COMFORT MY PEOPLE
God knows what you went through this past week and He knows what you will face this coming week.
You may have had an average week, or you may be thankful it is finally over.
Regardless, you should know that God desires for His people to be happy and blessed in all things.
Sometimes we come to church, sing a few songs and walk out of here looking like we have been sucking on lemons for a couple of hours. God wants you to come into His house expecting Him to do more than just fix a problem. God desires greatly to bless you, to comfort you, and to encourage you. Like only He can do.
There are some who will not come to God’s house because they will only be reminded of how miserable they are without Christ. I would not want that for anyone. Many of you know that there is nothing miserable about living for the Lord. Living for Christ is to be filled with joy & gladness that cannot be explained.
Text: Isaiah 40:1 thru 5
Prayer:
I trust you realize that you are blessed of God today, God knows we are of little value to the Gospel of Christ when we are miserable, or down in the dumps.
If we live down in the dumps, we cannot live where God wants us. That is, within the praises of our Lord.
Sometimes when we are comfortable, we serve only ourselves. But if we are comforted by the Holy Spirit, we will want to serve our God and His people.
God would have us to know/experience His comfort so that we are able to comfort others in their need.
How can we minister to the downtrodden/discouraged if we don’t have God’s comfort to share with them?
While studying this week, I found a word in the dictionary that goes along with the comfort of God. “Piety”. It means to have “reverence toward God.”
I found another word almost next to “piety”.
It was the word “pity”. There isn’t a lot of difference in how they are spelled. “Pity” has to do with the “grief and pain of a misfortune.”
Some of us may find it easy to have “piety” (in our life) one moment, and then “pity” for ourselves the next.
Oftentimes, piety is easily be confused with pity.
We have only Christ to:
• Turn to in moments of “pity”.
• Offer the downtrodden/pitiful people we know.
Church, listen carefully.
Everyone is in need of comfort this morning.
You, me, your close relative, your next door neighbor, the people you like and the people you don’t like. They all need the comfort only God has.
The people we know will never understand the comfort of the Holy Spirit (we are talking about) without first receiving the forgiveness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
God has a charge for each of us today:
1. Let go of our pity.
2. Lay hold and accept God’s COMFORT.
3. Go and comfort God’s people.
When I began to meditate on this passage (on Tuesday of last week) I must confess that I was not in the right frame of mind to want to comfort anyone. I was having a tough week with business in Michigan.
Like you, there are times in my line of work that things don’t go as smooth as we want them to. I started back to work with a mountain of problems to resolve.
How many know that the problems we face can interfere with what we need to be doing for the Lord?
Immediately, the Lord impressed me of the need for us to find comfort in the Lord. God will make a way for us.
God will not expect comfort to come from any of us without first making a way of comfort.
God has always comforted His people.
Here is one example - There was a time when the children of God were perplexed and persecuted on every side.
It was then that God’s people were very miserable. They suffered the bondage of a ruthless ruler.
They had nowhere to go to escape their sufferings.
And then one day they were forced to the shoreline of the Red Sea. At first they thought they were trapped. Their enemy was bearing down on them and they had nowhere to go. Suddenly and sovereignly, God comforted them by opening a way of escape.
You know the story. The waters of the Red Sea parted, and the people found the Highway of their God.
The children of the Lord were given a means of escape and found comfort on the other side. God divided the Red Sea and made a highway for His people.
The parting of the Red Sea is truly one of the most exciting stories of the Old Testament.
But we all know this happened a very long time ago.
There are many other dramatic wilderness stories though out the Bible for us to learn from. In reading them, we know that God did save His people time and time again. God was always there for His people.
But what do these stories mean for people of our day?
These stories give to us sound instruction and correction. But are these stories enough to comfort us?
If not, I can assure you of the COMFORT God has planned for you and I. The plan COMFORT we have is far greater. We have Christ! We have a Savior Who is (right now) making a way in our wilderness and He will soon catch us away to be with Him for all eternity.
1 Corinthians 15:52
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye… the trumpet will sound… and we shall be changed.
While we wait for that day, we may become discouraged as the people did in the day of Isaiah.
These people were growing tired of only hearing how wonderful it used to be when King David ruled the nation of Israel. Their grand parents told them how wonderful it used to be going to the Temple.
The people of God needed COMFORT.
The Temple of Solomon was once a great place of worship. That was a day and time when people loved and worshipped God. But those days were now gone.
Jerusalem was gone. Solomon’s Temple was gone. The magnificent Temple of Jerusalem was in ruins. It was nothing more than a pile of old rubble. There was nothing left but old memories of the way it used to be.
And now, there was the younger generation who had grown tired of hearing the way it used to be.
They knew the old stories, but they never saw anything good coming from their religion.
What was left of their religion was old and dieing.
There was no hope for a better tomorrow.
They needed God to COMFORT them!
This younger generation had not seen the blessing of God. What was left of the nation of Israel was growing cold and indifferent to the things of God. The children were being raised in the ungodly nation of Babylon. There was little hope of seeing Jerusalem restored or a move of the Spirit of God.
They needed God to COMFORT them!
This younger generation was not interested in how it used to be. They only knew of the exciting and tempting pleasures of the cultures of their day.
The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem was proof to them there was no need to ever worship Jehovah God again. The fire of their forefather’s faith was dwindling to a small flicker. There wasn’t much left.
To this day, God still COMFORTS His people the same way He COMFORTED the people of the Old Testament. The way we live today has changed, but God hasn’t.
In our day, there doesn’t seem to be the need for folks to live godly lives. Not much need in going to church and hearing how it used to be. Many people today are asking themselves the same questions that were asked in the days of Isaiah. “Where is God now?”
People want to know where to find God.
1. Where is God?
Where can we find God and His COMFORT?
In the past God revealed Himself many times to His people. But the revelation of God today is not just about what He used to do. We can find God when we understand how He chooses to reveal Himself.
The people of God were looking for Him and He was found in the Words He spoke to them. God said, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people…”
God’s PRESENCE & His COMFORT is found in His Words.
My friend you can find God. God is in the words of the prophets of old, and He is, once again, living in the prophets of our day. Man will continue to find God as long as there are prophets who will speak His Words.
It is up to you and I. Today, we are the prophets of God. We have the awesome responsibility of prophesying the Good News. We cannot give up!
The people we know will find God when they here us prophesy and speak God’s Word to them.
We must COMFORT them with God’s Words.
When the prophets of God allow themselves to be silenced, man will be forever lost. We must again prophesy to those who need comfort from God.
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people…”
There are those who are asking,
2. Who is God?
He is the father of this universe Whom cares very deeply for His people. He is everlasting unto everlasting. He is the One Who will sustain us and satisfy our every need. He will never leave us nor forsake us.
He is the One and only One Who will COMFORT the people. He has said, “I AM that I AM!” There is nothing else that can bring true comfort to this world. It is knowing Who God is that will comfort God’s people.
And still there are others who ask,
3. What is God doing?
He is doing what He said He will do. He is comforting His people. Yes, He is very busy. He knows that we have many needs. He knows them all. His comfort goes much farther than our immediate need.
Verse 5 says this -
The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Closing:
The people of Isaiah’s day were COMFORTED while waiting on the coming of the Lord.
Likewise, we must wait for the second coming of the
Lord as He soon will reveal His Glory once again.
We can be comforted in knowing that His Glory “shall be revealed.” We are not sitting by just waiting and doing nothing. We are not idle with what the Lord is doing. We are strengthened in the promises of God.
We know Where He is, Who He is, and What He is doing in us and through us.
God is helping us to build His highway for our salvation. This is not an easy task. Highways are very expensive and require a lot of hard work. They do not come easy. There are valleys that are to be raised up, and mountains that are to be made low.
This “highway for our God” is an absolute must in getting the plan of God accomplished.
