GOD’S POWER IN OUR PAIN.”
ROL has had a tough couple of weeks, and even before that. God knows all, and sees all.
2 Corinthians 1:3-11
MOST OF US HAVE THIS IMAGE OF A SMOOTH LIFE
- If I am a Christian, then certain things shouldn’t happen to me.
- Sometimes we imagine a life with no ups and downs, but a life that is level with unbroken joy. A life with a moderate amount of pain.
- Sometimes what we hoped for didn’t happen.
- Sometimes, what we never saw coming happened, and our faith is shaken.
We were even challenged to put into perspective what we have experienced.
ILLUS.: Charles Spurgeon, The Prince of Preachers, “I am a subject of depression so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of pain that I go to.”
Discouragement is no respecter of persons. Depression can attack the successful, as well as the unsuccessful.
Even the Apostle Paul was: “Pressed out of measure and despised even of life.” II Cor. 1:8=
There are Questions ask: Sincere seekers and caustic cynics:
- WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?
-Why is life so hard? Why are things so complicated?
-What is a good person? We are all sinners.
Rom. 3:10, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” We have “sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). We all need God’s grace on a daily basis.
[Comparing our stories to someone else, to justify how much better we are, is a lesson in futility] NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY WILL FACE.
- WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOD’S PEOPLE?
If God loves His own children, why does He allow us to suffer? To experience the pain that rattles our faith? We could all recall many stories this morning.
Just what River of Life experienced over the last several weeks is enough comparisons to ask: Is God aware? Does he see me? Job 13:24
Satan’s goal was not to see Job suffer. Satan’s goal was to see Job sin in his suffering. The answer was to worship God through the pain. God is not distant during our suffering. He only seems distant.
DAVID THE PSALMIST
Psalm 10:1, “Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do you hide in times of trouble?”
Psalm 44:24, “Why do You hide Your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?”
Psalm 13:1, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?”
PAUL IN HEBREWS
Heb. 13:5, “For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Paul founded the Church at Corinth and preached for 1½ years.
Problems arose, and he sent Timothy to take care of the problems; to no avail.
Wrote: I Cor., and finally, he had to write another letter, which we call II Cor.
THIS LETTER DEALS WITH SEEKING GOD IN TIMES OF TROUBLE. PAUL HAD A TIME OF GREAT PERSONAL WEAKNESS.
He wrote this letter for several reasons: To help believers understand that pain is not tied to God’s goodness, but rather God’s POWER IN OUR PAIN.
1. WE CAN LEARN FROM OTHERS PAIN. Vs. 3-4
–I watch those who live by faith, and I watch those who overcome with faith. We can learn from those who still say: “GOD IS GOOD.” “God is faithful.” “God is on time even when it is not my time.”
Vs. 1-2: Paul has a personal, & painful letter. He is suffering. God comforts him in his pain. He uses his comfort to comfort others.
Paul truly found that God was there to “help in time of need”. (Heb. 14:6)
Vs. 3 MAIN VERSE OF THIS TEXT: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, and God of all comfort.”
C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain: “Pain is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, to learn submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads.”
Corinth The Church-v.1d
-However, new problems sprang up, the most serious of which was an influx of false teachers/apostles, who basically questioned Paul’s authority.
[God must not be with Paul if he is going through these things.]
Paul’s Love for them: v.2; “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Grace” refers to God’s unmerited or unearned favor. Paul’s prayer is that the grace which saved them will sustain them.
-Amazing Grace permits us to find forgiveness, and it also allows us to experience increased amazing God moments.
“Peace” here is the equivalent of the Hebrew word shalom, meaning: “Wholeness, harmony, and completeness on many levels.
-When you see someone going through a FIERY TRIAL, “Grace” and “peace” are very appropriate greetings, especially when you don’t know what to say.
IN SUFFERING WE LEARN WHAT GOD IS TO US:
- In suffering, our faith is tested.
Proverbs 17:3,“The LORD tests the hearts.”
-God knows the depth of our faith, but our testing reveals to us the quality of our faith.
- In suffering, God teaches us to depend on Him.
When all our human resources are gone, we must depend upon God alone.
- In suffering, God reveals strength and compassion.
In our trials, we learn God is strong to save and rejoice in His deliverance.
- In suffering, God strengthens our faith.
We learn much through our pain that we would never learn if our lives were easy.
- In suffering, God enables us to comfort others.
Paul emphasizes that the hardship he endured would be a source of strength for the believers in Corinth.
God does use our struggles to help others.
Your pain can help another find peace. Your problem can help another find power. Your perseverance can help another find purpose.
ILLUS.: Think of Peter’s arrogant boasting the night Jesus was betrayed? He promised that even if all the other disciples abandoned Jesus, He would be faithful. Jesus said to Him:
“Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32).
Peter denied the Lord three times. His weakness broke his own heart. He did return to the Lord, and He did use that experience for the rest of his life to strengthen others in times of doubt. His weakness built a new strength.
ILLUS. As a pastor, I have prayed with many grieving families. Yet, when I walked through something that was similar to someone else, I could say: “My grief has helped me to comfort others in their time of grief. “
Vs. 4-“Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
ILLUS.: We have watched the Billings, D’Angelo, Kearney, Lewis, Price, Wells, Wallis, RECENTLY: Carter and Kesler families travel through unimaginable pain. We have learned again the value of depending on God and each other.
2. WE LEARN TO RELY ON GOD IN OUR PAIN.Vs. 5-7
Comfort and Encouragement are used a total of 29 times in this letter.
All comfort comes from God. He is our “help in time of need.”
ILLUS.: 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. 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, / AND WHEN MY VOICE IS LOST IN DEATH,/ PRAISE SHALL EMPLOY MY NOBLER POWER / MY DAYS OF PRAISE SHALL NE’ER BE PAST,/ WHILE LIFE, AND THOUGHT, AND BEING LAST,/ OR IMMORTALITY ENDURES.”
Matt. 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
2 Thess. 2:16-17, “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you..”
Vs. 4 –He comforts us. What a powerful statement! “Us” includes Paul and all believers. Paul is testifying to the Lord’s comfort through his struggles.
(AMP) Vs. 5- For just as Christ’s sufferings are ours in abundance [as they overflow to His followers], so also our comfort [our reassurance, our encouragement, our consolation] is abundant through Christ [it is truly more than enough to endure what we must]
PAUL’S PERSONAL ATTACKS (MAYBE YOU CAN RELATE)
-He was attacked and slammed by the false accusations.
-He feared the church would be led astray.
-People Paul loved and had invested himself in turned their backs on him. That was a temptation.
GOD COMFORTS “US” TODAY.
Comfort when those we love pass from this life. We as Christians believe in Life after death. We believe in Heaven. We believe that Heaven is a REAL PLACE. We believe that God the Father is President of the Universe.
God comforts us when we are lonely.
Philippians 4:6-7: “….but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
ILLUS.: Paul lists his sufferings (perils of waters, beaten left for dead, abandoned, perils in wilderness, left for dead), besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.”
Pastoring can be emotionally painful. Only those who serve as under shepherds understand the depths of this pain.
-Disappointment, desertion, despair, and depression are constants in life and in ministry.
I’M SO THANKFUL TO HAVE A GOD WHO COMFORTS ME!
GOD COMFORTS US SO WE CAN HELP OTHERS.
“We can comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” As God comforts us, we can channel that comfort to other people who are in need.
ILLUS.: AMBER/NATHAN: The weeks leading up to Jonas’s passing, I began having very vivid visions every time I prayed for him. I would see myself carrying him across my arms. I was walking and looking for Jesus. When I would find him, I would lay him at Jesus’s feet.
*The Saturday before Jonas’ passing, Amber began to intercede for Jonas, with deep intercession, crying out to God, not knowing what was going on in his son’s life.
I have never had visions like this before when praying for any of my children.
GOD IS FAITHFUL WHEN WE STAND .
Vs. 5 -“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.”
God doesn’t promise His immense comfort to just any people in any suffering. He speaks of “the sufferings of Christ.” What does that mean?
Suffering as Christ suffered, enduring insults, pain, and loss for the sake of the Lord. His comfort is acute for the one who suffers for His allegiance to Jesus.
Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
ILLUS.: NOT SURE HOW, BUT I WILL ACKNOWLEDGE YOU.
Not indiscriminate suffering but suffering for our commitment to Christ.
That’s not a popular topic for American Christians. We don’t want to suffer.
There are no top-selling books in Christian bookstores about suffering.
Preachers don’t preach about suffering. We want to separate ourselves from any discomfort or pain. Being a Christian for many is only about the blessings of Christ, not suffering on behalf of Christ.
ILLUS.: Not too many T-shirts about suffering.
In equal measure, when we suffer, Christ comforts us. When we suffer and praise Him, we experience VICTORY.
- How could the martyrs of church history go so cheerfully to the chopping block and to the fire?
- How could missionaries give up all, even their lives, for the gospel?
- Christ supernaturally comforts them. Suffering comes to all people. Some do not want to follow Christ because they fear suffering.
Vs. 6– “If we are troubled and distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted and encouraged, it is for your comfort, which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same sufferings which we [b]experience.”
Write this down: we will all be “afflicted.” We will all experience distress, discomfort, and discouragement. Some will face more; some will face less.
2 Tim. 3:12, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”
The Corinthians’ rebellion, worldliness, selfishness, and errors had “afflicted” Paul. Caused him sleepless nights and emotional pain more than any other church he founded.
Paul’s affliction and God’s comfort were used to bring “consolation and salvation” to the Corinthian believers. God used Paul’s pain and comfort to get this church to maturity in Christ.
Vs. 7– Paul could have written the church at Corinth off. He might have washed his hands of them and said, “If they want to follow the lies of those false teachers, let them.” Yet he didn’t. That’s the true heart of a godly shepherd. His hope for them was “steadfast
Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
3. WE CAN BE TRANSFORMED BY GOD IN OUR PAIN. Vs. 8-11
He wanted them to know specifically how God was working comfort and deliverance.
WHEN IT IS BIGGER THAN YOU…….BUT GOD.
Vs. 8 -He says, “We were burdened excessively.”
The situation was “beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.” The persecution in whatever form was so bad that neither Paul nor his companions could do anything about it. They were helpless. It was “beyond” their “strength.”
“Despaired”=“no passage, no way out, no exit.”
- They had given up hope and “despaired even of life,” believing that they would be killed. 9, “Sentence” =apokrima.”
- It is a legal term that refers to an official judgment handed down by law. The verse says they had “the sentence of death within ourselves,” suggesting that they had given up on any hope and that Paul believed within himself that he would die.
God took Paul to this place “So that he would not trust in himself, but in God who raises the dead.”
God took Paul to a place of hopelessness so that he would learn to trust in God alone.
Vs. 10- “Who delivered us from so great a death, and [d]does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.”
Paul was confident, even though the situation was not fully resolved.
God had already delivered him once, he believed he would do so again.
ILLUS.I think of Amelia this morning. 11 years old. Full of the Holy Spirit. She was beyond her years. (Dreams…same dream, she couldn’t get past a set of woods.)
-2 Days before she went to heaven….she flew above and over, and was able to see beyond.”
Lamentations 3:21-23, “This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
WHEN IT IS BIGGER THAN US, WE LEARN TO TRUST GOD. vs.11
Paul was learning that God would sovereignly orchestrate events so that he would not die until God was ready for him. He would have hope in this knowledge.
Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”
All the days of our lives are in God’s hands, even before we are born.
We must trust God’s sovereignty. Life is complex, life is complicated, life is difficult on most days.
The power in prayer is not in us, but in God. We declare our helplessness to Him and He comforts us with hope. The outcome of the prayers of the saints is praise.
ILLUS. May 14, 1988, Pastor and Mrs. Martha Tennison. Pastored Radcliff Assembly of God, the youth group had spent a day at King’s Island Amusement Park.
The bus was full with 67 people on board. A drunk driver entered the highway going the wrong direction, hitting the bus head-on, causing the gas tank to explode. In the aftermath of the accident, 27 people from 1 church died. The Youth pastor and his wife both perished trying to rescue the teens: the driver and two other youth sponsors.
22 teens tragically perished. In the words of a Mother and father who buried two children:
“Ratcliff Assembly of God lived in a perpetual funeral for 2 years. The grief was unimaginable; everyone quit their ministries, we existed in deep pain for 2 years. One Sunday morning, we decided NO MORE. THERE IS A TIME TO GRIEVE AND THERE IS A TIME TO PRAISE.
They forced themselves to praise anyway….they got in the aisle and walked to the front….and they said, “devil, you won’t steal my joy no more.” The Spirit of God fell, and they dismissed the service 5 hours later. The families and the church were set free.
GOD HAS A POWER IN OUR PAIN
“Through prayer, human impotence falls before divine omnipotence.”