WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
o Pleasure to be here—we are waiting on the glorious day of Christ’s return.
o Many days we are already ready—sickness, pain, tired, seeing things in culture, burdens in life, persecution.
A GRIEF OBSERVED
For C. S. Lewis, it was the death of his wife, Joy.
Married—hospital, cancer
Notebooks – he would keep his thoughts in notebooks where he could write down and explore his grief. He speaks of all the trials he is feeling and explores what it means to have faith in such situations. He later compiled these notes into his book A Grief Observed in 1961.
He writes: “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.
At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty.”
Later he asks: “Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is in vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence…”
The Apostle Paul speaks regularly of his hope. He tells the church in Corinth about what he experienced to get to them.
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 7:2-13 (6 Slides)
2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.
4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. 5 For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.
6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!
At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. 12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. 13 Therefore we are comforted.
Finding joy in the midst of pain. It’s the riddle we are faced with.
Paul shared transparently all that he had experienced in life. All the ways people sought to hurt him emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically. How in this world we will face trial and persecution. But Paul finds hope.
What Paul sees when he envisions the people who make up the church is hope. He sees the possibilities of the future. Paul looks at those who have been a blessing and encouragement to him as the cherry on top of the thousands that spread throughout Asia as he ministers the Gospel.
Where First Corinthians is a call to unity as the church, Second Corinthians is a call to unity with him as he teaches. He has had so many that want him to fail because they could not believe that someone who has endured the kind of hardships he’s endured is of God. Why would God afflict his people with such calamity? But Paul insists.
Later Paul would actually boast in these things:
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 2 Cor 11:30
But what is his big ask for these people? Make room in your hearts for us.
As Paul has made room in his heart for this church even with the trials, now he says make room for us. Paul’s desire is for unity with his brothers and sisters in the faith. This is the call for us today.
In the midst of pain. In the midst of trial. Let’s unify behind the Gospel message.
We as God’s people have excuse for being sad, angry, and disillusioned by what the world is doing. It’s difficult to be a follower of Jesus when everything we stand for is under attack. Honestly, it can be so overwhelming, I wouldn’t blame those who give in to the world’s demands or who give up entirely. And people like Paul have written to be joyful in every circumstance? That’s a bold move.
My title is Overflowing with Joy Until He Comes. How do we have joy that isn’t just present but is overflowing? We can see a few ways that this works.
1. Paul’s Joy Was Not Dependent on His Circumstances
If my attitude is based on the weather or how much money I have, I’m going to be unhappy most of the time. If my joy is based on Christ living in me, I can find joy when my car breaks down, when my body is in pain, or when I am without food. All that matters is Jesus.
Paul speaks of these Macedonians who were extremely poor yet they gave of everything they had generously. Their first concern was giving themselves for Jesus. And Paul and the Corinthian church could see the joy that came from this. Have you known someone with joy like this? People willing to give when they didn’t have much. It’s not their circumstance that makes it this way. It’s Jesus.
I think of the lost boys of the Sudan who were just so joyful even in the midst of the pain of losing their families[—explain about the Sudanese war].
The Sudan has known only war for over 75 years (maybe longer).
It was in 1987 that the 2nd Sudanese War began
Displaced 20,000 young boys of the Nuer and Dinka tribes
The Muslim North Sudan wanted to Muslimize the entire country.
Displaced these thousands of boys to walk hundreds of miles in single file lines to find refuge in Ethiopia and Kenya
Many died along the way: dehydration, disease, malnutrition, attacks by lions and snakes and other wild animals, attacks by rebels of the North. Many recruited to become soldiers against their will for the North.
These camps were overwhelmed. Many ended up in Kakuma in Kenya
2006 American documentary “God Grew Tired of Us”
They help each other through it.
2. Paul’s Joy Came From Encouragers
Paul often brought someone with him to help encourage him.
Barnabas, Titus, Timothy…
This example began with Jesus. I am sure that Paul heard the stories of how each of Jesus’ disciples brought a partner with them. They went in twos. To encourage each other, to keep each other accountable. And to know when it was time to go to the next place. We need someone in our lives to encourage us when times get tough.
For me it is my wife. She reminds me of the things that are most important.
Second, my friend Wes. Wes is a minister and knows what ministry is like. Theology and fun.
Third – I’ll tell of him in a moment.
3. Paul’s Joy Came From His Hope
Paul’s mission was the same continuing mission of the church. Make disciples. And it was for the sake of the Kingdom. And Paul was committed to that mission. That brought him more joy than anything else. He wanted everyone to hear the message. He took it across Asia so that everyone could hear the Gospel. Paul believed in the Jesus who took his sight. The one who restored him. The one who challenged him to keep on teaching.
We need hope like this in our own lives. I think of the book of Lamentations. It’s a dark and depressing book that at its worst there is no escape; the people have turned in their desperation to cannibalism and Jeremiah who is supposed to lead these people feels like God is against him.
Yet in this desert, the faithfulness of God shines through. It brings Jeremiah’s faith to the forefront and he can write in the midst of these 5 chapters:
19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;[a]
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
My time of pain – Silas – knowing the hope I have.
We all need to see our hope and always have that out in front of us.
When pain comes in sickness or hardship, we can see that hope.
When people around us mock us or hate what we stand for, we see our hope.
When satan tries to defeat us, we see our hope.
When Joy was dying of cancer, Lewis says near the end of his book:
“She said not to me but to the chaplain, ‘I am at peace with God.’ She smiled, but not at me. She turned to the eternal fountain.
If you’ve never seen the film Chariots of Fire, you should take some time to do so. It is the story of several runners, but one in particular, Eric Liddell, a Scottish man who loved God and desired to go into the mission field. He was always looked down on, constantly told he would lose. But he didn’t. He believed his running was a gift from God…and something he cannot waste.
He made it to the 1924 Olympics. He said, “I believe that God made me for a purpose…but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”
He found not only his own joy, but God’s. When we have joy, it shines to others. Our joy must shine to the world so they see the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
