spirit of God and not by the most popular evangelist at the moment.
There are many times in our lives where we will be discouraged, depressed. Many right now are morning loses, feel guilty for things that have happened, and are at bad spots in their life. They do not need to hear that you know how they feel… they need to meet the savior that can comfort and lead them out of that dark spot.
Apostle Paul takes us step by step to the savior and shows us how to find peace and the comfort of God.
Praise brings Comfort
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all troubles, so we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God.”
We need to get our praise on!
Illustration-
A body is not crippled 'til its heart has ceased to praise. Louis Albert Banks tells of an elderly Christian man, a fine singer, who learned that he had cancer of the tongue and that surgery was required. In the hospital after everything was ready for the operation, the man said to the doctor, "Are you sure I will never sing again?" The surgeon found it difficult to answer his question. He simply shook his head no. The patient then asked if he could sit up for a moment. "I've had many good times singing the praises of God," he said. "And now you tell me I can never sing again. I have one song that will be my last. It will be of gratitude and praise to God." There in the doctor's presence the man sang softly the words of Isaac Watts' hymn, "I'll praise my Maker while I've breath.
We experience God’s comfort and peace when we begin to praise God for what He has already done for us!
We need to step out of the immediate situation and step into the realm of what will be with His help.
We need to understand that this is not the end of the story no matter what chapter we are in!
Paul understood hardship- shipwrecked, snake bite, beaten almost to death, stoned.
(8) “We do not want you to be uninformed (ignorant) brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.”
The God of all comfort does not promise us that we will never have hardship- in fact, He tells us that will suffer hardships, and He promises to be with us through it.
James 1:2-4
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking nothing.”
We sometimes go through these things so that we might be able to comfort others who go through the same thing. We have been there and we know how they feel- instead of just saying I know how you feel, we are able to comfort them and help them with the power of God in our lives to get them out of the dark spot in their lives. We are a tool that God uses to help others.
Hope is what hurting people need-
Hope is found in the promises God has given us
1 John 5:13-14
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
1 Peter 1:3-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
They have lost hope and the God of hope offers us peace and comfort-
John 16:33-
“I have told you these things, so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!
What are “these things” that he has told us?
“I will not leave you nor forsake you- That brings me hope- that should get your praise on!
He says Trust me!- that lets us know that you will not let us down like others have.”
From the passage
Comfort comes in our suffering
Watch this- (4) “Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort that we receive from God.”
Christ suffered for us-
God the Father ministered to him. Jesus Christ promises us that He will be with us in our sufferings and offer the same comfort that God the Father gave Jesus.
The apostle Paul- I don’t want you to be ignorant about the troubles we experienced in Asia. We were under great pressure and it was more than we could handle- “Despaired of life itself”
People say that God will not give you more than you can bear and I have been guilty too- I have made comments that He would take you right to the edge. Paul said his trials and sufferings were so bad that he wanted to die!
I believe the proper way to look at that scripture is that we sometimes have things thrown at us that is more than we can bear in our selves but it will not be more than we can handle if Christ is our strength and we go through it with His help!
(7) “And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”
Just as you go through the same things we have and at times is more than you handle- the same God that brought us out and gave us comfort will be the same God that comforts you!
Hallelujah!
We want you to know that there is hardships, but also that there is deliverance!
We do not want you to be unaware- the same hardship that we went through to encourage the Corinthian church is what God will use in you to encourage others around you.
Close,
We are called as children of God to the sufferings of Christ- He suffered and died for us- God resurrected Him to eternal glory!
He will do the same for his children.
We’re called to share His confidence in relation to our lives and what we go through.
“In Christ” comes with some benefits!
Regardless of distance we are never alone and we are never separated from the love of God
It helps to pray!
Paul understood pain- physical illness, unjust persecution, threat of death, misunderstood, failure, bad relationships, and at this point it was about to break him in his own strength- but God who offers peace and comfort came and ministered to him. And he desires to do the same for each of us-
(10) “He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help is by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”
Closing prayer and move into Communion
