How much more can we take?
Dear Church • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsWhen things seem bleak we know where our comfort comes from, not from what the world thinks brings peace and comfort but from God.
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The daddy god principle.
The daddy god principle.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
We all know that words matter, so do titles. The word Father has a lot of feelings attached to it. For some it elicits respect, for others sadness, or fear, or dread, or pride. The world father is formal. Then we have the word Dad, dad is a buddy word, the word dad is not so formal, when we think of dad we think of things like dad jokes, or silly things that happen or are said, or out of touch trying to be cool things. Then there’s the word daddy. That special word that kids use for a short time, way to short if you ask me. When you hear the word daddy from your child it melts your heart. Its all about care and comfort.
What Paul is doing in these first few verses in 2 Corinthians is doubling down on a concept that he has used in other letters, and that Jesus himself used in the gospels.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”
And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
And he said, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”
The word that is used in these other passages lends itself to the description that Paul is using in this verse.
The word Abba takes the concept of Father and turns it a bit, pushing into the idea of a close intimate relationship, it brings up thoughts and feelings of protection and care. Bottom line when we read the term Abba and when we see it used it denotes a move toward a deeper relationship. Think of it this way. There are Dads, and then theirs My dad, other dads are fine and good but they don’t have the same thoughts and feelings towards me nor I towards them that my dad has. When we think of the father of mercies and comforts, we think of that Abba, close, my dad type of thing.
Paul is making it clear mercies and comfort are important to God not just as a father or even the father of faith and all creation but as my father my dad the one that cares about me the one that shows.
Oiktirmos: display of concern over another’s misfortune, pity, mercy, compassion.
Paraklesis: consolation, calling near, encouragement, comfort, solace, refreshment.
These are the things that dad’s do and these are the things that come to mind for many when they hear their child say daddy.
This is what we get to lean on and into when all hell in our lives seems to be breaking lose.
It’s been a bad day…but.
It’s been a bad day…but.
The word affliction is an interesting one. Defining it finds it means a condition of physical or mental distress. Anyone have some physical or mental distress lately? Paul is making clear that God comforts us in our bad days, our physical bad days as well as our mental bad days. We can lean into him, in fact we should, he wants us to. We see Jesus doing this in that verse we read earlier when praying in the garden, we see this as something that God want’s out of us to understand and know but there’s more to it. God wants us to realize that he comforts us but it can’t stop there.
He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
We talk about being Jesus with skin a lot around here, the importance of living things that we find in places like Micha 6:8 or Matthew 23, Places in Acts, Paul's letters that we are studying right now. In these places the importance of giving out what we have recieved matters. God comforts us because he loves us. (shots and other scary things) In these instances it helps to have that person that can be with you that can say it’s gong to be okay, that can put that band-aid on it (talk about comforting Amberly when she had the ear ache and the agony of her trying to put a band-aid on her ear) In that space, all that could be done was to hold her to rock her back and forth, to sing to her, to love her. To comfort her in her time of affliction. I doubt she even remembers that day at all but it’s funny how the parents do. It’s funny how as her dad I remember just about every scrape, every fall every hurt and the heart aches. God is that way with us, he remembers all those things and he is there to comfort us and then he tells us…Look you know how good it feels when I comfort you, you know how special you feel when I hold you and call you mine, now go do the same thing. Go and comfort other people. God wants to to comfort other people. Notice what it says. There is no modifier to the word Those. It doesn't say so that we can comfort those who, or those that or anything like that, it simply states those who are afflicted. That means we are as followers of Christ to be in the comforting business.
Bad things…Good people
Bad things…Good people
For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer.
Bad things happen, we know this. Bad things happen to all kinds of people. Good people have bad things happen to them, bad people have bad things happen to them, and vice versa. It’s why we read that the rain falls on the just and unjust alike. But there something interesting going on in this set of scriptures. Paul is talking about the sufferings of Christ, and while yes we know Jesus suffered physically on the cross, that’s not what’s going on here. If we jump down to verse 8 and 9 of this chapter. Paul is speaking of an affliction that took place in Asia in addition to what happens by the very nature of Paul’s relationship with Jesus, add in his frustration, and sadness that caused him to have to write because of the problems in the church at Corinth. Paul is dealing with a lot of things because of his relationship with Christ and yet it is because of his relationship with Jesus that He is able to deal with them, he is able to be comforted and to share that comfort with others. It is that very comfort in the bad things the hard feeling things the sad things that enabled them to deal with them and endure them and as they dealt with and endured the bad things patient endurance was produced. Something that would enable them to move forward in their walk with God.
Wake up call
Wake up call
What Paul desires most for the people in the church in Corinth is a deep vibrant relationship with Jesus, but Paul knows and understands that once that relationship starts, things are not going to get easier for them, in fact they are going to start feeling the things that Paul has been feeling, they are going to be afflicted, they are going to be sad, they are going to need comfort because they are going to realize more than anything what it is that makes Jesus sad, and the closer they get to Jesus, the more that they will realize the things that separate and the more they will want those things gone.
And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.
Paul is laying it out plainly. Paul wants the Corinthian church to finally get it, to have the things that make Jesus sad and hurt make them sad and hurt, the things that cause Paul to feel sad and drive him to his knees and to write to them to make them do the same. Paul understands. The more that I know Jesus, the closer I get to him…the moment I am awakened fully to what he wants and desires the more I will need the comfort that can only come from him.
This Week’s Challenge
This Week’s Challenge
Look for opportunities to encourage those around you. If they don’t know Jesus don’t get all preachy with them, if they do know Jesus offer to pray with them and just listen. In fact take time with both to just listen to what they are really saying, instead of what you want to hear, and act accordingly.