It's an honor, a privilege to be here.

Um, I' I've been in ministry about 30 years.

Um, I started obviously when I was seven and so some people don't laugh.

So, you guys are a good audience.

Thank you.

I've got all the dad jokes down.

Trust me on that one.

I met a lady today.

She introduced herself.

I I Patrice, I think she is she loves this church and she was speaking highly of just the things God's doing in this church.

So, I'm excited to be here and just to share with you today.

Um, it's it's ironic uh that you're going to have a series in two weeks on not to lose heart because um I told Brian um I was going to speak on uh I'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 today.

If you want to grab your Bibles or whatever, I'm going to be reading from the ESV.

Uh you guys might have the NLT, the Nearly Literal Translation.

I use the ESV, the extremely spiritual version.

And so, um, I told you I had all the dad jokes.

So, there you go.

That's all I got today.

I promise.

Um, this is this may be a little tough for me because as I was preparing for this today, I thought I thought about all the trials and the troubles and the affliction and the things that we suffer in this life and that we have to go through from time to time.

And I began to look at this passage in second Corinthians in chapter 1 where Paul addresses this.

And I had um I had no idea with all the notes that I had put together and everything that I began to amass over the last week and a half how much I knew the truth of the word and I knew the application, but I had no idea how much I was going to have to lose myself in in this morning's message over the last couple days.

And I'll explain more of that in in just a few moments as part of the message.

But I think a lot of times when people go through trials or go through affliction, you hear this uh sentiment sentiment uh voiced a lot.

People say, "Well, I don't know what good can come out of this.

I don't know how God can make something good out of what's going on in my life."

And uh that and pe I know that God has some reason for it, but I can't see the reason for this.

And I think we need to talk about this this morning because I want to be as an agent of encouragement to you today as well, too.

Because I think a lot of us go through different things.

And there might be a lot of reasons why you don't know why God's doing what he's doing in your world and why you're going through uh maybe the trial or suffering that you are.

But there's one thing for certain I can guarantee you.

And that is that you might be a blessing to someone else who's going through some of the very same things that you going through.

And we're going to see Paul kind of map that out.

And maybe uh maybe you can't relate to that because your life is blessed and you are flourishing right now.

And if that's you, then I say amen.

And that's that's great.

But just because you're the recipient of God's blessing, don't think that this doesn't have a message for you today.

And you cannot apply it.

Because just because it's not raining in your world today doesn't mean it's not going to rain at some time in some point in your life.

Some of us may not be facing some dramatic crisis in our life but every but everyone experiences stress, loss, um disappointment, worry about the future, the loss of dreams, loneliness, hidden anxiety, all those things and a need for comfort and a need for encouragement.

And then there's also the peace of um those around us who are suffering that we ought to have a great concern for and have a heart for people around us when we notice those things because Paul even says if one member of the body suffers we all suffer with it right and so we ought to have concern for those around us and that's what Paul is getting at in 2 Corinthians I'm going to be in chapter 1:es 1 uh 3- 11 primarily but if you look at just the mix of words in there you see words like affliction,

uh, tribulation maybe your version says, or maybe affliction again, trouble, suffering, uh, burdened, despair, and death.

And that's the dark side.

That's the rainstorm, if you will.

But also notice mixed in these verses as well are words like mercies, comfort, hope, and thanks.

And right there is the paradox of Christian suffering.

Both of these experiences are never separated from each other.

They're side by side.

And this verses, these verses tell us the place of God in our suffering.

And they tell us the place of us when others are suffering, when when we are going through it, when they are going through it.

And in these verses down in verse number eight, you'll notice that Paul gives his own personal testimony of his his experiences.

And I love that about Paul.

He's not just theoretic.

He's not he's a where a rubber meets the road kind of guy.

And so he's not theorizing.

He's saying, "Here's the principle.

Here's how I lived it out and I experienced it in my own two li in my own life.

And in these verses, there are two different I think pathways we can look at two these sections, two different roles for us as believers to to to uh play.

And this is really where I'm going to land on this morning.

Uh the first role is what I'm going to call is the is the reservoir.

Okay?

and the reservoir and that's where you when you are hurting and you take in all of the comfort and that God has for you that you can in those in those times and in those seasons and then the other the other uh role is that of the channel and we'll we'll define these in in a moment a little bit deeper but that's after you have been comforted uh now you become a channel to dispense God's mercy and God's comfort to the others who are around you and so we need to remember that as we experience erience troubles.

We need to we sometimes we need God's comfort and sometimes God's calling us to be a channel of that of that comfort and grace to some to somebody else.

I really don't know why all of life's problems and all of life's issues can't hit us when we're about age 18 because we know everything when we're 18, right?

And we would be able to handle absolutely everything that comes our way.

But first of all, I want you to look at what I'm going to call the reservoir experience.

Okay?

The reservoir experiences first of all.

And we'll begin in verse verse three of chapter 1.

Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the 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.

I I love how Paul begins.

He doesn't begin by mentioning his problem, his circumstances.

He picks that up later in verse eight.

But here he begins with praise.

He says nothing about what he's going through.

And he says a lot about his God.

He says, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort."

And this is where his focus is.

Um in trouble, his focus is on God.

I know you I know you've heard things the saying that that uh that prayer changes things.

And I would even say the PS to that is that praise changes things.

And that's where Paul begins.

I believe that in no matter what a believer goes through, we ought to be able to lift up an anthem of praise to the Lord in the midst of our trial.

Paul says that in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

That doesn't mean that for everything I give thanks, but in everything I give thanks.

I have to be able to have the maturity in the heart to be able to say that in everything I give thanks.

There are certain things I'm not thankful for.

Um, as part of my my journey here today, um, like I said, Pastor Brian had reached out to me and asked me to prepare.

I was preparing and uh uh I got I got a phone call from my younger brother who's been dealing with lymphoma for the last eight uh eight months.

And so the the place in Jacksonville, Florida, where he was getting his treatment, it was it wasn't going very well.

They admitted him to into Mayo ER and they put him in a Mayo room and they said, "Hey, this th this coming Thursday, this past week, um we're going to have the last we got this new chemo Mayo's going to try and this is going to be we're praying that this is going to be the answer for him."

And so we can you come down, Curtis, and be and be here with with me on this.

So several family members came.

I left last Thursday at four o'clock in the morning.

I drove down to Jacksonville, Florida.

I got there at 10 in the morning.

Spent time with my brother.

Three o'clock was the window.

Three o'clock.

We're waiting for the team to come in.

At 3:40, a team from the oncology and a team from the uh ICU come in and basically without going into great depth, Michael, the cancer is everywhere and all we can do is make you comfortable.

And so, so by 7 by I'm sorry, by 4:25 Friday morning, this Friday morning, my brother went to be with Jesus and he walked into into glory with with the Lord.

And I helped the family take care of some things right there.

I drive up and get a hotel room last night and here I am this morning.

And so, I'm having to lean on the God of all comfort today to give you a message that I've been preparing.

I thought was for you, but it's actually for me as well, too.

That's the medicine of the holy word that works in our hearts and in our lives.

But in the midst of that, that circumstance, I can still say, my brother can still say, like Job, though he slay me, yet will I praise him.

I will still have an avenue of praise in the midst of all of that.

And so Paul says, "Blessed be the God."

And so notice notice how how Paul sees God not just as as God or the father of uh of the our Lord Jesus Christ, but he calls him the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

The father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

And my question first of you this morning is is how do you honestly perceive the Lord?

How do you really do is he is he just some name on a page?

Is he a silent judge sitting out there?

Or have you ever truly experienced the comfort of the Lord, the mercy of the Lord in your life?

Have you ever gone through something legitimately in your life and you can stand as a testimony and said, "God has been my comforter.

He has been my comforter."

The word that Paul uses for comforter in this passage is the word per paricesus.

And if you've done any studying, you know that's the word for for what we have for the Holy Spirit that he is the paricle the paracleas the one who comes alongside to help.

And so what Paul is saying is that he's the God of all parakeesis meaning he comes and he encourages.

He brings refreshing refreshment in my life.

He's the one who is summoned whenever I need help and whatever I need.

He's the God of all comfort.

And and when does he comfort you?

It says right here in all your affliction.

Man, that is great news.

And the word for affliction there is the word phalypsis.

And that word, the Greek word means that means whenever you are pressured of any kind, God comes and comforts you.

Whenever you feel pressed, and I can't think of a more appropriate verse than that today.

Whenever I'm pressed, whenever you are pressed, God comes and comforts you.

We hear a lot today about stress and pressure.

And as the God of all comfort here, Paul paints the picture.

He comes to refresh me, to strengthen me whenever I am under pressure.

And I want us to take a minute and I want us to look at what Paul's pressure is beginning in verse 8 in this passage.

I'm sorry, I got a lot of bullets here that I need to stay on track otherwise I'm going to get excited and chase rabbits and we'll be here till 12:30.

So I'll just uh just know that.

Um, in verse 8, in verse 8, Paul says, "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 despared of life itself."

I don't think many of us have that view of the Apostle Paul.

We think that he he oozes with holiness, right?

I mean, this guy wrote the majority, the lion share of the New Testament, and yet it says despared of life itself.

It doesn't matter what Paul's specific trouble was.

Paul's point is that God comforted him in the middle of it.

And he's not trying to elicit sympathy here.

He is he is actually trying to illustrate divine divine comfort.

What that looks like, what that feels like.

He say there was a time in my life when I needed to be a reservoir of God's comfort and mercy.

And that's when I was in Asia and I was so pressured that I wanted to give up.

God came and he comforted me.

And he can comfort us because he can relate to us.

The scriptures tell us that.

Uh I mean, if we had a God that never came, if Jesus didn't come and grow a body and come in the flesh, we would think we had a God that we that we love and serve that is so far removed from us.

How could he possibly relate to us?

But Hebrews tells us that we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

But then Paul begins to answer where that help, where that comfort came from.

And the first thing that he says is that his trial produced a trust in God which brought him comfort.

I've been living that the last the last 48 hours.

His trial produced a trust in God which brought him comfort.

In verse 9, he says, "In indeed, we felt that we uh had received a sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead."

Paul received comfort first of all when he was going through a time of pressure.

Um, he was out of his own resources and he had to trust in in God and that comforted him.

You know, whenever we have resources of any kind to bail us out of a situation, we have a tendency to trust in ourselves.

Now, resources in and of themselves are not a bad thing.

Absolutely not.

The danger is is when we begin to look at our own abilities and our own resources.

When we are backed into a corner, we are reminded not to trust ourselves, but that God's got it.

I trust in God who who raises the dead.

It says in here and so comfort comes to Paul and Paul realized he was not to trust in his own resources and his own abilities.

But the second thing is as as he went through this trial um it reminded Paul of God's plan.

It it remind this trial that he was going through reminded Paul that God had an ultimate plan.

And in verse 10, he says, "He delivered us from such deadly peril and he will deliver us again.

On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again."

And so I found that times of tribulation bring times of reflection.

And that's so true in my life.

And and what this caused Paul to do is to look at God's overall plan for his life, past, present, and future.

And that brought him great comfort.

He he looked at his he looked at his past and saw how God ha had had had delivered him from his greatest death, a spiritual death.

He rescued him from that and he looked to his future and saw what God had promised him uh eternal hope and glory with him and that gave him comfort.

Now, if God loves me so much that he would save me when I was a wretch and he loves me enough to promise me eternal glory with him, then I believe he loves me enough to help me with whatever I'm going through right now.

Whatever trial, whatever circumstance I'm in the middle of right now, I trust him in that, Paul says.

And that brings me great comfort.

Even when I don't have answers, that still brings me great comfort.

I I think back to uh Acts chapter 12 and in just a couple of sentences, Peter is imprisoned and James is has his head cut off.

And so both of them were delivered.

One was allowed to continue his earthly ministry.

The other was brought into into glory with God.

Both were delivered, but in God's way.

In God's way.

God was ultimately in control of this.

The third way that Paul received God's comfort that I want to sh share with you this morning is that it in it enlisted the help of other believers.

This enlisted the help of other believers.

God uses other believers to comfort us.

Look in verse 11.

You also must help us by prayer so that we will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Paul's trouble in Asia caused the Corinthian uh believers to get busy praying.

They began to intercede for him in such a powerful way.

And um it's it's in that it it brought it brought great comfort to him.

One of one of the greatest sources of comfort for us ought to be us.

And I know that they just made an announcement about groups uh and launching groups.

this comfort that God has for us.

It doesn't happen outside of community.

First, community with Christ and then community with with each other.

That's how we get involved in each other's lives.

That's how we know it's it's what's going on in each other's world.

That's how we're able to speak in and have value in someone else's heart and someone else's life.

And so, we ought to be for each other one of the greatest sources of comfort whenever someone is is struggling.

Why?

because we're the body of Christ.

We are the body of Christ and we are to touch people in the name of Jesus.

We are to be instruments of God comforting others.

And just briefly, I I want to show you how that how that works.

If you were to turn a few pages to the left in in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, beginning in verse 5, Paul says, "For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within.

But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me."

so that I rejoiced all the more.

God comforted them by sending another by sending sending Titus into into the picture.

And that's the experience of what I'm calling the reservoir this morning.

Paul says, "Here was a time in my life when I was under such pressure.

I wanted to quit.

I wanted to give up."

And God comfort me.

Comforted me.

I had to become a reservoir in that moment.

I needed it.

I took in God's mercy because the trial caused me to trust in God and not myself.

The trial that I was going through caused me to see God's overall plan for my life and that brought me great comfort and I was comforted by the other believers around me who ministered to me in the in those moments.

But it doesn't end there because I want to also talk briefly about what it means to about being a channel a channel of that grace and mercy and that comfort.

Paul talks about that now.

And again, we're back up to verse three of of chapter 1.

Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction, so that we may a be able to comfort comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Paul's main point in these verses that is that whenever I'm in need, God comforts me.

But he doesn't comfort me just so that I can be comfortable.

That's not that's not the end result of this.

He comforts me so that I can be a comforter.

Um, one of the reasons for our suffering going through the trials that we do is to to enable us to become compassionate instruments for the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's why one of the reasons why we go through this.

There are two bodies in Israel.

There's the Dead Sea and there's the Sea of Galilee that that that are there.

The um the Dead Sea is 25% salt solution.

It is it is uh it is uh obviously dead.

There's nothing living in it.

There's it does not flourish.

The Sea of Galilee is lush.

There's life.

There's plant life.

There's food.

And the reason why is that the Sea of Galilee has an inlet and an outlet.

The Dead Sea simply takes in nourishment and it gives nothing out.

Nothing at all.

And so whenever we take in and we never give out, whenever we are just simply just a reservoir and we want to sit around and take in all of God's comfort and we're never a vessel for for that channel for others around us, it can be very self-destructive for us.

We have to be an agent of comfort as well too.

And so it's only when we give out the comfort that we have received that we become a value of great value to those around us.

So one of the purposes of the spirit of God comforting us in our times of troubles is so that we can reach out to one another.

And that's why it's important when we go through these trials to experience the comfort of God.

And it's all in preparation that we might minister to others.

God comforts me and I ought to be like him.

I'm I'm his kid, like father, like son.

And so I'm gonna ex I'm gonna I'm gonna replicate that.

If you remember in the last supper in John 13, Jesus gets up from the table and he takes a towel and he bas it and he washes his disciples feet and he says, "Now what I have done for you, it's an example.

Now you go and do as well.

You go and do likewise."

Um look uh look briefly at verse five of uh 2 Corinthians 1.

For as we were abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort, too.

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which 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.

If your suffering and and my suffering, if that suffering is a wasted experience, if we don't use it to be a blessing to those around us, if we don't use it as a vessel to comfort others around us.

And let's even reverse that and just say that when you when you reach out after your episode of pain, whatever that might be, to comfort those around you who are going through some of the very same things that you're going through, that ministry of comfort is more effective um than any sermon ever preached.

I mean, as comforting as the word of God is, absolutely.

Imagine how effective it is when it's preached by somebody.

the word of God and the gospel comes into somebody in a picture when somebody has gone through the pain and the suffering much like what you have and you're able to speak life into that situation.

And so this morning the question is where are you?

Where are we when other people are going through trials?

When other people suffer?

When other people have these moments?

Um, real quick, let's we're not we're not going to we're not going to have showand tell here, but how many of you here this morning have ever have ever could say, I have had a a a tough loss in my life or I have gone through uh a a a lot a great suffering at some point in my life.

Just a show of hands real quick.

Ah, that's what I thought.

That means that every one of you who raised your hand has a ministry.

Every one of you has a ministry and a responsibility because as you could see there were a lot of people who hurt.

And the other question to that is I if in that time you ever experienced one ounce of God's comfort now you are suddenly qualified.

You are suddenly qualified.

If God has comforted you and brought his grace to you and showed you mercy, you are now qualified to be a minister of comfort to so many people around you because we see that there's a lot of people who are hurting around us.

Lighouses are built by ex sailors who crashed into the rocks and they're like, "We're going to put a lighthouse here so no one else is going to hit these rocks again."

Right?

Intersections are redone.

Highways are widened because somewhere along the line there was something horrible happened and we got to fix this problem.

Somebody's going to step into this moment.

And so I just want to wrap up this morning.

This is maybe shorter than what you normally get to.

I don't know how Pastor Brian does this, but I'm just gonna I don't I want to give you three simple biblical ways that we can comfort each other.

Just three simple things that I want I want you to take with you this morning.

The first one comes from from Romans 12:15.

And that's this.

Weep with those who weep.

Weep with those who weep.

Be willing to enter into those situations.

Grieve with people who are grieving.

Whether you just sit with them or cry with them, weep with those who weep.

Man, Job's friends, they had it right when they first started.

For seven days, they said they said nothing.

They just entered into his grief.

They shut their mouths.

They lifted their heads to heaven.

They they they they they grieved with him.

They poured ashes over their heads.

There wasn't a problem until they felt like they had to open their mouths and fix stuff.

That's where the problem started.

But at first, they did the right thing.

But they entered into their grief by his grief by grieving with him.

Sometimes the greatest sermon is just silence.

I remember years ago as I was pastoring pastoring a church, there was a families that lived like two houses from each other.

They were so close to each other and they actually had two two little girls that were such good friends.

They played almost every they were inseparable and there was a horrible accident this family endured and they lost their little girl and the mom and dad obviously were broken into a million pieces and it was several days into them trying to trying to navigate all of that and and this family over here their little girl had disappeared and her mom wondered where where she went.

She came back home and her mom says he said, "Baby, where have you been?"

She said, "I went over to I went over to talk to Julie's mommy."

And her mom said, "Oh, sweetheart, what what did you say to her?"

And she said, "Mommy, I didn't say anything.

I just crawled in her lap and cried with her."

Be just be willing to weep with those who weep.

It brings great comfort.

You don't have to have a sermon.

You don't have to have a fix it for all these things.

The second thing I would say comes out of uh Galatians 6.

Be willing to bear one another's burdens.

I loved I loved how so many people in this church talk about just in the few moments that I was here early this morning.

I talked about they love this church.

The people are amazing.

I I think that spirit is alive here.

But when you bear one another's burden, the idea is that you come alongside someone who is weak and you help them carry the load.

That's going to look very different in a lot of different situations.

Think think about the good Samaritan going from uh Jerusalem to Jericho.

He's obviously a side of the road.

He gets beat up.

He's left for dead.

And a Samaritan comes along and and he doesn't call 911.

He doesn't say, "I think we got to go get Pastor Brian and Pastor Scott and get this thing fixed.

We got to get the church involved."

No, he steps in.

He gets involved personally.

Be willing to bear one another's burden.

Sometimes that's just a hug.

Sometimes it's just time spent with somebody.

But there's great value in that.

It speaks volumes to people.

And the third thing I would say is be willing to, according to James 5:16, to pray pray for one another.

Truly pray for one another.

enter into the throne of grace with people and in a moment's notice.

Prayer will lighten the load like nothing else can.

I promise you, I promise you that it helps a person focus and remember that God is in control.

And and I would say in in passing when those moments happen and somebody has a an issue that they're asking for prayer prayer for, don't say, "I I'll pray for you, brother.

I pray for you."

Pray right there.

Publix.

Let's do it right here in the aisle.

Let's enter the throne of grace right here, right now.

Let's let's let's let's go to the Lord right now.

I would say most of us really like most of us really like popcorn.

And um a popcorn is very different from any other corn or grain.

Um, if you take a regular uh corn and you put it in a skillet and you raise it up to 400 degrees, it dries up and it shrivels and it gets really really hard.

But if you put popcorn in a skillet and you raise it up to 400 degrees and the gases within the kernel will cause it to explode and it will increase 10 to 15 times its normal size and it becomes a delight to toss into your mouth, doesn't it?

And I would say that there are some people who go through affliction, some people who go through suffering, and they become just like regular old corn.

And the fire of affliction causes them to shrivel up.

It causes them to harden, to be tough, and to be bitter.

And while there are others who know that their comfort comes from the Lord and they're willing to be a reservoir and a channel of that grace and mercy, the flame and the fire expand them and they become a delight and a refreshment to others.

Haven't you ever been around somebody who has gone through something just so devastating and you might and you think, "How in the world are you still giving thanks to praise to God in the midst of this?"

by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the strength of the Lord himself.

And my prayer is that we will become sensitive and caring to the afflictions that come our way.

And if you can't see any reason why you're going through what you're going through, I was asking myself these same questions just 36 hours ago.

Why the pain and the affliction one thing is guaranteed and that is you can be through it a source of comfort to others if you first allow God to comfort you.

I wanted to change this message that I wanted to bring to you today so desperately because of what has what has gone on in my family's life in the last 36 hours.

But I have gotten so many encouraging phone calls from my home church, so many text message of people who are giving me the comfort of God that I need in the midst.

I needed to be a reservoir.

And so I felt that giving this message today to you today, I pray that I am now a channel of that.

And you understand that God's grace and God's mercy is available for all who would call upon his name.

receive what the Lord has for you, but be willing to be an agent of comfort to those around you.

I pray that the Lord speaks to us today and um thank you for your time today.

And let me pray for our time and the worship team will come back up this morning.

Father, we just give thanks and praise that you truly are the God of all comfort.

I thank you, Lord, for just your grace and your mercy.

I pray for those in here who may be hearing in uh these words today and they're struggling and they're wondering where you are in the midst of it.

I pray you would bring not just comfort, but I pray you would bring others to come alongside of them to love them and care for them through this.

I pray that they would be able to turn to your word and find great strength and comfort in that because we know that your word says, "Blessed is the man who wicked or stands in the way of the sinner or sits in the seat of the scoffer, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on that law day and night.

And through that meditating on the law, dear Lord, you make him like a a tree that is planted by streams of water, whose leaf does not wither and yields fruit in its season, and all that he touches, he prospers for your name's sake and for your glory.

Lord God, we thank you for that, Lord God.

that you bring about strength, you bring about comfort, but first of all, you brought Jesus.

And it's in his name we ask these things.

And it's in his name we pray.

Amen.