The Tough Aren't Surprised
Speaker: Steve Jeffrey
Date: 24th May 2009
Passage: 2 Corinthians 1:1-13:14
00:00:00 --> 00:00:08 Good morning everyone, it's great to have you here. I'm glad that the kids were sitting
00:00:08 --> 00:00:12 there otherwise it would seem like you're in great fear of me all sitting towards the
00:00:12 --> 00:00:17 back of the building. In a previous life I used to work for the National Parks and Wildlife
00:00:17 --> 00:00:24 Service and one of my jobs that I used to do was to build walking tracks and I always
00:00:24 --> 00:00:29 wanted to go the easy option and so what we, I managed to convince our boss to buy this
00:00:29 --> 00:00:34 little bulldozer which was quite powerful but small and I would build walking tracks by driving
00:00:34 --> 00:00:41 that through the bush and then effectively going back over it and putting a hard surface
00:00:41 --> 00:00:46 anywhere there was a bit of a dip in the track with gullies or creeks we would build bridges
00:00:46 --> 00:00:52 across it. Effectively by the end of it you could walk along it in an evening gown with
00:00:52 --> 00:00:57 high heels shoes on. It was almost a five lane highway, it was fantastic in the middle of
00:00:57 --> 00:01:02 nowhere. It used to cost a bit of money but it was a good product at the end and that
00:01:02 --> 00:01:07 was my idea of hiking. My idea was you would make it as easy as possible for everyone who
00:01:07 --> 00:01:12 would walk along that road and so a number of years later, in fact only just a few years
00:01:12 --> 00:01:17 ago, I was in Canada and a friend of mine suggested we go on a hike and I thought, hike? That sounds
00:01:17 --> 00:01:23 fantastic. Long stroll through the bush? Sounds like a great idea. Anyway, on the way to Glacier
00:01:23 --> 00:01:27 National Park I picked up a newspaper which talked about Glacier National Park and we
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 would flick through this paper and sort of work out where we were going to go until we
00:01:30 --> 00:01:35 got to the middle and we opened up this double page spread in the middle of the newspaper which
00:01:35 --> 00:01:41 said warnings about walking in Glacier National Park. It mentioned things like black bears.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:50 That was a surprise to me that black bears apparently are generally fairly timid but if they attack
00:01:50 --> 00:01:55 you are meant to stand up against them and fight them back. That seemed logical. I was okay with
00:01:55 --> 00:02:00 that. Then it mentioned grizzly bears. Apparently grizzly bears if they attack you don't fight them
00:02:00 --> 00:02:05 back. You actually lay down as if you're dead and you let them attack you for two minutes.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:11 So and then apparently if it goes longer than two minutes then it's serious. So if it's chewing
00:02:11 --> 00:02:17 off your arm, you got your arm, you got two minutes here dude and then we get serious. So that didn't
00:02:17 --> 00:02:23 seem terribly logical to me. I figured that I would attack if a grizzly was going to attack me. I couldn't
00:02:23 --> 00:02:28 imagine just calmly laying down and allowing it to have its way for two minutes. And then there were
00:02:28 --> 00:02:34 cougars. Now cougars, they would stalk you and then they would jump on you from behind. So you can
00:02:34 --> 00:02:39 imagine a 10 kilometer hike consistently looking over your back waiting for a cougar and up in the trees
00:02:39 --> 00:02:44 and on the rocks and just waiting for a cougar. And apparently then there were wolverines. Now wolverines
00:02:44 --> 00:02:49 were quite shy but if they got nasty they were nastiest of all of them. They were even worse
00:02:49 --> 00:02:55 than the grizzly bears. And so I'm thinking this is not a great idea to go for this hike.
00:02:56 --> 00:03:00 Friend convinced that it was a great idea so we got there and he said look what's the chances
00:03:00 --> 00:03:06 of this happening? What's the chances? Of course then I went and googled grizzly bear attacks in
00:03:06 --> 00:03:11 Glacier National Park and got a long list of the history of grizzly attacks and I figured it's been a while
00:03:11 --> 00:03:19 since the last one so maybe it might be time now. But apparently the best thing to do was make lots
00:03:19 --> 00:03:29 of noise and carry a big stick which was really basically useless and or to buy some bear spray.
00:03:30 --> 00:03:36 Yeah yeah that's what I thought, bear spray. I thought go figure. And so we went around looking
00:03:36 --> 00:03:40 for bear spray. We couldn't find any bear spray. All the shops were closed. It was a public holiday.
00:03:41 --> 00:03:45 And so the best thing we came up with was my friend's wife had a can of hair spray.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:52 And we figured that would do. At the very least after it finishes a tack on me it's going to look good.
00:03:54 --> 00:03:59 So we figured we'd turn it into a flame thrower. We had some matches and we flicked these matches
00:03:59 --> 00:04:05 and tried to get this hair spray to light up. We discovered it was non-flammable hair spray.
00:04:05 --> 00:04:11 And so at the end of four attempts I said to my friend, oh we're dead. We're dead. And he said,
00:04:12 --> 00:04:18 no no it's fine. It's okay. We got to the beginning of the trail and there was this big sign.
00:04:19 --> 00:04:23 Grizzly bear with two cubs seen in vicinity yesterday. Caution!
00:04:23 --> 00:04:31 We have time to turn back. We do not have to do this walk. We did and we never saw a grizzly
00:04:31 --> 00:04:35 which sort of was sort of bittersweet kind of thing. I would have liked to have seen one
00:04:35 --> 00:04:42 a long long way away. But in the end it was a great walk. But at the time I remember thinking
00:04:42 --> 00:04:47 that it was very different than my experience of strolls in the Australian countryside.
00:04:48 --> 00:04:52 And I was reminded as we're walking along the old saying, when the going gets tough
00:04:52 --> 00:05:01 the tough get going. We know that when things get tough a person's true character come to the
00:05:01 --> 00:05:07 fore it's then that you see what they are made of. This morning we are beginning on a couple of
00:05:07 --> 00:05:14 month journey through the book of 2 Corinthians. It's one of those books which effectively you see
00:05:14 --> 00:05:20 the Apostle Paul's character coming to the fore as things are fairly tough. And we need to,
00:05:20 --> 00:05:24 it's one of those books where you need to jump to the end to sort of check out the end of the story
00:05:24 --> 00:05:29 to give you perspective on the early bits. It's like reading a good thriller or one of those
00:05:29 --> 00:05:34 thriller movies you know where the last little bits sort of, you know, sort of hit the,
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 makes everything make sense. You know up until that point you're sort of a bit confused.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:43 I'm one of those people who ruin movies for people. When I get it I make sure everyone knows it.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:47 We were watching The Sixth Sense one day with a bunch of people and I went about a third of the way
00:05:47 --> 00:05:51 through them. Oh get this, he's dead. And everyone just ruined it for everyone at that point.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 So we're going to do that. We're going to jump to the end of the book and we're going to have a look.
00:05:55 --> 00:06:00 We're going to discover here that the Apostle Paul, the founder of this church of Corinth,
00:06:00 --> 00:06:05 has been sidelined by the church of Corinth by these new, what he calls, super apostles which have
00:06:05 --> 00:06:10 come in. So in chapter 11 at the end of the book he says, but I do not think that I'm at least inferior
00:06:10 --> 00:06:15 to those super apostles. I may not be well trained but I do have knowledge. We have made this
00:06:15 --> 00:06:20 perfectly clear in every way. So what is happening here in this book is that Paul's authority and
00:06:20 --> 00:06:26 leadership are being challenged by these bunch of guys that he calls the super apostles. That's who
00:06:26 --> 00:06:32 he calls them. I think he uses the term quite sarcastically. The main issue of Hurt is that
00:06:32 --> 00:06:40 this church has been so ready to believe the criticisms against him. Things like he's a moral
00:06:40 --> 00:06:44 coward or that he lacks sort of inner strength and he's actually an imposter and some people actually
00:06:44 --> 00:06:50 saying that he's a fool and even that he's mad. And so what is happening is that this Apostle Paul
00:06:50 --> 00:06:56 here is forced to defend his teaching and his ministry and his character. So we need to have
00:06:56 --> 00:07:01 that in the back of the mind as we look at these early chapters that what is happening here is that
00:07:01 --> 00:07:06 this Apostle is on a fight for his life against these false apostles and not just his life, the life
00:07:06 --> 00:07:11 of this church of Corinth. And so with that in mind let's have a look at the beginning. So grab,
00:07:11 --> 00:07:15 there's some Bibles in your pews in the front of your pews there or if you brought your own,
00:07:15 --> 00:07:26 the ones in the pews is page 1109. Actually 1119 would be better, 1119. Grab a Bible and flick open.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:32 So knowing the end of the story it makes perfect sense why he would begin this letter with Paul,
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:46 The key words there is when he says by the will of God. You could miss those words so easily if you
00:07:46 --> 00:07:53 didn't understand what was happening in this letter. The very first words as he sets out,
00:07:53 --> 00:07:58 he wants to make it clear, he wants to make it straight, I'm an apostle appointed by the will of
00:07:58 --> 00:08:05 God. I didn't choose one to be one, God chose me to be one. And what he's doing there is referring
00:08:05 --> 00:08:11 to his Damascus Road experience. You see once upon a time Paul was actually a persecutor of the church.
00:08:11 --> 00:08:17 He was a religious, religious, religious guy. Super religious, more religious than any of us here.
00:08:17 --> 00:08:22 He would be this kind of guy that would be at church each week, he'd own his very own prayer book,
00:08:22 --> 00:08:27 he would be the kind of guy who'd, you know, just everything was rules and regulations,
00:08:27 --> 00:08:32 he would pray, he would give plenty of money and make sure that he gave the right amount of money,
00:08:32 --> 00:08:37 all that sort of stuff. And he was on his way to persecute Jesus, even though he was so religious,
00:08:37 --> 00:08:45 he hated Jesus and those who followed Jesus. He was a rebel. And so he was on his way to persecute
00:08:45 --> 00:08:50 Jesus and to persecute the followers of Jesus. And Jesus appeared to him and said, man, what are you
00:08:50 --> 00:08:57 doing? That's my paraphrase. Well, what are you doing? What are you persecuting me for? And Paul's
00:08:57 --> 00:09:02 life turned inside out and upside down. He went from someone who hated Jesus to loving Jesus.
00:09:04 --> 00:09:10 And at that moment, Jesus set him on course to be his apostle, to be his sent one to the world.
00:09:12 --> 00:09:16 One of the really interesting things is that even though he could point to this Damascus Road
00:09:16 --> 00:09:23 experience as the basis of his apostleship, the actual hardcore evidence that he was an apostle
00:09:23 --> 00:09:32 was actually in his lifestyle. While the source of his authority was Jesus, the evidence that he had
00:09:32 --> 00:09:37 authority as an apostle was not from some spectacular deeds. It wasn't that he was particularly gifted and
00:09:37 --> 00:09:42 that he did amazing miracles. It wasn't any of that sort of stuff. It wasn't those things,
00:09:42 --> 00:09:49 interestingly enough. It wasn't some spectacular power that he had. It was actually a pattern of
00:09:49 --> 00:09:55 hardship, of weakness, of sacrifice, and self-giving. Those are the things that he consistently looks
00:09:55 --> 00:10:07 back to as evidence of his apostleship. And it was his lifestyle that the super apostles ridiculed more
00:10:07 --> 00:10:13 than anything else. And so being under siege and in great distress for his church, he gets to the
00:10:13 --> 00:10:17 point in verse three, praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion,
00:10:17 --> 00:10:23 the God of all comfort. In those short paragraphs there and a few verses afterwards, the word comfort
00:10:23 --> 00:10:29 is used ten times. The word trouble, suffering, is used three times. Directly or indirectly, suffering is
00:10:29 --> 00:10:36 referred to 17 times. And the suffering that he has in mind here is particularly the pressure that he's under,
00:10:37 --> 00:10:42 the difficulties under because of his ministry. The burden that Paul carried because of his challenge
00:10:42 --> 00:10:49 to idolatry in Ephesus, you guys, you're worshipping created items rather than the created God. He
00:10:49 --> 00:10:55 challenged them and they really hated him for it. And he was under so much pressure that he even expected
00:10:55 --> 00:11:01 to die from the pressure. His concern that people know Jesus and that his passion for the church,
00:11:01 --> 00:11:07 they continue to honour Jesus. His faithfulness to Jesus himself were the cause of his suffering and
00:11:07 --> 00:11:15 pressure. And so what Paul experiences from God the Father is that he is the God of compassion,
00:11:16 --> 00:11:23 the God of comfort, which means he is a compassionate God and he's also the source of all compassion and
00:11:23 --> 00:11:29 comfort. God is the source of mercy and compassion and they come to us via the Lord Jesus.
00:11:29 --> 00:11:37 Paul says in the following verses that with all that he's been through, with all that he knows of God,
00:11:38 --> 00:11:45 he knows this thing to be true, that he's a merciful and he's a compassionate God in times of trouble.
00:11:47 --> 00:11:52 But it's often quite difficult for us to see that though. I mean, if you're in the midst of it,
00:11:52 --> 00:11:57 it's very difficult for to see that. If you're in the midst of trouble and hardship and distress,
00:11:57 --> 00:12:05 frankly, in those times we feel so powerless. I remember a number of years ago, a friend of
00:12:05 --> 00:12:14 mine had a child and the child was born with a hole in its heart and they had to have a surgery to
00:12:14 --> 00:12:20 fix the hole in the heart. The baby was about six months old and they were told it was a routine
00:12:20 --> 00:12:26 operation. I was down there with the family at the hospital when the doctors came out and said,
00:12:26 --> 00:12:34 we've got some bad news, it didn't go as well as we thought. And to sit in a room with the doctors,
00:12:34 --> 00:12:40 a team of specialists with this family and for them to say, your child has got a 50, 50% chance of
00:12:40 --> 00:12:48 living. When I hear someone say that, I hear a flick of a coin. I hear that. We don't know and it can go
00:12:48 --> 00:12:59 either way. To feel so, at that moment, it was so powerless. And I remember, I've got no words
00:12:59 --> 00:13:05 of comfort for you. I can say a few things. I can say that I know that God is the great God of
00:13:05 --> 00:13:10 compassion and mercy. And I prayed with them, the God who's got everything in his sovereign hand and
00:13:10 --> 00:13:16 in his control. I prayed with them. But I remember hopping in my car and driving out of this car park.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:23 And as soon as I exited the car park, just bursting into tears with the weight of the burden that this
00:13:23 --> 00:13:33 family must be feeling right now at this time. And needing God to intervene because I am completely
00:13:33 --> 00:13:38 powerless. They are completely powerless. And even the doctors acknowledge that they were powerless.
00:13:38 --> 00:13:46 And so we have to turn to the all-powerful God. And it's great when you come to a passage like this
00:13:46 --> 00:13:50 and realize that times like that, that suffering is never purposeless. Verse 4 says,
00:13:50 --> 00:13:55 who comforts us in our troubles, that is God, comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort
00:13:55 --> 00:13:59 those in any trouble with the comfort that we ourselves have received from God.
00:14:00 --> 00:14:05 Comfort, it says here, God comforts us in our trials so that, here it is,
00:14:05 --> 00:14:10 so that we can comfort those in any troubles with the comfort that we ourselves receive from God.
00:14:11 --> 00:14:16 What the Bible says here is saying that it is only in suffering and going through that process
00:14:16 --> 00:14:21 and being comforted that we ourselves can comfort others. We don't often think of it in those sort
00:14:21 --> 00:14:27 of terms though. We often think, I'm going through some stuff here, God. You sort it out for me.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:34 You comfort me. Yeah, I will if you pass it on to others. Suffering isn't purposeless.
00:14:34 --> 00:14:39 The comfort that we receive as we persevere through the suffering, we are able to pass it
00:14:39 --> 00:14:45 on to others. We are able to comfort others and only comfort others if we ourselves have received
00:14:45 --> 00:14:50 comfort from God ourselves. Have a look at verse 5. A great verse, one of the keys, I think,
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 to Paul's defense of his apostleship.
00:14:52 --> 00:15:01 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort
00:15:01 --> 00:15:08 comfort overflows. The comfort that we receive from God through Jesus is never for just for me
00:15:08 --> 00:15:15 and for us to use for ourselves. And the difficulty in our society though is we often shrink back
00:15:15 --> 00:15:20 in those moments. We shrink back from relationships when we are going through difficulties.
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 When we're feeling particularly vulnerable, we move away from people.
00:15:24 --> 00:15:29 And yet what it says here is that when we go through the difficulties, we go through the
00:15:29 --> 00:15:33 struggles and the sufferings and God, comfort overflows into us. We actually should be drawing
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 closer to other people and expressing comfort to others.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:43 It's one of the most, I think, the most difficult things about ministry, pastoral ministry.
00:15:43 --> 00:15:49 It's not the workload. It's actually the fact that I've got to get up week after week after week
00:15:49 --> 00:15:57 and day after day after day, a moment after moment after moment, and do ministry to broken people
00:15:57 --> 00:16:04 with a broken heart myself. As God comforts me and I pour that comfort out to other people.
00:16:05 --> 00:16:11 The comfort that we receive from God through Jesus is never just for me. And therefore it means
00:16:11 --> 00:16:15 that for us as a community, we need to, as a church community, to listen to each other and care for
00:16:15 --> 00:16:20 each other and know each other and pour our lives into each other and comfort each other
00:16:20 --> 00:16:26 and pray for each other. But the main kind of suffering that is referred to here is the result
00:16:26 --> 00:16:35 of those who follow Jesus. That is, suffering comes because you follow Jesus. You see, I think most
00:16:35 --> 00:16:41 people have this view. The most view of Jesus in this society is that Jesus is either a good bloke
00:16:41 --> 00:16:50 or he's a lunatic. One of those sort of views. Let me say that neither of those views is actually
00:16:50 --> 00:16:55 Christian. Jesus wasn't a good bloke. I don't know why we get the idea that Jesus was a good bloke.
00:16:55 --> 00:17:00 You don't crucify a good bloke. You know, first century Palestine, Jesus is a good bloke. Let's kill him.
00:17:01 --> 00:17:06 They killed him because they hated him. They hated what he stood for. They hate the fact that he challenged
00:17:06 --> 00:17:12 him. They hate the fact that he went in amongst their religious meetings with a whip and pushed
00:17:12 --> 00:17:18 them out. That he turned over their tables. They hated him for that. They hated the fact that he
00:17:18 --> 00:17:24 challenged the conventions of religious people. They hated him for that. They hated the fact that
00:17:24 --> 00:17:29 he walked along and said, guys, if you, that I am God and I'm here in your midst and I'm going to come
00:17:29 --> 00:17:34 and deal with your sin, that he exposed the sin of people. They hated him for that. He was not a good bloke.
00:17:34 --> 00:17:44 And the fact is, if you want to align yourself to this Jesus, this true Jesus, this true message
00:17:44 --> 00:17:49 about Jesus, Paul himself has done, then we too will suffer as a result of it. Because the fact that
00:17:49 --> 00:17:57 Jesus is God is not a message which is well received in our culture. When Jesus says, I am the way,
00:17:57 --> 00:18:04 the truth and the life, and no one comes to God except through me, that's an offensive message.
00:18:04 --> 00:18:11 And you either have to put Jesus in the category of being offensive, being a lunatic, or being who
00:18:11 --> 00:18:21 he says he is. And if you say he is who he is, then you'll suffer. Without exception, just as Jesus
00:18:21 --> 00:18:27 said, to follow him is not into a nice comfortable existence, but to pick up your cross as Jesus did
00:18:27 --> 00:18:35 and walk to the place of execution. Ministry as the Bible describes it, the Christian life as the
00:18:35 --> 00:18:43 Bible describes it, is one of pain and suffering and sacrifice. But the comfort flows over to us
00:18:43 --> 00:18:48 without exception as well. I think the super apostles are saying basically that suffering and true
00:18:48 --> 00:18:53 Christianity don't mix. Paul is saying they do. Because why? Because I'm following in the footsteps of
00:18:53 --> 00:18:57 Jesus. In verse 6 and following, Paul answers the question, the purpose of suffering again.
00:18:58 --> 00:19:02 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comfort, it is for your comfort,
00:19:02 --> 00:19:07 which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm,
00:19:08 --> 00:19:13 because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
00:19:13 --> 00:19:18 Paul is saying here that even when suffering comes and we don't understand it, and there seems no logic
00:19:18 --> 00:19:25 to it, it's still not purposeless. God will bring an evil thing and turn it around for good. And the
00:19:25 --> 00:19:31 good that he wants out of it, according to another part of the Bible, in Romans chapter 8, is that we
00:19:31 --> 00:19:37 might become more and more like Jesus, more and more dependent upon God. He says here two reasons.
00:19:37 --> 00:19:44 It is both for our comfort and for our salvation. God is keen for every person to know Jesus and to
00:19:44 --> 00:19:52 continue to follow Jesus right to the end, till we enter his glory forever. And that the process that
00:19:52 --> 00:19:59 he uses to effectively put on our faith muscles and to train us for that ultimate goal is suffering,
00:19:59 --> 00:20:06 difficulties. When we go through suffering, it produces in us patient endurance. We keep going
00:20:06 --> 00:20:11 because we know that God is the God of all comfort. He's the God of all salvation.
00:20:11 --> 00:20:17 And being with God in perfect harmony is the goal.
00:20:20 --> 00:20:26 And so in verse 8, Paul wants to remind us sometimes how hard it can get and certainly
00:20:26 --> 00:20:30 how hard it got for him. We don't want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardship we
00:20:30 --> 00:20:34 suffered in the province of Asia. You know, in other words, what he's saying is I don't want you to
00:20:34 --> 00:20:38 downplay my hardships that I went through. I don't want you to think it was just a matter of
00:20:38 --> 00:20:42 lost the keys to the donkey or, you know, I've stubbed my toe in the shower or something like that.
00:20:42 --> 00:20:47 You know, we were, he says, we were under great, great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure
00:20:47 --> 00:20:53 so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:58 The word ability there means power. He's saying here that he was beyond his own power. To paraphrase it,
00:20:58 --> 00:21:03 what he's saying is that we were indescribably beyond our limits,
00:21:03 --> 00:21:12 our limits of power, and we were brought down to the very depths in despair. In other words,
00:21:12 --> 00:21:18 what he's saying is our resources had run out and I needed to draw upon God's power. It was not,
00:21:18 --> 00:21:24 it was beyond my power to endure, but it wasn't beyond God's power to endure. And it got so black
00:21:24 --> 00:21:32 for him that he even despaired of life. He despaired of life. He despaired that he was alive. He,
00:21:32 --> 00:21:38 he wakes up in the morning and wished that he hadn't. And maybe some of you have experienced that.
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 But he remembered that God is the God of all comfort.
00:21:45 --> 00:21:50 But he makes a significant point here. God's comfort is always partial in this life.
00:21:50 --> 00:21:58 We may recover from an illness. We may, the suffering that we go through,
00:21:58 --> 00:22:06 may be temporary and may pass on. But there is no way that we will ever sidestep our last and
00:22:06 --> 00:22:13 greatest enemy, death. We are intimately entangled in the sorrow and suffering of a world.
00:22:13 --> 00:22:18 And the only way of hope is life after death with Jesus.
00:22:20 --> 00:22:25 Which is why we should always rely upon God. Verse nine, but this happened that we might not rely
00:22:25 --> 00:22:31 upon ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril and he
00:22:31 --> 00:22:36 will deliver us. On him, we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us as you help us by your
00:22:36 --> 00:22:42 prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answers to the
00:22:42 --> 00:22:49 prayers of many. Through this experience of utter helplessness, Paul came to this new appreciation
00:22:49 --> 00:22:56 of the power of God who gives life to spiritually dead people. And if we're going to make it in the
00:22:56 --> 00:23:03 Christian life, then we need to rely upon God. If things are good, then we don't need God. Only in
00:23:03 --> 00:23:08 suffering will we ever develop the character of Christ. You see, I think Paul is having a bit of a dig at
00:23:08 --> 00:23:15 these super apostles and this church of Corinth. You see, I reckon they're like me. You know, I prefer,
00:23:15 --> 00:23:21 be honest about this, I prefer the no suffering option in life. That's my general preference. And I
00:23:21 --> 00:23:29 imagine that you're the same. But we cannot know that he is the God of comfort unless we need comforting.
00:23:29 --> 00:23:37 We cannot know it unless we need it. And so maybe it's a hard prayer to pray, but maybe it might be
00:23:37 --> 00:23:42 working back. I want to be there in the end. I want to endure. And so God, train me to endure.
00:23:44 --> 00:23:49 Train me to endure. May I know that you're the God of all comfort. It's a tough prayer to pray.
00:23:49 --> 00:23:56 It's a tough prayer to pray because frankly, in our country, we are relief seeking missiles,
00:23:56 --> 00:24:02 is what I'd call it. When difficulties come, we just change. Difficulties at work, I get a new one.
00:24:03 --> 00:24:08 Difficulties in marriage, I get a new one of those as well. Whatever it might be, we, in our own
00:24:08 --> 00:24:13 particular ways, for some of us, it's, you know, we hit a bar of chocolate with a certain amount of
00:24:13 --> 00:24:17 vengeance. If it's a really difficult time, we hit the bar of chocolate directly from the fridge,
00:24:17 --> 00:24:24 scooping out the ice cream for the freezer at the same time. Or it's the TV. We hit the TV. We just
00:24:24 --> 00:24:29 want to blow our mind with just random mindlessness. So we just keep chicken flicking through the
00:24:29 --> 00:24:37 channels. For some of us, we try and find, blow our mind away from the struggles and the difficulties
00:24:37 --> 00:24:43 and sufferings of life that drive us to the edge by jumping out of aeroplanes or over cliffs and
00:24:43 --> 00:24:49 hopefully somehow in finding the meaning of life and purpose by having an almost near-death experience.
00:24:50 --> 00:24:54 Or it might be through incessant travel, trying to find somewhere else in the world where I feel
00:24:54 --> 00:25:02 like I can fit in. Or it just might be just down at Chatswood Chase or Westfield, shop to shop,
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 buying up things that will hopefully fulfill that hole in my heart.
00:25:06 --> 00:25:13 You see, these verses challenge our view of what happiness is. That happiness is actually not the
00:25:13 --> 00:25:23 ultimate goal in life. The ultimate goal in life is to be with God and to know that He is the God of
00:25:23 --> 00:25:28 all comfort and compassion. The ultimate goal in life is to know Jesus, the source of comfort,
00:25:28 --> 00:25:34 compassion and salvation. That my happiness and my comfort is not the ultimate goal, but to be more
00:25:34 --> 00:25:41 like Jesus. And so friends, some of us here have learned things that other of us of here are yet
00:25:41 --> 00:25:48 to learn. And some of us here are going through sufferings now that other of us are here have
00:25:48 --> 00:25:55 already been through. And so any comfort that we've received from Christ, any lessons that we've learned,
00:25:55 --> 00:26:02 any encouragement that we've obtained and comfort we've experienced is meant to be shared together.
00:26:02 --> 00:26:09 It's meant to be shared. We are to be a church that upholds each other in prayer,
00:26:10 --> 00:26:16 that rejoices with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn. The reality of our own
00:26:16 --> 00:26:22 powerlessness is often the precondition in discovering God's power and our own suffering,
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 the precondition of discovering God's comfort and compassion.
00:26:25 --> 00:26:33 The difficult times should not drive us away from God or his people, but bring us closer to him.
00:26:34 --> 00:26:42 Paul's helplessness in the face of strong forces led him to experience of God's power to deliver him.
00:26:43 --> 00:26:49 And so friends, we're in it together. So let's pray for each other, help each other follow the Lord
00:26:49 --> 00:26:57 Jesus, the God of comfort, the God of compassion, the God of salvation. It may be a rough and difficult track,
00:26:58 --> 00:27:03 but when you've got God on your side, you've got everything. Amen.