Benjamin Hatch brings a message on 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 as part of our series "God's Power in Our Weakness," a series in the book of 2 Corinthians.
Redeemer Bible Church of Fort Bend
The God of All Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:1-11)
(soft piano music) - You're listening to a podcast by Redeemer Bible Church. Come visit us Sunday mornings at 10 30 a.m. Or visit our website at redeemerfortbend.org for more information. Thanks and enjoy. (soft piano music) - If you have a Bible church with me now, look at the second Corinthians. Every chapter one verses one through 11. I have given my bullet in the way, so I do not know what page it's on in the view Bible. Does anybody shout it out for me? It should be printed there. Page nine or six, page nine or six if you are using one of the seatback Bibles. Second Corinthians chapter one verses one through 11. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. To the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despair of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. And all God's people said, "And man, let us pray." God, we pray now that you would comfort us, wherever we are, in our walk with you. Lord, we pray you would speak the truth to us. And Lord, we pray that you would fulfill your good purpose with which you send your word out now. In Jesus name, amen. Why do bad things happen to good people? That's a question we often hear when tragedy strikes, right? And people ask it because they rage at what they feel is the cold injustice of our universe. For this question presupposes that if justice really existed, such unjust cruel things would not happen. And so this question is really an indictment of God, suggesting that he has wronged us by inflicting suffering on those who don't deserve it. But if you've ever spent any time reading your Bible, you know that this question and its indignation is built upon a false premise, because the Bible tells us there aren't any good people. The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter three, verse 10, "None is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God, all have turned aside, together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one." There are no good people. None of us is entitled to a good outcome for we are sinners by nature and choice. All we deserve is God's wrath. Now if you're a believer in Jesus today, you should know that's true. And yet that knowledge may not help us or comfort us as we watch fellow believers suffer terrible affliction in this life. And as we watch them suffer, we might start to wonder not why do bad things happen to good people, but why do bad things happen to God's people? And that's the question the Apostle Paul is gonna answer in today's passage as we consider second Corinthians chapter one verses one through 11. And today we will consider three points. First, believers suffer because we are connected to Christ who suffer. Second, believers suffer so that we might experience God's comforting strength, which makes us more like Jesus. And third, believers suffer so that we can become instruments by which God comforts others who suffer. Let's start with our first point. Believers suffer because we are connected to Christ who suffer. Second Corinthians chapter one verse one says, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, "at Timothy our brother, to the church of God "that is at Corinth with all the saints "who are in the whole of Achaia." Like most ancient letters, second Corinthians begins by naming its authors. Paul and his ministry partner Timothy. And it names the letters recipients, the church in the ancient city of Corinth and those believers who lived in the surrounding area. Now, Paul often communicates what his letters are about in his opening sentences. And here he does this in just the first few words. As Paul declares that he is an apostle, an authoritative representative of Jesus by the will of God. And friends, that is the overarching theme of this book of second Corinthians. The legitimacy of Paul's apostleship. Frankly, it's ridiculous that Paul had to defend his apostleship to the Corinthians. Because as we saw last week, Paul planted the Corinthian church. And Paul laid a wonderful foundation in the gospel for them. If anybody should have acknowledged Paul's apostleship, it should have been the Corinthians. But we saw how the Corinthians quickly turned away from the wisdom of the gospel, preferring the false wisdom of the unbelieving world. Which led to sinful chaos in their church. And that's why Paul wrote first Corinthians to try to set things right. But now a few years have passed and they were years of conflict. In which Paul repeatedly confronted the Corinthians demanding they repent. And eventually many of them did. And so by the time Paul now writes second Corinthians, things have improved a bit. And yet some questions still linger about Paul. Because of what we identified last week as the Corinthians unhealthy view of church leadership. See the Corinthians had some worldly ideas about what a religious leader should be like. And Paul didn't meet their expectations. His speaking style wasn't sophisticated or entertaining. He wouldn't take their money. That made them suspicious. And most importantly for our purposes today, he suffered much. These were some of the reasons the Corinthians still doubted Paul. Moreover among a minority of the church that still remained unrepentant, that still opposed Paul, these folks were now following some false teachers who called themselves the super apostles. And these super apostles slandered Paul. And so Paul writes this book to lay all of these controversies to rest. To defend his apostolic ministry. To reassure the repentant folks in Corinth, hey, you can trust me, you really should listen to me. And to deal with the super apostles and their unrepentant followers. So Paul's theme in this book is he is an apostle of Jesus. Not because he says so, but because God says so. But while Paul's theme in this book is self-defense, nevertheless in the first several chapters of this book, his tone is so positive and encouraging. Because the Corinthian church is in a lot better place than it used to be, and Paul wants to keep that going. And Paul also knows that his relationship with the Corinthians has been strained by the years of conflict that have happened. And he wants to rebuild his relationship with them. And so Paul starts off in an encouraging way now with his traditional greeting. Look at verse two. Grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a ton of gospel content and that one sentence. For this sentence declares the truth that God has extended grace and peace to sinners through his son Jesus, who is the Lord, who is God and man, who died for our sins and rose again, whose death and resurrection are a grace from God offering the free unearned gift of salvation from the power and penalty of sin. And we receive that gift by repentant faith in Jesus. And friends, if we believe, then we have peace with God, we're not God's enemies anymore. And that's how all of us start, a sinful rebels in his universe. But instead, as we trust Jesus, we find not only grace and peace, we are adopted into God's family so that we can call God our Father, as Paul says here. There are some amazing, rich and wonderful ideas all packed into this brief gospel greeting. But now we come to the beginning of Paul's message in verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. Paul starts by giving thanks. Now usually in his books, Paul starts by giving thanks for his readers. Here he does something different. He expresses his thanks for God's mercy, 'cause we're gonna see in a few minutes, Paul recently underwent a terrible experience, grave danger, and God spared him. And for this Paul is grateful. But by beginning in this way, notice how Paul makes the Corinthians immediately face the fact that Paul suffers. We just said that was one of the main reasons the Corinthians doubted Paul, because they held to what we might call today a prosperity theology. First Corinthians tells us many of the Corinthian church members were rich. And in their wealth, they mistakenly believed that God would always favor his people with health and riches and power. And so when they saw Paul and all the suffering he went through, they said, "How can this guy be from God?" But Paul totally rejected their prosperity theology. First Corinthians chapter four, verse eight, he says this, "Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us, the apostles, you've become kings." I would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you. Frankly, Paul is quite sarcastic when he takes on their prosperity theology in first Corinthians. He says, "I wish your prosperity theology was true, 'cause we apostles will be doing a lot better than we are right now, being mistreated everywhere." But now in second Corinthians, Paul makes the same point, but without the sarcasm, he makes it with great subtlety and gentleness. And he shows the Corinthians here, suffering is not opposed to the Christian life, no suffering is part of the Christian life. And as Paul praises God here, he uses this occasion to teach the Corinthians and to teach us why believers suffer and how we should respond to suffering. And friends, what Paul says here, we need to learn because we will suffer too. Now maybe that sounds strange to you today because maybe you're really young and you haven't experienced very many hard things yet. Or maybe you're really well off like the rich Corinthians and you're just doing really well and you don't have a care in the world, it's all gonna work out, I got money. But friend, if suffering seems distant and remote to you today, just wait a while. Eventually you will experience some really hard things 'cause that's a part of life. I wanna tell you, some of the believers in this church could tell you some hard stories about things they've endured, the death of children, the death of a spouse, spiritual abuse, divorce, severe illness, and so forth. Suffering is part of the human experience because humanity is a fallen and sinful race born under God's sentence of death, living in a corrupt and broken world. Job 5.7 says, "Man is born to trouble." Psalm 90 says, "The years of our life are 70 or maybe by reason of strength 80, yet their span is but toil and trouble. They're soon gone and we fly away." Friends, life is hard and death is certain and believers are not exempt from that truth. Think about the apostles. They suffered so much torture and imprisonment and in most of their cases, martyrdom. Think of the Lord Jesus. God's own well-beloved son, he suffered greatly. So a lack of suffering is not evidence of divine favor and suffering is not evidence of divine disfavor. Prosperity theology is false. Believe in friends, we need a better, more biblical understanding of suffering, which Paul helps us develop here. Now I wanna draw your attention here to verse five where Paul says, "We share abundantly in Christ's sufferings." Do we hear as Paul and Timothy? They suffered a lot and Paul says they're suffering shared in Christ's sufferings. In the same way in verse six, Paul says, you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. So just as Paul and Timothy share in Christ's sufferings, Paul says the Corinthians have or will soon likewise share in Christ's sufferings. They say, well, what does that mean? How do people share in Christ's sufferings? Well, understand this phrase, let's start by being really clear about the ways in which Jesus's suffering is unique. Paul says in Romans five, "God shows his love for us, and now while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." Jesus on the cross died a death that perfectly displays God's amazing love, and I say it's amazing because God showers his love on his enemies. And friends, that was me and you. We are sinners. We are traitors in God's universe. We have defied him in thought indeed. And because of our sin friends, we were at war with God. We richly deserved God's wrath. But Jesus died to save us from undergoing that wrath and to reconcile us to God. Only Jesus' death could accomplish that. And so Jesus' death is absolutely unique. And it is not repeatable. Romans six-tenses, the death he died, he died to sin once for all. Jesus will never die again. His sacrifice stands complete, and it is not subject to repetition by himself or anybody else. And all of that is to say then, that when Paul speaks here of sharing the sufferings of Christ, he is not saying that he or the Corinthians suffer in that unique way that Jesus suffered. They did not bear the penalty for sin and their body on the tree. They have not yielded their lives to divert the wrath of God. Okay, but then what does this phrase mean? It means friends that if we know Jesus in a saving way, we are deeply and personally connected to his suffering and death. Paul says that about himself in Galatians two-twenty. I have been crucified with Christ. Now, Paul's not saying he literally hung on a cross at Calvary next to Jesus. He means that because of his faith in a spiritual way, he has been personally connected to Jesus' crucifixion, not meaning that he simply benefits from Jesus' death. But Paul thinks, and we'll see that I can prove this in a minute, Paul believes that his life is now so joined and so associated with Jesus, that he expects his life should bear the same kind of hardships that Jesus suffered. That's his prayer in Philippians 3, 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in death. Paul expects that at the end of his life, he's gonna experience the power of Jesus' resurrection, but he also believes that right now, his life should reflect Jesus' great sufferings because Jesus greatly suffered, and he's connected to that. Indeed, Paul says later in this book, 2 Corinthians 4-8, we are afflicted in every way, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. To belong to Jesus is to grow in Christ's likeness, and Paul says part of that means experiencing hardship as Jesus suffered, and Paul says he did that, Galatians 6-17, I bear on my body the marks of Jesus, but what's true of Paul is also true of other believers because believing friends, we also have been joined to Jesus' death, Romans chapter six, verse three. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life, for if we have been united with him, in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. It's the same logic. Believing friends, our lives are connected to Jesus' resurrection. That's what empowers our renewed transformed lives right now. That's what gives us our hope in the end. But Paul says in that same way, even right now, we have been joined, we have been baptized, we have been buried, we have been united to Jesus' death. And please understand that this is not merely some legal fiction in God's spiritual economy out there somewhere. This is a reality believers should expect to play out in our lives. It was true of Paul, it will be true of us. Belonging to Jesus means that we will suffer just as Jesus did. Now, certainly maybe not in the same quantity, but friends, suffering is coming our way. So Paul says in Acts 14 verse 22, it is through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom of God. Listen to Peter, 1 Peter 4, 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings. The apostles say that to belong to Jesus is to suffer because Jesus suffered. And so believing friends expect hardship because of your connection to Christ. Now, when we think about suffering for Jesus, we tend to think about persecution, right? As we should. Jesus said in John 15, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, 12, indeed all who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Friends, that's a promise. If you pursue godliness, you will be persecuted. Now, we tend to think about persecution today all in terms of martyrdom or torture. And certainly Christians have been persecuted in these terrible ways throughout history. But far more commonly, Christians throughout history have been persecuted by suffering mockery and reviling and slander the loss of property, the loss of jobs, the loss of reputations. Persecution comes in many forms. And we are promised biblically that if we are pursuing godliness, we will encounter some of these forms of persecution. Friend, is that true in your life? Have you suffered persecution for the cause of Christ? And if not, why not? Now, here I can imagine maybe our first response is to say, well, you know, our society's different than other societies. We don't have persecution here. That's nonsense. The Bible promises, if you stand up for Jesus today, there will be blowback in your life socially, professionally, in your family, somewhere. Have you experienced that? And dear friends, if not, it's honestly probably because you have not been visibly standing up for Jesus around unbelievers because the Bible promises that if you try to live in a way that pleases Jesus, the world and unbelievers will try to hurt you. It is an inevitable spiritual law. And what I want you to take from this is not, oh, wow, I guess I'd better not pursue godliness 'cause I don't wanna be persecuted. No friends, if we know Jesus, we gotta live for Jesus, we need to make Jesus known. So we need to ready ourselves to suffer persecution. But not all suffering for Christ is persecutory. Consider Paul's testimony later in this book, 2 Corinthians 11, 24. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes, less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. On frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. In toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Paul suffered a lot. But not all the things on this list were persecution. Shipwreck, being jumped by robbers, suffering sleepless nights in the cold. These incidents weren't caused by unbelievers trying to hurt Paul for his faith. They were just the dangers inherent in ancient travel. They were hardships Paul experienced because he busied himself with the things of God. And friends, if we busy ourselves with Christian service, we will suffer the costs inherent in that too. We may get scammed when we're generous. I know some Christian folks got hauled into court 'cause they helped bail somebody out once and he jumped the bail. We may get carjacked if we try to help people in a less than safe area. We might get stranded late at night with a flat tire somewhere because we went out to help someone when they needed it. We might get sick from helping sick people. That is suffering inherent to the work of ministry, to which we are all called, not just the church leaders. So expect it as you serve the Lord and you try to help those in need. It's gonna cost you something. It costs Paul a lot. Or here's another form of suffering that Paul talks about in this book, chapter 12 verse seven. A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me. This probably is a reference to a terrible illness that Paul encountered. Now we tend not to think of illness as having spiritual causes and probably most don't. But Paul tells us at least sometimes they might that God sometimes allows Satan to afflict believers like he did Job. And so friends, we may even suffer things like illness because of our connection to Jesus. Now when we put all of this together friends, we need to understand that being a Christian means that we will suffer in many different ways. Prosperity theology is false. A connection to Christ does not deliver you from hardship in this world. Rather, coming to Christ is a guarantee that you will suffer. That is a spiritual law. Because coming to Christ connects our lives to Jesus' death on the cross in such a real way that we will begin to experience suffering as we increasingly reflect our Lord who we are joined to by faith. Now this brings us to our second point, which is that believers suffer so that we might experience God's comforting strength which makes us more like Jesus. We just saw some bad news and we're gonna suffer. Now Paul gives us some good news. Look again at verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction. Friends, Christianity is not some masochistic cult of suffering. Yes, we will suffer as part of the Christian life, but praise God, that's not all the Christian life is because of who God is. God is the Father of mercies. Now this term mercy is not the usual Greek word, translated mercy when we read about God's forgiveness in the gospel. This Greek word speaks of God's compassion and pity. Believing friends, we need to be encouraged today when we suffer God's compassion abounds to us. Psalm 103 says as a father shows compassion to his children. So the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. Isaiah 49 says the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. And please understand that God's pity is not the passive pity of a distant observer watching us suffer helplessly. Listen to Psalm 34. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Friends, when we suffer, God is near us and actively helps us. And we see that in the second title, Poe gives God here. He is the God of all comfort. Now when we think about comfort, we tend to think about inner tranquility. Maybe what you're gonna do this afternoon when you doze on the couch or the blanket around you, you're so comfortable. Or the warm and fuzzy feeling we get when we watch cat videos on the internet. Okay, that's not the idea here. The Greek word translated comfort here means to assist someone by strengthening them. So Poe says that when believers suffer, God gives us more than a happy feeling. God strengthens and equips us to face the adverse circumstances of our lives. And that's what Poe says in verse four. He comforts us in all our affliction. Now what does this divine comfort look like? Sometimes it looks like rescue from the trial that we're in. Sometimes God lets us escape hardship. That's what Poe describes at the end of our passage. Look at verse eight. For we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received a sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Poe says he had recently faced a horrible hardship in Asia. What we would call today western Turkey. We don't know what this peril was. Maybe Poe's talking about the riot that ended his ministry in Ephesus or that illness that Satan afflicted him with. We don't know, he doesn't tell us. But whatever happened, Poe thought he was facing the end of his life. He says it was like he had the death sentence on him and it made him despair, he says. And yet, despite that, Poe says he trusted God who's able to raise the dead. And God rescued him. The trial ended, Poe was spared. And as Poe remembers this recent event, it gives him great confidence in God and the future. As he testified, not only that God delivered us, past tense, but that God will deliver us future tense. And Poe says on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Now friends, sometimes this is how God helps his people when we suffer. He may just pull us out of it. Maybe you've experienced this in life. You had a big illness and bang. God did something, maybe a doctor did something and it was gone. Or you were in real desperate financial straits and you got unexpected provision. I know a man who was once visited by the police and threatened with arrest. And he was terrified because he'd done nothing wrong. So he begged God for help. And then later he went by the police station to talk to them about it. And they said we have no record of any crime being committed and they didn't know what he was talking about. That's mercy, friends. Sometimes God and his great power does something far better than anything we could ask or think and delivers us from a terrible hardship. That shouldn't surprise us. God raises the dead. God brought Jesus back from the dead on Easter morning when all hope seemed lost. God imparts life to spiritually dead sinners like us. Friends, we should trust the God who can save like that. Nothing's too difficult for him. So when we suffer, we should ask God to release us from it and show us his mighty power by rescuing us. And we should believe he has the power to do so no matter what we are facing. But we must not assume that God always will choose to free us from it. Because sometimes God's will is that we should endure trials rather than escape them. And we need to know that. Friends, I've known people who seem to think that their faith was a guarantee that God would always rescue them immediately from every bad situation. And when they suffered and were not immediately delivered, they didn't know how to deal with it. They didn't have theological categories for it. So they got angry at God and they grumbled and they accused God of wrongdoing. And some of them renounced their faith because they didn't understand this biblical truth. That God sometimes purposes his people should go through a lengthy sustained period of hardship. And we need to know here and now friends that could happen to us. And should it, we need to understand that does not mean that God has abandoned us to our pain. Rather, he comforts us in the suffering. He helps us and strengthens us for the trial we face. He walks with us. He helps us endure and he grows us in the trial. And friends, that's a biblical truth too. God promises to supernaturally enable his people to bear up under hard things and do so far more than we otherwise could. We heard earlier from Isaiah 40. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God. He does not faint or grow weary. He gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might, he increases strength. They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. God grants his strength and endurance to his beleaguered afflicted people. How have Christians throughout the centuries endured imprisonment and torture and martyrdom while maintaining their testimony? It wasn't 'cause they were so tough. It's 'cause God helped them. He helps us mightily today too. Think of our dear sister Evangeline and her late husband, Wayne, who underwent a terrible trial who lost three of their children. They didn't renounce the faith. They persevered. They loved the Lord. They raised their daughters' children to adulthood despite their advanced age because God gave them the strength they needed. And friends, God's comfort comes not only for the hardest situations in life like that, but even our more everyday challenges in the face of common illness or family conflict or job troubles. Friends, God always will give us what we need to meet the hardships we encounter, both big and small. And that doesn't mean it won't be terribly painful. But as we sang earlier, as your days, your strength shall be. That means when we encounter really tough things, God strengthens us to be able to endure the challenges we face. I believe in friends, as you think about your life, I'm sure you can think of times in which you faced really hard things and you were able to endure far more than you ever thought you could. And that isn't because you're so tough. It's because God is a faithful father and he is a strong source of help to us in our moments of dire need. And friends, we can trust him. But not only does God give us his supernatural strength in hard times, but he's also given us the wonderful promises of his word so that when we suffer, we can look beyond our circumstances and understand what is happening to us. Now, what are some of God's promises? Here's some of them, Romans 8, 16. The spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children than heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided, we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. The Bible says if we trust Christ, we're God's children. We are the heirs to the greatest of all inheritances, but it also tells us the path there is a path marked by great suffering which prepares us for the glory that will one day be ours. Or many of us know this verse, Romans 8, 28. For those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. But I think those words can sound quite bitter to us at times when we consider the hardships we endure. So how can a bad diagnosis? How can job loss be good for us? Our friends, here's where reading in context makes all the difference. Because the next verse tells us what the good is that God means to achieve in us. Romans 8, 29. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Friends, all that we encounter in life happens because God purposes to make us more like Jesus. That's how our hardships ultimately produce good. Not because they're pleasant or enjoyable, but because through them we grow in Christ's likeness. That's why James says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, "when you meet trials of various kinds, "for you know the testing of your faith "produces steadfastness. "And let steadfastness have its full effect "that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Friends, we suffer in part so that we will develop the virtue of steadfastness, of patient endurance under trial, which characterize Jesus. That's something we have to grow if we're to be more like Jesus. And James says, "Know that, and think about that, "and consider therefore it is joy when you suffer, "not because suffering's fun, "but because when you suffer, "you can know God is right then "and they're working in your life. "He is readying you for glory." And so God comforts us when we hit hard times by giving us his strength and by the truths of his word. And friends, all of this help comes from God. God is the God of all comfort. James 1 17 says, "Every good and perfect gift "is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. "So too is every comfort that we receive in hard times. "It comes down from our merciful, unchanging Father, "who gives us so much strength and help." That Paul can say this in verse five. "For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, "so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. "To be a Christian is to share in suffering abundantly, "but to be a Christian is to receive God's comfort, "every bit as abundantly." And friend, this morning, are you suffering? If so, how are you responding? Definitely pray for God to liberate you from the trial you're going through. But don't become so fixated on the idea that God's help means your immediate deliverance, that you're left confused and disappointed if God should intend that you have to go through this trial of the hard way and suffer for a long time. Friend, if that is God's will for you, do not let hardship drive you away from God. Instead, lean into the God who raises the dead. Remember his promises and claim them. Remember that the strength you lack, he will supply. And remember that he is bringing forth the fruit of steadfastness in your life. He's making you more like Christ. He's writing you for glory. But this brings us to our last point. Believers suffer so that we can become instruments by which God comforts others who suffer. Friends, we're gonna suffer in this life and God will faithfully comfort us when we suffer if we belong to him. But let's learn one more truth now. Look back at verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comforts who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. God comforts us because he loves us, because he's faithful to us. But God also comforts us so that he can transform us into his instruments that he will use to help other believers that suffer. We often think about our spiritual lives as personal, private, and disconnected from others. That's just me and Jesus, you know? But the New Testament tells us that while, of course, Jesus saves us individually, he adds us to a community of believers whom we are to love and serve. And one of the most important ways we do this is comforting our brothers and sisters in Christ when they suffer and how are we to comfort them by drawing on that comfort and strength that God has previously given to us in our own sufferings. So when we suffer, God comforts us so that we will later be able to pass that comfort on to others that suffer too. This should totally change the way that we think about our sufferings. Because we learn here that hardship is not just a really bad experience, it's something we are to learn from. It teaches us lessons that we are to remember about the goodness and faithfulness of God. Lessons that in time, God will give us an opportunity to share with others who are hurting, who need comfort. This is one of the most powerful ways that God comforts us through the encouragement and truth shared by other believers who have suffered in the past. And this is one of the most important ways that we serve God and his people by transmitting our own testimony of God's faithfulness and what we've learned in hard times to those who need to hear it. Now, notice what verse four says. The God of all comfort uses us and our sufferings to comfort those who are in any affliction. This is really important. There's an idea today. Oh, you can't speak into my life unless you've been where I've been. No, no, no friends. The lessons we learn through suffering are not limited to only to helping those who experience the same things that we've faced. The comfort we receive from God is generally applicable. It equips us to help anybody who is involved with any kind of affliction. So if you have suffered in any way in the past, know that you have something meaningful and encouraging to say to someone else who is suffering. Even if their suffering seems radically different and worse than yours. This also means that if you're suffering today, God intends you to be comforted. Not just by those who have faced your identical circumstances. Understand you can be encouraged and helped even by believers who have not walked a mile in your shoes. Now, Paul shows us how this system of mutual comfort works in his own ministry. Verses three and four, he says that he suffered and he has been strengthened by God so that he can help others and pass that comfort along. Now look at how it works. Look at verse six. He says, if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort. When you experience, when you patiently endure the same as sufferings that we suffer, our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. Paul suffered a lot. And the result was he passed the comfort along. We see that in the Corinthians own experience. Paul suffered many things on the second missionary journey. God comforted him and what was the result? He gave the Corinthians the gospel. He planted a church and lots of people got saved. And later Paul suffered when he heard how the Corinthians had fallen into sin and God comforted him and what was the result? He wrote first Corinthians and told them to repent. He helped them. And now after his recent severe trial and the comfort God gave him through that, Paul writes this letter to encourage the Corinthians. Again and again, Paul suffers and the result is he's comforted by God and he finds a way to help the Corinthians. And friends, this should be our outlook too. How do we transmit the comfort God has given us to other hurting believers around us? It's God's plan. But for God's plan to work here in our midst, we've got to do some things as a body. First, we have to be willing to share when we suffer. I remember a number of years ago, there were three church members here who were all undergoing the same terrible trial at the same time. And every one of them told me, please don't share this with anybody. I want my struggle to remain private. It was so frustrating because if they had been willing to lower their defenses a little bit and let other people know what was going on with them, they wouldn't have been suffering alone anymore. They would have known there were others there around them who could help them and pray with them and encourage them. And that would have been far more fruitful for each of them to know that they had support, to offer prayers born out of that common experience. You know that would have been powerful. It's one of the saddest things I've seen in like 10 years of ministry. It happens again and again, people opting to suffer alone out of a misguided sense of privacy, denying themselves the wonderful benefit God has designed for them to have in moments of suffering, of a community of people nearby, comforting and encouraging them. Friends, for this to work, we've got to have some vulnerability, some willingness to admit when we're hurting. And for this to work, we also have to have some vulnerability and willingness to talk about our past hurts that we have endured and share how God helped us through them. Sometimes this is easier than others. It's easy to talk about how God delivered us from a big health crisis, than to talk about how God liberated us from some sin that we were enslaved to. Where to lay bare your heart about the pains you experienced when your family broke apart, where your children rejected you, where the spiritual abuse you endured in another church, it's hard to wanna talk about those things. It takes a leap of faith to open your heart up like that with other people that maybe you don't know so well. But friends, God allows us to endure trials so that we can encourage each other when we suffer. And if we refuse, if we opt out of this plan, we not only harm our suffering brothers and sisters here, who would be greatly helped by our encouragements. But we also make the trials that we have endured pointless in large part because we have blunted a significant part of the benefit God intended to produce by allowing us to endure them. So look around, look at the prayer list. There are a lot of suffering people here. Who are you encouraging here? Who could you talk to? Who might benefit from you sharing your experience or pointing to a passage that meant a lot to you at a time of crisis? Who might benefit from your words of comfort? Or are you today here hurting? Does anybody know? We're not mind readers. We can't help you if you don't let somebody know what you're going through. Don't suffer in silence. That's not what God wants for you. Be willingness to show some vulnerability so you can get the comfort God intends you to receive from your brothers and sisters here. But now we see one last way that we're to be an instrument of God's comfort for others. Look at verse 11. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Paul believes God's going to deliver him from his future sufferings. And he believes that deliverance will come through the prayers of many. One of the main ways that we are instruments for comforting other people, for transmitting God's comfort to them is by praying for them. God has ordained intercessory prayer as a significant way that he helps his hurting people. Do you want God's comfort in your hard times? You need people to pray for you. James 516 says the effective prayer of a righteous person has great power. And friend, if you are eager to receive the benefits of other people praying for you, shouldn't you also be praying for them? Friends, it is our conviction. We need to be more of a praying church 'cause God answers prayer because God helps his people in the hardest times when we pray for one another. And as we pray together. Now, of course, God answers the prayers that we pray at home by ourselves. That's why we print the prayer list so you can have it at home. That's why we send out emergency prayer requests. So you'll pray for them. But understand that God commands corporate prayer as a vital activity in the life of the local church. That's why Paul begins his discussion of the life of the local church in 1 Timothy 2 by saying, "I urge that supplications, "prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made "for all people." Corporate prayer is a vital part of the welfare of God's people. And yet, how few of us actually gathered together to pray on Wednesday? Many of us expect prayer. Few of us seem to be willing to show up to pray. My brothers and sisters, these things are not to be so. Paul tells the Corinthians here, "You must help us by prayer." And so friends, I say to each of us here now, we must help each other in this vital ministry of prayer because that is a key part of how we strengthen each other in hardship. And as we pray friends, God will grant us one last comfort because over time he will show us how he answers prayer. And that will give us a reason to give him thanks and embolden us to keep on praying and keep on trusting him in every situation we encounter. Good and bad. Now again, if this is to work, you've got to let somebody know when you need prayer 'cause we're not mind readers. I've known some dear praying people over the years who misguidedly said, "I don't want to burden the faithful with my prayer needs." The Bible says you should. Jesus established a church for many reasons, one of them was so that we could pray for each other. And if you would pray for others, don't rob others of the chance to pray for you. So if you need prayer, tell us. And then friends, let us pray individually and corporately because God will use that. He will answer our prayers to help each other. So to conclude, today we've seen why bad things happen to God's people. We've seen how God wonderfully comforts us in the midst of our sufferings and how God wants us to be a source of comfort for each other. But friend, understand all of this is true for you today only if you know Jesus in a saving way. If you have never turned from your life of sin to trust Christ for salvation, you should not be comforted right now because God is not comforting you. God is pursuing you as an enemy and his wrath abides on you. And I would say if that's you today, repent and cast yourself on the mercy of Christ. But today if you do know Jesus, then let us believe what Paul says about why we suffer and let us believe what Paul says about the comfort available in God and the comfort we should be giving each other. And let me leave you with this challenge. Before you leave here today, find someone that you know needs encouraging and encourage them. Pray for them. And if you are suffering, please come and tell me or me or Daniel or one of the other church leaders so that the church family can prop you up in prayer. 'Cause Galatians six commands that we bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And believe her, if you are here hurting today, remember this, God is with you. He is near the brokenhearted. And Psalm 46 says he is a very present help in times of trouble.